Democracy for New Mexico

Flash: Not Your Soldier

Not Your Soldier presents Starve the Beast. Recommended for recruitment-age Americans. The Not Your Soldier National Organizing Committee for counter-recruitment consists of

• The Ruckus Society
• The War Resisters League Youth & Counter Militarism Project
• The National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
• National Network Opposed to Militarization of Youth
• American Friends Service Committee
• League of Independent Voters

Also check out info on the film Sir! No Sir!, about the G.I. resistance that helped end the Viet Nam war.

Former ABQ Mayor Harry Kinney: R.I.P.

Harry Kinney, elected Albuquerque's first modern-day mayor when the city adopted the current mayor-council structure in 1974, passed away yesterday at age 81. Former Mayor Jim Baca, who worked for Kinney as a public information officer for a couple years, provides good background in a post on his Only In New Mexico blog. Joe Monahan also has some remembrances, and the Albuquerque Journal and Albuquerque Tribune (with photo above) trace Mayor Kinney's life and accomplishments.

Harry Kinney, he of the bushy gray sideburns and quiet demeanor, was a Navy veteran, appliance store owner, Sandia Labs mechanical engineer, county commissioner, city commissioner, a two-term mayor (1973-1977, 1981-1985) and (yes) an Albuquerque cab driver for 5 years in his 60s. He was instrumental in planning and funding Albuquerque's Civic Plaza, Convention Center and downtown library projects, purchasing large parcels of land for open space, the development and expansion of our International Balloon Fiesta and much more.

A moderate Republican, Kinney worked with members of both political parties in a mostly nonpartisan, cooperative manner. Known for his love of Albuquerque, he is usually described as putting the needs of the city's residents and infrastructure before personal power and clout. Ah, those were the days. Farewell to one Albuquerque's pioneering politicos who was also, by all accounts, a damn good cab driver and member of the human race.

Honor the Earth's 'Impacted Nations' Opens 5/12 in Santa Fe

Downwind from Hanford, Bunky Echo-Hawk, Jr.

From Honor the Earth: Honor the Earth's traveling art show, Impacted Nations, is opening at the Institute for American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico on May 12! Please visit the exhibit and spread the word. Three of the art pieces featured in Impacted Nations are shown here, and check out our website for the others!

Oil and Water Don't Mix, Joaquin Newman

Institute for American Indian Art Museum
108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Museum Hours: Monday – Saturday: 10 AM to 5 PM; Sunday: Noon to 5 PM

Talking to the Winds, Michael Horse

As described by the IAIA, Impacted Nations is an artistic collaboration that portrays the conflict between Native peoples' cultural and spiritual relationship to the earth and the political and
economic forces that undermine that relationship and indigenous ways of life.

For more information on Impacted Nations. For more information on the IAIA exhibit.

Miigwech, Honor the Earth

The Money Game

New Mexico campaign finance reports were just submitted by candidates for the period May 1, 2005 to May 1, 2006. They show who made donations, in what amounts, and list expenditures the campaigns have made to date. As I've said before, it pains me to report on races according to funds raised. I don't believe the level of campaign contributions necessarily tracks with the strength, electability or positive attributes of a candidate. And raising loads of money in the current political climate can mean the candidate is compromised and hamstrung by big donors.

Ideas count. Grassroots outreach counts. Perceived honesty and ethics count. Personality and other variables count. Of course money counts too, but not always as much as fundraisers, media consultants and big dollar donors would like us to believe. For instance, when Russ Feingold ran for his first term as Senator in Wisconsin, his primary opponents outraised him by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet Russ won.

Nevertheless, the amount of money raised by a campaign can often indicate something about how organized and efficient an operation is, provide a window into how things are going out in the field or merely show that someone is taking in big bucks from special interests. You decide.

Governor Bill Richardson's reelection campaign has raised a whopping $3.8 million this past year, for a total of $6.9 million. He has more than $5.5 million cash on hand. Richardson raised $8 million in his first run for governor in 2002. The campaign allegedly has its sights on raising at last $10 million by the November general election.

Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish raised $1 million for her reelection campaign, but returned $10,000 of that to Guy Riordan, who has been tarnished by testimony in the Robert Vigil kickback trial.

In the Democratic primary race for Attorney General, Geno Zamora leads the field with more than $430,000, Gary King is second with $300,000 and Lem Martinez lags with $200.000.

