The First Fifteenth-Monthly Review

For the title, I was inspired by the First Third Bank, or whatever that inane name may be that I saw down in Florida. What, there were so many that wanted to be the Third Bank, there was some special honor in coming up with that third-rate name first?

We will aim to make this a monthly review of key developments of the month still recently past (though it is “so two weeks ago”). In doing so, we will aim once more at this blog's original mission of breadth between local and other levels, though just as one must admit the primacy of politics in human affairs (thank you, Aristotle, at least for that insight), one has to accept the focus on the US federal as the objective center of that interest, at least for a American citizen.

Hamas

I have been much troubled by the broad victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections. Among other things, I’ve been upset that I didn’t call it beforehand, publicly: it was there for the taking. The signs were clear, the most indicative being the rebellion over the Fatah official list by an upstart group. That kind of behavior tells you, this is a political organization that’s heading for a severe beating on election day. Also, when the guy who heads your list is serving a life sentence in a foreign prison; that could make it difficult to respond to a dynamic and unstable political environment.

All who accept basic principles of democracy must first acknowledge that the result is a legitimate, free choice, albeit conditioned by a variety of difficult local circumstances. Not only that, but a mature choice: there is every reason to think the Palestinian electorate chose the organization which has the greatest capability to address their aspirations. The issue of Palestinians' supporting Hamas at this juncture is entirely one of foreign affairs--including the group's support for the nasty practice of suicide bombing against Israeli civilians.

Hamas, for its part, is trying to be both a responsible player on the regional stage and true to its fundamentalist principles—in other words, trying to bridge an enormous chasm. Yasir’s death has taken the veil off the rot of the Fatah’s administration of the Palestinan “state”, such as Israel allows it to be. It now seems that Hamas may be a little reluctant to take operate the pseudopod "organs" of the pseudo-state headed by the Palestinian Authority, and would prefer to use its own channels to provide social services, its core strength area.

Readers here will note that, like yours truly, Hamas rejects the “two states” principle, so I think their ultimate recognition of the simple fact that Israel is an earthly reality that they can not imagine away (the minimum for US negotiation with them) will retain rejection of permanent separation as the ultimate goal. With that disavowal of Levantine Apartheid, I will have to agree! Further, I don’t think that stance is or should be a show-stopper for the US in its evaluation of Hamas’ status as a terrorist organization. That will depend whether the Hamas leaders can find reasons to extend the truce on suicide bombings and make it stick.

The situation is propitious for Hamas to wheel and deal, because their main alternative sponsor, other than the West, is Iran. This in itself will make the Bushites more cautious than they would normally in putting Hamas beyond the pale.

In the longer run, though, I don’t see the Hamas leaders being willing to drop their concept that the ultimate Palestinian state would be an Islamic one, thus leaving room for Jews and Christians to live among them with inferior status. Your basic non-starter for Israel, strategically, and it will essentially take Hamas out of any negotiations on "the roadmap", though not out of discussions on security, on Sharon's Wall, etc.

Thus, I think their historical role will be as the foil, to the renewed challenge that will come from those who would make a Palestinian unitary state more of a secular and modern one. That could even be a rejuvenated Fatah.

NSA Domestic Electronic Eavesdropping
Naturally, I feel this is much more important than something like, Who’s a Bram? When you talk about the Tyranny of Bushite Misrule, this is Ground Zero. (The Tyranny of Bushite Misrule, or “TBMR”, something like the banner the ancient Roman legions used to carry with "SPQR": I have a vision of our legions marching under that standard, of having it inscribed in public places built during the Bushite Era—the new levees in New Orleans?)

OK, I will grant that the unencrypted cellular transmissions were Out There, waiting to be harvested electronically. So, it’s not like they’re searching your drawers, your thoughts, or your public library book rental. All right, it is like that last one, which is also Out There, and which we got courtesy of the original-and-still-unmodified PATRIOT Act, particularly like it in the part about potentially providing utterly useless information by the firehose streamful.

The point is, the Bushites disregarded the law, and did it intentionally. They expected that their cloud of legal obfuscation would protect them when the secret got out. That turns out to be the easy part to sweep aside. The real questions are those of whether their act, despite being contrary to statute and legislative intent, is criminal; and whether the objections of convenience they have raised to following the legally-specified procedures merit any change in the law. Particularly since the Bushites didn't feel obligated to observe them in the first place.

Now we have Scooter Liddy (sorry, Libby) saying that Cheney told him he was “authorized by superiors” to go out there and get nasty with opponents of the Iraq war. Ever forward with the TBMR!

The New Mexico State Senate...

Has passed a statute allowing medicinal marijuana to be provided to those patients who can get proper medical support for the contention that their condition is one addressable with marijuana, the weed to be supplied by state-approved gardeners.

The White House sent a representative to tell them that they were getting it all wrong, that there is no medicinal need for the hooch, that the Supreme Court has backed the Feds’ right to crash the local party if it gets too wild. The legislators were not impressed, and they told him so-uh-uh-oh.

A lot of political hay has been laid up on the argument that medicinal marijuana is a Trojan horse, or a stalking horse, or some other kind of drug-bearing equine quadruped. The fact that acknowledged drug users might want their fellow humans to have the sweet relief of intoxication to ease their illness-driven pangs of discomfort does not seem to me to be an adequate argument to deny the sick their surcease. Still, the proponents have to lay down a firm line that this bill will not help “the dopers”.

