Democracy for New Mexico

State Democratic Party Resolutions Committee Saturday Will Make Or Break Resolutions

From Meredith Dixon at the Democratic Party of NM:

The State Resolutions Committee meeting will be on Saturday April 16, 2005 at 8:30 AM at the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Hall (510 San Pedro SE). 

Please attend if you are interested in discussing/debating the resolutions that will be presented to the State Central Committee.

***This is the meeting for debating resolutions***

Editor's Note: Since time will be limited at the State Central Committee meeting on Saturday, April 23rd, THIS is the place where all county resolutions will be presented, discussed, debated and voted upon by Committee members regarding whether each resolution will go on to the State Central Committee for adoption or not.

If you are interested in promoting any particular resolutions, please attend this meeting and make your case. This will be the opportunity for anyone interested to be present and encourage or dissuade the committee on the resolutions.

Urgent: 24 Military Blackhawk Helicopters Coming To SF: Event Alert

From Mother Media:
Does the prospect of having 24 Blackhawk Helicopters, military transport jets, Marine Cobra helicopters running 22 "training" operations daily 365 days a year out of Santa Fe Airport make you a little nervous? Unfortunately, that's what's on the agenda for our "Progressive Community."

Citizens for Environmental Safeguards (CES) Director Elaine Cimino will be speaking  about her lawsuit opposing the helicopters and base expansion at the Veterans for Peace meeting in Santa Fe on Wednesday evening, April 13 at 7:30 PM at El Museo Cultural, on Paseo de Peralta near Guadalupe Stree in the Railyard. But don't miss "The Right To Know" regarding environmental toxins starting at 6:45 PM at the Downtown Public Library.  Mother Media will be at both events.

Five years ago, Santa Fe gave a lease to the National Guard to put in a new hangar, additional outbuildings and add five Blackhawks to their stable of four. Now they want to include some Blackhawks from Kirtland AFB, some from Nevada and buy some new ones. The JAG officer on the case has admitted 24 helicopters plus support aircraft are likely on the base.

Using the pretext that the military is exempt from Federal Environmental Laws, the National Guard claimed *it didn't even need to do an environmental assessment.* The nerve. Through the legal efforts of Elaine Cimino, the Guard was forced to prepare one. It is due out at the end of the month and we are getting ready to mobilize against the new base expansion. Here is Elaine's press release:

Citizens for Environmental Safeguards (CES) Director Elaine Cimino will be speaking  at the Veterans for Peace meeting on Wednesday evening,
April 13 at 7:15 pm at Museo Cultural, on Paseo Peralta (Guadalupe St and the Railyard).

The Final Environmental Assessment will be released this month in April on the Blackhawk facility in Santa Fe NM.Ms. Cimino will update the community  as to the future military base and operations in Santa Fe, NM. A five year battle in the the federal courts was dismissed pending an environmental review. It is now a whole new ball game.

According to the US Army National Guard General, JAG officers, and Environmental assessments the Santa Fe Military base is scheduled to include 24 blackhawk helicopters, 2-4  jets, C-12's and another personel and air-support equipment and carriers. Operations are designed for a training and support to the expanded training base in the US Forest Service area of the Caja del Rio, which is under a no-fly zone.

This operation is quite different from the first presentation made to the Santa Fe City Council  who approved a 50 year lease for $1 a year on a facility supporting only 9 helicopters. The final approval for the lease facility hung on one vote from City Council Patty Bushee who voted for the facility.  US Army and NM National Guard promised a $6M yearly boost to the local economy.  This area is also included in the Patriot Missile Defense System that is being implemented throughout NM.  Senator Bingaman has just announced this past week he would ask for another $130 M for this pork barrel project. This is a project was scheduled to cost $11M just 5 years ago. What is really going on?

To find out more about this issue please attend.

