Democracy for New Mexico

Get Involved: Dem Precinct and Ward Chair Candidates Needed

From Bruce Barnaby:
It is 2007 and New Mexico Democrats will soon begin the process of selecting officers for Precincts, Wards, Counties and the State to lead the party for the 2008 Election Year.

We need to start by looking for good Democrats to become Precinct and Ward Chairs. A workshop will be held on Saturday, January 20, at 10 AM at State Party Headquarters, 1301 San Pedro NE, to prepare a list of candidates for Precinct and Ward officers and assign volunteers to contact them. All those volunteers who worked hard for the candidates need to know that they should continue to build the party in preparation for 2008. This is important. All Democrats are welcome! Learn more about the process and how to get involved.

New Mexico will have its Presidential Preference Caucus on February 5, 2008.  We have a year to get ready. Now is the time to start.

Sign Up for 1/27 Iraq Protest March in DC

From NM Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice:
Hello New Mexicans who want to end the Iraq war and stop the proposed escalation! United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is organizing a nationwide mass march on Washington, DC on January 27th to protest the war in Iraq and stop the escalation. Please come to Washington DC on January 27th to join in the march! People are asked to meet on the Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at 11:00 AM, and the march will start at 1:00 PM.

Now is the time to let your voices be heard and to get the message out, again, to Congress. Ron Kovic, the Vietnam war veteran who wrote 'Born on the 4th of July', said just last week:

"...it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said in April 1967 - a year before he was assassinated, during the height of the Vietnam War - A time comes when silence is betrayal."

Ron is rallying Americans to take a visible stand against the Iraq war. If you would like to attend the march, go to the UFPJ website, www.unitedforpeace.org, and scroll down to where it says something like "Connect with people from your area who are attending the march..." I have volunteered to be the state coordinator for New Mexico, and my zip code is 87506. But you could put in your zip code and have it cover a larger area, e.g. 200 miles. Then you can enter your information to sign up for the march.

Buses?
Right now, no buses or vans have been organized from New Mexico, but if enough people are interested I will gladly help to coordinate.  I will be flying due to time contstraints.  At present, buses are going to the march from more than 20 states and from 72 cities. Flights from ABQ to DCA (Reagan Airport ... formerly National) are still available in the $250 range through Southwest ... good fare + hotel packages are also availab le through hotwire.com and travelocity.com.

Please sign up on the website if you will be attending, because national media are trying gauge the interest in the march by website signups. Note also that a citizen lobbying day is planned for Jan 29th, and training/coordinating for the lobbying day will occur on Jan 28th. You can read all about the scheduled events at www.unitedforpeace.org.

Thank you so much ... and if you aren't able to attend the DC march, you can still participate in several ways:

1. by donating to UFPJ who really needs financial support right now to pull this off,
2. holding local protests in conjunction with the nationwide protests, and
3. spreading the word to as many people as you know so we can make a strong presence in DC.

Carol Craiglow, Santa Fe, NM

Editor's Note: An Albuquerque march and rally will be held on January 27th as part of this nationwide protest. See our previous post for more info.

APS to Hold School Board Candidate Forum 1/24/07

From Albuquerque Public Schools:
Albuquerque Public Schools will hold a forum for candidates for the APS Board of Education at 7 PM, Wednesday, January 24, at the APS Building, located at 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE. The forum will be moderated by the League of Women Voters.

“This is a great opportunity for the community to hear the views and opinions of those running for the Albuquerque Public Schools’ Board of Education,” said Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Everitt. “Each candidate will be given time for an opening statement, they will then answer questions from the community, and then will give a closing statement.”

According to the Bernalillo County Clerk, currently there are three candidates in District 1, located in the south valley of Albuquerque. They are: Cecilia C de Baca, Dolores Griego, and Richard Sanchez.

There are two candidates in District 2, located in Albuquerque’s west side. They are: Cynthia Jones and Robert Lucero, who is an incumbent.

There are five candidates in District 4, located in the downtown and University area of Albuquerque. They are: Vanessa Alarid, John Edward, Martin Esquivel, Charles MacQuigg, and Pauline Nuñez.

“We encourage the citizens of Albuquerque to attend this very important and informative meeting,” added Everitt.

Every child has a right to a quality public education and APS is committed to providing that education. For more information about Albuquerque Public Schools visit www.aps.edu.

JOIN IN: Help PSN, Moveon & Kennedy Launch the 50-State Response to Bush's Iraq Escalation Plan

From David Sirota:
A press release was just issued by the Progressive States Network (PSN) about the kickoff of a 50-state legislative response to President Bush's Iraq escalation plan. Tomorrow, January 17th at 9:30 AM MST, PSN will be holding a conference call with Moveon.org, other grassroots groups, Sen. Ted Kennedy and legislators from all over the country to launch the campaign to have state legislatures introduce and pass resolutions demanding Congress stop Bush's escalation. You can join the call by RSVP-ing at here. (I just did.)

Editor's Note: A previous post reports that NM Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino will be introducing a Memorial calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Ortiz y Pino also plans to introduce a resolution that calls for the impeachment of Cheney and Bush. I imagine he would want to participate in this 50-state escalation fight at the legislative level. Are you ready to join in and contact NM legislators to gain their support as well? We'll keep you posted.

Gov. Richardson Supports Cutting Funds for Iraq Escalation

Let's hope Gov. Richardson's views prevail with the Dems. As reported by digby from a CNN transcript:

BLITZER: Are you in favor of using the power of the purse that Congress has to try to stop this war?

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Yes. I believe because the president has not listened to the Congress, he hasn't listened to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and to the American people, that overwhelmingly want a change of course, I believe that's the function of the Congress, to deal with the appropriations process, find ways to at least this surge, to deny the funds to make it happen, because this is going to add to sectarian violence.

