Anybody but Marty

We've been watching with some amusement as the liberal side of the blogosphere has been working itself into a lather over the Almighty Mayor's senatorial campaign. Of course their dreeeam candidate is busy trying to become Hillary's Veeep as he sees his presidential aspirations slipping away (Heath Haussamen).

His Largeness in Santa Fe (or Iowa, or New Hampshire, or Nevada) is seen as a sure thing if he were to jump into the senate race and the SurveyUSA poll conducted for KOB-TV earlier in the month seems to support that idea. However, "progressives" and the blog left aren't taking any chances and have started a Draft Udall campaign that is complete with a Draft Udall website.

Meanwhile Marty and company are busy trying to tout a poll that was supposedly conducted for former CD1 candidate Patricia Madrid by Lake Research. Chavez's people claim that the poll shows Chavez edging out Heather Wilson by 1 point (Democracy for New Mexico).

"Celinda Lake of Lake Research is the Chavez campaign's polling consultant (see our previous post), so even these selective data should be taken with a grain of salt. But the real question is why the complete polling results haven't been released."

- Democracy for New Mexico

For those of you who don't already know Democracy for New Mexico would be considered a little left of Mao and a bastion of "progressive" thought (or lack thereof). More importantly they embrace Democrat candidates as a matter of course.

(Sidebar)
In our opinion the website would be more appropriately named New Mexico for Democrats because democracy and freedom have nothing to do with their positions or the candidates they endorse... but we digress.
(End Sidebar)

The point is this "progressive" website is shall we say, less than enthused about the chief Martycrat running for U.S. Senate, despite (or perhaps because of) his official registration as a Democrat. This is precisely the group that the Almighty Mayor has been wooing with his green city initiatives and his indoctrination... uh, "training" flick "An Inconvenience to Albuquerque (city employees)."

"Unfortunately for Chavez, in recent SurveyUSA polling, Chavez has far less support than either Wilson or Pearce. Largely due to the fact that many progressive Democrats just don't trust the Mayor."

-NMFBIHOP.com

Despite sounding like a cross between federal law enforcement and a breakfast restaurant, NMFBIHOP is another way left of center blog. They too seem to have big problems with Marty and are actively advocating a Udall candidacy.

From what we've read, the issue comes down to trust. Progressive Democrats don't trust that Marty is really one of them and they're afraid (with good reason) that if the mayor of Albuquerque were to prevail in the Democrat primary, he'd turn around and lose to either of the major Republican candidates. Even more troubling for the "progressives" is their suspicion that if Chavez were to somehow win the Senate race, that he'd turn around and ignore them the way he has for most of his time as Mayor of Albuquerque.

Bottom of the Barrel

Albuquerque is becoming known for rising crime rates, insufficient APD manpower, and over specialization of the APD officers that are on the pay roll. The result has been increasing pressure by citizens, politicians and your ever lovable Eye to increase the number of sworn officers out there protecting us. The mayor's and APD's response has been to fudge the numbers and lower the standards.

You've probably heard about the rape allegations against officer David Maes (ABQ Journal - Subscription). We all remember the recent trial of fired APD Officer Timothy Chavez whose trial ended in a mistrial and Attorney General Gary King has since decided not to re-file the charges (ABQ Journal - Subscription). For the uninitiated, a mistrial means that the jury failed to reach agreement on the charges brought by the state and the defendant is free to go unless the DA decides to re-try the case.

A story that has not made the papers is the story of Officer Levi Chavez. Chavez is a lateral officer from the Los Lunas Police Department. According to our eyes officer Chavez's wife discovered that her husband was having an affair. Tragically, her response was to take her own life.

Normally we wouldn't be talking about a suicide. It's always a shame when someone takes their own life and we apologize for even bringing it up. However according to our Eyes, Mrs. Chavez's untimely death lead to an investigation and an authorized search of the Chavez residence; a search that uncovered a substantial amount of marijuana and the paraphernalia required to make use of the afore mentioned illegal substance.

Of course Officer Chavez denies knowing anything about the stash and you can guess who he threw under the bus. We hasten to remind you that everyone even police officers, are innocent until proven guilty and we really hope that APD's badges aren't being used to hide some fairly despicable individuals. We also firmly believe that most sworn officers at APD are honest, hard-working, and most importantly honorable.

However, we're concerned that we continue to hear allegations of rape, drug possession, and theft (remember the Evidence Room) and the allegations involve the very people that have sworn to protect the rest of us from rapists, drug dealers, and thieves.

The Eyes have it that the allegations against Officer Maes aren't the first indications of problems with the officer. In fact, we're told that there were even problems with his pre-hire polygraph. Similarly, our Eyes tell us that when APD in essence raided the Los Lunas Police Department, they managed to scoop up some officers from a department that didn't exactly have a sterling law enforcement reputation.

It's true... we need more officers ON THE STREET. (Nothing prevents crime better than seeing officers early and often.) But it seems as if APD is simply looking for someone with a pulse to put behind a badge in order to reach the magic number of 1100 officers. In other words they're willing to accept officers from the bottom of the barrel; that's not good for the department and it's not good for the city.

Here's a suggestion, treat the officers you have well. Reward them for their service and for working hard. And most importantly, pay them to do a job that is hard enough without having to wade through the river of political crap that seems to flow incessantly from the 5th floor.

Eye Poll: Blowout Heather

In what turned into a blowout, Congresswoman Heather Wilson blew out her competition in this past week's Eye Poll. In our unscientific poll Wilson received 51%, Martin Chavez 29%, and rounding out the poll with 20% is Congressman Steve Pearce (See the results here).

Granted Congressman Pearce has not officially announced and we didn't include the lower tier Democrat candidates, but we were surprised by the 22 point margin tilting Heather's way. It will be interesting to see how events unfold as the Republican candidates head into a primary for Pete's seat.

On the D side, our Eyes tell us that Democrats are putting tremendous pressure on Congressman Tom Udall to take on Marty in their primary. We're also told that His Largeness courteously introduced Mayor Chavez at his first New Mexico presidential rally as the Mayor of Albuquerque; notably omitting Chavez's senate bid even though he's the only major candidate to have announced for the Democrats.

