Democracy for New Mexico

(Updated) NM Democrats Urged to Honor Fallen Soldier at Service

Update: See our later post that contains more information on the service for Sgt. Akin.

From Albuquerque Democrat Victor Raigoza:
It is with great sadness that I report to you the death of a great young Albuquerque Democrat, Sgt. James Akin. Sgt. Akin was one of the four men killed this past weekend in Iraq, when the vehicle he was driving hit an IED. 

At the request of Mrs. Syreeta Akin, James' widow, I am asking that all Democrats attend his service.  Dates and times have not yet been set. You may have to refer to the paper for notice of time and place. I do know that the service will be at Calvary Chapel on Osuna (I do believe we can fill this space with the Democrats James so loved) and the final resting place will be the MIlitary Cemetary in Santa Fe. 

The reason Syreeta wants Democrats there is because James loved the Democratic party and had aspirations of one day serving the people of New Mexico and the United States in the capacity of an elected official.

James was 23 and enlisted to serve our nation so that one day he would be able to show his dedication not only in word but in action. He had intentions of one day running for President of the United States, and he knew that military service would be a vital part of his campaign. He also enlisted because as stated to me in a letter from 2004, "We will either fight for our country or we will lose it.  This is not the time to rest, but one to work for the people."

James was a member of the John Kelly for Congress Campaign and was my Campaign Manager when I ran for State Senate. The last political thing James did in Albuquerque was in October 2006 when he spoke at a rally for Patricia Madrid in the North Valley.

There could be no greater tribute to this fine young man, a fallen hero, than to honor him by the presence of the Democrats of the great state of which he loved at his memorial service.

I appreciate your efforts in rallying the masses to come pay their final respects to this great Democrat.

Thank you,
Victor Raigoza
vpraigoza@msn.com

Editor's Note: I will update this post when more information is received about the date and time of the funeral service. Here's the AP story on Akin's death.

Troops in Iraq Ask Lieberman: When Are We Gonna Get Outta Here?

Hey, he's shopping for sunglasses at a Baghdad market, so don't bring him down with the facts. Lieberman put on another pair of rose-colored lenses and exclaimed about how much progress we're making. May death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq: 127. Ft. Lewis, home to one of every six of our soldiers killed in Iraq this month, has decided it can no longer hold memorial services for individual soldier deaths because it's too time consuming. They're opting instead for one monthly, one-size-fits-all memorial. I guess whatever constitutes "supporting the troops" is increasingly in the eye of the beholder. Meanwhile ....

Oh, and remember Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez from the first year of the occupation? His assessment of our prospects in Iraq is one of the most grim in a long list of recent grim assessments. Excerpt from coverage on Think Progress:

“I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat. It’s also kind of important for us to answer the question, ‘What is victory?’, and at this point I’m not sure America really knows what victory is.” […]

“I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time and we’ve got to do whatever we can to help the next generation of leaders do better than we have done over the past five years,” Sanchez said, “better than what this cohort of political and military leaders have done.”

Meanwhile, expansion plans are already taking shape for our new imperial fortress, I mean embassy, in Baghdad:

“It’s as big as Vatican City and makes the foreign embassies dotting the tree-lined streets of Washington, D.C., look like carriage houses, but the barely-finished U.S. embassy in Baghdad is already primed for expansion.”

According to Dave Foley, spokesman at the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, more Americans are still working at the embassy than initially expected, mainly because the overarching security problem in Baghdad has slowed and complicated efforts to rebuild the country and help establish a functioning central government there. […]

As designed now, the 619 blast-proof apartments may not be enough to accommodate some of the estimated 4,000 regular employees, contractors and local Iraqis working for the embassy, plus congressional and other diplomatic visitors who visit the capital on a regular basis.

I wonder if it has a moat. It doesn't say in this description. And no word yet on whether Exxon Mobil or Halliburton will have their own executive suites.

Garduño and O'Malley Kickoff Signature Drives

From frequent guest blogger Suzanne Prescott:
Rey Garduño (photo right), candidate for Albuquerque's District 6 City Council seat currently held by Martin Heinrich, met the May 31st City Clerk's deadline for signatures and $5.00 contributions in order to qualify to receive public campaign finance funds. As a result of meeting the deadline, on June 6th Garduno expects his campaign to receive a little over $27,000  of public campaign finance funds from the Albuquerque city treasury. 

