OK, Ready to Lose What Little We Had Now?? A Story About CRUMBS…

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted.  Not terribly inspired by politics and in the wake of the election, ready to break every radio in the house so my mother can’t listen to “talk radio” anymore.

Heartbreaking results in New Mexico CD-2. Harry Teague was not my first choice to run for the seat 2 years ago, but he beat Steve Pearce.  Pearce never showed up, voted against the health needs of returning vets from Iraq, and when he did show up, his meetings weren’t exactly town halls…more like a select few.  Teague, to his credit, was back all the time, held many, many meetings with constituents, and even helped get something done for a family that had been neglected for years…an honor that had been overlooked. Meanwhile, there was talk about how Pearce had turned his back on vets who wanted to question him about his record.  I had kept a list of his votes on vet issues and the VoteVets.org literature AGAINST Pearce was a mirror of the info I had compiled. (VoteVets.org is a bipartisan group, by the way.)

Well, in this heavily retired military area along with a HUGE active military presence including White Sands, Pearce won. Which makes you wonder….WTF??

I could understand a little more if a new person were running on the GOP side. But, the same piece of crap who scorned the district for 4 years and the vets who live here???

Meanwhile, at the state level, Nate Cote, whom I first helped get elected 4 years ago, was defeated by a piece of crap named Ricky Little who put out so many lies about Cote that the latter had to have fliers printed up and wrapped around a campaign doorknob hanger in an attempt to save his reputation.  Nate did many wonderful things for the district, including helping out the Animal Shelter, which desperately needed help.  The man was a vet, too…but he got no respect.  Little won…a guy who thinks mammograms shouldn’t be paid for by insurance or some such.

Now, we hear this ridiculous BULLSHIT out of the Republicans whining about how “partisan” Obama  was (while all they did was stonewall everything, even their own Heritage Foundation health plan that grew up into Romney Care). And we have to hear their plans to AGGRESSIVELY derail funding, etc. with long range plans to repeal it all, even the good parts, I imagine, so that we can all buy insurance across state lines (that will do SQUAT), blah blah blah. These people are VICIOUS. And, they are BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

To top it off, we have Susana Martinezn as governor-elect who wants to repeal the legal use of medical marijuana because there are SOOO many great Big Pharma drugs to ingest (which, according to a nurse I know, aren’t as effective as pot).   And, what the hell, let those mining operations off the hook  by getting rid of the waste pit rules….And if we’re really lucky, Martinez will be a clone of Chris Christie in my home state of New Jersey and destroy the teaching profession in favor of chums running charter schools with my taxpayer money and doing the school voucher thing!  YAY!  AND, let’s not forget, she’s NOT pro-choice, to top things off! Her money came from a big developer in Colorado and that guy Perry in Texas who funded the Swiftboat campaign against John Kerry.  Nice bunch of friends she has.  She has NO legislative experience, so we’ll have to ferret exactly who will be pulling her strings. Lots of money came in from Houston, too, so we can only imagine what happens.

Sort of interesting that she didn’t carry the Hispanic vote…

I went to the doctor today, a wonderful woman whom I’ve gone to for 10 years. She is retiring in June, 2011. A couple of years ago she sold out when her sister, also a physician became ill and ultimately passed away.  She is now an employee of a large group.  She is still in her office, but her own staff is gone and there is a revolving door of personnel. Remember, this is the BEST health care system in the world…My Canadian acquaintance here for the winter snickers.

Today, my doc commented on some of the good things in the health care law and the Republican plans to destroy who knows what.  Then she did something highly unusual. She told me that people were STUPID and that as far as she was concerned, she hoped they felt the effects as things like being able to keep an unemployed 20-something on their parents insurance disappeared, just as they came into effect.  Of course, we’ll have to wait to see what happens to the pre-existing condition hell that has been lifted as well as that requirement that health care businesses have to use 85% of their cash to actually reimburse the people they insure.   In the dentist’s office the other day, I heard Millie tell a patient that she would put his claim through but if he was terminated, he shouldn’t be surprised if the company asked for the money back.  I mean, you have the policy,  you use it,  you’re covered for care, the procedure is over,  then you lose your job and they take the money back?  Heck, that sounds like a total scam, doesn’t it?  Like taking a body out of a grave.  But, that’s what has been going on with breast cancer surgeries, so I guess we’re used to being abused here in the United States and won’t mind if the Republicans gut any good things that may be in the health care law.

I know there are many people who were hell bent on voting ALL incumbents out, no matter who they were or what they had done, even if some of it was good.  I hope they are happy now. The moment I hear any whining from ex-Democrats who voted Republican this year and who suddenly become upset that the Republicans are  in, I will tell you what we all heard back when Obama was elected….I TOLD YOU SO!!  I’m no longer a registered Democrat, but I’m not about to sit back and NOT vote against a creepy Republican at this point…and the reality is,  they are SUPREMELY creepy and vile,  so bad that as much as I detest the present state of the Democratic Party, I just can’t bring myself to let a Republican in without a fight.

