Does Saying It Often Enough Make It True?

Well, Governor Martinez is spending big money on commercials telling the world how much teachers in New Mexico love her. Funny most of my coworkers and friends are teachers and they all tell me how much they hate her and her Secretary-Designate  for the Public Education Department. Governor Martinez cannot even get that women confirmed by the state senate because she lacks the required qualifications.

Governor Martinez started her campaign four years ago by saying to her debate staff how over paid teachers were in the first place. How she would cut their pay because they did not work hard. In the last four years she has driven hundreds of teachers out of the field either by retirement or they just resign because of poor working conditions. She has sold our online classes to large out of state companies so that taxpayers will have to pay not only for our children’s education but corporate profits as well. She has found ways to cut funding to higher education all in the name of reform.  

Teachers don’t like it when we graduate students who cannot find a job and end up committing street crimes just to get by in life. We work hard to give our students skills that will get those jobs but without a real opportunity children have to leave the state to find work. Parents don’t want to see their children leaving the state and maybe never coming home. Even more so they don’t want to see their children going to jail for life because of a lack of real work.

Many children are dropping out of school before eight-grade because they cannot pass Martinez’s test. Parents have no where to turn for help because of Martinez’s budget cuts and her selling out mental health services to Arizona companies that don’t understand our children’s problems. Martinez is too busy raising funds for her run for Vice-President to care about our children. She only gives out books to children because it makes for a good photo op. She does not think it through that the money would be better spent on E-readers so that the children could get free books from the library and publishing companies.

Leave it to Governor Martinez to waste taxpayer’s dollars on one time photo op stunts that don’t help our children in the long run. Governor Martinez claims to listen to teachers but fails to hear a word they say about educating our children. 

So the answer is “NO” teachers do not support or even like Governor Martinez. Maybe if we say it often enough she will get the message to stop lying!

Teachers Do Not Support Governor Martinez!

  

Young Dropout Students and Behavioral Health Services

Is the State Behavioral Health Services Division (BHSD) providing the services needed to youth at risk in the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico? Did Governor Martinez make a huge mistake by taking over the behavioral health services in the city? How well are our young adults being serviced by the current system? A system ran by outsiders from Arizona who has no understanding of what is going on in our city.

You have to wonder why the three young men that killed two Native American homeless men in our city did not show up on the radar of school officials when it came to their mental health status. Our society does not approve of children attacking adults from any culture in this city. The parent of one of these young men told a local news station that he did not know where to turn for help. Has budget cuts by Arizona companies caused an increase in violent crimes committed by young adults in our city. Should the Governor take the blame for failing these young adults? Where is the outreach to parents of children who drop out of city school early?

Should our communities really be surprised that young men who have no hope of getting jobs turn to violent crime as a way to make money?  Homeless individuals are among the most vulnerable in our communities. The homeless have no place to lock up the small amounts of money they have that would be safe. They are often on drugs and/or alcohol so that their judgment is impaired. Some are returning veterans who have difficulties due to brain injuries from the wars. Some of the homeless are just mentally ill themselves. Homeless individuals make prime targets for young possibility mentally ill individuals looking to harm others and make a few dollars in the process. The three young men who killed the two homeless men clearly displayed signs of antisocial behavior.

Where is the governor in all this mess? Why has the major not done more to deal with the homeless in this city? Crimes against the homeless have been around for a long time yet little has been done during the current recession to reduce the number of people on the streets of our city. Heading Home is a good program but it is far too limited in resources to handle the thousands of homeless in this city. Why is there not already an outreach program that makes sure that homeless individuals feel safe to report crimes committed in our city. Could these deaths have been prevented if other crimes had been reported earlier? Mayor Berry’s answer is always to deal with the crisis rather than to spend enough money on prevention.       

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Yesterday Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Middle East trying to bring peace to the region. I have friends who are both Jewish and Palestinian. Each wants me to side with their views of this hateful event. Each wants me to see the pictures of their dead children. Children on both sides are being killed.  War is always a horrible answer to a conflict.

