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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Tuesday Open Thread
So what are you thinking about today?
My mind's on the environment, having attended a really powerful event yesterday at UNM where Stewart Udall and Jack Loeffler spoke so movingly about the growing environmental crisis that's threatening the future of humankind and almost everything else. Their message: If we don't act SOON, it will be too late. No doubt about it anymore. In a similar vein, here's an article in today's Washington Post about Al Gore and his recently released film about the global environment crisis. See the movie's trailer (Quicktime). Also read The Moment of Truth by Al Gore.
As Udall said, we need to fall passionately in love with our planet once again if we're to make any headway on this problem. It touches every aspect of our being, doesn't it? We need a new way of thinking about how we live with nature, building upon the centuries-old views of indigenous humans all over the world who saw every single element of our planet as alive, even sacred, and connected to the whole, interdependent.
That's what I'm pondering today, but let's hear what's on your mind .... go ahead, click and comment.
April 18, 2006 at 11:12 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
What could be more important than the environment? But I guess if you are a fundie your the only thing on your mind is the rapture and the end times. Why save the earth when the world will be ending. Nice cop out, isn't it?
Posted by: Jen | Apr 18, 2006 12:33:38 PM
I attended the Stewart Udall speaking event last night as well. It was excellent! Here is this 90 year old man, I could only hope to be so vibrant and passionate at his age. You could hear his deep concern over the state of the earth. The end of life as we know it is approaching. The global warming or, if you prefer, climate change is REAL and happening. And the oil crisis is looming if not already arrived.
The planet's population has quadrupled in the years he has been on the planet. Hello....quadrupled!!!! Four times more people -- holy shit.
How long has it been since it rained here in Albuquerque -- since last October?? One day I tried to find out when was the last day it really rained, not just the few sprinkles. It is not listed anywhere. If anyone knows who reads this entry please let me know, I want to know exactly the last time it really rained. Because I want to start a running tally, just so we can all remember.
Sometimes the reality of all the unsustainable predicaments that are facing us can scare me. Scare me way way more than the fear of terrorism crap. The terrorism crap is totally driven by the gluttony crap.
Here I sit at my computer, looking outside at this cool Albq day. Someday I am going to regret all these days I have spent being a good worker bee. Pedaling like crazy on the hampster wheel. I also wonder when will be the time that I say: "I truly wish I spent more time exploring this wonderful, spectacular, magical, planet we live on.
Posted by: mary ellen | Apr 18, 2006 1:34:52 PM
Check out the dismal ratings for Bush in most states in the lastest Survey USA poll. Here's the details on New Mexico.
Bottom line in NM: Approve of Bush 35%, Disapprove of Bush 61%.
Given those numbers what I wanna know is what those 35 percent who dig what Dubbie's doing are seeing that we aren't. I can only imagine. As they say, denial isn't just a river in Egypt.
Posted by: Kossian | Apr 18, 2006 4:39:05 PM
What I wanna know is why the environment wasn't a big issue in the 2004 presidential election. Kerry could have clobbered Bush on this, but instead he rarely brought it up. I guess his focus group bozos and his DLC-tinged strategists told him it wasn't a "winning issue." I wonder if they ever view an issue as imperative for the future of humankind, instead of just a way to win or lose points. I doubt it. It shows.
Posted by: Democratic Wing | Apr 18, 2006 5:39:00 PM
The way we treat the planet is so tied in with how we treat everything in this era of Bush fascism. Nothing has any worth unless it makes some rich fuck some big money. No other value is allowed. The kharma is building all right.
Posted by: The Big Blue Ball | Apr 18, 2006 6:09:44 PM
I say we have to demand that Gore run again. He's on fire these days. Have you seen any of his recent speeches? Wow.
Posted by: Gore for Prez | Apr 18, 2006 6:38:08 PM
I went to tonight's event with Patricia Madrid at the IBEW hall. Perhaps 50 or 60 people were there. It was discouraging.
I've now heard her deliver the same pitch four times: at the 3rd Thursday meeting last november, at the primary convention, at the DFNM meeting a few weeks ago, and now again tonight. It boils down to "Heather Delay Bush Bad, me good".
That's a fine message, but in each case she was preaching to the choir. She was talking to fanatical democrats as if someone in the room might have some latent republican tendencies. What a waste of time and opportunity.
Apparently her entire campaign strategy is to raise lots of money and buy lots of advertising. Just today I got an email from her campaign manager bragging of having raises $1.1 million. Never have I heard a request for volunteers, or any plan for actually campaigning.
