WHO IS HEATHER BREWER?

Careful readers of this blog (thank God we don't have too many of those) might have noticed some strange gibberish in the original version of this morning's Roundhouse Roundup. (The post right below this one.)

In the paragraph about Patricia Madrid, in which her campaign spokeswoman Heather Brewer talked about Madrid donating the money she'd received from Guy Riordan to the Humane Society, there appeared the words "Who is Heather Brewer?"

It was an "invisible" editor's note that I'd picked up in cutting and pasting my column.

Heather Brewer, (whoever she is), caught it and called me up to good naturedly razz me about it. But thanks to her, I found another editor's note, which I promptly removed from the blog.

And no, none of these showed up in print.

The joys of blogging ...

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: CHARITABLE KICKBACKS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 20, 2006

New Mexico charities should get together and name former state Treasurer Robert Vigil as “Man of the Year.”

No kidding. If nothing else, the state treasurer scandal has created a windfall for charitable organizations.


On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Richardson’s boxing buddy and campaign contributor Guy Riordan was implicated in the scandal by former Treasurer Michael Montoya. Montoya, testifying at Vigil’s trial in federal court, said he received as much as $100,000 in kickbacks from Riordan in exchange for investment contracts. Most of this money, Montoya said, was passed to him at restroom stalls at restaurants.

Riordan’s lawyer hotly denied this. And the Albuquerque investment broker/commercial-hunting ranch owner hasn’t been charged with any crime.
But Richardson wasn’t taking any chances.

Shortly after the story hit the wires, the governor’s office zapped out a press statement saying Riordan had been yanked off the state Game Commission, and Richardson would donate the $24,000 in campaign donations he received from Riordan to “New Mexico charities.”

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said Wednesday that first lady Barbara Richardson’s office will determine which charities will get how much money.

Chain reaction: By Wednesday, several other politicians who have accepted Riordan’s generosity in recent years were following suit.

Lt. Governor Diane Denish’s re-election campaign announced it will donate $10,000 to the United Way of Central New Mexico. Denish chef of staff Chris Cervini said Riordan gave Denish $5,000 in 2004 and $5,000 last year.

I found an e-mail from Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, in my in box saying “my campaign donated $500.00 today to the Santa Fe Children's Museum representing the amount Guy Riordan/Wachovia Securities gave in May 2004.”

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid’s congressional campaign said the $740 Madrid received from Riordan in 2002 is going to the dogs. Madrid will be giving the money to the American Humane Association, Heather Brewer said. Madrid is having some of her money people check to make sure $740 is the total amount Riordan has given Madrid, Brewer said.

Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, said Wednesday that he’ll be donating his $1,000 in Riordan money to charity. He hasn’t decided which one.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chávez said Chávez’s mayoral-campaign organization will donate the $1,500 it received from Riordan to the Albuquerque Public Schools Foundation for programs promoting early-childhood literacy and helping homeless students.

Riordan also donated $200 to Chávez’s 1992 state Senate race. Chávez spokeswoman Deborah James said that campaign organization folded years ago. But to avoid any appearance of impropriety, James said, Chávez would personally donate $200 to the APS Foundation.

What a deal: Riordan gave $250 to the New Mexico Democratic Party in 2002. Party executive director Matt Farrauto said the party probably won’t be giving that donation to charity.

But he said he’d make a deal with U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. “We’ll give the $250 to charity if Heather donates all the money she got from Tom DeLay,” he said.

Wilson, between 1998 and last year, received nearly $47,000 from the indicted former House majority leader’s political-action committee. Last year she returned the $10,000 she’d collected from DeLay's PAC in June, but not the $36,959 she received from the PAC between 1998 and 2003. Wilson campaign officials have said she won’t be returning that money.

Wilson in January did donate $1,000 she received from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, after he pleaded guilty to a fraud charge, to the Boy Scouts.

Don’t forget Vigil: As reported several months ago in this column, the former treasurer — on trial for 28 felony counts of extortion, racketeering and money laundering — started what I dubbed a “Kickbacks for Kiddies” program.

