Democracy for New Mexico

Celebrate Freedom at ACLU of NM Foundation Annual Dinner

ACLU of New Mexico Foundation
Bill of Rights Dinner
Friday, December 9, 2005
Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
(Formerly Old Town Sheraton)
800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104
Cash bar at 6:00 PM
Dinner at 7:00 PM

Download a pdf of the brochure. Visit the ACLU website for more information.

Vigil Wednesday for Kidnapped Peacemakers

Editor's Note: Kathleen O'Malley is a long-time peace activist who has traveled to Iraq three times as part of the Christian Peacemaker Teams and Voices in the Wilderness. As many of you may recall, she gave a moving talk about her experiences in Iraq at our DFA-DFNM Albuquerque Meetup this past September. She sent out the following email urging participation in a vigil in support of the peacemakers who were recently kidnapped in Iraq.

Dear All,
As many of you know by now, 4 Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) people were kidnapped last week in Iraq by an insurgency group. Last Friday, the group released a videotaping threatening that if the U.S. did not release all detainees by December 8, the hostages would be killed.

I have travelled and worked in Iraq with two of the people taken, Jim Loney and Tom Fox. Two others, Norman Kember and Harmeet Sooden, were delegates on their first visit to Iraq. They came to learn about the situation there and then return home to tell others about their experiences.

This is a horrendous situation, one of many in Iraq that reveal the desperation of those who would threaten the lives of innocent people - in this case, people who are there in opposition to the occupation and in support of the Iraqi people.

Please join in a vigil this Wednesday, December 7, from 5:15 to 6:00 PM at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center, 212 Harvard St. SE (corner of Silver and Harvard). Feel free to forward this message to others interested in joining the vigil. Also, bring a candle if you have one. For those living out of town or otherwise unable to attend, please join the vigil by lighting a candle and sending your prayers or other thoughts for a peaceful resolution of this dire situation and the war that spawned it.

In Hopes for Peace,
Kathleen O'Malley

Sunday (Sunny) Bird Blogging

We finally got some photos of the newest addition to our bird family. Sunny is a baby sun conure who moved in with us a couple weeks ago. Above, he's sitting on his play gym, where he likes to hang out during the day when he's not in his cage. The playground is on a cart with wheels so we can roll him around the house, which he really seems to enjoy. Sun conures are nosy.

He (or is it she?) is so young he still has many of his gray, downy baby feathers (see above and below) that have yet to be replaced by adult plumage. Eventually all that gray will be bright orange, yellow and green. As Sunny ages, his plumage will change again, adding more yellow and orange to replace many of the green feathers.

Sunny was the first name that came to us for him. Of late, we find ourselves calling him Groucho, Grumpy or Mr. Magoo as well, depending on his mood. Once he starts displaying more of his personality, that may change again.

He's a handful and will take much patience, attention and training before he trust and bonds with his new humans. So far, only Mary Ellen has been working with him directly, teaching him to "step up" onto sticks and her fingers and holding him against her body with a towel while petting his head and breast so he becomes accustomed to her scent. She's got a couple bite marks on her fingers to show for it. Squawk! Once he gets more comfortable with her, I'll join the training regime too.

Each day he exhibits more trust for us, a growing sense of curiosity and more willingness to interact in a friendly manner. Sun conures live 20-25 years and once they're bonded with you, they have a reputation for being highly intelligent, fun-loving and cuddly. We'll keep you posted. (Click on photos for larger images.)

Urgent Action Alert: Voting Machine Purchase & Press Conference

From Verified Voting New Mexico:
I am asking for your help with a time-urgent matter on election reform. New Mexico county clerks have been given a deadline of Monday 5 December to decide which voting machines they will purchase to meet Help American Vote Act (HAVA) requirements to provide accessibility to disabled voters. The two largest counties in New Mexico are planning to buy touchscreen voting machines built by Sequoia that are seriously lawed. These machines have switched votes, they lost 12,000 votes in Bernalillo County in the 2002 election which were "recovered" in Denver by the voting machine company, they failed to record votes on Spanish language ballots, and they have not been federally certified to meet the HAVA disability requirements.

Because of these problems, there is a lawsuit in New Mexico that is in the discovery phase asking that these machines be enjoined from further use in New Mexico. Ms Herrera has been blocking access to persons on her staff that could provide information in the discovery phase, and she has not made herself available for this process either.

We in the election reform community have been working to get county clerks to buy a superior machine which does meet the HAVA requirements: the AutoMark ballot marker, which the disabled community is able to use to mark paper ballots. This machine is favored by most disabled voters. A number of New Mexico county clerks have already decided to buy the AutoMark. A group of us decided on Friday that we should make a last effort to encourage Ms Herrera, the Bernalillo County clerk, and Ms Espinoza, the Santa Fe County clerk, to buy the AutoMark machine.