I asked one of her staff (Cory, who I had thought was her volunteer coordinator, but might not be) and he claimed that they intended to build a volunteer organization. When I asked further, I learned that apparently the plan is to get lots of names in a list, so that when they need people to show up and make a crowd they know whom to call. That's not an organization, it's another Kerry disaster.
Posted by: Michael H Schneider | Apr 18, 2006 6:52:56 PM
I know this is a shameless plug (so taboo, in the blog world) but I've been thinking of the college tuition credit in New Mexico:
https://www.livefromsilvercity.com/?p=185
Basically, I'm thinking the NM Legislature should stop making students pay (with tuition increases) for programs not necessarily related to education!
Posted by: Avelino | Apr 18, 2006 7:10:19 PM
"I say we have to demand that Gore run again."
As well-meaning and decent a man as I believe Al Gore to be, he is not up to the task of fighting the Right in today's vicious political arena. He's already shown that he capitulates when the going gets really nasty, as it did in Florida in the 2000 election, when he did not stand up with unwavering conviction for all those who had voted for him. He lacks the killer instinct that is unfortunatley necessary to counter and defeat Republican theocrats and corporatists. Gore had his shot.
Posted by: DN Palacios | Apr 19, 2006 2:38:16 AM
Re: the Madrid campaign
I asked about the organizing issue too and was told that Cory was coming in to build the campaign. Apparently that doesn't mean any grassroots activity. The Dem party has set up a canvassing meeting at party headquarters for this Sunday April 29 but I heard only about 20 or so people signed up.
However, last night our neighborhood association went over it's plans to go to every residence in the neighborhood (about 327) to distribute and gather information. This project may take awhile but when the time comes to mobilize we'll be better prepared than we are now. Are we the only ones who are doing this?
++++++++++++++++++
Re the Environment: This Friday Channel 27's NM Indy Media show's theme is Earth Day. Tune in at 7 PM.
Posted by: suz | Apr 19, 2006 6:42:14 AM
April 29th is Saturday, not Sunday. I'm afraid that the event will be a debacle whether people show up or not.
The Kerry campaign tried something similar - a big day of door knocking by lots of volunteers. It didn't work. Trying to train and organize lots of inexperienced volunteers at the same time, trying to distribute 800 folders with maps and lists, led to much milling around and lost canvassers and not so much door knocking.
The DPNM should have been organizing people in their wards and precincts during the last year and a half, so people would know their areas and what to do. But it hasn't. Only a handfull of precincts in a few wards are organized.
I think Cory has been with the Madrid campaign for at least two months
Posted by: Michael H Schneider | Apr 19, 2006 8:25:01 AM
Good comments all around. I love the article by Richard Cohen about Gore's film, and how stark is the contrast between Gore and the anti-intellectual who beat him in 2000 (he whose name shall not be spoken). Can't wait for Gore's film.
The trolls are really out in other blogs, using ad hominem arguments against Gore rather than addressing the warnings and the science behind them. I know we have the story of Chicken Little, but is there a story about those who deny that the sky is falling when it is? Republican neo con fundies are the Anti-Chicken Littles.
As for Gore's prospects in '08 . . . he seems to have grown a lot in the last few years. I think he would be a different candidate. He needed to individuate from Clinton's compulsive polling and tacking into the slightest breeze. And who else is out there who has anything like Gore's chops when it comes to the environment? No one I can think of in the Democratic Party, and not even Ralph Nader. Someone needs to intervene before we succeed in our already advancing plot to commit gaiacide.
My fantasy: Gore runs for the House this year. The new Democratic majority in Congress impeaches both he-whose-name-shall-not-be-spoken AND Cheney, and the new Speaker of the House, Al Gore, is made President in mid-2007. Can I get an Amen?
Posted by: John | Apr 19, 2006 10:15:25 AM
It's the job of the County Parties to organize precincts and wards, not the State Party. Despite much talk before he was elected, I don't think our Bernalillo County Chair has done much to fill the empty precinct and ward slots or to activate the deadbeats that now hold some of the offices. Let's hope things pick up. They also use their own walk lists instead of the voter list of the state so you've got two different lists going now. Not productive.
On the 4/29 canvass, the DNC designed it to get new people participating, not just ward and precinct chairs. Unfortunately the State Party has done next to nothing to widely publicize this event, reach out to new people or even communicate that it's happening to ordinary Dems on their email and mailing lists. If they would do their job we'd have much more success. I won't hold my breath.
Posted by: Old Dem | Apr 19, 2006 10:15:29 AM
