CAMPAIGN WATCH: FIRST ATTACK AD OF THE GOVERNOR'S RACE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 30, 2006

Democrats have called Republican gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl a “bomb thrower” and “attack dog.” However, Gov. Bill Richardson’s re-election campaign threw the first advertising bomb at Dendahl in a radio commercial this week.

Richardson campaign chairman Dave Contarino said Thursday that the incumbent Democrat’s radio spot is a factual representation of Dendahl’s record and the events that put the Santa Fe Republican on his party’s ticket in place of primary-election winner J.R. Damron.

A “fact sheet” posted on Richardson’s campaign Web site quotes newspaper articles to back up the advertisement, Contarino said.

Dendahl said Thursday that he was amused that just a few days before the ad started running, Richardson had told the Albuquerque Tribune, “I don’t talk about Dendahl. I don’t worry about Dendahl.”

“They say my name seven times in a 30-second commercial,” Dendahl said. “I think he’s worried about John Dendahl.”

While this is the first gubernatorial attack ad of this political season, Dendahl, a past GOP state chairman and newspaper columnist, has been a vocal critic of Richardson through the years. The state Republican Party has run radio ads mocking Richardson at least three times since last June.

Here’s a look at the recent Richardson radio ad, which can be heard HERE :

Title: “Order”
Duration: 30 seconds
Sound: Over foreboding guitar and percussion, a narrator talks in somber tones about Dendahl.
Text: (spoken by a narrator) A secret meeting … the order is delivered … and the political candidate quietly goes away. Is it the Third World? The Middle East? Eastern Europe? No — it’s the New Mexico Republican Party Central Committee and John Dendahl.

First, John Dendahl sets up a meeting with Republican nominee for governor, J.R. Damron, and his wife. Dendahl tells Damron to pull out of the race. Within days, Damron is gone, and John Dendahl is the Republican candidate for governor.

Forget about elections. Forget about the voter. That’s the way John Dendahl wants it, and that’s the way it is.

And it’s not the first time. In the past, John Dendahl made six-figure cash offers to the Green Party to, in his own words, manipulate elections. He made TV commercials using doctored videotape. John Dendahl’s made false attacks in the past against Democrats and Republicans alike. This time, don’t let him get away with it.

Accuracy: While the basic chronology of the Damron/Dendahl meetings is correct, Damron, a Santa Fe radiologist, insists he wasn’t pressured to leave the race. The central committee meeting where Dendahl was nominated had been announced, though reporters were barred.

The “six-figure cash offers to the Green Party” refers to a 2002 incident in which Dendahl, then party chairman, offered Green leaders a large sum to field candidates in two Congressional districts. The Federal Election Commission investigated the matter and found no wrongdoing.
Richardson’s “fact sheet” quotes an Albuquerque Journal article in which Dendahl was quoted saying, “I am in the business of manipulating elections.” Dendahl said Thursday that he doesn’t remember the remark but said, “I was certainly in the business of trying to influence elections.”

The “doctored videotapes,” according to the Web site, refers to a 2002 commercial that never aired but was released to reporters by Dendahl at the outset of the gubernatorial campaign.

The ad showed Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., at a 2000 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, lambasting Richardson, then U.S. Energy Department secretary, for skipping a hearing the week before.

Byrd accused Richardson of “supreme arrogance” and “contempt of Congress” and said the Senate would never again support him for any appointed office.

In a written statement in 2002, Byrd said he was “outraged that Republicans would take my remarks out of context and use them for a political attack ad against Bill Richardson.” However, nobody at the time claimed the tapes were “doctored.”

The “false attacks” against Democrats and Republicans, according to the Web site, refers to several races involving campaign material from the state GOP during Dendahl’s tenure as party chairman. In the 1999 Albuquerque city elections, Democratic Mayor Martin Chavez and Republican City Councilor Tim Cummins said attack ads against them were false. In 2001 Albuquerque City Councilor Tim Kline said a GOP mailer about his record was misleading. The “fact sheet” also cites a 1996 legislative race in which defeated Democrat incumbent Sen. Janice Paster said a GOP flier portrayed her as “soft on rape and other crimes.”

