Democracy for New Mexico

Lastest Developments on Desert Rock Power Plant: EIS Problems and Fluor Corp.

Recent news about Desert Rock, the controversial coal-fired power plant proposed on Navajo Nation land near Shiprock, NM, centers on U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) concerns about the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as well as the award of the initial program management contract to Fluor Corp., a major player implicated in the Iraq and Katrina recovery contract scandals.

Problems with Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The U.S. EPA is questioning the sufficiency and accuracy of the draft environmental impact statement on the plant, which would be built by Houston-based Global Sithe in cooperation with the Navajo Nation. According to an article in today's Albuqurque Journal:

The EPA questions some of the numbers and projections in a Bureau of Indian Affairs draft environmental impact statement, which was released this summer and was the focus of 10 public hearings across the Four Corners and in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

... In a 12-page analysis of problems with the environmental impact assessment, the EPA notes "unresolved concerns" with the BIA's analysis of groundwater contamination and air quality effects of the construction and operation of the 1,500-megawatt plant.

Representatives of Diné C.A.R.E., the San Juan Citizens Alliance and the Energy Minerals Law Center issued a joint press release dated September 12, 2007 in response to the EPA's comments. Excerpt:

"We commend EPA's recognition that Desert Rock presents unresolved environmental justice issues. The two existing power plants and three coal mines in the region have created a legacy of disproportionate impacts to the Diné people," said Dailan Long of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (C.A.R.E.), "Like its predecessors, Desert Rock will result in the permanent removal and relocation of Navajo Nation tribal members including elders many of whom only speak Navajo, do not have phones, electricity or running water, and use these areas for ceremonial, customary and medicinal purposes. The BIA and industry have to date failed to treat local Diné people humanely."

"The EPA rightfully notes that the DEIS for Desert Rock fails to evaluate the impacts of continued dumping of coal combustion wastes in Navajo Mine with no valid conclusion concerning the legacy of dumping practices in the region." said Brad Bartlett, attorney with the Energy Minerals Law Center. "Tens of millions of tons of hazardous coal combustion waste have already been dumped in the existing Navajo Mine from the existing Four Corners Power Plant. Desert Rock would expand the Navajo Mine by 17,000 acres and increase the unmitigated dumping of these wastes ten fold."

"The EPA comments on the Desert Rock DEIS reinforce unresolved environmental and economic problems for Sithe Global's proposal," said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance. "The notion that Desert Rock is a clean coal-fired power plant has been clearly refuted. It is now time for the BIA and the Navajo Nation to move beyond the ill-advised, conceptual Desert Rock project to economic development for the Navajo Nation that truly accounts for economic and environmental progress and success."

EPA's comments include the unevaluated impacts to groundwater from continued and expanded Coal Combustion Byproducts (otherwise known as coal combustion waste) disposal in Navajo Mine (the proposed source of coal for Desert Rock); the failure of BIA to require aquifer testing and impact assessment; the lack of a groundwater monitoring program for the project; deficient conclusions concerning groundwater; insufficient particulate matter emission calculations for air quality impacts; improper conclusions concerning mercury content of coal proposed to be burned for Desert Rock; and failure to include a public health discussion that includes the latest scientific information about air pollution and public health, including impacts from ozone.

In addition, the EPA documented several deficient Environmental Justice issues including lack of local citizen access to power and no proposed mitigation in the DEIS; the failure to identify information concerning potential relocation of minority and low income populations as a result of Desert Rock; and the failure to properly evaluate the potential impacts of Desert Rock on groundwater and agriculture.

"Disaster Profiteer" Fluor Corp. to Manage Development
Fluor Corp., a generous contributor to Republican candidates, was selected to provide initial comprehensive program management services in the development of Desert Rock starting in 2008. Fluor was also the recipient of $100 million in no-bid contracts from FEMA for services in the Katrina recovery effort. FEMA's entire contracting process is being audited by the Department of Homeland Security after complaints from Congressional Democrats and others about cronyism and serious mismanagement.

