Democracy for New Mexico

The Three Scariest Things I Read Today

First off, two blood curdling posts on Iran in two days by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque. They're long, but I think they're essential reading at this moment in time:

I hadn't discovered Floyd until one of my favorite blogs, , provided the pointer. I'll certainly be reading Empire Burlesque regularly from now on though. Excerpt:

The cowardice of the Democrats is one possible reason why the Bushists’ lies are growing more open, more cynical. (And let us not lay the flattering unction to ourselves that this is because the Bush Faction is getting more desperate. It would be very nice to think so, but as noted above, they already know nothing bad is going to happen to them personally; so what would they be desperate about?) But there is one other possible reason for their brazenness: because they know that something is brewing, something is coming that will wipe away the memory of their present lies — or else make it more dangerous to point them out. Juan Cole detects some tantalizing hints in the notable absence of many of Iraq’s main political players from the scene: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the most powerful Shiite party, has left Iraq, going first to the United States and now to Iran for cancer treatment. Mahdi Army leader Moqtada al-Sadr is still in hiding. And now Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, is going to a fat farm in the United States for three weeks to try to lose some weight. That’s right; Iraq’s head of state has left his nation in the midst of a life-and-death struggle in order to drop a few pounds in a pricey Stateside resort. […]

How soon then before we find out at last how transparent these lies have been as well? Is this the big thing brewing, a strike on Iran, a new and even more horrible war certain to provoke even more horrible responses, even on American soil — thus solidifying the tyranny of the Bush Faction, sweeping away all the “petty carping” about the law and the Constitution as the Leader does “whatever it takes” to keep us safe? [Just by the by, Bush giving himself the sole power to constitute the entire federal government in the event of a broad range of “national emergencies.”]As Cole noted in his piece on Talabani, these are just speculations. But consider: every single lie told by the Bush Faction has masked a reality more sinister than most American citizens could have imagined. “Compassionate conservatism” really was a cynical scam for ruthless corporate predation, callous disregard and a savage, ideological assault on the very notion of a “common good” — all exemplified in the Katrina disaster.

The Bushists really did lie about “weapons of mass destruction” and al Qaeda ties in order to launch a war of aggression against Iraq. Bush really did lie, knowingly and repeatedly and publicly, about the mass surveillance he is conducting upon the American people, as Greenwald has shown so clearly.

Thus we are fully justified in asking this question: What sinister reality lies in wait behind the relentless barrage of lies about Iran? The answer to that question seems transparently clear — and unfathomably evil.

Now add this morsel to deepen your sense of impending doom. From Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran at ABC News:

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

Backed against the wall on Iraq, it's totally in character for Bush et al. to reach for more chaos, not less. Fear, lies, unilateral provocation, constant widening war -- the trademarks of this blood-lusting bunch. Who can or will stop them?

Feingold Calls It "A Collapse for Democrats"

Go read his diary on Daily Kos. Quote:

First Americans had to put up with a Republican Congress that did nothing, and now we are faced with a Democratic Congress that is giving the President exactly what he wants – continuing his failed policy and leaving our troops stuck in the middle of a civil war.  Some strategy.  We can’t back down when the stakes are so high. I know you’ll keep ratcheting up the pressure, and that’s exactly what we need right now. Now is the time to be pulling out all the stops to end the war. [emphasis mine]

New Mexico Blog Radio Premiers May 24

Rey Garduño & Debbie O'Malley Are the First Guests
on New Mexico Blog Radio

From New Mexico Blog Radio:
ALBUQUERQUE, NM, MAY 22, 2007 -- New Mexico Blog Radio modifies an old medium, radio, and dresses it up before  moving it to the Internet.  A new Internet radio show, ‘New Mexico Blog Radio’ begins Thursday, May 24th at 4:30 PM (Mountain time) live on the Internet. Host of the show, Suzanne Prescott, says the show will fill the need for coverage of local New Mexico issues, “We’ll cover issues with our guests that aren’t getting enough coverage in the press and on local TV or commercial radio.” Joining Suzanne as co-host for this first show is the force behind the popular blog, Democracy for New Mexico, Barbara Wold. (Yes, that's me.) Listeners can call in during the show at (718) 664-9717.

Please join Suzanne, Barbara and guests when the show airs on May 24th at 4:30 PM Mountain time (6:30 Eastern) at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nmblogradio.

The first show will bring together candidates for Albuquerque’s City Council, Rey Garduño  and Debbie O’Malley. Both candidates are using Albuquerque’s new public campaign finance law. The City Council Election on October 2nd will be the first test of the public campaign finance regulations. How well have the regulations worked so far? What do the candidates who are trying out the law have to say about it?

