THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 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
Seminole Wind by Sally Timms
Takin' the Country back by John Anderson
Kilowatts by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Dirty Old Town by Frank Black
Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores
Cocktail Desperado by Terry Allen
Juanita by Tony Gilkyson
Alcohol and Pills by Audrey Auld Mezera & Nina Gerber
Moon Over the Freeway by The Ditty Bops

That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Don't You See That Train by The Delta Sisters
Money is King by Bayou Seco
Farm Fresh Onions by Robert Earle Keen
California Bloodlines by Dave Alvin
Truck Drivin' Man by James Luther Dickinson
Political Science by The Duhks

A Man Loves His Wife by Hellwood
Tiger Tiger by The Sadies by Kelly Hogan
Many Happy Hangovers to You by Karling Abbeygate
Day After the Day of the Dead by Jim Jones
Justify Your Ways of Being Eilene by The Lonesome Brothers
Railroad Bill by Crooked Still
One More Rocket by Andy Fairweather Lowe
Old Log Cabin For Sale by Porter Wagoner with Pam Gadd
Psycho by Jack Kittell

One More Lousy Picture Show by Chip Taylor
Jessico by Kentucky Headhunters
The Battle by George Jones
Worry B Gone by Guy Clark
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
Louise by Ramblin' Jack Elliott with Tom Waits
Are You Sincere? by Bobby Bare
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

3 LOTTERY WINNERS

The New Mexico State Lottery has selected three Santa Fe bands (well, two SF groups and one former SF band) to do t.v. commercials to promote that special tax on people who aren't very good at math. (O.K., O.K., in truth I love the lottery scholarships ...)

Anywho, Sol Fire, Hollis Wake and Vanilla Pop will be doing commercials that "will be rolled out whenever the Powerball jackpot reaches $60 million and higher."

Congrats, guys! (Read more HERE)

ETHICS REFORM, (WINK, NUDGE)

Las Cruces political blogger Heath Haussamen's weekly poll this week is showing some interesting results.

The question is "Will our state's leaders enact meaningful ethics reform next year?" At this writing the runaway winner is "They'll pass some new laws that accomplish nothing."

We all know the scientific value of online polls. But this goes along with what I was saying in my column a couple of weeks ago. Despite all the headlines about Robert Vigil, Eric Serna and now Manny Aragon, it seems that a good majority of legislators don't think they need a bunch of new laws cramping their style. And with the system set up the way it is favoring incumbents so strongly, why should they want to change it?

This isn't a partisan deal. Last year in the Senate we saw lawmakers reach across the aisle and join hands in a truly bi-partisan effort to rip out the heart of ethics reform and stomp on it.

Just a little cynicism to start your day.

MORE ON GEO GROUP

My story on The private prison company Geo Group's contribution to Patricia Madrid's congressional campaign -- only days after the attorney general's office issued a legal opinion that cleared the way for GEO's Clayton prison project -- can be found HERE.

A slight mea culpa is in order here. In Tuesday's story about GEO's contributions to New Mexico politicians I said GEO had given Madrid $5,000. As you will see in today's story, I was only half right. The company on Dec. 2 last year gave her two $5,000 contributions, one for use in the primary, one for the general election. This apparently is due to federal election law, which has a $5,000 limit for each election.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: DO NOT SUSPECT THAT THESE ARE CAMPAIGN ADS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 13, 2006

Be Afraid.

That’s in big red letters on a four-page mailer from the state Attorney General’s Office that many New Mexicans have found in their mailboxes in recent days.

The topic of the mailer is Internet sexual predators. But state Republicans are afraid the slick, full-color publication “appears to be campaign literature” — tax-funded campaign literature — for Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who is running for Congress against Republican incumbent Heather Wilson.

The complaint sounds similar to one that Democratic land-commissioner candidate Jim Baca has been voicing in recent weeks about the official Web site of the State Land Office, currently run by Republican Pat Lyons.

“I feel the land office Web site is nothing more than a campaign Web site for Lyons,” Baca wrote in a recent e-mail. “I object to taxpayer financed funding of his campaign.”

