cutting corners for the bottom line and a plea to bill...

the god of globalization and it's accompanying angels of capital and the bottom line are showing some big problems for the united states now. once we became obsessed with increasing profit margins at all costs and paying ceo's ridiculous salaries to see that it is done, we let the infrastructure that supported america's rise to the top crumble. now, as a warning, comes environmental disaster in the form of 200,000 gallons of crude oil flowing into the alaska wilderness. this amid claims by maintenance workers on the line that they have been warning the company for years that the cutbacks on maintenance of the line is a problem. unfortunately, when your only concern is the bottom line, you make decisions based purely on how much money it will make your investors (and then how much that will increase your salary and stock options). that's all fine and good, but it seems it is always cheaper to allow something horrible to happen and deal with it after the fact than to prevent it in the first place, especially when you will long be retired before the true cost of profit-driven policies come home to roost. we've become programmed to think short term, maybe it's because as a nation we've only been around for a blip on the radar. the system works when responsible people are in charge, the system works during the rise of a nation, but it has shown over and over again, that after the peak, things like globalization, overcapitalization and failure to maintain the foundation of that growth leads to an epic fall for the big dog. sure BP is just one company, sure it was just one spill...but it is foreshadowing of what will happen to the country as a whole in the near future.

bill richardson went to new hampshire this weekend to celebrate saint patricks day with the folks that will have an early say in the presidential primary. bill's been to new hampshire more than once since becoming governor. why? what does a tiny state on the eastern seaboard filled with old crackers have to do with a poor state tucked into the southwest along the border filled with indians and hispanics? someone asked him if he was going to run for president while he was there...his response was "we'll see." let me answer it for you bill...no, you won't, because if you do you will be exposed for the corrupt fraud you are. but if you do decide for some inexplicable reason that you wish to subject yourself to the humiliation...i have a plea for you...since you are more concerned with promoting yourself in other states and lining your campaign box with cash than running the state you were elected to serve, do us all a favor and step aside now. it takes too much time and effort to run for president for you to be able to do your job in new mexico. so pack up, leave the governor's mansion and go run for president. let someone who cares about new mexico run new mexico, let someone that isn't using it as a stepping stone to future failed greatness take a shot at it. if you're going to cut and run, do it now.

to be myself completely i've just got to let you down...