Democracy for New Mexico

McSorley Introduces Bill to Create Office of Peace

From Stop the War Machine e-newsletter:
Office of Peace in New Mexico

NM Senate Bill SB 277: Senator Cisco McSorley wants to create the Office of Peace dedicated to peacemaking, justice and human rights as well as a Citizen Peace Advisory Council. There will be a director of peace appointed by the Governor with the consent of the senate. Duties are listed and $250,000 appropriation requested. 10 pages in length.

Duties include:

1. Manage the office and direct the resources and skills of the office to four areas - prevention, management and resolution of conflict; public education; policy; and public information.

2. Organize and participate in public dialogues throughout the state, providing a diplomatic method for addressing controversial issues and conflicts.

3. Analyze and build upon existing policies and program and develop new approaches for preventing, managing and resolving social conflict - including spouse abuse, child abuse and mistreatement of the elderly, school and gang violence, hate crimes, disputes between the police and community members, natural resource disputes within and between communities, disputes within and between government agencies.

4. Develop a peace education curriculum 5. Gather information on effective community peace-building activities and disseminate the information

The citizens peace advisory council will include the director and 10 appointed members for 4 year terms.

1. One member from a peace advocacy organization 2. One member from a religious or spiritual organization 3. One member from a local, county ot state law enforcement agency 4. One health professional with expertise in behavioral and public health issues 5. One member from an environmental and energy conservation organization with expertise in alternative energy use.

6. One veteran who has served in an armed conflict 7. One public school educator 8. One representative affiliated with the arts 9. One youth representative between the ages of 15 and 24 10. One member appointed by the secretary of Indian Affairs.

Questions? Contact Loralucero@aol.com

Editor's Note: You can track this bill and read it in its entirety at the linked page at the NM Legislature website. The Legislature's main webpage is located at:

https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/

I have a permanent link to the site in the right-hand sidebar on this page, near the top. Check it out. It has a wealth of information to help you find and track bills, find out to which committees they've been assigned, which NM House and Senate districts you're in, and how to contact your state representative and senator.

ACTION ALERT: NM Election Reform

According to an article in today's Albuquerque Journal, the first House Voters and Elections Committee meeting at the NM Legislature yesterday was packed with voters demanding a paper trail for electronic voting machines. NM Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron stated that NM has a kind of paper trail that provides cumulative totals at the end of the day, but admitted the machines lack a paper receipt for voters to check if their vote was recorded correctly.

Get this (#1): Vigil-Giron said the state's 33 counties can't use the $9 million in federal dollars left for voting machine purchases to buy machines that provide individual paper receipts because none of the companies that make them have applied to her office for testing and certification according to NM law.

Given the urgent need for machines with paper trails, you'd think it would enter Vigil-Giron's mind to contact the companies, wouldn't you? After all, she does seem to have a special relationship with ES&S machines, whose vice president was her 6th largest campaign contributor in 2002. (See previous DFNM post.) Just by chance, ES&S was showing off its machine with paper receipts at the Roundhouse rotunda yesterday. Perhaps she should have walked over and talked to them.

Vigil-Giron also answered questions from committee members about possible vote fraud in the last election. Get this (#2): She claimed she "has not seen a single complaint come to her in writing, nor has she heard from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico, which created a task force to look into such allegations." She said, "So far we have not seen anything written down."

I wonder if she considers the court actions and suits, or the reports submitted by the Green and Libertarian Parties that documented myriad problems with the election to be "anything written down." Guess not.

It should be noted that Vigil-Giron is president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and that Denise Lamb, NM's election bureau director, heads the National Association of State Election Directors. So they have alot of clout in how their counterparts around the country will deal with election reform issues. It's incredibly important that they understand how many of us are demanding that voters have access to machines with paper trails and receipts so that we can, once again, trust our election process.

Click to the continuation page for related contact information.

To contact Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron:
Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State
State Capitol North Annex, Suite 300
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87503
Phone: (505) 827-3600
FAX: (505) 827-3634
Toll Free 1-800-477-3632
secstate@state.nm.us

To contact Election Bureau chief, Denise Lamb:
(505) 827-8403
denise.lamb@state.nm.us

To contact your legislators about voting reform issues:
https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/default.asp

Membership, contact and meeting information about the House Voters and Elections committee:
https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/committeedetail.asp?CommCode=HVEC

The website of Verified Voting New Mexico is a good resource on this issue.