Elaine Cimino  Director  1-800 424-9100

Join the Global Day of Action on CAFTA Tomorrow

From Progressive Democrats of America:

Take Action to Stop CAFTA! April 13th is National Call in Day to tell Congress: No New NAFTAs, No to CAFTA.

Bush is pushing for a CAFTA vote. Congressional hearings are happening now! Be part of the Global Week of Action on Trade.

The proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) - which includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic - is an attempt to expand the failed NAFTA model. If it passes, we can expect more job losses, more destruction of rural communities, more threats to our environment, and more attacks by corporations on our democracy.

Click to take action.

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Editor's Note: You can read more about CAFTA and actions we can take to stop it here and here.

The Senate Finance Committee is set to take action on the CAFTA bill tomorrow. Senator Jeff Bingaman is a member of this committee, so at the very least we should call his office TODAY and urge him to vote against it. Given his recent votes for the horribly unfair bankruptcy bill and the bill limiting class action lawsuits, there's no guarantee that Senator Bingaman will do the right thing unless we contact him in large numbers.

Alliance Urges New Mexicans to Ignore Hateful Visit

What should be the response to hatemonger Fred Phelps' protest visit to New Mexico later this month? According to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican we should:

Ignore them.

That's what Santa Fe city officials, religious leaders and community groups Monday urged locals to do if a Kansas anti-gay group shows up as planned this month to stage demonstrations.

Counterdemonstrations, they said, will only fall into the group's trap.

The "Reverend" Phelps' Kansas group announced it will picket The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, eight Santa Fe churches and Santa Fe City Hall between April 23 and April 25.

Click for a story on what happened when the hate group recently visited Arvada, Colorado.

An ad hoc alliance has been formed to lead a response to Phelps' group, and "urges Santa Feans to refrain from reactive counter demonstrations and to instead put their energy into positive community action."

This group is chaired by Rev. Holly Beaumont and includes representatives from the faith community, Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance, PFLAG, Equality New Mexico and the College of Santa Fe Queer Faculty and Staff Association. Click to read about a positive set of actions they've devised so that people can counter the negativity of the Phelps' protest.

To refresh yourself on the facts about Phelps and his anti-gay and anti-American crusade, check out a previous post on this topic.

Exciting Announcement on Otero Mesa Set for Earth Day!

From the NM Wilderness Alliance:

Dear Otero Mesa Supporters:

A very special event is slated to take place for Otero Mesa on Earth Day, Friday, April 22nd, 2005. This event will be held at 11:00 AM at the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque.

Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) will be on hand to make a very important announcement on Otero Mesa. For more information, please contact Nathan Newcomer at nathan@nmwild.org, or 505-843-8696. This event will be of monumental proportion.

REMINDER: The Otero Mesa Outing is this weekend, April 16 through April 17.

For directions or questions, please contact Nathan Newcomer at nathan@nmwild.org, or 505-843-8696

Where Do You Shop Blue?

We three want to start a website:  "shopblue@abq"

We do realize that a lot is being done on a national level to try to steer our money towards progressive causes by shopping in stores and businesses that support progressive, not conservative and neo-conservative causes.

This is an attempt to localize this great effort and focus on us, right here in the Albuquerque area.

We plan to publicize places where we can shop and feel good about ourselves and our future.

We want to start small and grow exponentially – by listing businesses that are in tune with our politics – after talking with them about our plan, and asking if they want to be listed on our website.  We will assure them that this is not a commercial enterprise  -- it’s a political statement.

We are thinking of food stores, video outlets, book stores (new and used), hardware businesses – probably small and local as opposed to huge and corporate – restaurants, work-out facilities, home repair businesses – you name it.

So – we are looking to all of you for your reactions and constructive criticism.  Anything we should be especially looking for or looking out for???  Any specific ideas of places we might visit, call or email?  Any of you doing something similar who have learned from your own experiences?

Please let us know.