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: LOOK TO THE EAST

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 30, 2006

If you’re a little sick of the music you’ve been listening to and are looking for sounds that are exotic and a little crazy but not precious and tame like the “world music” favored by your world-beat weenie friends, here’s my advice: look to the East.

I’ve been on one of my stranger musical kicks lately — wild Asian rock and pop. It probably started a few months ago when I downloaded from eMusic an album called Thai Beat a Go-Go Volume 1, a compilation of Vietnam War-era bar-band music — basically whore-house rock — from Thailand, where American GIs used to go for rest and relaxation. (There are two other volumes, one of which I just downloaded from eMusic.)

Here’s a look at some far-out sounds from the Far East I’ve been enjoying lately:

* Radio Phnom Penh recorded, assembled, and edited by Alan Bishop for Sublime Frequencies. This has to be one of the weirdest albums I’ve ever purchased. It’s a collection of music, commercials, newscasts, and other chatter (in at least three languages) from Cambodian radio, some of which goes back to the late ’60s. You hear the definite influence of Western pop and rock. In fact, in a couple of the tracks (most the “songs” here are stitched-together medleys) you can make out Cambodian versions of “A Hard Day’s Night” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pasa” (which started out as a Peruvian folk song).

There’s a discernible wartime vibe in many of the selections, an urgency of a nation being torn apart. This is an album The Clash would have understood, a spiritual cousin of Sandinista! and even Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come.

“At its peak in the late ’60s/early ’70s, the Cambodians were a musical Superpower,” Bishop writes in the liner notes. But after the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, many musicians were executed. Most of the original tapes, smuggled out of the country, survived. And many of them, after the genocidal regime was driven from power, were remixed by radio programmers. FM stations play the remixed versions and new Cambodian pop, while the official state AM station plays the old stuff. This album is a mixture of AM and FM.

My only complaint is that none of the musicians or bands are named. (Same goes for the album reviewed next.) Most of us probably wouldn’t recognize any of the artists. Still, they deserve credit.

This smacks of musical imperialism. I guess that makes this a guilty pleasure. But it’s still a pleasure.

*Radio Pyongyang compiled by Christiaan Virant. This album, also from the Sublime Frequencies label, is subtitled “Commie Funk and Agit Pop From the Hermit Kingdom.” It’s even stranger than Radio Phnom Penh, though not nearly as enjoyable. If the other album is all urgency and upheaval, this is the sound of mind-numbing obedience.

Virant, who used to listen to official North Korean state shortwave broadcasts from his home in Hong Kong, describes this album best in his liner notes: “Schmaltzy synthpop, Revolutionary rock, Cheeky child rap, and a healthy dose of hagiography for Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il ... a heady mix of Stalin opera, Tokyo karaoke and brooding Impressionism...”

And some of it sounds like a bad Korean high school production of The King and I.

The track “New Model Army” (anyone remember the band by that name?) starts out with what sounds like a Korean ABBA. “Motherland Megamix” has brief passages that almost sound like Axis of Evil blues riffs, though they quickly dissolve into military music and disco anthems. And on a few tracks you hear what sounds like a polka-style accordion.

Then there’s the jolting “Start ’Em Young,” sung by a kiddy choir. To paraphrase a question posed by Sting in the ’80s: “Do the North Koreans love their children too?” I’ll bet they do, though that doesn’t mean I love hearing them sing.

*Escape From the Dragon House by Dengue Fever. This is one of the most amazing albums I’ve heard all year. It’s an Orange County, Calif., band fronted by Cambodian pop singer Ch'hom Nimol, who comes from a well-known Cambodian musical family. As the story goes, the band, led by brothers Zac and Ethan Holzman, discovered Nimol singing at a Long Beach joint called the Dragon House.

The boys play a tasty garage/psychedelic/surf rock, with Ethan standing out on Farfisa organ and Nimol enchanting in her native tongue.

* The Voice of Geisha Doll by Umekichi. This Japanese singer and samisen (a three-stringed Japanese lute) player plays traditional geisha music, but on the most interesting tracks here she mixes it up with Western pop, rock, and jazz. “Samisen Boogiewoogie,” grounded in ’50s malt-shop rock, sounds like the centerpiece of an imaginary David Lynch soundtrack.