The problems in this region of the world go back to a time before I was born. I understand some of those feelings because my family is Irish and as Irish-Americans we faced those same issues of what the Irish call the troubles. It is a mild word for a long period of killing on both sides of the conflict. Parents and families would teach their children to hate the other side from birth. Children were told horror stories of how family members and friends of the family were murdered by the other side. What they did not tell their children was that some families intermarried with people from the other side. They also did not tell their children that hate would never stop the conflict. You cannot paint the other side of a conflict as demons and expect peace. How could anyone negotiate in good faith with a demon?

Real peace will come to Israel and Palestine, when people stop hating one another and start working together for peace over the objection of many of their own people. Ireland was able to achieve peace and so can the Middle East when men and women of vision understand that hate is not the answer that will lead to a peaceful world for their children.

We all say that we are against war when it comes to the United States but to truly be against war means to work for peace no matter where in the world conflict starts. I am hoping that John Kerry has success in his attempts to get the parties to stop shooting at each other. In the end it will be up to the leaders of Israel and Palestine to find a path to lasting peace. The first step will be to see that the other side is made up of people and not demons. 

Governor Martinez’s Failure Toward Our Children

New Mexico is once again at the bottom of the nation when it comes to child welfare. This year we ranked 49^th in the country. The governor sees this as progress? Our children go hungry. They do not have what they need to be successful in school. Yet where is the governor who promised to put our children first in this state? What is she doing to help our children success in life?

Since Governor Martinez moved into the fourth floor of the round house she has done nothing to help our children. She goes around handing out books as a photo op. and nothing more. She has driven hundreds of educations out of the field in this state. She has screwed up their pension plans. She has placed a unskilled women who knows nothing about teaching in charge of our school system. She is testing our children so much that they don’t know how to think for themselves any longer.

Her agency in charge of making sure children are protected when things go wrong in the home is standing by as children die. Saving money has been more important to her than saving the life of a child. Too often we see the faces of small children on television who were killed by their own parents. One of those children reached out for help only to be told that the people who would late kill him were good people.

Martinez has worked activity to prevent the growth of early childhood education. She prefers to demand punishment at the level of the third grade rather than helping younger children. State Senator Michael Padilla has worked tirelessly to help our child but has been block by the Governor every step of the way.  

Now we are seeing the results of high school testing that prevents our children from graduation. Students are dropping out of middle school and turning to street violence. Low income parents have nowhere to turn for help because of Governor Martinez's budget cuts that only please the Koch brothers.  These children have no hope for a job in our state because not even well educated adults are finding jobs thanks to Martinez’s failure to encourage job growth in our state. Where is the support to help our children succeed with these exams? Where is the campaign to encourage children to stay in school so that they can get a good job? The only thing that the governor has been campaigning for is Vice-President.

We need a real governor in New Mexico that puts the future of our children first.

Who is Nancy Franchini

Nancy Franchini is running for a district court position that was opened up after the primary election. The State Central Committee will vote for to place three candidates on the ballot before the election in November. These candidates will not run against democrats because the positions opened up after the primary. State Law requires that state central committee members choose a person to be appointed to the ballot for those three positions.

Nancy Franchini has practice in the private sector of  law for the past sixteen years. Her practice covered products liability, personal injury, employment, professional liability and other types of law. She has done some volunteer work in mock trials for the local schools. I encourages her along with all candidates to do more educational outreach to the adult community through none partisan groups such as neighborhood associations.  

Nancy Franchini Educational background is a J.D., 1997, University of New Mexico School of Law and a B.S. Business Administration Operations Management, 1994, University of Colorado

Her Professional Memberships & Activities are State Bar of New Mexico, New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission 2011 to present, Commission on Professionalism, Mentor Vetting Committee 2011 to present, New Mexico Board Governing the Recording of Judicial Proceedings 2013 to present, New Mexico Bio-Park Society, Board Member 2013 to present, New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association, President 2011 & 2012, New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association, Executive Board Member 2007-2012, Defense Research Institute, Albuquerque Bar Association, Former Board Member of Membership Services Advisory Committee-State Bar of New Mexico, Former Member of Sandoval County Labor Relations Board, and Former High School Mock Trial Coach

Her other Distinctions include; Super Lawyers-Rising Star-2012 and Ms. Franchini has a “BV/Distinguished Attorney” rating by Martindale-Hubbell.

