In New Mexico, the citizen legislature meets for 30 day and 60 day sessions. With 70 House members and 42 State Senators, the annual legislative session in Santa Fe is filled with pomp, circumstance, endless meetings, morning and evening events and plenty of deal making. Over the past several years, the State Senate leadership has maintained a more conservative and thoughtful approach, while the House has seen it's share of debate. For details on the NM legislature: http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs
And the cutting edge blog that is on top of what is happening in Santa Fe is Joe Monahan's political blog that follows the ins and out of politics in New Mexico. While I'd disagree with his recent criticism of Farmington's own Representative Tom Taylor (whose is the House Minority Leader), Joe is pretty well connected with his sources in the state and has a bead on the breaking stories.
Since the session just started in mid January, they'll be plenty of entertainment over the next 50 more days, with the first female GOP Hispanic governor in the United States (Susana Martinez), a weakened Democrat Speaker of House (the Dems lost 8 seats to the GOP, but kept a slim majority in the Chamber), and the State Senate (which has been the stabilizing influence in Santa Fe during the crazy and corrupt days of Big Bill).
(c) 2011, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Reading our US Constitution
Reading our US Constitution
What a difference a majority in the House of Representatives makes. In the new 112th Congress, with newly elected Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the people's house decided to read the sacred trust document that is the foundation of the American government. Sounds a pretty good idea. Except if you are the New York Times, or one of the many Democrat members who skipped the reading.
From American Thinker by
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/01/the_constitutional_hypocrisy_o.html
The fact is that the Democratic Party and the political Left in this country use the Constitution as nothing less than an instrument of pure demagoguery. When it suits them to cite it, they do; when it suits them to ignore it, they do; and when neither alternative suits them, they invent phrases out of whole cloth (e.g., "separation of church and state," "jury of one's peers," "freedom of expression," "right to privacy") that exist nowhere in the Constitution and invest these phrases with constitutional authority.
What a difference a majority in the House of Representatives makes. In the new 112th Congress, with newly elected Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the people's house decided to read the sacred trust document that is the foundation of the American government. Sounds a pretty good idea. Except if you are the New York Times, or one of the many Democrat members who skipped the reading.
From American Thinker by
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/01/the_constitutional_hypocrisy_o.html
The fact is that the Democratic Party and the political Left in this country use the Constitution as nothing less than an instrument of pure demagoguery. When it suits them to cite it, they do; when it suits them to ignore it, they do; and when neither alternative suits them, they invent phrases out of whole cloth (e.g., "separation of church and state," "jury of one's peers," "freedom of expression," "right to privacy") that exist nowhere in the Constitution and invest these phrases with constitutional authority.
The reading of the Constitution on the House floor is neither a stunt nor a political trick. The Constitution is nothing less than the "supreme Law of the Land." Its purpose, as Madison wrote in Federalist #51, is to "oblige [the government] to control itself."
The great question of our time is this: will the public demand that government adhere to the Constitution and "control itself," or will the public not give a damn what the Constitution says as long as government provides bread and circuses?
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