If we consider Their side for a moment, "hypothetically" (as the pathetic legal BAG-man, Bram Alberto Gonzalez, said to Sen. Feingold), even stoners can figure out that there is a dog out there that needs to bark. Anything that can normalize the 1920's- era, Demon Weed/Reefer Madness concept that is underlying current law is a step in the right direction.

Update: the bill was tabled by a House Committee, to the delight of the state constabulary.

Bobby Duran, No Mas

In Taos, it appears to be a watershed election with political control truly at stake.

The key race is that for mayor. Though the mayor’s position has limited actual governing leverage beyond the ceremonial—basically as a Dick Cheney-type presiding-officer vote when the four-person council splits evenly—the identity of the person chosen to be the symbol of the town will here be very significant.

Bobby Duran, the mayor by appointment, represents the old regime, and his statements in the debate are full of defensive awareness of his association. If he were more astute as a politician, he would have a better alibi, as he has not been "in charge" (as the City Manager's office allows the elected mayor to claim) for so long. The problem is, he’s been around the whole time, so at least he’s complicit in the more egregious realities the town faces (excessive budget surplus with severe deficits in security, safety, transportation, and education).

Gene Sanchez is definitely the Clean Gene (in homage to the late Sen. McCarthy) candidate of the mayoral race; he narrowly won a council seat two years ago as an upstart and has stubbornly resisted co-optation. Which makes him “not a team player”. The amazing thing is that he has all the credentials of a typical local consensus-driven candidate: born and raised Taoseno of Hispanic descent, father a former mayor, long-time businessman, etc. His issue positions, from which he never strays, are responsible but not exciting. It's his willingness to declaim the reality of the local deal gone down with the city manager, the bureaucratic elite, and the local constabulary which makes him stimulating to those of us on the fringes, and unnerving to those at the center of local “power”.

The two city council seats up for election will provide a decisive local political force, if they are aligned with the winner of the mayoral race. There are seven candidates, and there are several possibilities, but it would seem to me that the seats will go to Darren Cordova and Rudy Abeyta. Cordova is a mover and shaker in the Hispanic majority community, and for those like me, he recently opened up Air America on AM radio. Abeyta seems a bit of a crypto-Republican (though not a Bushite), but he’s also the most articulate and direct of the candidates, almost beat Sanchez for the council seat two years ago, and has successfully moderated his positions.

The wild card is the upstart candidacy of a Czech-American realtor/developer, Pavel Lukes, who has campaigned aggressively and outspokenly. His presence in the race brings the local 600-pound gorilla into the campaign when it might not otherwise have done, that of real estate development and its implications for longer-term town planning. Though he supports Gene Sanchez implicitly, the polarization between the (still) majority against aggressive development and the modernizers which Lukes’ candidacy drives may hurt Sanchez in the election. This is the only real problem I have with Pavel: I agree with most of his positions, which he expresses more clearly than most.

Bottom line prediction is that Cordova and Abeyta will find it easy to line up with Gene Sanchez after he pulls off a narrow victory, which will lead to some dramatic changes in the local government. On the other hand, if Duran gets the OK for one more round, little will change no matter who wins the council posts.

Valle Vidal

There's a beautiful area near here by that name, part of the Carson National Forest, that has been the subject of an intense battle of words and evocative nature photography, pitting environmentalists against Bushites and their associated Brams. The area is an untouched natural mountain paradise, but the drilling fraternity has decided it might well contain large quantities of natural gas. So, like ANWR, the question is to drill or not to drill.

Also like ANWR, the feeling is that, once violated by the drillers, the pristine nature of the place will be gone forever. So, the effort of the environmentalists is not just to block immediate development, but to put it forever beyond the reach of the oilmen. Senator Bingaman, Gov. Richardson, and local Congressman Tom Udall have all endorsed that objective, though there is still some debate about the best tactics to achieve it. Sen. Domenici, who reliably votes as a Bram though always with some appropriate moralistic posturing, and moderate Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson (facing a tough re-election challenge in her Albuquerque district this year) have both taken more nuanced positions. They love the spot, don't insist in tearing it up right away, but want to keep their options open.

Now comes news of a clever deal worked out between the gas drillers, El Paso Corp., the Vermejo Ranch owned by Ted Turner, and the federal Bureau of Land Management. Turner's ranch already has gas drilling, which supposedly has been done in a novel, exemplary manner to minimize the visual disruption of the gas drilling.

The plan now is to put new sites at the border of Turner's ranch and the National Forest land. That way, they can get at the gas believed under Valle Vidal without drilling in the National Forest itself. Because it is believed that gas will thus be taken from under the federal lands, royalties from these sites will be paid to the state and federal governments.

Some environmentalists have protested, cheated of what they saw as a sure political victory. I can't say that they have anything to bitch about, presuming that the solution is legal. Though I believe that leaving it in the ground is almost always wise for all concerned (the value can only increase), this seems to be a way to put the issue to rest more definitively (if it is combined with permanent protection for the National Forest land). The drillers will either get their gas, or they will satisfy themselves that there is none. The National Forest land should end up being preserved, and the sites themselves should be held to the same standard of being inobtrusive that prevails elsewhere on Vermejo.