El Paso Politics

No politics today. Today is a day to reflect on the fact that we live in the greatest country in the world and to reflect on those that are no longer with us that wore the uniform and stood a post to help make our country free. To fallen comrades, I remember you and your sacrifice this day! Pedro F. Abeytia, WWI & Korea

By now you've probably seen the video of Larry Medina being escorted out of a forum the other night after allegedley threatening the organizer of the event, Sammy C. If you haven't, its at the bottom of this post, so you can have a point of reference. I was there and I talked with Larry that night while everything transpired. Here's what I know. Larry showed up late, as usual for Larry (he's known for not being on time), and Sammy noticed immediately. The event was a debate on SB 1070 and was hosted by the Latino National Republican Coalition. Sammy is the head of that organization. Sammy is also a political blogger in town and wrote a piece that was critical of Larry. Go here to read it. A couple of days later, Sammy was pulled over and arrested. Sammy wrote another piece where he theorized that it was pretty coincidental that he was pulled over and arrested shortly after writing the piece and he points out that Larry would have access to driving records seeing as how...

In documents filed in the 41st District Court (Cause No. 2009D05435) in the matter of the State of Texas versus Regina Arditti, Theresa Caballero makes several allegations. One of the most intersting charges she makes involves a CHILD! In the document Caballero seemed less willing to discuss whether her client was guilty or innocent and more interested in putting forth charges against Arditti's previous lawyer and the District Attorney Jaime Esparza. For some reason, Caballero felt compelled to drag a 6 year old child in to her charges. Here's part of what the documents read: "...Additionally, the Undersigned have a good faither belief that the DA is in fact himself in violation of the Nepotism laws. DA Esparza has a personal secretary named Amy Ocegueda Lujan. It is a documented fact that they travel together, ostensibly on public business. Two of these trips were to Mexico City. DA Esparza pays Lujan approximately $85,000 a year. The Undersigned have a good faith belief ...

For those of you who didn't get a chance to join us last night for the debate over Arizona's controversial SB 1070, here is the podcast so that you can catch up with last night's festivities. Enjoy.

You know who you are, and we both know you read my blog. I see I'm now included in your little party. You mistunderstood something and that's too bad for you. I am a defender of the 1st Amendment and I don't back down to intimidation tactics. In fact, I deal with it all the time. I even defend the 1st Amendment when someone I disagree with is getting heat. If you thought that I would play along in your little game, you totally misread me. I'm not the kinda guy that sells out my beliefs just because I have beef with someone.

A former elected official and candidate for another major office was escorted out of the forum last night. Find out who and why today on the Lion Star Live starting at 10:00am!

Or does the Coach of the Orlando Magic: look like he could be a stunt double for legendary porn star Ron Jeremy?

Don't really know how to set this one up other than to say that I ran into Commissioner Haggerty the other day at Commissioner's Court and had a chance to ask him about his comments regarding the Mexican American Bar Association & MABA.

Here is a podcast of a press conference involving Commissioner Veronica Escobar regarding the dismissal of Dr. Paul Shrode, the County Medical Examiner. Commissioner Escobar is the Democratic nominee for County Judge.

For more information contact: Sammy Carrejo El Paso LNRC Chairman 915-633-4724 For Immediate Release: The El Paso Latino National Republican Coalition and KHRO 1150 host an Immigration Reform Debate EL PASO, TX (May 24, 2010) – The El Paso LNRC in conjunction with KHRO 1150 will host an Immigration Reform debate Wednesday May 26, 2010 at the El Paso State Office Building located at 401 East Franklin Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79901. The debate panel consists of County Chief of Staff/Candidate for County Judge Jaime O. Perez and KHRO Radio Personality Greg Freyermuth debating for and KHRO Radio Personality/Blogger Jaime Abeytia and Chairman of the UTEP Anthropology Department Professor Josiah Heyman debating against the question to be resolved; The State of Texas should enact an immigration control law similar to SB 1070. Moderating the debate will be Univision 26 News Director Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo. The event is scheduled from 6pm-8pm. The media is asked to confirm their attendance ...

This is an interview I conducted with State Rep Joe Moody at his campaign fundraiser yesterday. Radio La Chusma is playing in the back ground. This is the speech he gave at the campaign fundraiser. Representative Moody was introduced by his sister Melissa.

As you have probably seen over the last couple of days, my arms are getting tired from pimp slapping that pendejo David K. around on the EPCC election thing. David K is really bitter about getting beat and not being backed by the Republican establishment so he runs around like a paranoid meth addict thinking there is a conspiracy behind every tree. This is now the second or third time he claims I'm in on one. Which if you are keeping score, makes it the second or third time that he's more full of shit than a newborn's diaper. Its sad really because people go to his blog expecting inside info and they get stuck with being inside the skull of bitter young nut who's stuck on conspiracy theories. I blame it on his lack of knowledge on politics. Poor thing, he thinks everything is like the brief experience in the beltway. Its amusing to watch how every time one of his little conspiracy theories gets shot down, he re-engineers the facts to fit in to his little theories. But i...

