BILL RICHARDSON, BEST OF THE CARPETBAGGERS?

Pictures enlarge when clicked on. Header takes you somewhere when clicked on. (It might make you spend some time on it, but I thought it was pretty good.) The blogger likes being clicked on. The New Mexico governator, Bill Richardson, wants you to waste your vote on him. It must seem like a good idea to his sycophants, but I'd much rather use my vote on a man who might do some good for this country. I promise to let you know when I find him. Yes, I said man. Honest. I do have some knowledge of Bill's capabilities, having lived in New Mexico longer than he has. Lots longer. (No, I'm not going to tell you how long. Suffice it to say that I am familiar with Indian smoke signals.) New Mexico is one of the most sparsely settled states. There are about two million people living here, so the census tells us. As for size, we're the sixth largest state in the union. And we're a mix of so many folks from all over the world that it's difficult to tell where some of us originated. But we know, now, where the governator originated. He was born in California. His mother was a Mexican national, his father an American national. (Mom went back to Mexico to live.) Governor Richardson refers to himself as "the child of an American father and a Mexican mother". This is often distorted by journalists and others who refer to the Governor as "half-American, half-Mexican", when in fact, the Governor's American-national father was born in Nicaragua, son of an American-born father and a Mexican mother, thus making Bill Richardson one-quarter American (specifically Massachusetts and Maine Yankee) and three-quarters Mexican. There. That's out of the way. Unless the facts change. Sometimes they do. As you'll see here. Good ole Billy (who seems to have put on 20+ pounds and developed an even more slack jawed appearance) is busy, busy, busy on the campaign trail. Well, at least he's been busy raising funds for his campaign. (The fund trail?) He pointed out that "...it's impossible to raise money in July and August. We'll go down a little bit. July and August is the summer months." Shades of Dubya English. Some facts sure to lose him votes and contributions from New Mexico: The presidential candidate Bill, wants to slash (not just reduce) the nuclear weapons budget by 53%. The governator Bill not only wants to prevent cuts but raise the spending 4% in that same program. The first thing that comes to my mind? Bipolar reasoning. He's against something while wearing one hat, for it, wearing another. Ye gods. He wants to cut our defense budget by 57 billion dollars. All the while we're fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and lord knows where else) costing billions of dollars a day. I keep remembering my history books pointing out that America was not prepared for either World War I nor World War II. Many lives were lost because of that fact. If presidential Bill is successful, it's estimated that more than 3,000 high paying jobs would be lost here in New Mexico alone. And that's likely a low estimate. Think about the people working to support those working in research. Lots and lots of jobs will be lost. But, it might help give Bill a boost since his pose is virtually a carbon copy of an Iowa Priorities Caucus Project paper. The governator Bill, the guy who proposed and implemented the farcical Rail Runner Express commuter train, recently vetoed a tax increase plan to keep the train running. You might recall that Bill really pushed for that choo choo. And he got it. (And it's killed several people who tried to beat the train to a crossing and lost.) Anyway, Bill enabled tax legislation allowing for an increase for the railroad, but at the beginning of October, he stunned a fellow Democrat by saying no to any such tax forever. Tim Jennings (D-Roswell) was surprised. He said, "Maybe the Governor's just distracted. I think he wants to be known as the tax-cutting governor, not the tax-raising governor." Hahahaha. Even funnier, Gilbert Gallegos ( a Richardson spokesman) said "that it was not contradictory for the governor to shoot down the tax proposition despite having signed legislation allowing such a tax." Not contradictory? Does that mean it is a situation in which inherent factors, actions, or propositions are not inconsistent? More hahahas. The Rail Runner is expected to lose more than $20 million a year when it is extended to go to Santa Fe. We were told, when the train was first brought up, that it would lose about 1 million a year. My, my. Don't things change? To be fair, about $8 million of the present operating cost of $9.5 million is paid by the federal government, but that funding disappears in 2009. Our presidential candidate doesn't talk about New Mexico's future much. We're running into a funding gap for our highway system estimated somewhere around a half billion. Critics fear that Rail Runner costs will eat into these needed funds. But Bill isn't scared. Oh, yeah, that guy Gallegos said Richardson didn't have any other other options in mind for the train problem. And this is the man they want to put in charge of our countrys' economy? It seems to me that this carpetbagger needs to find another state to screw up. New Mexico is looking into the jaws of bankruptcy and he's spending millions on a campaign that must, and will, fail. I don't wish him on others, just wish him away from here. I wonder if he could run for president of Mexico? This was Chapter One.