Thursday, May 13, 2010

ABQ Journal Questionnaire for Legislature Candidates [1]

Political PartyLibertarian Party / Boston Tea Party

Place of Residence — West Side of Albuquerque

Age — 39

Education — Currently a student at CNM, going for a degree in photonics

Occupationsee here

Political / Government Experiencesee here for the full list

Highlights —
  • Boston Tea Party NM State Chair — 1998 — present, National Vice Chair 2009 — present
  • Libertarian Party, Vice Chair — 1997-2001, Secretary, 2005-2009, Editor, New Mexico Liberty, 2003 — present
  • US / NM Army National Guard, Alpha Battery, 7/200 Air Defense Artillery — 1994-1998
  • US Army Reserve, 157th Separate Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) — 1991-1994
  • US Army ROTC at Penn State University, Abington Campaus — 1989-1992

Major Professional Accomplishment — Ten years as camera technician for New Mexico's Consumer Advocate and on-screen talent for The Weekly Sedition on Comcast Channel 27.

Major Personal Accomplishment — I'll wait til much later in life before selecting any one event in my life as "pivotal."

  1. In dealing with state government revenue downturns, would you generally favor additional spending cuts and government efficiency or tax and fee increases?

    I would favor additional spending cuts and greater efficiency, as well as holding the line on creating new spending programs.


  2. Would you support or oppose a New Mexico law recognizing domestic partnerships that would grant same-sex couples most of the same rights afforded to heterosexual couples?

    Inasmuch as the State requires any consenting adult to get a permission slip ("marriage license") from the State to enter into any sort of formal relationship with any other consenting adult, I support full equality across the board for everyone in this matter, regardless of sexual orientation. I don't see any reason that LGBTQ people should have to put up with different standards in the legal sense than the heterosexual crowd.

    That being said, I don't see any reason why anyone (LGBTQ, hetero or whatever) should have to go to a government official for permission to enter a relationship with another person. Those who want government out of their wallets, businesses and gun cabinets shouldn't have any problem kicking the State out of the bedroom. Nor does it make any sense to support government involvement in other people's relationships. Thus, I would work to get the State out of the marriage-license and -definition business entirely, by repealing the law(s) requiring people to get a "marriage license" before declaring themselves "married."


  3. What should the Legislature do to ensure that New Mexico's pension plans remain solvent?

    I don't know that the public pension plans are actually solvent at this time — see this study sponsored by the Rio Grande Foundation that says those plans are currently somewhere between Ø8,300,000,000 and Ø22,900,000,000 IN THE REDThe Government “Gravy Train”: An Analysis of New Mexico’s Private versus Public Sector Employment and Compensation.

    Part of the problem is the defined-benefit system currently used by the State, where public employees are promised a specific amount of cash to be disbursed when the pension is cashed out. Replacing this with a defined-contribution system such as 401(k)s or mutual funds will partially fix the problem.

    But the best solution to the State pension insolvency is to STOP expanding the State — QUIT creating new agencies for every problem, real and imagined. Check first to see if there's an existing agency that can do the job. Ask if the problem is one that should be properly addressed by the State, and not by the private sector.


  4. What should be done to improve New Mexico public school perfomance and student achievement?

    I would first make parents fully responsible for the full cost of each child's public education, by sending them a bill for that cost at the end of the school year. This would cause them to develop an interest in what the kid(s) are learning, if for no other reason than to see where their money is going, and what result they're getting for the expenditure.

    Next, I would support ending the compulsory attendance and enrollment laws, along with ending the restrictions upon homeschoolers.


  5. Do you support or oppose the "pit rule" on oil and gas drilling in its current form?

    At the very least, I would seek to amend the pit rule make New Mexico's version closer to that of Texas. Think about it — every drop of oil spilled on the ground is a drop that can't be converted to gasoline, motor oil or other usable, salable products. Every drop spilled is a loss off the bottom end for the drilling company.


  6. Would you support or oppose the State Environment Department's establishment of a "cap and trade" regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

    Considering Climategate and related scares (see global cooling), I think that those currently ensconsed on the NM Environmental Improvement Board should recuse themselves from further interference in the private-sector economy. I will vote against further restrictions on the private sector, and will sponsor a "precautionary" rule requiring a regulatory impact statement detailing how any new laws will affect the private sector.


