Democracy for New Mexico

Saturday Music Hall: Still Effin' Peasants

With the release of the new movie The U.S. vs. John Lennon (see the trailer), I thought a little Working Class Hero would be right on time. The ongoing onslaught of corporatism, jingoism, aggression, greed, torture, dishonesty and almost complete disregard for human rights and the natural world are enough to make anyone cynical. How long will we allow them to keep putting profits before humans, deluded imperialistic hubris before common sense compassion, economic "growth" (for some) before human rights, nature, justice and just about everything else of genuine value?

Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and TV. And you think you're so clever and classless and free. But you're still f***ing peasants as far as I can see.

... There's room at the top, they are telling you still. But first you must learn how to smile as you kill. If you want to be like the folks on the hill.

The fools on The Hill are now smiling while they torture. Smiling while they occupy. Smiling while they lie. Smiling while they steal. Smiling while they kill. Most of all, smiling about how easy it is to fool us, the f***king peasants. And we are letting them do it. Still.

Let's start making sense, as Molly Ivins recommends. It's up to us now. Again:

Now, in addition to the slightly surreal awakening to find we live in a country that’s having a serious debate on a torture bill, can we do anything about it? The answer is: We better. We better do something about it. Now, right away. What do we do? The answer is: anything ... phone, fax, e-mail, mail, demonstrate—go stand outside their offices or the nearest federal building in the cold and sing hymns or shout rude slogans, chant or make a speech, or start attacking federal property, like a postal box, so they have to arrest you. Gather peacefully and make a lot of noise. Get publicity, too.

How will you feel if you didn’t do something? “Well, honey, when the United States decided to adopt torture as an official policy, I was dipping the dog for ticks.”

Or staying drugged not only on our religion, sex, TVs, but on our iPods, our cell phones, our computers. Maybe, most of all, on our lazy cynicism. More fodder for stoking our motivation? Go read the Glenn Greenwald pieces listed near the top of the 'Must Read & See' links on the left-hand side of our main page.

Governor Richardson's Eminent Domain Task Force to Hold Public Meeting, Take Comments

From the Office of the Governor:
SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson's Task Force on the Responsible Use of Eminent Domain will hold a public meeting at 4:00 PM on September 28th at the Village Hall in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. The Village Hall is located at 6718 Rio Grande Blvd. NW. 

The purpose of the meeting is to allow members of the public to provide comments and suggestions to the Task Force. The Task Force was convened by Governor Bill Richardson following the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London , to study the adequacy of New Mexico's eminent domain laws and determine whether there is currently sufficient legislative protection to prevent the abusive use of eminent domain for economic development purposes.  The Task Force is charged with making recommendations to the Governor by November 1, 2006 on whether changes to state law are needed. 

For those unable to attend the open meeting, the Governor encourages members of the public to send comments to the Task Force via mail, fax, or the Governor's website as follows:

Mail: Governor Bill Richardson
Attn: Task Force on the Responsible Use of Eminent Domain
State Capitol Building, Suite 400
Santa Fe , NM 87501
Fax: (505) 476-2207
Website: https://www.governor.state.nm.us (click on contact the Governor)

Questions concerning the Task Force can be directed to the Governor's Office at 476-2200.

Colorado Pics of the Day: Shades of Aspen

The second installment of photos from our trip last week to Central Colorado. Here are two views of aspen with hues ranging from golden to flame, on the road to the old mining town of St. Elmo, up Chalk Creek Canyon road near Nathrop, CO:

Solar Fiesta Kickoff Celebrates 50th Anniversary of First Solar House

This post was submitted by guest blogger Suzanne Prescott, who has been contributing reports regularly to DFNM. She also shot the photos at the event.

Whether you call it solar energy, oil independence, or renewable energy, it may not be the issue that wins the fall election but an increasing number of people believe it's the issue we need to address in order to preserve our planet. Recognizing the issue’s significance, the 50th anniversary of the world's first commercial solar building was held today, Friday September 22, at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The crowd included many of the state's renewable energy cognoscenti who came out to recognize the 1956 work of Frank Bridgers and Don Paxton whose bold experimental solar design was successful. 

The occasion also marked the inauguration of the first Equinox Award for contributions to an environmentally sustainable economy. Winner of the award was internationally known Santa Fe architect, Ed Mazria, pictured below. Presenting the award were Janet Briedgers, daughter of Frank Bridgers and city councilor, Ike Benton.

Pictured include (left to right:) Martin Heinrich, Jim Baca,  Ed Mazria, Janet Bridgers, Mrs. Frank Bridgers, and Ike Benton

Also in the crowd was Senator Dede Feldman, sponsor of the 2006 NM legislative energy tax credit legislation.

