{"id":316,"date":"2006-06-23T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-23T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/06\/richardson-and-bush-ask-for-our-trust-but-they%e2%80%99re-not-earning-it\/"},"modified":"2006-06-23T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-23T14:58:00","slug":"richardson-and-bush-ask-for-our-trust-but-they%e2%80%99re-not-earning-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/06\/richardson-and-bush-ask-for-our-trust-but-they%e2%80%99re-not-earning-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson and Bush ask for our trust, but they\u2019re not earning it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today there are reasons to criticize the actions of the governor and president. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

First on Gov. Bill Richardson: The Albuquerque Journal<\/a> revealed today that Richardson<\/st1:city> took a day trip earlier this month to Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to sit on an immigration panel.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It appears likely that a U.S. Smokeless Tobacco jet flew Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> there and back, according to flight-tracking records obtained by the Journal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I and others have already criticized Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for accepting flights from corporations and lobbyists as gifts. Today\u2019s news indicates that he hasn\u2019t stopped.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

More important are the answers given by officials when asked about the travel. Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s people almost always say the trip expenses were covered by the Democratic Governor\u2019s Association, which Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> chairs, and the association refuses to disclose who paid for the travel.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The association files reports that list travel donations, and has to file its next report at the end of June, but, in the past, it has refused to link the donations to specific trips.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The association refused to tell the Journal who flew Richardson<\/st1:city> to Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Leaving us to wonder:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Did Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> really travel with the tobacco group? Most likely.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why doesn\u2019t he come clean about it? It sure makes me wonder.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> repeatedly won\u2019t disclose things like this, even though he says he is concerned about state government ethics and wants reform.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Openness is the first step. I realize that most of the time there isn\u2019t actual impropriety. By not being open, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is creating an appearance of impropriety and leaving us to wonder whether there\u2019s actually anything improper happening.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On to President Bush: The New York Times<\/a> reported today about a secret Bush Administration program, initiated weeks after Sept. 11, allowing counterterrorism officials to access financial records of thousands of Americans.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of course, government officials said they\u2019re only tracking transactions of people suspected of being tied to Al Qaeda.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what they always say.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What\u2019s highly unusual is that, like with other secret programs, they\u2019re doing all this without first obtaining warrants. The last time I checked, you still needed search warrants to invade the private lives of suspects.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That darned Constitution. It must be so bothersome for counterterrorism officials.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you get around it: The program \u201cis grounded in part on the president\u2019s emergency economic powers,\u201d the Times quoted an undersecretary at the Treasury Department as saying.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

How long can we keep living in an emergency state? The so-called \u201cwar on terrorism\u201d will never end. As long as Americans allow this, there is potential for abuse.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Which ties the Richardson and Bush incidents together. The underlying message is, \u201cTrust us. We\u2019re you\u2019re leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That goes against the very fabric that holds together our nation\u2019s government. Checks and balances, freedom of speech and of the press, privacy rights, rights of the accused and other safeguards encourage us to question and our leaders to be open.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Questioning and open responses, not blind trust, is how we are supposed to judge our leaders.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Right now, they\u2019re not earning my trust. For all I know, the feds are watching my bank accounts and listening to my phone calls. And Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is making deals with Big Tobacco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today there are reasons to criticize the actions of the governor and president. First on Gov. Bill Richardson: The Albuquerque Journal revealed today that Richardson took a day trip earlier this month to Chicago to sit on an immigration panel. It appears likely that a U.S. Smokeless Tobacco jet flew Richardson there and back, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}