Democracy for New Mexico

Oily

As you probably know by now, the provision to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been removed by House Republicans from their humongous budget bill. One small step for moderate Republicans. One giant leap for Mother Nature.

According to an article in the Washington Post, 25 moderate Republicans signed a letter asking Repub leaders to strike the provision. Since virtually every House Democrat is hanging tough and planning to vote against the budget bill, the Repubs had to capitulate in order to try and save the bill. Given the unpopularity of many other parts of the spending bill, there's still no guarantee it will pass even with the ANWR provision stricken.

Here's what Senator Pete Domenici's spokesperson had to say about the move:

Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said that Domenici considers the ANWR provision, which the Senate approved, "one of the most critical components" in the budget package. "He is committed to coming back to the Senate from the conference with ANWR intact," she said.

I wonder if ol' Pete also believes the Scroogelike cuts in spending on Medicaid, student loans, prescription drugs and more also included in the Senate version of the BushCo budget are "critical components" in the weak effort to offset, at least a tiny bit, the transfer of $70 BILLION more dollars in tax cuts to our wealthiest citizens.

Click if you'd like to let Pete know what you think about his priorities as the official oil boy of the Bush administration.

The Senate passed their version of the budget bill with a provision to drill in ANWR. If the House version passes, we can expect a lively fight to achieve a unified conference committee version of the bill, with Pete leading the effort to reinsert the ANWR drilling provision.

To refresh yourself on what is at stake here, check out our earlier post on the ANWR photos of Subhankar Banerjee.

ACTION ALERT: Call Heather Wilson NOW on Budget Cuts

From MoveOn:
In just 48 hours the House of Representatives will be voting on the "budget reconciliation" proposal to make $54 billion dollars in permanent cuts to vital services for the nation's poor and middle class. Their plan would rob $50 billion from services like Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans—only to fund $70 billion in tax cuts for the rich. Rep. Wilson is one of the few swing remaining votes who could make the difference. Please call today:

Congresswoman Heather Wilson
Phone: 202-225-6316
Albuquerque District Office: 505-346-6781

Then, please report your call by clicking here.

Here are just some of the impacts the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated will result from the Republican budget plan:

* Millions of poor and elderly patients would loose health care services and have to pay more for the treatment they need

* Hundreds of thousands of needy families would be cut off from food stamps

* Tens of thousands of hungry children would be cut off of food stamps

* Hundreds of thousands of families would be cut off of from day-care assistance, making it difficult or impossible for them to stay employed

* Millions of students looking to peruse a higher education would have to pay an average of $5,800 dollars more in interest payments alone

The Republican budget proposal is so bad even Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, no friend of social services, has publicly criticized the budget plan for going way too far.

In the next 48 hours we have a real chance of stopping this budget proposal once and for all. And if it does survive Thursday's vote and go through to the final round, we can make sure all our representatives know that we are counting them to do what it takes to defeat it in the final vote.

URGENT REQUEST from NRDC on 3 Votes Needed to Save ANWR

Editor's Note: We get so many of these kinds of urgent requests for help, but I think this one is really important -- and we are so close to victory. Please consider donating a few dollars today to this effort. If you need a reminder of what's at stake, click here and check out the exquisite photos of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

From the Natural Resources Defense Council:

It's all come down to this. The House of Representatives will vote as early as next week on a budget bill that would sacrifice the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil development and destruction.

We can win this showdown in Congress, but we must secure the votes of three more moderate Republicans:  Representatives Jim Gerlach (PA), David Reichert (WA), and Mark Kennedy (MN).

We urgently need your financial support to run hard-hitting ads targeting these three key Representatives in next Sunday's newspapers.

View the ad and donate:  https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

Our three targeted Congressmen say they oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge. But they are under tremendous pressure from President Bush and House leaders to do the bidding of Big Oil.

We cannot expect these Republican Congressmen to vote against their leadership unless they hear from thousands of their own constituents, demanding that they stand strong in defense of the Arctic Refuge.

All we need is your support to make that outcry happen. View the ad and donate: https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

The Bush Administration is shamelessly exploiting the recent hurricanes and high gas prices as excuses to industrialize the Arctic Refuge. But, as our ad reveals, drilling in the Arctic Refuge will only save consumers one penny per gallon at the pump in 20 years!