The event also marked the beginning of this year's Solar Fiesta which will be held at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center on Saturday on Sunday. For more information about the fiesta visit https://www.nmsea.org. For more coverage of the 50th Anniversary celebration visit Jim Baca's blog at https://onlyinnewmexico.blogspot.com/.

This is a guest blog by Suzanne Prescott. If you'd like to submit material for possible publication as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of our main page. -- BW

NM Secretary of State Candidates On 'In Focus' Tonight

From KNME-TV: Bring your world IN FOCUS. This week join Democrat Mary Herrera and Republican Vickie Perea as they discuss their plans for the New Mexico Secretary of State seat.

KNME-TV (PBS) Channel 5 ABQ
Friday, September 22, 2006
7:30 PM:  In Focus

Watch the Video: Madrid - Wilson Debate

Patricia Madrid in her native landscape

If you missed the recent debate between Dem challenger Patricia Madrid and Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson at Congregation Albert, here's your chance to watch the video on Madrid's campaign website. In its entirety. Near the end of the debate the audience provides the live laughter when Wilson has the nerve to say, "I think you end up being judged by the company you keep." Yeah, we know, Heather -- and friends don't let friends vote for anyone who keeps company with the likes of George W. Bush, Dennis Hastert, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and the lobbyists for big pharma and big oil.

Heather Wilson admiring the non-native company she keeps

Guest Blog: Divine Strake and the Rebirth of Democracy

This guest post was submitted by Andrew Kishner of Kanab, UT. Mr. Kishner is a member of the Stop Divine Strake Coalition and founder of www.StopDivineStrake.com.  In June, he co-organized a rally in Kanab, Utah, against the Divine Strake test.

In a 2,000-mile stretch of uninterrupted red-statehood from Indiana to Nevada, ordinary folks who had never attended a rally, or spoke out against an elected leader, or submitted an opinion to their newspaper editor got fed up. It was the unexpected protest of average people demanding that a defense agency and its unelected public servants adhere to the same natural laws that protect citizens from those who negligently or wilfully threaten health or life. The citizens' protests alone forced the intelligence and planning arm of the military to scrap plans to test out a dirty bomb in a radioactive field of death in Nevada, and later the fragile ecosystem, and a more densely populated area, in Southern Indiana.

Although the citizens' chorus of protests was aroused by the fear of a huge dust cloud of toxic substances from Divine Strake, the words they spoke were not new. They were the words from a verse that we all learned in our youth.

It was in elementary school, when we pledged - en masse - our commitment to two radical concepts in front of Old Glory, that the seed of the democratic model that each of us carries through life was planted. In that pledge, we vowed to uphold liberty and justice, two glorious resources of our nation. Those hallmarks of our democracy, however, are not the patented concepts of our founding fathers, nor the registered trademarks of our Congressmen. They are the people-given - some would say God-given - gifts to all Americans, past, present and future.

It may be decades or generations before a community will rise up to fulfill the pledge to democracy. When that time comes, when what is best for the people takes a back seat to misconduct, greed or power mongering, ordinary men and women must educate their fellow citizens, exercise their common freedoms, and, if necessary, indict or impeach those persons and agencies that contravene the institutions that safeguard our democracy and our collective health and well-being.

In Owen Wister's "The Virginian," Judge Henry eloquently and brilliantly asserts this morality: "The courts, or rather the juries, into whose hands we have put the law, are not dealing the law. They are withered hands, or rather they are imitation hands made for show, with no life in them, no grip. And so when your ordinary citizen sees this, and sees that he has placed justice in a dead hand, he must take justice back into his own hands where it was once at the beginning of all things."

We must never forget that the delegated powers in our democracy are, have and always will be ours to give, and to take back. When our elected or unelected leaders fail to fulfil their pledge to serve us and protect our health, our safety, our rights, our laws and our nation, then it is the people who, in the end, will exercise their absolute power to restore the institutions of democracy.   

As New Mexicans prepare to protest the Divine Strake test that is now threatening their state, we must all continue opposition to this test with the firm confidence that our protests - in the name of protecting health, peace, and justice - are not a defiance of democracy but rather an assertion of it.  Judge Henry called it the "fundamental assertion of self-governing men, upon whom our whole social fabric is based."

Guest blog by by Andrew Kishner of Kanab, UT. If you'd like to submit an article for possible publication on DFNM as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the main blog page.