Nancy Franchini is a polite respectful candidate. She is well liked by the people who know her in the field of law. I have never experienced any type of disrespect from her during the times we were speaking to one another. She has the desire to be a fair and honest judge for the district court. I think she has the temperament to be a good judge for the district court. 

Political Culture of Hate

We see it on the news lately. People are blocking buses with women and children just because they are refugees from another country. Men taking their guns to Target stores just to prove that they can carry them in a public place. Militias are taking guns to the southern border to threaten children refugees who are attempting to cross the border. People holding protest signs in the faces of women outside of abortion clinics. 

Those same people telling women not to kill unborn babies while threatening to kill nurses and doctors. There are parents who call the President of the United States all kinds of hateful names in front of their children because of the color of his skin or where his father came from before he was even born. The conservative right is spreading hate and blaming people who just need help for all kinds of problems in this country.

Now we have teenagers beating and killing homeless people on central. People are beating the homeless, the people who help them, and I am sure it will not be long before the homeless start fighting back even before they are attacked. How long will it be before people start attacking or killing immigrants? Where will the violence end? When does freedom of speech become harmful to our society? We saw a Texas Congressional candidate along with other elected officials harassing a bus full of YMCA children because he mistook them for refugees. To what lengths is this behavior going to encourage young people filled with hate by their parents and political party to attack anyone they disagree with to the point that they will end up killing more people?  

The ability to talk about issues without resorting to violent has become a thing of the past. Party politics has turned into hate groups. Conservative parents are teaching their children to hate people because of their nationality, skin color, sexual orientation, and their social economic status. They are creating a culture of blame. This culture is causing hate crimes.

We must find a way to prevent this from going any further before more people are killed in our city and/or state.        

Democratic Party of New Mexico still not following the State Election Laws

Well this status was written in 1978 but has not been correctly followed by the Democratic Party of New Mexico for as long as I can remember. Now this year it will be enforced by the State Party Chairman to the complete surprise of everyone in the Democratic Party. The rules posted on the state party website had to be changed this year to conform to this state statue which is a law in New Mexico. I feel that this law should be changed during the next legislative session to reflex the practice of the party. Nowhere in the law does it state that only state central committee members for a specific district would appoint a candidate. Although that is how the party worded their changes. This law would allow state central committee members from any district to take part in voting on a district position. As a matter of fact it would require a vote from a majority of the State Central Committee in order to fill the position. This is because no item can be vote on by the State Central Committee unless they have a quote of its members. 

New Mexico State Status:

1-8-8. Vacancy on general election ballot; occurring after primary. 

A.   If after a primary election a vacancy occurs, for any cause, in the list of the nominees of a qualified political party for any public office to be filled in the general election, or a vacancy occurs because of the resignation or death of a person holding a public office not included in the governor's proclamation and which office is required by law to be filled at the next succeeding general election, or a vacancy occurs because a new public office is created and was not included in the governor's proclamation but is capable by law of being filled at the next succeeding general election, the vacancy on the general election ballot may be filled by: 

(1)   the central committee of the state political party filing the name of its nominee for the office with the proper filing officer when the office is a federal office, state office, district office or multicounty legislative district office; and

(2)   the central committee of the county political party filing the name of its nominee for the office with the proper filing officer when the office is a magistrate office, county office or legislative district office where the district is entirely within the boundaries of a single county.

B.   Appointments made pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall qualify pursuant to Section 1-8-18 NMSA 1978.

C.   Appointments to fill vacancies in the list of a party's nominees shall be made and filed at least fifty-six days prior to the general election.

D.   When the name of a nominee is filed as provided in this section, the name shall be placed on the general election ballot as the party's candidate for that office.

Oh, and don't forget people No Proxies by order of the state party chairman. 

Another Power Grab by the New Mexcio Democratic Party Chairman

Since I am on the Bernalillo County Central Committee I checked the rules just a week ago. They clearly stated under a different statement about filling Judicial seats which is now gone from the state party site that County and not state committee members voted for district judges as long as the seat was in one county. But a week later this was posted.