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil and Shell just reported third-quarter profits totaling nearly $19 billion!

Help us get the truth out to tens of thousands of voters in the three decisive Congressional districts before next week's showdown vote.

I urge you to make an online donation right now that could save America's greatest sanctuary for Arctic wildlife: https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

Thank you.
John H. Adams, NRDC Action Fund

Sweep Home Chicago

You knew I had to post something about the White Sox sweep in the World Series. This says it all:

Quite a Series. Quite an historic win. Quite an exciting postseason for this Chicagoland native. If only my late father, a lifelong Sox (and Cubs) fan, could have witnessed this championship season. The Black Sox curse is shattered.

As an added treat, we got to beat a team from the Bush homeland, on their home field, in front of little Georgy's parents:

Blue State, Blue City wins big. What a ride.

The Series had everything: a grand slam homer (by Konerko, only the 17th in World Series history), a homer by a benchwarmer (Blum), a 14-inning win by the Sox (the longest game in Series history and tied with Babe Ruth's pitching win with the Boston Red Sox in the 1918 Series for most innings) and a 1-0 nailbiter for the 4th game win. Now, if we can match this White Sox miracle with winning back the Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008, we'll know the winds of change have truly turned our way!

Help Oppose Assault On Prime Agricultural Land in South Valley

From Zoe Economou:

It's very important to have a good turnout of activists at the next Bernalillo County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 5:30 PM at the City/County Building 5th & Marquette. 

They will be considering a 54 acre shopping mall next to the Wal-Mart on Coors and Rio Bravo.  The proposed mall is on prime agricultural land, fast-disappearing in the South Valley, as is the Wal-Mart that was shoved down our throats by the City Council. We need MANY warm bodies and people to sign up in opposition to yet another doomed strip/big box wasteland brought to us by John Black and the Black Family Trust (Cottonwood Mall).

If you have any questions please contact Zoe Economou at zoecon@unm.edu or 873-3096.

US Senate Defeats Raise in Minimum Wage

Many of the forces who fight against local and state minimum wage hikes -- like Republicans on the Albuquerque City Council and Democrat Marty Chavez -- claim they support a raise in the minimum wage at the national level. However, we can see how silly and damaging this position really is.  A proposed hike was defeated again yesterday by the U.S. Senate. From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- Senate proposals to raise the minimum wage were rejected Wednesday, making it unlikely that the lowest allowable wage, $5.15 an hour since 1997, will rise in the foreseeable future.

A labor-backed measure by Sen. Edward Kennedy would have raised the minimum to $6.25 over an 18-month period. A Republican counterproposal would have combined the same $1.10 increase with various breaks and exemptions for small businesses.

The Kennedy amendment to a spending bill went down 51-47, and the GOP alternative 57-42. Under a Senate agreement, they would have needed 60 votes for approval.

Kennedy, D-Mass., said Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the depth of poverty in the country and he pointed out that a single parent with two children working a minimum wage earns $10,700 a year, $4,500 below the poverty line.

He said it was "absolutely unconscionable" that in the same period that Congress has denied a minimum wage increase, lawmakers have voted themselves seven pay raises worth $28,000.

But Republican opponents, echoing the arguments of business groups, said higher minimum wages can work against the poor if they force small businesses to cut payrolls or go out of business.

Yeah, once again, we have the anti-worker contingent claiming jobs will be lost by the poor if they get paid an even nominally decent wage. Since this bunch hasn't shown any concern for the poor in terms of any other bill or issue for decades, you have to wonder why they think we'd believe them on this claim. I guess because they have the votes, all paid for by certain segments of the "business" community, and don't really care what ordinary people think or what's good for the nation as a whole.

This same Republican cabal is now going about the filthy business of attempting to cut Medicaid, Medicare, student loans, food stamps and more to pay for their absurd pork barrel spending, unending billions for Iraq, "defense,' "homeland security" and more than $40 billion in additional tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens. Moreover, they just voted themselves a pay raise in terms of Congressional salaries. Yet they balk at raising the minimum wage to a measley $6.25 an hour. Sorry, if a business can't pay its workers at least that much, I think they should close their doors because their product is probably as poor in quality as their pay scale. Shameful.

