Democracy for New Mexico

Reminder: Today's ABQ Volunteer Events

Today, DFNM folks in Albuquerque have two volunteer events where we can help the cause and show our stuff.

Voter registration tabling starts today at the UNM Student Union Building (SUB) mall. We're meeting at Kerry HQ at 10:30 AM and we'll be tabling from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM on campus. If you have a free hour or two during that time you can also just show up at the SUB mall and join us for whatever time you can spare. This effort will continue at the same time and place this Tuesday and Wednesday.

DFNM participation is being coordinated by Ron Humphreys of the Democratic Party. You can contact him at daddou52(place @ symbol here)worldnet.com or call 830-3650, ext. 17. Or just come on over! Besides being a voter registration effort, it's also a visibility event. Volunteers from the Kerry and Romero campaigns will also be there and we'll have campaign signs and literature. The Republican Party is no doubt planning their own presence at UNM during these Welcome Back Days, so we'd love to have a large turnout. Wear your Dean/DFA gear. Hope to see you there!

Tonight is our second weekly DFNM phonebanking night at Kerry HQ from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. We had a fun time last week and hope for even more volunteers tonight.

The New Mexico Victory 2004 - Kerry/Edwards Coordinated Campaign is at 3301 Central NE. You can always call them at 256-2570 to see what other volunteer opportunities are available.

Thanks for all you do!

Listen to your Granny

I was reminded recently of this piece by Doris "Granny D" Haddock when I learned she was running for a Senate seat in New Hampshire. Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, has agreed to manage her campaign pro bono. She celebrated her 94th birthday this past January.

You may remember Granny. As her website explains, she began her walk across the U.S. to demonstrate her concern for the issue of campaign reform on Jan. 1, 1999, at the age of 89. Starting from Pasadena, CA, she walked 10 miles per day for 14 months, arriving in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 29, 2000. She was hospitalized once, in Arizona, with dehydration and pneumonia. She walked 3,200 miles.

In October of 2003, she launched a voter registration effort directed at America's working women. She did so with a speech at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and then traveled over 22,000 miles. When she returned home in June, 2004, she was just in time to run for the U.S. Senate when the presumed Democratic nominee dropped out of the race days before the filing deadline, leaving the incumbent unopposed.

Click here to visit her campaign website: Granny D Site

And if you get frustrated, tired, angry, depressed or hopeless about your volunteer activities or our prospects for November 2nd, I hope you'll read this to feel revived and inspired once more:

Soil of Good Democracy
by Doris "Granny D" Haddock

May 16, 2004 | I am on a long journey to take a good, long last look at my beautiful country and to encourage as many people as I can to take up the ballot and to brighten up the colors in our fast fading democracy. It has been a long journey for me. While I enjoy making so many new friends along the way, I would rather be back in my home in New Hampshire and walking for leisure instead of in desperate search for a few more good Americans to do the right and necessary thing.

My life has been long and grand, and I am about done with it, but I am determined to not say goodbye to all of this until I can go to my rest in the soil of a good democracy.

I know that many of you are working hard to speak the truth and speak for justice, and to bring America back to some more sensible path. But I am asking you now to do something more. This advice comes from what I have seen along the 20,000 miles I have traveled since I left home in October.

The good news I bring you from a thousand places is that Americans who have resisted voting in the past do want to vote this year. They are motivated, and even in places where they are afraid their votes will not be fairly counted, they are determined to vote anyway. And here is some more good news: you do not have to believe the polls that say the election will be close. It will not be close. The pollsters do not reach the many millions of people who do not have regular phones. Many of the people I met in housing projects, in workshops, in music clubs, have only cell phones or no phones at all to answer pollster questions. They all have strong opinions on the election and they all are preparing to vote. That is the story everywhere we have gone, from the Overtown and Little Haiti neighborhoods of Miami to the Great Lakes.

On my way here I stopped in Battle Creek to visit the grave of Sojourner Truth. There is also a statue of her with her words: "Lord I have done my duty and I have told the truth and kept nothing back."

Now, friends, it is time for us to do our duty--to tell the truth and hold nothing back. For it is not enough that people want to vote; they must have good information.

You all get so many emails and read so many good columns and articles that are sent to you--Krugman, Dowd, Cronkite, Ivins, Hightower, Palast, Friedman and the few other heroes left in our otherwise silent news media. You read them and send them to other members of our little choir.

