When did Saint Pete become such a demagogue? This is the

frequently used, shameless tactic of the Radical Right, to make such inflammatory and patently false accusations. Now that they have all

the power, they go so far as to create the situations and then lie about the role of their opponents. This is the behavior of a

scoundrel. mjh

Domenici Wants N.M. Tree in D.C., BY HELEN GAUSSOIN For the Journal

“I refuse to let environmental extremists and a federal judge play Scrooge with our holiday tree,” the New

Mexico Republican said in comments prepared for Friday’s opening reception of the Capitol Holiday Tree Art Extravaganza.

A

Forest Service spokeswoman said the federal agency has received no objections to the holiday tree cutting but said that

does not mean it won’t before the end of a 30-day comment period that began Oct. 4. …

Domenici … has likened those who

challenged the Forest Service rule to “the grinch who stole Christmas,” as well as Scrooge…

Environmentalists

with the Forest Guardians in New Mexico and the national office of the Sierra Club have said the Forest Service has extended the impact

of the ruling to situations, like the holiday tree project, never intended in the lawsuit. They argue the administration is

manufacturing a controversy to draw opposition to the ruling.

ABQjournal: Media Cited

in Minimum Wage Defeat; Advocates Say They Aren’t Giving Up

“Five weeks ago, it would have passed. But a well-funded campaign

with a hard-hitting message played a major role in defeating it,” Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., said.

ABQjournal: Letters to

the Editor
Blame the Enviros

IS THIS the appropriate time to say, “I told you so?”

With gasoline prices at

$3 a gallon and natural gas more than triple what it was a few years ago, people are asking “why?” The folks who should be answering this

question are Gov. Bill Richardson, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, and the professional monkey-wrenchers at the New Mexico

Wilderness Alliance, the Forest Guardians and the Sierra Club.

It is these folks who have stood in the way of energy

production. They are the ones who have lied to you about the environmental impacts of extracting the resources we use

every day. And it is these people who couldn’t care less about how their anti-energy, anti-development agenda hurts

you and your family.

The fact is, we can’t have affordable energy prices and indulge extremists at the

same time. If you want to do yourself and the rest of us a favor, the next time you hear one of these people lie about the

damage oil and gas development does to the environment, tell them about the damage their activism is doing to your

wallet.
BILL MCCAW
Artesia

Listen to the nice man explain that “enviros” (read

“communists” or, maybe, “sub-humans”) don’t care about you, while he loves you and wants to keep you warm and mobile. Hmmm.

As one of the people the self-serving profiteer McCaw despises, I care about protecting public lands and life from irrevocable

destruction. I see the US has gone from a vast wilderness to ever dwindling pockets — even those patches of wilderness are constantly

nibbled on the edges and deeply invaded by ATVs, snow-mobiles (cough-Al Unser, Sr-cough), mountain bikes, etc. Even fighting the

destroyers tooth and nail with everything we’ve got, there’s a little less left every year. The destroyers and profiteers will never be

satisfied. And they insist on adding insult to injury at every opportunity. Nice people. mjh

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: Trust an

oil man

Ninety-nine percent of the public couldn’t point out Otero Mesa on a map even if they were given a cash prize for

doing so. And yet, extremists are trying to convince the public that drilling for oil and natural gas on this

”untamed” land will ”destroy” our state’s ”natural heritage.”

Who doesn’t engage in

hyperbole from time to time? Still, to alarm the public with “a living nightmare” seems a bit extreme. Picking one from column A and one

from column B, this shotgun approach frightens bible-thumpers with tree-huggers and vice versa, right there in the grocery aisle! Oh my

gawd, people will be discussing the law anyplace.mjh

I’ve got an idea: let’s just eliminate the whole voting process. Everyone

knows how tainted voting is. Fewer and fewer people do it and those who do cheat constantly and then corrupt public figures lie about the

results (somehow, Republicans believe this and don’t question that Republicans hold all the power). Let’s replace that sham

system with the way it really works: those with money win. After all, to some of our fellow citizens, money IS speech, which must mean

they believe the ones with the most money have the greatest right to speak (and those without money better shut up). Those same folks

believe private property rights trump all others (good-bye, Endangered Species Act, passed

under the suddenly-too-liberal Nixon).

So, let’s get out of the way of those who are corrupt enough to buy access and those who

are corrupt enough to sell it. We’ll call it Free Market Democracy in the New and Improved AmeriCo! mjh

ABQjournal: Chávez Tops $1.1M

in Race to Stay Mayor By Jim Ludwick, Journal Staff Writer

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez has raised more than $1.1

million for his re-election effort.

That’s more than four times as much as City Councilor Eric Griego, who has reported

monetary contributions totaling nearly $265,000.

And it is roughly $1 million ahead of Council President Brad Winter, who has

raised $154,000 in his bid to unseat Chávez.

ABQjournal: Wage Opponents Top Backers in Spending By Olivier

Uyttebrouck, Journal Staff Writer

Three groups opposing a proposed minimum wage initiative spent a total of $206,048 as of

Friday, topping supporters’ expenditures of $137,483, according to reports filed at the City Clerk’s Office.

The initiative

on the city’s ballot Tuesday calls for an hourly minimum wage of $7.50 for regular workers and $4.50 for tipped workers at businesses

with 11 or more employees.

The Albuquerque Minimum Wage Committee, which supports the initiative, reported total contributions

of $81,669. The three opposing groups raised $225,471.

Blunt’s fundraising propels him

to Republican leadership role BY MATT STEARNS AND DAVID GOLDSTEIN, Knight Ridder Newspapers

In a move of unusual

perceptiveness, Blunt – himself a man of modest means – began sending contributions from his own campaign coffers to 21 Republicans

throughout the country running for Congress for the first time.

When I read the initial news story about this tactic, I thought how low-class

it is for the supporters of the front-runner and likely winner to act like this — where were their flip-flops?

Kudos to the

Journal for blaming Chávez himself for this. Too bad they continue to endorse the boor. mjh

ABQjournal: Mayor Needs to Rein In His

Troops

City campaign politics hit a low point Thursday.

Notified that rivals Eric Griego and Brad

Winter were going to hold a press conference, Mayor Martin Chávez’s campaign dispatched a crowd of supporters and campaign pooch Dukes

to Civic Plaza.

Dukes, the mayor’s dog whose picture and paw-print were featured on a mailer addressed to dogs in voting

households, may have been the best behaved of the mayor’s backers.

Campaign spokeswoman Joan Griffin said the mayor’s

supporters “wanted to encourage a positive campaign and quit this kind of negative campaigning that’s going on.”

The Chávez

camp’s alternative to negative campaigning apparently is to shout down, intimidate or otherwise disrupt legitimate opposition campaign

events.

Chanting, “Marty, Marty, Marty,” Chávez supporters closed in on Griego and Winter as the two councilors running for

mayor raised questions about a Chávez fundraiser. …

[R]aising questions about the fundraiser and the campaign’s varying reports

on the amounts contributed is fair game.

Chávez supporters’ obnoxious tactics on Thursday are not, and the buck for their

behavior stops on the incumbent mayor’s desk.

Unless he condones this kind of campaigning, Chávez should apologize to Griego

and Winter for those who disrupted their press conference in his name. While he’s at it, he should apologize to the voters for

this boorish behavior.