On Saturday, June 2, a party of Rey supporters assembled at the Garduño household to kickoff the next phase of the campaign. Rey is now collecting signatures from 2% of the registered voters who are petitioning to get Garduño on the October ballot . According to Garduño 543 signatures are needed  in all. Tomas Garduño, Rey's son, is coordinating the petition gathering and has a little over 50 lists checked out. About a dozen have already come back filled. Rey believes that he already has 150 signatures. A report is due to the City Clerk's office by June 12th. Rey is asking for help in the collection of signatures. He can be reached at reygard@unm.edu or call (505) 266-4424.

Assistant City Clerk, Kelli Fulgenzi, in a comment made on the May 31st New Mexico Blog Radio show, believes that in subsequent years it may be possible to combine the signature/donation collection phase with the signature petition phase. New Mexico policy analyst, Matt Brix, who was also on the show, agrees that combining the two steps would be more efficient and save candidates time. 

District 2 candidate, Debbie O'Malley (photo left), who also qualified to receive public campaign financing, needs approximately  650 petition signatures. O’Malley is making copies of the signature petition sheets and will begin walking her district early this week. Debbie says she can really use help collecting signatures. Anyone who would like to help collect signatures can email her at debbie.omalley@usa.net or call 243-0832.  Debbie points out that each sheet only contains spaces for ten signatures and each sheet would be easy to fill quickly.

Editor's Notes: Speaking of Albuquerque's new clean election law, check out Suzanne's post at on a situation that developed with another City Council candidate who was trying to qualify for public funding. The City Clerk's office ALMOST allowed Katherine Martinez to turn in $5 donations and signatures AFTER the established legal deadline. Not a good way to start down a path of clean elections. Katherine Martinez works for The Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. Hmmm....

Click to check out our archived posts on the Albuquerque City Council elections. You can listen to New Mexico Blog Radio's archived shows by visiting the online radio show's web page.

Ranting the Dem Prez Debate: Blitzer Glitz

I confess I'm finding these psuedo-debates more and more useless, shallow and boring. I can only imagine how unappealing non-political junkies are finding this fare. I think the CNN version was the worst yet, clearly staged mostly to show off the self-perceived incisiveness and cleverness of Wolf Blitzer. He is, after all, a legend in his own mind. Mostly, he needs a shave and an apprenticeship with a real journalist (or a serious blogger) so he can learn to avoid the vapid questions he poses in his gotcha game-show performances: "Raise your hand if you are for English! Raise your hand if you're for higher gas prices! Raise your hand if you think I'm a pontificating control freak!" And then there's always some variation on "What would you do if Osama bin Laden threw an A-bomb into the middle of Washington DC?" to test whether candidates are "tough enough" on terrorism. Juvenile, juvenile, juvenile.

Every time a candidate veered even slightly towards saying something meaningful, Wolfie shut them down like a sh-shing schoolmarm. It was heartening to witness a few of the "debaters" pounce on him more than once for his silly attempts to elicit a "devisive" or "newsworthy" sound bite from the bunch.

Pickin' and Choosin'
I'm also sick of these mainstream media types deciding for us who should get to be center stage and who should get the most air time. You could barely see or hear Kucinich or Gravel, who were placed at the far edges of the glamour lineup even though, once again, they were the only candidates entirely willing to utter what they really believed instead of canned PR lines. Agree or disagree with their positions, at least they offered them without much window dressing or weasling.

I loved how they called out the others on their pro-attack-Iraq votes, and their insistence that universal, single payer health coverage is the ONLY sensible and practical way to improve our system. If you don't cut out the profit suckers in the middle and the for-profits that waste about 19% of health care spending on administrative costs, you ain't gonna be able to afford to cover everyone. I don't care how much exercise and "preventive care" you require of Americans. The "serious" candidates all know this but prefer to pretend otherwise, trying instead to baffle Americans with BS on this issue. Oh, they're all for universal health care, as we've heard from every Dem candidate for decades now. They're just not prepared to do what it would take to really provide it: confront Big Pharma and Big Insurance in no uncertain terms.

Bill Richardson didn't get to answer a question until almost 20 minutes into the two-hour event, and he was repeatedly shut down throughout. Personally, I thought he gave one of his strongest answers on gay rights:

"I love all this parsing and senatorial courtesy and 'on the one hand, on the other hand.' Here's what I would do. I would do what I did as governor of New Mexico. One, I would move in the Congress for a hate crimes law. I would have domestic partnerships. I would have civil unions. I would initiate laws that practice non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. I would get rid of 'don't ask, don't tell.' I voted against it as a congressman. A president has to show leadership...and this country should not be asking a person who is giving up their life for this country in the military...they should not be given...a lecture on sexual orientation."