This week we'll take an early look at the 1st Congressional District race. We've included all of the candidates that have committed to the race thus far. Don't forget to vote!

Kirby Case Connection?

We've been scratching our head over this whole Kirby grand jury thing since last night. It seemed strange that suddenly some 14 months after the Daskalos DWI Dash occurred, a grand jury would be impaneled to investigate charges of conspiracy and tampering with public records.

Some time back we heard that former Officer Kirby was considering suing the city in order to get his job back. As it happens Mr. Kirby filed suit in District Court September 5th naming as defendants the City of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Police Department, and the City of Albuquerque Personnel Board (you can find the filing at nmcourts.com or by clicking here.)

Could this grand jury thing and the civil suit filed by Mr. Kirby be connected? Being of a somewhat suspicious nature it's pretty easy for us to connect the dots. There's an old saying "the best defense is a good offense." What could be more offensive than an indictment? Sure would make it difficult to get your law enforcement gig back if you're on trial for breaking the law.

Daskalos Files: Target Kirby

Just as we thought we'd heard the last of Albuquerque's most famous developer/amateur race car driver/playboy, up pops a domestic violence allegation. Now the fallout from the infamous Daskalos DWI debacle continues.

If you will remember, Daskalos was sprung from the DWI paddy wagon by an off duty officer while awaiting transport to the west side jail. When the developer was found missing by on-duty officers, somehow the officer that removed Daskalos was contacted resulting in a return trip to the paddy wagon (ABQ Journal - Subscription). The officer in question turned out to be Officer Ben Kirby.

Kirby was ultimately fired for his role in Daskalos' little side trip. Now our Eyes tell us that Kirby is the target of a grand jury investigation; specifically containing allegations of conspiracy and tampering with public records.

The Daskalos arrest and subsequent joy ride with officer Kirby happened well over a year ago. Since that time, Daskalos has gotten a pass by a jury of his peers and our Eyes tell us that Kirby is out of state looking for a new life and employment.

Look, we're for prosecuting evildoers and criminals as much as the next Eye, but the move to impanel a grand jury over a year after the fact has us scratching our head and wondering what took DA Brandenburg so long. What is more interesting is the allegation of conspiracy.

con·spir·a·cy (kn-spîr-s)

n. pl. con·spir·a·cies

1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.

2. A group of conspirators.

3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.

4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.

Look, we're not an attorney but we're pretty sure that no matter how you define conspiracy, there's a basic requirement that someone else be involved. Originally, Chief Schultz played this as if Kirby and Daskalos were friends and that officer Kirby acted alone (ABQ Journal - Subscription). Now we're hearing talk of conspiracy which leads to the obvious question... who are the conspirators?

This wouldn't be the first time that we've heard of special treatment for "special" people. Back in April we told you the story of retired AFD Captain Ralph Ortega. Ortega, the brother of AFD Chief Robert Ortega was allegedly given preferential treatment when he was personally escorted to the west side jail by an on-duty DWI officer despite the availability of a transport from the Prisoner Transport Center (read about it here). According to our Eyes the order to provide the AFD Chief's brother came from Chief Schultz and former public safety czar Nick Bakas. Could someone other than Kirby and Daskalos be involved here?

We don't know whether or not the grand jury will hand down an indictment and we certainly can't predict the contents of an indictment that doesn't yet exist. However, we can't wait to find out who the alleged conspiracy includes. Looks like there may be even more entries in the Daskalos Files.

Political Dominoes Continue to Fall

The chain reaction started by the retirement of New Mexico's senior Senator Pete Domenici continues as the political dominoes fall. Our Eyes have been telling us for some time that County Commissioner Michael Brasher had been looking into running for the Public Regulatory Commission against current commissioner Jason Marks.

The left leaning Marks has been seen as vulnerable due to the more conservative make-up of the district he represents. Now the Eyes have it that Commissioner Brasher is almost 90% sure not to run for the seat. The move clears the field for another Republican, UNM Professor Alan Reed. Dr. Reed has been looking into a run for a few months and now seems to be the only Republican interested in taking on the incumbent Marks.

You're probably wondering exactly what this has to do with Senator Domenici... Nothing at first glance, however Marty's jump at the Senate seat has created a number of interesting possibilities for someone whose whole political career has been spent in Albuquerque politics either as a city councilor or as a county commissioner. Albuquerque's Mighty Mayor, should he gain the U.S. Senate would leave Albuquerque without a mayor. Should he fail in his Senate bid, Marty would undoubtedly be damaged politically by a campaign that is sure to be brutal (and we wouldn't have it any other way).

In either case, it's likely that the mayor's race in Albuquerque will be for an open seat as Marty would first have to fight a legal battle to overturn the city charter's term limits and then begin his campaign (which would probably end up being on our dime thanks to the Albuquerque Open and Un-Ethical Elections Law because he'll almost surely have tapped everyone of his supporters for every spare dime). Needless to say his honor would face more than one challenge should his senate bid fail.

Speaking of Marty's Senate bid... our Eyes tell us that Democrats have been furiously looking for someone to run against Albuquerque's Martycrat mayor. While we believe that most of the pressure is being exerted on His Largeness in Santa Fe (or at least that's where his governor's office is), we're not sure that Bill would like to end up in the relative obscurity of the U.S. Senate. After all, there are 100 Senators and only 50 Governors.

One of the names that has been floated as a possible primary opponent for the Almighty Mayor (besides the previously announced Don Wiviott) has a familiar sound to it - Brasher. No, not the afore mentioned county commissioner, his brother Lance Brasher. While they share a last name, they don't share a political party. You see Lance Brasher is an international attorney and a Democrat; who received an appointment to the Naval Academy from none other than Pete Domenici. Lance also shares his family's deep roots; a family that arrived some three and a half minutes after Albuquerque was settled (or so we're told anyway).