According to a September 2005 article by the Institute of Southern Studies, the corporation has also been heavily involved in questionable and costly Iraq recovery projects and other boondoggles:

A California-based engineering firm, Fluor has been one of the government's biggest go-to contractors for overseas engineering work, accumulating contracts worth $8.5 billion (source: The Center for Public Integrity) from 1990 to 2002. Iraq was no exception, where they pointed to their long history in the region (mostly Saudi Arabia) to land over $1.6 billion in contacts for rebuilding Iraq. According to an August 2004 report in the Los Angeles Times, they also had the right political connections:

Suzanne H. Woolsey is a trustee of a little-known arms consulting group that had access to senior Pentagon leaders directing the Iraq war. In January, she joined the board of Fluor Corp. Soon afterward, Fluor and a joint-venture partner won about $1.6 billion in reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Woolsey's husband, the former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, a leading advocate for the war, also serves as a government policy adviser. He, too, works for a company with war-related interests.

The Woolseys' overlapping affiliations are part of a pattern in Washington, in which individuals play key roles in organizations advising officials on major policy issues, whileinvolving themselves with businesses in related fields.

What's their work record? Like many of the politically-connected contractors, Fluor keeps landing contracts despite a long rap sheep of scandal and abuse, including repeated claims of overcharging and gouging taxpayers. Among the most recent include charges of falsely claiming millions of dollars in costs on DoD contracts in 2001 (the company settled for $8.5 million), and in 2002 being sued for $24 million for "numerous design and construction failures" at the Refugio Mine in northern Chile.

And their work state-side? In 1994, Fluor paid a $3.2 million fine for "submitting heavily padded repair bills for work on Navy bases after hurricane Hugo."

In addition,

Fluor manages the government's Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, one of the most heavily polluted sites in North America. Since Fluor took over the site in the mid-1990s, workers and local citizens have charged the company with cost cutting measures that have created potential environmental and health concerns. The company responded by firing whistleblowers and shutting down the Hanford Joint Council, a public forum established eight years ago to air employee and local government concerns over plant safety. (Ref: Gov. Accountability Project)

As reported in the New York Times, Fluor Corp. as an entity within the Fluor comglomerate, was incorporated in Delaware on September 11, 2000 after splitting with their coal production unit, which is now called Massey Energy. Massey is the nation's fourth largest coal producer according to CorpWatch.

State of NM Seeks Consultation with Navajo Nation
In late July 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson issued a statement expressing his serious concerns about the Desert Rock Plant due to the significant amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants the plant would emit. In a letter dated August 20, 2007 to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., Richardson requested "formal government-to-government consultation between the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation" to discuss the concerns and explore options for addressing them. Ron Curry, Secretary of the NM Environment Department, was designated as the State's lead person in the consultation. No word yet on a response from President Shirley.

Still Time to Submit Comments
Gov. Richardson also requested an extension of the comment period on the project's draft environmental impact statement and others have complained about the short time allowed for public input. The comment period, in fact, has been extended and now ends on October 9, 2007. You can electronically submit comments on the project to www.desertrockenergy.com. There is a 40,000 character limit. It's recommended that you also mail a copy of your comments to:

Harrilene Yazzie, NEPA Coordinator
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office
P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico 87305
505-863-8287

To learn more about the Desert Rock Power Plant controversy and stay current on developments, visit the desert-rock-blog operated by Doodah Desert Rock activists, the San Juan Citizens Alliance website and the website of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Also check out the indepth commentary in this previous post, which includes links to our past Desert Rock coverage.

(Updated) Free Introductory Course on The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

UPDATE 9/15/07: A reader submitted info on additional activities relalated to The Great Turning. I've added it to the end of this post. (Hat tip to M.M.)
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From the Conscious Aging Network of NM:
An introductory course will be presented by Mary Fogarty, President of the Conscious Aging Network of NM, and UNM instructor Dr. Gary Carlson on Dr. David Korten’s groundbreaking book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community:

October 4th, 2007, 1:15 to 3:30 PM
UNM-Valencia Campus, Student Community Center,
280 La Entrada, Los Lunas, NM  87031
—FREE Beverages—
Click for a course description (doc)
Click for flyer (jpg)

For additional information call the UNM campus at 925-8970.

Dr. Korten beleives that more than ever before in history, our families and communities experience the fallout from inequities within our institutions, the state, and governing bodies resulting in fragmentation, a decline in social cohesion and an increase in social exclusion. Individually, we exist in connection with a larger composition, a grander collective, a universal body of parts in which we, as individuals, contribute to the productivity and harmony of the whole. We can make conscious collective decisions and work together to bring forth a new era of Earth Community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by most all the world’s people and eloquently articulated in the Earth Charter.

