Democracy for New Mexico

Planning Meeting This Week for ABQ Counter-Inaugural

From Stop the War Machine's email news:

You are invited to help plan the January 20th counter-inaugural: On Wednesday, December 15, there will be a meeting in the basement of Irysh Mac’s (on Yale, 1/2 block south of Central), beginning at 6:30 PM.

The meeting will discuss details for the big anti-inaugural event in Albuquerque on January 20th. This will be at UNM Smith Plaza, on the south side of Zimmerman library, between Zimmerman library and the SUB, from 10 AM to 2 PM. At 2 PM there will be a march from Smith Plaza to the Pete Domenici Federal Courthouse, and there will then be a vigil at the Federal Courthouse.

Questions? Contact:
jacque3@unm.edu or citizen@comcast.net

Kerry Spot Mocks . . . And Directs Readers to DFNM

I note that our website is getting many hits from The National Review's blog. Kerry Spot's author comments negatively on a letter to the editor of the magazine by former NM Judge Ann Kass. He then directs readers to various links that mention or are about Judge Kass, which have been sent in by his googling readers. One link connects to a DFNM post on a Moms for Kerry rally at which Judge Kass spoke.

Ah fame, if only in the raggedy-ass pages of the right-wing mockery brigade. Imagine all the conservative readers of Kerry Spot following a link to a post about a Moms for Kerry rally in Albuquerque that dates back to the days before the election. Just to see Ann Kass's name in print! There's some sweet irony in that.

And just to keep the search engines rolling, I think I'll say Ann Kass's name a few more times here, to draw the hounds: Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass, Ann Kass. Happy reading!

Ad Touts Dean for DNC Chair

The grassroots movement to elect Howard Dean as DNC Chair has released this TV ad, which will air in DC during Inside Politics, Crossfire, and other upcoming CNN shows. DraftHoward.com and Driving Voters PAC teamed up in this effort, with donations raised from supporters.

Video on Dean's Meet the Press Appearance

From DFA's :

Governor Dean's Sunday appearance on Meet the Press is now available on video via the MSNBC website. Click below to go to the MSNBC home page—look for the box below to start the clip.

NM Recount Delayed - Protests Today in SF

Passing along two reports from Santa Fe on the NM recount:

On Monday, 12/13, Judge Carol Vigil denied our request for a Writ of Mandamus to be issued ordering the State Canvassing Board to start the recount, citing the lack of immediacy in the case, since the state canvassing board is scheduled to meet today -- Tuesday, 12/14, at 5:00 PM.  She said that if the Canvassing Board did not adequately address our request for the recount, that we should come back to her court on Wednesday (12/15) at 8:30 AM.  She said she would keep jurisdiction of the case.

So let's show the Governor, the Secretary of State, and the Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court (the members of the State Canvassing Board) that we want every vote to count!

State Canvassing Board meets Tuesday, 12/14, at 5:00 PM at the Roundhouse. So come show support for making sure every vote counts. Make signs ... Make music ... Make sure our elected officials know we want assurance our votes counted !! For more info, call Rick Lass, (505) 920-0540
----------------------------
Friends,
In court on Monday (in the NM vote recount hearing) Judge Carol Vigil ruled that she will wait for the Canvassing Board (comprised of Governor, Secretary of State and Supreme Court Justice) to meet tomorrow Tuesday at 5 PM and give them a chance to request a NM recount.  She expressed concern about the voting irregularities and agreed that if they did not give the order to recount she expected to see us in court again first thing Wednesday morning.

It is crucially important for us to show the Governor that there is a large grass roots support for the recount.  If he sees the evidence of this he might be swayed to approve the recount and we will avoid a much more difficult path of challenging him in court.

Please come to the State Capitol Roundhouse, 4th floor, today, Tuesday, 12/14, to encourage the Governor, Secretary of State and Chief Justice that the people want a recount!

The Ukrainians are on the streets, demonstrating by the hundreds of thousands! Our democracy is at stake all over this nation.  Ohio and New Mexico are stepping up to confront the fraud and corruption that are seeping into our voting system all over the country. Let's walk the talk. See you there!

No Peace without Justice. Forwarded from Consuelo Luz, Thank you. More info: Mitch Buszek: (505) 204-0833.
---------------------------------
You can read the Albuquerque Journal's article on Monday's court hearing, free for today only due to the Journal's subscription requirements. Excerpt:

The board's chairman, Gov. Bill Richardson, reiterated his opposition to a recount, saying it "will not reform our election laws."

At the very least, the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates who requested it should be made to pay its entire cost upfront, the governor said Monday. Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron has said that could be upwards of $600,000.