We are:

Laura Stokes    stokescorrales@comcast.net
Kathy Freise     kathy@netchannel.com
Helen Aarli       h.aarli@comcast.net

(Editor's Note: If you attended the last week's DFA-DFNM Albuquerque Meetup, you'll recall seeing Helen present this project to the group.)

An Excellent Framing Resource: DemSpeak

DemSpeak is an open source initiative where Citizen Framers gather to discuss  domestic and foreign policy with the goal of framing or re-framing (re-claiming) the Progressive Message.

Our site is rich with training links, action links, links to framing resources, progressive  resources and a growing blog roll.  Not to mention a lively conversation as members and visitors work together to shape issue briefs like the one on Social Security you'll find at: https://www.deanport.com/dem/?q=node/299

At DemSpeak we don't acknowledge the toxic Blue state/Red state dichotomy. We're citizens working to change the language of politics so we can converse with the whole American family about what unites us rather than what divides us.

Progressive or conservative, religious or not, rich, poor, old or young Americans are in danger from an administration that treats the Constitution as if it were a first draft and the community of nations we helped to form and nurture as though it were a horde of barbarians at the gate.

Our future lies with our nation's children – yet so many are in desperate need of health care, education, decent housing. Spiritually, they are growing up in a climate that could result in their parents being afraid to raise them in the religion that expresses their deepest understanding of spirituality and the Divine.

At DemSpeak we're determined Progressives fighting for the future of the Republic.

Stop by, join in, use what you need.

Pax.

Nancy Virginia Varian
Daily Site Editor
www.demspeak.com

(Editor's Note: We were pleased to welcome Nancy to our DFA-DFNM Meetup last week as a new member. The site is definitely a useful resource for improving our framing and communications skills!)

Sunday Bird Blogging With Georgie

Alright. I confess. We have ANOTHER new bird on the premises:

Bluish-lavender Georgie arrived on the scene last weekend to keep yellow lutino Ginger company. You may recall the War of the Parakeets that resulted in Ginger being banished to her own cage away from Ms. Whitey and Mr. Queenie. Ginger had become very jealous over their love for one another and was getting nastier to Whitey by the hour.

It turned out Ginger was very lonely by herself in a separate cage, so we finally broke down and got her a companion. Enter the mellow and zen-like Georgie named, appropriately enough, for the late George Harrison, who was my favorite Beatle back in the day. You can see, however, that Ginger and Georgie are not yet fully acclimated to one another:

Ginger, who has a tendency towards nervousness and paranoia, still appears to be a bit up at arms over the new arrival. However, don't let her blazing red eyes fool you into thinking she is a complete savage. All yellow lutinos like her, similar to the albino Whitey, have naturally red eyes.

It's heartening that with each passing day the new couple seems to be more comforable with one another, following each other around the cage, from toy to toy, from swing to perch, with attentive looks on their faces. I have a feeling the avian gossip columns may soon be full of references to the new, hot couple in Hoffmantown: Georgie and Ginger.

(Click photos for larger images.)

Tell Corporate America to Drop the Hammer

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is widely regarded as the most powerful member of Congress. DeLay's abuse of this power has encircled him in a web of scandal. He has already been admonished three times by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee and a political action committee he set up in Texas is currently the subject of a grand jury investigation.

A network of large corporate backers have come, cash-in-hand, to DeLay's defense. American Airlines, Bacardi USA, Nissan USA, RJ Reynolds, and Verizon have all contributed thousands to Tom DeLay's Legal Defense Fund.

Visit DropTheHammer.org to send a message to these corporations and tell them to stop enabling Tom DeLay's unethical behavior. Let these corporations know that unless they stop supporting Tom DeLay, you'll stop supporting them.

You can read a comprehensive "case file" of DeLay's scandals at the DNC site.

NM Democratic Friends Meet Tonight

The meeting of the NM Democratic Friends and Albuquerque Democratic Party Meetup Group will be held tonight at 5PM (NOT 6PM) at the IBEW Hall.

Click for more information, to RSVP or to obtain directions.