← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · il ragno
Thread ID: 19625 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2005-08-13
2005-08-13 18:35 | User Profile
As bad as things are getting....and we wouldn't be here if they weren't going crabwise in general....it still seems beyond belief that a historic and physically beautiful state like New Mexico is now 57% Them Not Us, and rapidly devolving into the world's largest border town.
[QUOTE] [url]http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3716635[/url] [SIZE=4]New Mexico governor declares border emergency to free up funds[/SIZE] Aug 12, 2005, 06:13 PM
Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday declared an emergency in four New Mexico counties along the border, an action that lets him free up money to be spent on everything from fighting drug smuggling to fencing a livestock yard.
The executive order, issued after Richardson toured the area around Columbus, makes $750,000 immediately available to Dona Ana, Luna, Grant and Hidalgo counties. He pledged an additional $1 million.
The money will aid state and area law enforcement efforts, fund a field office for the state Office of Homeland Security and help build a fence to protect a Columbus-area livestock yard where a number of cattle have been killed or stolen.
Richardson's declaration said law enforcement officials have used all available resources to help with border security. But those efforts haven't alleviated the situation, which he said "constitutes an emergency condition with potentially catastrophic consequences."
"Recent developments have convinced me this action is necessary _ including violence directed at law enforcement, damage to property and livestock, increased evidence of drug smuggling and an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants," he said.
He also ordered the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to work with the state Livestock Board to assess the safety of livestock in the region.
The funds include nearly $50,000 for an 11-foot, razor wire-topped security fence around the stockyards. It will replace a shorter, barbed-wire fence that Richardson said "is so full of holes and gaps that trucks and people can cross with no control."
The new fence will help prevent cattle from Mexico straying across the border, officials said.
"We don't want contagious diseases to contaminate our food supply and disrupt our agricultural economy," Richardson said in a statement before his trip.
Daniel Manzanares, executive director of the Livestock Board, said at least 100 cattle from Mexico have been found in the area. The agency hasn't traced any outbreaks of disease to Mexican cattle, but Manzanares said he suspects some have carried bovine tuberculosis into New Mexico.
The current state of the stockyard fence means people have been able to illegally enter the country as well.
"We definitely have concerns about biosecurity and agroterrorism," said Tim Manning, New Mexico's homeland security adviser.
[I]Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. [/I] [/QUOTE]
2005-08-13 18:39 | User Profile
The new fence will help prevent cattle from Mexico straying across the border, officials said. Including the two-legged kind, hopefully. :lol:
Well, it's good that at least one politician finally seems to be taking the problem seriously.
2005-08-13 19:00 | User Profile
[QUOTE]The new fence will help prevent cattle from Mexico straying across the border, officials said.[/QUOTE] Hah! I think it is the other way around. The cattle "strays" to Mexico... [QUOTE]The current state of the stockyard fence means people have been able to illegally enter the country as well.[/QUOTE] ...and the two legged type strays into the U.S.
2005-08-13 22:07 | User Profile
Who's Ricardoson trying to fool? He declared NM a santuary state for wetbacks a year or two ago. He's just jockying for a shot at VP under her highness Hitlery when she runs for pres.
2005-08-15 15:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Who's Ricardoson trying to fool? [/QUOTE] Absolutely right. If there is a "state of emergency" it is largely of Richardsons making. Pushing drivers licenses for illegals, sanctuary policy, and generous taxpayer funded benefits for illegals.
[URL=http://www.rspfunding.com/articles/article/1764498/22974.htm]http://www.rspfunding.com/articles/article/1764498/22974.htm[/URL]
2005-08-15 16:15 | User Profile
New Mexico is full of tony liberals who fled there from California. Now that it's their backyard, why, they're just outraged.
2005-08-15 16:29 | User Profile
Just outside Albuquerque, there is a small burb named Rio Rancho. It is FULL of New York Jews. Has been for 20 years or more. That might have something to do with it. Lots of bucks there.