No matter how you slice it, it's clear the Democrats don't like the idea of the chief Martycrat being the only top tier candidate in their primary. We'll be looking for more names to surface until the Guv returns from his presidential foray in February either with a cabinet position, a senate announcement, or a decision to remain New Mexico's Governor.

-----Correction-----
We were rightly chastised for mis-spelling Public Regulatory Commissioner Jason Marks last name. We originally spelled his last name Marx... Perhaps a Freudian slip but (at least in this case) it was unintentional. We have corrected the mistake above. We'll let our readers decide which spelling is more accurate.

Eye Poll: Unsafe

After a two week Eye Poll we found unlike APD's Chief of Police Ray Schultz, at least Eye readers do not feel safe here in Albuquerque. Out of 340 votes in our unscientific poll 42% felt absolutely unsafe, another 26% felt somewhat unsafe, 24% felt pretty safe, and only 8% felt absolutely safe. (See the results here.)

It's not a good sign for mayor and senatorial candidate Chavez when 68% when over two thirds of any polled group feels that his city is unsafe. Now you might say that it's really APD's fault that the general perception here in Albuquerque is that we are all unsafe. However, the mayor hires the Chief of Police who his in essence an at will employee working directly for the mayor. That's fine by us as long as the blame for any problems over at APD are placed at the feet of the one who chose the chief; which for far too long has not been the case here in Albuquerque.

This week we're going to take a look at a question that affects the entire state not just Albuquerque - the United States Senate race. Now before anyone sends us emails about how we're not including all of the candidates who have announced for senate, realize that no major contenders were running before Senator Domenici announced his retirement. The candidates included here can be considered major contenders. Don't forget to vote!

State of New Mexico vs. Jason Daskalos

You probably remember Jason Daskalos from his recent brush with the law when the prominent Albuquerque developer and amateur race car driver was accused of DWI (ABQ Journal - Subscription). Daskalos was ultimately cleared of all charges stemming from the 2006 incident (ABQ Journal - Subscription).

It's a good thing that Mr. Daskalos is a wealthy individual because he's may find himself back in court again, this time on domestic violence charges. A criminal complaint has been filed against the fast driving (and apparently fast living) Daskalos alleging battery against a household member (read the Metro Court case activity here).

According to the criminal complaint, Daskalos and his friend Jason (whose last name is unknown) got into a verbal confrontation at a local bar. The victim, Chrystal Buzzard tried to intervene in the argument and allegedly got shoved to the ground by the defendant (Daskalos). Apparently, the three left the bar and headed over to "Jason's house" (we assume the friend of Daskalos not Daskalos himself) where they resumed the evening's main event with Ms. Buzzard ringside. The complainant tried to intervene a second time in the continuation of the argument where the defendant allegedly pulled Ms. Buzzard's hair and punched her in the face.

Officer C.D. Baker took the complaint from Ms. Buzzard and was able to reach Mr. Daskalos in order to arrange for him to return to we believe, Ms. Buzzard's residence in order to give the officer his side of the story. According to the complaint, Mr. Daskalos failed to return and could not be located by the end of Officer Baker's shift in order for him to take Daskalos' statement. The result is a Criminal Complaint and a Summons for Jason Daskalos.

First of all let's remember that Daskalos despite his numerous brushes with the law and his amazing propensity for finding himself in Metro Court is innocent until proven guilty. Second, it's not unusual for the victims of domestic violence to shall we say, forget to show up in court; resulting in a dismissal. However, there are a couple of troubling aspects to these allegations particularly if you happen to be Mr. Daskalos' wife.

The bar where this whole thing allegedly started is located at 6001 Brentwood Ln. NE. The business at that address is TD's North - a local strip club. More troubling is the nature of the charge, Battery Against a Household Member. Our Eyes tell us that the 26 year old Ms. Buzzard is not Mr. Daskalos' wife, but in order to be charged with Battery Against a Household Member there has to be an established relationship between the two parties. When you put two and two together, it's easy to assume that Ms. Buzzard is Mr. Daskalos' girlfriend.

Why is any of this important to anyone other than the parties involved? Mr. Daskalos has a long history of using his political influence and personal connections to make his traffic violations go away (ABQ Journal - Subscription). Daskalos' DWI charges resulted in an investigation that revealed 20 of his 36 traffic citations had been dismissed and resulted in the resignation of city attorney Ellen Argyres, and the firing of officer Ben Kirby. He clearly has very little regard for those who are harmed by trying to help him out of a tough spot. We would hope those who might be tempted to bend the rules in his favor and for his favor remember that.

In addition, Domestic violence carries its own unique stigma and considering Mr. Daskalos' history and willingness to use his political influence to get himself out of trouble, it would be incumbent upon the successful developer to put pressure on everyone from DA's to judges in order to make this thing go away. Frankly, we're not willing to just let that happen.

It's more than likely that should this go to trial, Ms. Buzzard will not show up; it happens a lot and certainly wouldn't be unusual for domestic violence cases. But we believe that it's important for everyone to bound equally by the law, despite their political connections or lack thereof. Mr. Daskalos' alleged actions are part of the public record, he has retained an attorney and the legal process should continue without interference from outside parties whose only interest is to see their friend and benefactor kept out of the hooskow.

----- UPDATE -----
Our Eyes tell us that this post had the powers that be up on APD's 5th floor spittin' nails on Friday. We wonder... since the allegation is part of the public record and since Mr. Daskalos is just another citizen, why would the revelation of these allegations bother anyone at APD? That is of course, assuming that the mayor and 5th floor didn't have other plans like say... making the charges disappear.

Speaking of public records, we found out that one of our deep links to the Metro Court case look up system isn't functioning properly. We've made a change to the link so hopefully it will work but just in case it doesn't, here's how to find the information:

1. Go to this link: http://www.metrocourt.state.nm.us/casemanagement/
2. In the field marked Name of Defendant enter: Daskalos Jason [No comma]
3. Click on Search
4. You'll need to scroll past the other 42 misdemeanor charges to the one marked DV416407. (Yes you read that right - 42 other misdemeanor charges most of which are traffic violations.)

