Monthly Archives: October 2005

Uncategorized

Keep Judge Rudd Campaign

Keep Judge Rudd Campaign

Judge Rudd will seek her second four-year term in 2006.

She needs your support. During her first term, she has increased the court’s caseload 60%, started a major computer automation of the

court’s docket system, proved her commitment to public awareness and outreach through her “Judge is In” TV show, Albuquerque Journal

column, and numerous speaking engagements. She has served our community with integrity, dedication, and hard work.

Note: I

developed the campaign website and MRudd is my long-time companion of 24 years (as of this week).

ID, NADA

Majority of Americans Reject Theory of Evolution

Most Americans do not accept the theory of

evolution. Instead, 51 percent of Americans say God created humans in their present form, and another three in 10 say that while humans

evolved, God guided the process. Just 15 percent say humans evolved, and that God was not involved.

For

the record, I am with that 15 percent. And, though I sincerely believe in a diversity of views and mutual tolerance, I see that 51

percent as part of a New American Dark Ages (NADA). I know they aren’t all bible-thumping literalists who believe there were dinosaurs

in Eden and on the Ark; but a frightening number of them are and this ignorance is clearly contagious and

spreading.

This poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 808 adults, interviewed by

telephone October 3-5, 2005. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage

points.

On the other hand, I’ll believe in god before I put too much stock in divining the views of 300

million people from the responses of 808. Those who trust polls and statistics are welcome to explain their validity in comments. You’ll

find me as hard to move as Jesus on a dinosaur. mjh

loco

The Week After Wolf Awareness Week

Compare

the following stories and note that wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone 10 years ago. In that whole region, they number around 900.

Wolves were released in New Mexico about 5 years ago. We’re supposed to believe that 6 pairs will sustain the population. Nonsense.

mjh

Feds study gray wolf delisting – billingsgazette.com

By

MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff

Federal officials on Monday said it may be time to remove gray wolves in the northern Rocky

Mountains from the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will begin an in-depth look at the wolf

population and decide whether to propose delisting the wolf. …

In order for wolves to be delisted, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming

need approved plans to manage wolves once responsibility is passed to the states from the federal government. …

Wolves

were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and portions of Idaho in 1995 and 1996.

Today, the population is

estimated to be around 900. Numbers have declined recently in Yellowstone, Wyoming and portions of Montana, according to some of the

latest numbers. The population appears to be still growing in Idaho, Bangs said.

ABQjournal: Mexican Gray Wolf Treated for Injuries After Being Hurt by

Trap By Tania Soussan Journal Staff Writer

An endangered Mexican gray wolf was being treated by a veterinarian

Tuesday after she was spotted running around in the wild with a steel leg-hold trap stuck on a front leg. A researcher

working with the wolf reintroduction program saw the alpha female of the Luna Pack with her mate and two 6-month-old pups feeding on an

elk carcass in a large meadow southeast of Reserve on Saturday. He tried unsuccessfully to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart.

On

Monday, a helicopter with a professional gunner aboard was able to catch her in a net gun, said wolf recovery coordinator John Morgart of

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque.

"She was very mobile," he said. "She was running around and

dragging this trap." The wolf was tranquilized and the trap removed, but there was extensive damage just above her

paw. She is being evaluated by a vet in Arizona and likely will be returned to the wild soon. Even if her paw or leg has to be

amputated, she could go back to her pack, Morgart said.

"Canines in general do adapt very quickly to life on three

legs," he said. The trap could have been set legally to capture a coyote or other animal, but Fish and Wildlife Service law

enforcement officers are conducting a routine investigation to make sure there was no foul play involved, Morgart said.

ABQjournal: Wolf Releases May Be Restricted Next Year
By Tania

Soussan Journal Staff Writer

Releases of endangered Mexican gray wolves likely will be severely

restricted next year under a policy approved recently by the multiagency group overseeing wolf reintroduction in the

Southwest. The Adaptive Management Oversight Committee adopted a moratorium on releases and several program

rules during a meeting Thursday in Arizona, said wolf recovery coordinator John Morgart of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in

Albuquerque.

If there are at least six pairs of successfully breeding wolves in the wild at the end of

this year, no new wolf packs without experience in the wild will be released in 2006 In addition, a controversial new

rule says wolves that have killed livestock three times must be permanently removed from the wild, either by trapping or shooting.

NADA

Evangelical Colorado Springs

2 Comments

Political kingpin: Focus

on Family leader’s influence quietly spreading
By STEPHANIE SIMON, Los Angeles Times

A recent poll for PBS

found that 77 percent of white evangelicals view Dobson favorably. Other Christian leaders were far less widely trusted; Pat

Robertson’s approval rating stood at 55 percent and Jerry Falwell’s at 46 percent. …

A campaign against Sen. Ken Salazar last

spring, on the issue of judicial filibusters, provoked such a barrage of calls and e-mails that the Colorado Democrat called Focus on the

Family "the Antichrist of the world." (Salazar later apologized, saying he meant only that the ministry’s approach was

"unchristian.")

