Thanks, To Everyone Who Has Visited This Blog!

While watching the Dog Whisperer on Friday night (August 1), we had our 50,000th hit!

I never expected to come anywhere close to reaching a number like that…thanks to all who have spent time here!

GRL

So Why Is Bill Richardson Really Fundraising for Hillary??

And why hasn’t this story been getting HUGE coverage? Would it undermine THE ONE??

I noticed the story yesterday on page 9A of the local rag–an AP story with the small headline “Richardson to Hold Fundraisers for Sen. Clinton” out of Santa Fe.

According to the report, which has been picked up by a lot of the NM media as well as by Politico.com, two events will be held on August 17, in Santa Fe and in Albuquerque. They will be invitation-only.  Richardson’s spokesperson says that both Clinton and Richardson will attend both events. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, former Hillary supporter, is hosting both fundraisers. With the Democratic Convention starting on August 25th, Richardson seems to be cutting the scheduling rather close.

Reportedly, the aim is to help Clinton pay off her debt.  The Obama campaign is using this as an example of how it is helping Clinton, as promised.

Richardson, I suppose, is also hoping to gain something and it may not just be to help preserve his image on the national scene.  His much-touted “Special Legislative Session” here in NM is rumored to be on the verge of cancellation.  There is no interest in pursuing Richardson’s original plan to address health care reform. The second goal he announced, a tax rebate using some of the state’s wealth from oil and gas revenues, has hit some rocky shoals as the price of fuel has dropped and revenues have taken a hit.  And the talk is that the Special Session which has been scheduled for August 15 is on the verge of being scrapped by being adjourned immediately.

Richardson has been in hot water lately with New Mexico lawmakers, with many feeling that he has little interest in the business of the state.  Read all about it in my earlier post, Bill Richardson’s Star is Falling with a BIG THUD (Not on VP Shortlist, State Legislators FED UP with Him) .

So what’s really going on now with the fundraisers?

Joe Monohan puts it this way:

If Obama takes the White House Big Bill doesn’t need anyone blocking the New Mexico exits, so it’s no surprise that the Guv has set up two state fundraisers to help Hillary Clinton retire her $25 million campaign debt. Hillary’s gang was livid that Bill, the beneficiary of much Clinton munificence over the years, would not endorse Hillary prior to the NM prez caucus. And when he later endorsed Obama, Clinton acolyte James Carville dubbed him a “Judas.” If Bill is picked for a big government job–especially one that requires Senate confirmation–he doesn’t need the Clinton sword hanging over his head. Making nice with her at the August 17th fundraisers could have her calling off the dogs and making it easier for Obama to promote the Guv.

(snip)

If Obama should lose in November, Hillary could again be a major presidential player, another good reason for Bill to dull the sharp edges of the political knives that her crowd has been throwing his way.

Richardson, by the way, still has $292,000 of his own debt to pay off. I figure repositioning the “Sword of Clinton” is, at the moment, a higher priority than paying off his own debt.  Maybe he’s also thinking that he may be able to approach some Clinton money people later as a result of his “graciousness.”

And then there’s this tidbit…

I happened to be chatting about this story today with an acquaintance who “has her ears close to the ground” both here in NM and in Washington, D.C.  She hinted that Richardson, who always acts out of expediency, is perhaps seeing a Clinton on the ticket…TIME WILL TELL!

Funding In-Depth, Investigative Reporting as a “Charitable Matter”??

It’s being talked about, according to Bruce Shapiro…on Radio Australia!!

I listen every *morning via shortwave radio to “Late Night Live” with Phllip Adams which features “ideas and opinions from around the world.” It is the best talk radio I have ever listened to.  Some reasons why from part of Adams’ ABC bio:

Phillip Adams is a prolific and sometimes controversial broadcaster, writer and film-maker. As presenter of Late Night Live, he has interviewed thousands of the world’s most influential politicians, historians, archaeologists, novelists, theologians, economists, philosophers and sundry conversationalists. ‘It’s a privilege to present Late Night Live,’ he says. ‘No radio program, anywhere on earth, casts a wider net.’ Phillip’s laid-back approach has become a trade-mark for Late Night Live, as has his humour, curiosity, his ability to flesh out rare insights from his guests, and his amazing store of anecdotal knowledge.

Largely self-educated (he left school in his mid-teens) he’s the author of over 20 books, including The Unspeakable Adams, Adams Versus God, Talkback, Retreat From Tolerance and A Billion Voices. His writing has appeared in many of Australia’s most influential publications and he has been a contributor to The Times and The Financial Times in London, and to the New York Times.

And that’s just part of his resume…

The guest on July 29 was Bruce Shapiro. Shapiro is a contributing editor at The Nation and correspondent for Salon as well as the Executive Director of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington.

Shapiro began his career on the fertile journalistic and political terrain of Chicago in the 1970s, and was a founding editor of the radical magazine Haymarket. He’s been the director of The Nation Institute’s Supreme Court Watch, a civil liberties watchdog; teaches investigative journalism at Yale University and, as co-convenor of the Dart Foundation Fellowship in Trauma and Journalism, is leading efforts to reform news reporting on violence.

He also co-authored a book with Jesse Jackson entitled “Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future” in 2001 and, in 2003, published “Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America.”

Shapiro spent the full hour with Adams. If you listen to the show (Link to audio here), you’ll hear some of the usual Obama talk that we’re used.  See below for details…

Eventually, however,  the talk turned to the state of journalism with Adams noting the demise of the L. A. Times weekly book review magazine just this past week.  It was second only to the New York TImes book review in importance and now it’s gone.

This is where the conversation really got interesting.  The  talk turned to the future of high-quality journalism (Minute 36:00 on the audio).   Shapiro said that it’s been a “terrible couple of years” in the news business.  Many of Shapiro’s friend in the news business have left or are in “profound anxiety” about the possibility of losing their jobs. Debt, technology, and lowered ad revenues have created a period of “huge change” in the industry.