That is not enough; You must print them out and give them to your neighbors and family members. You must run them off by the hundreds and give them out at bus and train stations until they ask you to leave. Then you must come back with more. The masses of our neighbors are not getting the truth and we cannot expect them to vote wisely unless we wise them up ourselves. No one can do this for us. No presidential campaign can do more than spread around a few slogans and accusations. The news media will not do it for us, as they are no longer in the truth business. There is only you and me. We need to do a massive voter education project, starting right now. I will have many of these little fliers on my website soon for you to print off, or you can make your own from all the material that comes your way.

Remember that many of us lefties are authority-averse and we like to make our own political decisions. Many others, however-including many of our neighbors and friends-are authority-dependent and, before changing their opinions, need to hear the truth coming from the pens and mouths of people they trust. So when Walter Cronkite writes a good piece, put his picture on it and take it around to everyone who remembers him from his days as the most trusted television newsman in America.

There are a few more things we must do.

We must meet with our awakened friends weekly--and I suggest that Tuesday would be a good evening--to go out to the malls and the streets and the fast-food restaurants to register young voters. It is a fun evening, and you will be making a bigger difference than you can imagine. Also take some of your issue fliers and you will do double duty. Don't get permission, don't set up a table, don't take a clip board if it gets you kicked out. Just go up to young workers and say you are distributing voter registration forms to the workers in the area, and ask them if they need to register to vote for president. And check out the situation regarding people with criminal convictions: many young people think they cannot vote, but they can. Many of the young people in Cabrini Green were amazed to know that their police records would not prevent them from voting. We have tremendous work to do.

There is another suggestion that I would like to share with you.

Invite your neighbors to an election night party, and do it soon. Call it a landslide party if you want to cheer up your Democrat neighbors and confuse your Republican friends. Start building toward that evening. Have them sign-up to bring food and drinks. Start sending them issue papers. Make sure everyone is registered. Make sure everyone has a ride to the polls, or has an absentee form. Help someone in a lower income neighborhood or housing project organize a landslide party, too. Have your neighbors organize some food and maybe some school and art supplies for the children in that other neighborhood. Consider having some events soon to get people involved and thinking ahead to the election. This is what I mean when I sometimes say that we must put the party back in party politics. It has become so deadly. It is literally deadly, as we see in the news how people are dying all over the world for our lack of creative leadership and justice. It must come first from our hearts, then into our neighborhoods and outward from there.

No political party or candidate or government can do it for us. It is our democracy, but we must live it if we are to have it.

In spreading around the reprints of good newspaper articles, simply assume that voters want good information about the issues, and give it to them without feeling that you are being partisan.

I am as non-partisan as I can manage in a time when the truth itself is partisan. I am for any candidate or party who will uphold the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, who would never use lies to lead us into war, who will use our common resources for the benefit of our children and all of our people, and who will keep our homeland secure by protecting its mountains, streams, lakes, forests, and air, and who will make the United States of America a proper and respected symbol and an advocate for justice, freedom and peace in the world. How could anyone say that my specifications are anything but American, and that they should describe any candidate offered by any serious and reputable political party? If my specifications are partisan today, shame on any who made them so.

We must not think we are being partisan when we speak and share the truth with our fellow citizens, and when we help them register to vote. We will do so where we please as citizens, and let no corporation tell us that their aisles or sidewalks are not free speech zones where our Constitution somehow does not apply. The Articles of our Constitution trump their articles of incorporation. Let us take back our rights as citizens to create public space where we choose. The corporations cannot invite us to come as customers but not as citizens, for we are citizens first.

And choose we must, and choose to act now--this week, next week. We Cannot live in peace and justice, love and prosperity if we sit reading email and shaking our heads in dismay. We must rise to our great positions as the men and women of the community, who organize, who see things, who speak the truth, who lay shame on those who would ruin our communities and our lives. It is time we stopped waiting for government to bring love and justice into our communities and we began doing the work that needs to be done. The sooner we do this, the sooner the elections will go our way, because organizing is organizing, and it has a progressive result.