When I heard about it, I laughed. Really loud. You know when you are somewhere that you are supposed to be quite, or everyone around you is quiet, and you suddenly burst out in an unnecessarily loud bit of laughter? That’s how it happened. I immediately realized how obnoxious I sounded and apologized to the people in my immediate vicinity, but I just couldn’t help it. It was too damn funny. All I gotta say is that David K needs to get some new sources on the community college thing. Remember the part in David K’s piece where he talks about friends, associates, and “you’re gonna find something you don’t like, and “I ask you to act on those findings”? Maybe if he’d actually turned over a few stones he would save himself a little embarrassment. Remember this line “You have to go vote and you have to keep this Diaz guy from screwing up our great community college”? He says this because of the supposed tie between Nico Dominguez, Carlos Aguilar, and Rene Diaz. Funny thing about that. Guess ...

This is a message to all the stuffed suits up at the district offices of EPISD. Kyle Cox needs to be able to participate in activities that his classmates get to participate in. Stop hiding behind ignorant definitions and even more ignorant staff and administrators that don't want this kid to go just because its a little more work for someone. God forbid that. Seriously, can you look yourselves in the mirror and feel good about excluding a kid who wants a chance to do stuff with the rest of his class? He doesn't have the ability to run, jump, and play with his classmates because of his circumstance and no one can change that right now. But you people have the power to let him participate in a function WITH his classmates that will enrich his life. You people get off your ass and do the right thing damn it. Those in the position to do good for someone else have a responsibility to do it.

My friend David K and I are usually on the opposite sides of political issues and most of the time on the opposite side of campaigns, which isn’t surprising because he’s a hard core Republican and I am a Democrat. Odds are if there is a political rumor floating around town, one of the two of us (and usually both of us) knows about it. Sometimes I’m wrong, sometimes he is. In the case of his most recent piece about Rene Diaz, he is the one wrong. There are a lot of allegations thrown around by David K in his piece and I found it to be a pretty interesting read. But since I know most of the players involved in David K’s piece, I knew some of what he said sounded wrong. Rather than just sit around and wonder, I did something David K didn’t do, I picked up the phone and talked to the cast of characters. I figure if it’s the “sinister plot” DK makes it out to be, the very least I can do is try to flesh it out. I guess the best way to handle this is to go through the various charges made by ...

You may have already seen the video interview I did with Fernando Garcia at the protest at Republican Headquarters against the SB 1070. But if you missed it, I found a cool new way to post audio here on my blog so enjoy!

Word on the street is that Ray Stafford at the El Paso Times had a not so nice send off from the El Paso Times. Sources tell me that he was given little to no notice of his pending departure. The best I can tell he was approached and told that they were going to get a new publisher and that he needed to retire or resign. Stafford allegedly said he’d stay on until they found a replacement and he was allegedly told the replacement has been found, is in the building, and will be addressing the staff at 10:00am. That’s the way I heard it went down. For what it’s worth, I hear great things about the new publisher.

The defeat of State Rep Norma Chavez at the hands of State Rep Elect Naomi Gonzalez signaled not only the end of Chavez’s political career, but may have also seen the end of what we normally identify as the political factions. Without the figurehead, the Chavez faction is basically now a disorganized collection of elected officials in the valley that have common political rivals. There were two major weaknesses to the Chavez faction. One was Chavez inability to get along with many people in positions of power, but the other weakness was that the faction was geographically isolated. It lived for the most part, only in the valley.Chavez was never able to expand outside the valley, which is one of the reasons she chose not to run for senate. Chavez turned the election campaign into a discussion about who was the real Democrat in the race. Chavez hammered Gonzalez for being the puppet of the TLR (Texans for Lawsuit Reform). Chavez was backed by the TTLA (Texas Trial Lawyers Association). S...

The rumor about Susie Byrd running for mayor is just that, a rumor. I saw this rumor floating around a while back and I mentioned that I didn't think she was running for mayor. I've talked with her about this several times and she's always told me that after her final term in city hall, she's hanging up the gloves. I checked with her again, just to be safe, via text message. Here's here response: "No. Haven't you heard that rumor before and haven't I told you no before?" Sort of reminded me of being a kid when I would ask my mom to by me some candy when we were in the store and she would say, "No, I told you before we came here not to ask for anything." So kill the rumor, Susie's not running.

For all of you on the right who are trying to justify SB 1070, watch this video so that you can really so how stupid they are. Don't try to run from this one GOP. I especially like where Russel Pierce is referred to as a "statesman".

