I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Independent isn’t doing away with opinion, just changing the format for its expression, as you will soon see.
American dislike of government is deeply ingrained in our national character.
Among the sworn opponents to the House bill are the extremist-driven Republican Party, corporate Democrats, tea party and other anti-government protesters, libertarians, insurers, the Fox fantasists and rightist talk radio. Logically, then, the bill must be a great step forward. But I’m not so sure.
When Dick Cheney urges President Obama to abandon analysis for action on Afghanistan – it’s manlier to do than think – the former VP may just be thumping his hairy chest.
The Journal rank-and-file turns out so much good copy, it would be no trick publishing a daily newspaper chock full of journalism – and only journalism. Sadly, Journal management denies us that treat.
Horizontal thinking obscures hierarchy, the way we distribute power. This delights those atop the ladder, whose power persists so long as we on the lower rungs don’t look up.
News organizations with time and resources could ride to the public’s rescue by mastering the material and conveying it succinctly. They could. Most do not.
Shame is dead, true, and nowhere more so than in politics. But shamelessness is not a rightist monopoly. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wants dollars to fight Republicans “obstructing” the Obama agenda. The DSCC never mentions that it’s corporate Democrats – Baucus, Nelson, Lincoln and pals – who are murdering real health care reform.
Pre-recorded campaign calls remind me that I will soon trek to my neighborhood elementary school to vote for mayor. It’s a tricky decision this year. My primary concern is how the city will grow. Slowly, I would hope, with great emphasis on the regional environment broadly defined—we need to foster spiritual and community health, as well as clean air and water.
The scariest fiction these days is scapegoating – blaming others for the tribe’s travails. today’s demonstrators, backed by big money, are frightening as they flail at The Other. That’s why the White House must find its populist tongue.
The dictionaries don’t limit corruption to governmental crime, but that’s the Establishment teaching. We all agree that public servants who steal from us should be exposed and punished. But folks atop the hierarchy want us to believe convicting a few bad apples solves the problem. Nobody else cheats. Certainly not those who condemn “corruption.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether corporations, like individuals, have free speech rights. This worries some observers. If McCain-Feingold and other campaign finance restrictions are ruled un-Constitutional, they tell us, corporations will take over our democracy.
That Republicans defend the status quo is no surprise; it rains profits on GOP sponsors — insurers, makers of drugs and medical equipment and for-profit hospitals. But Democrats once responded effectively to the bread-and-butter concerns of the middle-class and the poor.
Stone-faced men brandish lethal weapons at presidential and other town halls, yet no prominent Republican has taken the podium to say, “Cool it.” Where are the reasonable, decent Republicans, in New Mexico or the nation?
I wanted a break from monitoring the Albuquerque Journal this week, but New Mexico’s largest daily is doing some things right and it’s only fair to proffer laurels when that happens.
One health care bill currently circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives would reimburse doctors for discussing end-of-life decisions with patients. This is what some health care reform opponents are lying about, turning voluntary counseling into what a well-informed former Alaska governor called the “death panel.”
At lunch, an old friend recently retired from a network job in Washington, DC, was dismissive of what passes for journalism on the Web. As a fellow survivor of old news mediums, I once might have agreed, but no longer. “Compared to what?” I replied.
I take care when criticizing news coverage lest my own biases lead me astray. I would hate to find skullduggery in a difference of news judgment or call a story “slanted” when the editor had to trim it to fit the news hole.
But the Albuquerque Journal’s use of its news pages to further its partisan agenda is so blatant it’s impossible to mistake.
Today, health care is big business, doctoring a commodity — no different from sweatpants or corn futures. What nonsense! Since I won’t die from lousy sweatpants, it’s clear that buying them differs from buying health care.
Let’s hear it for ABQ Journal Watch! The new blog from two former Albuquerque Journal reporters is bound to serve the public interest. I hope, though, they haven’t underestimated the task.