Dr. Korten is an internationally renowned author, speaker and thinker who is scheduled to visit Albuquerque sometime in November. He's also the author of When Corporations Rule the World, an international bestseller that helped expose the attack on democracy and economic justice being advanced through free trade agreements and the institutions that negotiate and enforce them. Partial bio:

• received his degree at Stanford
• taught at Harvard
• served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War
• lived 21 years outside the U.S. in Southeast Asia, traveled to Pakistan, India,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, & the Philippines as regional manager for (USAID), and founded the People-Centered Development Forum

Extensive information about Dr. Korten's books, presentations, articles and work can be found at his website, including a complete bio. Also read this article from the Fall edition of Yes! magazine to learn more about Dr. Korten's views about what's happening in the world and where we need to go from here to reinvent and reinvigorate our culture, economics and lives to achieve sustainabilty and harmony.
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UPDATE 9/15/07: Additional activities related to The Great Turning:

Gary Carlson and Mary Fogarty are teaching more classes based on the book. From the events calendar of The Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico:

October 3-November 7, 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Creating Earth Community, UNM Continuing Education, 6-week class on David Korten's book, The Great Turning, by Gary Carlson. Contact UNM at 277-0077 for registration. New class!

October 18-December 13, 1:30-3:30 PM, Creating Communities, UNM Valencia Campus, 1-credit, 8-week class based on David Korten's book, The Great Turning, by Gary Carlson and Mary Fogarty.  Contact UNM Valencia campus for registration: 925-8580.
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From the New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light calendar (at the bottom):

Saturday, November 10, 7 PM: Free public address by Dr. David C. Korten at the UNM Sub Ballroom A. Click for flyer (PDF).
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Dr. Korten was on Democracy Now this past Friday: David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World". He is the co-founder of Positive Futures Network, and publisher of the magazine YES! A Journal of Positive Futures. His most recent book is titled The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. To watch, listen to or read the transcript of the show, click here.

American Democracy: Time Has Come Today

I often feel speechless these days, which isn't a natural state for me. But what more can really be said about the eternal, unabated horrors of the Bush administration and its assaults on government accountability, reason, democracy, the Constitution, civil liberties, the rule of law, the environment, the economy and even common decency? It's all been said -- the savaging of so much has been documented infinitely clearly, repeatedly. And there's more new evidence every day.

What's needed is some listening and, most of all, action on the part of people who have the power to do something about this lawless demogogue and his complicit cronies. We need them (if there are any) to get real -- to be as serious about their opposition as BushCo is about its relentless assault on justice and democracy. Without that, we are dead. Our democracy is dead. Our future is dead. The planet is dead.

Instead, we have business as usual in the Congress, business as usual in the traditional media, business as usual in the citizenry, business as usual everywhere. Are we really supposed to content ourselves with weak, toothless, picky complaints about minor, peripheral matters as the infrastructure of self-government implodes in full sight of anyone willing and able raise their eyes to it?

I do it myself. Busy myself with political day-to-day, with the latest wrinkles in the latest political maneuverings, with the minutia of the machine. I convince myself that doing things that might possibly help to mitigate the worst of BushCo's impacts is worth it, at least for now. But with almost zero in the way of genuine, effective or honest responses from our "leaders" and "representatives," how much longer can I keep it up?

I'm sure many of you reading this can relate. We can't afford any more beating around the bush, literally or figuratively. What we need is for people with real power to wake up and use it on behalf of the people and the democracy. As ex-Marine Bruce Clark (whose son is stationed north of Baghdad) said at the recent Iraq Summer event -- this is TREASON, this is TYRANNY. More and more of the people -- some in relatively high places -- are admitting it, yet our public figures and power brokers limp on, murmuring platitudes. We raise our voices, we protest, we petition, we build cases, we attempt to apply pressure but no matter how convincingly or loudly we do these things, the status quo is allowed to carry on or worsen.

There is a sort of deadly paralysis infecting those who should know better, those who know in their hearts they must act now or forever be silent. We can only do so much out here in the hinterlands. Those in the circles of power are the ones who must, at last, LEAD. They must take it all seriously, for what it is: a no-holds-barred attack on our democracy and everything positive it has ever achieved or can achieve. But is it already too late for even that?

