Don't Elect Jim Baca

Thanks Everyone

2006-11-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

We would just like to thank our readers for helping us to defeat Jim Baca at the polls. We've managed to keep a politician we heavily disagreed with out of office.

Don't Elect will be back before the elections in '08 and you can expect the same investigative blogging that uncovers the dirt behind questionable politicians.

Please allow us to thank you again for reading. We hope to see you back here in '08!

Re: Dogs and Cats Living Together

2006-06-20T16:45:00.000-06:00

Questioning priorities is something I frequently find myself doing in dealing with Jim Baca. But today, I found myself wondering if he has priorities?

Today, he leads talking about how great it is that the state legislature has allocated $420k for some kind of peace conference, that not even Mr. Baca has heard of. Normally, I'd research it before mentioning it, but if Baca can label it good without knowing it, I am free to critize the spending of funds on it. But the time it takes, manpower to run it and the four-hundred-and-twenty-thousand-dollars it will costs to host are all somehow good things to Mr. Baca. Maybe this is the kind of thing he looks forward to hosting in the ever-relevent State Land Commisioner's office.

But then, he launches into a non-sensical argument against concealed weapons he had years ago with the legislator who sponsored the bill allowing the conference. And while Mr. Baca is clearly anti-concealed weapon, I think he made a fairly good argument for them. So I'll leave the concept alone, and stick to wondering why he brought it up at all?

Finally, Mr. Baca's last post about a change in candidate for the Republican candidiate for govenor has gone unanswered by this blog. I don't know anything about it, and don't care to research it. Govenor Richardson is doing a fine job and I don't intend to vote against him. But in the comments on that particular post, Mr. Baca explains his refusal to capitalize our President's name. It seems Mr. Baca is so full of contempt for President Bush that he cannot even respect his existance as a person on this planet. Which is itself a problem (I shudder to think what will happen if he is elected and adopts that attitude towards the executives of the gas and oil companies he'll be working with as Land Commisioner) but leads to a funny revelation: If Mr. Baca refuses to capitalize 'bush' because of a lack of respect, but will capitalize Karl Rove's name (as evidenced even in the same blog post!), does that idicate that Mr. Baca respects Karl Rove more than George W. Bush?

Re: Office Work

2006-06-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

It seems Mr. Baca is up to his old tricks. For about two weeks surrounding the primary, he steered clear of his Anti-Bush views. Earlier this week, he mentioned "bush". But it was on topic and so I chose to ignore it. But now he's back, full-force. When he so casually mentions, "I think I'll mosey over to the anti-bush meeting this afternoon in downtown Albuquerque," my head just about explodes.

First of all, he immediatly implicated Congresswoman Heather Wilson. Criticize her if you must, but don't just randomly slam her for no reason.

Second of all, though President Bush clearly bothers Mr. Baca, he won't say why. He might give a blanket statement on land conversation. He might group the president and "his cronies"[1] together and preform the blanket slam. Or he might make a distortion of reality and implicate Bush like he's doing now with his poll. But just try to get Mr. Baca to say why he is so adamantly anti-Bush.

But finally, it rather bothers me that Baca refuses to capitalize 'Bush.' He has a shift key. He'll capitlize other people, cities, event, but not Bush. Dislike him, campaign against him, do what you will, but capitalizing the 'B' in 'Bush' is a matter of basic, human respect. As anti-Baca as I am, I still capitalize his name. Why don't we keep this mature, Mr. Baca?

Re: typical

2006-06-12T09:49:00.000-06:00

That is exactly the kind of fiscal responsibility we need in government. How exactly could this kind of behavior ever be considered a good thing?

Re: Memorial Day

2006-05-30T14:27:00.000-06:00

This morning, while reading Mr. Baca's blog, I was surprised. He was actually just observing Memorial Day! It all seemed honest and noble enough.

And then Mr. Baca attacked President Bush. Somehow, Mr. Baca sees the Swift Boat Veterans as a conspiracy of the Bush Administration, Hell-bent on attacking all Vietnam veterans. Not just Kerry, as the Swift Vets themselves say.