I don’t like Obama, never will…have been pissesd as hell with the Democratic Party since the primaries, etc. etc.   Like my doctor, I’m mad that a public option never got a chance.  However, I am NOT a masochist!  If I had a choice between a bastard like Steve Pearce vs. a Harry Teague, I HAD to vote for Teague to try to save myself from Pearce.

My philosophy at this point centers on the word CRUMBS.  Both parties are full of CRUMBS.  But, occasionally, the Democrats will give a FEW crumbs, while we can be damned sure that the Republicans won’t give the little guy ANY crumbs.

So, there you go.

Oh, but wait!  Obama is going to meet with the GOP to work out a bipartisan agenda!!  I can’t wait!  I’m SURE everything will be OK…NOT!

***

P.S.  It was close but a Library Bond issue passed…Eureka!

Local Candidates–Out There on Their Own, Unaware of PUMA Power

Babes in the woods….

That’s what my two local candidates for the New Mexico state legislature, Steve Fischmann and Nate Cote reminded me of when I met them on Sunday (September 28)…

Before talking to the candidates I met up with a guy who had canvassed me on behalf of Cote a few day earlier. At the time we had had a long conversation about the current state of affairs and he was well aware of Obama’s shortcomings (This is the second canvasser for Cote whom I’ve talked to who has big reservations about Obama.)  This fellow told me that he wouldn’t give a cent to any of the top candidates and noted that the Obama supporters in town had to buy signs.  He couldn’t get over it.

Steve Fischmann is running for NM State Senate (DIstrict 37) and he’s a fine candidate.  He exposed ” questionable deals by the State Land Office”  and is known for “his advocacy on behalf of the Organ Mountains and other public lands in New Mexico.”

Others know Steve because of his efforts on behalf of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and lower fuel costs, including his position as chair of the Southwest Energy Alliance and his service on the boards of the Southwest Environmental Center and the Coalition for Clean and Affordable Energy.

Nate Cote, our incumbent State Representative (District 53), beat a truly odious Republican last time out and I worked on his campaign doing phone canvassing. He has a fascinating background and has worked hard for people here in the district.

I nipped in to meet the candidates with the specific intention of seeing if they knew what was going on with PUMA and other disaffected Democrats.  Before I got to them, however, I had to run the gauntlet of the sign-in in sheet as well as several requests to put on a name tag.  I had absolutely no intention (even though there was an awful lot of interesting food set out) because I didn’t want to spoil the party.

As it was, as soon as I was greeted and mentioned that I had de-registered and wouldn’t be voting for Obama, I was told that by one of the hostesses that she wasn’t paying much attention to the national race because she was so busy with the local scene…but, she knew enough to launch into a speech about how awful Sarah Palin was.  I promptly fired back that Palin upheld the law on abortion and gay issues, was not against contraception and a couple of other items, and then finished off with a flourish about how I thought a lot of the negative message about Palin was a hit job engineered by Obama’s camp, specifically David Axelrod.

I think I left her in shock.

At that point I marched up to candidate Steve Fischmann and introduced myself.  We chit-chatted a bit and then I asked him if he knew what was going on with PUMA and what they were concerned about. I told him that he should know about it for his own good, in case someone popped a question to him about the state of the Democratic Party.

Well, he knew nothing about PUMA so I launched into a brief rundown on the actions of the party during the primaries and then said that Obama was all about Obama…separate offices from the party offices, which was a big departure from the “consolidated campaigns” I had worked on that pooled resources for all candidates. I also brought up the lack of funds coming in from the ticket to help local candidates.

At that point Steve indicated that he knew that there were two separate offices here in town. (The Obama office is on heavily-traveled main artery, while the regular party office is off in one of the older, more run-down business areas way off the beaten path.)  Then he told me he was “disappointed” that no funding had come in to help his campaign. I felt sorry for him.  I had made up a few slips with the URL of this website, so I told him to check here, as well as the other blogs listed on the sidebar, so he could get a feel what was going on among the grassroots.  He thanked me and said he was going to check us out.

I ran into Nate Cote as I left. He had appeared with Obama here on Memorial Day, like a good soldier.  He knew nothing about the PUMA disaffection with the party, so I quickly filled him in with exactly the same message I had given Steve.  When I got to the part about the party’s handling of the primaries, he indicated that he knew about it with a quiet ‘hmmm.”  At least that’s what I thought. As he took one of his signs out of the car for me, he said that he was just afraid people would never get to the bottom of the ticket to vote.  I declared that the bottom of the ticket was the most important part of the ballot…and I meant it!

While these fine people struggle to garner support for their candidacies, Obama continues to burn money without a thought to downticket races. And, I hope these candidates find the time to find out about PUMA. At least if someone brings up the PUMA phenomenon, perhaps, at least, they’ll know what we’re all about, and have a better idea of what’s going on beyond their district…