I also liked his proposal to threaten to boycott the Peking Olympics if China doesn't quit coddling Sudan's murderous behavior in Darfur so they keep their oil spigot open to them. I thought his worst answer had to do with providing Presidents with line item veto power on the budget. Can you imagine what Bush would have done with that? And how it would decimate Congress' powers to negotiate?

Wolfie felt perfectly justified in cutting Richardson off in mid-sentence whenever he felt like it, something he rarely, if ever, did with the media's preferred "top three." Biden and Dodd got the same treatment. Wolfie seemed to give the most time by far to Hillary, Barack and Edwards. He is one powerful dude. He gets to pick and choose and shape and sell and to hell with fairness and equal time.

Pre-Fab Bells and Whistles
I really didn't like the contrived and artificial attempt to include "audience questions" in the second hour. Could the CNN producers have selected a more canned and melodrama-enriched group of questioners? There were the obligatory people with relatives serving in Iraq, and the "everyman" and "everywoman" types who own hair salons and teach school. Does anyone really care how many kids they have or what they do for a living when they're posing another milquetoast, generic question?

Did you get a load of that graphically imposing stage set CNN no doubt spent tens of thousands of dollars to create? Too bad they couldn't get the reporters' microphones to work properly. Minor detail, I know. More time wasted on repeating certain questions over and over because a candidate couldn't hear a thing. Hey CNN: less graphics and strobing lights, more basic broadcasting professionalism.

Probing Past Pablum Answers
I note the endless regurgitating of the media over who "won" the debate, which really entails determining which candidate managed to cram the most prepackaged, scripted gotcha quotes into their answers, and do so as fast as possible without any ums or ers. This is how we judge candidates for a job that will require enlightened leadership and out-of-the-box thinking to the nth degree given the emergencies wreaking havoc in almost every area of foreign and domestic affairs?

Just once, I'd like to see the polished talking points of the frontrunners punctured by real followup questions. You know, the kind serious journalists used to ask back when reporting was more than a ratings game. One example: how about probing a little deeper on the (always evolving) excuse used by Hillary to justify voting for unlimited war powers for Bush in Iraq? Her latest tactic is to claim she really thought she was voting merely to give Bush a way to get inspectors on the ground in Iraq. Heaven forbid -- she had no idea Bush Boy would use his open-ended permission slip to rush to war! Who'da thunk it?

Bottom line: I think these fake debates are worthless in every aspect except, perhaps, judging the quality of the candidates' hair and makeup teams. Did you notice that Hillary's face didn't have one wrinkle evident? An amazing feat given her age. Did you dig the latest evolution of Biden's intricate comb over of his balding head? Did you notice the tannish skin tones on so many of the candidates? Pockmarks and pimples begone.

Dream Debates
Wouldn't you like to see someone like Juan Cole asking the quesions about Iraq? Or Paul Krugman pummeling the candidates with questions about health care reform and economic fairness? How about David Sirota stripping the candidates down to their real views on "free" trade? Or Bill Moyers posing pointed questions about media conglomerates and big money in politics? Wouldn't you like to witness Glenn Greenwald pressuring the candidates to explain their views on habeas corpus and warrantless wiretapping? Now THAT would be must-see TV....

In case you missed the debate and want to see it, visit the CNN debate page. And Steve Terrell was in New Hampshire for the debate and has blow by blow coverage, as well as lots of photos. Photos: Reuters.

Krugman Says Single-Payer System the Only Way to Go in Health Care Reform

The good news is that we know more about the economics of health care than we did when Clinton tried and failed to remake the system. There's now a large body of evidence on what works and what doesn't work in health care, and it's not hard to see how to make dramatic improvements in US practice.

As we'll see, the evidence clearly shows that the key problem with the US health care system is its fragmentation. A history of failed attempts to introduce universal health insurance has left us with a system in which the government pays directly or indirectly for more than half of the nation's health care, but the actual delivery both of insurance and of care is undertaken by a crazy quilt of private insurers, for-profit hospitals, and other players who add cost without adding value.

A Canadian-style single-payer system, in which the government directly provides insurance, would almost surely be both cheaper and more effective than what we now have. And we could do even better if we learned from "integrated" systems, like the Veterans Administration, that directly provide some health care as well as medical insurance. --Paul Krugman and Robin Wells in the New York Review of Books

Read the entire article. It's comprehensive, detailed and persuasive. With the Governor's task force currently considering the results of Mathematica's study of three alternatives for reforming health care coverage in New Mexico, now's the time for ordinary folks to get more informed on what works and what doesn't. This article is a good start. I think Governor Richardson, his staff  and those involved with any aspect of health care in the state should read it too.

