Because I Still Care

Last night, I spent over an hour watching a YouTube video. Now mind you, I'm part of the MTV generation, so spending more than three minutes watching a video is normally a challenge for me, but this time it wasn't, and if you can find the time (regardless of your political persuasion), I would strongly urge you to set aside an hour to watch Randy Pausch's Last Lecture - Achieving Your Childhood Dreams:



I've always chased my dreams (and have caught quite a few of them), so his lecture resonated with me. It spoke to how I've always tried and continue to try to live my life. But more importantly, a lot of what he had to say seemed relevant to the political challenges we are facing today - on a national, state and lately, on the county level. To that last point, consider this excerpt about his youth football experience from approximately ten minutes into the lecture:

When it was all over one of the other assistant coaches came over and said, "Yeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard didn't he?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He said, "That's a good thing. When you're screwing up and no one is saying anything to you anymore that means they gave up."

"That's a lesson that stuck with me the whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and no one is telling you anymore, that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones that tell you they still love you and care."

With this in mind, I have a message to the dozen plus Executive Committee members of the Bernalillo County Republican Party that met yesterday and voted unanimously to give Chairman Fernando C'deBaca a vote of full faith and confidence...

"You screwed up."

And, you did it because you're not looking at the bigger picture. Mr. C'deBaca said something racist and offensive to the majority of New Mexicans, and it reflects poorly on the Republican Party. There are plenty of reasons not to vote for Barack Obama for President, but the color of his skin in not one of those reasons. Mr. C'deBaca knows it and has apologized. Unfortunately, for us, actions speak louder than words. If he was truly apologetic, he would have stepped down instead of putting on this sideshow.

This nonsense that we have an election to win and that is the reason for remaining Chairman is just that - nonsense. You don't need a title to volunteer your time. The same people, all of those in the room yesterday, could work just as hard to win the election whether Mr. C'deBaca had the title of Chairman or not.

And, as long as I'm criticizing my own party, I may as well go all out here...

With this bailout we're proposing, we're screwing up nationally as well. Again, we're failing to look at the big picture. The 2008 election is important, but winning the election by selling out our values is just too high of a price to pay. There are at least 10 reasons we shouldn't be doing this bailout, not the least of which is:

Fundamentally alters the nation’s free-market system in that it broadly socializes firm’s money-losing mortgage assets and places the U.S. on a slippery slope whereby profits will also be nationalized. Even if one accepts the idea that such a proposal could work, valid questions about whether such a cost is an acceptable trade-off for the market turmoil we are hoping to avoid must be raised.

We're screwing up, and if I just went along to get along, I'd be making the same mistake the Bernalillo County executive committee made yesterday. But, you know what? I care too much to just remain silent.

Dancing Pink Elephants and Moving Cheese

When it comes to the David Iglesias "scandal," no one, well there is one exception, is talking about the big pink elephants doing pirouettes in the middle of the room. What am I talking about?

For one, no one is saying that indictments should not be coming down. In fact, as early as June of last year, people were already googling to try and discover more on the impending, still impending nine months later, Manny Aragon indictments. NINE MONTHS after the FBI investigation is completed, and we're still waiting for indictments. I know this is the Land of Manana, but this is getting a little ridiculous, even by New Mexico standards.

Now, I could understand all of the hoopla if it came out that Mr. Iglesias was contacted by Congressional representatives and was asked to manufacture indictments were none existed, but that does not seem to be the case here. Instead, we're talking about folks calling him up and wondering what in blazes is taking so long? Kind of like I've been wondering about this case.

Should Mr. Iglesias have brought in the indictments before the election? ABSOLUTELY! At the time rumors were abounding that Mr. Iglesias was worried about bringing down the indictments before the election lest they seem political. Hello, they are political. We're talking about politicians taking kickbacks at taxpayer expense. Can anyone think about a more relevant political point prior to an election? Nah, me neither.

Ok, back to the dancing pink elephants.

Anyone else find it odd that Mr. Iglesias waited FIVE MONTHS to cry foul? Seriously folks, this upstanding lawyer, who refused to give in to alleged pressure by Congressional Representatives, never made so much as a squeak in October to the Department of Justice - something that he was bound to do.

Nor, did he come forward with his allegations in December of last year, when it became public knowledge that he was resigning (subscription):

U.S. Attorney David Iglesias will resign in the next few months— more than two years before his appointment expires, an office spokesman confirmed Monday night.

Iglesias, appointed by President Bush in 2001, would normally have served as the state's chief federal lawman until the end of Bush's term in 2008.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Norm Cairns said Iglesias "has had discussions with officials in Washington, D.C. Based on those discussions, he has decided to move on."

Rumors that Iglesias was in trouble with his superiors at the Department of Justice have been circulating for months.

The chief criticism of Iglesias has been that he had not provided enough resources for public corruption investigations. Some of that criticism has come from the political arena and some from the FBI, which has made political corruption its No. 2 priority behind terrorism.

Iglesias' defenders, in private conversations, argued that the federal prosecutors are overwhelmed with immigration and narcotics cases because of the state's southern border with Mexico.

No, it took Mr. Iglesias another three months to create a stir. I'm beginning to think that Mr. Iglesias has his own political agenda in the works. David Iglesias is going out, not as a prosecutor whose number one interest is seeing bad guys end up behind bars, but as a politician whose number one interest is self promotion. What other reason could he have for doing this (subscription):

At a news conference in his Albuquerque office, Iglesias displayed charts with statistics showing that the number of defendants charged during his tenure rose 13 percent and immigration cases increased 78 percent. At the same time, the caseload of his assistant U.S. attorneys went up 24 percent, while the number of full-time employees in the office went up just 7 percent.

I feel for the Justice Department. I've been there. I've had to fire an employee who thought they were doing a bang-up job. Someone who said, "Look at all the great work I've been doing. What do you mean, I'm failing? I've been working really hard on all of these projects. But, you told me I was doing well last year."

Yup, we've all been there.

Mr. Iglesias, I've got a book for you to read, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. You see, your bosses at the Department of Justice wanted you to focus on public corruption, and you wanted to focus on increasing your immigration and narcotics caseload. The "cheese" was moved and you didn't follow it. That's the reason you lost your job, and all of the charts and statistics combined with cries of political fouls isn't going to change that simple fact. So, get over it, move on with your life, and try and learn when the boss moves the cheese, it's up to you follow it.