Since its beginning in late 2006, Blog Talk Radio has mushroomed rapidly into one of the most popular sites on the Internet. New Mexico Blog Radio joins over 1000 political blog radio shows already on the Blog Talk Radio site. 

For a lineup of guests who will be on future shows contact Suzanne directly at (505) 304-3960.

Iglesias Today (in the Land of Grumbling Mountain Lions)

Today's Washington Post has a lengthy personal profile of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, what he's been through and what he's doing today, based on a reporter's visit to Albuquerque to interview Iglesias and his wife, Cyndy in their foothills home. The article traces his life to this point, goes into his many recent media appearances and recaps the details of the U.S. Attorneys' scandal, but what tickled me was this opening paragraph's description of Albuquerque:

At 9 a.m. on the very edge of the dusty, desolate collection of adobe homes and Vietnamese restaurants that seem to form this city, David Iglesias begins his run through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. This is not easy terrain. The footing is terribly uneven. The altitude can be unbearable. At certain times one can hear the grumbling of mountain lions and the feasting of coyotes.

I don't know about you, but I've never personally been aware of any mountain lion grumbling in our "desolate" locale packed with Vietnamese restaurants....

Gov. Richardson Formally Announces Entry Into Prez Race

Here's the online version of his announcement. You can also view a version he does in Spanish. And here's the press release, which includes the complete text of his remarks, a list of those who joined him onstage and a list of California endorsements. Gov. Richardson made the live announcement this morning at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, in the same room where John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic nomination in 1960. AP video has a short clip of the announcement.

The campaign has also launched its upgraded website and blog with all sorts of new organizing gizmos and lots of video. Check it out.

Formally Announcing
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

Here are links to major coverage of his announcement:

• LA Times
• International Herald Tribune (AP)
• Washington Post
• New York Times (on announcement)
• New York Times (background)
• New York Times (video report and interview)
• Yahoo News (photos)
• Albuquerque Journal (photo slide show thru the years)
• Albuquerque Journal (5-part bio)

ABQ Chapter of UN Association Announces Annual Public Meeting

From Bill Pratt:
The Albuquerque Chapter of the United Nations Association has announced its annual public meeting. This year's program will focus on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in developing countries, and the United Nations response.

WHEN: Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 3:30 PM
WHERE: Albq. Peace and Justice Center, 201 Harvard SE
COST: None
INVITATION: All are welcome

PROGRAM: Showing of two documentaries from the World Security Institute:

• : Cheap, portable, easy to use and widely available, small arms are responsible for 90% of conflict related deaths since WW II.
• : Unregulated trade in small arms is reflected in bloody regional conflicts and in the epidemic of violence in our cities.

The Speaker will be Representative Elias Barela: NM House of Representatives, District 8 Valencia County; Veteran, US Army Lt. Colonel, NM National Guard; Attorney

Rep. Barela will relate his past experiences in Latin America while on active duty with the US Army as well as the current dangers facing US military personnel resulting from the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the hands of insurgencies and corrupt governments. Using his background as an attorney and legislator, Rep. Barela will explain the processes of developing laws and treaties that would reduce the illicit trafficking in such weapons.

For more information email Bill Pratt: prattsalwm@comcast.net

Impeach Gonzales

New video clip from Robert Greenwald partnering with Democracy for America. Click to sign the petition to impeach Gonzales. Pass it on.

From Jim Dean, Democracy for America:
If George Bush won't fire U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, then Congress can.

Demand Congress impeach Gonzales now: https://www.ImpeachGonzales.org

First, Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove worked together to fire at least seven U.S. Attorneys because they weren't "loyal Bushies" and pushed several others to resign in an unethical crusade to make the U.S. Justice Department a partisan arm of the Bush administration.

Then they worked together to cover it up.

Gonzales went so far as to testify to Congress that he "was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions going on." When White House e-mails exposed his involvement, Gonzales changed his tune in an interview with 60 Minutes then changed his tune again by hiding behind, "I don't recall" more then 60 times in his second Congressional testimony. Time's up for Alberto Gonzales!

Democracy for America has teamed up with Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films to get the message out. Robert has created a hard hitting video short that exposes Gonzales' attempts to mislead Congress. In a few weeks, DFA members around the country will deliver your signature and thousands of others directly to your representative in Congress.

Karl Rove wants this scandal over. Rove knows that an impeachment investigation of Gonzales will open the door to a lot more then just the U.S. Attorneys scandal.

Impeachment puts everything back on the table. Illegal domestic eavesdropping, illegally deleted government e-mails, voter suppression, signing statements, torture recommendations, you name it -- if Gonzales had his finger prints on it Congress will shine the spotlight at it.

