Cold Weather...Bad Apples?...Not in my country!

Alright, it's down to business. It's Saturday, and a cool front just blew in dropping temperatures into the upper fifties, low sixties. According to weather reports, the RGV could expect to see more of the same for the next few days. Perfect, my type of weather. I was born in mid-November, so I am naturally a child of winter. Of course, that's why most people will be dressed in the sweaters and leather jackets they got for Christmas, and I'll be dressed in a fine cotton woven tropical print button down short sleeve shirt. No wonder Winter Texans smile at me while I'm out and about the town, they recognize a winter homeboy when they see one. Right, and all I need to do is smile politely back at them. I winked at one once in my younger years, but ah...that seemed to bring some unwanted attention, and I don't want to talk about that kind of stuff this morning. No, our job is politics, so let's get on with it. The Monitor this morning reports that local officials want to see a change in the "politiquera system". POLITIQUERA-a woman, sometimes man (in which case you'd insert an 'o' instead of an 'a' at the end) that goes around the city, precinct, county, or general election area "hustling" votes for a particular candidate, in return for special favors such as being the first person on the block to get brand new caliche paving, or getting "rid" of those pesky speeding tickets, or entitlement to a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card. Yes, that's about as right a definition as I could come with, and words like "hustle" are dirty words I know, but so is the word "facts" nowadays, especially from a President who thinks we need to save the world, and spread the message of freedom to all third countries, meanwhile there are starving, homeless kids in this country who have no idea what the hell "No Child Left Behind" means, cause they sure as hell feel left out and deprived. Whoa, where'd that come from? Jesus, I'll have to address that issue soon, won't I? But I digress, and we're here to talk about 'hustle'-no, 'politiqueras'. Yes, our very own Democratic Chairman Juan Maldonado held a seminar this week with local candidates, the report states. According to The Monitor he basically went over the to do's and the don't even think about it's. What exactly those issues were, the report doesn't say, except that Maldonado suggested to the candidates that payment of these workers should be made by check, "so there is a paper trail". Ah yes, because we've heard just about enough of all those 'special favors' filling RGV headlines haven't we? Of course, and I think Hector "Tito" Palacios said it best when he was quoted in the report as saying, "We need to be careful, we have a lot of good people working campaigns and we do have some bad apples....I don't want to leave the impression that anybody working the campaign is doing illegal things". Whoa-ho, hold on there Mr. Commissioner, don't let too much out of the bag, at least not all at once. Save that for a slow news day when the RGV needs another reason to distrust local officials when we hear that they're doing some "naughty things", like being caught in a DWI scandal, or racketeering charge. Is this a great country, or what?