September 11, 2014 a Time to Remember

I was standing in the facility office watching a television that was setup to show videos to students. Someone had found a wire hanger and fashioned it into an antenna so we could see what was going on. We watched in horror as the first of the twin towers fell. Shortly after we were all sent home to watch the news and be with our own families. My daughter was in grade school and I had found out about the attacks on the radio that morning when the plane hit the Pentagon. I had almost turned the car around at that point to take my daughter home but decided even if the country was under attack that Albuquerque would be the last place to face danger.

I knew from the sound of jet fighters taking off at Kirkland Air Force base that morning that something strange was going on. In my neighborhood you call that sound a early warning system.  Later in the day and for the next few days the skies were clear of commercial planes as the country determined if it was safe to allow planes back into our airspace. The only sound was that of fighter planes taking off from the base.

September 11, 2001 taught most Americans to make sure to tell their children in the morning that they are loved by both parents. It was hard to watch so many Americans loss their lives in a senseless act of violence that day. We remember this day as some Americans still remember Pearl Harbor. Whenever America is attacked on our own soil we remember the loss of life far more than if the individuals were killed in a war far off.

Since that day Americas have learned to live in fear of another attack. As a child I remember practicing what to do if the Soviet Union bombed our country. I was always thankful until that day that our children had not thought much about safety because we were at peace in our own homeland. Now they face dealing with security checks everywhere. Like my generation they lost a little of their childhood security because of that attack. We learned again the hard way that events that happen around the world can and do come to our shores at some point if left unchecked. We don’t want war in other parts of the world but when Americans are attacked far away then we must react to make sure that our country remains a safe place for the everyday lives of our children.

Yesterday President Obama addressed the nation on the issue of ISIS and what must be done to ensure that they will not be a danger to our citizens both here and abroad. Americans are very supportive of the actions he is taking to stop this group from spreading terror. We understand that at times we must make such individuals fear for their own safety if they threaten or take the lives of Americans. Justice is not always a peaceful and kind approach to ending conflict. It must never be our first answer but in the end if pushed too far then America must react to defend our own, in doing so we make the world a more peaceful place to live for all. 

New Mexico Education Political Football

Governor Martinez sees teachers as lazy and not deserving of their current pay. She attacked educators from day 0 of her administration. With new rules coming out of Washington, where even the President of the United States sends his daughters to high priced private school, the job of teaching is about to become even more difficult. We are about to face major teacher shortages. Our poor educational system is going to hit rock bottom because everyone but teachers has control of the system and the classrooms.

Let’s do to the U.S. Supreme Court what has been done to teachers. We can grade them on their rulings and how happy the public is with their jobs. We can cut their budgets to where they don’t have the support staff or supplies to do their jobs. We can pay them below the market for their type of job and tell them to be happy that they have a job. We can give them an administration to answer to that knows nothing about how to practice law. We can tell them that we can send them to any federal court in the country to preside over a case and that they are not allowed to choose their own cases since they work for the government. After all they work for the government and nowhere in their contract does it say that they only work in Washington D.C.

Now let’s take state legislatures who work in districts and tell them that we will move them to other districts as needed since some state legislators are better qualified than others. We will grade them on how well off their districts are and on the unemployment rate in their district. We will survey all the residents in their district and add the results to their overall work performance job grade. Clearly if their district does not create revenue from income taxes they are doing a poor job and should be graded on that factor. We can cut their state reimbursement if they are rated to be doing a poor job. We can demand that they take an expensive certification exam just to become a legislator. Of course they will have to pay for the printing of any bill they introduce into the legislature and any staff that works for them during the legislature.

If we were to grade Governor Martinez on her job performance over the last four years and link her pay to that grade she would be working to payback her income to the State of New Mexico. Governor Martinez would get an F grade for open honest government, job creation, protecting the state’s environment, employee satisfaction, and financial organization and oversight.     

The U.S. Supreme Court has gone too far when it comes to Women’s Issues!