Dobson devoted just 7 percent of his $142 million budget last year to explicitly political activities,

such as the Salazar campaign. This year, 5 percent of the budget has been set aside for politics. …

Some references are subtle; a

pamphlet called "When a Loved One Says ‘I’m Gay’" attributes same-sex at tractions to unhealthy family dynamics, but also

lays some blame on "today’s ‘gay-affirmative culture."’

Other political references are overt: A recent

edition of the ministry’s flagship Focus on the Family magazine defined conservatives as championing democracy, human rights and

"the cause of freedom around the world" while "liberals defend civil rights, abortion, pornography and

homosexuality." …

Don’t you love it when the Radical Right calls themselves

everything good and the left everything wrong. mjh

The calls reinforce the ministry’s

view that America’s moral foundation is crumbling — and must be shored up with political action to curb pornography, end abortion,

revoke no-fault divorce laws and stop recognizing gay relationships as legitimate.

Gazette.comGod’s BUSINESS By PAUL ASAY, THE GAZETTE

Religion is big

business in Colorado Springs, and business is booming. More than 80 national Christian nonprofit organizations with combined

revenue of nearly $1 billion make their headquarters in El Paso County [Colorado]. …

Other cities — including

Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta — have more Christian nonprofits than Colorado Springs. But this city is unusual because of its smaller

population, and because of the size, profile and influence of some of the ministries located here.

These ministries are more than

big fish swimming in a midsized pond: They’re leviathans.

Of the more than 80 Christian nonprofit headquarters in the region,

four (Compassion International, Young Life, Focus on the Family and The Navigators) have revenues of $100 million or more.

Their

influence is far-reaching….

Fourteen Springs-based ministries each have revenue above $10 million; 32 earn more than $1 million.

All the 80-some groups The Gazette studied have a national or worldwide focus, and many are household names — at least in

evangelical households.

“In my book, I would put it (Colorado Springs) as the (nation’s) most influential Christian

city,” said Rusty Leonard, founder of the charity watchdog MinistryWatch, based in Charlotte, N.C.  …

BUT WHAT DOES

THAT MEAN TO COLORADO SPRINGS? Very little of that nearly $1 billion finds its way into the local economy. …

But all that

activism has its negative side. Many residents bemoan Colorado Springs’ evangelical reputation.

“We’re so known as a

community that’s dominated by a certain socially conservative philosophy,” Skorman said. Those who don’t share that philosophy,

he added, feel unwelcome. A few companies have shied away from locating here because of its evangelical presence.

That evangelical

unease extends to more secular charities, too, who believe that many of the city’s Christian organizations only support like-minded

charities.

“I think there’s a lot of backlash against the cause of Christ because Christians don’t seem to care

about anything but proselytization or evangelism,” said Yonker, of Elevation Group.

These Christian nonprofits

often like to do business with Christian-oriented companies, too.

loco

Spy Cops

Some people will read the following and dismiss it as small town politics. I see it as a tale of

using police to intimidate citizens. Note the mayor took this police tape and gave a transcript to the paper’s major advertizer — he

could only have wanted them to stop advertizing, in hopes of damaging the paper financially. So much for a free press.

Sure, this

mayor is a pissant and the cop a willing stooge, but this is a story being played out all across the New and Improved AmeriCo, where the

police are merely the security guards for those with power. mjh

ABQjournal: Publisher: Taping, Report Payback
By Martin Salazar

Journal Northern Bureau

Wood was never brought in for questioning over the comments that she says

were made in jest. And the Colfax County District Attorney’s Office in Raton declined to pursue any charges against Wood after reviewing

the information, said Bill Kitts, chief of the Angel Fire Police Department.

"I think they were taping me to harass

me," Wood said in an interview Thursday.

Kitts denies the taping was politically motivated.

This

isn’t the first time the village government has been accused of retaliation.

Earlier this year, the village severed

ties with the local Chamber of Commerce in part because the chamber refused to sign a contract that would have banned it and

anyone associated with it from criticizing the village or its officials.

The latest incident occurred Sept. 22.

Marcia Wood had gone to Village Hall that afternoon in hopes of getting information for a story the paper was working on. Wood claims

Village Administrator John Pape told her he would never talk to her. Wood then went to see Mayor A.L. "Bubba" Clanton. She said

she complained that the village had been stonewalling the paper for months, and at some point told the mayor, "Bull(expletive),

Bubba." The mayor called for an officer, and officer Christina Roth showed up. The Sept. 23 report, which describes

the office visit and the recording later that night, says Wood called the mayor a liar and was escorted out. …

The report does not say why the conversation was being recorded. … Kitts said the two weren’t told they

were being recorded, and under state law, there was no obligation to do so. …

Wood said a few

days later she got a call from a friend telling her about rumors concerning the conversation. She said she later learned

that the mayor had given the report to an Angel Fire Resort employee and had instructed the employee to give it to the company’s

chief executive officer. The resort is the paper’s major advertiser, she added.

