Democracy for New Mexico

Getting Back in the Saddle

After a supportive and even enthusiastic DFA/DFNM Meetup in Albuquerque yesterday that had many new faces, I'm ready to get back in the saddle -- if slowly.

There already has been alot of talk about what may have gone wrong and what we need to do to recalibrate our message. One of the issues that keeps emerging is morality or values, and how we can reframe (ala George Lakoff) the debate on this to include democratic (and Democratic) moral values, not just the Christian right's limited view that morality is almost solely about values surrounding women's choice and the moral aspects of sexuality.

Click for a link to an article today by Robert Reich on The Moral Agenda. He says policy and plans are important -- but they’ll get Democrats nowhere without more conviction.

If you've discovered other good discussions on the morality issue and how we need to incorporate it into our message, please share them here, along with your thoughts. -BW

Late addition: Check out Living Poor, Voting Rich by Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times on this issue. This was the editorial recommended by Howard Dean in last night's conference call at Meetup.

Pumpkins and Football

I had to add a parting Halloween pumpkin post to get you to check out the terrific photos of political pumpkins at Tagyerit Politics, all submitted by the carvers. One of my faves (click image for larger version):

Great news, too, that the Washington Redskins lost to the Green Bay Packers yesterday, on Halloween Sunday -- another positive omen for a Kerry win TOMORROW! Seems that every time the Redskins lose their last home game before a presidential election, the incumbent party loses. And every time they win that game, the incumbent party wins. It has been this way since the 1936 election. The probability of 18 elections in a row being decided this way is estimated to be one in 260 million, according to media reports. The score of yesterday's game was: Green Bay 28 - Washington 14 = Kerry wins!

We all know that the polls have been up and down and around, with the only consistency being that this race is close in terms of those being polled. But it's also true that new voters and those who have only cell phones are left out of most polls, and that most of those kinds of voters are ours. It's as simple as this: if we get a large turnout, we will win. If we don't, we are in jeopardy of losing. What are you doing to GOTV (get out the vote) today and tomorrow?

When You're Feeling Frazzled

When your election volunteering and worrying and fatigue and rollercoaster emotions are getting you frazzled, here's the help line that can make you chuckle. Help is on the way! Click here for relief. (Thanks to John McAndrew for the pointer.)

The next thing to do is read this letter from one of Josh Marshall's readers at Talking Points Memo, just to share in remembering what America is really all about. Halleluja.

Adios, Bambino (And The Curse You Rode In On)

And, how could I forget? Navajo Code Talker Chester Nez came through again, the total eclipse of the moon added a beautiful mystique to the night, and the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years! Check out the front page of the Boston Globe's special edition. You can also view it as a pdf file here. And you can get full coverage of the Series with slideshows, videos and more at the main Boston Globe website. Can we consider this a positive omen for the presidential campaign of Bostonian and diehard Red Sox fan, John Kerry? You betcha. As Red Sox fans are fond of saying, You Gotta Believe!

And according to MyDD, the Bambino's curse has moved onto Bush's team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Read all about it.

(Photo of October's "Blood Moon" or "Hunter's Moon" in total eclipse courtesy of NASA.)

Proof that Al Qaqaa Explosives Weren't Guarded?

Truthout is reporting a story by Eyewitness News 5 in Minneapolis about footage their reporters shot in Iraq on April 18th, 2003 that allegedly shows 101st Airborne troops entering explosives bunkers at Al Qaqaa and then leaving them unguarded. Go to this site to read the story and see the report and footage filmed by KSTP-TV. The video link is near the top of the page.

As the KSTP-TV story says says, "The missing explosives are now an issue in the presidential debate. Democratic candidate John Kerry is accusing President Bush of not securing the site they allegedly disappeared from. President Bush says no one knows if the ammunition was taken before or after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003 when coalition troops moved in to the area."

