Election, loco

Protect women’s rights — vote against this gawd-awful ordinance

This is ironically ill-conceived.

Healthy turnout in ‘historic’ abortion vote | ABQJournal Online By Dan McKay / Journal Staff Writer

Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal

No city in the United States has banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Voters this month will decide whether Albuquerque becomes the first to try. …

The ordinance appears in its entirety on the city ballot, a result of the City Council resolution that established the election. Critics say the language is vague and confusing. The ordinance was written by supporters, not city councilors or city attorneys. …

Ives said the ordinance is “deceptive and misleading.”

Halfway through pregnancy, about 20 weeks, is when certain tests are done and the health of the fetus may become clear, she said. That’s also when “pregnancy becomes taxing enough on the woman’s body” that her own health problems become clear, Ives said.

“You wouldn’t want to push a woman to make a quick decision,” Ives said. “You want women to have an opportunity to really think through their choice.”

The language in the ordinance could also limit the options of women and doctors when health problems arise, she said.

“I think absolutely a physician would have to provide the best opportunity for a fetus to survive rather than concern themselves with what’s best for a woman’s health,” Ives said.

The ban doesn’t contain an exception for rape or incest. …

City anticipates a challenge

A legal adviser to the City Council has raised questions about whether the ordinance would survive a legal challenge. Regardless, the city would defend the ordinance.

“The city anticipates the ordinance will be challenged and that a judge will make a ruling on the constitutionality of it,” City Attorney David Tourek said in a written statement.

It’s not clear how much the defense would cost, Tourek said in response to Journal questions.

“The city may be ordered by a judge to pay attorney fees and costs if the party challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance prevails,” he said. “The cost to the city would be based on the length of the legal proceedings.”

Ives suggested the ordinance wouldn’t survive a legal challenge, if passed by voters.

“Every court that has reached the question of whether or not 20-week bans are constitutional, all those courts have said they are not,” she said.

Healthy turnout in ‘historic’ abortion vote | ABQJournal Online

Election, loco

Early-voting sites open today | ABQJournal Online

Take your photo ID.

Early-voting sites open today | ABQJournal Online

By Journal Staff | 8 hours ago

Albuquerque voters can cast ballots in the Nov. 19 special election at any of 12 early-voting locations that open today.

The locations will be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A valid photo ID is required.

The ballot includes a proposed ordinance that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Uptown-area voters in council District 7 will also choose a city councilor – either incumbent Janice Arnold-Jones, a Republican, or Diane Gibson, a Democrat.

The locations are:

  • Venture Commerce Center, 9674-3 Eagle Ranch NW
  • Don Newton/Taylor Ranch Community Center, 4900 Kachina NW
  • Shops @ 98th and Central, 120 98th NW, A5
  • West Mesa Community Center, 5500 Glenrio NW
  • Office of the City Clerk, 600 Second NW, seventh floor
  • City of Albuquerque Records Center, 604 Menaul NW
  • North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center, 7521 Carmel NE
  • Glenwood Village Shopping Center, 4710 Tramway NE, C-4
  • Montgomery Crossing Shopping Center, 8510 Montgomery NE
  • Daskalos Plaza, 5339 Menaul NE
  • Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center, 501 Elizabeth SE
  • Cesar Chavez Community Center, 7505 Kathryn SE

Early-voting sites open today | ABQJournal Online

Election

Hundreds of ND oil spills not publicized — who the hell wants the Keystone pipeline?

Big Oil is like the Tobacco Industry — poisoning the world for profit with support from the government. A pox on both those houses.

Hundreds of ND oil spills not publicized | ABQJournal Online

By JAMES MacPHERSON / Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota, the nation’s No. 2 oil producer behind Texas, recorded nearly 300 oil pipeline spills in less than two years, state documents show.

None was reported to the public, officials said.

According to records obtained by The Associated Press, the pipeline spills, many of them small, are among some 750 “oil field incidents” that have occurred since January 2012 without public notification.

Hundreds of ND oil spills not publicized | ABQJournal Online

Health

Camels: 100 years and still killing

I smoked roughly a pack a day for about 10 years. I smoked hand-rolled Drum, fancy cigs with colored paper and gold filters (Balkan-Sobranie?), Kools, and, yes, Camels, with and without filters. My salad days were unintentionally self-destructive. I’m glad I’m here to talk about it.

Don’t start smoking — period. To hell with e-cigs — that’s bullshit.

The Tabaco Industry is the epitome of Corporate Immorality: sell people stuff that kills them. Don’t tell me about choice or freedom — this is a conspiracy to kill you for profit, supported by our government and our tax dollars.

Camels: 100 years and still killing – latimes.com by Robert N. Proctor

Camels were first sold in October 1913. Only 1 million were sold that first year, but this quickly grew to 425 million in 1914 and to 6.5 billion two years later. Twenty-one billion were sold in 1919, and by the early 1920s, nearly half of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. were Camels.

And though other “standard brands” were soon introduced — Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes and Old Golds — Camels still had a 30% share of the cigarette market in the late 1940s. By its 65th anniversary in 1978, the brand had sold more than 3 trillion sticks. Camel still holds the record for the most cigarettes sold in a single year: 105 billion in 1952. …

Cigarettes still kill about half their long-term users, despite industry bluster about filters, low tars and lights, none of which has made smoking safer. Cigarettes still contain arsenic and cyanide and radioactive polonium-210, the poison used to kill that Russian spy in London a few years back. Cigarettes cause one death for every million smoked, which means that the 4 trillion Camels consumed over the last 100 years have probably caused about 4 million deaths.

Robert N. Proctor is a professor of the history of science at Stanford University and the author of “Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition.”

Camels: 100 years and still killing – latimes.com

Election, loco

Vote in Albuquerque’s municipal election

From a recent abqjournal article by Dan McKay / Journal Staff Writer.:

Balloting underway
• Starting this week, voters can cast their ballots early at the City Clerk’s Office, 600 Second NW, and at the Albuquerque Records Center, 604 Menaul NW, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Ten other early-voting locations open Oct. 30.
• The clerk is mailing absentee ballots. Applications can be downloaded from cabq.gov. Scroll down to the “vote” link.
• Sample ballots are available at cabq.gov. The ballot is long because the abortion ordinance is printed in its entirety.
• Voters must present a photo ID to vote in person.
• Voters in District 7 get one ballot with both the City Council runoff and the abortion ordinance on it. Voters registered in other districts get only the abortion question

loco

Marriage equality is inevitable — get used to it

I’m stunned that the opening assertion by opponents to marriage equality is that the state’s foremost inteterst is in marriage for procreation. You have got to be kidding. Moreover, the argument continues that same-sex marriage would discourage heterosexuals from marrying AND lead to more out-of-wedlock births. This argument is particularly absurd in New Mexico with our very high out-of-wedlock birth rate.

The procreation argument is an insult to couples like us, who married with no intent to spawn, and to gay couples with children. It sounded like the Justices weren’t buying it.

NM Supreme Court: No immediate ruling on same-sex marriage, but plenty of tough questions

During the two-hour oral arguments, several Supreme Court justices had pointed questions for James Campbell, an Arizona-based attorney representing Sharer and other GOP legislators.
At one point, justice Richard Bosson appeared to take issue with Campbell’s argument that the state has an interest in ensuring that marriage remains limited to between one man and one woman.
“Marriage is much more than just a vehicle for natural procreation,” Bosson said, pointing out the state does not ask heterosexual couples whether they plan to have children.

From http: //www.abqjournal.com/287115/politics/nm-supreme-court-no-immediate-ruling-on-same-sex-marriage-but-plenty-of-tough-questions.html

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams