Monthly Archives: April 2006

media

He Had Went and Really Gotten to Myself

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ABQjournal: Astorga Alone During Stop, Police Say By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

Marcantel said Astorga, 29, knew that had McGrane, 38, taken his driver’s license and went back to his squad car, the deputy would have known about the warrant within minutes.

ABQjournal: Mayor Had a Reason to Speed By T.J. Wilham, Of the Journal

Last Friday, Schultz invited myself on a ride-along.

OK, I am officially an old-fart — something you probably already knew about me. I have to say these two abuses of language get to me, especially seeing both by the same writer on the same day in two separate articles.

Understand, I shattered my glass house years ago. I’m a recovering perfectionist whose recovery began with recognizing I can’t be perfect nor can I expect that of anyone else.

Even before that, I was shaken from incipient language-fascism by my great language mentor (after my Mother, of course), my brother, Dan. When, as a young-fart, I attacked some change in language that offended even my young ears, he set me straight on the inevitability of change and the irony of that progression from “misuse” to mainstream and the reversal of fortunes that comes when “saying it correctly” suddenly sounds archaic. Shakespeare would be appalled by my very best English and I sometimes don’t get his.

In fact, the conundrum of celebrating the richness of language is that one cannot define what is wealth. Which is not meant to give in and say “it’s all good” (snap). At any one moment, it’s not all good — context rules.

Ah, but what of journalists? Their context has its own rules and stylebooks. Is something that would be terrible in the context of oratory or literature more acceptable on newsprint? More than likely.

All that aside, these two examples really grate on me. I hope T.J. Wilham can rise above the colloquial. I wish he had an editor who would help him do so. mjh

Dump Duhbya, Uncategorized

Cognitive Dissonance

Monterey County Herald | 04/25/2006 | Bush urges realistic immigration reform By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press

Bush said community health centers are the best place for the poor to get primary care. ”There needs to be a campaign to explain what’s available for people so that they don’t go to the emergency rooms,” he said.

ABQjournal: Bush Budget Would End Aid By Leslie Linthicum, Journal Staff Writer

[A] one-line item in President Bush’s proposed 2007 federal budget that would eliminate all federal funding for urban health clinics around the country that principally serve Indians. It would slice about $1 million from First Nations in Albuquerque, forcing it to eliminate or find other funding for about half of its services.

The waiting room was full of people who count on the free clinic, which serves about 5,000 patients a year, 90 percent of them Native American.

Dump Duhbya

The Doolittles’ Rich Deal

The Doolittles’ Rich Deal
How one congressional couple collected campaign checks — and put $215,000 in their pockets

IMAGINE THAT every time members of Congress received a $1,000 campaign contribution, they could skim $150 off the top and put it straight into their personal bank accounts. Sound shady? That is, in effect, how Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and his wife, Julie, operate. According to our review of campaign finance records, Mrs. Doolittle has received at least $215,000 from Mr. Doolittle’s various campaign committees since 2001. This doesn’t include $6,800 in payments to another of Mrs. Doolittle’s companies, Events Plus, before she started doing his fundraising work. She’s taken in nearly $100,000 during the 2006 campaign alone.

The arrangement couldn’t smell more.

Dump Duhbya

Sen. Conrad Burns May Be Bouncing Back

Burns May Be Bouncing Back
Polls Suggest Montana Senator Is Shedding Ties to the Abramoff Scandal
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Republican primary debate was over, and three challengers had barely laid a glove on Sen. Conrad Burns.

No one mentioned the $150,000 he accepted from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and later returned. No one brought up the $3 million federal grant secured by a wealthy Indian tribe — and Abramoff client — after Burns pressured the Interior Department. No one quoted Abramoff telling Vanity Fair that he and his clients had received “every appropriation we wanted” from a subcommittee chaired by Burns.

Only one question during Friday’s debate even mentioned Abramoff, whose web of illegal lobbying has spawned the largest congressional scandal in years. And Burns pugnaciously dismissed it, saying, “If you want to know something about the Abramoff deal, you got to ask the Democrats.”

Polls here suggest that Burns, 71, a three-term incumbent who has been targeted by the Democrats as one of the most beatable Republicans in the Senate, may be bouncing back from the pounding he took late last year after the publication of several articles detailing his ties to Abramoff.

For a while after the stories broke, Burns essentially hunkered down, offering little response to the allegations while his political fortunes flagged. Republican strategists in Washington believe Burns stayed silent for too long. In the past three months, however, his campaign has spent heavily on radio and television ads that attack Democrats for attacking him. In a current ad, Burns tells Montana voters that “the daily partisan assault is an assault on you and what you stand for.”

After the debate, Burns was asked about the new poll numbers, which show him tied with or narrowly trailing his two most likely Democratic opponents. He is expected to win handily in the Republican primary.

“Never lose faith in the people,” he said with a tight smile.

Would he answer any questions about Abramoff?

“No!” Burns said, with a tight smile.

For all his bravado, Burns remains in trouble, especially in a state that generally tilts to the Republicans. But his experience also suggests the challenge that Democrats around the country will have in turning this year’s scandals into tangible gains at the polls.

my favs

Love Your Mother

Happy Earth Day, Everyone!

Some say the “Environmental Movement” has itself become a corporation indistinguishable from its foes. Some say that “the people” no longer trust “the movement.” Some even say the movement is irrelevant because everyone is an environmentalist now. Yeah, that last one is especially funny.

Whatever bits of truth float in those views, all of us are coming to realize how fucked up the World has made the Earth. We see the climate change, and the severity of destruction it spawns. We see the diseases that may very well be Earth’s antibodies against humans. We see the end of the Era of Fossil Fuels and the shorter-term sputters of that dying system. We have a good sense of what is wrong, how we play into that, and how we are going to be part of the change. We all *know* that in a single lifetime everything will change dramatically. Our house is on fire. mjh

mjh’s blog — I’m Recycling on Earth Day

Earth Day 2002

I celebrated Earth Day idling in line at the drive-up window. As I burned my part of the world’s resources, I waited for chemical-laden beef raised on clear-cut forest land, served with genetically modified potatoes grown in the desert, watered by rapidly melting polar icecaps. On the radio, the president called for arctic drilling. On the TV, the vice-president called for nuclear power plants. On my cell phone, I called for replacement batteries for my laptop, my digital camera, my CD player, my pacemaker. On my palm-pilot, I wrote “need to get away.” I used a search engine to look for a campground with hook-ups, preferably near a convenience store. mjh

media

One Very Small Step for Blogging

I applaud much about the www.DukeCityFix.com and I envy its success. But, I have to say something about its recent “blog-in.”

First, kudos to Chantal Foster, et. al., for getting an open wireless connection into Council Chambers. When I was down there in mid-March for Filing Day, I was stunned there was none (and I did nothing about that except probably carp).

Second, bravo to the concept of moving bloggers out of our little isolated boxes and into a public space. This is an even bolder push into territory no longer limited to MSM.

Sadly, like the first sexual experience for many, it wasn’t as good as it could be (and will be, someday). The running entry and comments at theFix are at the level of passing notes in class. I’m not dismissing it, I’m just disappointed by it. I know someone will spit that I did nothing to help (guilty), but that rarely is a requirement for a blogger’s right to opine.

Compare this to Laura Sanchez’s Council Takes in the Alibi. In her column, we get some facts and some opinion and some sense of the process. Something like that but live and on the spot might also be interesting. Digitally yawning and rolling one’s eyes over the lame or hot participants isn’t. mjh

Duke City Fix » Charge of the Laptop Brigade: Blogging LIVE from City Hall