Democracy for New Mexico

Help Elect Marianne Dickinson to City Council

From the Marianne Dickinson Campaign:

This is a call to action.  We need your help in electing a strong Democrat to the 7th City Council District.  Marianne Dickinson, a small business owner and neighborhood advocate is having her first volunteer doorknock this weekend.

Marianne will bring over 20 years of experience in city issues to this position as City Councilor.  Her passion for community and business revitalization can be seen in other projects she’s worked on.  Marianne served as Executive Director of the Main Street Program in Nob Hill and helped bring back businesses and families to that district.  She also started a recycling program in her own community that became the prototype for Albuquerque’s current program. Now she wants to better her own community by focusing on improving the delivery of services, fixing aging infrastructure and improving the city’s transportation systems.

Marianne needs your help to get enough signatures to get on the October 4th ballot.  Starting June 18 and going until July 29, Marianne and her field team will be canvassing District 7 to get signatures. This Saturday we will be meeting at the Daily Grind at San Pedro and Candelaria at 8:45 AM. We need you to be a part of Marianne’s team, so that the change we all are working towards starts locally.

To learn more about the district and Marianne please visit www.MarianneDickinson.com and please call our staff headquarters for more information or to signup to doorknock this Saturday the 18th.  Together we can make the voice of the community heard at City Hall by electing Marianne Dickinson. Thank You.

Contact: Keegan King @ 385-8760, 842-5539 x.5, or keegan@mariannedickinson.com

(Editor's Note: Marianne is running against Sally Mayer, who is against almost everything we believe in. I live in District 7 and will be doing all I can to get Marianne elected and boot Sally off the Council. Even if you don't live in her district, I hope you will too. I've met Marianne a number of times and she's the real deal!)

On the Bus!

I'm sure you recall presentations at our Albuquerque DFA-DFNM Meetups, meetings of the New Mexico Democratic Friends and at the Dem Party State Central Committee by members of the innovative local activist group, Merging Left. They're into progressive communication using billboards, signs and bumperstickers to bring our message to the people.

I'm pleased to report that they've got their first sign up on an Albuquerque bus:

(Click photo for larger image.)

Dallas Timmons and the group report that the bus will be rotating on various bus routes throughout the city so the sign will get significant exposure all over town. Congratulations to all the Merging Left folks and to all those who have donated so far to this effort.

Be sure to check out the Merging Left website and sign up to donate some dollars to this and future efforts. You're either on the bus or off the bus! And wouldn't some prominent billboards around town look good with a message from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party?

Off to DemocracyFest

We'll be driving out to Austin starting this morning to attend the second annual DemocracyFest put on by DFA folks from Democracy for Texas and My Vote is My Vote. We'll be back in Albuquerque late Tuesday, 6/21.

I've set up some automatic posts for the time we'll be gone. And fellow progressive and Democratic activist, Anne Manning, came to the rescue and generously helped us get a laptop to use on the trip, so we'll also be posting from the event.

We highly recommend Anne and Manning's computer shop for your computing needs. Let's support our local Dems and Buy Blue:

PC Place
9324 Menaul Blvd. NE, Albuquerque NM 87112
Phone 505-293-1867, Fax 505-293-1843
Email: pcplace@nmia.com
Website https://www.pc-place.com/

Thanks Anne!

REMINDER: The Chile Cookoff to benefit the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County is this Saturday, June 18, from Noon to 4:00 PM at Horizon Academy Northwest, 7939 Fourth St. NW (about 1 miles north of Osuna). There'll be three, count them, three bands, lots of terrific chile and chili entries to taste and, hopefully, hordes of fellow Dems to meet. Be there or be square. Click to see the details.

For more info, call County HQ at 256-1855 or email info@bernalillodems.org.

UPDATE: Longtime progressive activist Kathy Flake is promoting the Cookoff on her blog from her new home in London. Check out her virtual chili entry! Yum!

Support Howard Dean Day: Wednesday 6/15

Read about how to Support Howard Dean Day

Visit the Dean Speaks for Me site

We've Got Howard's Back: Swing the Bat!

Click for other Dean Speaks for Me graphics

And hooray for Wesley Clark!

UPDATE:
You can also toss a few bucks towards the DFA effort
to get more attention paid to the
infamous Downing Street Memo.
Just for old time's sake. Howard Dean is no longer at DFA
of course, but our work continues!

ACTION ALERT: Call ABQ Councilors on Election Ethics Bill

From Common Cause New Mexico:
Our fight to get a public financing referendum on the October 4 ballot in Albuquerque has entered a key phase.  On Monday, June 6, the Albuquerque city council held its first hearing on the Open and Ethical Elections Code.  Councilors seemed generally supportive of placing the referendum on the ballot, but we need Common Cause New Mexico members to remain vigilant because the final vote to place the referendum on the ballot will not happen until June 20.  Until then, we must keep the pressure on the city council! 