Justice John G. Roberts has allowed his court to lean to the far right once too often. It is the responsibility of the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the rights of women in this country. The court in its Hobby Lobby ruling today sided with corporations against women in this country. No man let alone an employer should be allowed to control the reproductive rights of women. The court has crossed the line on this ruling.

I for one call on President Obama to create two new positions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Women in American with the support of their U.S. Senators can than appoint justices that will respect the will of the people over the will of Corporate America when it comes to their basic rights to privacy and self-determination. Two new positions would allow the U.S. Supreme Court to regain its respect of the American Women. It would allow them to hear cases that would lead to more acceptable rulings when it comes to women’s rights.

Justice John G. Roberts has no one but himself to blame for his failure to protect the power of his court. A Justice that respects the will of the American people over the will of corporations would not have allowed this type of overarching.

President Obama was supported by the women of this country to prevent just this type of rulings that women in America find to be disrespectful and invasive. He has the power to create new positions to the U.S. Supreme Court. He would have the support of the America People when it comes to this action.  

Mitt Romney and the Healthcare Debate

Mitt Romney on Healthcare in 1994. He is still weak on details for healthcare in this country. He was dead wrong then and he is dead wrong now. He wants to take us back to a plan in which he failed to make the case. We have a healthcare plan, "Obamacare!"

Not a Good Night for the President

Mitt Romney had a great debate last evening because he lied through the entire thing. There was no control by the moderator. Romney went on the attack from the outset. He used false information that was unbelievable at best. His nonverbal body language screamed, “Look at me I am lying and I know it.” How can the American People trust someone who can so obviously lie on national television?


President Obama did not have his head in the game last night. He looked at the moderator far too much and was slow and thoughtful with his answers. He should have come out more forcefully and challenged Romney more on his falsehoods.

The American public expected far better from their president. The facts alone are with the president. Romney would cut taxes for the rich at the expense of the middle class in this country. He would destroy healthcare and hand individuals over to an unregulated insurance industry that is already out of control when it comes to cost.

Romney would allow large corporations and banks to control the government with no oversight. He would turn back the clock when it comes to women’s rights.

The whole thing was a huge disappointment when it comes to getting real and honest answers that can help people make up their minds this election year.

Republican Right Beyond Reason

The Republican Party has lied to the American people for so long that some individuals do not know what the truth is anymore; that is if they ever did in the first place. Fox News so distorts the truth that some extreme republicans cannot believe the truth even when every other network is reporting it.

The republicans would have us believe that President Obama bows down to other world governments. We know for a fact that there is not truth in that statement. Since when did working with other world governments to bring about peace become a bad thing? Blind hate and fear of other governments would only lead this country to expensive wars with losses of more American lives.

The republicans want to rewrite history to blame President Obama for our current economic troubles. The truth is that he took office during one of the worst economic down turns in history. As President Clinton said no one, not even him, could have turned this country around in just four short years. It would be unreasonable to expect a miracle of that magnitude in such a short period of time. Still we are as a whole a lot better off than we were just four short years ago. Women need to keep fighting the war in order to protect our current rights and to bring about equality for our daughters when it comes to salaries.

The republicans with their war on women would strip all rights to privacy from women. They would remove them from the workforce and subjugate them to our male population. Women would not be able to protect themselves from abusive men. It is hard to believe that women can support those views at this point in history but in the old south, some women still want to be told how to dress and what to think by a man.

As a thinking, intelligent democratic woman, I will be the first one to call President Obama on his mistakes because I feel that is my right. I am sure that President Obama expects no less from the woman of our party. He has admitted that he is human and made some mistakes during his first term in office. I will keep after him on the issue of real educational reform. Reforms where teachers are treated with respect and given the resources to successfully educate our children.

The republicans fear education because they know thinking intelligent individuals cannot be easily lied to when it comes to things like our economy and employment issues. They denigrate anyone with a degree because they know that a well-educated individual easily dismisses their propaganda as fake and untrue.