According to records in his court file, Vigil was captured on tape talking with a “cooperating witness” about helping Vigil’s wife's favorite charity — Big Brothers Big Sisters — by soliciting contributions from investment advisers who contract with the state.

At one point, Vigil tells the informant, “Where is there a law that doesn't allow you to help kids, you know. Bunch of (bovine manure) ...”.

Refining the national message: This week, Wonkette — that Washington, D.C.-based blog whose motto is “Politics for people with dirty minds” — described a meeting, supposedly taking place this week on Mansion Ridge Road in Santa Fe.

Gov. Richardson, the blog said, “is hosting several top political consultants at the Governor’s mansion this week, as part of a two-day retreat to ‘refine his national message’ leading up to his 2008 presidential bid.”

Not so, says Richardson’s political director Amanda Cooper.

Cooper said there was in fact a recent meeting in Santa Fe that involved several Richardson campaign consultants, including Steve Murphy of Murphy Putnam-Media, in Alexandria, Va., who was U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt’s national campaign manager in 2004; Doc Sweitzer of the Philadelphia-based Campaign Group, who worked Richardson’s 2002 campaign; and Dave Gold of Taos.

But Cooper claimed there was no talk about refining any “national message.” It all had to do with Richardson’s re-election campaign and “moving New Mexico forward,” she said Tuesday.

FLICKR

My daughter talked me into starting a FLICKR page.

CLICK HERE to see photos of loved ones, favorite bands, landmarks, etc. (Some of them, perhaps most of them, you've already seen on my blog, but in weeks to come there will be a lot you won't see anywhere else.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 16, 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
Peter Cottontail by The Bubbadinos
Easter by Patti Smith
The Temple by The Afghan Whigs
Damned For All Time by Scratch Acid
Superstar by Murray Head
Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues by Bob Dylan
The Ballad of John & Yoko by The Beatles

Take a Chance by Hundred Year Flood
Roam by The Yahoos
Wilder Than the Wind '66 by Johnny Dowd
Cheated Heats by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Where There Are No Children by KULT
Mussolini vs. Stalin by Gogol Bordello
The Burglars Are Coming by Solex

Across the Borderline by Ry Cooder with Freddy Fender
Wave by Alejandro Escovedo
Across the Wire by Calexico
California Snow by Dave Alvin
The Line by Bruce Springsteen
Ballad of the Tucson Two by Howe Gelb with Freakwater
Born in East L.A. by Cheech & Chong
Deportee by Concrete Blonde y Los Illegals

Single Again by The Fiery Furnaces
Mr. Ambulance Driver by The Flaming Lips
Habeus Corpus by David Thomas & Two Pale Boys
A Day of the Trumpet by Fireblood Angel Band
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 14, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
If You Play With My Mind (You're Gonna Get Your Hands Dirty) by Cornell Hurd
You Can Pick 'em by Jessi Colter
Wednesday by Drive-By Truckers
8 Miles a Gallon by Scott Miller & The Commonwealth
Do What I Say by The Waco Brothers
Whole Lotta Things by Southern Culture on The Skids
Jubilee by Jon Dee Graham
Half as Much by Van Morrison
Smokey & The Bandit by Lucy Falcon

If I Needed You by Townes Van Zandt
I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You by Hank Williams
Parallel World by Steve Terrell & The Desperados
Love Hurts by Roy Orbison
When Two Worlds Collide by John Prine & Trisha Yearwood
Lion's Jaws by Neko Case
The Old Part of Town by James McMurtry
Fruit of the Vine by Nancy Apple
Baby Let's Leave Me by Rex Hobart

California Snow by Tom Russell
Stranger in Town by Dave Alvin
Gone in a Gamble by Cordero
Mendocino/Dynamite Woman by Sir Douglas Quintet
Someday We'll Look Back by Merle Haggard
Lulu's Back in Town by Leon Redbone
Pink Burrito by R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders

Middle Man by The Bottle Rockets
Here Comes Forever by Curt Kirkwood
Once I Loved an Outlaw by David Bromberg
The Pilgrim Chapter 33 by Emmylou Harris
Be My Love by NRBQ
Passin' Through by Gary Heffern
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

JUST A LITTLE KISS

From L.A. Times:

"Joey Fatale, the 4-foot, 4-inch New Yorker who heads the all-dwarf KISS tribute band MiniKiss, is denying published reports that he tried to sneak past security last month at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to confront a rival band leader, 4-foot "Little" Tim Loomis of Tiny Kiss, for allegedly ripping off his idea for such a group."

