Democracy for New Mexico

Veteran's Day War Stories

Editor's Note: This is a rather long story about my memories of veterans in my family that was originally posted here on Veteran's Day 2005 and has been updated. If you have any memories you'd like to share on this Veteran's Day, post them in the comments section below.

As I was having my coffee this Veteran's Day morning, memories of family members who served in the military came bubbling up. Many of the men in my family served in the U.S Navy.

My grandfather, Max, was a Navy diver during World War I. He wore one of those unwieldy metal helmets and a bulky dive suit of the era, and ended up with a severe case of the bends from arising from the depths too quickly. According to doctors, this shortened his life considerably, and he died at 45 from liver and kidney problems. I never knew him, but always heard that he never spoke much about his service. By all accounts he returned from the war a changed man, prone to a world-weary wildness during the Roaring Twenties and beyond in a speakeasy-filled Chicago that slid into the brutal throes of the Great Depression.

My Uncle Bob served as a radar man on a Navy destroyer escort at the tail end of the Korean War. Although he saw some heated shelling and combat on the seas, most of his service consisted of traveling around the globe on post-war good will tours to foreign ports. He would show up back in the old immigrant neighborhood in Chicago in uniform, on leave, when I was very young. I thought he was the most handsome man in the world in his Navy whites. He never spoke much about the war itself, but was full of yarns about exotic ports of call, characters he had met around the world and rowdy Navy traditions that accompanied nautical events like crossing the equator for the first time. When the winter windows would frost up, he would show off his radar man skill of writing backwards, like radar techs used to do on glass to communicate with those on the other side. He made us giggle and imagine, to lust for travel, for history, for adventure.

My Uncle Vito was a Navy cook during WW II, which instilled in him a lifelong love of cooking. The only problem was he always prepared massive quantities, in huge pots, as he had in the service. This irked my Aunt Esther no end. After all, she was the one left to handle the mess cleanup detail. Uncle Vito's specialities included huge pots of Italian delicacies like snails and clams and dandelion greens and spaghetti sauce made with pigs' feet or chicken necks. I never heard any battle stories out of him. He, too, died young. Of a heart attack, while tending his garden, with his tiny grandson toddling nearby. Just like Brando's Godfather in the movie.

My uncle Artie served in the WW II Army infantry in Italy. He had some fingers blown off when he grabbed a live grenade and tossed it away from himself and his fellow soldiers, no doubt saving lives. He had little feeling in that hand and was always suffering unexpected cuts and burns on it during his factory work. Looking at the mashed results of the grenade always scared me. He'd just laugh and say, "oh, it's nothing. I'm alive!"

Iwo Jima beachhead

I know the most about the military service of my late father, Bill, who joined the Navy during World War II and was quickly attached to the Marines as a medical corpsman. He was 21 years old. After a short course of rushed medical training, he eventually ended up in the truly horrific beach landing and battle for Iwo Jima in the Pacific. He, too, was very reticent to talk about his service, but over the years I managed to piece together some facts about it. Most of his fellow corpsmen didn't make it out alive. The Japanese forces had a strategy of wounding Marines in order to draw out the medics to come to their rescue. Then they'd proceed to kill the medics.

At Thanksgiving, the smell of the turkey being prepared somehow reminded my dad of the smell of flesh during the Marine's long "mop-up" of the labyrinth of caves and underground tunnels on Iwo, using flame throwers and explosives to destroy the Japanese military survivors who wouldn't surrender. He always got slightly sick with memories for a time on this day and could never stay in the kitchen for long.

On rare occasions my dad would allow us to examine some of the souvenirs he brought home from the war. Wrinkled Japanese paper money and darkened coins, an ornate Japanese comb, his medals, photos from bootcamp and of servicemen playing volleyball on Hawaiian beaches and standing outside their tents on Okinawa, a Marine yearbook, a small Rising Sun flag, a thick piece of window glass from a downed plane made into a heart with a piece of metal down the center that created a rainbow effect when held up to the light. As a child these things always smelled ancient to me, with a strong undertone of ruin and mystery. My father always handled them with sad reverence rather than joy or pride. Melancholy would seem to overwhelm him, and he'd quickly put away the memorabilia and become silent.