In the crowded primary for Secretary of State, Stephanie Gonzales and Mary Herrera are in a virtual tie for second at $43,000 each, although most of Gonzales' total was in the form of a personal loan from her. The almost entirely self-funded campaign of Letitia Montoya is in the lead with $61,000. Shirley Hooper is last with $25,000, including her personal loan to her campaign of $5,000.

In the Dem primary race for Land Commissioner, Ray Powell raised $98,000, including $45,000 he provided his campaign as a loan. His cash in hand totals $69,000. Jim Baca raised about $77,000 with $29,000 cash in hand.

Check out Joe Monahan for his view of what the finance reports mean, as well as the totals raised by Republicans. Although our current Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, was supposed to have a searcheable database in place for campaign reporting this cycle, things are still in disarray at her site despite three years to prepare. Many candidate reports are incomplete, and none are in the form of a searchable database. You can read more about this snafu in this Albuquerque Journal article. Excerpt:

Campaign finance reform advocates say they are disappointed by the delay, particularly with scandals unfolding in New Mexico that involve campaign contributions.

"If you think about all the things going on now, if we are truly interested in more disclosure, we've got to make this system work," said Matt Brix, executive director of New Mexico Common Cause and a member of an ethics reform task force created by Gov. Bill Richardson.

The Albuquerque Tribune has articles on Monday's campaign finance report submittals:

Governor and Lt. Governor

Attorney General and other statewide races

Early Voting Starts Today for NM's June Primary

The statewide NM primary is set for June 6th, but you can start voting early today at your county clerk's office. You can also request an absentee ballot by contacting your county clerk. They'll send you an application you need to complete and return, and then they'll send you the ballot.

Starting May 20th, you'll also be able to cast your ballot at additional satellite locations in many counties. Bernalillo County will have 12 of these early voting sites.

The Bernalillo County Clerk is Mary Herrera. Her office is located at One Civic Plaza, NW, 6th Floor, Albuquerque, NM 87102. Phone: (505) 768-4090. Fax: (505) 768-4631. Email: Clerk@bernco.gov

You can find the location of your county clerk's office here. You can also access general election and voting information at the Secretary of State's site. The League of Women Voters is another good source of voting and election information.

In order to vote in the primary, you need to be registered as a member of either the Democratic or Republican parties because New Mexico's primaries are "closed" to those not officially affiliated with a party. Today is the last day for voter registration, so head over to your county clerk's office if you want to vote in the primary and haven't yet registered.

You can check the Secretary of State's website for a list of the statewide candidates, as well as the district candidates who are primary candidates. Statewide candidates on the Democratic side:

U.S. Senator: Jeff Bingaman (unopposed)

Governor: Bill Richardson, plus Write-In Candidate: Anselmo A. Chavez

Lt. Governor: (unopposed)

Secretary of State: Stephanie Gonzales, Mary Herrera, Shirley Hooper, Letitia Montoya

State Treasurer: James B. Lewis (unopposed)

Attorney General: , Lemuel Martinez, Geno Zamora

Commissioner of Public Lands: Jim Baca, Ray Powell, Jr.

U.S. Representative (District 1): Patricia Madrid (unopposed)

U.S. Representative (District 2): Al Kissling (unopposed)

U.S. Representative (District 3): Tom Udall (unopposed)

Judges - Retention:
Justice of the Supreme Court: Edward L. Chavez
Judges of the Court of Appeals: Cynthia A. Fry, Lynn Pickard, Jim Wechsler

(Long) Quote of the Day: Rove Indictment

David Shuster on Keith Olberman's Countdown: Well, Karl Rove's legal team has told me that they expect that a decision will come sometime in the next two weeks. And I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted. And there are a couple of reasons why.

First of all, you don't put somebody in front of a grand jury at the end of an investigation or for the fifth time, as Karl Rove testified a couple, a week and a half ago, unless you feel that's your only chance of avoiding indictment. So in other words, the burden starts with Karl Rove to stop the charges.

Secondly, it's now been 13 days since Rove testified. After testifying for three and a half hours, prosecutors refused to give him any indication that he was clear. He has not gotten any indication since then. And the lawyers that I've spoken with outside of this case say that if Rove had gotten himself out of the jam, he would have heard something by now.