We may never be able to change the minds of these extreme right republican individuals but with President Obama in office for four more years perhaps we can prevent the spread of these types of extreme individuals in the future by bringing our country out of recession and providing more jobs. An increased tax base created by those new jobs will also provide the government with more funding to put towards a better education for our children.

Moving Forward



President Barack Obama
at Democratic National Convention

 The president drew a stark contrast last evening between moving our country forward and moving our country backward. As president his duty is to lead in an intelligent and statesman like manner. The other candidate has a problem with many behavioral issues as we have all seen. 

President Obama will work hard to protect middle class families. He will do the investing needed to provide job growth and prosperity in the future. He expects support and responsibility from the voters in this country. He and the Democratic Party are demanding a legislative body that can put aside politics infavor of cooperation in moving our country forward.

We can work with the Republican Party without losing sight of our own moral values. They can work with us without compromising their values. The best solutions are often ones where both parties combine the best and brightest ideas into a whole and complete bill.

No one wants a government that is so large that it cannot get the job done in a timely manner. No one wants our tax dollars wasted when there are great causes that still need funding. No one wants a government that controls ever element of its citizen’s lives.

We demand that the corporations and the rich pay their fair share in taxes to support the future development and security of our country. Citizenship carries with it many responsibilities as well as rights in this country. If republicans expect us to treat corporations as people, than corporations should start living up to their share of the responsibilities.

Our children have a right to a quality education, but the government better be willing to fund that educational process on the front lines. President Obama needs to look at were educational funding is going and not just hand it over to a top heavy administration where it will never get to the classrooms.

We demand that health insurance companies spend a percentage specific amount of their revenues on the services provided before awarding profits to their top executives, so why not demand that schools spend a percentage specific amount on classroom teachers, student academic support, and classroom materials in order to protect those that services are meant for in the first place.

President Obama is right when he says that we need more math and science teachers. His job is to provide a salary to attract quality people into the field. He also needs to supply those instructors with the materials needed to teach those classes. If he is going to demand more teachers than he better make sure higher education is affordable in those specific fields.

Lastly, the Democratic Party is the big tent party. If some groups are going to demand equality then two things should happen. First, they should not be allowed to exclude other groups just because of differing views on their issues within the party. Second, everyone in this country should realize that some issues are not a matter of a checklist created by either side but a complex negotiation with all the concerns parties having access to the table.

Democratic National Convention--Shared Prosperity and Shared Responsibility

President Obama and Former President Clinton
At the Democratic National Covention

Last evening President Bill Clinton eloquently spoke about the what, which needed to be fixed in our country and how President Obama plans to fix it in order to move our country forward. President Clinton displayed why Americans still see him as one of our greatest presidents to date. President Clinton suggested that a good place to start fixing our economy was with some good old-fashion basic math skills.

Something the Republican Party is lacking. The Republican Party wants to cut taxes on the richest top two percent of Americans but fails to provide the math on how they plans to pay for those tax reductions. They could possibly enact cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Educational Funding, and Social Services to millions of Americans in the middle class just to balance their budget.

President Obama wants to invest in education, research and infrastructure by tax savings and tax increases to the richest Americans. Any business owner will tell you that the only way to build a company is to invest in these same three important areas.

Government research has been responsible for everything from frozen peas to new and improved forms of solar power collectors in this country. It has sent a man to the moon and produced the information highway. Without investment now, the future could be a place where our children’s economy will be stuck in neutral or worse.

President Clinton is a remarkable man who has the ability to explain things in a way, which all Americans can get the meaning. He was the man who managed not only to balance our budget but also to leave our country with a surplus. President Clinton stressed the need for Americans to demand that the republicans learn to work with democrats in order to fix our problems. President Bill Clinton is no saint in most women’s eyes, nevertheless; he does know how to fix the problems that middle class families are facing.

The Democratic Party is lucky to have such a senior statesmen as President Bill Clinton. We should take his sage advice and vote for President Obama in order to protect our children’s future.