When I was older, I'd sometimes question him about his war experiences, and once in a great while he'd speak about them quietly. About the feelings of extreme helplessness when he had been unable to do much when Marines he knew were dying in incredible pain in his arms. Of the intestines erupting from live bodies and missing, bleeding limbs and atrocious head injuries and other serious wounds he had to try and patch with only a yeoman's level of medical experience and knowledge. Of the strange fungi that latched onto Marines on Iwo, eating their flesh during the 36-day battle on hot, ashy, lava soil, with no chance to wash or change your clothes or socks. Sometimes Marines endured holes caused by fungus that went right through their torsos. My dad had a permanent case of fungus on his feet from the battle. I can still see him soaking his feet every night in a basin of hot water and epsom salts.

The only time I heard any happy war stories from him was when we once paid a visit to one of his fellow corpsmen from Iwo Jima who lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Corpsman Wright was more than 6 feet tall and kept his Jack Daniels in the Frigerator and his bad memories at bay. When the adults had a few whiskey highballs on our first night there, funny stories about youthful escapades in the Marines tumbled out one after another. We were fascinated with tales of my dad being rowdy and risque, a sharp contrast to the straightlaced and responsible father we knew, loved and sometimes even feared. I remember clearly how my father blushed during the retellings.

As the night wore on, however, both my father and his Marine buddy became more and more morose and depressed. After that first night, no more war stories were shared. It became so powerfully clear to me, as a 14-year old, how many intense and conflicting emotions were connected to their war experiences. I'm sure many veterans are in the throes of similar emotional knots on any given Veteran's Day, including this one. As are their families and loved ones.

This conflict about what war is, what it means and what it does to its participants came to a head for many during the Viet Nam War. I remember so many angry and volatile discussions between my brother and I and my dad about Viet Nam and what true patriotism demanded from Americans. So much division in the nation and in its families. Yet, as the war progressed, my father changed his mind. I thought it showed alot of courage. He and my mom ended up traveling to Washington to participate in one of the huge antiwar marches in the late 60s. My father carried one of his medals when he marched. And a large American flag.

Luckily, my brother managed to escape the ravishes of Nam -- he ended up with a high draft number in the national lottery. Many of his friends, however, returned home with broken spirits or broken bodies or both. Several died in the jungle. One came home with Viet Cong ears preserved in a jar and eventually collapsed into an enduring fugue of mental illness.

My dad's friend, Corpsman Wright, ended up dying young at 56 from liver damage from chronic alcoholism. My dad died at 55 from stomach cancer. I can't help but think that their painful and profound war experiences were a primary cause of their early deaths, and of their often uncomfortable emotional lives. As my father grew closer to death, he insisted that only one person he knew would be right for the task of conducting a service when he passed. He was one of his surviving friends from the medical corps -- a man who was unable or unwilling to deal with the rough and tumble of the business world after Iwo, and who had become a missionary of sorts after the war.

The reverend and his wife served in various missions built to minister to street people, the poor, alcoholics and vets down on their luck. My father wasn't a religious man, though his spiritual and humanist tendencies were strong. He wanted his old comrade to conduct the memorial service, not because of the minister's religious standing, but because -- even after all the intervening years -- he felt closest to those who had intimately shared his service and suffering during the war.

The reverend did conduct the memorial service, and gave quite an eloquent speech about what the medics had witnessed and the confusing emotional aftermath that unfolded afterwards. It was held in one of those well-used missions filled with stories of woe and redemption. My brother and his musician friends performed George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' after the speech. My dad's old friends sang the Marine Hymn. Like the convoluted feelings of vets and their families, like the coexisting pain and pride of service caused by war, like the continuing conflicting views about using force or not, the memorial service was a juxtaposition of opposing elements. A jumble of contrasting traditions. A metaphor for another Veteran's Day mired in another grinding war and rememberances of the wounds gone unhealed from the ones that came before. War is over if you want it. Peace.