Aggressive action: When you look at Madrid’s mailer, the message spanning the top of the pages is: “Online predators are exploiting our children. ... Attorney General Patricia Madrid is taking action to keep New Mexico’s children safe.”

On the left page is a picture of three children gathered at a computer keyboard. There’s an excerpt from a January Albuquerque Tribune editorial saying, “State Attorney General Patricia Madrid has taken a much-needed, aggressive stance in targeting Internet sexual predators who target children.”

On the opposite page, following a statement that one in every five children has received unwanted sexual solicitations online, the mailer lists ways in which Madrid “is taking aggressive action to stop these predators from hurting our children.” It mentions the task force created to investigate Internet crimes against children, and the New Mexico Cyber Safety Line.

At the bottom of the page is a message encouraging parents to order or download a copy of a publication — “N.M. Attorney General Patricia Madrid’s Internet Safety Guide for Parents and Teens” — by visiting http://www.ago.state.nm.us or calling (505) 222-9000. "

On the back is a color photo of Madrid, who asks parents to join her in the fight against online predators.

Sam Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, denied the mailer had anything to do with Madrid’s congressional race. The main reason for the mailer was to let people know about the Internet Safety Guide, she said.

She said the mailer — which cost $111,000 to print and mail — was paid for out of a settlement fund from a class-action suit with Microsoft. It was sent to New Mexico homes statewide — not just in congressional District One — Thompson noted. The mailing list was purchased from a commercial source, she said.

More than 70,000 copies of the Internet Safety Guide have been distributed around the state, Thompson said.

Modern times: The Land Office Web site that evoked Baca’s ire, , consists almost entirely of glowing “news” stories about Lyons.

“Land Commissioner Pat Lyons Spent $5 Million to Expand Land Management Programs/Staff” is the top-page headline. Others include “Land Commissioner Brings Biggest Solar Energy Plant in the World to New Mexico” and “Commissioner Lyons and BLM Join Forces to Open 15,000 Acres of Public Land.”

Lyon’s photo is on the top of the page. He also is shown receiving “a warm welcome” from a Bureau of Land Management official and showing reporters the location of a proposed wind farm.

“That’s ridiculous,” State Land Office spokeswoman Kristen Haase said about the suggestion the Web site looked like campaign literature.

“When Jim Baca was land commissioner, the Internet didn’t exist,” Haase said. “But now it’s modern times, and as with every other elected official, Commissioner Lyons has a Web site to highlight his accomplishments and his agenda.”

Earlier this year, Baca called attention to several television spots that featured Lyons talking about various State Land Office programs. The office paid to produce the ads and to buy time for them on New Mexico television stations.

Bet early and often: I don’t know whether the Internet Safety Guide covers online-gambling sites. But it’s been about a year since Roundhouse Round-up checked to see how our governor’s presidential chances are doing in the world of computer sports book sites.

As of Tuesday night, according to the Canada-based SportsInteraction.com, Gov. Bill Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner are in a tie for second place behind New York Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Democrat side. Clinton’s odds to get the Democratic nomination are 1.72 to one, according to the Web site. Richardson’s and Warner’s are 5 to 1. Former North Carolina senator and vice presidential nominee John Edwards is right behind the governors with 6 to 1 odds.

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain is a 3-to-1 favorite for getting the GOP nomination. Next is Virginia Sen. George Allen (4-to-1) followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani (5 to 1).

But when the question is "Who will be the next president?," Clinton is the favorite with 2.2 to 1 odds. Next is McCain (5 to 1), followed by Guiliani and Allen (both 7 to 1), and tied for fifth, Richardson and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. (both 15 to 1).

UPDATE: This story ran an incorrect phone number for the AG's internet safety hotline. It has been corrected here. My apology.

SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY

Thanks to Susan Holmes for turning me on to this.

THE GEO CONNECTION

My story in today's New Mexican on The GEO Group and its campaign contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson and other New Mexico politicians can be found HERE.


A good place to look up political contributions is The Institute of Money on State Politics' site FollowtheMoney.org. Here is a recent study about contributions from the corrections industry to politicians in several states. Unfortunately, New Mexico isn't one of the states they look at closely, even though the report shows we're in the Top 10 states for prison industry contributions.