Millions of people like you and I are now connecting with all the organizations that are working toward November. This is the evolution of a new kind of politics--a human-scaled politics--and it must extend long past the election and change the way we live. It must be the rise of human beings against institutions that have become useless or oppressive. It must be an awakening to the beauty and freedom of life itself. So we shall reinvent the parties. We shall reinvent the news media with our flyering and speaking and emails, we reinvent the economy-making it local, healthy and sustainable. And in doing so, the corrupted press, the big box stores, and the old and unrepresentative political systems can and will roll under the soil as our new shoots emerge.

What you are doing here with Instant Runoff Voting is a part of that necessary revolution. I encourage you to make it work here, and then spread it to other communities from here.

I wish it were in place for this election!

In that regard, let me urge those who think Mr. Nader is a better candidate than Mr. Kerry not let their high opinions of their own political correctness cause the deaths of thousands of people in the world over the next four years and the loss of our civil liberties, which would be the real result of such selfish narcissism. According to Bruce Ackerman's wonderful editorial in the New York Times last week, Mr. Nader can avoid risking this outcome if he will name the same Electoral College electors as Mr. Kerry. Votes will register for Mr. Nader, but they will apply to Mr. Kerry if Mr. Nader has insufficient votes to win. It is a way Mr. Nader can, in this way, create a sort of Instant Runoff Voting system by a clever use of the system.

If he will not do this, I cannot vote for him, in good conscience. For I do not want to face the survivor of some family whose members were tortured and killed by our forces a few years from now and say, yes, I could have stopped it, but I was too selfish: I wanted the satisfaction of voting for the better candidate, and that satisfaction was more important to me than the lives of your children and your spouse. I cannot do that and call myself a progressive or even an American. I cannot become the kind of ideologue who lets other people die for my precious beliefs.

Yes, we have to be practical if we are to improve the real world. We All have work to do to get to November and to move into the years ahead. Let us make it joyful and selfless work.

On the night of November 2nd we will go to bed, and the next day the World will have gone one of two very different ways. I will be home in New Hampshire. And if it goes right, I will feel like resting. And I haven't felt like I could rest for a long while.

I hope my journey has resulted in some ideas that will be useful to you. I know you are dedicated to this better world we see ahead. It is not beyond our grasp.

Finally, let me say what many of you sense: the Iraq War is over as of this week, as the fiction of the invasion's moral premise is now so completely disrobed. There is nothing for the US to do now but come home, and that will begin soon. Further, we are seeing the self-destruction of the big-lie Bush war machine. The soul-searching that will now begin in America will be an important time for all of us--a teachable moment if we progressives are up to it.

If we are to push forward a vision for a better society and a real democracy, we have good soil to 'til now. But it is going to be work-joyful but hard. Expect a landslide but do not stop a second in assuring it. And think past the election to the work of organizing a fair and beautiful world. Nothing happens without organizing and work, and we are fortunate that our work is so satisfying and joyful.

Thank you.

Thinking Peace

Uh Oh

The latest poll of NM voters shows a decided uptick for Bush. I don't know if it's a fluke or if Cheney's loyalty oath appearance revved up a bunch of those strangely undecided "swing voters," whoever they are. Or if those sleazy and dishonest swift boat "truth" ads are making a dent in Kerry's support here.

Rasmussen Reports describes the results of their latest polling: NM: Survey of 500 Likely Voters, August 15, 2004:

Bush 46%
Kerry 46%
Badnarik 4%
Not Sure 3%

In New Mexico, the race for the White House is just as close today as it was four years ago. In Election 2000, Gore won the state by less than 400 votes . . . This result moves New Mexico to the "Toss-Up" column for our Electoral College projection. Our previous survey in New Mexico showed Kerry with a 7-point lead. At that point, we placed the state's Electoral Votes in the "Leans Kerry" category.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of New Mexico voters believe John Kerry wants to decrease the number of troops in Iraq. Nineteen percent (19%) believe the Democrat wants to increase our troops strength in that country. In New Mexico, 49% of all voters approve of the way President Bush is performing his job. That's up a point from our last survey and slightly below his national Job Approval rating. Data for New Mexico will be updated again early next month: Rasmussen Reports

As Jim Hightower and Fred Harris emphasized last night at the Richard Romero rally at El Rey, we have our work cut out for us between now and November 2nd to de-elect Bush and increase Democratic Congressional seats. Only in this way can we build a genuine aggressive progressive agenda.