Iraq Military Casulaties by Time Period

Period	US	UK	Other*	Total	Avg	Days
	774	41	9	824	2.9	284
	933	32	20	985	2.39	412
	715	13	18	746	2.35	318
	580	25	27	632	2.93	216
	718	27	59	804	1.9	424
	140	33		173	4.02	43
Total	3860	171	133	4164	2.45	1697

Iraq War Casualties, New Mexico: 31

		Albuquerque	Ramos, Christopher	Private 1st Cl.	05-Apr-2004
		Albuquerque	Adlesperger, Christopher	Private 1st Cl.	09-Dec-2004
		Albuquerque	Christensen, Jeremy E.	Specialist	27-Nov-2004
		Albuquerque	Merville, Christopher A.	Specialist	12-Oct-2004
		Albuquerque	Vizcaino, Eric	Specialist	21-Nov-2006
		Albuquerque	Spohn III,, Clifford A.	Specialist	09-Apr-2007
		Albuquerque	Zembiec, Douglas	Major	10-May-2007
		Albuquerque	Akin, James C.	Sergeant	03-Jun-2007
		Clovis	Segura Jr., Leroy	Sergeant	04-Aug-2006
		Farmington	Todacheene, Lee Duane	Sergeant	06-Apr-2004
		Farmington	Westbrook, Marshall A.	Sergeant	01-Oct-2005
		Fruitland	Yazzie, Clifton J.	Sergeant	20-Jan-2006
		Hondo	Chavez, Steven M.	Lance Corporal	14-Mar-2007
		La Mesa	Pirtle, James H.	Specialist	03-Oct-2003
		Las Cruces	Rodriguez, Joseph E.	Staff Sergeant	28-Jan-2005
		Las Cruces	Reyes, Mario A.	Private 1st Cl.	07-Nov-2005
		Las Cruces	Zamora, Jesse M.	Corporal	03-Feb-2006
		Las Cruces	Apuan, Matthew S.	Sergeant	18-Feb-2007
		Las Vegas	Harris, Shane P.	Lance Corporal	03-Sep-2006
		Los Lunas	Dahl, Joel A.	Sergeant	23-Jun-2007
		Not reported	Gutierrez, Marshall A.	Lieutenant Col.	04-Sep-2006
		Roswell	Salas Jr., Ricky	Private 1st Cl.	07-Mar-2006
		Roswell	Gray, Tommy L.	Sergeant	03-Aug-2004
		Roswell	Rocha, Moses Daniel	Sergeant	05-Aug-2004
		Sandia Park	Lewis, Joel W.	Sergeant	06-May-2007
		Santa Ana Pueblo	Sanchez, Emilian D.	Lance Corporal	21-Jan-2007
		Santa Fe	Grant, Jonathan Walter	Lance Corporal	11-May-2005
		Shiprock	Cambridge, Lyle J.	Corporal	05-Jul-2005
		Springer	Hildebrandt, Chad R.	Lance Corporal	17-Oct-2005
		Sunland Park	Zamora, Jose	Corporal	06-Aug-2006
		Veguita	Byrd III, Henry G.	Private 1st Cl.	24-Jun-2007

Data above from Iraq Coalition CasualtiesIraq Coalition Casualty Count.

Support Our Troops and Veterans:

• Iraq Veterans Against the War
• Veterans for Peace
• Military Families Speak Out
• Gold Star Families for Peace
• Any Soldier Care Packages
• Armed Forces Relief Trust
• Books for Soldiers
• Fisher House: Helping Military Families
• Help Our Troops Call Home
• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
• Disabled American Veterans
• Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society
• Army Emergency Relief
• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
• New Mexico VA Volunteer Opportunities
• New Mexico VA Patient Needs List
• New Mexico Veterans Integration Center

11.15.07: Public Meeting on Controversial Proposal to Pave Chaco Canyon Entrance Road

Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon

A presentation and public comments session regarding the future of the main entrance road to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in Northwest New Mexico will be held on November 15, 2007 at the New Mexico Department of Transportation, 7500 Pan American Freeway NE in Albuquerque (map). An open house begins at 6:00 PM with the presentation at 6:30 PM, followed by a comment session at 7:00 PM. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Federal Highway Administration, the New Mexico Department of Transportation and San Juan County.

The options for improving the unpaved portion of San Juan County Road 7950 will be explained -- a controversial proposal with serious consequences for preserving the fragile integrity of the currently isolated park. Up until now, the main access road was left deliberately unpaved to discourage heavy traffic, large tour buses and large RVs from bringing in increased crowds that might compromise the park's extensive ruins and artifacts -- which have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

URS Corporation and Taschek Environmental Consulting (TEC) are currently preparing the design and environmental analysis for the proposed road project on behalf of San Juan County. If you can't attend the meeting, you can contact John Taschek at TEC at 505-821-4700, email your comments on the proposed paving to taschek@aol.com or mail them to John Taschek, 8901 Adams NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113.