More nuggest from the article:

... the available evidence suggests that if the United States were to replace its current complex mix of health insurance systems with standardized, universal coverage, the savings would be so large that we could cover all those currently uninsured, yet end up spending less overall. That's what happened in Taiwan, which adopted a single-payer system in 1995: the percentage of the population with health insurance soared from 57 percent to 97 percent, yet health care costs actually grew more slowly than one would have predicted from trends before the change in system.

... In summary, then, the obvious way to make the US health care system more efficient is to make it more like the systems of other advanced countries, and more like the most efficient parts of our own system. That means a shift from private insurance to public insurance, and greater government involvement in the provision of health care—if not publicly run hospitals and clinics, at least a much larger government role in creating integrated record-keeping and quality control. Such a system would probably allow individuals to purchase additional medical care, as they can in Britain (although not in Canada). But the core of the system would be government insurance—"Medicare for all," as Ted Kennedy puts it.

... We believe that the compromise plans being proposed by the cautious reformers would run into the same political problems [as Bill Clinton's did], and that it would be politically smarter as well as economically superior to go for broke: to propose a straightforward single-payer system, and try to sell voters on the huge advantages such a system would bring. But this would mean taking on the drug and insurance companies rather than trying to co-opt them, and even progressive policy wonks, let alone Democratic politicians, still seem too timid to do that.

So are we stuck with a less than effective reform climate because of the timidity of Democrats? Oh, no, not again.... Political timidity: our most prevalent and dangerous problem.

Richardson Campaign Organizing Dem Prez Debate Watch Parties Today

A Democratic presidential candidate debate will be held in New Hampshire today from 5:00 to 7:00 PM Mountain Time, and broadcast on CNN. Wolf Blitzer will be the moderator. The Richardson for President campaign is helping to organize debate watch parties, plus a virtual debate watch party online. Click for .

Santa Fe for Gore '08 Campaign: Monday Morning Welcome and Visibility Event

From Linda Perrone: The Santa Fe for Gore ’08 Campaign welcomes Vice President Al Gore with a visibility event to show support.

Bernalillo, NM -- Santa Fe for Gore ’08 Campaign members will be rallying to welcome the Former Vice President, Al Gore, to New Mexico.  We will be supporting his efforts to bring attention and call to action steps to combat the climate crisis and to encourage him to run for President, so he can make the necessary changes needed on this and the many other challenges we face to move us forward. This event serves as a kick off for World Environment Day on Tuesday, June 5, 2007. Please join us and show your support, pick up a list of steps you can take and pick up a button, while supplies last.

Who:  Santa Fe for Gore ’08 Campaign
What:  Visibility and Support Rally
When:  Monday, June 4, 2007, 7:30 AM-10:00 AM
Where:  At intersection of Highway 550 & Jemez Dam Rd.

Contact:  Linda Perrone, mailforldp@gmail.com

Editor's Note: Gore will be speaking at a private event, the Sustainable Operations Summit, at the Tamaya Resort and Spa near Bernalillo on Monday.

Saturday Music Club: Indigos and Havens

We went to see Richie Havens and Indigo Girls perform at the Santa Fe Opera recently, a show billed as the finale of the two-day World Peace Conference. Whatever you think about a peace conference being funded by the Department of Tourism and set in a state filled with major components of what used to be called the military-industrial complex, this show was top notch and well worth the trip up north. There's something to be said about peace music and/or acoustic music and/or harmonic vocals carrying an audience up to the higher ground and echoing away towards the bomb making machinery.

Amy and Emily led some warmly received sing alongs of their old stuff, and featured a lot of their newer material, like songs from their latest album "Despite Our Differences." The video above, submitted for a contest by a fan, is set to one of my favorite numbers from that release called "Pendulum Swinger."

Indigo Girls were at the top of their strumming and vocal forms and the crowd was dominated by folks who had clearly been fans in the beginning and ever since. It was like old home day for the hippie-dyke enchantment dwellers of yore -- grayer and more wrinkled than before, but still parading their stuff. In other words, we were among family. Hugs were abundant. I even saw a fair number of spiked hairdos and mullets. Time for a retro comeback? Not yet, not yet.