We are asking as many people as possible to do three things:

1) Before Monday, e-mail or fax both Ms Herrera (meherrera@bernco.gov Fax: 505-768-4190) and Ms Espinoza (vespinoza@co.santa-fe.nm.us; Fax: 505-986-6294). I would encourage you to use your own words, in a message like the following:

Dear _____________,

I have been informed that you have been told to make your decision by next Monday, December 5 regarding the choice of voting machines that will meet HAVA requirements for access of disable persons. For this purpose, please buy the AutoMark ballot marking machine, a choice that has already been made by a number of your county clerk colleagues. Please do not buy touchscreen machines in an attempt to meet the HAVA deadline. These machines have not performed well. They have switched votes from the desired candidate to an opponent, and they lost 12,000 votes in Bernalillo County in the 2002 election, which the voting machine company was asked to "recreate". The machines are also known to make errors on Spanish language ballots.

[For Ms Herrera only]
I have been further informed that you have been blocking efforts to obtain information relevant to a lawsuit to enjoin the use of the touchscreen machines that malfunctioned in the 2004 elections in New Mexico. This information, including voting data on the touchscreen machines, is important for making decisions regarding the reliability of the voting equipment. Please stop blocking these information-gathering efforts. If voters are to have confidence that elections are fair and their votes will be counted, their chief election official must be open with them.
[End for Ms Herrera only]

Your response to this request will have a major impact on my decision to vote for you or your opponent in the upcoming elections for Secretary of State.

Respectfully,
(Signed)
cc:
tjennings@abqjournal.com (Trip Jennings, ABQ Journal)
djfrosch1@yahoo.com (Dan Frosch, Santa Fe Reporter)
jimwilliams@kunm.org (Jim Williams, KUNM)
nmns@publicnewsservice.org (New Mexico Public News Service)

2) Call Ms Herrera and Ms Espinoza with a brief version of the above.

3) Join us at a press conference at Ms. Herrera's office in the City/County offices in Albuquerque at One Civic Plaza, NW, 6th Floor, to be held at 4:30pm Monday 5 December. Bring friends. This press conference will cover in more detail the information summarized above. A big crowd will make a big impression. Here is a map: https://tinyurl.com/acqx5

We will meet at the northwest corner of Civic Plaza at the the east entrance to City Hall. If you have trouble finding us, call Laura Stokes at 328-1767, or Barbara Grothus at 235-9529.

Thanks for your help. If you have questions, please call.
Paul Stokes, 898-1237

Meet New MoveOn Organizer Sunday Morning in ABQ

MoveOn has sent another organizer to NM. He'll be here for an undetermined amount of time and will meet with all interested persons on Sunday, December 4 at 10 AM at the Flying Star at Montgomery and Juan Tabo. His name is Garrett Monaghan and his cell number is 330-412-3357 if you'd like to contact him for more information.

The President Makes a Speech For Peace

Good evening, my fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world -- the war in Iraq.  I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Iraq is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy.

The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy ... The war was causing deep division at home and criticism from many of our friends as well as our enemies abroad.

In view of these circumstances there were some who urged that I end the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American forces. From a political standpoint this would have been a popular and easy course to follow ... For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude.

A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends. Our defeat and humiliation in Iraq without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest. This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain the peace in the Middle East, in Berlin, eventually even in the Western Hemisphere.

Ultimately, this would cost more lives. It would not bring peace; it would bring more war.

For these reasons, I rejected the recommendation that I should end the war by immediately withdrawing all of our forces. I chose instead to change American policy on both the negotiating front and battlefront ... We are Iraqizing the search for peace ... Under the plan, I ordered first a substantial increase in the training and equipment of Iraqese forces ... The Iraqese have continued to gain in strength. As a result they have been able to take over combat responsibilities from our American troops ...

We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the Iraqese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by Iraqese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As Iraqese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater ...

My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war. I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Iraq without regard to the effects of that action. Or we can persist in our search for a just peace ... through continued implementation of our plan for Iraqization -- if necessary a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Iraq on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the Iraqese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.

I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way. It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace not just in Iraq but in the Pacific and in the world. In speaking of the consequences of a precipitate withdrawal, I mentioned that our allies would lose confidence in America.

Far more dangerous, we would lose confidence in ourselves. Oh, the immediate reaction would be a sense of relief that our men were coming home. But as we saw the consequences of what we had done, inevitable remorse and divisive recrimination would scar our spirit as a people ... In San Francisco a few weeks ago, I saw demonstrators carrying signs reading: "Lose in Iraq, bring the boys home."