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: IMMIGRANT SONGS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 14, 2006

While the debate over illegal immigration from Mexico has dominated the nation’s headlines in recent weeks, it’s an issue that has long been addressed by this country’s singers, songwriters, guitar pickers and rock-and-rollers. It’s a one-sided debate in music land, however. In all the songs I’ve ever heard, those who cross the border without documentation are regarded with compassion.

Like the issue of crime — on which our politicians scream for harsh punishment while our songsters show sympathy to the men workin’ on the chain gang — songs about immigrants seem to express our kinder side. Here are a bunch of songs that deal with immigration.

* “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)” by Woody Guthrie. On Jan. 29, 1948, a U.S. government plane deporting 28 people to Mexico caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon in California and crashed, killing everyone on board. When he heard news of the crash, Guthrie was not only saddened by the tragedy but angered at how the story was reported. The victims weren’t named. They were just deportees.

The story is told from the point of view of “Juan, Rosalita, Jesus and María” — names he assigned the doomed passengers. (It’s interesting that “Jesus” was among those names. Though Guthrie was an avowed communist — and they’re supposed to be “godless” — the figure of Jesus often appears in his songs as a helper of the poor and powerless.)

“Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted/Our work contract’s out and we have to move on/Six hundred miles to that Mexican border/They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.”

“Deportee” has been recorded by dozens of performers, including Joan Baez and Dolly Parton. My favorite rendition was a sad waltz by the Byrds on their underrated 1969 album, The Ballad of Easy Rider.

* “A Matter of Time” by Los Lobos. I’ll argue that this is Los Lobos’ greatest song. Appearing on their first major-label album, How Will the Wolf Survive, more than 20 years ago, it’s at least the first song that proved the East L.A. group was destined to become a great band.

The song is a hushed conversation (”speak softly; don’t wake the baby”) between a Mexican man and his wife right before he departs for the United States. “I’ll send for you, baby/Just a matter of time,” he promises. While the words suggest uncertainty, Steve Berlin’s jaunty sax gives an underlying sense of optimism.

* “Across the Borderline” by Ry Cooder. Cooder performed this song, co-written by John Hiatt and Jim Dickinson, on his 1987 album Get Rhythm. But the best version was sung years before by Freddy Fender in Cooder’s soundtrack for the movie The Border.

“Up and down the Rio Grande/A thousand footprints in the sand/Reveal a secret no one can define ...”

This song tells the other side of the story heard in “A Matter of Time”:

“When you reach the broken-promise land/Every dream slips through your hand.”

* “California Snow” by Tom Russell and Dave Alvin. The co-writers each recorded it separately, Russell’s version appearing on his 2001 album Borderland and Alvin’s on Blackjack David (1998).

The narrative, as a friend said, could almost be a Cormac McCarthy short story. It’s about a Border Patrol officer who comes across a Mexican immigrant lying in a ditch with his wife, who has died of exposure in the mountains east of San Diego. The experience horrifies the officer and makes his own life seem cheap and empty. By the end of the song he’s contemplating going back to his ex-wife and trying to reconcile.

* “The Line” by Bruce Springsteen. Here’s another song from the point of view of a Border Patrol officer. Here the officer falls in love with an immigrant girl and crosses the line by helping her cross that other line — compromising his friend, another officer, in the process.

This song is from The Ghost of Tom Joad, Springsteen’s 1995 album that has several other songs about immigrants, most notably “Sinaloa Cowboys,” about a pair of brothers caught up in the drug trade.

* “Born in East L.A.” by Cheech and Chong. It’s a goof. It’s a parody of Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.” But while it’s a joke — about an American Chicano mistakenly deported — it’s a sharply pointed joke, and like the Cheech Marin movie it inspired, it’s a lot better than it should have been and, 20 years later, it holds up well.