RULE 13. FILLING VACANCIES FOR NOMINEES FOR PUBLIC OFFICE

13-1. Vacancies Filled by State Central Committee. If a vacancy on the general election ballot occurs for a federal, state, district, or multi-county legislative district office, the nominee for the office shall be chosen by a vote of those State Central Committee members from the geographical area corresponding to the jurisdiction of the office that has been vacated. The State Chairperson, as presiding officer of the State Central Committee, shall file the name of the nominee selected for the office with the proper filing officer. (Chap. 1, Article 8, Election Handbook of the State of New Mexico, 2005 Edition.)

13-2. Vacancies Filled by County Central Committee. If a vacancy on the general election   ballot occurs for a magistrate, county, or a legislative district office where such district is entirely within the boundaries of a single county, the nominee for the office shall be chosen by a vote of those County Central Committee members from the geographical area corresponding to the jurisdiction of the office that has been vacated. The County Chairperson, as presiding officer of the County Central Committee, shall file the name of the nominee selected for the office with the proper filing officer. (Chap. 1, Article 8,Paragraphs 7 & 8 Election Handbook of the State of New Mexico, 2009 Edition.)

13-3. Call for a Meeting. A meeting to fill a vacancy according to Rule 13-1 shall be called by the State Chairperson. A meeting to fill a vacancy according to Rule 13-2 shall be called by the County Chairperson.

This is a power grab so that they have more influence over district court judges. Clearly since I was unaware of this change I did not run for state central committee.  `The main reason that  I am on county central committee is because of the court positions. Most if not a major number of the state committee members could care less about the district court positions. They know nothing about how to correctly choose a candidate for those positions. I will encourage voters not to VOTE for anyone appointed to these positions on the ballot if  they agree to support this unethical power grab from county central committee members. I for one did not vote for this change in the rules. Too much power in too few hands is unethical and not democratic! We need judges that serve the people and not a limited number of the party.

Oh, and let's not forget that the chairman has arbitrarily decided that there will be NO proxies.

Carlos F Pacheco Meet and Greet

Carlos F. Pacheco

On a hot Sunday afternoon in mid-July the campaigns for judicial seats are beginning to heat up as candidates attend parties to introduce themselves to the voters and Bernalillo County Central Committee members. Some of the candidates have already won places on the ballot during the party primary and other will be voted on by county central committee members come August 16^th.   

Mr. Pacheco is running for a position on New Mexico’s only Metropolitan Court here in Bernalillo County. I spoke with him about why he wants to be a judge. He expressed the view that he could bring a great deal to the court system by helping to support and develop alternative methods of sentencing.

The old way of just putting people behind bars and not reaching out to the community for support systems is not working in our city any longer. People are being shot by the police because they are out of control and the police are not equipped to handle their issues in a life or dead situation on our city streets. Community and court linked programs like Homeless Court and Healing to Wellness Court are just two ways to assist people in reducing the repeat behaviors that end in a tragic situation.

Other Judicial Candidates

Josh Boone, Nancy Franchini, Marie Ward, Erika Anderson

At Mr. Pacheco afternoon party, I was also able to speak with many other judicial candidates.









New Ideas for how to get judges to interact with the public

I also spoke with Terri Holland who is Ward Chairperson of Ward 19C in Albuquerque. The idea that developed is to encourage judges of both District and Metro Court to get out more and interact with the public. Since judges are not allowed to take part in political activities unless they are running for election, a new method of getting them out has to be developed. The answer lies with the funding that the state provides to judges for speaking.

The suggestion was made and I was encouraged to promote to all the judges in the county and statewide the idea of using non-partisan community organizations such as our neighbor associations to create educational programs that would help the public better understand the court system. Judges could be asked to give lectures or questions and answer courses at the neighbor association meetings during the summer months.  While judges are not allowed to speak to how they would rule on a particular case that does not stop them from explaining the system to the public. It does not stop them from promoting different programs within the court to the public either.