According to Truthout, "The KSTP video is incredibly important in this context. It shows boxes marked 'al Qaqaa' and 'High Explosives.' It shows 101st Airborne troopers cutting the locks to the facility to get inside. Worse, it shows the KSTP embedded reporters stating flatly that, despite the fact that all these explosives were inside the facility, the place went completely unguarded."

Espanola Valley Woman Quits National Guard

I got this letter from Petra Salazar (photo left), who grew up in the Espanola Valley here in New Mexico. I found it to be so moving and inspiring that I wanted to print it here in its entirety. Petra obtained a consciencious objector discharge from the National Guard and she explains why she felt it necessary to leave the military, regardless of the views others might have about her actions. You can learn more about her story in this article. She wanted to have this published as a letter to the editor at the Rio Grande Sun, but it looks unlikely because the newspaper apparently has had enough of this controversy. Well, we have space here . . . .

Dear Editor,

I am currently studying abroad in Austria and have heard in my absence that the article regarding my military discharge and my political beliefs has been quite controversial in my beloved Espanola Valley. I have not read any of the editorials for nor against my choice to leave the Army National Guard, but still believe I should make things very clear, especially at this crucial time before the presidential election. My life is blessed with two great events, the first is my enlistment in to the armed forces and the second and most significant is my discharge. I feel no compulsion to defend that which I own so proudly and want to avoid wasting anymore time dodging the real issues, Bush’s war and his administration’s motives. I told my story in hopes that it would open peoples’ eyes to the fact that not all GIs are in bed with the Bush administration and not all are blindly following a gun-wielding shoot-and-ask-questions-later go-it-alone cowboy administration. I was meant only to be an example. The main point of the article I hope was not lost.

Thousands of soldiers around the country and in Iraq are in strong opposition with the current administration and feel very used. This war is a gross exploitation of our military, and people need to wake up to that realization and stop encouraging politicians to use the lives of our sons and daughters for their own selfish gains. To be a Bush supporter within the military is to me an amazing defense mechanism. Of course these troops want to believe their Commander in Chief is in the right -- how else would they justify or cope with their buddies’ unnecessary deaths? How would they justify killing another human being in their minds if they knew or realized what they were doing is wrong and that they were mere tools of a corrupt administration? Our administration wants the troops to paint the face of Bin Laden and Saddam on every Iraqi. Bush says this is a fight against Terrorism, but not only has his war reinforced terrorism, it has provoked even more. Islamic communities all over the world believe this as an attack on their people, and it is.

Anti-American sentiment is growing feverishly due to the greedy imperialistic and non-democratic motivations of this administration. In the International Relations, Political Ideas, and Intercultural Communication classes I am taking here in Austria, the sentiment is obvious and blatant. I have not met one European who is in agreement with this war. We are the Roman Empire, and we are falling under this administration. The US is seen right now in a very negative light here in Europe. We are burning bridges left and right. The EU is a strong and growing power that the US needs as a civil tie. However, most Europeans believe we are fools. Respect for our country is rapidly diminishing all around the world.

How many people have to die before we see that this war is wrong? How many lives are going to be ruined by the end of this mendacious mess? Of the 1,246 coalition deaths, 1,107 have been American soldiers. Also, 7,532 soldiers have been wounded. The number of civilian Iraqis killed in this war is up to 15,357. Indiscriminate stray bullets and bombs kill not only their target but also the elderly, women, teens in their prime, children, and babies (Where are Bush’s anti-abortion advocates with their baby killer signs now? Hiding behind the skirt of a hypocritical administration?). Our politicians in the White House have a nice dehumanizing term for these types of murders, “collateral damage.” Does the end (if it ever comes) of this war justify the means by which this war was conducted? This is the question that we have to face when we look at the pictures of our dead. And if money is the main concern, take a look at our debt and add up the billions upon billions of dollars that we’ve committed to this war. Is it any coincidence that the only hard dollar profiteers from this war are the same people who initiated it?

Read up on this war. Do the background research. Back up your political beliefs. Then please give me a solid argument after researching this war and the current administration as to why anyone who lives below the top percent wealth line would believe this to be a legal and just war. You can email me at peaonbush@hotmail.com.