2005-08-15 16:52 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]As bad as things are getting....and we wouldn't be here if they weren't going crabwise in general....it still seems beyond belief that a historic and physically beautiful state like New Mexico is now 57% Them Not Us, and rapidly devolving into the world's largest border town. [QUOTE]...The executive order, issued after Richardson toured the area around [B][I]Columbus[/I],[/B] makes $750,000 immediately available to Dona Ana, Luna, Grant and Hidalgo counties. He pledged an additional $1 million.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]The decline of the WASP has long been evident in that part of the world. From my book: [QUOTE]While Europe was ablaze in war, the United States had only the problem of the Mexican revolution on its southern border. [COLOR=Red]In 1916 Pancho Villa at the height of the Mexican revolution crossed the border with a force of 1000 men and raided Columbus, New Mexico[/COLOR].[1] The outlaw forces of Villa killed 18 Americans and wounded many more. In a book for children in the English language series, [I][B]Hispanics of Achievement[/B][/I], the author was careful to point out Villa's revolutionaries were under [COLOR=Red]strict orders to kill only men although one Spanish speaking Anglo heard one of the thugs tell another to kill any thing that "looked white"[/COLOR].[2] This led to a punitive expedition under General John J. Pershing into northern Mexico where American forces used airplanes and motorized vehicles for the first time. None of these technical advantages was of much use to the American military. [COLOR=Red]Somehow it does seem fitting that the only foreign raid on the continental United States in this century is commemorated by the Pancho Villa State Park, formerly Camp Furlong, where Pershing's headquarters was located. In 1959 the New Mexico State Legislature designated this area a state park where a forty-nine acre botanical garden coexists with full RV facilities.[[/COLOR]3] The influence of the WASP has declined acutely in the border area. 1. NYT, p16, Feb 17, 1990 2. Steven O'Brien, [I]Pancho Villa[/I], p88 (Chelsea House, 1994) 3. Rick Cahill, [I]Border Towns of the Southwest[/I], pp121-5 (Pruett, 1987)[/QUOTE]Americans forget very easily, but others do not. One of our great failings that contributes greatly to our present position.
2005-08-15 17:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=LA Refugee]Just outside Albuquerque, there is a small burb named Rio Rancho. It is FULL of New York Jews. Has been for 20 years or more. That might have something to do with it. Lots of bucks there.[/QUOTE] That's utter nonsense. Those NYC Jews in RR have about as much political clout, even in Rio Rancho, as I do. In short, none.
In regards to Richardson's end around Dubya on the wetbacks. That's all it is. Heck this guy entertained the North Koreans here two years ago. Globalist is his middle name. He was Clinton's UN ambassador, after all. He likes to close his speeches here in Spanish, as well.
2005-08-15 17:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]As bad as things are getting....and we wouldn't be here if they weren't going crabwise in general....it still seems beyond belief that a historic and physically beautiful state like New Mexico is now 57% Them Not Us, and rapidly devolving into the world's largest border town.[/QUOTE] It is a shame, as it is a pretty state, especially up north. One thing, however, I don't see nearly the same degree of racial animosity here as I did growing up in SoCal. I think it has to do with it being a poor state (Read: tons of injuns), hence not a massive influx of immigrants to service the wealthy. Basically, the Mexicans are better assimilated.
One enormous benefit here, despite the invasion: the state is only 3% black.
2005-08-15 19:45 | User Profile
[QUOTE=LA Refugee]Just outside Albuquerque, there is a small burb named Rio Rancho. It is FULL of New York Jews. Has been for 20 years or more. That might have something to do with it. Lots of bucks there.[/QUOTE]
This is true. I stayed in Rio Rancho when working in Albuquerque couple years ago and noticed the same thing. One weekend my wife and I stayed over in a B&B she found; turned out to be run by two aging Jewish lesbians.
But the same phenomenon can be seen in many urban areas. Dallas is run by a female Jewish mayor, Laura Miller; the city for years has had a very active Jewish community. Recently Dallas was "noted" as being officially more liberal than Austin, quite a feat. And Dallas County's openly lesbian meztizo Sheriff hasn't found the going there too rough.