Eloquent critic and writer Chris Floyd says it is in his very long, chilling, but eminently logical piece entitled, "Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph and the Hard Way Ahead." I can't possibly quote enough for you to get the full flavor, so please do read the entire post. Here are just a few nuggests, to lure you into reading the whole thing:

The Republic you wanted -- and at one time might have had the power to take back -- is finished. You no longer have the power to keep it; it's not there. It was kidnapped in December 2000, raped by the primed and ready exploiters of 9/11, whored by the war pimps of the 2003 aggression, gut-knifed by the corrupters of the 2004 vote, and raped again by its "rescuers" after the 2006 election. Beaten, abused, diseased and abandoned, it finally died. We are living in its grave.

The annus horribilis of 2007 has turned out to be a year of triumph for the Bush Faction -- the hit men who delivered the coup de grâce to the long-moribund Republic. Bush was written off as a lame duck after the Democrat's November 2006 election "triumph" (in fact, the narrowest of victories eked out despite an orgy of cheating and fixing by the losers), and the subsequent salvo of Establishment consensus from the Iraq Study Group, advocating a de-escalation of the war in Iraq. Then came a series of scandals, investigations, high-profile resignations, even the criminal conviction of a top White House official. But despite all this -- and abysmal poll ratings as well -- over the past eight months Bush and his coupsters have seen every single element of their violent tyranny confirmed, countenanced and extended.

What can we do? What can we do? What can we do? Does anyone know the answer? How can we get those in positions of power to act -- appropriately, strongly and now?

In certain circles words like rebellion and revolution and anarchy and resistance are bandied about as necessities, as the only ways to counteract the forces of high tech fascism. But even in these enclaves, there is no movement strong enough to make a dent. There is only more hand-wringing, criticism, fatalism, empty gestures, rote responses. I suppose this post is just more of the same. The truth is, no-one seems to know what to do or how to do it or how to foment it or how to shape it and inspire it.

The war which we were told the Democrats and ISG consensus would end or wind down has of course been escalated to its greatest level yet -- more troops, more airstrikes, more mercenaries, more Iraqi captives swelling the mammoth prison camps of the occupying power, more instability destroying the very fabric of Iraqi society. The patently illegal surveillance programs of the authoritarian regime have now been codified into law by the Democratic Congress, which has also let stand the evisceration of habeas corpus in the Military Commissions Act, and a raft of other liberty-stripping laws, rules, regulations and executive orders. Bush's self-proclaimed arbitrary power to seize American citizens (and others) without charge and hold them indefinitely -- even kill them -- has likewise been unchallenged by the legislators. Bush has brazenly defied Congressional subpoenas -- and even arbitrarily stripped the Justice Department of the power to enforce them -- to no other reaction than a stern promise from Democratic leaders to "look further into this matter." His spokesmen -- and his "signing statements" -- now openly proclaim his utter disdain for representative government, and assert at every turn his sovereign right to "interpret" -- or ignore -- legislation as he wishes.

What we lack are leaders up to the task, no matter where we look, whether within or without. We need a new Martin Luther King, Jr., a new Mahatma, a new Mother Jones, a new Jefferson, a new suffragette city of sorts. I don't sense anything or anyone like that on the horizon, do you? And I certainly don't sense anything truly up to the task within myself. How about you? Can we the people rise at last, bidden or unbidden, and make any difference at all? Isn't there at least intrinsic value in trying something? But what?

Again, as Floyd writes:

... there is no place left for the kind of [civil disobedience] action that Thoreau advocated. His way – and that of Gandhi and King, who took so much from him – envisions a state opponent which one could hope to shame into honorable action by the superior moral force of principled civil disobedience. But the very hallmark of the present regime is its shamelessness, its utter lack of any sense of honor or principle, its bestial addiction to raw power.

Still, there is this, if only this:

So whatever we can do, we must do it ourselves. If we have no power or influence, if we cannot take large actions, then we must take small ones. Every word or action raised against the overthrow of the Republic will find an echo somewhere, from one person to another to another to the next -- each isolated, individual voice slowly finding its way into a swelling chorus of dissent.