Whoa Nellie! Armageddon, The Rapture and The White Sox

This has nothing to do with politics, but I had to post something on the long, long, long awaited American League pennant just won by the Chicago White Sox. I still find it hard to fathom that the long-suffering Chi-Sox will be playing in the 2005 World Series. Growing up in Chicago watching the Cubs and Sox on TV and at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park, pennants and World Series appearances were almost nonexistent.

There hasn't been a Sox win in a post-season series since 1959 and we all know about the famous Black Sox Curse. Then there's the Cubs' Billy Goat Curse that has prevented a pennant since 1945 and that struck again two years ago when the Cubbies ALMOST won their league championship. Close enough to cause rampant despair in Chicagoland natives around the globe.

So when the Sox won the ALCS championship this week with a walloping 3-run win over the LA Angels, there was alot to savor and hoot about at my house. Including FOUR, count them, FOUR complete games by their pitching staff in an era when one guy pitching all nine innings of a game is considered a miracle.

I'm old enough (ahem) to clearly remember the Go-Go White Sox of 1959, with Nellie Fox, Little Looie Aparacio, Ted Kluszewski, Billie Pierce, Early Wynn, Sherman Lollar, Turk Lown and the rest of the team known for base-stealing, bunting, incredible pitching and rousing defensive plays.

The night the '59 Sox won the pennant is burned into my memory, with Da Mayor, Richard Daley, ordering the fire department to sound the Cold War air raid sirens (go ahead and click) all over the city. We ran outside and joined neighbors up and down our street who were out there cheering and jumping up and down to the wailing of the sirens. I also recall that non-baseball fans were, shall we say, a little scared by those same sirens, it being the middle of the Cold War and all. But there didn't seem to be any of those confused souls in my working class neighborhood. I bet every house had its black and white TV tuned to WGN and the Sox game that night. Chicago baseball has a long and proud tradition and it was the background music for almost everyone's life where I grew up.

To understand how long ago 1959 really is, check out the year's events. A few highlights:

• Hawaii and Alaska became states
• Fidel Castro's revolution took power in Cuba
• Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens went down in a plane crash on the "Day the Music Died"
• the first Barbie doll went on sale
• the Dalai Lama left Tibet
• VP Richard Nixon and the USSR's Nikita Krushchev had their famous "kitchen debate"
• Ford discontinued their Edsel model
• the Twenty-One quiz show scandal with Charles Van Doren erupted
• Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown was born
• Billie Holiday died

Chicagoans have always claimed that the end of the world as we know it would occur if the White Sox or Cubs ever appeared in another World Series. You can see where I'm leading with this now, can't you? Those right-wing Armageddon-Rapture mongers may be on the right track after all ... Whoa Nellie (as in Nellie Fox, he of the big tobacco chaw in his cheek)! Added eerieness: a Daley is Mayor of Chicago today, just like Richard Senior was in 1959 (cue Twilight Zone theme). And it's anyone's guess what can happen if the White Sox, dare I whisper it, actually WIN the World Series this year...

JibJab Strikes Again

From Wal-Mart Watch:
There's less than a month left until Wal-Mart Watch's Higher Expectations Week, but the heat is already turning up on Wal-Mart as activists are pressuring the big box giant to reform its negative business practices. The criticism got sizzling last week on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno when political satirists JibJab premiered their new animation Big Box Mart. Wal-Mart isn't mentioned by name, but the inspiration for the satire is clear. During the past election, JibJab's political parodies were seen over 80 million times, turning JibJab into an overnight household brand.

(Click on image above to see animation.)

Big Box Mart tells the story an unsuspecting consumer who learns an economic lesson the hard way when his high-skilled factory job is shipped overseas to accommodate the "everyday low prices" he's come to expect from his favorite retailer. At the end of the song, the only work he can find is as a janitor at Big Box Mart. Visit our website to see it for yourself and make sure to spread the word to your family and friends.

Wal-Mart is being taken to task on the big screen as well. Trailers for Robert Greenwald's upcoming documentary WALMART: The High Cost of Low Price are being shown in movie theaters in Los Angeles and New York. The documentary will premiere during Higher Expectations Week (November 13-19), a national week of action sponsored by Wal-Mart Watch and more than 400 national and local organizations. Hundreds of events in 32 states are already planned with more being added daily. Make sure you are registered on our website to find out about events in your area.