Bad Timing

It was just five months ago that the Duke City Fixes Johnny Mango was waxing poetic about The Almighty Mayor suggesting that he would be the perfect opponent Heather Wilson; who was still running for Congress at the time (read it here).

"Chavez is enormously popular in Albuquerque, and this city is basically Heather Wilson's U.S. House district. In fact, he is probably better known and more popular than Wilson herself...even now...a year and a half before the election."

- DukeCityFix.com

A lot has changed in these past months. Ok... not really but the perception of Senate candidate Chavez has certainly begun to change as his mayoral shenanigans and administrative failures have come to light. Since the Duke City Fix provided a list of reasons why Marty should run, we'll provide a short list of reasons why he shouldn't.

1. FBI crime statistics indicate that Albuquerque is one of the most dangerous of 349 cities in the nation (ABQ Journal - Subscription).

2. Chavez created a defacto sanctuary city through APD's Standard Operational Procedure.

3. Voters rejected every single one of the Almighty One's city council candidates; proving the mayor may not even have a coat much less coattails.

4. The APOA's expensive full page ad revealing that APD only has 900 sworn officers, despite repeated mayoral claims and promises of close to 1,100.

5. Marty's red light scam-era program is taking in huge amounts of profit; as much as $11.4 MILLION. Of course the spinner in chief tried to make us feel better by calling the profit "excess money" (ABQ Journal - Subscription); profit subsequently dumped into the city's general fund not used for public safety as promised (ABQ Journal - Subscription).

To make matters worse, the city council and long time ally Councilor Mayer are in open rebellion rejecting the mayor's reorganization of the city's Animal Control department (ABQ Journal - Subscription).

The irony here is that The Almighty One has done most of the damage to his political future without the help of a determined political foe. You can be sure that whoever the Republican nominee ends up being (Heather Wilson or Steve Pearce) all of these recent foibles will come to the fore; that is assuming that a Democrat doesn't use them to destroy the mayor in the Democrat primary.

One of the most important aspects of any campaign is timing and Marty couldn't have picked a worse time to run for a higher statewide office (unless of course he was under indictment). No matter how this Senate thing shakes out, this next campaign season is going to be the most interesting in recent memory.

An Inconvenient Mandate

By now most of you have probably heard about the mandate from the Almighty Mayor that all city employees are going to be required to see "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's Oscar winning movie on global warming. The Eyes have it that the 2 hour presentation will feature a video taped intro by none other than the Napoleon of the 11th floor and recently announced candidate for U.S. Senate, Martin Chavez.

The movie has made Al Gore somewhat of a celebrity in Hollywood circles and made him a folk hero to the environmentalist movement. More importantly, "An Inconvenient Truth" has become the focus of the global warming political movement.

There's considerable debate about global warming with supporters trying to pass off their "consensus" as scientific fact. We would hasten to remind you that Columbus once faced a similar group of scientists whose consensus was that the world was flat. Galileo was considered a heretic by theologians and scientists who claimed that the sun revolved around the earth. Experience and empirical data later proved both men right and who knows perhaps Gores apocalyptic vision of the future will come to pass silencing his critics. To date, scientific "consensus" is based on an incomplete picture made up primarily of anecdotal evidence.

It really doesn't matter whether or not you believe in global warming and man's implicit responsibility or not; Global Warming has become a political article of faith and "An Inconvenient Truth" its premiere propaganda flick. Even if you are a true believer in Global Warming, it's hard to argue that mandated viewing of Al Gore's movie could be considered "training" for city employees; indoctrination perhaps, but not training.

What this indoctrination... uhhh, "training" is really about is Marty's race for Senate. Compelling 6500 city workers to view Al Gore's movie looks pretty good to environmentalists; a group that Marty has spent the last couple of years wooing for his recently abandoned (at least for now) run for governor. Historically, The Almighty One has had a difficult time with the far left of the Democratic Party because he has been associated with the greedy, evil developers. Environmentalist Marty only arrived on the scene when his political aspirations required that he pander to the more liberal elements of his party.

Forcing firemen, security guards, administrators, zoning officials, and police officers to waste their time watching a propaganda film is at the very least a waste of taxpayer money. At worst it's using taxpayer money to campaign for Senate; which would be a violation of federal election law.

Considering the lack of police on our streets and our deplorable crime rate, Mayor Marty's reprehensible political pandering is more than just an inconvenient mandate; it could actually put the citizens of Albuquerque in danger.

There's a New Sheriff in Town - Or at Least in the Race

Last week Councilor Martin Heinrich looked like he had caught lightening in a bottle when his incumbent opponent Heather Wilson opted to go after the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Pete Domenici. As expected, the earth shattering announcement by Senator Domenici is continuing to send after shocks throughout the New Mexico political scene and right here in Eyeland.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has announced he will enter the race for Congress. White is one of the rising stars on the Republican side of the political scene and has been mentioned for other jobs like mayor and governor. He would make a formidable opponent for any Democrat much less a little known single term councilor from Albuquerque's district 4.

Of course both men face primary's and could see a challenge from within their parties. Over on the R side of the isle state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones is said to be considering a run; a run that could very well be over now that the better known White is in the race.

It will be interesting to see if any other Democrat decides to give Heinrich a challenge in the Democratic primary now that White is in the race. Since Attorney General Patricia Madrid was sent packing by Heather Wilson in an election year that saw a tidal wave of anti-Republican sentiment, Heinrich has been seen as a young, far left long shot against the incumbent Wilson unless he happened to catch lightening in a bottle; which he appeared to do last week.