And then the third issue is something we've talked about before. And that is, in the Scooter Libby indictment, Karl Rove was identified as 'Official A.' It's the term that prosecutors use when they try to get around restrictions on naming somebody in an indictment. We've looked through the records of Patrick Fitzgerald from when he was prosecuting cases in New York and from when he's been US attorney in Chicago. And in every single investigation, whenever Fitzgerald has identified somebody as Official A, that person eventually gets indicted themselves, in every single investigation. Will Karl Rove defy history in this particular case? I suppose anything is possible when you are dealing with a White House official. But the lawyers that I've been speaking with who know this stuff say, don't bet on Karl Rove getting out of this.

Video at Crooks and Liars. I can't wait to see the perp walk. Visualize Karl Rove in handcuffs, marching like a frog. A picture's worth a thousand words.

A Bill of Bad Health: Contact Your Senators

From NM Voices for Children:
The U.S. Senate is currently considering the “Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005,” aka S. 1955. This legislation helps the few and hurts the many. The bill is lauded by its conservative sponsors as a way to reduce health insurance costs, but a study by the Center on Budget Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows otherwise.

What S. 1955 will do is override laws enacted at the state level that were put in place to regulate the industry and protect consumers. This will allow insurance companies to base the rates they charge any given business on the age and health status of that business’ employees. The result, many believe, will be that rates will go up for small businesses – particularly those with an older workforce or employees with pre-existing conditions – who will then either have to drop their employees’ insurance or resort to significantly scaled-back coverage. Bargain-basement coverage, the AARP says, that will no longer include vital screenings for illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.

The Senate is scheduled to debate S. 1955 this week.

What you can do:

• Email our senators and tell them to vote NO on 1955.
• Senator Jeff Bingaman at senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
• Senator Pete Domenici via a form at https://www.domenici.senate.gov
• Read the CBPP’s report on how similar legislation was tried – and eventually repealed – in New Hampshire at https://www.cbpp.org/4-26-06health.pdf

Listen In:
Our own Kay Monaco is a guest this afternoon on the Lee Logan show (perhaps one of the few locally-produced progressive talk shows). She’ll be speaking about our up-coming Race Matters conference.

Listen in from 4:30 to 5:00 PM today (Monday, May 8), on KAGM (106.3 FM in Albuquerque, 94.7 FM in Northern New Mexico). You can even join in the discussion by calling in (314-TALK in Albuquerque, 866-339-5986 outside Albuquerque).

Top 10 Reasons Gore Should Be Our 2008 Nominee

Photo credit Martin Schoeller

Al Gore's powerful new movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, opens on May 24th. He's been getting significant postive media coverage on his lecture tour talking about the serious consequences of this growing crisis. For several years he's also been giving passionate, bold and blunt speeches about the damage being wrought by Junior Bush. He's castigated in no uncertain terms Bush's crusades against the constitution, civil liberties, privacy rights and just about everything else that matters to Americans with an ability to think beyond right-wing slogans and propaganda.

Accompanying all this is a snowballing interest in convincing Gore to make another run at the presidency in 2008. I'm definitely in the bunch that believes Gore may be the best candidate for the job. The consequences of our continuing assault on the planet's viability will be escalating with each passing month. To deal effectively with this crisis, we'll need a leader willing to fight for a complete change in our current paradigm. We no longer have the luxury of relegating environmental considerations to the bottom of the heap. To survive as a species, we'll need to change how we live, how we see ourselves in the scheme of things, how we interact with each other and with nature.

Al Gore is one of the few politicos out there who seems to get it. Able to absorb and accept the facts about our planetary crisis, he seems perfectly matched to imagining creatively constructive ways to deal with the realities -- to convincingly present solutions. Most of the other potential Democratic candidates for president seem to me to be stuck in neutral, mired in the status quo, unable to clearly articulate the challenges we face or to rouse our citizens to action on a grand scale. They lack the "vision thing," apparently preferring the false comforts of denial, clutching the fabricated complacencies of business as usual.

Times like these require big thinkers, thinkers who can see over the near horizon, thinkers with genuine conviction and passion. As Gore has moved beyond the devastatingly bizarre and likely illegal circumstances of the 2000 presidential race, he seems to have rediscovered his true nature. He seems liberated to think and speak in no-holds-barred, concrete terms. To move beyond the programmed cadences of politico-speak and consultant-think and recapture his lively sense of wonder, rekindle his intellectual courage and reconnect with his deep-seated values. That's how it seems to me anyway.