Join thousands of Americans demanding accountability and ethical leadership in the U.S. Justice Department. Please sign the petition now: https://www.ImpeachGonzales.org

Thank you for moving America forward,

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

P.S. Members of the President's Cabinet can be impeached. Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution provides for removal of the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States.

Tonight on KUNM's 'Espejos de Aztlan': Creators of Play About Working Poor Fighting Injustice

From Javier Benavidez:
Check out KUNM 89.9 FM tonight, Monday, May 21st, at 8:00 PM for a half-hour live interview by host Javier Benavidez on "Espejos de Aztlan" with creators of the political theatrical production "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" Written by Nobel Peace Prize for Literation winner Dario Fo and locally produced by the Southwest Organizing Project and OmniRootz Productions, the play focuses on the desperation of the working poor in one neighborhood faced with ridiculously high food costs and the families who join in protest to fight the associated economic injustices. Local Stefani Willis directs the play which features local youth actors Venessa Katzenberger, Cherish Henson, Virginia Hampton, Ife Hampton and Shrayas Jatkar. Locas Enrique Cardiel, Rosina Roibal, Patrick Clark create the production's music score.

The Albuquerque running of "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" will conclude with three productions on Friday, May 25th at 8:15 PM, Saturday, May 26th at 8:15 PM and Sunday, May 27th at 3:15 PM. Each play takes place at the Out ch’Yonda Live Artz Studio, 929 4th St. SW (9 blocks south of Central Avenue). For more information, contact Out ch'Yonda at 385- 5634 or the Southwest Organizing Project at 247-8832.

Espejos has been on-air since 1979 and is part of the Raices Colectiva which conducts programming on news, culture and music from a Latino perspective on KUNM 89.9FM.

Sunday Bird Blogging: Monsoon Spring

With all the rain we've been having, Sunny the sun conure has been passionately into bathing. I guess because he can't be out in the downpours, he creates his own in his water bowl. He climbs into the water and splashes it up, down and around until he's soaked. Meanwhile the maternal biological clock of Whitey, our albino parakeet, seems to have been thrown off course. She's been laying eggs despite being nowhere near her old lover Queenie, with whom she had a hatching of babies a couple years ago, or any other male keet. Then there's Bosco the peach-faced lovebird. The wet Spring weather is bringing out the beast in him and he's been starting fights with many of his toys. Bosco's fiercest wrath has been reserved for his acrobatic monkey on a string. The noises he makes while attacking this toy are positively blood curdling. He told me he thinks the monkey looks like a BushChimp. (Click on photos for larger versions.)

Barnett and Rogers Implicated (Again) in Rove's Plan to Keep Minorities Off Voter Rolls

Facts be damned. No matter how much evidence undermines the validity of the Republican "voter fraud" claims, they keep on insisting there's a "there" there. And they keep sticking to their odd view that, for some strange reason, certain Republican U.S. Attorneys -- many of whom have since been fired by BushCo -- didn't want to prosecute "voter fraud" even though evidence was supposedly abundant. It's never really been explained why any U.S. Attorney would avoid issuing headline-grabbing indictments if the cases could be made.

The truth is that BushCo wanted these prosecutions in battleground states despite there being no real evidence of crimes -- and they were dedicated to applying political pressure to get them even if they weren't justified. Politics is politics and political gain often seems to be the only goal of Rove et al. What's a little destruction of the integrity and ethics of the U.S. Justice Department when Congressional seats are at stake? One of the top priorities of Rove's strategy for the last few election cycles was to disenfranchise minority voters and discourage them from registering to vote. After all, minority voters tend to vote for Democrats. Creating the "voter fraud" myth and launching headline-making investigations were a big part of Rove's plan, and pressure was applied liberally to U.S. Attorneys who were reluctant to play ball.

Wa-Po Piece Debunks "Voter Fraud"
In a Washington Post op-ed this week, Harold Meyerson debunks the long-running Repub "voter fraud" myth in no uncertain terms. Quote:

... five of the 12 federal prosecutors either sacked or considered for sacking last year had been singled out by Rove and other administration officials for nonperformance on voter fraud. Amazingly, all five came from states -- Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin -- where Republicans were embroiled in tight election contests.

With the home office in Washington breathing down their necks, why did these experienced prosecutors fail to bring voter fraud indictments? The crime, after all, had become a major Justice Department concern. Starting in 2002, Justice required every U.S. attorney to designate a district election officer, whose job it would be to end this epidemic of electoral fraud. These officers' attendance was required at annual training seminars, where they were taught how to investigate, prosecute and convict fraudulent voters. The statutes were adequate; the investigators were primed, well funded and raring to go.