Atlanta is the same- the downtown and now midtown business community is dominated by Jews. There is a very active Russian Jewish element; many oldsters in the highrise apartments in midtown come from that community. The "mayor" of Buckhead is Sam Massell, who is the public face of the Jewish business community which calls the shots for their black city government by proxy. The suburbs of Atlanta have numerous Jewish communities scattered throughout- you can count three large synagogues and a Chabad house within a five mile radius of east Marietta. Atlanta is driving Georgia's huge growth in Hispanic population; some parts of Roswell and nearly all of Smyrna now resemble Tijuana. It is impossible to visit NE Georgia without being overrun by poultry-industry meztizo's slugging down cheap beer. And of course Atanta proper is occupied territory, thanks in no small part to the tikkun olam of latter-day Leo Franks like Todd Zeldin in the AJC story below. Funny, isn't it- whites are needed when funding becomes a major issue. And who better to fleece more cash from whites- who have black "culture" shoved in their faces 24/7 in Atlanta- than a scrubbed-clean Jew? One who can wheedle money from like-minded Jews like Starbuck's Howard Schultz and can leverage white guilt on the gentiles of the business elite, while demanding that they overcome their natural resistance to his freakish "jones" for the African cacophony called jazz. No wonder Hughley is rubbing her paws with glee- she's just reached back to the age-old NAACP tradition of hiring a chosenite to get some back from the man.
It's everywhere. Atlanta, Dallas, and Albuquerque are just following the path laid down years ago by the visionaries of Manhattan. Get out your wallet and get out of the way; bow down to the power of diversity...
[B]Black Arts Festival: Power in diversity[/B]
By TOM SABULIS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 07/15/05 The new face of the National Black Arts Festival is white, Jewish and business-schooled. And he's been brought on board, in part, to ask some tough questions about the 10-day performance feast that kicks off today.
For example:
Why can't board members raise more money?
And why don't more people from other racial and ethnic backgrounds come to the NBAF party?
In short, where are all the white people?
As a new board member, Todd Zeldin is trying to broaden the event's audience, which is largely black and female, and connect the Jewish and African-American communities.
PHOTO: The NBAF should be about celebrating contributions to American culture by artists of African descent, Todd Zeldin says ââ¬â and it deserves a bigger audience.
[IMG]http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/01/06/43/image_1743061.jpg[/IMG]
Festival Executive Producer Stephanie Hughley recruited Zeldin, CEO of a commercial real estate firm, to help integrate the festival's board and clientele, and to buttonhole new sponsors and patrons.
"One of the things I started talking to him about," Hughley says, "was broadening the [audience] base so that white people would start to feel that this was a great festival for them and their families ââ¬â as opposed to feeling that it's a black arts festival for black people."
Beset by financial problems during the 1990s, the nonprofit NBAF has regained its footing and broken even, or run a small surplus, over the past five years. But without an endowment, the organization is always living on the edge. New support is needed to grow ââ¬â and to replace government funding that may be lost in the coming months.
For starters, Zeldin, 40, is promoting the festival at his synagogue (Shearith Israel), within his own company (ACG Professionals, based in Midtown) and among friends and neighbors in Virginia-Highland.
He believes more people like him should experience the festival, which celebrates contributions to American culture by artists of African descent.
"You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate Jewish history," he says. And many people without a drop of African blood attend the world-famous New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
"When I talk to my friends within the Jewish community, and I say I am a board member of the National Black Arts Festival," Zeldin says, "their initial reaction is, 'But you're not black.' I say, 'I know, but that has nothing to do with me being able to appreciate and love and learn about the contributions of African-Americans to the arts community.' "
So why is only 15 percent of the festival audience non-African-American ââ¬â a number that includes Caucasians, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians and Native Americans?
The answers differ.
Zeldin says the festival hasn't done enough in the past to make nonblack audiences aware of its existence.