Somehow, Mr. Baca just thrives on attacking our government. Not even just those he's running against, but anyone in any branch of the government that disagrees with him. And more than just disagreeing with them, Mr. Baca disrespects President Bush and Mr. Rove by forgoing even the capitalization of their names. That seems very close minded for a liberal.

Re: More Endorsements

2006-05-29T09:46:00.000-06:00

It seems the Albuquerque Journal had the good sense not to endorse Jim Baca. I subscribe. You should, too. But at least he can cling to his endorsement from the most liberal city in New Mexico. Just try to keep that in mind while you weigh Baca's Santa Fe New Mexican endorsement.

Re: Never Ending Story

2006-05-25T08:31:00.000-06:00

Just like Mr. Baca claims, there is a never ending story. Its about environmentalists claiming there is nothing we can do to ease oil production.

Mr. Baca's worry, it seems, is that a certain Californian Congressman has tried to introduce legislation to drill oil out of ANWR. In arguing that drilling ANWR is futile, he points out that our United States consumes 25% of the world's oil but only sits on 3%. According to this statistic from the US DOE, cited on Wikipedia, we actually sit on top of 17% of the worlds oil. That's nearly six times what Baca quotes! Furthermore, from the same sources, ANWR is the largest deposit of oil in North America. Which makes me wonder why Mr. Baca opposes self-substinence for our oil needs?

He quotes things he's heard from environementalist friends, claiming, basically, that saving money on oil is not worth the problems it will cause for polar bears. Others disagree! According to an Associated Press article from 2002, the Secretary of the Interior says that won't happen.

We should presue alternative energy options. However, it is delusional to think we can just give up on oil until an alternative is found. We need years to develop, and years (maybe decades!) more to move the bulk of the nation's autos onto it.

Are these kind of solutions what we should expect from Land Commisioner Jim Baca?

Editorial: Response to Mr. Baca's Attitude

2006-05-24T13:38:00.000-06:00

I feel that he is wasting not only my time, but the state's time...

"Make no mistake about it. We need a tough, feisty Land Commissioner who will fight George W. Bush and his incompetent, corrupt cronies every second during their last two years in office..."

It doesn't come as a surprise that the left wants to avidly fight the right against policy, leadership and everything else. Rarely do either side agree, which is to be expected, but, what is it about this guy wanting to spend a majority of his time fighting the white house? It seems that for the office Mr. Baca is running, that his priorities are out of line...

Mr. Baca, please setup the next section for me...

"...What does the Land Commissioner do?..."

The responsibility of the Land Commissioner is to protect state land trusts. In detail and example, the land commissioner's office is responsible for permitting grazing on land trusts if the land is capable of supporting it. Also, the land office has power over public and private use of trusts. One of the biggest events for the land office was with Virgin Galactic and the spaceport. Either way you look at it, the Land Commissioner's office has an effect politically and economically.

In his running for office, Mr. Baca looks toward stopping President Bush and "his incompetent, corrupt cronies every second during their last two years in office"...

What does this mean for our state?

This means that energy prices regionally will continue to rise. In New Mexico there is an abundance of natural gas deposits. Will drilling for these deposits be stopped by Mr. Baca? Quite possibly.

If an effort is made by the White House to lower energy costs by either drilling for natural gas or mining for coal, it would be seen by Baca as a power play by the right to rape New Mexico of it's resources.

I have to ask, what good are those resources if we never use them?

Rising energy costs are one thing, but what about using land trusts for sectors of our government, such as the Department of Energy and Department of Defense?

By Mr. Baca's attitude toward the White House, it would seem that the DoD and DoE would have trouble expanding, which means lost jobs for New Mexicans!

Mr. Baca believes that he has a strong economical and environmental stand on the state's land trusts. In office, his goals are to bring money for our schools and to protect delicate state lands from President Bush and his evil policies.

"Remember, Bush ‘s vision for New Mexico’s public lands starts at the oil pump and ends at the gas pump."