Political upstart Rene Diaz recently came in dead last in a Republican primary for state rep for house district #78. What a difference a few weeks makes. Just a few short weeks later the novice ended up with more votes than the incumbent in the race for El Paso Community College Board of Trustees District #1. There are a couple of reasons why Diaz finds himself in the position he is in right now and poised to take out the long-time incumbent. One reason is that he doesn’t have to associate himself with a political party. In his last race he ran as a Republican and didn’t have much of a profile in the Republican party which is why Dee Margo won so commandingly. The other reason he’s in a better position now is because he hired a campaign manager. Not only a seasoned campaign manager that knows his way around the local political scene, but a Democrat to boot. He hired Ken Sutherland. Word on the street is that Uxer was approached to run for re-election that way he can retire and then a...

Personally, I don’t understand why Strelz kisses up to Caballero. Especially after all she’s done to him and what she’s put him through just for the sake of silencing his criticisms. She tried to do the same to me but couldn’t. Strelz invites her on because she is controversial and people will tune in occasionally to hear what she says next, who she accuses of being in some conspiracy against her, who she calls corrupt, or in the case of many, just to see if she’ll lose it on his show. He’s smart for doing that. In fact, word on the street is that Leeds has been looking for a place for her to go on the radio on a regular basis. Personally, I have a long memory and if she came on my show the first thing I would do is hold her accountable for the crap she’s said. But Strelz and I are different guys so I can’t really critique his style because it’s just a choice of approach. But I think that he actually buys in to some of the crap she says sometimes. Her latest rant is surrounding an emai...

You’ve no doubt seen the story regarding Manny Barraza who was convicted of trading sex for favorable decisions. Barraza received a fairly light sentence of 5 years and could be released after he serves about 85% of his sentence. I don’t get any pleasure for what is happening to Barraza, but the whole situation reminds me of what I went through for supporting his opponent in his election, a white Republican. I was called all kinds of names and even received threats for my support of his opponent. All because I backed the candidate that I still believe was clearly the more qualified candidate. Barraza was led away in handcuffs and that was surely a rough situation for his family. My prayers are with his family and I’m sure that though they are going through a rough time right now, they will pull through. There was one thing that happened at the sentencing that was surprising to me. No, it’s not the family tussle with the KFOX news crew, given my one experience with Barraza’s daughter on...

The SB 1070 legislation has caused very heated debate. No doubt you’ve heard some pretty heated back and forth on talk radio regarding the issue. But there was an altercation that required police involvement at city hall yesterday just before the start of the city council meeting. Two guys that are regulars in political circles, Sal Gomez(above) and Al Soto (below) were involved in an altercation. I know, Sal and Al getting in a fight sort of sounds like a bad ghetto nursery rhyme, but it really happened. I happened to be talking with Al when Sal came by and told Al “Come here, I wanna talk to you.” Al replied, “No you’re not. I’m gonna walk away from you.” Then Sal stopped him and told him, “I’m gonna kick your fuckin’ ass.” The two are on opposite sides of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 and apparently had exchanged words the day before at Commissioner’s Court when the issue was debated at the county level. I think they are a microcosm of what politics in this country has turned in t...

Cuz apparently they can’t even get parking in their own parking lot right. Turns out the some important manager type genius issued more parking passes than actual parking spots. Wow, that was smart. Glad to know our tax dollars are in such good hands. Good thing they aren’t running the census!

Potentially interesting development regarding a resolution being heard at city council tomorrow that I thought I would tell you about. City Representative Eddie Holguin has authored a resolution condemning the passage of SB 1070 in Arizona and calling for comprehensive immigration reform. Commissioner’s Court passed a similar but much stronger resolution today. First, I have to give props to Commissioner’s Court for having the courage to pass the resolution. I wish that Rep Holguin would’ve included boycott language in his resolution. Maybe he thought he didn’t have the support for boycott language, but I’ve always been a fan of asking for more than I am expecting and then negotiating down to what I really wanted in the first place. Many involved in the boycott of Arizona businesses have identified Clear Channel Communications as a major target of the boycott because they are big donors to the GOP in Arizona. I had a feeling that the resolution written by Holguin was going to stop sho...

Pobresito el David K. He just doesn’t get it and he’s doing his damnest to try to defend the law in Arizona. I especially like the part where he tries to act like he’s so smart and everyone else just doesn’t understand politics. I guess he thinks he’s the local authority on political punditry. Fortunately for us, he’s not. The latest fun with David K was a “Protest Update” he did on his blog the other day. First of all, he doesn’t understand why it was the Republican Headquarters that was chosen as the protest site. I guess his argument is that its very small and no one is there anyway. Wow, for a guy who thinks he’s so smart and we are oh so dumb, he sure doesn’t get it does he? First of all, he’s probably never been to the Democratic Party Headquarters himself. If he had, he’d know its not much bigger than the cab of his pick-up truck. Size doesn’t matter, something I’m sure my buddy David K has probably found himself saying a time or two in his day. The point is, the protest, as mo...