Representatives of the Green and Libertarian Parties have said that "money is no object."

UPDATE: ABQ Recount Training

From Sonja Elison via Nancy Galloway:

Below are the latest training times and places for recount observer and computer volunteeers in Albuquerque.  The computer training is intended for people with previous computer experience beyond just being a computer user, and they are needed badly.

Computer training will take place Tuesday, December 14  at 4:00 PM (probably will last an hour or hour and a half) at Little Anita's which is at 2105 Mountain Road NW at the corner of Rio Grande.

Another observer training session will take place at Page One bookstore, at the SW corner or Juan Tabo and Montgomery on Wednesday night, December 15, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. --selison22@comcast.net

Nuclear Winter Film Series Starts This Week at ABQ Guild Theater

From Nancy Galloway:

There is a wonderful Nuclear Winter film series at the Guild for the next 3 or 4 weeks. (Located in Albuquerque at 3405 Central, on Central between Girard and Carlisle):

Mon, Dec. 13; Tues, Dec. 14; Wed, Dec. 15:
3:45 - Atomic Café - 88 minutes
5:30 - Half-Life - 87 minutes
7:15 - Atomic Café - 88 minutes
9pm - Half-Life - 87 minutes 

Monday, Dec. 20; Tues., Dec. 21; Wed, Dec. 22:
5:30 – Atomic Filmmakers – 52 minutes and Crossroads - 36 minutes (double feature)
8pm – Atomic Filmmakers – 52 minutes and Crossroads – 36 minutes (double feature)

Monday, Dec. 27; Tues, Dec. 28; Wed., Dec. 29:
2pm – I Live in Fear (113 minutes)
4:30 – I Live in Fear (113 minutes)
7pm – I Live in Fear (113 minutes)
9:15 – I Live in Fear (113 minutes)

Monday, Jan. 3; Tues, Jan. 4; Wed., Jan. 5:
The Day After Trinity (times to be announced)

More information on Nuclear Winter from Roy Durfee for the KUNM Evening Report:

A pair of films from the 1980s evokes the 1950s rather well in a Monday through Wednesday double bill at The Guild. The ‘50s in question here are the ‘50s of the Cold War, above ground nuclear testing, underground backyard bomb shelters, and the use of “atomic” as an all-purpose advertising adjective meant to imply modern and exciting. The Atomic Café skillfully combines archival footage of training films, bomb tests, newsreels, and smirking politicians justifying the use and urgency of atomic weapons in a world threatened by communism. Beginning with New Mexico’s own Trinity test from July of 1945, the film carries on through the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fatuous comments of those who would see god’s work in nuclear destruction, and the testing programs in the South Pacific and Nevada, building up to the nuclear dread that preceded the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early ‘60s. That dread, somewhat diluted by lack of imagination, perhaps, was the basis of “air raid” drills in schools, with students ducking under desks and covering heads with arms and hands. 

Half-Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age looks at the same time period from the perspective of Marshall Islanders who became literal guinea pigs in the mad scientific rush to “knowledge” about radioactivity. U.S. weather men involved in the above ground testing in the Pacific make it clear that the prevailing winds which carried radioactive fallout to the isolated islanders was well known to the testers and that the exposure was an intentional nuclear experiment. The smug complacency of those who praise here the “happy amenable savages” of the South Pacific is strenuously contrasted with the indignation of the islanders themselves, who speak of being treated “like worthless animals” and accuse the Americans of being “smart at doing stupid things.” The stupidity of nuclear weaponry is one of the clear messages of The Guild’s ongoing “Nuclear Winter” program, and that stupidity is personalized by many of the films found here. 

To understand the threat of weapons of mass destruction, real or imagined, it is helpful to understand the world and mindset into which they were originally introduced. At one point, “The Bomb,” like Elvis or The Beatles, was a part of pop culture, musical aspects of which were researched for The Atomic Café by UNM’s own David Dunaway. This double bill offers insight into the world as we know it, as well as a world that once was. This is Roy Durfee for the KUNM Evening Report.
______
Detailed program notes will be available at www.guildcinema.com

Ticket prices:
$5 for all shows beginning before 6:00 PM,
$7 General Admission thereafter.
$5 Seniors/Students/Kids under 12
Please phone (505)255-1848 for any additional information.

====================

Volunteer opportunity, petition drive:
Nuclear Winter film series:
Looking for volunteers to collect Nukes Out of Duke City petitions:

This is a great opportunity to collect signatures on our petition to have the 2510 wmds at Kirtland dismantled.