Apparently I'm not alone. Nina Burleigh at Huffington Post has listed her top ten reasons why Al Gore should be our nominee in 2008. She also lays out a clear case on why Hillary should remain in the Senate and forget about presidential dreams:

10. My dad, the Midwestern bellwether, thinks Al Gore can win.

9. Gore doesn't pander to the religious vote, and he has forcefully and eloquently spoken out about separation of church and state.

8. He is courageous. Gore has consistently called the current administration out on its radical agenda, extremism and criminality.

7. By 2008, energy conservation will be an American obsession, not just with the so-called liberal "elite." Gore, the public conservationist, drew ridicule talking about it in the days of petrol plenty, sounds pretty smart now.

6. By 2008, global warming will be a mainstream concern. Gore was talking about global warming back when it was still science fiction. He's starring in a movie about it, coming to multiplexes along with "Over the Hedge."

5. The Iraq War will be universally understood to be a disaster by 2008. Gore opposed the Iraq War first among his peers, and forcefully, in 2004.

4. Gore is squeaky clean, untouched by corruption. No lost billing records in his linen closet, no Enron or Abramoff staining his campaign finance reports.

3. He can fight. He seems to have recovered his vitality, after the apparently spirit-draining years in Washington, the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency.

2. We CAN forgive him for selecting Joe Lieberman as his running mate, as long as he doesn't ever do it again.

1. He actually was elected President. If international election monitors had been running the show in 2000, imagine how different the world would look today.

Bonus point: He's related to Gore Vidal. He could make his cousin Secretary of State. Okay. A girl can dream.
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Also good reading on this topic: 'The Resurrection of Al Gore' in the May 2006 issue of Wired and today's Wall Street Journal article, 'Al Gore Might Yet Join 2008 Contenders.' To keep on top of this issue, go sign up at Al Gore in 2008 or Draft Gore 2008.

Sunday Rosey Bird Blogging

The climbing roses in our backyard (above) are blooming bountifully this year. They're almost at the peak of their Spring bloom. When they're done, they'll rest until Summer or Early Fall and then send out another pack of flowers. Variations of this type of rose are seen all over our Northeast Heights neighborhood, which was built starting in the early 1950s. The plants are often quite large, very mature and chock full of roses when the time is right.

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird (above) loves to be out in the yard at this time of year, as he was this morning. He loves to be walked around the yard to see what's what and show off in front of the local sparrows, house finches, white-winged doves and black-chinned hummingbirds that visit our backyard feeders.

Bosco also likes to hang out on his cage on the patio and smell the roses (above), as long as we're nearby and paying him attention every now and then. This morning he shared the patio as we sipped our Sunday morning coffee, puttered in the garden and browsed the Seeds of Change catalogue we recently received. (Click photos for larger images.)

If you're unfamiliar with this organic and heirloom gardening research and sale organization, located just north of Santa Fe, go visit their site. They describe the mission of their farm:

In 1989, we at Seeds of Change started with a simple mission: to help preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. We sought to do this by cultivating and disseminating an extensive range of open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom and traditional vegetable, flower and herb seeds. This is still our mission.

We seek out traditional varieties from the Americas and treasured heirlooms from abroad, many of which are in danger of being lost due to the rapid consolidation within the seed industry and the decline of indigenous agriculture and seed-saving knowledge.

Whatever Happened to Alfred E. Neuman?

Remember Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine? Inquiring minds are wondering what's happened to Alfred now that we've moved into the 21st century. Now we know:

What, me worry? Not Bush. Even though he can't come up with a way out of his Iraq war of choice, he's planning another in Iran. Word is that U.S. operatives are already on the ground in Iran, awaiting the go-ahead from the Decider in Chief who is, you know, directly plugged into the almighty. Massive deficits, historic trade imbalances, self-destructing healthcare and education systems, a crumbling infrastructure, a dwindling middle class and other festering problems? Who cares! The Rapture is coming. You can't make this stuff up.

Every day it looks more likely that the Decider is pining for a war in Iran. Check out what Rep. Dennis Kucinich is doing to try and pry some truth out of  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. Troops already on the ground in Iran? Indications are mounting. And I'm worrying all right, aren't you?