This would allow dialog between judges and the communities so that the public does not feel isolated from their legal system. This could also build a dialog between judges and the community that could develop new ideas to reduce crime in the first place. The issues facing Albuquerque has been developing over the years due to the issues with the Albuquerque Police Department and communication is a key method to solving the problems. Judges set the example and lead the legal community when it comes to how the public is treated.

The voting public should reach out to those individuals and develop a method to bring them out from behind the walls of justice and reintroduce them to the people they serve. Over the past few years the New Mexico State Supreme Court has created rules that reduce the interaction between the public and the judiciary. These rules have caused more harm than was ever foreseen. But we must work with the current rules until people who are more open to interaction between the legal system and the public are elected to those seats. 

American Hatred for Women and Children

You have to wonder how some Americans can so openly display their hate for women and children, while claiming that they are following their Christian beliefs. When did their church teach them to hate thy neighbor? 

You see it in the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court and the treatment of refugees coming from South America. You see it in their hatred of our President for the color of his skin. You see it in the laws that are coming out of a broken legislative system where the rich are more important than starving children in our own country. You see it when states pass laws to take rights of self-determination away from women rather than promoting resources that would help to prevent the circumstances that cause the actions in the first place. You see it in the growth of the sex slavery trade in this country while people just turn a blind eye. You see it in the way victims of rape and incest are blamed for the crime.

The question is when will the men in our country stop hating the women and children in this country? I am not saying that all men are guilty of this hate. The question is when will good men stand up for the rights that they so freely take for granted?  When will people stop demanding that we spend less on the education of our children, while handing more tax breaks to the top one percent of the richest Americans? When will American men start demanding that women be paid at the same rate as men? These issues should outrage good men and drive them into action as it has the women of this country. 

It all comes down to one word “Respect.” 

New Mexico Education Political Football

Governor Martinez sees teachers as lazy and not deserving of their current pay. She attacked educators from day 0 of her administration. With new rules coming out of Washington, where even the President of the United States sends his daughters to high priced private school, the job of teaching is about to become even more difficult. We are about to face major teacher shortages. Our poor educational system is going to hit rock bottom because everyone but teachers has control of the system and the classrooms.

Let’s do to the U.S. Supreme Court what has been done to teachers. We can grade them on their rulings and how happy the public is with their jobs. We can cut their budgets to where they don’t have the support staff or supplies to do their jobs. We can pay them below the market for their type of job and tell them to be happy that they have a job. We can give them an administration to answer to that knows nothing about how to practice law. We can tell them that we can send them to any federal court in the country to preside over a case and that they are not allowed to choose their own cases since they work for the government. After all they work for the government and nowhere in their contract does it say that they only work in Washington D.C.

Now let’s take state legislatures who work in districts and tell them that we will move them to other districts as needed since some state legislators are better qualified than others. We will grade them on how well off their districts are and on the unemployment rate in their district. We will survey all the residents in their district and add the results to their overall work performance job grade. Clearly if their district does not create revenue from income taxes they are doing a poor job and should be graded on that factor. We can cut their state reimbursement if they are rated to be doing a poor job. We can demand that they take an expensive certification exam just to become a legislator. Of course they will have to pay for the printing of any bill they introduce into the legislature and any staff that works for them during the legislature.

If we were to grade Governor Martinez on her job performance over the last four years and link her pay to that grade she would be working to payback her income to the State of New Mexico. Governor Martinez would get an F grade for open honest government, job creation, protecting the state’s environment, employee satisfaction, and financial organization and oversight.     

The Failure of our Legal System

Last weekend was Independence Day. Our forefathers broke with England and created the U.S. Constitution not for corporations or the top one percent of the richest citizens in this country or for that manner this state but to give equal rights to all Americans. Our forefathers envisioned an open, honest, and fair legal system where everyone was treated justly.

Today we have a court system and a police force that fears average everyday citizens. The Legal System should fear normal Americans because they are failing the citizens in this country. Judges do not have to fear creating an impression of impropriety because they have succeed in behaving in a manner that would curl our forefathers toes.

