Democracy for New Mexico

Sunday Bird Blogging

(Click photo for larger version.)

This Sunday's edition of Bird Blogging once again features Bosco the peach-faced lovebird. Since we're all feeling a little down these days with the junta just getting installed for another term of Orwellian doublespeak, I thought I'd let Bosco demonstrate what spunk in the face of adversity is all about. We can do it! We have the power! We can take our country back! Note that he has his foot up, ready to march into the fray once again. Onward liberal activists!

Bosco may be equipped with only a bird brain, but he don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

P.S. You, too, can have your bird (or dog or cat or gerbil or whatever pet you have) featured on Sunday Bird Blogging. Just email me your photo with a short description.

Demand An Answer from the NY Times

From Not In Our Name:

We had planned for the new Not In Our Name statement of conscience to run on Friday, January 21, in the New York Times. We had a contract and a confirmation number. This ad was to be our answer to the inauguration, and it was timed to appear in the middle of the inauguration news coverage.

The ad did not run. The advertising department were themselves deeply surprised by this, and have not been able to explain what happened. In fact, we were told that to their knowledge this had never happened before.

At the same time, the Times lead editorial said that this should be a time of legitimacy and acceptance for the President -- and that this was especially something that the opposition has to come to terms with.

It is unacceptable that we do not yet know why something that "has never happened before" happened -- a full page paid ad, accepted and slotted in, did not run. This is especially so when the content of the ad, the need to resist the course that this administration has set, is so important to the people of this country and the world. There needs to be an investigation of what went wrong and why. If it was just an honest mistake, we expect that the Times itself would want to know why in order to prevent it from occurring again.

The Times has given us a new ad reservation number and assured us that the ad will now run on this Sunday. However, there is the danger of it being buried in the back of the first section. This would be another way of marginalizing and rendering relatively invisible the voices of conscience and dissent.

We urge signers and supporters of the statement to e-mail the Times to demand that the ad run in the Sunday Week in Review section (where there will be summation of the inauguration) or in the first 10 pages of the first section. Send to the President and General Manager of the Times at president@nytimes.com and to the advertising department at advertising@nytimes.com.

We also urge people to write letters to the Times in response to their editorial (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/opinion/21fri1.html?oref=login) and requesting that your letter run on Monday. It would make a huge difference in making up the loss of the statement not running today, if people would quote or reference the Not In Our Name statement as part of their answer to the Times.

Editor's Note: Can you imagine the New York Times behaving this way if some right-wing bunch or Exxon bought an ad? Speak truth to power and urge the New York Times to own up to their censorship!

Albuquerque's "I Am Blue" Counter-Inaugural Packed With Activists

From Tom Solomon:
Thursday's Counter-Inaugural held in Albuquerque’s La Posada hotel was a huge success! A fantastic turnout packed the banquet hall and spilled out into the hallways outside. Several hundred 'pissed-off voters' and other activists networked with dozens of activist groups who had tables set up to explain their group’s theme.

We had speeches by the head of the local ACLU on Bush’s upcoming attacks on Constitutional freedoms, the editor of Crosswinds weekly on the freedom of the press, the head of the NM Wilderness Alliance (www.NMWild.org) on protecting Otero Mesa, a local attorney explaining the scam behind ‘tort reform’ (or the “wrongdoer’s don’t pay” law!) and several others. The activist groups got dozens of people to sign up to support their causes, and several groups spoke of the urgent need for activists to take back the Democratic Party.

Good music, good food and great energy lifted our spirits in the face of the inauguration of the Great Buffoon in Washington. Kathy Economy deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for putting on this Counter-Inaugural event! (she can have Tenet's). Thanks Kathy!

(Click on photos to get larger images.)

Would anyone else like to add their impressions of this event? Click on "Comments."

Contest: Define the Liberal Agenda

From Tapped, the blog of The American Prospect online:

DEFINING THE LIBERAL AGENDA. With George W. Bush back on the steps of the Capitol for a second term, many liberals have decided that there's something we're fundamentally just not getting. Maybe it's something about our politics; maybe it's something about the way we communicate them. Either way, we often find ourselves incapable of expressing what we believe in a simple, accessible fashion.