Wood said she

got a copy of the report from the resort CEO.

Dump Duhbya

Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated


I think the important part of this story is not that bodies were burned — our culture says that’s hygienic, not

desecration. What’s important it that we turned that against the Taliban, that we taunted them for being "women" — yes,

repeatedly. We have a "Psy-Ops", a concept worthy of 1984, a corp whose job it is to fuck with people heads. Who is to say we

don’t have a domestic version of the same?

It is stunning and almost hilarious that Rumsfeld has said he wants to get to the

bottom of this. The taunts could have been written by him and, whichever commanding officer did write them must have thought he was doing

what his bosses — Rumsfeld and Duhbya — want. We need for officers and soldiers to come forward, to say, to hell with the Commander-

in-Chief, your loyalty is to the nation. Tell us what these bastards are making you do! mjh

Alleged Desecration of Bodies

Investigated

U.S. Military Acts to Control Muslim Backlash After Incident in Afghanistan
By Bradley Graham,

Washington Post Staff Writer

Stephen Dupont, the Australian journalist who took the video, said the airborne troops who burned

the bodies indicated they had been ordered to do so purely to dispose of them. "They said to me, ‘We’ve been told to burn the

bodies because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they’re starting to stink,’ " Dupont said in an interview on the

network’s Web site. "So for hygiene purposes, this is what we’ve got to do." It was later, he said, that the

psychological operations team decided to use the event for propaganda purposes. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger

from the Taliban, so the Taliban could attack them," he said. [mjh: who gave the order?]

USATODAY.com – Pentagon probing taped burning of bodies

Stephen Dupont, an Australian cameraman who shot the

video, said the troops who burned the bodies were U.S. Army paratroopers he joined during combat missions. He said that other American

soldiers used a loudspeaker later to goad Taliban members, calling them “cowardly dogs” and “lady boys” for not retrieving the bodies.

… Later, Dupont said, psychological operations troops gave the taunting statements over loudspeakers to anger and flush out other

Taliban.

Dump Duhbya

Making Their Own Reality

A few conservative blogs take some delight in Democratic frustration at not

having the usual mugshot of Tom "The Hammer" DeLay ("I am the federal government"). Must be nice for DeLay to have

connections protecting him.

Actually, I’ll take the picture of the grinning fool who thinks he can fake his way out of this.

There are limits to "making your own reality." DeLay is a certifiable scoundrel who deserves shunning, if not imprisonment.

mjh

||

RedState.org

This is the best-looking mug shot I have ever seen. As such, it is an oddly compelling portrait of this oddly

compelling man at this oddly compelling moment in his life. On CNN this morning, correspondant (sic) Sean Callebs said, "[b]ut think

about it, at some point later today, pictures of DeLay’s mug shot could be plastered all over the TV, plastered all over the Internet.

Certainly something the GOP doesn’t want to see." Gosh, I’m not so sure. Tom DeLay has never looked better. He looks

bright, personable, confident–certainly not guilty. Who would have thunk a mug shot could turn out to be

good propaganda?

DeLay

Smile May Foil Democrat Campaign Ads

DeLay, an 11-term Texas congressman and former pest exterminator famous for enforcing

GOP loyalty, faced a tough reelection campaign even before the indictment.

In the 2004 elections, DeLay won 55 percent of the

vote, a relatively weak showing for a veteran House leader. His challenger next year is expected to be former Rep. Nick Lampson,

who lost his seat in 2004 after he was forced to run in a new district under a redistricting plan pushed by DeLay.

For his mandatory booking Thursday, which caused him to miss voting on a gun industry bill popular in his home state, DeLay

did everything he could to prevent images of the event from being committed to film.

mjh’s Blog: Counterpoint to Eulogies by Tim Wise

It’s why a bona fide

moron like Tom Delay can brag about not having a passport (because, after all, why would anyone want to travel abroad and leave

”Amur’ca,” even for a day) and not be seen as the epitome of a blithering idiot, and why he could probably be elected again and

again in thousands of white dominated congressional districts in this country, and not merely in Texas.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 07/29/2003: "Contempt for the public" by

Paul Krugman

Another answer may be that in modern America, style trumps substance. Here’s what Tom DeLay, the House majority

leader, said in a speech last week: "To gauge just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is on the war on terror, just close your

eyes and try to imagine Ted Kennedy landing that Navy jet on the deck of that aircraft carrier." To say the obvious, that remark

reveals a powerful contempt for the public: Mr. DeLay apparently believes that the nation will trust a man, independent of the facts,

because he looks good dressed up as a pilot. But it’s possible that he’s right.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 05/27/2003: "Tom Delay: "I am the federal

government.""

[Speaker of the House Tom] DeLay recently revealed how he felt about rules of general applicability.

When he tried smoking a cigar in a restaurant on federal property, the manager told him it violated federal law. His response, according

to The Washington Post, was, "I am the federal government."