Should White prevail in a Republican primary, he is the Democrat's worst nightmare because he is well known, young, and talented politician and unlike Heinrich, he's got no voting record to tie around his neck. You can tell how scared the Ds are of White because yesterday (read it here) they started trying to associate White with the perfectly proper (and damn necessary) firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

(Sidebar)
It's amazing how far political groups like Democracy for New Mexico will try to stretch a "controversy." In this case, a controversy that isn't controversial. Don't be surprised if they try to tie every major Republican to the Iglesias firing.
(End Sidebar)

The shake up continues and more after shocks are sure to be felt as politicians move to fill the void created by Domenici's retirement. Next year promises to be one of the most interesting and exciting election years in recent history, with a whole new crop of people and ideas entering the fray. Last week Councilor Heinrich may have caught lightening in a bottle, but the accompanying thunder may just shatter his Congressional dreams.

Crossing the Line

Little Brother Blocking and Listening

Information is power; every dictator in history has recognized the truth of that statement. The Soviets controlled all of their media outlets in order to control the flow of information and ideas. The Nazis burned books and produced propaganda films like "Triumph Des Willins" (Triumph of the Will). The Communist Chinese restrict access to the Internet in order to "protect" their populations from subversive ideas.

On Monday we started receiving emails that indicated that eyeonalbuquerque.com was no longer available on city owned computers. At first we thought it was probably a snafu and that there was some temporary problem that would be cleared up shortly or would work itself out as these things often inexplicably do when the Internet is involved.

In order to be thorough, we decided to run it by our Eyes. Lo and behold our Eyes confirmed that the emails and posts we received seemed to be accurate. City employees using city gateways and computers were no longer able to reach The Eye at eyeonalbuquerque.com.

This clicked with some other rumors that we had been hearing about the wiretapping of city phones. Our Eyes have been hearing that in addition to blocking out the ever-lovable Eye, city officials (our guess would be with the Almighty Marty's approval) are listening in on conversations of city employees on city phones.

According to our Eyes, both Councilor Sally Mayer and APD Captain Conrad Candelaria have confronted CAO, Bruce Pearlman (of ABQ PAC fame) with these allegations. Of course Mr. Pearlman denied any such activity - which we would expect even if the allegations were true.

Look, the city has absolutely no obligation to provide access to Eye On Albuquerque. Since they own the gateways and have administrative authority over every city employee, there's nothing illegal about blocking access to a website. However if the rumors are true, the city could be looking at criminal charges for anyone involved with listening in to conversations without first obtaining a warrant to do so.

"The Federal Wiretap Act, sometimes referred to as Title III, was adopted in 1968 and expanded in 1986. It sets procedures for court authorization of real-time surveillance of all kinds of electronic communications, including voice, e-mail, fax, and Internet, in criminal investigations. It normally requires, before a wiretap can commence, a court order issued by a judge who must conclude, based on an affidavit submitted by the government, that there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed. Terrorist bombings, hijackings and other violent activities are crimes for which wiretaps can be ordered. (The PATRIOT Act expanded the list of criminal statutes for which wiretaps can be ordered.) This authority is used to prevent as well as punish crimes: government can wiretap in advance of a crime being carried out, where the wiretap is used to identify planning and conspiratorial activities. Judges almost never deny government requests for wiretap orders."

- Center for Democracy & Technology

It concerns us that the city may be attempting to control or monitor information; some of which is protected by law. If true, those involved are engaging in activities that are not only illegal but most feared by our founding fathers.

Tyranny, repression, subjugation, absence of liberty, are all kept at bay by the free flow of information and the ability to communicate confidentially. If it's happening here at city hall, we'd suspect that the Almighty Mayor knows about it. Even if he doesn't, it may be happening on his watch. Is this really the type Senator that New Mexico can afford to have?

900

No... it's not a new movie about the Persian invasion of Greece; it's the number of sworn officers that the Albuquerque Police Officers Association (APOA) claims are on the force at APD. That number doesn't mean that all of them are out there on the streets keeping us safe or even available to come to our aid should we be unfortunate enough to need their assistance.

MORE COPS MEAN LESS CRIME.
Crime is high in Albuquerque–ranked one of the most dangerous places
in the country according to the latest FBI statistics. And there's a very simple
reason—not enough cops. In city after city across our nation, when the size
of the force goes up, the rate of crime goes down. It’s that simple.

An FBI study says we need 1400 officers to secure our city properly—we
only have 900. On an average day there are only 75 cops on the street
protecting 550,000 citizens. At this capacity they can only respond to
priority 1 calls. That means no proactive force, no community outreach,
no neighborhood patrols.

Clearly we have a critical shortage of officers. And while our force is
the best trained in the state, their current base pay doesn’t come close to
reflecting that. So they are leaving for better paying, less dangerous
departments in other cities.

Above is the APOA ad as copied from newly created website fundapd.com. The APOA seems to be launching a campaign to increase the number of officers on the force and on the street. We're normally somewhat suspicious of organizations who advocate a position that clearly benefits their own bottom line. However, it's clear that crime is a serious problem in Albuquerque and it's also clear that we don't have enough officers to combat crime in our fair city, so it's hard to argue with a campaign that is clearly in the best interests of every man, woman, and child in Albuquerque.

Our Eyes tell us that the number of officers over at APD is in the low 800's. The APOA claims that the number is really 900. Regardless of the actual number one thing is sure, the number of sworn officers over at APD is not 1,033 - the number claimed by Deputy Chief Michael Castro and reported by the Northwestern.com - it's far fewer and wholly inadequate.

Eye Poll: Defending the Flag

Not surprisingly (at least to us), Eye readers overwhelmingly decided that the charges against Peter Ryan Lynch should be dropped. 48% of readers felt that Mr. Lynch's actions were justifiable and charges should be dropped, another 34% felt that he should replace the flag and then the charges should be dropped, another 9% felt that he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, 6% felt he should be prosecuted for criminal destruction of property and hate crimes, and 3% didn't know (review the results here).

82% of readers took the position that the charges should be dropped. It's important to protect the symbols of our country and our freedom. The first step toward losing our liberty is forgetting the symbols that remind us of the existence of that liberty. When we dishonor our own flag we tread on the very real freedoms that it represents; which inevitably leads to the loss of those freedoms. Eye readers have simply sided with a man who felt it was his duty to defend our flag.