ABQ Council May Use Blight-Fighting Tool to Spread Urban Sprawl

From the New Mexico News Connection:
A financial tool meant for local governments to help revitalize run-down neighborhoods and blighted inner cities could be used instead to increase Albuquerque's urban sprawl. Developers have proposed using "tax-increment financing" to subsidize new developments on empty land near the edge of the city -- at the huge new Mesa Del Sol development near the Sunport and at an even bigger development on the West Mesa. The Albuquerque City Council will be taking final action on a related measure tomorrow (Wednesday).

The developers say their plans will boost the city's economy -- but Gabriel Nims with says they will take public funding away from where it's needed most. He said, "We should be focusing on re-investing in our core community. We've identified a over 1.7 billion dollar backlog in infrastructure costs or needs. Why should we be throwing the bank at further development on the fringe? "

The new developments could increase Albuquerque's population by over twenty percent. Nims says there needs to be more study of the impacts of such large developments on the local economy.

Eric Schmeider from the Southwest Organizing Project says the subsidies actually take money out of the state's general fund and away from more needy rural communities. He said, "Taxpayers from Clayton to Carlsbad are subsidizing development in the Albuquerque - Rio Grande corridor."

Click to get for your Albuquerque City Councilor.

We Can't Make It Here Anymore: Labor Day Edition

The mood of the country this Labor Day seems ripe for a little James McMurtry. A house of cards collapsing in on itself because of crooked deals and unpayable debt. "Free" trade robber barons piling up their tax-free bloat. Criminals in the board rooms and government and K Street. We're entrenched in one corporate quagmire war, while another threatens as Bush plots ways to attack Iran. Oh, and here's what our Democratic "leaders" are saying about continuing funding for Iraq. Happy Labor Day 2007. Think I'll head to the mountains, for some grounding.

Labor Day Weekend: Remember the Meaning

I'm finding it hard to believe that Labor Day Weekend is here already. Where did the Summer go? Thankfully, New Mexico usually has absolutely exquisite Fall weather so our outdoor activities will actually pick up here as the monsoon rains start fading. As we celebrate the holiday weekend at fun events, let's remember the real meaning of Labor Day. For starters, check out a handful of posts on the AFL-CIO Now blog that examine the origins and history of Labor Day.

This Labor Day, I find myself thinking about these historical quotes and, unfortunately, how much they apply to today's situation:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. -- Dwight Eisenhower 1953 speech

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level–I mean the wages of decent living. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. -- Abraham Lincoln

Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights. All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites. Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave. Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave? -- Joe Hill, from the song “Workers of the World Awaken”

While at YearlyKos in Chicago this month, we attended a rally sponsored by the Teamsters union designed to encourage the forces of the netroots and labor to work together in a big way. Check out the video to hear Markos and Teamsters General President James Hoffa underline what we have in common and why we need to work together for change -- including holding every Democratic candidate accountable to working people. Gov. Bill Richardson was one of the Dem presidential candidates who spoke at the Teamsters rally and you can see that here.

I can't help but ponder the damage done to the interests of working people by the Bush administration as discussed in a piece by AFSCME's international president Gerald McEntee on Huffington Post. Excerpt:

From the time George Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2000, college tuition has shot up 56 percent. The cost of gasoline has gone up 107 percent. Forty-seven million Americans -- nearly 16 percent of our nation -- don't have health insurance. Almost 37 million Americans live below the poverty line. Corporate profits have gone up, while income for working Americans has gone down. Home foreclosures are increasing at a record rate. Pensions are at risk as employers break their promises to employees. Bush's tax cuts have not benefited those most in need of them -- working families -- but the billionaires who are his loyal supporters.

The fact is that the people whose labor has fueled our nation's economy have suffered greatly under George Bush.

The latest outrage? Action prompted by the Bush administration to allow Mexican trucks to carry goods on American roads. That way, we can put even more people out of work or at least lower their pay, concepts to which Bush seems supremely dedicated.

Katrina: Two Years of Neglect and Corruption

Two years ago today. Nothing but incompetence, thievery, corruption, neglect and false promises from the powers that be since then. Beyond shameful. Almost everything positive has been done by volunteers or the residents themselves. Learn more and sign the petition urging the Senate to pass Chris Dodd's Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007 (S1668). Be forewarned: This horror could happen to any community next, with similarly dismal and dire results.

Bush and his "compassionate conservative" cohorts have broken so many parts of our government just to show that "government is the problem, not the solution." They seem to have no intention of doing what needs to be done quickly or fairly in the Gulf Coast region. Unfortunately, too many Democratic members of government have been almost as bad -- passive, at best, in effectively addressing the emergency and keeping the issue alive.

