Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Misc.

The Albuquerque Police Department and Democratic Presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton are both using social media to skirt the press in making announcements.  APD Chief Eden, a certifiable failure, has used YouTube to announce an investigation into two officers accused of beating a suspect.  That way there is no hard questions for him to answer.  That is good for him and bad for us.  And of course not a peep from the Mayor.

And Hilary Clinton gives us a four minute blurb announcing her run for the Presidency.  That is it.  No hard questions for her either.  Don't get me wrong, I like her and would vote for her in a general election.  But once again, where is the new leadership?  Why are we reaching into the 90's again with the Clintons and bushes?


The Albuquerque Journal story on public transit was a good recap today about the importance of getting people around our metro area.  The modern day bus system we now have started back during my term as Mayor when we got the voters to approve a quarter cent sales tax to improve maintenance and public transit.  The republicans on the council at that time tried every thing they could to gut the public transit part of the effort.  We ended  up using 20% of that money to update the system and it has paid off.  Of course, public transit never pays for itself, but it is the kind of service a city must provide to make an efficient economy possible.  The republican intellect is still at work though in constant attacks on the Rail Runner system to Santa Fe.  In a few years they will be proven fools once again.

Susanna Martinez seems to be only a fly on the wall as legislators negotiate issues that might be considered for a special session.  The leadership is moving ahead while the governor seems to be ambivalent about doing her job.  I have never understood pols like here who seem to think that 'being there' is the only reason for being elected.  Voters need to think about leadership qualities once in a while.

We are back from upstate New York.  On Sunday in the town of Camillus where our son and family live the sun came out and a spring like day was presented.  It was great watching these upstaters come out of their homes into the nice weather shielding their eyes from the bright sky.  They looked like hibernating bears coming out of caves.  Most of them got to work right away walking dogs or working in the yards.  Their several feet of snow had disappeared. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is an interesting piece. One interesting, and hopeful thing about it, is that young people are using public transportation more.

Bus ridership though isn't a constituency. It overlaps several others and there's no political cost to screwing bus riders. On the other hand, to put money into pubic transportation means paying a cost. You hope people get your vision, but most don't. It has to be left to history to judge you.

Speaking of the governor, she signed that forfeiture bill that prevents cops from taking your property just because they want it. She and her husband are from law enforcement backgrounds and in her signing statement on her web site she whines a little about signing it, and stresses that she ain't agin' the law enforcement.

But then you read elsewhere that those forfeiture laws are a big thing right now with the Tea Party. They hate them and are getting them repealed where they can.

In other words, the governor was saying to New Mexico law enforcement, screw you, this helps me.

Which is the guiding principal of her tenure. While New Mexicans stand in the quicksand of an economy that some, the IMF for example, think is already back in recession, she's jetting around hobnobbing with big money donors, running with all her might for the vice presidency, and looking to the Tea Party for direction on how to govern her state.

Anonymous said...

Does the social media thing mean APD can get rid of all of its PIO's? What a savings that would be annnnd more cops doing what they were hired to do. Just a thought, Eden will probably hire more PIO's and reduce the four hundred street cops even more. Even without the press there to ask questions Eden looks like he's gonna cry at any minute.