About a week and a half ago APD Chief Ray Schultz told us that those of us who live in Albuquerque and are victims of crime are hurting our crime stat rankings by "over reporting" violent crime. The Chief went on to state that he "feel[s] safe." Since the Chief would like us to "feel" safe because he does, we'd like to know how you feel. Don't forget to vote in this week's Eye Poll!

Property Crime Series

Just last week the Albuquerque Journal ran a story (Subscription) that placed Albuquerque at the top of the crime list (read our take here). Today we got word from our Eyes that the Journal is planning to run a series on Albuquerque's problem with property crime. The word is that the series will start sometime over the weekend. We touched on the subject back in August.

"What we do know is that Albuquerque has a serious property crime problem. Back in June, The Albuquerque Journal reported (Subscription) that 2006 was a "banner year" for property crime. Over 5,000 vehicles were stolen and more than 6,000 homes were broken into. That's almost 14 vehicles per day and almost 17 homes per day."

- The Eye

You can bet this series will be none too popular with the folks on the 5th and 11th floors. This is the type of story that kinda tarnishes a city's image; especially with so many people in town for the Balloon Fiesta.

In fact, we were kind of surprised that the Journal was going to run the series at all in light of the historically cozy relationship they've had with the Almighty Marty and crew. Perhaps the mind control serum is starting to wear off. But, it's more likely just getting too hard to continue to drink the cool-aid when it contains so many ridiculous ingredients like: it's not "profit," it's "excess money" (Subscription). Or, the ever popular "this is not a dangerous place" (Subscription).

Hate

Let's start with a full disclosure - we hate the concept of "hate crime." It's a foolish concept that somehow someone who commits a criminal act out of "hate" is in someway more evil or dangerous than someone who commits that same crime for a cold calculated reason.

If someone is killed because of their race, sexual orientation, or religion, they are no deader than the person who's killed for their wallet. More importantly, the damage to their families and the unimaginable grief felt by their loved ones is no more poignant, and no more important.

In our opinion, the very idea of a "hate crime" cheapens the very real suffering of the victims of non-hate crimes. It also creates opportunities for unscrupulous people and organizations to cry "hate crime" for their own gain and to achieve their own objectives.

The Center of the Race is one such organization. More commonly known as El Centro de la Raza and founded in the 1960's their stated mission is to celebrate Latino cultures. They are also the group given permission to raise the Mexican National Flag in order to celebrate Mexican Independence; the group that also "forgot" to return and remove it. They were the first to raise the banner of victimization, the first to cry "racism" and "hate crime," and the last to admit any responsibility for their roll in a series of screw-ups that lead to Peter Ryan Lynch's removal of and subsequent shredding of the Mexican flag.

(Sidebar)
When you read "The Center of the Race" what group did you honestly believe we were talking about? When translated to English El Centro de la Raza sounded to us like some white supremacist organization. Since "race" is part of their name, could it be that race plays an important role in their thinking? Isn't that a form of racism in and of itself?
(End Sidebar)

In point of fact, El Centro de la Raza still has not taken any responsibility and our Eyes tell us that they have forwarded to the U.S. Attorney a photo taken from a MySpace video of Mr. Lynch shooting targets at a range as proof of his racist beliefs (view the video here). The Center of the Race wants Mr. Lynch to be prosecuted for "hate crimes."

The target being used looks to us like the one to the right. Could it be a man that comes from an ethnic minority... sure. But our Eyes tell us that the same target is used by a number of police departments across the country, including the Miami Dade police department. We hardly believe that shooting at a commonly available target is evidence of racism.

Even if the video was proof positive of some form of racist belief, it's not proof that Mr. Lynch's actions including ripping the Mexican flag to pieces, was racially motivated.

As further proof of "hate," El Centro de la Raza, on its website presents a couple of posts that they attribute to Mr. Lynch; posts that were found on MySpace.com. Let's assume that they are genuine ( in fact we believe they are), when we read his comments in context and not parsed for effect, we find the language a bit too vulgar and probably over the top, but Mr. Lynch is actually advocating open boarders stating "seriously stop wasting our time on them, let them in and tax them." (Read the la Raza PDF of Mr. Lynch's post here.)

Would we choose to express our beliefs in the manner that Mr. Lynch did... no. But one of the freedoms that the flag he is so concerned about honoring - the flag of the United States of America - is the freedom to express himself. You may not agree with him, you may not like his message, and you may not like the way he said it, but at least for now he has every right to say it.

We'd point out that those same freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, symbolized by the flag that they helped dishonor and are being freely exercised by students who are members of El Centro de la Raza; a group with "race" in their name and "hate" on their lips. Frankly, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Election Reaction

Last night Mayor Chavez reportedly spent some time making personal calls to all of the council victors in order to congratulate them on their victories; be they new (Rey Garduño, Trudy Jones) or returning (Brad Winter, Debbie O'Malley, Don Harris). This morning our Eyes tell us that His Highness called a meeting of his top staff people; a meeting to express his displeasure with last night's turn of events.

We'd guess that two people in particular were in Marty's dog house, Transportation Director Greg Payne, and Chief of Staff Barry Bitzer; whose involvement in last night's debacle has been well documented and ultimately failed miserably. If last night weren't bad enough, today we hear that Senator Pete Domenici has decided to call it quits and not run for re-election in 2008.

Could it get any worse for a controlling, power hungry, dictatorial politician? Right when his dream job opens up, his political power seems to be on a serious decline. Get ready boys and girls, these city meetings aren't going to be much fun for a long time to come.

Chavez - Campaign Kryptonite

The results are in and, well nothing much has changed except it's now harder to recall councilors and the voters decided to allow the city to steal poor folk's equity... but we digress. Last night saw all of the incumbents win, and win big including district 9's councilor Don Harris, who we predicted would lose narrowly (we're still trying to get the feathers our of our teeth). Apparently, his single themed message - keep me, the one you elected rather than letting the mayor choose my replacement - resonated with district 9 voters.