Hightower reminded everyone that just voting or wearing a button aren't enough. If we're going to create a large, grassroots coalition of like-minded activists and candidates, we need to network, volunteer, communicate, work together and never say uncle. He stressed we must be in it for the long term and willing to keep up the pressure for as long as it takes. If we don't, the strong and vital middle class that has shown America in her best light will continue to go the way of the horse-drawn cart. The hard-won rights our ancestors secured for ordinary people will be dismantled, plank by plank. We'll be left asking the question Hightower saw on a bumpersticker on a battered pickup truck in Austin:

Where Are We Going and What Am I Doing In This Handbasket?

Pelosi to Host King Fundraiser in Las Cruces

You are cordially invited to join Gary King, Democratic Nominee for Congress (CD2):

Thursday, August 26, 2004 at 11:00am
Las Cruces Hilton, 705 South Telshor Drive

For a very special reception honoring the Next Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi

Suggested minimum contribution $25 per person

Due to security reasons you must RSVP by Tuesday, August 24 in order to attend the event.

RSVP Today by Calling 505-532-5653.

Kerry, Kerry, Kerry

Kerry's big day at the convention is here at last. This could be the most important speech of his career and I sure hope he feels as energized as the Rev. Sharpton was last night. He got the delegates rockin' and rollin'! Of course it was the Edwards family's big night and they seemed to succeed with their own brand of charisma and optimism. I loved those vertical Edwards signs. (Photo of Albuquerque rally by Sharon Farmer, John Kerry for President, Inc.)

The Kerry/Edwards New Mexico Victory 2004 Coordinated Campaign Office (what a mouthful) in Albuquerque is having its grand opening this coming Saturday. Here's what the campaign sent out:

OPEN HOUSE!!! OPEN HOUSE!!!
KERRY/EDWARDS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
New Mexico Victory 2004 Coordinated Campaign
3301 Central NE
Saturday, July 31st, 2004
From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The grand opening of the Coordinated Campaign Hq is open to all New Mexicans who are supporting or are thinking about supporting the 2004 national Democratic presidential ticket of Senators Kerry and Edwards. Come by the office for refreshments, to pick up campaign buttons, placards, and lapel stickers etc., and most importantly spend an afternoon talking about our candidates just after the exciting Democratic National Convention in Boston. And, you'll have an opportunity to meet and interact with all of the new
campaign staff that are here in Albuquerque to serve you over the next three months.

There will be ample parking on the east side of the building in the large dirt parking lot. There will be volunteers there to guide you in. For more information, please call (505) 256-2570.

Tonight, there are hundreds of parties across the nation to view the Kerry acceptance speech, including many here in New Mexico. Our own John McAndrew, who runs the Rapid Response Network NM, is hosting a big one up in Santa Fe along with folks from DFNM - Santa Fe and others:

For Democracy, For New Mexico, For Kerry
WHEN: July 29 @ 5:00 PM
WHERE: Hotel St Francis, at Don Gaspar and Water Streets, downtown
210 Don Gaspar Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501
HOST: John McAndrew

INFO: We welcome anyone eager to help Kerry win in November. We also want to give him a Congress that will work with him. We are from a variety of campaigns and organizations, and we are united in our efforts to keep fundamentalism and corporations from undermining our democracy and our values. Let's combine our efforts to best affect the change we want this November. If you are able, please come prepared to donate to the campaign financially as well. We will be watching Kerry's acceptance speech on an uplink from Kerry's web site, if all goes well.

To sign up for this party or another near you, go to this page and enter your zip code:

https://www.johnkerry.com/events/

Also, The League of Convervation Voters is inviting folks to their Convention watching party:
Day: Thurs July 29
Time: 7 pm (Kerry scheduled to speak at 8:30)
Location: 108 Arno SE, just S of Central accross from the old Albuquerque High (now lofts).

Also, if you'd like to go protest Dick Cheney while he's in Rio Rancho, meet at Stapleton Elementry School.:
Day: Sat July 31, Time: 2 pm
Location: 4477 9th Ave. NE, Rio Rancho (and then we'll walk up the street to the place he'll be).

Contact: Olivia Stockman, NM State Volunteer Coordinator
LCV Environmental Victory Project
400 Gold St. SW, Suite 980
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 244-1077 (o), (505) 450-3403 (c)
https://www.envirovictory.org/

Dean, Dean, Dean

I heard a pundit say that although Kerry's getting nominated this year, it's been Dean's convention. He has been everywhere it seems, speaking from the podium and at a myriad of progressive gatherings, visiting state delegations and being interviewed by anyone who counts, or think they do.