* “Wave” by Alejandro Escovedo. This song is about the singer’s father, who came to the United States from Mexico when he was 12 to search for the parents who had abandoned him. The song — from By the Hand of the Father, a play by Escovedo that deals with his family history — starts optimistically: “The sun is brighter there/and everyone’s got golden hair ...” But the boy learns, “the sun’s not brighter here/It only shines on golden hair.”

* “Xich vs. the Migra Zombies” by Concrete Blonde y Los Illegals. This collaboration between two Los Angeles indie-rock vets is a metallic romp about immigration agents chasing two men through a mall. It’s from the 1998 album Concrete Blonde y Los Illegals. Inspired by California’s Proposition 187, which meant to eliminate social services for illegal immigrants, the album also includes a version of Guthrie’s “Deportee.”

* “Across the Wire” by Calexico. The Arizona-based kings of mariachi rock, with trumpets blaring and accordion pumping, sing of “Alberto y Hermano on the coyote’s trail/and dodging the shadows of the Border Patrol/out in the wastelands wandering for days/the future looks bleak with no sign of change.” It’s on their 2003 album, Feast of Wire.

* “Ballad of the Tucson Two” by Howe Gelb (with Freakwater). Dan Strauss and Shanti Sellz, immigrant-aid volunteers, were arrested last summer while taking three illegal immigrants from the desert near Tucson to a hospital. They are facing felony charges. This is a strange but wonderful ode to the two, with Freakwater sounding like Appalachian ghosts singing “Amazing Grace” and Giant Sand man Gelb mumbling his lyrics about the Sonoran sun to a near-bossanova beat. The song is available on iTunes.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: POLITICAL GRILLING FOR JURORS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April13, 2006

Prospective jurors in former state Treasurer Robert Vigil’s trial — scheduled to begin Monday in Albuquerque — might be grilled about their individual political beliefs.

A 13-page “Request for Voir Dire Questions” filed in federal court this week lists specific questions prosecutors want to ask during jury selection.

Vigil faces multiple counts of extortion , money laundering and racketeering . The FBI says he demanded kickbacks from investment advisers in exchange for giving them state business .

Included in the list of proposed questions for the jury panel is an entire section under the heading of “Political Biases.”

Among them:

* “You will hear evidence in this case that defendant belongs to the Democratic party. Are there any jurors who would tend to sympathize with defendant as a result of this fact? Conversely , are there any jurors who feel they would be biased against defendant because he belongs to the Democratic party?”

* “Are there any jurors who feel that Democratic politicians are generally more honest than Republican, or other, politicians?”

* “Are there any jurors who feel that Republican politicians are generally more honest than Democratic, or other, politicians?”

* “Is there anyone on the panel who thinks that the United States Attorney’s Office should treat politicians differently, depending on their party?”

* “Is there anyone on the panel who has an issue with the United States Attorney prosecuting Democratic politicians?”

* “Is there anyone on the panel who has an issue with the United States Attorney prosecuting Republican politicians ?”

Background for us nonjurors: For the record, Vigil is a Democrat, while U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is a Republican . He was the GOP nominee for attorney general back in 1998.

He lost to current Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who is running for Congress against incumbent Republican Heather Wilson. State GOP leaders have criticized Madrid for not investigating Vigil in 1999 after a scathing state auditor’s report about activities during Vigil’s tenure as auditor.

But what’s that got to do with Scooter?: The former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney comes up in the proposed Vigil jury questions.

“Has anyone on the panel heard of a person named Scooter Libby? What opinions do you have about the United States prosecuting a high level official in that case?”

Libby is under indictment in the Valerie Plame case. There’s no evidence that he had any dealings with Vigil. On the other hand, there’s no evidence that Vigil leaked the name of any undercover CIA agents.

Getting theoretical: Here’s another proposed question that might draw out potential jurors’ ethical attitudes.

“Suppose a person walks into her boss’s office and asks her boss for a raise. Further assume the boss responds, ‘I’ll think about it. Oh, by the way, would you like to buy a raffle ticket to benefit my son’s soccer team?’ or ‘I’ll think about it. By the way, would you like to go out with me on Saturday night?’ In this situation, is there anyone on the panel who would not feel obligated or pressured to say ‘yes’ ?”

