View From The Ditch Bank

IS IT DELIBERATE OR IGNORANCE?: I am posting today about politics. Mostly New Mexico politics, but not totally. So, having that warning, continue at your own risk.
As if such disasters as the recent flooding and now a cyclone bearing down on Queensland, Australia, the bitter cold and snowy weather in the United States, and the affect that has on millions of people in both countries, there is always the politics going on. And if that isn't enough, you have the recent events in Tunisia, and now in Egypt, and possibly expanding to other Arabic countries, the world political scene is almost boggling to the mind. Well, my mind, any way. I have enough trouble keeping up with what is going on locally, much less the national scene or the international scene. So, I'll get down to it.
Monday, Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, spoke to a group in El Paso, Texas. Her theme. Border cities are safer than people say they are. The reports of the danger are just political hype and should be stopped. That is not a direct quote, but a statement that took several paragraphs in the local paper to say. This statement was made just across the border from Juarez, Mexico, where 6,000 people have been murdered in just the last two years. And close to 30,000 in the last 6. Where drug violence spills across the border at times. Just like it has in Arizona, at times. Maybe she needs to talk to the family members of the U.S. citizens who have been victims of that violence. Napolitano quoted a lot of statistics, said a lot of money has been, and is being, spent on border security. Still, the violence goes on. Maybe if the Federal government would allow the States to practice illegal immigration enforcement, the U.S. of A wouldn't have to spend so much time and money trying to enforce a law that the federal government seems to be reluctant to enforce. Colorado is in the process of crafting a law modeled after, but different from, the embattled illegal immigration law in Arizona. They say they are crafting it so it won't get struck down. We will see.
Our own new Governor, Susana Martinez, has signed an executive order rescinding the previous governor's order that made New Mexico a sanctuary state. She also signed an order rescinding the former Governor's order, so that now Police Officers are allowed to inquire about a person's immigration status, if they are being arrested for a crime. Let me repeat that. They can ask IF THE PERSON IS BEING ARRESTED FOR A CRIME. The cannot ask it of a person who witnessed a crime, is a victim of a crime , or is asking for police assistance. They cannot ask if the person is stopped for a traffic violation. Only for the above capitalized reason. Yet; a civil rights group protested her order saying "New Mexicans should not have to fear that a broken tail light or other pretextual stop will lead to their arrest because of the color of their skin." This was said by a director of the ACLU. Read that statement, along with the statement by Napolitano, and then read the title to this blog. You just have to wonder. Are they really so ignorant? Or, are they trying to stir up trouble?
Has any one ever heard of Katie's law. Governor Martinez wants to expand that law in the State of New Mexico, by making it a law for ALL persons arrested for a felony to give a DNA sample to be entered into the national data base. I hope the Legislature passes that one. Mrs. Martinez is trying to bring back a lot of the stiffer laws and sentences that have gone by the way side in the last 8 years. She will have a hard row to hoe on a lot of this, with the State budget in the red and the State of the State unemployment. Still, she is trying. So far, I am behind her all the way. Stay tuned for future updates in the future. (Wouldn't it be funny to give a future update in the past). And that is The View From The Ditch Bank