They made great use of the top-of-the-line opera house acoustics and audio system, with the sound as clear as a bell. They changed guitars (or electric mandolins or banjos) every song. I've seen them live so many times in so many eras and in so many states of mind that they're like a part of my life fabric, comforting and pulsating warmth and good will. My favorite was a pounding version of Amy's "Go Go Go," tracing the protest movements from the suffragette days onward. Emily did some high vocal explorations that chimed like a bell. Wow. Nothing like being among friends, musical or otherwise, as the cold winds blew in off the still snowy peaks of the Sangre de Cristos and the lightning crackled across the skies as if on cue, I swear.

Richie Havens was rousing, funny and spiritual all at the same time. His energy and high intensity rhythm guitar playing are still going strong, as is his voice. I'm pleased to report he now has teeth of some sort, a big improvement over his physical state when he opened the Woodstock Arts and Music Fair oh so many years ago. His beard is now long and white and the top of his pate shiny. His foot pounding is still some of the best in the music biz, and his thumb is still wider than the guitar neck.

He was accompanied by tasty licks from talented lead player Walter Parks and a woman sawing expertly on an electric cello, much like in the video above. Yes, he did "Freedom (Motherless Child)" and "Here Comes the Sun," but also a rather somber rendition of "Woodstock." He opened with a wary and moody version of "All Along the Watchtower" that set just the right tone for an America as dangerous as the one we're experiencing. In between he performed a bunch of his own songs and told some funny stories. He noted how it was rather silly to be spending billions to get into outer space when we were already riding a chunk of rock zooming through it. Richie Havens -- still high on life.

Albuquerque to Domenici: We Want the Truth - It's Time for You to Go

(Click on photos for larger versions)

At noon on Friday, June 1, demonstrators gathered in front of Sen. Pete Domenci's office to demand that he come clean about his actions pressuring U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to inject politics into indictments, and pushing the U.S. Justice Department and White House to fire Iglesias because he wouldn't play ball.

One protestor at the event was Evangeline Donkersly (above), a lifelong Albuquerquean who has grown disenchanted with Domenici. Donkersly, who worked on Domenici’s municipal campaigns in the 1960s, will not be voting to return the senator to Washington. “He’s not the same man he used to be,” said Donkersly. “He’s been in Washington too long and it’s time for him to come home to stay. We need someone else.”

Still unanswered is the letter sent to Sen. Domenici by Brian Colon, Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. The letter demands that Domenici provide detailed information about contacts by the Senator and his staff with Monica Goodling and other Justice Department officials, and with Karl Rove and his staff. You can read Colon's letter to Pete and learn more about what prompted it in our previous post.

You can see more photos from the demonstration here.

You can read all our archived posts on the 2008 New Mexico Senate races here.

Inaugural Pride Interfaith Service to Kick-Off ABQ Gay Pride Week

From Equality New Mexico:
Albuquerque church leaders to conduct interfaith service to bring ‘spirit’ into the Albuquerque PRIDE celebration: Saturday, June 2, at 7:00 PM, at the First Unitarian Church at Carlisle and Comanche.

For the first time ever, a PRIDE Interfaith Service will kick-off the Albuquerque Gay PRIDE Week on June 2, 2007. The 7:00 PM event will bring together:

• Rabbi Joe Black from Congregation Albert
• Rev. Christine Robinson from First Unitarian Church
• Rev. Brian Taylor from St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church
• Rev. Pat Holman from St. Paul’s Lutheran
• Rev. Judith Maynard from the Metropolitan Community Church
• Rev. Trey Hammond from La Mesa Presbyterian Church
• Rev. Lee Albertson from first Congregational Church
• Rev. Sue Gallagher from United Church of Christ

Ronald A. Hersom, Ministerial Intern of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, will deliver the sermon –- Keepers of the Vision. The service will also feature the New Mexico Women’s Chorus, and the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus.

Rabbi Joe Black: We all have the capacity for holiness within us- when we exclude people based on sexual orientation- or any other defining characteristic – we deny their essential holiness and, more importantly we deny our own essential holiness.

The event offerings will be equally divided between RAIN (Religious Alliance for Inclusion and Non-Discrimination) Common Bond (a gay youth organization) and NMAS (New Mexico Aids Services).
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Equality New Mexico is fighting for full civil rights for all New Mexicans. Please help us continue the fight, Make A donation online today on our secure web site https://www.eqnm.org/donate.html or send a check to EQNM at 1410 Coal Ave SW ABQ, NM 87104.

Albuquerque PRIDE volunteers are needed. Click for info.

Albuquerque PRIDE Week is June 2 thru June 9, 2007. Visit the Albuquerque Pride website for an event schedule and much more.