Support Equality (In 90 Seconds or Less)

From Equality New Mexico: Please Read, Click, and Forward

https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

Same-sex couples in New Mexico deserve equality! If you agree, click here to sign EQNM?s Equality Pledge:

https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

I pledge to learn the positions of my State Senator and State Representative on issues of full equal rights for LGBT citizens in New Mexico.

As you read this, ideological conservatives in Santa Fe are working to ban same-sex marriage with legislation that defines marriage as "only between one man and one woman." This so-called "Defense of Marriage" (DOMA) legislation will harm thousands of children across the state. In other states, similar language was used as a springboard for legislation to remove children from households with same-sex parents. We must stop DOMA in New Mexico now.

Governor Richardson says he will sign a DOMA into law if it reaches his desk. Supporters of equality and fairness need to show their strength to the Governor. You can do that by adding your name to the Equality Pledge.

The collected names will be delivered to the Governor to encourage him to do the right thing. Help persuade him with an impressive number of names--let your friends know about this effort.

Forward this email to supporters of equality and fairness.

Please sign the pledge to get informed and stay informed. In return, Equality New Mexico pledges to keep you informed. .https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

Please Read, Click, and Forward

No On Gonzales

I'm writing this to add our voice to Daily Kos :: No on Gonzales:

"With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him."

If you'd like to contact your Senator on this, go here.

Human Rights First has an excellent Flash video on Gonzales and his role in the torture scandals, as well as other revealing information about him.

And Stars and Stripes has a letter signed by many prominent, retired military leaders questioning whether Gonzales is the right fit for GIs.

ACTION ALERT: Attend DPNM's ABQ Precinct Activation Meeting!

Democratic Party
Precinct Activation Meeting!!

Learn how YOU can get involved
in your precinct and ward

Everyone Welcome
Bring a Sack Lunch-Coffee Provided

IBEW Hall
4921 Alexander Blvd NE
Saturday, February 5, 2005
11:00 AM

Contact Terri Holland
DPNM  Headquarters
830-3650 x11

Editor's Note: All DFA-DFNM members and other progressives are urged to attend this meeting so we can get as many people as we can involved at the precinct level, and running for ward and precinct chairs at the March 3rd Democratic ward/precinct meetings around Albuquerque. This hands-on meeting will teach you how.

Equality NM Legislative Update

The 60-day, 2005, New Mexico State Legislative Session began at noon on January 18th and ends on March the 19th. Equality New Mexico will track Domestic Partner and HIV/AIDS legislation. To find your bills and where they are in the legislative process, proceed to https://legis.state.nm.us.

Thus far only one bill has dropped, it is House Bill 86 (H 86). H 86 is a "Domestic Partner Bill" and is sponsored by House Representative Mimi Stewart. This bill requires that insurance companies offer domestic partner benefits to any New Mexican employer who requests the benefits. Currently, most large employers usually do not have trouble with domestic partner benefits but smaller employers with fewer employees often are told that the insurance company does not provide that benefit. This bill passed the House 2 years ago but died in the Senate due to lack of time. You can track this bill  here.

No legislation for HIV/AIDS has been dropped. No Defense of Marriage Acts or DOMAs have been introduced.

A bill sponsored by Senator John Grubesic will be introduced for New Mexico State employees who have retired. In 2003, Governor Bill Richardson signed an executive order creating domestic partnerships for New Mexico State employees, regardless of sexual orientation. The New Mexico State insurance companies are denying benefits to partners of retired state employees. This bill will clarify that domestic partnership benefits apply to retirement.

A domestic partnership bill will be introduced by Senator Cisco McSorley. It will be a comprehensive, statewide, domestic partnership, benefits bill for unmarried couples regardless of sexual orientation. This bill will offer many of the rights, benefits, and protections that legally recognized families enjoy today.

Gregg Ferran, Executive Director
Equality New Mexico

Editor's Note: If you'd like to urge your legislator to support these bills or any others, go to https://legis.state.nm.us, as noted above. This site includes links for finding your legislator and their contact information, the legislative leadership, a bill finder, watcher and locator, legislative reports, committee membership, agendas, calendars and more.

ACTION ALERT: Fight BLM's Move to Allow Drilling on NM's Otero Mesa

Photo courtesy of Stephen Capra. Click for larger image.

On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management approved a drilling plan for Otero Mesa, one of North America's remaining natural Chihuahuan desert grasslands, and an ecological gem. The plan would allow exploratory gas and oil drilling on virtually all of the Mesa. Only 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acres would be permanently protected. According to an AP article,

Gov. Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.

