The Red Rocks at Jemez Pueblo

Really very beautiful rock formations, located on Highway 4 at the south end of the Jemez Mountains.

I like the red rocks, the brilliant blue sky and the green of the trees. The color is just brilliant in the New Mexico sunshine.

Soda Dam

Soda Dam is an interesting geological formation on Highway 4 near Jemez Springs, NM. We were there almost 40 years ago, and again last week. It looks exactly the same as it did in 1970.

Soda Dam was formed from the water of the Jemez River spilling through a hole in the rock and forming a waterfall that splashes into a poll down an arch of calcium carbonate rock called travertine.

There was no one there last Tuesday when we stopped, but during the summer months, Soda Dam is a popular place for tourists to visit, climb around the rock formation and splash around in the pool.



Cousin Peter on the road in the Jemez Mountains with us.

Up in the Jemez Mountains

Taken this past week on our drive through most of the length of the Jemez Mountains.

Valles Caldera

Valles Caldera is a 12 mile wide collapsed volcano in the Jemez Mountains near Los Alamos, NM, which is owned by the federal government as a National Preserve. It was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions about one million years ago. It is used to feed cattle in the summer, and elk come there to graze all year long.

On the way up the Hill

We went to Los Alamos earlier this week. The views as you climb the hill to the town have some of the most dramatice scenery in New Mexico.

Snow up on the Sangres

Pictures taken near Pojoaque, New Mexico.

Looking around at Lamy

We were down in Lamy today at the train station -- always a good place to snap a few pictures.

Snowy Sunday in Santa Fe

We had several inches of fresh snow in Santa Fe Saturday night and Sunday morning.

We drove around Santa Fe, showing the city to John's cousin Peter who is visiting, and the snow made a lovely setting for the following pictures:

Hispanos Unidos

A week or so ago, John and I attended a meeting of a group here in New Mexico called Hispanos Unidos. This is an organization formed to combat the huge problem of voter fraud here in the state.

Our state government has made the election laws here so lax that any special interest group with enough money can literally buy our local and state elections.

No identification is required for voting in New Mexico. At the polls, you can simply state your name and be handed a ballot, even though you just used a phone book and looked for a name and address, and presented yourself as that person. This has resulted in rampant fraud. Hispanos Unidos has found that this happened over and over again in the 2008 election, leaving actual voters disenfranchised when they went to the polls and were told they had already voted. They were then allowed to vote on a provisional ballot, which was then thrown out by their county clerk.

Other things which have been happening in New Mexico election in recent years are:
~~~Dead people had their votes count; living people did not have their votes count
~~~53% of absentee voters were disenfranchised
~~~“Community organizations” such as ACORN were making threats to citizens, and forcing illegal aliens who didn’t even want to vote to go to the polls and vote as they told them.

None of this is wild-eyed crazy imagined stuff; everything Hispanos Unidos reports has been fully documented.

Hispanos Unidos is promoting election reform. At the meeting we heard from the chairman of the organization Victor Contreras from Las Cruces, and also from Jaden Hamilton, who works with the organization in a leadership position.

Jaden’s mother, Dianne Hamilton, is a New Mexico state representative from Silver City who is sponsoring a bill in the state legislature which simply asks that voters at all polling places be required to show a photo ID. However, at this point the request for a photo ID bill has been dismissed by the House Voters and Elections Committee, who have stated that no fraud occurred in the 2008 General Election. This despite the fact the Hispanos Unidos is able to provide thousands of pages of documented election fraud!

Oh yes, and there is this -- a recent poll shows 82% of our citizens want photo identification at the polls.

Hispanos Unidos is using the donations they receive to produce TV ads (excellent ones - we were shown several of them) to air in as many TV outlets in New Mexico as possible.

According to their website, Hispanos Unidos supports:

• Tougher penalties for voter fraud
• Photo ID at the polls
• Amending the state constitution to allow for referendum—taking issues like tax increases, voter laws, social issues, etc. to the people to vote on during elections
• Web cam or television coverage of all legislative committee meetings.

It was an altogether eye-opening meeting for John and I. You can find more information at the organization’s website:

Hispanos Unidos

The motto of the organization is "Tu voto es poder." "Your vote is power."

"The right to vote includes the right not to have one's vote diluted by someone who shouldn't be voting, who votes twice, or who doesn't even exist." ~John Fund

November

The very last of the fall color in our yard.

An approaching winter storm.

Sure looks like November here this morning.