I had studiously avoided watching the Republican primary debates because there was no use to do so. They can run a yellow dog and I still won’t vote for Obama. That, my friends, is a turn around on the old Democrat saying. So, why worry about wasting my time watching something that I don’t care about. Well, last night and this morning too I took the plunge. Watched both debates. They were a pleasant surprise and the candidates came off better than I suspected.

Three comments though. Rick Perry and John Huntsman are not ready for prime time. Both need to drop out and narrow the field. Santorum was not nearly as much of a winer as  I have seen him act before. And finally, the ABC bunch that moderated last night and NBC’s Gregory fellow that moderated this morning fulfilled their obligations as Democrat Party operatives. But what else would one expect from America’s modern day Pravda and Izvestia.

Okay, time to practice my fiddle.

Since “follow the money” is the first rule of politics, that $8.5 million might be important especially in the light of the millions more to come and all of it from taxpayers’ pockets. How much of that will ultimately end back up as campaign contributions to Democrat PAC’s from the ACLU and its members? Foolish question?

The ACLU and fellow travelers get to push their socialist agenda, Democrat politicians get campaign contributions they don’t have to stump for and all of it on the taxpayers’ dime. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too!

Oh, one more silly little question, “who gets to pay for the added security for the trial and, just in case the worst happens, who gets to pay for the damage from another Islamic terrorist attack connected with the trial”?  Oh silly me, I should have known! It’s the taxpayers again!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18327.html

And below is my comment:

“Don’t worry. The lobbyists will be back in favor in a little while. Money and politicians are like 2 magnets that attract each other. As long as we have a majority of our politicians that are willing to take bribes, sorry I meant to say campaign contributions, from the big money guys nothing will change. Congress can write more and more regulations but the loopholes they insert are the killers. And even if they do write watertight laws who will watch the watchers. You see, someone has to enforce the laws and white collar criminals need to get something more than a slap on the wrist. But don’t hold your breath. Will our elected officials bite the hand that feeds them? I think the answer is self evident.

The real problem, and we don’t want to admit it, is that our government is a reflection of ourselves, our society. We are the ones that pull the voting levers for these people and keep electing them year after year. If they are corrupt, and I believe many are, we are telling them that what they are doing to us is okay! What does that say about us as an electorate? Maybe our elected officials really do represent us in ways we haven’t thought about.

Two sayings to ponder over:

Teddy Roosevelt said, “when they call the roll in the Senate half answer ‘present’ and the other half answer ‘not guilty’.”

Otto von Bismark said, “a people get the government they deserve.”

Those two sayings are linked these days in ways we, as a society, don’t really want to understand.

This isn’t going to change until the vast majority of the members of Congress are voted out of office. And I mean members of both parties. But I sure am not holding my breath.

Atlas needs to shrug.”

In 2004  CDR Financial Programs of Beverley Hills, CA got hired by the New Mexico Finance Authority to work on the $1.6 billion bond issue used to fund highway projects and the Rail Runner commuter train. This was all part of  GRIP or Governor’s Reinvestment Partnership, a Bond Program to pay for road improvements and the Railrunner Commuter Train. CDR’s owner, David Rubin, then went on to make two contributions to political organizations close to Gov. Bill Richardson totaling $85,000. One of the organizations being looked at by the feds is Si Se Puede!, a PAC formed in 2004 to pay the bills for Richardson and his staff to attend the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Richardson was convention chairman. The PAC raised $191,000 which $130,000 came from financial companies involved in the GRIP bonds.

Looks like the gov will be back and the Lt. Governor, Diane Denish, who had already begun gathering together a transition team will be back at her old office for the next 2 years. This is too bad because she is a decent person and would have made a good governor.

So, what is the future of universal health care insurance in New Mexico? Well the governor is probably going to call a special session to deal with it. I hope the legislature is very careful about what they do. Most of the plans going around have some cohersive feature to them. In other words if you don’t want health care insurance that’s just too bad. You will be made to pay by having your wages garnished. Now what about people, of which there are too many in New Mexico, that are trying to subsist on $10 an hour jobs or less? Can they even afford to  work if they must pay out $100 or more a month for health insurance? We are talking about a LOT of workers here in this state that are in these kinds of jobs. So if the taxpayers have to subsidize them where will the money come from to do that? Raise taxes or cut programs? And cut which programs? What about illegals? Will the tax payers be forced to pay for them as well? And, is it constitutional to garnish a workers wages to force them into an insurance pool they can’t afford to be in? We have laws forcing drivers to get auto liablility insurance to reimburse others from potential harm caused by other drivers. But, can we force someone to protect themselves?

Finally, under the governor’s watch the the Retiree Health Care Authority that serves retired public sector workers and retired educators has darn near been ruined with tremendous losses in investments. Service from the Authority’s employees is close to nonexistant. Do we want to put health care insurance for the whole state in the same hands?

There is some poetic justice in the fact that Hillary Clinton, who, it appears, was promoting her own coronation, may now not even get the nomination. I say “may not get it” because it’s hard to count the Clintons out even when they are down and the real dirty tricks have yet to be played. Wait until the backroom deals start to be made amongst the mucky mucks of the Democratic Party. However, it would make me exceedingly happy to see Bill Clinton denied a third term in the White House. And, while on the subject of Bill Clinton, why did he possibly ruin her chances amongst blacks by committing the ultimate political sin of race baiting Obama? Did he really think it was necessary so therefore he was the best to be the heavy and get it done or was he trying to sabotage her campaign thinking that if she won and was a better president than he it would further deteriorate his “legacy”?

In any event, his “legacy” is pretty well tarnished since he has exposed his sordid character to the whole world once again. There is practically no loathesome action or actual crime that can’t be excused amongst the left wing in this day and age, including mass murder and genocide, so even though Bill could be excused for selling the Lincoln Bedroom, taking campaign cash from the Chinese, raping women, selling pardons, loosing his law license for lying to a grand jury and making millions off lucrative back room deals, it is meet that he discovered that acts of racism against the party faithful for political gain wasn’t to be tolerated. This time he really fell off the wall and as “they” say, all of his big media pals “couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again”.

I for one will be glad to see the Clintons with their overweening lusts for power, self-aggrandizement and especially money move off the stage of history.

More to come.