New Mexico is nuts

Washington Times ^ | 2/20/04

[auntdot]

Agree.

This is a non-starter.

Will the detectors be set to cut off at the legal drinking limit, or will any alcohol be detected and the car disabled?

My guess is that the limit will be set far below the legal concentration, liability issues you know.

Have one drink and maybe you can drive home, your car instrument decides.

Meanwhile your family is sitting there saying:

"George, why did you have to order that drink?"

This country was based upon personal freedom.

Where did it go?

[Travis McGee]

Is this a "firewater" problem, if you sabe me?

[88keys]

Enough LAWS already, okay?

We can't even enforce the ones we have.

I completely agree...if more "laws" were the answer, why are there any murders, for example??!! After all, murder is against the law...

Enforcement of the laws is the crucial issue, but these "liberal feel-good chicken-pinching statutes" are simply that, as well as a not-so-stealthy attempt to control the behaviour of mature and law-abiding citizens...it's not at all about "safety", give me a break!! "Control", and "revenue streams" are what this is about, IMHO.

I have a bad cold myself at the moment...so if I take OTC cough medicine, I can't get my car started to go to the store for chicken soup, or to the doctor's office for a check-up??

I also sip a beer from time to time, but my driving record is spotless. As someone else pointed out, the vast majority of drunk drivers are already driving illegally, but, you know, they will always find a way to do it, one way or another. So, I should abstain from driving (or be forced to by my car) if a single drop of cough medicine or light beer has passed my lips?

These people have a heck of a nerve saying John Ashcroft is "trampling on their rights"...

[edeal]

I think this is better accomplished by long term prison sentences. Repeated DUI's is no different than fire bullets at passing cars with poor aim. Eventually you are going to murder someone.

A few 0.081% convictions, I dont care. 1 - 0.12% conviction, maybe a second chance. 3 - 0.20 Convictions, 10 years will end that behavior for at least 10 years.

[beaversmom]

You mean New Mexico's not really like the tourism commercial that Bill Richardson stars in. The beautiful senorita greeting you with a smile and a wave as you come into the sunset kissed quaint adobe village with soft Mexican guitar music in the background. You mean it's full of a bunch of drunks. Count me out for a visit Mr. Richardson. Wonder if the tourists will have to start blowing into one as well. Maybe you'll have to rent one at the border crossings.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Partially, particularly in the Gallup area, but the rest is more home grown.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Maybe you'll have to rent one at the border crossings.

Don't worry, the unit will fit where the turn signal is removed. You don't need that anyway.

[Tijeras_Slim]

it's not certain the majority aren't drunk drivers.

Back off there Texas-boy... don't make me put down my beer. :)

[Tijeras_Slim]

Is this legislature controlled by the Dems or the Pubbies?

You have to ask? Kinda like Cook County Illinois, only with lot's better weather and food.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Nuts? Us New Mexicans? Really?

Don't know about you woof... but I wasn't before I came here. :)

[Dr.Deth]

Val Kilmer... created an uproar when he told Rolling Stone magazine, "Eighty percent of the people in my county are drunk." Outraged State Sen. Phil Griego suggested that Mr. Kilmer should move somewhere else.

And then immediately had a drink.

In all seriousness, how far are we along the way to actually being the Soviet Union, of whom it was said, "That which is not prohibited is compulsory."

This is a prime example of what you get with a government-by-the-political-class. Apparatchiks. I think we had our chance last decade with the brief flourishing, then withering, of the "throw the bums out" movement. The 'Pubbies rode the sentiment to their first House majority in 40 years, then propmtly became what they beheld.

So who you gonna trust?

[gunnedah]

Why not padlock all distilleries? Of course that would double the Kennedy fortune from imports.Maybe close all bars
This country looks for the easy fix and never addresses the cause or culprit. It is everyone else's fault I choose to get drunk or murder someone. Whoa is me!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Yo buddy.... sober up and defend the honor of our state!

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Buy your car out of state.

[CedarDave]

The session ended yesterday at noon with this left dead on the table to be resurrected next January by the bill's sponsor. The outcry the past few days by the 98% of the population who don't drive drunk decreases the likelihood of it's passing next year.

However, the discussion in NM and elsewhere in the US brings to the front the increasing tendency to try to legislate broad government fixes to problems that need to be addressed at an individual level. Penalizing the whole populace for DWI actions by a few is typically the response of the nanny state. Here in NM, existing anti-DWI legislation would be much more successful if judges would enforce existing laws, instead of letting 5, 10, 15 times repeat offenders off with a wink and a hand slap. Even after killing someone, you are as likely to get only 30-days in jail and have yourself proclaimed the victim of demon rum, rather that the sentence needed for taking a human life.

It's interesting that this stupid proposed law gives as much national news coverage as Governor Richardson's NM billboard in Times Square. But it certainly does nothing to improve NM's image, which still remains one of a "Banana Republic" as another Democratic governor labeled it 20 years ago.

[CougarGA7]

This is the kind of news I want to hear first thing in the morning....when I'm working off a perfectly good hangover.

[CougarGA7]

Could you tell us New Mexico freepers how this made it through the house?

[pepperdog]

Hey, I have an idea, let's amend the U.S. Consitiution and make it illegal to produce or sell alcohol for drinking purposes! Oh....it's already been done? How did that work out?

[Rogle]

It made it through the house because there are 42 Dem's and 28 Repubs. The measure made it through on a party line vote.

[Double Tap]

Utterly amazed BTTT