Merri and I rode the NM Railrunner train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe for a daytrip today. As I prepared to leave the house, I put a handful of coins in one of my pockets plus two spare rechargeable batteries for my camera.

Over about 6 hours, we rode to Santa Fe and walked about town. Shortly after 4pm, we boarded the return train and took seats on the upper level. We sat for 10 to 15 minutes, waiting for the departure. At some point, Merri put her hand on my leg and yanked it back, as if from a hot stove. Indeed, my pocket full of change and two batteries was extremely hot. As I gingerly extracted coins, I burned the tips of three fingers to blisters. One of the two batteries looked a little damaged. Once everything was extracted and laid out, it all cooled off quickly. My fingers still sting.

Weird science. I had an exposed circuit in my pocket, finger in the socket. peace, mjh

PS: The trip to Santa Fe was fun. The actual ride was the main event and was worth the trip. We had lunch at Tia Sophia and strolled around town. We toured the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. All along the way, we met people Merri knows. Especially in the State Capitol, where she knew many folks. On the ride back, we had a nice conversation with a woman who works for the Department of Transportation.

PPS: Ironically, my concerns about cameras and photography on the train had been for naught. The subject never came up. There was no official announcement and there wasn’t much I felt deprived from photographing.

[From KOB:]

Albuquerque attorney John Wayne Higgins usually defends drunk drivers.

On Wednesday night he had the right to remain silent; instead he acted as his own attorney and tried to defend himself. [He was arrested for drunk driving.]

You may recall John Wayne Higgins. In 1998, John Wayne Higgins ran for Bernalillo County Probate Court Judge. With no probate experience, he ran against Ira Robinson and Merri Rudd. In a three-way race, Ira Robinson ("Family matters.") won. Two years later, Robinson ran for the State Court of Appeals. His victory created the vacancy that finally brought Merri Rudd to the office she was made for.

Imagine the drunk DWI attorney as probate judge. How do such people think they qualify to run for a particular office? It’s an insult to the public.

PS: Ira Robinson left the State Court of Appeals, for, ahem, personal reasons.

Read the full story at FBIHOP:

I’ve never been one for politics, and Ed Tinsley is the only politician I’ve known on a personal level. Sometimes I think that if he treated me this way, how would he treat the rest of us in Southern New Mexico? Based on what I know about the man, he’ll pretend to be your friend as a candidate, and turn his back on you as a Congressman. Bill Vance Eunice, NM

New Mexico Politics: New Mexico FBIHOP:: Meet Bill the Rancher

Dan Foley must be the biggest jackass in New Mexico – maybe even the Four Corners. Foley knows nothing about history – such as the mass migration of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party in response to the Civil Rights Movement and the open arms with which the GOP welcomed those former Dems. Worse, in an essay George Orwell would love, Foley explains Dems are the hate-mongers. Apparently he’s as clueless about current events. Listen to Hate Radio for a day, Dan, if you can stomach it. peace, mjh

Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics: What about the left’s ‘verbal terrorism?

By Dan Foley

Obama and his racist supporters have gone too far. Comparing Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin to Democrat Gov. George C. Wallace has to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back!

How come Obama and his Far Left thugs continue to accuse Republicans of bringing race into this campaign when the fact is the only people who constantly bring race up are the left-wingers themselves? Why do the media let them get away with the continued hate- mongering and divisive race-baiting that the Obama campaign relishes?

Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics: What about the left’s ‘verbal terrorism?

Another McCain-Palin supporter yells ‘kill him!’ about Obama.»

The Scranton Times-Tribune notes that yet another McCain supporter at a rally today with Gov. Sarah Palin yelled “kill him!” in reference to Sen. Barack Obama:

Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin. Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly. One man screamed “kill him!”

Last Monday, a supporter also yelled “kill him” at a rally. In the past weeks, McCain supporters have called Obama “an Arab,” “Little Hussein,” and a “terrorist.” (HT: TPM)

UPDATE: At a rally in Virginia Beach, a supporter yelled “Obama bin Laden!“:

E. J. Dionne Jr. – McCain and the Raging Right – washingtonpost.com

Yet culture war politics is relatively mild compared with the far-right appeals that are emerging this year. It is as if McCain’s loyalists overshot the ’60s and went back to the ’50s or even the ’30s.

What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of the far right, a phenomenon that began to take shape with some of the earliest attacks on Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

False claims that Obama is Muslim, that he trained to overthrow the government and that he was educated in Wahhabi schools are a standard part of the political discussion. These fake stories come from voices on the ultra right that have dabbled in other forms of conspiracy, including classic anti-Semitism. McCain and his campaign do not pick up the most extreme charges. They just fan the flames by suggesting that voters don’t really know who Obama is, hinting at a sinister back story without filling in the details.

McCain cannot be blamed for all of the crazies who see in Obama a chance to earn fame and fortune by concocting lies about him. And yes, we should defend the speech rights even of those whose views we find abhorrent.

But the angry McCain-Palin crowds, and particularly those who threaten violence or shout racist epithets, should be a wake-up call to McCain. The dark hints about Obama that McCain’s campaign is dropping dovetail too nicely with the nasty trash floating around the Internet and the airwaves.

We are in the midst of what could become the worst economic downturn in decades. The last thing we need is a campaign that strengthens fanaticism, tarnishes the authority of the next president and whips up the worst kinds of prejudice. This works both ways: Obama should not be delegitimized if he wins, and McCain should not want to win in a way that would undermine his own capacity to lead.

When Christopher Buckley, a novelist and former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush, announced last week that he would vote for Obama (his first vote ever for a Democrat), he referred to words once spoken to him by his late father. “You know,” the conservative hero William F. Buckley Jr. said, “I’ve spent my entire lifetime separating the right from the kooks.”

McCain has an obligation, to his own legacy and the country he has served, to separate himself and his campaign from the kooks. Extremism in defense of liberty may be no vice, but extremism in pursuit of the presidency is as dysfunctional as it is degrading.

E. J. Dionne Jr. – McCain and the Raging Right – washingtonpost.com

PS: I take some comfort that most of the comments on Foley’s awful essay take him to task. Don’t let the liars and fools change the truth.

03/27/2003: Bernco Sheriff Darren White

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has stepped into the fray over the right of a free people to peaceably assemble in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque Police Department officers are tired from their conflicts with demonstrators (those batons and machine guns are heavy!), so Bernalillo County will offer them some relief. Sheriff White immediately drew a line in the sand: step in the streets and go to jail, plus pay for the cost of policing the demonstrators.

Permits are not required to demonstrate in city parks, Civic Plaza or on any public sidewalk.