This looks very familiar... Isn't this the left's argument over everything President Bush has done in his last and current terms? I've heard it all, "he's oil hungry", "the war in Iraq is over oil", "we're raping Iraq of thier oil", blah, blah, blah. It's all smack-talk without any facts and I'm hearing the same kind of talk from Mr. Baca.

Ugh. I press on...

All that was said in his speech on March 18 was all about him and how he was going to fight Bush and his band of cronies. Where is your policy Mr. Baca, why should the public vote for you? Why should the public vote for a liberal extreemist such as yourself that is hell-bent on sticking it to "the man"?

I've seen absolutely nothing come out of Mr. Baca that would move me to vote for him. In fact, I believe the current representation we have in the Land Commissioners office is doing a fine job. We are spending money to make money in the film industry. We scored huge with Virgin Galactic and earned leadership status in accommodating private space travel. And... Commissioner Lyons has cut office spending by an additional $26,000 dollars.
"Well, the present Land Commissioner doesn't do anything but spend taxpayer money talking about him self"
In psychology, they call this projection. Mr. Baca, this isn't what Lyons is doing, however, this is what you are doing, right now and what I expect you to very well do if ever you got into office again.

I've got plenty to say about Mr. Baca, Jim, and none of it is very pretty. I cannot stand power hungry politicians bent on fighting the White House! Where's the candidate who is making policy to work with the White House on battling rising gas prices, helping the local economy and protecting land trusts while balancing city growth?

I see none of it here with Jim Baca. What do you see?

Re: Convention Flashback

2006-05-24T11:22:00.000-06:00

In Mr. Baca's world, the position of Land Commisioner is mostly about political bickering. Rather than focus on what he will do to help the state, Mr. Baca's message is that he will fight the President on abusing New Mexico public lands, whereas our current Land Commisioner will not. As it happens, I have not seen any of this abuse happen under Mr. Lyons, who Mr. Baca claims is an ally of Mr. Bush. But I'll ignore that.

The clearest message of what Mr. Baca would do is stop growth. He doesn't want population growth, or economic growth. He will limit Albuquerque's physical growth, thus making expansion an issue of density. He makes no mention of improving infastructure to suppot that, though. His plans to avoid drilling, thereby doing nothing to stem the price of gas. He will spend more, though, either in his own office (as recent posts have indicated) or elsewhere in the government (at this one does), thus stretching tax payers further still. But with any luck, he'll triumph. He will achieve his goals by crippling Albuquerque at its knees.

Re: Flying Blind

2006-05-23T09:40:00.000-06:00

Well knock me over with a feather!

Mr. Baca is troubled, nay, appalled that Ray Powell doesn't want to change the way the Land Commisioner's office works. This runs contradictory to Mr. Baca's plans to spend every dollar he can while he can.

New Mexico is not a particularly wealthy state. While job creation is the solution, we need private sector jobs. Jobs that create wealth for individuals without further burdening tax payers.

If there is really enough money sitting around to hire the legions of experts Mr. Baca sees in his charge, taxes should be cut. We don't need dozens more state employees to spend their days filing the fingernails and making recommendations for clean-up strategies of land 30 miles from the nearest major road. To build up this state, we need to enable citizens to reach the American Dream on their own accord, not through useless and costly jobs created through the Public Land Commissioner’s office.

This is America!

2006-05-22T15:23:00.000-06:00

Our great country is slipping away from us. With the passage by the Senate of a bill making English the official language of this country we can see the inclusiveness of our great country dissolving. The question is, will it be to late to save America at the next general election in November?

It is hard to believe this stuff is really happening in America. Does frist, rove and bush really think this is a way to keep this country a superpower? This is racist stuff, pure and simple and it should be rejected by all of us.

As I read this post, I couldn't help but feel that it is raping this great country. The United States of America, slipping away from the very citizens that uphold it? I ask, Jim, does my vote not count any more or less that it did a decade ago? I ask, is the country I love really slipping away from me? Are my hopes and dreams of success in this nation falling away, all because we make English the standard language?