Over the next week, Common Cause New Mexico will meet with newspaper editorial boards to publicize the Open and Ethical Elections Code and work to persuade councilors that the voters should decide how campaigns are financed in our city.  It is important that we get this initiative on the October 4 ballot.  This is the first step in what will be a long campaign, but it's a crucial step.  This is where we need your help!  We need Common Cause members and friends to light up the phone lines at the city council office.  Please contact your city councilor today.  Find your councilor by entering your address and then ask for them by name at the city council office at 768-3100.  Tell them you support letting Albuquerque residents weigh in on public financing for citywide elections.

The Open and Ethical Elections Code is about returning power to where it belongs, with the voters of Albuquerque.  Find your city councilor, call their office at 768-3100, and urge him or her to support giving voters the opportunity to decide about the future of funding Albuquerque's elections.  Over the next week, we will continue to call the city council, targeting wavering members as we get closer to the June 20 vote.

Please visit the Common Cause New Mexico website in the coming week, to track the progress of the Open and Ethical Elections Code, see what the media is saying and find out how you can take action.

Thank you for all that you do for democracy in New Mexico!

Sincerely,
Matt Brix, Executive Director
Common Cause New Mexico

DNC Assessment Team Coming to Town

As many of you may have heard, the DNC is working to put organizers in to all 50 states. However, before organizers are hired in any given state, the DNC does an assessment of the state, the state party and the conditions on the ground. The DNC assessment team will most likely be hitting the ground sometime in the last week of June. We don't know for sure. If ever there was an opportunity to have your voice heard and make it count, it would be when they hit the ground.

Most likely, the DNC Assessment Team will have their agenda set by the State Party. There's been no official indication as to when they will be here in the last week of June.

If you are interested in meeting with members of the DNC Assessment Team call Vanessa Alarid, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, at 505-830-3650 or email her at vanessa@nmdemocrats.org

If any of you are successful, please let us know.

Dean Speaks for Me

Click above image to sign the petition. Pass it on.Read all about this effort and put one on your site.

Santa Fe Workshop on Lakoff: A Few Slots Left

Workshop: Lakoff - Thinking Like A Liberal

Reminder for June 18, 2005 in Santa Fe

Janet Resnick is taking this workshop to Santa Fe on Saturday, June 18th, from 2:00 to 4:30 PM at the ASFCME Office at 1408 Second Street.

There are a few slots left. Call Charlotte Roybal at 930-0563 or email at croybal@aol.com

Sunday Baby Bird Blogging

Well now the oldest and second oldest baby parakeets are out of the nest:

That's Hambone (left) the oldest and Jumbo (right) the second oldest, now apart from their mama (Whitey) and in their own small cage. We called the second oldest Jumbo because he is alot bigger than his older sibling. We're thinking the oldest one, Hambone, may be a female.

At first, they tended to stay on the floor of the cage and in the furry "tent" that hangs nearby. Next it was climbing rather clumsily onto the perches, flapping their wings and scampering all over the cage in between frequent naps. They also clean their feathers alot, eat seeds all day and into the night and spend time carefully preening one another.  Hambone likes to bang a hanging string of beads as noisily as he or she can against the cage. Listen to all the noise I can make!

The youngest surviving baby is finally getting feathers and starting to grow more rapidly, so we think it may now be out of danger. In another week or so, he'll probably be out of the nestbox as well:

We think it helps that the other two babies are on their own so the littlest one can get all of the mama bird's feeding. After appearing to be in some danger of surviving, it's doing much better now, as you can see.

Here's one more photo of the oldest baby, Hambone, before being joined by his or her sibling in their own cage:

(Click photos to get larger images. Click to see the earlier Bird Blogging photos.)

Sensenbrenner: Gaveling Democracy Off the Table

The local blog Truth, Rants and Ramblings has excellent coverage of this week's special hearing on the Patriot Act and how the U.S. government is running the "war on terror," which was called by Rep. John Conyers and the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee's chair, Republican Rep. John Sensenbrenner, abruptly cut off witnesses, was incredibly rude to Conyers and other Dems, limited to 5 minutes the time that each member could ask questions and receive answers and unilaterally and illegally adjourned the hearing while not letting points of order be heard.

The story includes a link to video of the complete hearing. The last 15 minutes puts the fascist flavor of recent Republican Congressional maneuvers on full display. I watched about the last 30 minutes of the hearing on CSPAN and it is a sight to behold. Remember, after all, that this administration is allegedly on a crusade (!) to spread democracy around the world. Perhaps they should start with their bullies in the Congress.

Of course many of the DLC-type Beltway Dems will probably view any criticism of Sensenbrenner's tactics as being over the top and representing views that they can't support. I mean, do we want to insult all of Sensenbrenner's swing voter supporters? Mercy. Better to keep talking about what a bad boy Howard Dean is and pretend not to notice that our democracy is going to hell in a handbasket while insider Dems ponder how they can get more face time on TV by disingenuously criticizing the Party Chair.