The Next Contestant...

See that guy? That is New Mexico's very own Bill Richardson. He was born in Pasadena, California to a half Hispanic father and a Mexican mother. This, of course, leads many to believe that the Hispanic governor is pro-illegal immigrant. We'll eveluate that later.

But first, I want to discuss a particular moment in time. Some time ago, some classified data pertaining to nuclear energy went missing in the form of hard drives. At the time, Bill Richardson was the Secretary of Energy under 2nd term Bill Clinton. You can imagine how things were going for that man... Due to wrangling involved, during the senate investigation into espionage and what have you, (it really is too complicated to get into. I remember some of this from when it went on. But really, this government investigations are really good at 1. Destroying whole swaths of forestland due to the tonnes of paper needed for everything; 2. Digging up everything on a person like when they got a haircut, walked the dog, sold secrets to China... you know, little things; 3. Digging up actual people: Alive and Dead; 4. Taking an infentesimal time to accomplish ABSOLUTELY NOTHING; 5. But look good in the process, prove to those slack-jawed wankers at home that you indeed "work" and therefore, will get re-elected.) Richardson came to the senate to yabber about his non-responsibilty to the Senators old and dying (Strom was there). Richardson shrugged off a Senate appearance before finally coming in to testify. His reasoning was that he wanted all the facts in hand before coming before them. True, that might be good. But thats if you believe this is really going to accomplish something (see above). Senator Byrd (another old dude) said to him "You had a bright and brilliant career, but you will never again receive the support of the U.S. Senate for any office you seek. You have squandered your treasure." The Coda: Richardson won New Mexico's gubernatorial election in 2002.

How does this bode for the highest office in the land? Richardson has in fact announced that he has put together an exploratory committee for a possible bid for the White House in 2008. If he wins, he'd be the first Hispanic President. That would be cool but I know what some detractors are saying. That is why I included the fairly innocuous but relatively important biographical information. One might assume from this pedigree that Richardson would be for the illegal immigrants swarming over the borders. But the man declared a state of emergency in November of last year as he felt the problem had reached an intolerable threshold. Illegal Immigration, though a burden for the country as a whole, is a particularly acute pain for border states such as Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico. In fact, this is how Richardson feels on the illegal... thing:

* Declared state of emergency on Mexican border. (Nov 2006)
* Path to legalization if illegals pay taxes & learn English. (Nov 2006)
* Reduce immigration; no automatic citizenship for kids. (Nov 1996)
* Guarantee human services to illegal immigrants. (Nov 1996)

(Go to the site On the Issues for anyone for that matter. Great site!!!) In the end, Richardson is a candidate who can be bipartisan rather partisan and unilateral. Hell, I live with republicans and they'd vote for him. And that is saying something about my Dad.

If you'd like to see other candidates or "explorers", go to this site. Its a wikipedia which means it updated fairly quickly whne news breaks which should start picking up. I'll keep covering and do some more tidbts on probable, possible and confirmed candidates and those who help them on the campaigns. Elections are exciting and halfway point in a presidential term is when things start solidifying. People start raising funds like mad and drawing lines. Good Times!!!

(Speaking of funds, its likely candidates will need to raise $100M by the end of this year alone to run a strong campaign. The combined funds of cadidates may break $1B...)

On this day in 1525, the Anabaptists re-baptised each other in Swizterland. O....K.

In 1793, Louis XVI gets guillotined.

On this auspicious day, the new USSR lost Lenin and gained the egotistical madman known as Stalin, His real name was Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; a Georgian name. In Georgian it looks like this: იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი. And in Cyrillic: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Джугашвили. Yeah...

And in 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardons most (most) Vietnam war draft dodgers.

नमस्ते