There’s a follow-up: “If the son’s raffle tickets cost $1,000 each, would this make a difference?”

Full disclosure: I once bought a Halloween pumpkin at my general manager’s church. This didn’t get me a raise.

Go ahead, punk, make my day: When Gov. Bill Richardson announced that Dave Contarino was stepping down as his chief of staff to take a top position in the Richardson re-election campaign, the governor had all sorts of kind words for Contarino . Richardson called Contarino the “strategic mind” of the Richardson Administration” and “my most senior and trusted aide.”

But in his autobiography, Between Worlds, published last year, Richardson had another word for Contarino.

“Punk.”

Richardson discusses how he approached Contarino in September 2001 to become his campaign manager .

“To my astonishment, the punk turned me down,” the governor, or his ghostwriter, wrote. “He has a life apart from politics, he said — a business , a wife, two small children — and he didn’t want it ruined. The guy had cojones, I thought. Fine, I said. I thought we could suck him in later. I did. Lock, stock and barrel.”

UNTOLD NEW MEXICO

What do you know, I'm in a book!

In his new compilation Untold New Mexico: Stories from a Hidden Past, just published by Sunstone Press, Jason Silverman included a version of my story on political murders in the state, (Albert J. Fountain, Jose Francisco Chaves, Ovida "Cricket" Coogler). This originally was published in New Mexico Magazine in 2004.

Also Jason quotes me and acknowledges an old New Mexican story of mine in his chapter on the 1947 execution of Louis Young.

The book is full of stories about Pancho Villa, Buddy Holly, Chuck Jones, Igor Stravinsky, Jack Johnson, Roswell aliens and more.

There's stuff by other buddies of mine too. Jon Bowman lists his favorite movies shot here and Bayou Seco (Ken Keppeler & Jeanie McLerie) list their favorite New Mexico songs.

And yes, the introduction is by none other than the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson. (No, he doesn't comment directly on my contributions.)

EARLY WEDNESDAY NOTES

My friend and former colleague K.C. Compton, who now lives in Kansas, has not one, but two blogs:

Great Big Wow

and

Samurai Mama, which New Mexican readers might remember was the name of her column for the paper. (Was that the '90s, the '80s, or both?)

XXXXXXXXX

Here's the most surreal thing I've found in my Junk Mail folder lately:

onion, oats shambles a celluloid narcissist quandary, stub handler islander overshot celluloid. veterinarian, husk nylons
jumpy to rear methane extinction, flew to scientifically was corruption embarrassing stagnant or queasiness

prophesy to procrastinate exceedingly S.O.B. an exit ramp, survival, the carbon paper of approximation the brownstone
invigorating to Baptist! mimic railing place mat, deadlock, tropics military earthquake breaking point scope house-sit the
fragile sisters-in-law to salute drowsily as UN a as crayfish trio, of propaganda with liquor store of certification the authority, hemlock, is bleachers acrimony the as immutable
stage commit, it dysfunction encumber

The subject line was "noticeable ain't." And following the above magnificant prose was what looks like a press release for something called "America Asia Petroleum."

I hope this isn't some secret code to activate some terrorist sleeping cell.

XXXXXXX

I wanted to post a link to a site Helen told me about where waitresses from across this great nation posted the names of bad-tipping customers. However, the site seems to be down. (Hint: If you're going to stiff a waitress, don't pay the bill with a credit card.)

I notice it was just named Web Site of the Week by The Boston Phoenix, so maybe their server got overloaded.

From the Phoenix:

it is downright fascinating to hear about the relentless waitress-badgering that comes from, say, Rudy Guliani or Sharon Stone. Among those notorious for being poor tippers are Kathie Lee Gifford, Pat Sajak, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis (who allegedly left a sub-dollar pile of change at a café in Grand Rapids, Michigan). Even Boston’s own Steven Tyler is a well-known “10-percenter

In case it comes back to life, here's the link to BitterWaitress.com