While every election has its share of losers (or those who are winning challenged), last night's biggest loser wasn't even on the ballot, the Almighty Mayor himself. Every candidate that Mayor Chavez was linked to either directly (Katherine Martinez) or indirectly (Paulette de'Pascal, Joan Griffin) was soundly rejected by the voters.

Some of it was the quality of the candidates recruited by the 11th floor. Someone who is in the midst of a messy divorce and faces allegations of embezzlement shouldn't be running in the first place... that's what you call a fatally flawed candidate. The others were articulate and credible candidates whose only real flaw was that they were tied to the mayor.

Let's be real here, it's haaaard to unseat an incumbent even with the best of candidates. However, we've never seen this type of drag on a campaign before; a campaign where the candidate is either publicly endorsed or linked to a high ranking public official. This negative effect was most notable in the District 6 race where Republican Kevin Wilson defeated the Martycrat Joan Griffin.

We had seen surprising strength from Mr. Wilson in our Eye Poll two weeks ago but weren't sure how that would translate to the election. We're also convinced that late revelations about mayoral ties to the recall group New Mexicans for Democracy influenced yesterday's vote.

This is a new state of affairs for the Almighty Mayor whose behind the scenes wink and nod endorsements, and indirect involvement council campaigns have typically helped a candidate. It's an open secret that Mayor Chavez backed both Tina Cummins (against Don Harris) and Sally Mayer in the 2005 election cycle.

We believe that the Almighty's involvement initially kept Councilor Harris from getting to 40% of the vote forcing his 2005 runoff election with then Councilor Cummins. Now the Napoleon of the 11th floor finds himself in a relationship with the council that's colder than a Russian Winter with the recent defection of Councilor Mayer. It's amazing how in just two short years Marty has gone from campaign savior to campaign Kryptonite.

Flag Flap: Rally Plans

We told you that we'd update you as soon as we found out more about the upcoming veteran flag rally. Organizer Paul Caputo told our Eyes they plan to depart from Thunderbird Harley Davidson this Sunday at 9:30 am and head down to The Pit for the flag presentation. Bikers who would like to participate are encouraged to arrive at the dealership a bit before the 9:30 departure. The dealership is located on Alameda west of I-25. For those who don't ride a motorcycle, you're encouraged to meet the bikers in the parking lot of The Pit at 10:30 am for the flag presentation to UNM President, David Schmidly.

----- Correction ------
We had originally written that Thunderbird Harley Davidson was on Paseo del Norte. That was and is incorrect as a reader rightfully let us know. Sorry about the confusuion

Election Day 2007

This is the most important election in the history of Albuquerque or the world even! Ok, maybe not but we hear it every cycle so what the heck. In truth, they're all important not because a single election will forever change Albuquerque, but because every election is a small step in a direction that all too often, no one can predict. Unless we are involved in the process and take the time to learn where these steps will take us, we'll all end up somewhere we didn't expect and probably don't want to be.

(Sidebar)
A quick note about this post. You will see party affiliations indicated by a D, R, or M. D is for Democrat, R for Republican, and M is for Martycrat. The Martycrat is an affiliation that you will only find here in Albuquerque. It can be either a Republican (Greg Payne) or a Democrat (Paulette de'Pascal) whose primary allegiance is to the Marty in Chief.
(End Sidebar)

The most visible part of this election is of course the council races in districts 2, 4, and 6. District 8 has already been decided since there was only one person in the district willing to step up to the plate and run, soon-to-be Councilor Trudy Jones. It's not everyday that an unopposed candidate results in a good councilor (look no further than Ms. Jones predecessor) but we think in this case the folks in district 8 got lucky and are getting a good one.

In district 2 we've got the race between incumbent Councilor Debbie O'Malley (D) and Katherine Martinez (M). This is a race where there's a lot more at stake for the Almighty Mayor than for the people of district 2. In our opinion, Councilor O'Malley spends an awful lot of time finding ways to spend tax dollars on programs and things that the city shouldn't be paying for in the first place. On the other hand Ms. Martinez's association with his 11th Floor Highness could result in the Almighty Mayor being able to find ways to spend our tax dollars on programs and things that the city shouldn't be paying for in the first place. We guess it all comes down to who is going to spend your money because the choices in this race almost assure that it's going to be spent. Our prediction is that Ms. O'Malley will retain the seat but by a smaller margin than most people expect. We'll put this at 58% to 42% in O'Malley's favor.

District 4 is the home port of the Paulette de'Pascal(M) pleasure cruise. Well, actually Ms. de'Pascal spent quite a bit of time in other ports (or at least districts) recently but has dropped anchor in district 4... for now. We've found out quite a bit about why she's running and her past problems stemming from her divorces. We also know that she's favored by the mayor whose minions have been involved in her campaign. The Mayor's Chief of Staff Barry Bitzer has been involved with the Honey Bee's pleasure cruise through the campaign waters of this election cycle and Transportation Director Greg Payne is allegedly its captain (read the Sandra Richardson Honey Bee email here).

The current representative from district 4 is Councilor Brad Winter(R). He's the longest serving member of the council and seems to becoming more effective as time passes. No doubt his experiences with Mayor Chavez two years ago reshaped his opinion of the current administration and their willingness to work with others. While we know who put de'Pascal up to running, we can't believe that they couldn't find anyone better and with at least a passing acquaintance with the truth. We see Councilor Winter winning this one going away with 60% of the vote or more.

Our friends over in district 6 have 4 candidates to choose from for a seat being vacated by Congressional hopeful Martin Heinrich. Unfortunately, there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of philosophical difference between the 4. The candidates Rey Garduno(D), Joanne Griffin(M), Blair Kauffman(D), and Kevin Wilson(R) all espouse similar views about government goodies. Unfortunately, we'd like to see a little more care when spending our money; money that we have no choice but to hand over to people like those who aspire to represent district 6. Our call on this one is that Sticky Fingers Garduno will end up replacing Councilor Heinrich, but our Eye Poll indicated a surprisingly strong showing by Kevin Wilson so we see a slight chance that Griffin and Garduno could split the vote leaving Wilson in the cat bird seat or at least the councilor's chair.