So we want it brought back to the basics. The Prospect is hosting a contest to define the liberal ideology. Make it simple: In no more than 30 words, tell us what liberalism stands for. There's a reason you care about politics and a reason you read The American Prospect; what do you want to see accomplished in and by this great country? It may seem like a lot to fit into 30 words -- or it may be more straightforward than you think.

More details about the contest can be found here, and you can enter by emailing us. We'll post some of the best responses we receive over the next few weeks, and pick a winner in February (who will receive exciting prizes!). Enter early and, heck, if you've got a lot to say -- enter often.

PARTICIPATE: Yard and Bake Sale to Benefit Tsunami Victims

A yard and bake sale to benefit tsunami relief victims will be held:

Saturday, February 26th
9 AM to 5 PM
At the parking lot of the Democratic Party of New Mexico
1301 San Pedro NE, Albuquerque

This event is being organized by Ana Canales. She needs volunteers to work the sale, and donations of items and baked goods to sell. For more information, call her at 275-1283.

Democracy for New Mexico is supporting this relief effort and I hope you'll consider volunteering, that you'll donate some items and/or contribute some of your favorite baked goods for the sale, and that you'll come on down to the state Dem Party office parking lot to purchase some great garage sale and homemade baked goods for the cause!

Is This What Freedom Looks Like?

Freedom and liberty on the inaugural parade route:

Complimentary pepper spray:

The Rove vampires were out:

As were Snow White and Grumpy (who no doubt has his eye on that wine bottle).

Even the frat boys and Condyliar were out:

Pictures are worth a thousand words, aren't they?

NOT IN OUR NAME

The following statement by Not In My Name will appear as a full-page ad in tomorrow's New York Times and has so far been signed by more than 7,000 people. Click here to add your name to the statement:

As George W. Bush is inaugurated for a second term, let it not be said that people in the United States silently acquiesced in the face of this shameful coronation of war, greed, and intolerance. He does not speak for us. He does not represent us. He does not act in our name.

No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason.

Not In Our Name

In our name, the Bush government justifies the invasion and occupation of Iraq on false pretenses, raining down destruction, horror, and misery, bringing death to more than 100,000 Iraqis. It sends our youth to destroy entire cities for the sake of so-called democratic elections, while intimidating and disenfranchising thousands of African American and other voters at home.

In our name, the Bush government holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home. It strips the rights of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the U.S., denies them legal counsel, stigmatizes and holds them without cause. Thousands have been deported.

As new trial balloons are floated about invasions of Syria, or Iran, or North Korea, about leaving the United Nations, about new “lifetime detention” policies, we say not in our name will we allow further crimes to be committed against nations or individuals deemed to stand in the way of the goal of unquestioned world supremacy.

Could we have imagined a few years ago that core principles such as the separation of church and state, due process, presumption of innocence, freedom of speech, and habeas corpus would be discarded so easily? Now, anyone can be declared an “enemy combatant” without meaningful redress or independent review by a President who is concentrating power in the executive branch. His choice for Attorney General is the legal architect of the torture that has been carried out in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib.

The Bush government seeks to impose a narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism as government policy. No longer on the margins of power, this extremist movement aims to strip women of their reproductive rights, to stoke hatred of gays and lesbians, and to drive a wedge between spiritual experience and scientific truth. We will not surrender to extremists our right to think. AIDS is not a punishment from God. Global warming is a real danger. Evolution happened. All people must be free to find meaning and sustenance in whatever form of religious or spiritual belief they choose. But religion can never be compulsory. These extremists may claim to make their own reality, but we will not allow them to make ours.

Millions of us worked, talked, marched, poll watched, contributed, voted, and did everything we could to defeat the Bush regime in the last election. This unprecedented effort brought forth new energy, organization, and commitment to struggle for justice. It would be a terrible mistake to let our failure to stop Bush in these ways lead to despair and inaction. On the contrary, this broad mobilization of people committed to a fairer, freer, more peaceful world must move forward. We cannot, we will not, wait until 2008. The fight against the second Bush regime has to start now.