We have judges and justices that refuse to interact with normal citizens while they spend their evenings at high priced events being told how to rule on cases by the top one percent of the population. Judges cheat on their wives, drink to excess, do drugs, and hire prostitutes. Judges and justices lock themselves away behind doors with cameras. Those doors are guarded by armed guards. The people are not allowed any type of recording device yet lawyers and judges are allowed the same devices.  They lie to the public by blaming the upper courts for these changes while they encourage there development in private. Justices for our higher courts are picked from these individuals who have created a system that produces individuals who feel they should be appointed for life so that they are only answerable to the very rich and powerful.

The police see the judges fear and behave in the same manner by shooting people before they can even be tried for a crime. Everyone is considered guilty and not even given a trial. The few people who give up without a fight and quietly give into the system have no chance of getting an honest hearing because of the view of judges. Judges tell their juries what to think and how to decide cases rather than allowing them to depend on their best judgment.  

The only right remaining to the public is to vote for the lower courts judges. Judges would love nothing more than to deprive voters of even this right. Judges tell their friends that the public is too stupid to be able to make an informed choice. Just one more example of how these individuals place themselves above the people they serve. Judges also take the right to give themselves hefty pay raises for their poor behaviors and even the police force give themselves hefty raises for the number of kills they succeed at every year while the America people simply get poorer.

In the end we are a society without justice for all. We are no longer free but enslaved to the rich through the legal system that was originally created to protect and defend our constitutional rights. We see the poor and the young being imprisoned and killed to increase the wealth of the rich.         

Fourth of July (War it is!)

Refugees or Illegal Aliens

Unaccompanied children fleeing from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador because of violence and extortion by gangs in their own countries are crossing in to America in record numbers in hopes of finding safety. There are also women with small children coming across the border in Texas. Now place this event in another country and Americans would be demanding that the country in question find a way to help these children and their mothers. Americans would be outrages at the thought of sending them back into harm’s way just to remove them from the receiving country. The children would not be called illegal aliens but refugees.

The United States of America has a very vocal population that hates anyone that comes into our country from south of our borders. They look down upon these individuals as criminals. In California, angry mobs threatened the safety of mothers and children and their buses had to turn back to prevent harm to the children. Is this the way we want people from around the world to view the people of our country? Where is the compassion from our people that we would expect other countries to show refugees fleeing violence and extortion?

Overcrowding in Texas has forced Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to move children from centers in Texas to other holding facilities while they review the case of each child. Our country is facing a huge humanitarian crisis that will tell the world what type of country we live in and decide our standing for years to come with other countries in the world. Will we be known as the heartless country that turned away women and children refugees and then demanded that other countries around the world open their borders? Is our country the type that would send young children and babies into harm’s way just to placate a few haters? Where is the outrage for the behavior of the mobs in California? What kind of people would harm children just because they are Hispanic?

People in our country should be helping these children by sending clothes, toys, and books. They should be reaching out to let them know that we the greats country in the world will protect them and keep them safe until we can find their family or a home to take them. Our country should be working with the countries from which the children come in order to create a safe stable environment for them to return home. 

U.S. Supreme Court’s War on Woman

Justice Samuel Alito made his views most clear yesterday when he stated that women are not people and therefore have no constitutional rights in this country. His view is the one most conservatives take when it comes to a woman’s right to piracy or self-determination. Justice Alito views women as property, which is owned by men.  

Justice Alito sees women as the enemy in a war to control the direction of this country’s future. He must have had a sad childhood to grow up hating women to the extent that he does. Women have to stand up for their rights because men like Alito will always be present in our society. I see no different in Alito’s stand then that of the Taliban, which views women as property to be used and abused. Justice Alito and the other four male justices do women in this country a major disservice with their views.

The only answer to such behavior that was on display yesterday is to vote in such a way that would remove power for the hands of these men. The court has long held the belief that women are second class citizens in this country. The controlling majority of the Supreme Court thinks that they have the responsibility to put corporation’s interest before those of women in this country. We have placed four justices on the court that do not hold their views and in the future if we want a country that protects the rights of our daughters than we had better elect people to the house and senate that hold the same views. So that when the time comes to replace those justices that we do so with a justice that is willing to acknowledge that women are indeed people.

“We the people…”  Have constitutional rights!