Now some Dean supporters have put together an online Letter from America to Howard Dean that you can sign, thanking him for all he's done to invigorate Dem politics this year. Here's the link:

https://www.letterfromamerica.org/

There's also a Thank You Howard bat up at the main DFA site.

Did everyone see Howard get a nice long standing ovation last night before his speech at the convention? If not, you can view video of it here:

https://www.c-span.org/2004vote/convention.asp?Cat=Special_Topic&Code=DEMS&Rot_Cat_CD=DEMS

along with the rest of yesterday's speakers.

Tonight's DNC program includes Jesse Jackson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, Sen. Bob Graham, Gov. Ed Rendell (Pa.), Gov. Bill Richardson, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (Mich.), and Retired General John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Then John Edwards' daughter Cate and wife Elizabeth introduce the VP candidate, followed by the presidential nomination roll call.

You can get text or video versions of most convention speeches at this Washington Post page:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/shoulders/dnc_fullschedule.html?referrer=email

Anyone else wild about Barack Obama after last night's speech? Wow!

DNC Convention Links

You can view coverage of the entire day or selected speeches at CSPAN:

https://www.c-span.org/

Here are links for text versions of some of yesterday's speeches:

Al Gore
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/articles/2004/07/26/text_of_gores_speech_at_dnc?mode=PF

Jimmy Carter
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/articles/2004/07/26/the_text_of_former_president_carters_speech?mode=PF

Hillary Clinton
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/articles/2004/07/26/text_of_sen_hillary_rodham_clintons_speech?mode=PF

Bill Clinton
https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16929-2004Jul26?language=printer

Click here to get today's convention schedule:

https://www.dems2004.org/site/pp.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=130845

So what do you think of the Convention so far? Don't forget, Howard Dean speaks tonight in prime time. And it's just been reported that Kerry/Edwards will be returning to New Mexico after the convention:

KERRY'S POST-CONVENTION TOUR TO INCLUDE NM STOP

(Associated Press) ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The Democratic National Convention hasn't even started, but the party's presumptive presidential nominee and his running mate are planning a visit to New Mexico as part of a coast-to-coast post-convention tour.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and running mate John Edwards of North Carolina plan a two-week tour through 21 states, including New Mexico. They will be traveling via bus, train and boat.

The campaign announced Friday that the tour would begin July 30, and in the first days stop in Florida, Michigan, New York, and Ohio. Later the tour will pass through New Mexico, Arizona, California, and other states. The campaign hasn't released the cities that Kerry and Edwards will visit in those states.

Alternet's Special Election Coverage for NM

The news site Alternet has started a special section on New Mexico in it's election coverage. Here's the link:

https://www.alternet.org/election04nm/

One of the articles, "New Mexico Trending Blue" by Don Hazen, says that recent political dynamics and voter mobilization efforts give a positive outlook for Democrats in New Mexico in 2004. Check this out:

A Zogby Interactive Poll released on July 14, which tracks the New Mexico numbers for the presidential race every two weeks, had Kerry leading Bush 49% to 42%, with Nader at 3% and undecided at 6%. A July 9th American Research Group poll had almost identical numbers, with 49% of likely voters for Kerry if the presidential election were being held today, and 42% for Bush. A total of 3% of likely voters say they would vote for Ralph Nader and 6% of likely voters said they were undecided.

If this trend continues, and it is hard to see it shifting, it suggests that Democrats, who have targeted the Southwest as an area of opportunity, should worry less about New Mexico – where they are well organized and have a number of electoral advantages over the GOP – and worry more about neighboring states in contention like Nevada, where the political dynamics are less favorable.

Sounds like a good place to check in regularly for election year news focused on our state. If you donate at least $30 to Alternet, you can get a DVD of Robert Greenwald's powerful new "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." To learn more about this expose of the biases of Fox News (or is that Faux News?), go here:

https://www.outfoxed.org/

MoveOn.org is doing a petition based on this movie to demand that the FCC prevent Fox News from using the deceptive and misleading trademark 'Fair and Balanced.'" It's also running an ad in the New York Times criticizing Fox which you can see at the Outfoxed link. You can sign the petition here:

Barb