*Dancing With Petty Booka. On this record, America’s favorite Japanese ukulele ladies, Petty Booka, branch out from their usual Hawaiian/country/bluegrass repertoire to play their version of mambo, samba, rumba, and cha cha. They also rock out with the “Desanoyo Twist” and go ska, Japanese style, on their cover of “My Boy Lollipop.”

Still, my favorite here is a country-sounding track called “Sho-Jo-Ji/The Hungry Raccoon,” featuring a dreamy steel guitar.

*The Rodeo Carburettor. This is nothing but good, loud, metallic punk rock by a leather-clad Japanese trio led by singer/guitarist Takeshi Kaji.

A few songs seem concerned with motorcycles. Reading the lyrics is a lot of fun. The song “Motor Head,” for instance, which I assume is a tribute to Lemmy and the boys from Motörhead, is nothing but Japanese characters in the midst of which is one English word, rockers.

For some reason, the company sent me a couple of extra copies of this CD. So I’ll send one to the first two readers who e-mail me at robotclaww@msn.com. Include your mailing address, and put “RODEO CARB” in the subject line.

UPDATE: We have two winners! Congratulations Mark and Kristina.

Be sure to tune into Terrell's Soundworld on KSFR Sunday night. At about 11 p.m. I'll do a set of the above music and more Asian rock. That's 90.7 FM for Santa Fe area and http://www.KSFR.org on the web.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: TO BE SLAUGHTERED IN THE LAST SCENE?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 29, 2006

A state task force looking into ethics and campaign-finance reform is working hard on some essential issues.

But watching this panel at work is almost like watching a movie when you know all the good guys are going to be slaughtered in the last scene.

I hate to sound like a gloom monger, but having observed the Legislature’s reactions to “reforms” in recent years, I just can’t help it.

The task force, meeting in the Roundhouse on Wednesday, had an engaging discussion about possible public financing of state campaigns with Todd Lang, the executive director of Arizona’s public-campaign-funding program.

It wasn’t clear whether the task force eventually would recommend a similar plan for New Mexico. Some members had serious questions about how public financing would work in New Mexico elections. Republicans generally oppose the idea on philosophical grounds. And some of the most probing questions came from Rep. Kenny Martinez of Grants, the House Democratic floor leader.

It was clear the panel is taking its job seriously. Every member seemed engaged.

And nobody argued with member Matt Brix, executive director of New Mexico’s Common Cause chapter, when he said the state is one of the least restrictive in campaign finance. There are no limits on the contributions of individuals, businesses, unions or political-action committees. The disclosure requirements often make for ambiguous reports.

Gov. Bill Richardson appointed the task force during this spring’s corruption trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil (which ended in a mistrial.)

But the earnestness of the task force only makes the probable fate of any of its recommendations sadder.

Anyone who watched the state Senate in action last February knows that body’s attitude toward ethics reform.

Despite the fact the state-treasurer follies were being called the biggest political scandal in state history, basically, the Senate this year ripped out the heart of the effort for ethics reform.

Ripped out the heart and stomped on it.

Only one bill out of an entire package of “anti-corruption” bills backed by Richardson made it through both houses.

One measure sponsored by Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, would have required candidates to disclose their contributor’s employers — as opposed to just the donor’s occupation, as now required.

“I think that’s too much information,” said Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, during the floor debate on a bill, which was defeated on a 22-12 vote.

That bill also would have required more frequent campaign-report filings and would have required campaign-disclosure reports to list the cumulative amount of contributions received from a donor.

These were some of the possible reforms discussed by the task force Wednesday.

So what has changed since that stormy legislative session?

Feldman, a member of the task force, who has sponsored several ethics bills through the years, said she couldn’t say.

Still, she expressed reserved optimism about a new ethics package arising from the task force. “It’s an educational process for the public and the Legislature,” she told me after the meeting.

“Things don’t happen overnight.” She said she hopes the task force is able to form a public consensus on the issues, which will give it a smoother ride in the Legislature.

Former Gov. Garrey Carruthers, a co-chairman of the task force, had a slightly more ominous reason to think the Legislature might react differently to ethics reform.

