While skimming the online version of the Journal, I noticed the recent clip about the upcoming mayoral race, in which both Richard Berry and Richard Romero promised to stick to the now-overturned two-term limit for mayors.

I note that the two-term rule was struck down by a court decision after a request from the current incumbent, who is on his second term^[1].

That incumbent also stated twice, both before and after being re-elected in 2005, that he would stick to the two-term limit.

If We the People can’t trust him on this, why should we trust him on anything else?

Mike Blessing
Chair, Bernalillo County Libertarian Party
Albuquerque, New Mexico

NOTES

1. Term Limits @ Eye on Albuquerque
2. This article was NOT published in the Albuquerque Journal

Upon reading Secretary Vilsack’s op-ed piece in yesterday’s Journal, I noticed two glaring omissions on the Secretary’s part.

The first is that with every one of those “dollars” (really Federal Reserve Notes or “FRNs” that comes to New Mexico from Washington DC, also comes federal regulations on how the states are to spend that cash. This is what Washington does with highway money — “If you want your tax money back to spend on highways in your state, you have to agree to our conditions on how you spend it, and our conditions for anything related to those projects.”

Which brings me to the second point — the money in Obama’s programs was taxed away from productive Americans, who could grow the economy in an organic, sustainable manner by spending it themselves. How would they spend it? Let’s see — providing basic necessities for themselves and their families, donating to charities, and starting their own businesses are just three ways that they could contribute to the real recovery effort.

Mike Blessing
Chair, Bernalillo County Libertarian Party
Albuquerque, New Mexico

NOTE — This article was NOT published in the Albuquerque Journal.

1. It might also be useful to contact their local campaign offices, which I’ve listed below –
   1. Martin Heinrich: Sean Marcus — 505-231-2422
   2. Harry Teague: email / Las Cruces — 575.993.5197 / Hobbs — 575.397.2008
   3. Ben Ray Lujan — P.O. Box 31129 Santa Fe, NM 87594

Yesterday morning (Friday, 17 July 2009) I went to the local Tea Party demonstration. Short summary — the petitions were presented to Sen. Udall’s staff, they said that he was going to vote for The Barack‘s “cap and trade” bill and Obamacare regardless of what his constituents tell him. Then the assembled protestors were told to disperse by Albuquerque Police Department for not having a permit.

I arrived in the area at about 9:58 AM, and spent a few minutes looking for parking — that’s par for the course in the Downtown area. If you need to visit that area of Albuquerque between 8 AM and 6 PM between Monday and Friday, be prepared to pay AT LEAST Ø3 for a parking spot — some places can go as high as Ø5 for a spot. After paying Ø4 at the paid lot at 2nd and Central — they have a machine there that prints a ticket for you, instead of the lockbox where you have to fold the bills into a narrow strip and feed them through the slot, now you feed them in, just like a vending machine. Either way, it still takes a couple of minutes, and can be really aggravating if you’re loaded up with personal possessions (laptop, etc.).

After parking, I headed to the group that I had seen on both sides of 2nd St NW, between Tijeras and Copper — pictures below. There were about 20 — 30 people at this location.

That last option — small-size groups — can work FOR you as well as against you — with small groups spaced every one or two blocks, you can still get the message out over a larger area, thus actually increasing the exposure.

1. I got a few extra hours on the day job Tuesday night — management almost begged me to come in to take care of the annual Loss Prevention Audit checklist — that is, to check everything on the list to make sure it’s up to snuff before the official auditor came in the next day. What a joke — I was done with it in about 90 minutes, and that’s allowing for the 30 minutes that I spent checking the backside of the building for graffiti.

   I swear, if these auditors and senior management types had a working brain cell in the lot of them, they would show up with ABSOLUTELY NO WARNING. That way, they would see the place as it usually is between the announced visits.

   Anyway, the store’s camera room is overfilled with gift sets of perfume and cologne, among other things. It’s an actual safety hazard for anyone that needs to go into there for anything. When I mentioned this to management, I was told that the district manager said that “Every store in the country is like that.” I wouldn’t want to be the one needing to access the Loss Prevention file cabinet in a hurry, as it’s buried under the fragrances.

   We got out Wednesday night at 10:45 PM (usually the latest is 10 PM), as a bunch of us stayed late spiffing things up for the dog=and-pony show on behalf of the inspector from Corporate HQ.

2. I just had the first half of Lab 3 in my Intro to Fiber class on Thursday morning. This involved attaching ST connectors to the ends of a segment of 62.5/125^[1] fiber optic line to create a patch cable. This part (and the second half — creating another patch cable to using anaerobic glue to attach the connectors) of the Lab is a pass-fail. The national standard for power loss through a connector pair is 0.75 dB — the “front” end of my patch cable read 0.20 dB, and the “rear” end read 0.44 dB.

   Anyway, stripping the cable ends, putting on the connectors, cleaving the fiber ends and polishing those fiber ends is easier than it looks on the videos we saw in class demonostrating the procedure. Not bad for only having about two hours sleep the night before.

3. The Advanced Laser Systems course that I need to actually complete my Associates Degree is STILL up in the air. Michael Cranney, the Ad Hoc “Chair” of the Photonics Department since Gordon Bennett got the boot, FIRST said that he wouldn’t offer the course because we didn’t have twelve people showing an interest, but that he would run it in the spring semester, as Sandia National Labs had four people that needed to take it, THEN he says that he’ll offer it on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. What a scheisskopf (or is it culo?).
4. Today (Friday 17 July) I went to the Albuquerque Tea Party (separate blog entry to follow shortly). The event started on 2nd St between Copper and Tijeras, then moved to Central Ave between 2nd and 3rd Streets. At around 11 AM, the 100 or so people there were told to disperse by APD for not having a permit.

1. Fiber optic cables are classified in one manner by the diameters (in microns) of the core and cladding, repsectively.