And nothing happened. For the simple reason that when it comes to voter fraud in America, there's no there there. Voter fraud is a myth -- not an urban or rural myth, as such, but a Republican one. [emphasis mine]

...  to prosecute or convict more than a handful of people for voter fraud isn't for lack of trying. Since 2002, the Justice Department's Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has, as Gonzales put it, "made enforcement of election fraud and corruption offenses a top priority." And yet between October 2002 and September 2005, just 38 cases were brought nationally, and of those, 14 ended in dismissals or acquittals, 11 in guilty pleas, and 13 in convictions.

... And thus, as has so often been the case in the Bush presidency, a government department was instructed to negate its raison d'etre. Just as consumer protection and environmental protection agencies were transformed into agencies protecting manufacturers and despoilers, so Justice -- whose imperishable glory was its role in extending the franchise to African Americans during the civil rights years -- was told that its new mission was to suppress the franchise.

Rogers and Barnett Work the Rove Strategy
Now evidence is mounting that local Repub political operatives Pat Rogers (right) and Mickey Barnett (below left) were, in essence, part of an organized effort in New Mexico to pressure Iglesias to help carry out Rove's strategy.

Barnett was once a legislative aid to Sen. Domenici and was his pick for a slot on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. A former NM Senator, Barnett has also lobbied on behalf of the payday loan industry, Corrections Corporation of Amerca and gambling interests. Albuquerque attorney Patrick Rogers served on the board of the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund, which has ties to The Donatelli group involved in the Swiftboat plot during the 2004 election. He testified about "voter fraud" and the need for voter ID at a U.S House Administration Committee hearing organized by fromer Repub Rep. Bob Ney, who later was jailed for crimes connected with the Abramoff scandal.

In a major story in yesterday's LA Times, David Iglesias describes a politicized lunch where Rogers once again applied the pressure:

Weeks before the 2006 midterm election, then-New Mexico U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias was invited to dine with a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque who had been after him for years to prosecute allegations of voter fraud.

"I had a bad feeling about that lunch," said Iglesias, describing his meeting at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen with Patrick Rogers, a lawyer who provided occasional counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party.

When the voter fraud issue came up, Iglesias said, he explained to Rogers that in reviewing more than 100 complaints, he hadn't found any solid enough to justify criminal charges.

... Rogers, Iglesias recalled, had pressed him in 2004 and then again just before the 2006 election to push for voter fraud convictions in the state. Iglesias said he was so concerned about the propriety of the preelection get-together with Rogers that he asked a colleague from the office to join him as a witness.

Sour Grapes When Iglesias Won't Cooperate
As it became more and more clear that Iglesias wouldn't go along with the "voter fraud" charade, complaints by Rogers, Barnett and Sen. Pete Domenici bombarded the Justice Department and White House, urging that Iglesias be replaced. The plot thickens and "all roads lead to Rove."

Unbeknownst to Iglesias, a few months before that lunch, Rogers and another Republican attorney from New Mexico, Mickey Barnett, had complained about Iglesias at the Justice Department in Washington. The session was arranged with the assistance of the department's then-White House liaison, Monica M. Goodling, and an aide to White House political strategist Karl Rove, according to e-mails released recently by congressional investigators.

One of those they met with was Matthew Friedrich, a senior counselor to Gonzales. Friedrich would meet again with Rogers and Barnett in New Mexico, where, he told congressional investigators, the pair complained about Iglesias. They made it clear "that they did not want him to be the U.S. attorney…. They mentioned that they had communicated that with Sen. Domenici, and they also mentioned Karl Rove," Friedrich said, according to a transcript provided by congressional investigators.

... Iglesias has said that he believes "all roads lead to Rove" in explaining the dismissals and that he is counting on the Office of Special Counsel to find the truth.

Obstruction of Justice?
Another fired U.S. Attorney says the political pressure could merit a criminal investigation:

This week, another fired U.S. attorney who has said he felt pressure on voter fraud cases, John McKay of Seattle, said he thought interference with Iglesias and other prosecutors amounted to "possible obstruction of justice." He predicted that a criminal inquiry would be launched. He said he felt pressure to bring voter fraud charges in his district after a 129-vote margin put a Democratic governor into office in Washington.

Remember that both Sen. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson made phone calls to Iglesias in the run-up to the 2006 election that he perceived to be intimidating. Clearly, a message was being sent to Iglesias and other recalcitrant U.S. Attorneys that they must proceed with politically motivated indictments and investigations about "voter fraud" and other matters or face the wrath of the DOJ and Rove. Those who didn't respond were put on the to-be-fired list.

Domenici Pushes Rogers to Replace Iglesias
A final "irony": Pat Rogers was one of the names reportedly submitted by Domenici as a suggested replacement for Iglesias. I guess Rogers did such a good job keeping the pressure on Iglesias that Domenici believed he deserved a reward, like any good flunky.