Well, one of the strengths of our free society is that any American has a right to reach that conclusion and to advocate that point of view. But as President of the United States, I would be untrue to my oath of office if I allowed the policy of this Nation to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the Nation by mounting demonstrations in the street ... And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.

SOURCE:  Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1969, pp. 901-909, excerpted, here.  Editor's Note: the word "Iraq" has been substituted for the words "Vietnam" and "South Vietnam" in the speech above; Approximately 27,000 U.S. soldiers, and millions of Vietnamese and Cambodian citizens died during the phase of the war Nixon termed "Vietnamization" before the president was forced to resign in disgrace and his successor, Gerald Ford, was forced to admit the futility of the war and accept America's defeat.

From Altercation

A Just Minimum Wage

A new report commissioned by the American Friends Service Committee and the National Council of Churches calls on Congress to raise the minimum wage. Click here to learn more and download a PDF copy of the report, "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future," by Holly Sklar and the Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry.

The report emphasizes that "A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it ... Raising the minimum wage is a moral imperative for the very soul of our nation."

As you probably know by now, a bill to raise the minimum wage in New Mexico from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour is expected to be introduced at the 30-day legislative session that begins on January 17, 2006. This report contains a multitude of excellent talking points that strongly support the economic wisdom and moral fairness of raising the minimum wage, whether it's at the local, state or national level.

At its recent State Central Committee meeting, the Democratic Party of New Mexico passed a resolution endorsing an increase in the state minimum wage to $7.50 per hour, indexed to inflation, with no preemptions of local wage ordinances.

Legislative supporters of a raise in New Mexico's minimum wage so far include Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe; Senators Ben Altamirano D-Catron, Grant and Soccorro; John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe; Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe; and Representatives Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe; Antonio Lujan, D-Doña Ana; Joseph Cervantes, D-Doña Ana; Andy Nunez, D-Doña Ana; Rick Miera, D-Bernalillo; Joni Gutierrez, D-Doña Ana; Manny Herrera, D-Grant and Hidalgo; and Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe.

More and more cities and states are raising their raising their minimum wage rates in response to the refusal of the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress to take up this vital issue. The national minimum wage was last increased in 1997.

The New Mexicans For A Fair Wage Coalition has been established to support a raise in our state's minimum wage. Its current membership includes:

ACORN
Albuquerque Musicians’ Association
American Federation of Teachers New Mexico
AFSCME
ARC of N.M.
Community Action N.M.
Democracy for New Mexico
Empowering Our Communities in New Mexico
Enlace Communitario
Green Party N.M.
Grey Panthers
Health Action N.M.
Hispano Roundtable of New Mexico
Hogares, Inc.
Homeless Advocacy Coalition
Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry
MANA
Mountain West Regional Council of Carpenters
National Education Association
N.M. AFL-CIO
N.M. Alliance for Retired Americans
N.M Catholic Conference
N.M. Building Construction and Trades Council
N.M. Center on Law and Poverty
N.M. Conference of Churches
N.M. Council on Crime and Delinquency
N.M. Federation of Labor Retiree Council
N.M. Human Needs Coordinating Council
N.M. Voices for Children
N.M. Pediatric Society
N.M. Public Health Association
Parents Reaching Out
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office
Santa Fe Living Wage Network
Somos Un Pueblo Unido
Southwest Organizing Project
UNM Law and Society

New Air America Program With Latino Point of View Gets ABQ Test

From Soy Blue:
There's a new show premiering on Air America’s Albuquerque affiliate, 1350 AM-KABQ, this weekend. The show is hosted by Albuquerque's own NYT best selling author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and her father, who is a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico. The show is called "Our America," and is a progressive political and cultural program in English with an emphasis on the Latino point of view on issues of the day.

The show will only be heard in the Albuquerque market as a demo show. After December 10,  Air America will make a decision on whether to air it in other markets. If we can create a buzz on the blogosphere we may be able to help Our America stay on the air.

Check out the diary with a poll at Daily Kos if you’d like to read more about the new show.  Info is also posted at Soy Blue. If you're so inclined, go ahead and post a comment at the diary and vote. One last thing -- forward this to your respective lists if you think that Our America should be heard on Air America nationally.

DFA-DFNM Meetup Tonight

Our Albuquerque DFA-DFNM Meetup is tonight at 7:00 PM at the Social Hall of the First Unitarian Church at Carlisle and Comanche.

Our agenda includes a visit from Letitia Montoya, who's running for NM Secretary of State, discussion on the recent Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting and related grassroots activism, what's happening with the Legislative Election Reform Task Force and a segment on preserving reproductive freedom.