The movement against the war in Vietnam never won a presidential election. But it blocked troop trains, closed induction centers, marched, spoke to people door to door -- and it helped to stop a war. The Civil Rights Movement never tied its star to a presidential candidate; it sat in, freedom rode, fought legal battles, filled jailhouses -- and changed the face of a nation.

We must change the political reality of this country by mobilizing the tens of millions who know in their heads and hearts that the Bush regime’s “reality” is nothing but a nightmare for humanity. This will require creativity, mass actions and individual moments of courage. We must come together whenever we can, and we must act alone whenever we have to.

We draw inspiration from the soldiers who have refused to fight in this immoral war. We applaud the librarians who have refused to turn over lists of our reading, the high school students who have demanded to be taught evolution, those who brought to light torture by the U.S. military, and the massive protests that voiced international opposition to the war on Iraq. We affirm ordinary people undertaking extraordinary acts. We pledge to create community to back courageous acts of resistance. We stand with the people throughout the world who fight every day for the right to create their own future.

It is our responsibility to stop the Bush regime from carrying out this disastrous course. We believe history will judge us sharply should we fail to act decisively.

Over 7,000 people have now signed this statement. Among the initial signers are:

James Abourezk, former U.S. senator
Janet Abu-Lughod, professor emerita, New School
As`ad AbuKhalil, California State University, Stanislaus
Michael Albert
Edward Asner
Michael Avery, president, National Lawyers Guild
Russell Banks
Amiri Baraka
Rosalyn Baxandall, chair, American Studies/Media and Communications, State University of New York at Old Westbury
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and Code Pink
Larry Bensky, Pacifica radio
Michael Berg
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen
William Blum, author, US foreign policy
St. Clair Bourne
Judith Butler, author and professor, University of California at Berkeley
Julia Butterfly, director, Circle of Life Foundation
Leslie Cagan, national coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
Kathleen & Henry Chalfant
Noam Chomsky, MIT
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney-General
Marilyn Clement, nat’l coordinator, Campaign for a National Health Program NOW
Robbie Conal, artist
Peter Coyote
Diane di Prima, poet
Michael Eric Dyson
Nora Eisenberg, author of War at Home and Just the Way You Want Me
Daniel Ellsberg, former Defense and State Department official
Eve Ensler
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Carolyn Forché
Michael Franti
Boo Froebel
Peter Gerety
Jorie Graham, Harvard University
André Gregory
Jessica Hagedorn, writer
Suheir Hammad
Sam Hamill, Poets Against the War
Danny Hoch, playwright/actor
Marie Howe
Abdeen M. Jabara, past president, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Bill T. Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Barbara Kingsolver
C. Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist!
Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History of Science, MIT
Hans Koning, writer
David Korn
David C. Korten
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN magazine & Rabbi, Beyt Tikkun Synagogue , SF
Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead
Staughton Lynd
Reynaldo F. Macías, chair, National Association for Chicana & Chicano Studies
Dave Marsh
Maryknoll Sisters, Western Region
Jim McDermott, Member of Congress, State of Washington
Robert Meeropol, executive director, Rosenberg Fund for Children
Robin Morgan, author and activist
Walter Mosley
Jill Nelson, writer
Odetta
Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College & the Graduate Center - CUNY
Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter (Bulworth)
Frances Fox Piven
James Stewart Polshek, architect
William Pope
L|Francine Prose
Jerry Quickley, poet
Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights
David Riker, filmmaker
Stephen Rohde, civil liberties lawyer
Matthew Rothschild, editor, The Progressive magazine
Luc Sante
Roberta Segal-Sklar, communications director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Wallace Shawn
Zach Sklar
Starhawk
Tony Taccone
Naomi Wallace
Leonard Weinglass
Peter Weiss, president, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
C.K. Williams, poet, Princeton University
Saul Williams
Krzysztof Wodiczko, director, Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT
Zephyr
David Zeiger, Displaced Films
Howard Zinn, historian

(for a more complete list of signers, click here)

* * *

Please note that the statement text above is slightly edited from the text originally posted.

