With Bill Richardson expected to announce in the next 10 days whether he’ll run for president, I’m starting to wonder about his choice of time frame. Next week, Democrats in the House will be looking to push their “First 100 Hours” agenda, which includes: Tuesday, January 9 – Implement the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Wednesday, January [...]

Via Atrios comes this Murray Waas piece, which is more about journalism ethics than health care. Nonetheless, here’s Ezra’s take: Elsewhere, my friend Murray Waas’s rebuttal to Washington City Paper’s shameful attempts to turn his survival of cancer into some hack bit of pop-psychology is powerful and affecting. I’ll note that cancer drove Murray, then [...]

The Daily Press will have our year-end wrap up of stories next week, but Heath Haussamen has his own take over on his blog: Scandal, Richardson’s influence shaped 2006 In New Mexico, 2006 will be remembered for two things politically – widespread scandal in both parties and at all levels of government, and the impressive [...]

Via Laura Rozen comes this Jay Rosen piece on Bush Co.’s “Retreat from Empiricism.” Jay credits Ron Suskind with feeling out the Bush approach to policy making: The only piece of political journalism ever to make me cry was Ron Suskind’s article, Without a Doubt, published in the New York Times Magazine shortly before the [...]

Think Progress: John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere. Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation: – Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to [...]

While family and friends were in town this weekend I fielded several questions about the New Mexico Press Association awards conference last month. I told quite a few people I would attend, but most didn’t know the outcome. I guess that’s my fault. I received two awards: Second Place for Continuing Coverage, and Second Place [...]

Heath Haussamen (who left his gig at a Las Cruces newspaper to pursue blogging full-time) is conducting a fundraiser over at his site. Heath took a leap, yet continues to do some of the best journalism in the state without the support or infrastructure of a major news organization. You’ve seen me recommend giving money [...]

John Fridinger, aka crzyhrse, has updated the community forum at GilaCommunity.net. Some months ago, his system was attacked by comment spammers (a battle I’m constantly fighting here). At any rate, please head over if you’re interested in discussing the progressive (and other) issues facing our community. Maintaining an online forum is a huge undertaking, and [...]

Last week, I mentioned a disconnect between the Republican leadership and middle- and lower-class Americans regarding the economy. For example, take a look at two posts by the New Mexico GOP, on its blog NM For Sale. The first, really, says it all: Another Record High for the Dow Not that anyone seems to care [...]

Thanks to the wonders of Amazon, I received two books today that I hope will help me become a stronger writer. The first is “Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer.” Its author is Roy Peter Clark, a vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute. Poynter provides a number of invaluable tools [...]

This statement was just released from Richardson’s office: “I am very concerned about reports I have heard of fictional events inserted into ABC’s upcoming “Path to 9/11” film. As a former senior member of the Clinton Administration, I know first hand of the efforts that were made to capture and eliminate Osama bin Laden. This [...]

I think, by now, we’re all accustomed to seeing the Bush administration use the tragedy of 9/11 for political purposes. Now, we learn that ABC is pushing a new “docudrama” of the events leading up the 9/11, which serves as little more than a propaganda film for the GOP. The 6-hour, two-day miniseries plays host [...]