I ask of you, do you believe that your country is slipping away? Is your American dream becoming out of reach? I can answer that for you... No!

Is it racist of us not to make Spanish a secondary language? No!

Would it be racist of us to make Spanish a secondary language in a country made up of all nationalities? Would it be racist to make Spanish official and not Italian? How about French? What about Chinese or Japanese? What about all the other countries Mr. Baca, would it be racist to make Spanish official and not theirs?

Our founding fathers spoke English, thus the nations understood language was English. As similar to unwritten laws, English never needed to be written as official, it was just understood. It was understood as such that making any other language official would be a slap in the face to all who came. Why should our Italian brothers be told that their language is not official, but hey, Spanish is... They're similar, right?

What about the rest of the post, what about "saving America"? Saving America from what?! Saving it from politicians like yourself Mr. Baca, because that's why I'm here. I'm saving it from people like you that try to convince good Americans that their country is being raped by the Right and is turning into nothing more then a cesspool of politics, waste and ignorance. I'm saving it from people like you that try to tell the legal immigrant that they are losing rights and the American dream is out of reach for them, because it isn't.

I will agree with you Mr. Baca, that it is hard to believe that this [above] is happening in America. It sickens me to know that there are individuals like yourself that sees the immigrant as just a vote... Just a number. The legal immigrant made this country and forged it into the super power machine it is today. They learned the system, learned English and made their American dream come true. For them and for us, the American Citizen, we hold tightly to the reigns of this country sir and we'll be damned to hear any less from people such as yourself.

It's absurd to think that leftists such as Jim Baca believe super powers fade into nothing because a law is written that everyone already knew. I'm never surprised when the media launches into week long rants about how a law such as this, making English the official language, is a power play by the right to keep everyone else down. I'm annoyed that they, the left, are blatantly trying to manipulate peoples hearts to win votes.

Stay informed everyone and vote accordingly.

Re: Verizon Reprieve-Keep Fighting

2006-05-22T14:32:00.000-06:00

I don't even know where to begin.

Initially, yes, there is an expectation for privacy on phone calls. The purpose of requiring a warrant for a wiretap is that, exactly.

That said, ever heard of Echelon? The intelligency-gathering international network started in the early-to-mid nineties? Its the mechanism that has been used to gather phone calls for years. Before Bush. During Bush. After Bush. It gathers intelligence, not evidence. It's not going to cause a case against someone for embezzlement or murder or drugs. Because it does not produce admissible evidence. It does, however, collect details of anything of interest. Not unlike the FBI under Hoover. This simply isn't the first time conversations (and, though not mentioned as often, faxes and emails) have been collected.

But beyond how minor the evesdropping issue is, in reality, how naive does Mr. Baca need to be to be concerned about it, but not investigate it, not realize how widespread it is, and to just simply except the single-sentance explaination?

Today, Verizon denied ever giving phone records to bush.

Thats all Mr. Baca needs to be sure of Verizon's integrity? What does he need, by association, to relent on:

fight bush and his policies every second of everyday until we are rid of him

lets get rid of republican congressmen and women who are his mascots

Let's knock off a few republican Senators on election day

If all Mr. Baca needs is a generic, blanket statement to completely reverse his position on what is clearly such an important issue to him, then the same can certainly be arranged on his other points, as well. Unless he's simply that partisan.

Say it ain't so, Jim!

Pressed as far as I could

2006-05-22T14:20:00.000-06:00

I've been reading Jim Baca's blog for some time. Its long irritated me, been fodder for laughs, whatever. Today, I caught up on his last few posts and now you're reading this.

What is this blog? A point-by-point retort to the man's delusions of grandeur. A push for responsible blame of problems.

Who am I? An even-minded person. I'm registered Libertarian. I liked Clinton. I liked Reagan. I'm not much of a Bush fan (but I certainly don't think he's Satan-incarnate).

Finally, though I'm targetting Baca specifically, there's a certain about of leeway here. Want to guest blog for or against a candidate? We can set something up.