You may sign this statement on this web site at https://www.nion.us/READ_AND_SIGN.htm. You may also e-mail your name, how you would like to be identified and your state of residence to sign@nion.us. (Personal contact information will not be shared or utilized for any other purpose.)

Paint It (Orwellian) Black

"We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom, and America will always be faithful to that cause." -- George W. Bush on the eve of his second inaugural.

I was contemplating this statement over my morning coffee (not latte) and it finally dawned on me what he means by it: freedom for the greedy, freedom for torturers, freedom for liars, freedom for executive branch secrecy, freedom for environmental plunderers, freedom for Halliburton to steal, freedom for hate-mongers, freedom for vote suppressors, freedom for war profiteers, freedom for corporate lawbreakers, freedom for sweatshop owners, freedom for unscrupulous voting machine makers, freedom for bigots, and freedom for those who believe genuine freedom is dangerous and who dedicate their lives to irradicating it at home and abroad. Most of all, freedom for hypocrits who use "freedom" to lay siege to civil and human rights.

The image atop this post refers to "Black - Definitions":

Having little or no light: a black, moonless night.

Soiled, as from soot; dirty: feet black from playing outdoors.

Evil; wicked: the pirates' black deeds.

Cheerless and depressing; gloomy: black thoughts.

Marked by anger or sullenness: gave me a black look.

Attended with disaster; calamitous: a black day; the stock market crash on Black Friday.

Deserving of, indicating, or incurring censure or dishonor: “Man... has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands” (Rachel Carson).

ACTIVATE! Info On Democratic Party of Bernalillo County

Michael Schneider has put together a page with information on the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County that includes an unofficial list of precincts matched to wards, who to contact to find out who your ward and precinct chair are, and other very helpful stuff:

He'll be adding more information as he gets it, so check back. If you have any information he can use, send it along to Mike.

I'm adding a link to Mike's page to our Democractic Party links on the left-hand sidebar on this site. You can find out what Bernalillo County precinct you're in by visiting the and entering your address.

Remember, the time to step up and become more active in the Democratic Party is now if we want to make sure that progressive candidates and issues get their due. You are urged to attend the Precinct Activation Meeting on Saturday, February 5th at 11:00 AM at the IBEW Hall, 4921 Alexander Blvd. NE in Albuquerque.  This will be a hands-on training session about how you can activate your precinct, run for precinct or ward chair, and more. It's coordinated by the Democratic Party of New Mexico. For more information, call Terri Holland, Director of Party Affairs, at 505-830-3650, ext. 11, or email her a terribk7@aol.com.

As noted in our list of Coming Events in the right-hand sidebar on this page, the Bernalillo County ward meetings, where ward and precinct chairs will be elected, are tentatively set for March 3rd. The meeting of the Bernalillo County Central Committee is tentatively scheduled for March 12th, while the meeting of the State Central Committee is tentatively planned for April 23rd. Times and locations for these meetings have not yet been finalized.

Check Out I'm Blue

From Tony  DellaFlora:
I'm Blue was formed in response to the disaster of Nov. 2. Our first priority was to give "blue" voters a chance to make it clear that regardless of the results of the election, progressives and liberals everywhere would continue to stand on principle.

Thus, we declared Inauguration Day a National Day of Mourning and Solidarity for blues. We ask progressives to observe a moment of silence during the Inauguration and encourage them to wear blue mourning armbands that day.

The long-term goal of the group is to use its website, www.imblue.net as a resource for bringing together the disparate elements of the progressive movement, particularly in New Mexico. We will assist  local groups in disseminating information about issues, events, meetings and opportunities to take action. But we are most interested in redefining and reframing progressive values, creating cohesive strategies for long-term success, and serving as a resource for progressive candidates in this state. If that works, then we'll look at the rest of the country.

Editor's Note: You may have met Tony at our DFA-DFNM Meetup or other progressive events around town. He's a great guy and I'd like to urge you to visit his website and his online store. If you buy an "I'm Blue" armband or bumpersticker, 5% of the purchase price will be donated to us for the cause of our choice. Just type in "DFNM" in the coupon spot on the online order form.