"The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.

The opponents argue the plan fails to consider the effect on groundwater and grassland at the mesa, extending about 40 miles north of the Texas-New Mexico line.

Richardson –- who once called the mesa "sacred" and wanted to set aside 640,000 acres as a national conservation area –- accused the federal government of ignoring its policy of working with states on major land management decisions.

"By failing to compromise, the federal government might have taken two steps backward, tying this issue up for years," the Democratic governor said.
[. . .]
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and New Mexico Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons applauded the plan, saying the BLM balanced the need to protect the environment with the need to develop new sources of oil and gas.

Stephen Capra of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance acknowledged there were novel parts to the BLM plan, but declared: "The protection the BLM is talking about, it's window dressing."

"These are some of the last unfragmented desert grasslands anywhere in the world and they're just essential to protection of numerous desert species, from the pronghorn antelope to the endangered Aplomado falcon," said Mike Harris, an attorney with Denver-based Earthjustice.

To find out more about Otero Mesa and how you can help, visit the websites of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Coalition for Otero Mesa. The Coalition is also organizing a Protect Our Public Lands Rally at Albuquerque's Kimo Theater on February 5th from 2:00 to 5:00 PM to raise awareness and funds to fight the BLM plan.

Special guest speakers will include: Gloria Flora, activist and former Forest Service employee; Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca; Terri Swearingen, activist and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize; Gwich'in activists from the Arctic; Martha Marks, President of Republicans for Environmental Protection; Pojoaque Pueblo dancers, and some Surprise Guests! Plus a musical performance by : "Holy Water and Whiskey. "

Call Nathan Newcomer at 505/843-8696 for more information.

A Vision of Our Own

Highly recommended read: A Vision of Our Own: Four Ideas for the Left to Redefine Itself, by John Powers in the LA Weekly. After an impressive delineation of what we are facing and how we got here, Powers sets out four things Democrats must take back from the right:

. . . the left needs to do what the right did. It needs to define what it stands for. And it must be willing to fight for what it believes over the long haul, even if it means losing some elections. In particular, it must begin to take back four things that it has ceded to the right.

1. It must reclaim virtue. After the election, you heard endless talk about how Bush won on "values." This wasn’t true — the so-called values vote was no more powerful in 2004 than in earlier years. But what is true is that conservatives are scarily comfortable talking about morality, while the left (still influenced by "scientific" socialism) is made nervous by moral language. Because of this, our political culture’s idea of virtue has been whittled into a sad, mingy thing, a question of private behavior. Yet one historic strength of the left was its belief that morality is also a matter of public virtue — justice, equality, generosity, tolerance. The loss of this idea has been catastrophic. While Republicans rouse their troops by attacking Clinton’s immorality or gay marriage, Democrats couldn’t make hay from the moral outrage of corporate executives (who make 1,000 times their employees’ wages) selling off stock options for top dollar while letting pension funds collapse. Morality should be our issue, not theirs. Where’s The Book of Liberal Virtues?

2. It must reclaim freedom. One of the left’s glories has been its tradition of heroic internationalism, still alive in the anti-globalization movement’s insistence on workers’ rights around the world. (Typically, though, "anti-globalization" sounds negative rather than positive.) But when it comes to foreign policy these days, the left appears lost. I get depressed hearing friends sound like paleocon isolationists or watching them reflexively assume that there’s something inherently tyrannical about the use of American power. It’s not enough to mock Norman Podhoretz’s insistence that the battle with Islamic terrorism is World War IV. Just as the left lacked a coherent position on what to do with murderous despots such as Milosevic and Saddam — it won’t do to say, "They’re bad, but . . ." The left now needs a position on how best to battle a Muslim ideology that, at bottom, despises all the freedoms we should be defending. America should be actively promoting the freedom of everyone on the planet, and the key question is, how would the left do it differently from the Bush administration?

