ABQjournal NM: 1st Congressional District Candidates Give Opinions on Iraq War

Joe Carraro, Republican
“We’re in a quagmire, and I really think we needed to have somebody ask the questions before we got in.”

You mean like the millions of Americans who said “NO WAR!” and were willing to take to the streets to make their point? The same people Republicans called traitors and cowards?

ABQjournal NM: 1st Congressional District Candidates Give Opinions on Iraq War

Darren White, Republican
“This is something that I think about every day because of my son (who just completed basic training in the Air National Guard). This thing is a mess. Mistakes have been made, big mistakes, in the execution of the war.”

Darren thinks about the war every day because of his son, not because he wanted to beat-in the heads of protesters before the war began. Yeah, mistakes were made by war-hungry Republicans. Your chance is over, bub.

peace,
mjh

ABQjournal NM: Candidates Clash Over Health Care
By Jeff Jones, Journal Politics Writer

“I’m supportive of our rural health (care)— I’m a product of that. I don’t have any desire to hurt them,” Pearce said. “But what I do desire is to start reining in the people who are literally stealing from the American public.”

ABQjournal NM: Candidates Clash Over Health Care

That’s quite an accusation from Steve Pearce — literal public theft. Who are these thieves? Blackwater, KBR? Are they the doctors Republicans wish to protect from rapacious lawyers? Are they the small business people Republicans claim to revere (while they actually revere only the very biggest corporations)?

This is the fundamental Republican view that infuriates me the most: All taxation is theft. There is no Commonwealth and no common good — every man for himself, every property is private. This extremely destructive view angers me far more than the utter hypocrisy of seeing all public expenditures as theft *except* for the limitless war machine. Pearce would have us look closely at expenditures on public health — I don’t recall him suggesting the same for the billion an hour we piss away in Iraq.

“Here’s one of the differences between Steve and I: I will not vote against the interests of the state of New Mexico to satisfy a narrow ideological agenda,” Wilson said. “He will always vote to supposedly save money, even if it makes no sense— and that’s what he did here.”

She means “me,” not “I.” But, OMG, she really is a liberal! How can any Republican vote for someone with such shifting standards. Flexibility is weakness! Compromise is failure!

peace, mjh

By this, Pearce is up over Wilson but Udall is up over each of them. peace, mjh

Swing State Project:: NM-Sen: Udall Steamrolls; Wilson and Pearce Neck-and-Neck

by: James L.

Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:22 PM EDT

SurveyUSA (5/12-14, registered voters, 11/16-18 in parens):

Tom Udall (D): 60 (54)
Steve Pearce (R): 36 (40)
Tom Udall (D): 61 (56)
Heather Wilson (R): 35 (41)
(MoE: ±2.3%)

This race is really starting to look like a lost cause for Republicans.

Here’s the primary head-to-head between Pearce and Wilson:

Steve Pearce (R): 49 (37)
Heather Wilson (R): 46 (56)
(MoE: ±4.8%)

Swing State Project:: NM-Sen: Udall Steamrolls; Wilson and Pearce Neck-and-Neck

[hat tip to R.A.]

Have you seen the commercial in which Steve Pearce puts Heather Wilson with Tom Udall as — gasp! — a liberal? Heather a liberal? That just fucking nuts, Steve. Still, it may be having some effect among Republicans because Heather has responded with a commercial identifying herself as an effective conservative. Of course, the hardcore sees “effective” as synonymous with compromising which equals weak and impure, so any suggestion that she isn’t willing to burn this village to save it may cost her votes.

It’s great to see two Republicans slash and tar each other — it’s a blood sport we don’t often see and further evidence that the Republican party is *doomed* this year. Still, it’s heartening to see them cling to old and no longer effective tactics.

Meanwhile, dim Darren White says he doesn’t want to see health care being managed by the same bureaucrats who screwed up after Katrina. LOL! Those Bush appointees will be gone soon, Sheriff, back to their old jobs at Madison Avenue and the Oil Industry, pockets stuffed with whatever they can loot before then. peace, mjh

New Mexico’s GOP is attacking Barack Obama, who hasn’t even won the nomination yet. The attacks are in the hinterlands, aimed at small town residents who, of course, are the natural constituency of the party of Big Business and the Rich. Of course, Republicans share your values, especially the prime directive of “every man for himself” and “anything goes if it gets you ahead of the next chump.” Gawd bless Das Volk for buying that (and literally paying for it in the process).

Is this early attack a first? Where did the Democratic Party pay for attack ads before McCain (aka Duhbya Too) became the presumptive nominee? Must be a proud moment for Minister of Truth, Scott Darnell, who is the picture of “wet behind the ears.” It was Darnell who explained some months ago that the NM GOP waits until June for its primary because they have better things to spend their money on: i.e., let the public fund the GOP’s contest while the Dems pay their own way. Sound hypocritical? In effect, the taxpayers are paying for these attack ads.

Darnell has been tapped by Gene Grant of *public* TV’s In Focus (ironic) to fill the shoes of Whitney Cheshire (Gene’s bud from the Wilson camp), who had stepped into the the huge void left by John Dimdahl, the great dragon of the NM GOP. Darnell’s no Dimdahl (I’m not sure who that insults), but maybe he can grow up to be a mini-Rove, former Minister of Disinformation. peace, mjh

ABQJOURNALNEWS/STATE: NM GOP Airs Ads Criticizing Obama’s ‘Working Class’ Comments By Deborah Baker/Associated Press
SANTA FE — The state Republican Party is airing radio ads in eight New Mexico communities criticizing Barack Obama for his recent comments about bitter working-class voters who “cling to guns or religion.”
The first of the ads began Thursday, and they’ll continue through April 25, said Scott Darnell, the party’s director of communications.
Darnell said the GOP wants to make sure rural voters know what the Democratic presidential candidate said, characterizing his comments as “out of touch with them and possibly not respectful of their values.”
He declined to say what the party is spending on the ads.

PS: On this week’s In Focus, Scotty D sported a very cool trace mustache and proto-chin hairs. I’m sure the graybeards of his party share his values on facial hair. More importantly, Scotty made the same case made in those radio ads, but nobody called him on it or mentioned the ads.

I’ve been waiting for some data — too bad we don’t have our own. Interesting. peace, mjh 

“The rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don’t work,” said lead author Barbara Langland-Orban, professor and chair of health policy and management at the USF College of Public Health.

“Instead, they increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections…”

Red-light Cameras Increase Crashes, Florida Researchers Find