Hughley ââ¬â who introduced him to the event after they met in a civic leadership class three years ago ââ¬â says people of other races know about the fest but are hesitant to join in: "I still feel like a lot of people are just afraid," she says. "They just feel like, 'It's a black thing, so I shouldn't go.' "
Building the audience is especially important this year. Key government support of the festival ââ¬â founded in 1987 by Fulton County, which remains its largest single supporter ââ¬â will come under tough scrutiny in the months ahead.
Sandy Springs' recent vote for cityhood, which becomes official Dec. 1, could leave Fulton County with an estimated $70 million loss in revenue. As a result, county arts support, about $5 million annually, could take a big hit.
This year the NBAF is getting $375,000 from Fulton County. Officials do not expect funding to continue near that level.
"I think we have to plan for a day when the festival's support from the county is certainly cut in half," says Nancy Boxill, a Fulton County commissioner and former NBAF chairwoman.
Generating revenue
The NBAF's annual budget has remained static in recent years ââ¬â between $1.8 million and $2.2 million. About half that money goes to produce the annual festival; the rest pays for year-round educational programming, such as quiz bowls for schoolchildren, and staffing.
With its public funding in jeopardy, and ticket sales in a two-year decline, the NBAF needs to create more revenue-earning opportunities.
That's where an entrepreneur like Zeldin comes in. In his 10 months on the board, he has helped the NBAF create an annual membership campaign ââ¬â more than 600 people have joined in five months ââ¬â and sign up first-time sponsors, such as Starbucks.
Bigger crowds from more communities are crucial, Zeldin says. "You don't need whites to make the National Black Arts Festival legitimate. But you do need white audiences to truly accomplish the mission of the NBAF."
Transformative vision
Hughley knew what she was getting when she persuaded Zeldin to join the festival.
"I love Todd," says the festival's executive producer. "He's my boy. I think he's going to light a fire under some butts."
What's not to love?
Zeldin has the kind of credentials nonprofit arts groups relish ââ¬â a CEO with an M.B.A. (University of California, Berkeley) and a passion for fund-raising with organizations such as the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
Yet it's his jones for jazz and modern art ââ¬â works by pop art luminaries such as Andy Warhol and Tom Wessleman fill his office walls ââ¬â that solidified his friendship with Hughley.
Rob Smulian, director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, who knows Zeldin from synagogue, says the festival has landed a prize board member.
"I've never seen anyone with more energy," Smulian says. "He's something an institution needs from time to time: someone with a vision of how to transform it."
Zeldin wants to set an example for raising more money.
"My primary focus has been to go after family gifts in the Jewish community," he says. "I find that people don't generally give money to an organization; people give money to other people."
What he's discovered along the way is that the NBAF is not on the radar in the Jewish community.
"I would say, nine out of 10 people that I approach do not know about the National Black Arts Festival," he says. "That is not because they're not interested. But they're not marketed to."
Part of the challenge, he says, is that the festival's leadership does not reflect the diversity of the metro area.
"If your market is not exclusively African-Americans, and your market is, in fact, all of metro Atlanta, you can't [reach them] unless you have a board that reflects the color and interests of the entire community."
The festival's charter calls for 25 board members; currently four of them are white. The board recently lost its only Hispanic representative, state Sen. Sam Zamarripa.
"We definitely want to up that number," Hughley says.
Even before Zeldin joined the board, though, the festival had begun reaching out to other communities.
In May 2004, a $500,000 grant from the Kendeda Fund enabled the NBAF to sign a five-year deal with the Woodruff Arts Center to anchor performances in Midtown. Hughley hopes Woodruff audiences, largely white, will feel more comfortable attending performances there.
A racially broad audience is key not only to the NBAF's bottom line, but to its education goals. "It's important that we know about one another," Hughley says, speaking of diverse cultures within the black world, as well as white audiences.
"We can't be content to just hear about our communities on television or read about you in the newspaper, and then draw all of our perceptions from those very skewed and very often very stereotyped examples," Hughley says.
Zeldin says his involvement in the festival is "critically important" to expressing how the black and Jewish communities can work ââ¬â and flourish ââ¬â together.
"I'm not a spokesman for the white community," he says. "But I am a microcosm of the opportunity for the National Black Arts Festival."