3. It must reclaim pleasure. For the last 30 years, the right’s been having fun — Lee Atwater playing the blues, Rush Limbaugh giving that strangulated laugh, The Weekly Standard running those mocking covers — while the left has been good for you, like eating a big, dry bowl of muesli. This isn’t simply because leftists can be humorless (a quality shared with righteous evangelicals), but because, over the years, they’ve gone from being associated with free love and rock & roll to seeming like yuppified puritans; hence the Gore-Lieberman ticket talked about censoring video games and brainy leftist Thomas Frank tirelessly debunks the pleasure of those who buy anything Cool or find Madonna meaningful. (Clinton was an exception — he enjoyed a Big Mac and an intern as much as the hero of a beer commercial — and he was the one Democrat in recent years that most average Americans really liked.) While the left is correct in talking about the gas-guzzling horror of SUVs, it’s a losing cause to tell a nation full of proud drivers that they should feel guilty about the car they love. Rather than coming off as anti-consumerist puritans in a consumerist culture, the left should be fighting on the side of freedom and pleasure — for instance, arguing that ordinary people should have more time off from the endless hours of work that increasingly devour our souls. This is the kind of idea we should own — and force the right to argue against.

4. Finally, and above all, it must try to reclaim utopia. Back during the horrors of mid-20th-century Germany, the great Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch wrote, "This is not a time to be without wishes." He knew that any successful political action had to begin in hope and dreams. The same is true as we enter the second Bush administration. The right controls the machinery of government and isn’t shy about using it to change the world to make it fit the twin religions that drive it — Christianity and untrammeled free-market economics. To fight such a radical, all-encompassing vision, we need an equally big countervision of our own. I’m not talking about some mad fantasy of heaven on earth (those usually lead to death camps), but a dream bigger than hopes that the Democratic Party will come back into power four years from now. To create the world we want, we have to regain the hopeful belief that we are trying to create a world thrillingly better than the one we now live in. Promising more prescription drugs for seniors just won’t cut it.

****************
What do YOU think about Power's take on this?

Thanks to John McAndrew for this article.

First Defend Democracy Meeting Set for Sunday in ABQ

Albuquerque's DEFEND DEMOCRACY will be having it's first monthly meeting.

The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM Sunday, January 30th at Irysh Mac's Coffee House (behind the McDonald's on the corner of Central and Yale).

Don't worry about being unprepared. Just bring yourself, your ideas and the same passion you brought with you to the counter-inauguration rally. We will bring up research, eccumenical outreach, highschool movements, lobbying and direct action.  We need your input. If you don't believe that change is possible ... I ask you not to come. Or NO ... DO come. You will witness the beginnings of change. Bring any supporters with you if you would like.

Sincerely,
Jesus Celso Munoz
505-977-8428 - Cell
jesusmunoz_abq@yahoo.com

Latest on Race for DNC Chair

The voting members of the DNC are having their Western Regional Caucus this weekend in Sacramento, CA, and alot of good reports about the event are filtering in on the blogs. Dean supporters have been out in force at the meetings and it appears that he's now the clear frontrunner among the candidates for DNC Chair. We all know what that means. As reported by Howard Fineman of Newsweek in an article entitled "Now Playing: 'Anybody But Dean, Part 2'":

Democrats, meanwhile, divided into familiar warring camps: for and against Howard Dean. In Burlington, Vt., Dean and hundreds of fans gathered for an "un-Inauguration"--and in support of the former governor's quest to become the new chairman of the Democratic Party. In Georgetown that same evening,  hordes of insiders partied at the stately home of Mark Penn, the Clinton family pollster, where they gripped and grinned with Bill and Hill, cheered each other up--and fretted about Dean's assault on party headquarters. "There was a ton of positive energy at the house," a guest said later, "except for the fear and loathing of Dean."

Isn't it classy that the Hillary and Bill Clinton wing of the Party is so threatened by the power of the people in the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party that they'd rather hang onto power and lose than join in to make the changes we need to win?

And this really makes me laugh so hard it's more like crying:

Then, as now, a party establishment—based in Congress, governors' mansions and Georgetown salons—viewed him (Dean) as a loudmouthed lefty whose visibility would ruin the Democratic brand in Red States.

Ruin the Democratic brand in the Red States? What Democratic brand? The one that was so ignored that Kerry and other top Dems made not one appearance in non-battleground Red States, and ensured that the DNC gave as little bucks as possible to our state parties there?

Um, I guess these DLC-Clintonista types haven't noticed that we've lost more seats in Congress and legislatures and cities and counties than ever before with their "brand" of apologetic, weak-kneed begging. We've lost the presidency twice in a row with their "brand" of Republican-lite and their inside the Beltway "consultants" who are so afraid to be Democrats that they've developed a brand that stands for absolutely nothing, one entirely devoid of passion and pride.

Here are links to blog articles on this weekend's DNC caucus:

DNC Caucus: Dean's Fresh Horses & Hillary's Dark Forces

DNC Western Caucus Today in Sacramento