Also, since this is our last Meetup before the holidays and winter solstice, we'll be sharing some special treats and cheer. Hope to see you there! To join the DFA-DFNM Albuquerque Meetup or RSVP for tonight's event, visit our Meetup page: https://dfa.meetup.com/160/

Brazile Proposes Election Reform Resolution to DNC

Editor's Note: The DNC is meeting today in Phoenix, with its Resolutions Committee meeting scheduled for this evening. New Mexico's representatives on the DNC include DNC Committeepersons Mary Gail Gwaltney and Raymond Sanchez. I'd suggest you contact them to encourage their support of the resolution described below, but the website of the State Party doesn't list any individual contact information for them. Ah, well. I guess you can log your comments and ask that they be passed along to Gwaltney and Sanchez by calling the DPNM office at 830-3650 or sending an email to info@nmdemocrats.org. I note that the State Republican Party website lists the phone numbers of its national committee reps, but I guess our Party doesn't feel the need.

From Verified Voting NM:
The following Election Reform resolution will be considered by the DNC Resolutions Committee at its meeting on December 1, 2005, in conjunction with the meetings of the  Democratic National Committee, December 1-3, 2005, in Phoenix.

It urges support for such measures as:

• adequate training of poll workers
• uniform and clear published standards for the distribution of voting equipment and the assignment of official poll workers among precincts
• clear and uniform the rules on voter registration and handling of provisional ballots
• use of touch screen (DRE) machines only with a reliable voter verifiable audit feature
• requiring that a paper or other auditable record be considered the official record in recounts
• discontinuing use of punch card systems
• making it easier for college students to vote where their schools are located
• improving procedures for overseas voters
• making voter suppression a criminal offense

Submitted by: Donna L. Brazile, At Large/District of Columbia; Hartina Flournoy, At-Large/District of Columbia; Ben Johnson, At Large/District of Columbia

Resolution in Support of Election Reform

WHEREAS, in June, 2005, the Democratic National Committee completed its exhaustive  review of the presidential campaign in Ohio; and

WHEREAS, the resulting report, “Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio” documents
that more than one quarter of Ohio voters reported problems with their voting experience, and
African Americans were more than two times as likely as white voters to claim they encountered
problems with their voting experience; and

WHEREAS, this report confirms evidence of widespread voter confusion; voter suppression;
negligence and incompetence on the part of election officials; long lines at the polls; improper
requests for voter identification, particularly among young voters and African American voters;
the failure to properly process absentee ballots and the improper use of provisional ballots in
Ohio on Election Day 2004; and

WHEREAS, evaluations of the administrative processes and technology used by election
officials in Ohio revealed that inadequate and insecure voting systems were pervasive
throughout Ohio—unreliable punch card systems and insecure, unverifiable direct record
electronic (DRE) machines; and

WHEREAS, 71 percent of white voters in Ohio were very confident their vote was counted but
only 19 percent of African American voters were confident their votes were counted; and

WHEREAS, the right to vote and to have that vote accurately counted is the bedrock on which
our democracy stands and nothing is more fundamental to our freedom than our confidence in
the integrity of our democratic institutions; and

WHEREAS, “Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio” makes recommendations for
future action by parties, legislators and local election officials to improve future elections;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will
continue to work with Members of Congress, lawmakers in all 50 United States, the District of
Columbia, and all U.S. Territories, local election officials, and community leaders to update and
reform our election laws to ensure that voter confidence in our election system is restored and
maintained;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC “Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in
Ohio” recommends several actions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends states, the District of Columbia
and all U. S. Territories codify into law all required election practices, including requirements for
the adequate training of official poll workers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommend lawmakers adopt uniform and clear
published standards for the distribution of voting equipment and the assignment of official poll
workers among precincts, to ensure adequate and nondiscriminatory access, and that these
procedures be based on set ratios of numbers of machines and poll workers per number of voters
expected to turn out, and should be made available for pub lic comment before being adopted;
and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers adopt legislation to
make clear and uniform the rules on voter registration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers and local election
officials adopt clear and uniform rules on the use of, and the counting of, provisional ballots, and
distribute them for public comment well in advance of each Election Day, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends touch screen (DRE) machines not
be used until a reliable voter verifiable audit feature can be uniformly incorporated into these
systems and that in the event of a recount, the paper or other auditable record should be
considered the official record; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends remaining punch card systems
should be discontinued; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers make it easier for
college students to vote in the jurisdiction in which their school is located; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers develop procedures to
ensure that voting is facilitated, without compromising security or privacy, for all eligible voters
living overseas; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers make voter suppression
a criminal offense in all states, the District of Columbia and all U.S. Territories; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the DNC recommends lawmakers and election officials
should improve the training of poll workers.