If you are going to support something you should first know what you are supporting.

Websites:
https://icasualties.org/oif/
https://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
https://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Books: The Iraqi War Reader

Definitions: Paradox- Hispanic female Bush supporter
https://www.baltimorechronicle.com/bush_record_sep00.html
https://www.wa-democrats.org/Blueprint/bush_minority_issues.htm
https://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue39/pols.hispanics.html
https://womensissues.about.com/
*https://www.wglobalscorecard.org/index.htm (very good site)

October 20, 2004
Sincerely,
Petra Salazar

Monster Slash

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Watch Monster Slash.

Safer?

In today's "Daily Outrage" by Ari Berman of The Nation, he names the most overlooked story of the week:

The International Atomic Energy Agency said materials and equipment used for Iraqi nuclear energy - the "WMD- related program activities" central to the Bush administration's rational for war - have gone missing and may turn up in Europe or elsewhere in the region. How did this happen? The US government banned UN weapons inspectors from returning to Iraq after the war and failed to prevent massive looting at Iraq's main nuclear complex, home to tons of natural uranium. Now the US occupiers may have actually succeeded in turning a nonexistent nuclear threat into a real one.

If only the mainstream media would expose stories like this one with sufficient emphasis, I think Kerry would be ahead by huge numbers by this time. As it stands, too many Americans seem to believe the constant spiel by BushCo partners that our nation can be "safe" only if they are elected to a second term. Nothing could be further from the truth as far as I'm concerned. Imagine what the corporate media would be saying if a Democratic president had failed to guard nuclear stockpiles and huge arms caches in a war zone.

How Bush's Grandfather Helped Hitler's Rise to Power

New disclosures on the long-rumored links between Prescott Bush and Hitler's rise from The Guardian Unlimited:

Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president

Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington, Saturday September 25, 2004

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.

Click here for the rest of this fascinating article.

Protect Your Vote

Passing along an email from Voices for Working Families:

Are you sure your registration is up to date? Help Voices Be Heard! Even if you have a voter registration card in your wallet, your polling place location or even your registration status might have changed. There are no "do-overs" after November 2nd, so it's critical that you make sure you are ready and prepared to vote. As the deadline for registering to voter approaches (October 5 in New Mexico), you are running out of time to make any important changes to your voter registration. Call your State Board of Elections to get in touch with your county or city registrar to verify that you are able to vote. With so much on the line, we can't afford to be turned away from polls. Click here to find the number for your state board of elections

Do you know voter suppression when you see it? This is America-where every man and woman is entitled to the power of the vote and every vote carries the possibility of change. Unfortunately, it just isn't always so simple. Polling places are moved without advanced notice, uniformed police offers enter into homes and interrogate voters, poll places close before many have had a chance to vote, and vicious radio ads full of misleading statements are played that discourage citizens from voting. These strategies are employed because others think they will work. Not this time! We refuse to be intimidated, harassed, and silenced. We will proudly raise our voice this election and demand better schools for our children, better health care for our families, and better wages for a hard day's work. We refuse to let fear steal our votes, absolutely No Excuses! If you witness voter suppression call 1-866-OUR-VOTE

Click here to listen to our new PSA addressing voter suppression! And then please donate and let Voices air this ad across the nation!

Action Alert: Volunteer with Voices and Get Out The Vote! Give us 2 weeks of your time before election day to make a difference. If you're interested, please email info@voicesforworkingfamilies.org or call 866-211-7296.

Note: There's also a voter hotline operated by Hispanic organizations. The National Association of Latin American Elected Officials provides a bilingual, nonpartisan hotline that serves as a source of information on election-related issues, including voter registration, polling places and laws related to voting. The hotline will also help document and moinitor voter protection complaints and work with local election officials to respond to them. The toll-free number is 1-888-839-8682. Univision and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund also are helping to orgnize and promote the new hotline.