Senior Senator Silence and City Issues

Yesterday I let you know about Senator Pete Domenici's one man amendment in the Energy Conference Committee that would allow the export of highly enriched Uranium. See the story here.

I called Senator Domenici's office today and asked for an explanation on this action and got absolutely no where except for a nice staffer who said it was only an oped piece out of the New York Times. She said the Senator would respond to it at some point in the near future.

Obviously, after reading the story it seems some lobbyist somewhere had a real "in" with Pete. We should find out who that is and who they work for. I hope there is a good explanation for all of this.

“No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up.” —Lily Tomlin

Mayor Chavez and the city council were rightfully reversed on their plans to sieze first time DWI offenders cars. I am totally in agreement that people guilty of DWI deserve to be punished, and that after a second offense taking their car might be an option. However, the confiscation after the first offense seems onerous, especially when other family members and spouses will need a car to travel to work.

Now the Mayor says you will get a traffic ticket and a large fine if you are even one mile an hour over the speed limit in a school zone. He is setting up radar and cameras and you will be had at 16 miles per hour in a school zone. How weird is that? Have you calibrated your speedometer lately?Does this get the Mayor more votes? Obviously, he thinks the tougher he looks the closer he inches to that 40%. Marty is a pretty smart politician and he must believe that Patriot Act type totalitarianism is in vogue. He may be right but this is ridiculous. If he wants to be a tough Mayor then he should turn his sights on reigning in leapfrog development.

In other city election news, which so far hasn't really been about important issues, candidate Judy Espinosa is now saying Eric Griego wants her out of the race because she is the only woman. That is a pretty poor card to play and from what I have read in other blogs it is really backfiring on Judy. I have always liked and respected Judy, but she has not handled this campaign very well. She just should have gotten the signatures that she needed.

Now, city councilor Miguel Gomez, with the help of former city councilor Sam Bregman, is trying to keep former county commisioner Ken Sanchez off the ballot because Miguel says Ken doesn't live in the district. Now that might be a winner if Ken really doesn't live there. Ken is one of the Mayor's candidates.