Meanwhile district 9 will tackle the question of whether or not to retain Councilor Harris(R) who has been under fire from a determined group whose main objective is to see the back of him. If successful, it would be the first time a sitting city councilor has been recalled by angry constituents. We believe that the recall will not only get the 1,800 plus votes necessary to for the recall but will also be successful by a point or two margin. If so, you can bet that Councilor Harris will be calling for a recount and perhaps even challenging the initial signatures that were gathered in order to force the recall election in the first place.

The only downside here is that the Almighty Marty would name Harris' replacement if the recall is successful. Our Eyes tell us that should Harris resign the district would be allowed to choose a replacement in a special election. If Councilor Harris is truly concerned about the mayor choosing his replacement, he could always take the choice away from the Almighty Mayor by resigning.

Moving on to the bond issues. We are typically treated to the line that voting in favor of the proposed bonds won't raise our taxes and this election is no exception. The one thing that they don't tell you is that voting against these bonds is a step towards lowering your taxes. This bond package is a mixed bag of things some of which government shouldn't even be involved in.

A prime example is the Affordable Housing Bond that we told you about last week. The bond is required to support the affordable housing ordinance o-06-8 that is supposed to create opportunities for "workforce" affordable housing. Like many types of government assistance, this creates a system of dependency and makes the City of Albuquerque what can only be termed as a Slum Lord. Since these properties must remain "permanently affordable" the "owners" can't benefit from the natural accrual of equity; making them little more than renters. This "Affordable Housing" program only creates the illusion of ownership. In reality the program is more like forcing people to buy on credit from the company store. It's a tremendous disservice to those who it's supposed to help, we'd urge voters to vote against it despite the robo-dial campaign being waged by proponents.

You will notice that your ballot contains 5 propositions. Proposition 1 clears up little inconveniences like being forced to vote on holidays when they fall on first Tuesday of October which is the election day required by the City Charter.

Proposition 2 is designed to prohibit donations to candidates for mayor or councilor by businesses who have contracts with the city. It all sounds good, stopping undue influence by businesses that stand to gain financially from elected officials that they have supported. First of all this thing has a loophole large enough to drive one of Greg Payne's Rapid Ride buses through. Businesses can form PACs (Measure Finance Committees in city lingo) in order to write checks to candidates. What's worse is that it doesn't address other groups like unions who also do business with the city. Look, courts have held that money is speech and the best thing the public can know is who has got their elected official's ear whether it be unions or businesses. This thing is a bad idea but we'll bet it passes.

Proposition 3 gives the city council the ability to create an ordinance that allows them to appoint members to city committee. We're not sure this is a good idea. Right now, we know who to blame if a member is an idiot or a complete dud. If this passes we'll add 9 others to the list of culprits. The council has "advice and consent" authority now, we fail to see the pressing need for the change.

Proposition 4 links the pay of city councilors to that of county commissioners. We agree with most of our readers that the council should be paid more - maybe we'd get some better candidates if we did. But, linking that pay to that of the county commission seems like a cheap way to shift blame for council raises to the county commission. Like the 11 other times pay raises have been proposed, we believe that this one will go down to defeat.

Proposition 5 is the Councilor Protection Act. This is the bill ghost written by the embattled Don Harris shortly after he found out that he was the target of a recall. It ups the signature requirement from 25% to 33% while only allowing a recall for "malfeasance or misfeasance" as determined by a district court judge. Despite this cycle's recall and last year's attempt at recalling Councilor Mayer, it is not necessary to make it harder to recall an elected official. After all, up until today there has never been a successful recall here in Albuquerque and only one other recall effort that managed to get it on a ballot. If there's anything nice about the system that the framers of Albuquerque's Charter created, it's the ability to recall a sitting elected official for any reason including just pissing them off. We're going to hope and predict that this one fails once the chads hit the floor.

Flag Flap - Update

Our Eyes tell us that Peter Ryan Lynch infamous Mexican flag ripper and some (including us) would call patriot, is scheduled to appear before Judge Clyde Demersseman this Wednesday, October 3rd at 8:30 am. The charge of course is criminal damage to property stemming from Mr. Lynch's removal of the Mexican national flag from a UNM flag pole that was being improperly flown by the university no matter who is to blame or how many people screwed up and left it flying unaccompanied by the flag of the United States.

Our understanding is that Mr. Lynch has since tried to replace the Mexican flag in question, but the offer was rejected by El Centro de la Raza, the student organization whose flag was torn (and who either intentionally left it flying or "forgot" to take it down) summarily rejected the offer. If there's damage here we believe that the first organization responsible for the damage is the one claiming victim status, El Centro de la Raza. After all, they were the ones who raised the Mexican flag; they should have been responsible enough to lower it at the end of the day.

In other related news, our Eyes tell us that a group of veterans is planning a motorcycle rally in support of Mr. Lynch. The rally is to take place outside of The Pit during the inauguration of new UNM President David Schmidly. The group is reportedly going to try and present President Schmidly with the flag of the United States of America.

According to our Eyes, Sheriff Darren White (a veteran himself) has asked to be included in the rally which will no doubt put additional pressure on Mr. Schmidly to receive the gift being offered by the veterans. In addition, APD's motorcycle officers have asked to be relieved of traffic duty a little early at the Balloon Fiesta in order to attend and Chief Ray Schultz is said to have asked to be included.

(Sidebar)
It's a little odd that Chief Schultz would want to attend in light of the recent APD SOP debacle that in effect made Albuquerque a Sanctuary City. One of the groups over at UNM, Estudiantes Contemporáneos del Norte, seems to advocate not only flying the Mexican flag over most of what is New Mexico, but the overthrow of the U.S. government through illegal immigration; a policy that is certainly aided by APD's newly adopted SOP.
(End Sidebar)

We haven't heard exactly what the plans of the veterans are, but we do know that they'd like to see as many people down at the Pit as possible. We'll keep an Eye on it and let you know as soon as we do.