  7. Would you support or oppose a new state law requiring mandatory jail time for first-time DWI offenders?

    How about liberalizing the liquor license laws so that we can have a bar on every street corner, like Texas has? That way people who drink too much wouldn't have to drive, as they could just walk home.


  8. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

    No — I'm guessing this disqualifies me for the spot of U.S. Treasury Secretary.


  9. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

    No.


  10. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or felony in New Mexico or any other state?

    My crimes against humanity

NOTES
  1. Reposted —
    1. Personal blogs — Myspace / New Mexico Liberty / Blogspot / Wordpress / Tumblr
    2. KCUF Media — Myspace / Xanga / Blogspot

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Friday, May 7, 2010

Quote of the Day, 7 May 2010

“Voicing an opinion is costless - anyone can argue that socialism is great, or that the government won’t really inflate a fiat currency.

“Having a false opinion may be costless if it doesn’t affect your life much, and it can produce a benefit of feeling good. So people may choose an opinion based on how it appeals to their hopes, rather on on what they believe is true.

“An example of a more incentive compatible system is gambling. While people often gamble irrationally, gambling still tends to draw out more beliefs and less hope than mere discussion. By placing a wager, you tie your opinion to a personal gain or loss, so you care whether you are correct. Hence 'Wanna bet?' really means 'Do you actually think that, or are you just saying it?', and its a great way to call the windbag’s bluff. People offer absurd opinions much more often than they make idiotic wagers.”
Patri Friedman

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Friday, April 30, 2010

Harry Brown (the movie) -- http://mikewb1971.xanga.com/726334117/harry-brown-the-movie/

Harry Brown (the movie)

Current mood: ecstatic

After I saw the link to trailers for this movie on Facebook, I was intrigued because of the name — Harry Browne was the LP's presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. What this movie appears to be is a British version of the1974 movie Death Wish, starring Charles Bronson.



The official movie poster — click to enlarge (or here for a PDF version


The official movie site

The movie's American site

The movie's Facebook page

The Wikipedia page

Well, what do you do when the cops give you the blow-off, as they do with Mr. Brown in this movie, as played by Michael Caine?




Click to enlarge



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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Moving KCUF Media (Again!)


A few years ago, I "moved" my KCUF Media blog from Myspace to Xanga, for various reasons.

Now I'm "moving" it from Xanga to Blogspot. Chief among my reasons for this "move" is the fact that I can easily add co-bloggers to a Blogspot project, where it's a royal pain in the ass if at all possible on Xanga.

Still, what I've posted at Myspace and Xanga will remain posted there — I have no intention of deleting anything.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Quote of the Day, 27 April 2010

"Every invasion of individual rights happens with the eager support of people acting in the sincere and thoroughly mistaken confidence that what they permit the state to do to others will never be done to them."

"Political sovereignty, valuable as it is, must be regarded as a "good of second intent" — something that, while of great worth, is derivative of, or subordinate to, a much greater good. The paramount political good, according to America's founding premise, is individual liberty protected by law."

William Norman Grigg, Pro Libertate,
"The Borders are Closing In"


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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Blowback Comes Home to New Mexico


I recently received via email a copy of the premature declaration of victory by the main beneficiary of the anti-Kokesh smear campaign. It landed into my inbox with the same plopping sound my dog makes in the backyard.
TOM MULLINS FOR UNITED STATES CONGRESS DISTRICT 3
OVERWHELMINGLY TAKES REPUBLICAN NOMINATION

Dear Friends,



Today at the State Republican Party Pre-Primary Nominating Convention I received 107 votes and my opponent received 26 votes, totaling 133 votes. These results give us 80.45 percent of the delegate vote, confirming our expectations. This victory really means two things. irst, that my name will be listed first on the Republican Primary Ballot. Some have said that winning this ballot position is worth up to four percentage points in an election. Second, this result demonstrates that the New Mexico grass roots support that I have been talking about for several months is fully supporting our campaign. Our internal polling information agrees with these results that my opponent has a core group of committed supporters, but will be unable to attract the majority of the support necessary to win against Ben Ray Lujan, Jr. I believe that I am the candidate that will best represent not only the Republican party, but also the party of Knowledge in November. I have never been afraid of competition, but given this level of support, I am hopeful that my primary opponent will decide that he has little chance to win and will join our effort to defeat Ben Ray Lujan, Jr. This is an expensive endeavor and having a united effort, as early as possible, will ensure that we change the culture of corruption and dependence. But, who knows? As a rookie to the political business, the one thing I can tell you is that nothing can be predicted.