Go to https://walmartwatch.com/november to sign up and pledge your support to take action.

This increased scrutiny by Wal-Mart Watch and fellow activists is already having an impact. You can amplify our efforts by taking action during Higher Expectations Week and getting your friends to do the same.

Oil Refinery Proposed for Clovis

While sipping my pinion coffee and scanning the Albuquerque Journal this morning, I was surprised to learn that the NM Senate "approved on a 29-9 vote a bill to authorize the New Mexico Finance Authority to issue up to $150 million in revenue bonds to build an oil refinery in the state. The funding would be contingent on a matching investment from the private sector. The bill headed to the House." This is SB16, introduced by Shannon Robinson (D-17). I hadn't read a word about the possibility of a new refinery in New Mexico in any of the reporting on the Session so far.

I poked around and found this:

Senate Joint Memorial 3 Introduced by William E. Sharer (R-1): REQUESTING THE STATE INVESTMENT COUNCIL TO EXPLORE A PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENT TO CONSTRUCT AN OIL REFINERY IN THE CLOVIS AREA. The bill is currently in the Senate Finance Committee.

And here I thought we were headed on a positive path towards becoming a leader in green energy and technology. I guess Democrat Shannon Robinson didn't get the message. I'm not sure how serious this effort is, but I find it disturbing nonetheless.

If you'd like to contact your legislators on these measures, visit the NM Legislature site. Even if this effort doesn't succeed in the Special Session, I'd be willing to bet it will be pursued at the regular session that starts in January. The oil lobby never quits, does it?

Startling Evidence: Voter Action Update on NM Voters' Lawsuit

From Voter Action on the NM lawsuit against the Secretary of State on behalf of voters:
Lopategui v. Vigil-Giron Lawsuit Update:
Our initial discovery process is revealing startling evidence of serious voting machine problems, top-to-bottom incompetence in the administration of elections, cover-up by election officials of major errors they know have gone uncorrected, and the ceding by election officials of oversight and control over our elections to unaccountable private companies.

Examples of this evidence, gleaned from two weeks of depositions,  include:

• A voting machine vendor has admitted under oath that the design of machines used by many New Mexico counties probably causes the unintended erasure of presidential votes, contrary to the voter’s intent.   
• The owner of the private New Mexico company that has been paid commissions by Sequoia Voting Systems on sales of their AVC Edge touchscreen voting system to New Mexico counties testified that the system lost votes in a Bernalillo County election and that he is suspicious of Sequoia’s claims that all of the lost data was successfully “recreated.”   
• The state and county post-election canvass processes are incapable of detecting most types of voting machine error or fraud.   
• Contracting out key parts of the canvass process to unaccountable private contractors and subcontractors has increased vote-counting errors and heightened security risks.   
• A closer look at the “independent audit” of the 2004 general election touted by the Secretary of State reveals that:

--  It consistently under-reports as single “errors” common mistakes and irregularities even when the “error” results in the miscounting of hundreds of votes.

--   The audit examines only a small percentage of precincts, leaving undetected -- and uncorrected -- similar   widespread and large-scale errors in between 80% and 90% of precincts statewide.

Our next step will be a thorough examination of several types of voting machines and central tabulators used in the 2004 election by our academic computer security and voting machine experts.   Moving forward is contingent upon securing additional funding.  Later we will need to take more key depositions, but the machines are our primary focus now.

Thanks for your continued support. Should you have any questions, always feel free to contact us. info@voteraction.org,  505 823 6362

Sincerely,
Holly Jacobson, Lowell Finley & the entire Voter Action Team

The budget for the New Mexico research and litigation effort is $250,000 and is actively being raised in order to move discovery forward in a timely and effective manner. As a project of the International Humanities Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, Voter Action can offer donors tax deductibility to the full extent permitted by law.  Checks should be made out to Voter Action/IH Center c/o Voter Action, PO Box 25651, Albuquerque, NM 87125. Credit card payments may be made at our website - www.voteraction.org. Gifts of stock can be made by contacting Pam Stokes at Voter Action New Mexico 505 823 6362 or Co Director Holly Jacobson 206 769 7185