We all should be made aware of which congressmen inserted the language to weaken campaign finance laws into the budget bill. We must know who is responsible for pimping for the rich who would make our division of wealth even more skewed. I am betting Congressman Steve Pearce is one of them, or at least complicit. This wasn't compromise. It was extortion on a grand scale and we need to take names.
Senator Martin Heinrich has taken a stand against selling public lands to fund an International Mining Company to walk away from leases in sensitive areas in California. Heinrich says it would set a horrible precedent, and I agree. In taking this stand Heinrich has shown he is not afraid to oppose Senate Democratic leadership. It is refreshing. Heinrich supports buying out the leases, but not by selling other public lands.
5 comments:
This bill is like visiting the in-laws. Eventually you get to leave.
Seriously, the Journal has a long list of things New Mexico gets out of that bill and I think we make out pretty good. We can only hope that Wall Street doesn't fleece us too badly this time because it's back to casino Capitalism and we've just said we'll pay for an unlimited supply of chips.
One way of looking at it is that Heinrich and Udall were in a tougher position than our representatives, who could make a symbolic vote against the bill because it was going to pass in the House anyway. If our senators had caused a government shutdown the consequences could have been severe. I don't really blame them for voting yes. Elizabeth Warren is getting a lot of mileage out of opposing the bill but she was counting votes, too.
The time for decisive action by Democrats is long past, by at least 20 years when they started selling their souls to Wall Street. They have themselves in a position where they can only beg a few crumbs for us now an then.
If there's to be any decisive action we'll have to take it. Keep some poster board and magic markers on hand.
Its too bad and very depressing that Udall and Heinrich both are just a few days away from becomng totally irrelevant as US Senators from a small insignificant state that has little or no influence on the national scene. Both will be finding out what it is like to be in the minority party in the US Senate. Heinrich especially will feel the brunt of the change seeing as he is still a first term Senator with only 2 years into the job. Heinrich's worring about California leases is understood, but what has he really accomplished for New Mexico. In the meantime, we have a clueless Governor who will only increase her national profile and influence whether she runs of VP or not and a fool for a Mayor who has done absolutly nothing to turn Albuquerque around and who may just wind up being our next US Senator. Heinrich better buckle down and try to do more to turn the Democratic Party around and attract more jobs to New Mexico, ortherwise I suspect he will be a one term US Senator. As far as Udall is concerned, he will act true to form and we really won't see or hear from him for the next 5 years until he runs for re-elction.
It's to bad Baca is so quiet on Berry and apd's staffing crisis. It's half his fault anyways.
One thing I like about Senator Heinrich is that he is honest. He isn't in Washington to become a millionaire unlike Tom Udall and other congressmen in Washington. He is one of the poorest members of Congress and he is well liked by the Albuquerque voters. He can get votes from the traditional Republican voters at Sandia Labs and Los Alamos because he is the only congressman that understands their research due to having an engineering degree.
That last bill included money for both Sandia and Los Alamos Laboratories. Both labs also do non defense research such as developing alternative clean energy and medical devices. Sandia is expanding on off site for this non defense technology with UNM so this will be a boom to Albuquerque and New Mexico. It will help UNM's math, science and engineering departments which have a high level of international students and faculty. These foreign scientists and engineers are limited in were they can work at Sandia due to security reasons. Plus we won't lose engineers that graduate from UNM to other states due to lack of jobs. Albuquerque could be worse off if Sandia and Kirtland closed. These projects by the expansion of research by Sandia and UNM will attract more companies to New Mexico with jobs that are better than retail,and tourism.
Bubba,
Al Gore and Bill Clinton were the ones that started that selling the Democratic party to Wall Street in the 1970s. I googled this information of the Democratic Party, pacs and wealthy donors, because I am thinking of registering as an independent. The local Democratic Parties don't get any money except for the Santa Fe Democratic Party which has full-time working staff. This might be the reason why Congress expanded donors to both parties, because the percentage of voters registering as independent is growing.
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