GOT A SPARE MILLION OR TWO?

It seems our Legislature (yeah, William Payne and his cronies) decided last year that we should all have "voter Id's" in order to vote. So the Secretary of State dutifully had them printed at the order of the electees. And she mailed them out.

They arrived, except in about 200,00 cases, at people's residences, in time for the prmary. Yep, 200,000 people didn't get theirs on time. I called the Secretary's office and was told that no, I did not need the card to vote. My driver's licence was plenty good enough identification. "Why," I asked, "did you mail this useless card to me then?" "The answer," she replied sweetly, "is that the Legislature said we had to mail them out."

Cute, huh? Not when you consider that some cards that were sent to incorrect addresses, there were umpteen mistakes on others, some were mailed to dead people and some went to wrong addresses. And it cost us $1 million bucks.

And our Governator just signed a bill in March that revokes this plan. This bill was thought up by the Republican minority and formally won the Dems vote, too. But so did the original bill that cost us the money. Nothing was mentioned about the hours and hours put in to originate these "ID" cards, nor how much that cost us.

But I'm willing to bet that William Payne and Tim Jennings (another Republican Senator) pushed for this bill, too. These are the guys who want Albuquerque to return to wiping out innocent drivers by getting rid of our red light cameras.

Anyway, how about taking up a collection for us, Washington? We could use it.

A VAST WASTELAND LOOMS

According to some recent research, it looks like New Mexico is going to become a huge desert. If you believe. If you don't know that vast chunks of it already is a huge desert. Richard Seager of Columbia University Earth Observatory says we're likely to see a new kind of drought. We'll have a climate that is dry all the time. And we probably won't think very kindly of it. That sign may not be so funny after all.

Of course, New Mexico has been plagued by droughts of varying severity going back to at least the 1930s. That was the drought that created the word "Okies" for migrant Oklahomans and Steinbeck's book The Grapes Of Wrath.

It would be difficult to believe that anyone living here now is not aware of our on going problems concerning our water supply. We regularly have to restrict water usage in the summer, use alternate sprinkling days, have special hours of use that help save water. We even have people who are referred to as the "Water Police". They can give you a ticket if you waste water while sprinkling your lawn. Albuquerque and some other cities here will even pay you to get rid of your lawn and replace it with rocks.

But instead of our Governator Bill Richardson and State Senators like William Payne and Tim Jennings concerning themselves with the fact that we may not have any water to drink, they seem to be more concerned about getting caught by speeding (and red light running) cameras.

Apparently these guardians of the public welfare are unfamiliar with certain water saving devices that have been in use in Europe for decades. And they seem to work well. And they are available in the US. And they are made in the US. And their cost is not that much more than a standard item.

And they are called Dual Flush Toilets.

Sound funny? It shouldn't if you use the men's restrooms at your favorite casinos. The urinals are clearly marked. They dispense only ONE gallon of water per flush. The commodes use TWO. The home use toilets are easy to use. Two buttons. Pick the one you need.

All of us are aware that there are certain bodily wastes that go away with only one gallon. More serious stuff takes two. But the toilets in your home and many, many office buildings seem to feel that you need two gallons for anything. Ladies may, men don't. Pretty obvious we are wasting our precious water. Like it's going out of style.

Dual flush toilets should have entered the buildings codes, as mandatory, many years ago. All new construction needs to have these water savers. There is no excuse, other than laziness on the part of the people we elect to office, that we are forced to waste our precious water.

I'd sure like to hear from some of our representatives about this.

ALBUQUERQUE IS UNDER ATTACK

The trouble with political jokes is that very often they get elected. - Will Rogers If I had a lariat, I'd be swinging little loop about now. It seems that one of our state senators William Payne, ( R-Albuquerque) by name) feels that Albuquerque is making too much money from our "speeder/red light runner" cameras. The standard fine is $100. Of that, $14 goes to the company that owns the equipment, $15.65 to the hearing office, $18 processes the fines, $36 pays for expansion, education and projects like the meth team (Albuquerque was declared the world capitol in meth labs just last year). And $16.22 to other costs. That adds up to $99.87. I have absolutely no idea where the other 13 cents goes. William Payne is the state Senator who wanted this city to put up flashing yellow lights (at a cost of $500,000 each) wherever there were cameras. Apparently the amber light means nothing to him. I know I was taught that it was a warning light in driver's ed. In any case, wiser heads prevailed in the House and the bill was tabled. Hooray. There is wonderful quote from William Payne, speaking of the $74 he wants: "If it's a safety issue, I fail to see the logic." If it's a safety issue? Well, duh, William. There are published reports showing the decrease in accidents, injuries and deaths at all the intersections where the cameras are installed. And William has trouble seeing it as a safety issue? (Please see quote at beginning this of this article for further clarification.) I have question or two for both Mr. Payne and Mr. Jennings: Is it possible that you have gotten a ticket or two at these intersections? Or your friends or family? After all, Senator Payne, you didn't respond to my email a couple of weeks ago. Remember? It concerned the "flashing beacons" you wanted installed? I'm prepared to print any email or comment you care to make to this article. As long as it's kept clean. Please feel free to comment.