Talking first about the treasurer scandals and the conflict-of-interest allegations that led to the resignation of state Insurance Superintendent Eric Serna, Carruthers said: “If you listen to the rumors, there’s some other problems out there. If the rumors come to pass, there may be more public support for ethics reforms.”

The task force meets again today.

Always a loophole: Brix pointed out an interesting little flaw in the state’s campaign-finance-disclosure system.

One of the few restrictions on campaign contributions in New Mexico’s law is that it’s illegal for a legislator, candidate for legislator or the governor to “knowingly solicit a contribution for a political purpose” during a regular or special legislative session.

However, Brix pointed out, there is nothing against a legislator, candidate for legislator or the governor accepting campaign contributions during a session.

That must be why the Richardson river of campaign cash slowed to a sad little trickle between Jan. 17 and Feb. 16.

During that period, he only reported $11,560 in contributions, plus about $8,500 in interest from campaign bank accounts.

The biggest chunk — $10,000 from a Santa Fe media consultant named David Horowitz — is dated Feb. 3, about halfway through the session.

In fairness, some of the contributions might have come in before the session started. Sometimes the mail is slow around here.

FOREMAN SCOTTY'S KIDS

I've recently been in e-mail contact with the daughter of one of my childhood heroes, FOREMAN SCOTTY.

For those of you who didn't grow up in Oklahoma City in the 50s and 60s, Scotty -- real name Steve Powell -- was a kiddy show host on what was then known as WKY. His character was a cowboy.

Not only did he have a studio full of kids every weekday in his "Circle 4 Ranch," (I was on a couple of times), he also had "adventure" segments in which he and his friends -- Xavier T. Willard, Cannonball McCoy, and sometimes 3-D Danny and back in the old, old days, Hog Waller -- would travel back in time through the Mystery Mine or explore the Amazon in a submarine or fight the Dog Man Robots ... You can see how this show shaped, or probably warped my imagination.


Anyway, Scotty's daughter Lisa has started a new blog and wants people to share their Foreman Scotty memories. The first, and so far only post, features my memory of ruining a live adventure shot at Wedgewood Amusement Park back in the '50s.

If you have a story to share, e-mail LISA.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 25, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Ride Away by The Fall
Roller Coaster by Red Bacteria Vacuum
Man in Decline by Mission of Burma
Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies
Ding Dong by Johnny Dowd
Just Drums by Tapes 'n' Tapes
Faith, Hope, Love by Rev. Beat Man & The Church of Herpes

Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
Slow Night, So Long by Kings of Leon
Puzzlin' Evidence by Talking Heads
The Train Kept a Rollin' by The Yardbirds
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
I Want the Answers by The Fleshtones
Little Dawn by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

Sex With the Devil by Ann Magnuson
No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman
Lipstick Vogue by Elvis Costello
Mystic Eyes by Them
Real Crazy Apartment by Winston's Fumbs
Crack in the Universe by Wayne Kramer
I See the Light by The Five Americans
It Won't Be Long Now by Barbecue Bob & Laughin' Charlie

I'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
Like a Hurricane (The Ghost of Marie LaVeau) by Chris Thomas King
Rickity Tickity Tin by Barbara Manning
The Comedians by Roy Orbison
Poison by Susan James
Rainbow Eyes by Brian Wilson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

MISC. SUNDAY

Here's my story in today's New Mexican about Gov. Richardson's re-election team: CLICK HERE and, for the list of top-paid staff and consultants CLICK HERE.

XXXXXXXX

Hey, I just got word that Joe Ely is opening for Hundred Year Flood next Saturday at Santa Fe Brewing Company.

Seriously, here's a note from HYF's lovely Kendra:

Since he will be playing solo, he is going to play first, at 7pm. We will go on around 9pm.? Tickets will be $20 for all night, or $10 after 9pm for just the Flood.I'm pretty sure it will be outside on the big stage. We are excited and honored to play a show with Joe Ely!

Looks like Jono Manson might be part of this show too.

HYF also is part of the big Santa Fe Community Picnic on Sunday, July 2 at Fort Marcy parkwith Ozomatli, Solfire, the Abeyta Family, Ryan McGarvey and others.

CLICK HERE for more details on the picnic.


