As The City Burns

And I thought STATE government was weird ... Here's some anonymous commentary about some recent city politics stories.

The video below is a (supposed) interview of City Councilor Matt Ortiz and my New Mexican colleague Tom Sharpe. I have to admire the uncanny resemblance to Sharpe and the precise recreation of his phony British accent. (Before I get in trouble here, I'm KIDDING!)

If you like this, there's more on YouTube

Roundhouse Roundup: The Magic of Defamation

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
November 4, 2010

So who had the most fun in the 2010 campaign in New Mexico? The answer is obvious: It had to be the anonymous person or persons behind a crazy little blog called NM Defamation Suit.

"This site makes humorous statements about public figures," a modest disclaimer reads on the top of the page. "Please keep your cease-and-desist e-mails to yourself."

Defamation Suit lives up to that promise of satirizing politicos. There's no apparent partisan agenda, as all are fair game. With a good working knowledge of New Mexico politics, and a little skill at Photoshop, the site indulges in wild ridicule at those who run — or would like to run — this state.

Warning: The humor often is scatological, frequently vicious, sometimes juvenile. There have been a few times when they've written unflattering things about some of my fellow journalist cronies, such as blogger/reporter Heath Haussamen, who made the mistake of billing the blog for using one of his photographs.

Someone should stop them before they pervert the children. (I check it nearly every day.)

Defamation Suit describes candidates in ways that their opponents only fantasize about.

Diane Denish: "... a painfully boring invalid with no discernible insight into anything." Jon Barela: "He looks like the Slush Puppy on downers."

"Fun with Photoshop" is a constant Defamation theme. Early posts included the face of now-Gov.-elect Susana Martinez on the obese body of some extreme-eating contestant — claiming Martinez had skipped a debate to compete in a chimichanga-eating contest.

Another showed the face of GOP gubernatorial also-ran Pete Domenici Jr. — who at the time had just admitted to using drugs as a young man — on the body of Al Pacino in Scarface, sitting at a desk covered with cocaine.

Some of the funniest material on Defamation Suit could be described as "found-object" satire.

After Tuesday's election, Defamation published a selection of actual tweets and Facebook posts expressing "elation/suicidal thoughts" about the results. Held up to ridicule are doom, gloom and bile from disappointed Democrats and overly giddy Republicans.

The blog has gotten some mileage by lifting (real) photos from Secretary of State Mary Herrera's Facebook page — including a picture of Herrera with U.S. Sen. Tom Udall. I don't know the real circumstances of the photo, but it looks as if Udall was trying to avoid Herrera by talking on his cell phone.

And though the blog is Defamation's main medium, it recently ventured into video production. With a techno-music audio backdrop, they had some hilarious fun with an example of Denish's recent verbal stumbling at a debate. (Denish was trying to say that Martinez gave some staff members "big fat bonuses," but it didn't come out that way.)

Some politicians seem amused at the blog. Its Facebook pages list several among its "friends" and "fans." And a couple months ago, after it made fun of what former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White must have been like as a child, White, good sport that he is, e-mailed them an actual photo of himself at age 8.

The only actual complaint from a politician I've seen was early this year when Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano posted on his blog, "The writer fancies his or herself a comedian, but not a Sinbad type comedian known for his lack of profanity but much more like Richard Pryor known for his harsh profanity laden humor."

On its Twitter feed, Defamation thanked Solano for the plug and assured him "we try to emulate Sinbad in every way we can."

Hours of Entertainment

Tired of the incessant back and forth between Diane Denish and Susana Martinez? Or do you want more? You want to see these two pound the spit out of each other?

Then try NM Knockout a fun little game from a web site called NMPolitics.org. This won't replace Pacman in the pantheon of video-game time-wasters, but it's more fun than reading their press releases.

Speaking of punches, Martinez landed another one via the latest  Rasmussen poll. This one shows her 9 points ahead with 52 percent of the vote.

A Joyful Campaign

Joe Monahan might have hot it on the head when he referred to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign as a "joyless" campaign.

Well, as just a weekend goof, here's a clip from an era when politics was downright fun. Here's an old film of "live news coverage from the 1972 National Surrealist Party Convention, interrupted by news flashes from Monster Island, where the president is denied entrance to the forbidden city ..."

Yes, it's The Firesign Theatre's Martian Space Party, which I first saw at UNM's SUB Theater not long after it was released. The film quality's not great, but that kind of adds to the charm.

I don't think New Mexico politics was ever quite like this. But we can dream.

Have a joyous weekend.

The Future of Newspapers

This is from The Onion If we're going down, let's go down laughing.


Boston Globe Tailors Print Edition For Three Remaining Subscribers

My Favorite Campaign Ad of the Day (So Far)

Please, Write Jim Terr and tell him to call off the dogs!

Spector Leaves GOP

Wait a minute ... That's Arlen Specter?

Never mind ...




(Want more dumb Specter jokes? Try THIS )