I would support a phased withdrawal, tie it to a political solution. There is no military solution. I would also organize a regional conference to get other states to help with the security and civil administration. I would talk to Iran and Syria to try to get the situation to at least a stable level.

I just believe that this is an ultimate decision by the Congress. But since the president doesn't listen, he's off in, I think, his own bubble. Unfortunately, that's the course I believe the Congress needs to take.

And digby also says:

Richardson is not given to shrillness. He's probably running for president and he's running as a national security specialist, which he is. This is no joke. If he's saying this then Bush is in for trouble in the congress.

However, he goes on to explain why Cheney would almost certainly just ignore any effort by Congress to stop the useless "surge" or impose any limitations whatsoever on presidential war powers, citing his views about the Iran-Contra scandal back in 1987 as just one example of his disdain for the rule of law.

Watch Today's Live Webcast of Gov. Richardson's State of the State Address

Santa Fe Roundhouse Rotunda

The New Mexico Legislature's 2007 60-day session convenes today and Governor Bill Richardson will give his State of the State address to legislators. The speech can be viewed live online by visiting the Governor’s website at www.governor.state.nm.us and then clicking on the link provided on the home page. The speech is scheduled to begin after the Legislature takes care of initial business -– between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. For those who cannot watch live, a recording of the speech will also be available on the Governor’s website following the opening session, along with the full text (PDF) of the speech.

Local TV stations KOB, Channel 4, and KNME, Channel 5, have announced they will carry the speech live.

You can read an acccount by Kate Nash of the Albuquerque Tribune of Richardson's dry run of the speech and more here.

Santa Fe New Mexican reporter, Steve Terrell, provides an overview of what's expected at this year's session. He'll also be blogging about the Legislature at his Roundhouse Roundup.

The Albuquerque Tribune's Kate Nash will be blogging about the session at her Roundhouse Report. She analyzes this year's proposed legislation here.

And , Eric Griego and Suzanne Prescott's new show on Progressive Talk Radio, 1350 AM, will be focusing on the Legislature every Saturday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM.

This is the 48th NM Legislature since we achieved statehood in 1912. Gov. Richardson has dubbed it the "year of water."

UPDATE: Here are the listings for the new officers officially elected today before the Governor gave his speech:

NM House Leaders

NM Senate Leaders

Honoring Dr. King

Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, delivered 4 April 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City:

A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Not much has changed in the intervening years, has it? Today it's the Iraq occupation that is the "demonic destructive suction tube." Today it's a debacle in Iraq which will end up costing at least a trillion dollars when all is said and done. A trillion dollars charged to future generations, adding to an already monstrous debt created by the right-wing plot to ensure that our wealthiest citizens and biggest corporations pay next to nothing in taxes for the common good.

Think what a trillion dollars could do to help build a just society here in America, with excellent schools and health care and services for the elderly and housing and communities and opportunities for all. Instead Bush will be asking for more than $10 billion to pay for a jobs program -- in Iraq, not here in the U.S. Instead the government is asking for another $100 billion to impose our oil-hungry will on a nation we are dismantling and attempting to rebuild so it serves our needs, not those who call it home.

The Reverend King would have been 78 this year. I imagine he is rolling painfully in his grave, as the saying goes. Our nation's leadership vacuum, its debt, its warmongering, injustice and imperialism have far surpassed what he criticized in the 60s. We seem to have lost all shame about tolerating sweatshops, tolerating torture, tolerating profound dishonesty in the service of greed and hubris around the globe, tolerating broken down schools, ruined neighborhoods, decimated housing stocks and wars of choice. It is we who allow them to direct outrageously more to the haves by taking everything of value from the have nots.

How can we best honor Reverend King this year? One way is to speak out, to refuse to maintain a frightened, cowed or cynical silence in the face of injustice and violence. In King's words:

... I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

... Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

... The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Substitute Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, secret prisons in Eastern Europe and even "detainment camps" within our own borders. Silence = collaboration. We need to get up and stand up. We need to speak up and demand that our elected representatives do the same. Ignoring the horrors of today's Bush policies will permit more escalation, more calculated inhumanity, more horrific violence in our names in more and more places, here and abroad. We must break the silence at every level and do it now. We must challenge the current sickly orientation of the nation. We must heed the warnings of Dr. King when he said:

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

... America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

... We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Links to King resources.

PS: I find it admirable that presidential candidate John Edwards is evoking King's 'Beyond Vietnam' speech today, at his own speech at the Riverside Church.

La Plazita Institute Coffee Shop Grand Opening 1/27/07

From NM Civic Engagement:
The moment many of us have been waiting for is finally here. The great work that La Plazita Institute is doing in Albuquerque's South Valley has just expanded to its economic development wing. This coffee shop is a place to share, learn, meet new people and participate in Grass Roots Community Development. Way to go Albino, Gloria and the rest of the Plazita Crew.

What: La Plazita Coffee Shop Grand Opening
When: Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 10:00 AM
Location: 318 Isleta Blvd. SW, Albuquerque
at
Guests: Rudolfo Anaya; Aztec Dancers; and Special Blessing

Please come and share with your network/others. Also, Please forward to your networks. Click to visit the La Plazita Institute website.

-- Joaquin Griego, New Mexico Civic Engagement, (505) 764-9523

No More Wars

(Click on image for larger version.)

Go Ahead, You Deserve It

Take Five (1961). With so much heated energy flying around these days, I thought it was time for something COOL like the Dave Brubeck Quartet for today's Saturday Music Hall. More Brubeck performances: St. Louis Blues (1961) and Blue Rondo a la Turk (1959). You dig?