We all know what the real problem is -- greed on the part of elite corporate and development interests coupled with a refusal by key political forces to provide meaningful oversight that demands accountability for the massive money flows that are going to enrich the few at the expense of the many. It's like a free-for-all for the worst among us, encouraged from above by those who are supposed to represent the needs of the people.

Here's an excellent report on the current status of New Orleans from a city councilwoman who ran for office and won after getting stonewalled by her nonresponsive representatives. Excerpt:

We are in fact doing our part locally in New Orleans despite contrary comments by the Bush administration. Our intense civic activity and government reform initiatives are serious indicators of our local commitment to do our part for the recovery.  But we are drowning in federal red tape. We are being nickel and dimed to death by Bush’s Federal Emergency Management Agency. We are resource-starved at the city level. The mission here is not accomplished.  What we need is Presidential leadership, not just another speech filled with empty promises.

... I hope you can take the time to click on the link to my , Press Release and Fact Sheet so you can realize that New Orleans will not allow the discussion of our recovery be anything but factual and done via the reality based community and not through spin and talking points.

For the facts, read this report released this week by the Institute for Southern Studies and RFK Center for Human Rights. For more ideas on how to help, visit the website of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversite Coalition.

I'm sure our criminal president won't let anything bother him as he visits New Orleans today, bragging about what's been done and "vowing" to do more. Nothing ever really bothers the The Decider unless it's someone telling him the truth to his face.

Sign Petition to Support Voter Action Call for Congressional Investigation of Voting Systems Companies

From Voter Action:
Public Call Issued Following New Evidence Revealed by Dan Rather Reports -- "The Trouble with Touch Screens"-- Group Says Voting Systems Companies May Have Engaged in Commercial Fraud

Last week, Voter Action released the following statement calling for a full congressional investigation into the new evidence revealed by Dan Rather Reports - "The Trouble with Touch Screens", which aired recently on HDnet and can now be accessed via .

The recent broadcast by Dan Rather Reports of "The Trouble with Touch Screens" raises serious questions as to whether US voting systems companies have engaged in commercial fraud by knowingly marketing defective products to jurisdictions throughout the country. It also serves as a wake-up call to the nation of the dangers associated with the outsourcing of key election functions to private vendors. Voter Action calls on the United States Congress to launch a full investigation into the increasing influence and control that private companies wage in the way we conduct our elections and to determine whether certain US voting systems companies have committed crimes under federal and state anti-fraud statutes which should be referred to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.

This investigation should include a focus on the following revelations emerging from "The Trouble with Touch Screens":

•   The report quotes an employee of a contractor for the ES&S voting machine company who was sent to overhaul operations at a factory in the Philippines as saying that 15,000 or more potentially defective voting machines were shipped from that factory to the United States. Did the ES&S voting machine company knowingly market defective voting machines to jurisdictions throughout the United States? Did the company's subcontractors knowingly market defective parts in the manufacturing of these machines? Have any of the other voting machine manufacturers or their subcontractors knowingly marketed defective products for conducting our elections?

•   The report cites the 2006 election for Florida's 13th congressional district as an example of the problems with electronic voting machines. Where did the potentially defective voting machines assembled at a Manila factory get used and in which elections? Are there previously unknown discrepancies in those election outcomes? Are those machines still in use?

•   The report cites seven former employees of Sequoia, the companyvthat made punch card ballots used in the 2000 election in Florida, as saying that in 2000, the company began printing ballots on cheaper and possibly defective paper. Did the Sequoia company knowingly market defective paper for the printing of ballots in the 2000 election in Florida? Have any of the other voting systems companies knowingly marketed defective paper for the printing of ballots and, if so, in which other US elections have voters cast their votes on such ballots?

•   The report demonstrates that election officials in this country increasingly rely on private vendors to carry out key functions of our democracy - from the printing of ballots to the counting and recording
of our votes. This outsourcing extends to other critical aspects of the way we conduct our elections, including the maintenance of voter registration databases, the use of electronic poll books, and the means by which we recount and audit our elections. What is the relationship between election officials and vendors? How prevalent is the pattern of election officials becoming employees of the private vendors after leaving their public positions or becoming otherwise compromised? What standards, if any, are in place in the nation to avoid actual conflicts or the appearance of conflicts between the public and private interests at stake in this arena?