The party of knowledge includes Democrats, Independents, Greens, Libertarians, and Republicans. The party of knowledge has spoken in Albuquerque with the election of a new council and Mayor R.J. Berry. It spoke in New Jersey, Virginia, and most recently in Massachusetts. It is my belief that the party of knowledge will speak again in November and elect me to represent the 3rd Congressional Dis

I can't speak for other members of the Libertarian Party, Boston Tea Party, New Mexico Patriot Alliance, and any other organization that I belong to, but I personally refuse to provide the slightest increment of support for this person.



I realize that I'm not a 3rd District voter, nor am I registered as a Republican. But I can still donate, write letters and post blog entries supporting the candidate who best represents my positions. I can promote that candidate's events using the blogs and such available to me.



And the candidate who best represents my views, in all three of New Mexico's districts, is Adam Kokesh.



One of the Libertarians on the BCC list for the above asked me the following —
I was not aware of any smear campaign. Is there a synopsis somewhere for me to look at ?

Basically, the neo-cons are pissed at Adam because in 2007, he protested the Iraq Occupation after being shot at during the Fallujah campaign (Feb-Sept 2004) and being discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006.



Here's a sampling of links from the smear campaign.



Or just go to thisainthell.com — seems to be the center of the Kokesh Hate Club.



It looks like this is part of a larger campaign by the neo-cons to purge the GOP of its libertarian faction, as the same people going after Kokesh are also whining about Ron Paul for the same "reason" — Paul objects to the Iraq Occupation. They refer to Paul as "RuPaul," "NorLuap," etc., and anyone associated with him as a "Paultard," "Paulbot," "Paulestinian," "moonbat," etc.



They don't limit this sort of trash-talk to Paul and Kokesh, either. They went after Dr. Rand Paul, Ron Paul's son, running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, Debra Medina, running for Governor in Texas, and B.J. Lawson, in North Carolina.



Libertarians such as myself, they refer to as "libtards." If you take a look at Free Republic [freerepublic.com], you can't miss it — just run a search for "libertarian" or "Ron Paul" there, and you'll see what I mean.



Then they get pissed at us when we (LP members, BTP members, RLC members, C4L members, etc.) don't support their candidates as much as they want us to (which would most likely require us to spend ourselves into poverty). This is part of what gave America Scott Brown as a U.S. Senator.



This is the same Scott Brown, who in 2006, supported MassCare, Mitt Romney's mandatory health-insurance scheme, which I suspect was the template for the mandatory-insurance part of ObamaCare.



This is the same Scott Brown who recently voted for to spend 15,000,000,000 bucks for a "jobs bill."



Here's what Jim Bancroft, one of the anti-Kokesh hate squad, had to say about Scott Brown after I pointed out the "jobs bill" vote —

I have to sadly confess that I did not do my homework on scott brown...



We were so happy that a republican might win the Kennedy seat, I didnt care to look up who he was or what he was about



I went to his rally in Worcestor the Sunday before, was happy as a clam when he won, got totally embarrassed when he said his daughters were available, disowned him when he said he was proud of his posing for Cosmo because it got him exposure...and totally hated him since he voted for the spending bill because it meant 'jobs' for Mass......



The term up here is MASSHOLE...



All I can say is, hey, it was MASS, what did we expect?



the only consolation is it isn't a democrat...except he is now buds with that RINO McLAME???



Brown wasn't in Romney care originally, he was part of the mass care bill, true, I didnt know that either...(sigh)



the things you learn so late, I heard him in his speech say he was sorry he voted for MASSCARE but was totally AGAINST national healthcare...I dont trust him to be any more genuine conservative than LIEberman...



that means he will vote just like McLAME...ie, 90% like Ted Kennedy anyways



makes me so mad I could spit. So, on this one...I wont call you a moron.

Hence my previous comments -- if they don't want our ideas, then they don't deserve our financial and material support.



