Dear Mario, Keep up with the Blogs!

Apparently a fellow blogger is a little behind on reading my blog, shame on you. You need to keep up if your going to have blog posts that are not behind the times. Way back on June 16, 2008 I endorsed Martin Heinrich in his race against Darren White. A full month later Mario Burgos decides to take issue with that endorsement. Mario Burgos decided to accuse me of being of all things, A DEMOCRAT! Ok, Mario , I admit it, as the Elected Democratic Sheriff in Santa Fe County I am a registered Democrat. I also have to admit that I read your blog, along with 58 others on a daily basis, thank god for Bloglines. For those who don't know what bloglines is, it is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. It allows me to easily keep up with peoples blogs that I am either interested in or want to keep track of what they are saying.

A photo of myself speaking about my endorsement of Martin Heinrich with Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Martin Heinrich, and members of the I.A.F.L. Firefighters Union behind me.

Now I'm not talking about spying but in order to be well informed you need to listen to not only those who share your political philosophy but also those who do not. That is why I read Mario's blog along with many other right wing blogs and websites. Another thing Mario accuses me of is wanting to federalize local police forces. Apparently he is not a regular reader of this blog. Why only last Wednesday August 20th I posted this blog post in which I spoke about my distrust and disapproval of a justice department proposal of a new domestic spying measure designed to allow state and local police to collect intelligence about citizens and share the data with federal agencies.

Apparently Mario just has a hard time believing that I can make a decision based on anything else but partisan politics. Well Mario, I don't expect you to admit it and I don't even want you to admit it, but you are wrong. Darren White has not received my endorsement because he and I have political and philosophical differences that are so far apart I could not endorse him.

The fact remains that successful law enforcement efforts require a nationwide approach and federal grants and funds allow that type of approach to take place. Never was the success of national crime policy more successful than during the Clinton Administration when the COPS programs helped reduce crime and introduce community policing to a nation of police who had no idea what community policing was before these programs were introduced to them. At a time when there are more school shootings, there are less police in the schools as funding for them has been cut to the bone.

These are not just Republican or Democrat issues and I hope readers will take note, what I most fault Darren White for is not using his position and influence in the Bush Administration to address the law enforcement issues we have faced in recent years. On the other hand I have spoken to Martin Heinrich and I fully believe he understands the issues and will go to bat for the safety of our homes, our families and our children.