You are invited to attend and to stand outside the Guild before or after a movie and collect signatures.  The owners of the Guild have given us permission to do this. Volunteers will stand outside and collect signatures, then see the movie, then collect signatures after the movie as well. Please call Jeanne at 401-4808 if you can help.

A Community Dialogue for a New Peace Movement

From Stop the War Machine's email news:

Dear Friends of Human Rights and Peace,

Please join me on Wednesday for a key Community dialogue. I am preparing to do these around the country with a court transcriber putting down your thoughts and ideas on the key questions of our time about Peace. Why is the notion of "peace", which is an organizing principle for positive human relations, a political term with a weak or liberal label? How can we reframe peace to make it more understandable so it may become part of our schools, workplaces, etc?

Please come to express your views and help us in this discussion. Please share this with your lists and friends. I think you will find the event hopeful and exciting (something we could all use for the New Year).

Eric Sirotkin
505-266-2753

Reframing Peace
A Community Dialogue for a New Peace Movement
Wednesday, December 15th
Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center
201 Harvard S.E.
7:00 - 9:00 PM

More on NM Recount - How You Can Help: Training Monday, Recount Starts Tuesday

From Andrea and David:

Dear Friends,

There is going to be a recount in NM conducted by Help America Recount, a national non-partisan organization that was formed to ensure fair elections. This organization is also heading up the recount in Ohio which will begin on Monday. They are hoping that the recount in NM will begin on Tuesday.

The NM recount will have no effect on the outcome of the Presidential election. However, it is being held here to serve as an election "lab" because there are so many different types of voting machines, as well as paper ballots, that are used in the state. The information that can be compiled from the recount here will be studied and incorporated into the strategies for future elections.

Help America Recount held a recount training session yesterday (Saturday) for Bernalillo County at the Palo Duro Senior Center in Abq. Lowell Finley, the organization's election attorney from Berkeley, CA was asked about disqualified ballots. He said that in a recount any ballot that had been disqualified during the count could be disputed. This would include disqualified provisional ballots.

This recount is very important.

The recount in Bernalillo County is going to take the most time of all the counties. The recount in most of the other counties will be finished very quickly and some of the volunteers from those counties will be coming to help here. Until they arrive, we are going to need a lot of volunteers here especially in the first few days of the recount (beginning Tuesday of this week).

Please help and encourage family members and friends to also help.

There is going to be another recount training on Monday night. The recount observing and responsibilites are different from the original count observing so it's important to take the recount training. Call Steve Lucero, the Bernalillo County coordinator, for the time and location of that meeting: 710-8946.

If you aren't able to participate, please give a contribution. $114,000 has already been deposited with the state but the cost is going to be much higher.

You can get more information and make a contribution about Help America Recount at: https://helpamericarecount.org/

Thanks for your support on such short notice.

ABQ DeanCorps Caroling and More

From Nance Crow:

The ABQ Dean Singers will go caroling on Monday night, Dec. 20th. Posole and all the fixins at my house, 324 Hermosa Dr. SE, 5:30 - 6:30 PM; caroling at a selection of shelters and half-way houses 7:00 - 8:30 PM. (I'll have the details by Mon night.) Will provide cider, cocoa, some (but not all) flashlights and sheet music for popular carols. Would like at least 10 people, the more, quite literally, the merrier! Call me at 265-8113, cell 401-2365.

For January, I'd like about 6 Dean Corps volunteers to go to Barrett House Attic on Saturday, Janurary 15, 10 AM - 2 PM to help them sort donations (primarily clothes and house wares. Lunch following at Hurricane's. At year's end they get so much stuff they can't get it all done.  Barrett House is the homeless Women and Children's shelter; the "Attic,' at 4308 Lomas NE west of Washington, supports the shelter.

love and peace, Nance

Editor's Note: DeanCorps is an action arm of Democracy for America - Democracy for New Mexico. Howard Dean's governorship was marked by support for families and children and DeanCorps celebrates this crucial emphasis by offering service to our communities. DeanCorps was very active across the country during the primaries, and is now being reactivated. This month, DeanCorps groups in 50 states donated long distance phone cards for distribution to vets in VA Hospitals. You can read about New Mexico's participation in this project here.

The Dean Singers were created to sing at various functions to spread the word about Dean's candidacy. Last year, this included caroling in Old Town during the luminaria and tree lighting ceremony, while passing out bumperstickers and more. Much fun. This year, the emphasis is on reaching out to folks in our community with holiday cheer. Anyone can be a Dean Singer. Attitude is everything! Even I can participate, by singing very, very softly and using percussion to cover up my singing voice. If I can do it, so can you! (Antlers and jingle bells optional.) --B.W.