Here's the links where Mullins takes potshots at Adam —



Tom Mullins: Adam Kokesh is an internet celebrity and a war protestor who makes poor choices



Mullins: Kokesh’s actions “dishonor the military”


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Friday, March 12, 2010

A Letter from a New Mexico Veteran


From the Kokesh for Congress Campaign

The following letter is from Tim Dunlap of Farmington, NM:



Personally speaking as a two-time war veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I fully support Mr. Kokesh in his endeavor to become a representative in the United States Congress from the state of New Mexico. He has been serving the people of the United States for as long as I have known him. Mr. Kokesh represents New Mexico values. He has what it takes to become one of the best representatives for this state, and he will bend over backwards to assist the people with key issues. The courage and motivation that drives Mr. Kokesh is inscrutably unique.



I am from Farmington, New Mexico. I was born here, and lived here my whole life, except for the time I spent serving our country. During these times I was stationed in Ft. Hood Texas with the 4th Infantry Division, 1/66 Armor. This is who I deployed to Iraq with in 2003. After my service there, I went to Ft. Drum, New York where I served with the 10th Mountain Division on a reconnaissance unit, 3/71 CAV (RSTA). I deployed to Afghanistan with this unit in 2006. One of my good friends in this unit who sacrificed the ultimate price won the Medal of Honor. His name was SFC Jared Monti. During this same firefight I was injured in Gowardesh, Afghanistan, and ended up spending almost three months in a hospital, and another year in physical therapy.



This is when I met Mr. Kokesh. Dealing with overcrowding, patient rights, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the other problems that returning injured solders were facing were significant. Mr. Kokesh had come up and assisted me with some of these issues. It was great to see someone reaching out to help when most were either too busy or just seemed not to care. I have had the pleasure of knowing some outstanding citizens of this country and am proud to say that Mr. Kokesh is one of them.



The values of a state represent the people. These values include integrity, perseverance, and dedication. Mr. Kokesh represents these values and will represent them for the state of New Mexico. He will represent the values of New Mexico for all the people fairly and justifiably. To serve in this sense takes a representative of courage and honor, and I know exactly what it means to serve with courage and honor. This courage and honor that Mr. Kokesh displays is exactly the dedication that it will take to represent the people and veterans of New Mexico.



I knew Mr. Kokesh when I was in the military and he showed exemplified service. Mr. Kokesh served with honor, loyalty, and the many values that this state is in need of. I know exactly what it means to speak out, and he has the voice and knowledge to do just that. Mr. Kokesh will listen to the voice of the people and the veterans, and fight for what is right. Whether it is standing up for the opinions of the people, or stepping up to President Obama, if it needs to be done, he will do it.



This kind of incomparable service that Mr. Kokesh will represent for our state and the people within our state makes veterans like me proud. He will stand up for us veterans with the most sagacious representation and will make the people of New Mexico very proud. Mr. Kokesh has what it takes to beat Mr. Luján in economic issues, health care, and standing up for constituents. Mr. Kokesh will actually make things happen, and speak out for the people. Speaking as a veteran, a citizen, and as a person who is constantly active within his community, I would like to see Mr. Kokesh representing myself, my district, and my state.



NOTES

  1. Originally posted at kokeshforcongress.com

  2. Reposted to resistnet.com, my personal site, New Mexico Liberty, KCUF Media




A Letter from a New Mexico Veteran -- http://mikewb1971.xanga.com/723426845/a-letter-from-a-new-mexico-veteran/

Thursday, February 11, 2010

A New Martial Art Here?

Current mood: giggly, horny

Call it boob-fu, or maybe titjitsu


NOTES

  1. Reposted –

    1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Wordpress

    2. Darth Mike – Xanga


Copyright © 2010 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Where's My Christmas Spirit?!

I'm not sure that I have a favorite Christmas song from the traditionally-accepted smorgasborg that's available. I never had much holiday spirit to begin with, and I've been working the past five holiday seasons in a discount warehouse store, either on register or chasing and stopping shoplifters. Thus whatever holiday spirit I once had has been smashed, burned and stuffed down a black hole, just Dan Halen disposed of a dead hooker and his mother in God's Bro

Still, if I had to name one song as a Christmas favorite, it would be "Hey Santa Claus" by Kevin Bloody Wilsonhere's the lyrics for those who want to sing along.

How about Christmas with the Aqua Teens?


NOTES

  1. Reposted –

    1. Personal blogs – Wordpress / Xanga

    2. Darth Mike – Xanga


Copyright © 2009 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.