The Issues

Crime

I spent twenty four years as an FBI special agent, almost 14 of those years here in New Mexico. Much of the time I had state and local officers implore me to adopt their cases for prosecution in Federal court because the New Mexico laws and rules of evidence were biased in favor of the accused. There is a real need to reform the state criminal justice system to bring it into alignment with federal law and the systems in neighboring states. We must be prepared to treat juvenile offenders seriously. Some juveniles are incredibly dangerous and need to be incarcerated in special facilities.

Methamphetamine is a real scourge in our community. We need to be aggressive in educating our children (late elementary school age) on the dangers of this and other drugs. We must have more options for treatment for those who hit “rock bottom” and are prepared to change.  We must be relentless with prosecution of those who distribute these poisonous substances.

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Government Regulation

I know first hand how exasperatingly inefficient government can be. There is a joke that in the FBI “Bureaucratic” ALWAYS came before “Investigation”.  It was all too true. Jim Collins in his best selling business book Good to Great has incisive insight on the effect of regulation. To quote from page 121:

“… the purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline…Most companies build their bureaucratic rules to manage the small percentage of wrong people...which drives away the right people…which increases the percentage of wrong people…which increases the need for more bureaucracy to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline…”

You can see where this leads. A “regulation happy” state government will simply drive off the people capable of creating quality jobs for the citizens of this state (and the tax revenue to run this state). It was recently pointed out to me that in spite of the beautiful scenery and delightful weather in this state, we have no Fortune 500 company national headquarters here.

I think it is significant that when the controversy broke out last fall over the new rules for oil and gas pits, the rationale used by Mark Fesmire of OCD was his experience two decades ago when a boss ordered that pit liners be deliberately slashed. His response to this “lack of discipline” is to create a new regulation rather than to hold individuals accountable for their own actions.

This desire to control everyone rather than to hold individuals accountable goes to the heart of the liberal/conservative divide. My law enforcement background has reinforced my belief that individuals are accountable for their actions and must be held accountable. Bad choices should not result in new regulations that restrict the actions of everyone.

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Economic Development

True economic development does NOT come from a convoluted system of corporate welfare. Throwing taxpayer’s dollars at companies, like Tinker Bell spreading “pixie  dust”, will do nothing but waste the people’s money. Government taxation needs to be uniform, fair, simple and moderate. The correct role of government is to be responsible for improving and maintaining the infrastructure of the state. Primarily that means roads, water and ensuring an educated public. I would use the training and experience I obtained in getting my Engineering degrees and working in the military space program to identify those projects that would appear likely to offer the best return for the taxpayer’s dollar.

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Illegal Immigration

This is a national problem, but the State does have a responsibility and a role to play. I believe we need to secure our borders. State agencies must not encourage or enable illegal behavior. Driver’s licenses must not be issued to those here illegally. Furthermore every local and state law enforcement agency should determine the citizenship of every person they physically detain. Law enforcement asks the person their date of birth and social security number. They should also ask citizenship. If the person is not a U.S. citizen, then Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be contacted prior to the person’s release to see if they are legally in the United States.

Communities that do not want to support this effort should be free to notdo so, but they must not receive funding from the state.

I also support a well regulated, closely monitored and humane visiting worker program that allows honest individuals to work here and then return to their homeland.

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The War in Iraq

I fully support President Bush’s efforts to secure victory in Iraq. I believe we were right to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein, and we are now in a critical struggle against al Qaeda forces in that country. If we retreat from Iraq, they WILL come after us here. The successes of the American military in Iraq have been incredible. We have the finest, most noble military in the history of the world. Unfortunately, way too many Americans are uninformed about events in Iraq. I would suggest three web sites.  They are:

www.michaelyon-online.com

Michael Yon has been called the “Ernie Pyle” of the Iraq War. Michael modestly disclaims the comparison, but the fact that it has been seriously made tells you much about the quality of the writing of this independent imbedded reporter. Michael is former Special Forces and has been imbedded with US and British troops. A year and a half ago Michael openly proclaimed that Iraq had slid into civil war, a position that did not endear him with many on the right. I did not agree with him, but he was there and I was not. Now he documents the incredible successes our troops are having.

www.michaeltotten.com

Michael Totten is another independent imbedded reporter. His writing is equally clear, descriptive and poignant. Totten has recently written about American troops working closely with Iraqi forces. He describes it candidly without pulling any punches.

www.longwarjournal.org

The “Long War Journal” is significantly different. As described at the web site:

“The Long War Journal is dedicated to providing original and accurate reporting and analysis of the Long War (also known as the Global War on Terror). This is accomplished through its programs of embedded reporters, news and news aggregation, podcasts, and other multimedia formats.”

This web site has updates from all over the globe (but especially Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan) and has detailed write-ups about Orders of Battle (drawn from public sources) that track the progress in the development of the Iraqi forces. I recommend this site for any military news “junkie”.

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Pro-life

My wife and I are committed to the Pro-Life cause. I believe that life begins at conception, and it is the responsibility of government to protect the weak and vulnerable.

Destroying embryos to conduct research should NOT be encouraged or government funded. There are many alternative forms of stem cell research that are proving to be more effective and should be supported.

For a number a years Carol volunteered at the Chaves County Pregnancy Resource Center, 2003 S. Main St, Roswell, NM, 575-623-1217. If you are not familiar with the Center, I urge you to drop by and consider contributing time or money.

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2nd Amendment Rights

The right of “the people to keep and bear arms” is enshrined in our Constitution. In my experience laws that try to prevent criminals from obtaining guns are completely ineffective. These laws simply make it harder for law abiding citizens to legitimately obtain firearms. Criminals don’t go to gun shops or even gun shows. They steal guns or trade drugs for them. Those who use guns to commit crimes need to be punished with mandatory minimum sentences.

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