Even Survey USA Shows Madrid-Wilson Race Neck and Neck

Local KOB-TV News just announced the results of a recent poll by Survey USA (SUSA) that shows Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson at 51%, Dem challenger Patricia Madrid at 46% and Undecided at 3% in the congressional race in NM-01. Since the poll has a reported margin of error of 4.5%, this means the results have Wilson only a hair ahead of Madrid. Still, numbers like these might normally make me a little nervous. Not this time.

SUSA has a generally poor reputation because its methodology isn't viewed as scientifically sound by many serious analysts. It uses what's known as "computer response automated calls." Auto-dialers make calls until an arbitrary number have been answered. This method isn't perceived as statistically reliable by a number of observers. Its samples are also known to often contain too many Republicans. It's a pattern. In fact, SUSA's reputation is shaky enough that the Associated Press, the National Journal and other top-of-the-line news outlets won’t even report SurveyUSA poll results.

In addition, all the other polls in this race have been consistent in showing the race as a tie. The results of polling by Constituent Dynamics, Research & Polling and Lake Research Partners all show a virtual dead heat between Madrid and Wilson. This one is very probably what's known as an outlier -- a poll that falls outside the margin of credibility.

The good news is that, even with all of these problems, Madrid is shown at only 5 points back and just about within the margin of error -- a strong position for a challenger at this stage of the race. We can (and will) win this thing!

Of course the only poll that really counts is the one that happens on November 7th. Are you registered to vote? Turnout will make the difference in this neck and neck race. If we get a strong turnout by Dems and Independents, Madrid will win. You know what to do.

Colorado Pics of the Day: Aspen Cascade

I thought I'd share some photos each day from our vacation last week up in Central Colorado, in and around the Collegiate Peaks to the West of the Arkansas River valley. These shots were taken on a drive up Cottonwood Creek Canyon towards Cottonwood pass. We're next to a mountain lake, shooting across the water at the changing aspens of Fall cascading down between the firs and pines. Click on the images for larger versions.

NM Land Commissioner Forum: Baca vs. Lyons

Dem challenger Jim Baca has some excellent photos of last night's debate with Repub incumbent Land Commissioner Pat Lyons on his blog, Only in New Mexico. More than 100 people showed up for the League of Women Voters' candidate forum at the First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque and a chance to compare the views of Lyons, who has received a ton of campaign money, almost all of it from gas and oil interests, and long-time environmentalist Jim Baca, who served previously as Land Commissioner as well as Mayor of Albuquerque.

Select candidate quotes from Steve Terrell's article in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

"I was the first New Mexico land commissioner elected without the blessing of the oil and gas industry," Baca said, referring to his terms in the 1980s. "And if I'm elected again, it'll be the same. I haven't received a dime from them while my opponent has received hundreds of thousands of dollars.''  -- Jim Baca

"You can't let the oil and gas industry have their way on everything. I wouldn't drill on Otero Mesa. The best thing we can do is move away from oil and gas." -- Jim Baca

State land at Otero Mesa "isn't as pristine as everyone thinks. It's the constitutional duty of the land commissioner to try to produce gas out of there. If not, you're taking away from the school children of New Mexico. We can do a real clean gas drill on Otero Mesa." -- Pat Lyons

Choice quotes from an article in today's Albuquerque Tribune:

"We just have to protect these water supplies and landscapes and croplands so that we can sustain ourselves. I think it's going to take some visionary leadership not just in the Land Office, but everywhere to figure out how our quality of life is going to remain where it should be." -- Jim Baca

"As a commissioner of public lands, your constitutional duty is to try to maximize revenue for education in a sustainable way. It's your constitutional duty to try to produce some gas out there. If not, you're taking away from children's education in New Mexico." -- Pat Lyons

"I think there are areas like Otero Mesa that are worth saving. I think we owe it to future generations to protect places like that." -- Jim Baca

Baca wants a constitutional amendment to create a board overseeing the land commissioner's decisions.

"We're the only state that really doesn't have something like that," he said. "I think the time has come for that. We need to make sure that ethical, fair market exchanges are being made."

Lyons disagreed, saying such a board would sacrifice the land commissioner's independence.

I wonder how Lyons thinks he can be "independent" when he's taking massive blobs of money from oil and gas interests. Probably the same way Heather Wilson stays "independent" while following in lockstep with the Bush administration and taking massive blobs of money from big pharma and energy corporations! You can check out the facts on Lyons at LyonsWatch.com

Baca needs our help to win this incredibly important race, so head on over to his campaign website and volunteer or donate a few bucks to the cause. The future of New Mexico's beautiful environment is at stake. Let's elect someone who will work to protect the special places we can't do without, while raising funds on the rest to support our education system. We need balance, not someone who caters almost exclusively to his corporate cronies.