Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thursday Morning Meditations

The Center for Public Integrity has released its annual grades for state financial disclosure laws and New Mexico didn't flunk! In fact we were ranked a respectable 15th with a grade of 74.5, a solid C..

This is not campaign finance-disclosure laws. I'm pretty sure we're still ranked pretty low in that area because we don't require much in the way of employment information for contributors etc. This is financial disclosure for elected public officials.

And keep in mind, the CPI report has an entire section under the heading PUBLIC ACCESS IS KEY and I've been trying for 15 minutes to get on the Secretary of State Web site to check out our financial disclosures to no avail. The last message I got was "Oops! This link appears to be broken."

XXXXXXXX

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder is not impressed with New Mexico's two most famous baseball players. He rained on our Manny parade yesterday:

... The Ramirez steroids scandal is the biggest in pro sports this year. But on SportsCenter last night, there was a moment of politico-athletic scandal serendipity when it was reported that one-time Obama Commerce Secretary nominee Bill Richardson, who withdrew amid an ethics scandal, attended the game and pronounced Manny's joining the Isotopes "a fantastic day for New Mexico"...the circumstances of this "fantastic" turn of events being, let's remember, the entirely just punishment of an epic cheat who has forever tarnished baseball. Nice going, Bill! Ramirez went 0-for-2 with a strikeout. But on balance, I think Richardson proved himself the bigger sad sack.