Speaking ofthe Abeyta Family, I'd better get out to KSFR and relieve Chris or Buddy at the board!

eMUSIC JUNE

Here's my eMusic downloads from the month of June. Unlike last month, I showed patience, restaint and maturity and didn't download my limit before the first week of the month was over. Found some great stuff.

Mr. Stranger Man by Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles. I got interested in Monk after seeing his brief appearance in Robert Mugge's film New Orleans Music in Exile. This isn't quite on the level of The Wild Tchoupitoulas, but it's lots of Mardi Gras fun.

The Obliterati by Mission of Burma. This New England indie band that first made its mark in the early '80s is back in business. This is their secong album since re-forming a couple of years ago for their comeback ONoffON. If you like Afghan Whigs or Dinosaur Jr. try Mission of Burma.

The Magic City by Sun Ra. eMusic has a good collection of Sun Ra. This one was recorded in 1965. The title track is a 27-minute space journey, starting off slow and taking about 15 minutes to work itself into a cosmic frenzy. A subsequent piece called "The Shadow World" sounds like crime jazz from Neptune.


Radio Days by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys. Live radio performances by the King of Western Swing. Some eMusicers complain about the sound quality, but I don't find this to be distracting. This is a good companion to the upcoming 4-disc Wills box set to be released by Sony Legacy.


Wattstax The Living Word. This one is a jewel! Reportedly some of the music here was recorded in a studio, not at the landmark 1972 festival in Los Angeles, but who cares? There's some amazing stuff by The Staples Singers (my favorite being "I Like The Things About Me"), The Soul Children, and the late Rufus Thomas. ("Do the Funky Penguin"!) I'd already downloaded Isaac Hayes' magnificant "Aint' No Sunshine/Lonely Avenue" medley on Isaac's At Wattstax (also highly recommended), so my favorite discovery here is The Bar-Kays' "Son of Shaft/Feel It." 11 minutes of pure funk. eMusic also offers an album called Wattstax: Highlights from the Soundtrack, which has some stray tracks not found on the Living Word or Hayes albums. I used my last remaining track this month on a gospel song called "Peace Be Still" by The Emotions. I'll probably pick up some more from there, like Johnnie Taylor, Little Milton and Luther Ingram next month.


West of the West by Dave Alvin. This is Alvin's new one where he covers songs by California songwriters. He does fine interpretations of Los Lobos' "Down on the Riverbed" and Jerry Garcia's "Loser." But my favorite on this album is John Fogerty's "Don't Look Now." Though this wasn't a hit, this is one of Creedence Clearwater Revival's most poignant songs. When it appeared on Willie and the Poor Boys way back when, it was a slam at the the underlying antagonism between the self-satisfied hip and working class reality. ("Who'll take the coal from the mine? ... Don't look now it ain't you or me.") Alvin subtly transforms it into a cold look at globalization. ("Who makes the shoes for your feet and who makes those clothes that you wear?")


Vietnam by The Revolutionary Ensemble. Call me a rube, but when I think of the music of the Vietnam War I think of "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die," "Run Through the Jungle," Edwin Star's "War." "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and Les McCann's "Compared to What." And O.K. "The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley." This work, like the war itself, is long often tedious. The Revolutionary Ensemble, led by violinist Leroy Jenkins, does have a certain hypnotic appeal, but you really have to be in the mood.


J.J.D./Unnnecessary Begging by Fela Kuti.
Music is The Weapon of the Future (Volume One) by Fela Kuti.
No Agreement by Fela Kuti.
Comparing Fela to most African musicians favored by world beat weenies is like comparing John Coltrane to John Denver. Fela's music transcends Africa. It's tough, gritty and funky. I went on a Fela binge this month on eMusic. But what a bargain, both in quality and quantity. These three albums (actually the first one is a "twofer" so it's actually four albums), make for well over two hours of music and you're only charged for eight tracks. Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago plays trumpet on No Agreement

Free Bonus!

One of the cooler things eMusic has done lately is to offer the entire 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler for free. It consists of mainly indie rock, but there's a smattering of rap, jazz and experimental music. It's got a few artists with whom I'm already familar (Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, Nels Cline, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Mountain Goats) and some new discoveries for me -- 8 Bold Souls, Art Brut. At this writing the whole set still is free for members, so download and check all of it out.