The American public deserves answers to these questions and others emerging from this report. Congress should get to the bottom of this and should determine whether any private voting systems companies have committed commercial fraud in the marketing of their products to election officials around the country. Further, it should fully investigate the threat to our democracy posed by the outsourcing of key election functions to private companies, and it should take all necessary measures to reclaim our elections for the public domain.

We urge voters across the nation to join us in this public call by signing our petition here.

For further review of the performance of voting system companies, click here.

Editor's Note: So much is happening in the realm of voting systems and election reform that it would take long hours of daily effort to keep up with it. One blogger who does just that is Brad Friedman at BradBlog. Highly recommended as an excellent source of info on this issue.

Citizens Restless About Real Health Care Reform

Jerry Ortiz y Pino has an excellent column in last week's alibi about the recent community forum in Albuquerque on NM health care reform sponsored by Health Care for All -- and about Gov. Bill Richardson's stance on reform. I highly recommend you read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

... the event did have an emotional highlight. It came when a speaker cautioned those in attendance that the prospects for true reform of our health care system were dimmed significantly by a pronouncement from Gov. Richardson that he would never approve any measure that didn’t include a role for private insurance. The chorus of boos, hisses and angry shouts that greeted this statement was immediate and deafening.

Speculation afterward on why Richardson would have made such an unpopular public statement at a point in the process far, far before he needed to take any position on it at all (to say nothing about it also being in the midst of an uphill campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination) ranged from the cynical to the outright libelous.

Clearly, it is a stance he might want to reconsider, as no other issue likely to come up in the campaign would be as effective in propelling him up into the top tier of racehorses as would an enthusiastic endorsement of single-payer health care.

... But our governor is quoted by his health care advisor, Michelle Welby, as believing that the 80 percent of New Mexicans who have health coverage are “happy with the current system,” so he won't likely want to end the blood leech role played in our current health financing system by our legion of private insurers.

That is, unless he begins to listen to the thousands who have coverage but who are desperately unhappy with it--citizens like Pam Parker, a businesswoman in Taos, who tearfully detailed for a Legislative Committee last week how her eight-year struggle with breast cancer has left her family financially devastated because her insurer raises the premiums and deductibles annually so that she now pays $1,500 a month … for a policy with a $5,000 deductible. She doesn’t dare switch as her health history makes her essentially uninsurable by any company other than the one she has now.

... The War over Health Care will soon be bigger news than the War in Iraq. Gov. Richardson needs to switch sides. [emphasis mine]

I couldn't agree more.

Make Your Views Known
Right now, Gov. Richardson's presidential campaign website is soliciting questions from the public in a sort of continuation of the recent CNN-YouTube Dem presidential forum. Click here to submit a comment or question about why he has said he won't support a health care reform plan that doesn't preserve a strong role for insurers. If we want an affordable universal health care plan here and nationally, we need to be relentless in pushing for a single-payer type plan (like the NM Health Security Act) that removes the number one cause of rising health care costs -- the for-profit brokers and insurers.

The NM Legislature will take up health care reform at the 30-day session in January, and the Interim Health and Human Services committee is meeting now in various parts of the state to discuss the issue. Contact members of the committee and your legislators and let them know where you stand.

Sign up here with What If You Knew, to stay current on what's happening at the grassroots level to advocate for an effective universal care plan. Join the Health Action NM alert list to get news on Health Care for All New Mexicans activities.

Click here to get the facts on why single-payer universal coverage is the only effective way to cover everyone while keeping costs down -- in a detailed article by none other than noted economist and New York Times journalist Paul Krugman.

Health Care Reform Community Forums
Health Care for All has held two recent, heavily attended health care town halls in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Such community forums on health care reform in NM will be held in many other parts of the state. In August, town halls are scheduled for Farmington, Taos and Las Vegas, NM, with more on the way. Click here for Health Care for All's calendar of events for more info, and pledge to attend and express yourself at a forum in your area.

The Right-Wing House of Cards Is Falling

How else can you explain the outrageous, hysterical, distorted attacks against Daily Kos and other Dem blogs by Fox Noise pundits? They're getting desperate now ... watch out. And do something, just like Brave New Films suggests. Can we really allow the likes of O'Reilly to compare us to the KKK and the Nazis? I didn't think so.