More resources:

• Chaco Canyon (wikipedia)
• Not paving Chaco road preserves area's value, Albuquerque Tribune editorial
• Paving road to Chaco fraught with pitfalls, Albuquerque Tribune
• Stop the Chaco Road, Chaco Alliance
• Protect Chaco Canyon Blog
• San Juan Citizen's Alliance

RSPV Now for NM Voices for Children 20th Anniversary Gala

The Board of Directors and staff of New Mexico Voices for Children invite you to join us for an evening of celebration at our
20th ANNIVERSARY GALA
Honoring our past...charting their future
Friday / November 9, 2007 / 6 PM - 9:30 PM
Cocktails & Silent Auction 6 - 7 PM
Embassy Suites Hotel
1000 Woodward Place NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Help us honor & recognize 20 outstanding "Voices for Children" who have dedicated their lives to New Mexico's children. We will also honor 20 current Legislative Champions. (See below)

The evening will include dinner, a silent auction and live entertainment. Semiformal attire.

Master of Ceremonies:
Eric Griego
Executive Director
New Mexico Voices for Children
Keynote Speaker:
Victor Rivas Rivers
www.victorrivers.com

Please respond by November 1st
(505) 244-9505 Ext. 21
or click here to RSVP online

Outstanding "Voices for Children"

The Albuquerque Tribune
Janie Lee Hall, School Health Advocate
Chris Baca, Youth Development Inc.
Ruth Hoffman, Lutheran Office of Govermental Ministry
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman
Erin Hourihan, Child Haven
Ken Carson, Wise Men, Wise Women
Dr. Andy Hsi
Don Chalmers, Don Chalmers Ford
The McCune Foundation
Former NM Representative Max Coll
Ellen Moore, Los Puentes Charter School
The NM Council on Crime and Delinquency
The New Mexico Pediatric Society
Lt. Governor Diane Denish
The Santa Fe Business Alliance
Mary Dudley, Ph.D.
Southwest Organizing Project
Jose Frietze, Families & Youth, Inc.
Leonard Tsosie, Navajo Nation Delegate

Current Legislative Champions

Senator Sue Wilson Beffort
Representative Rick Miera
Representative Ray Begay
Representative Brian K. Moore
Representative Gail Chasey
Senator Cynthia Nava
Senator Dede Feldman
Representative Danice Picraux
Senator Clinton D. Harden Jr.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Michael S. Sanchez
Senator Timothy Z. Jennings
Representative Edward C. Sandoval
Representative Rhonda S. King
Representative Mimi Stewart
Representative Linda M. Lopez
Representative Thomas E. Swisstack
Speaker of the House Ben Lujan
Representative Luciano "Lucky" Varela
House Majority Floor Leader W. Ken Martinez
Representative Peter Wirth

10.20.07: Two Chances to Hear Voices from Darfur in ABQ

From the Save Darfur Coalition:
Voices from Darfur, a national speaking tour featuring Darfuri refugees, will be visiting Albuquerque on next Saturday. Voices from Darfur offers a unique opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of the genocide from the people who have lived through it. On Saturday, October 20, you will have two opportunities to see Voices from Darfur:

2:30 PM
University of New Mexico, ABQ
Anthropology Lecture Hall - Room 163

7:00 PM
First Unitarian Church
3701 Carlisle NE, ABQ

To learn more about these events, visit the Voice from Darfur website and click on 'find an event'. You can also email Laura at laura@savedarfur.org for specific event information.

ABQ United Nations Association to Present Congressional Candidate Forum on UN Issues

The Albuquerque chapter of the United Nations Association of the USA and the UNM World Affairs Delegation will present a Congressional candidate forum to address USA-United Nations issues. The focus: How should the United States of America work with the United Nations to combat terrorism, reduce povery, reduce abuses of human rights and control epidemic infectious diseases?

The forum will be held on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the Albuquerque Mennonite Church, 1300 Girard NE (one block north of Constitution; about 8 blocks from the UNM Law School or 500 yards north of Lomas). The event is open to the public at no charge.

All candidates in the NM primary election races for the US House of Representatives and Senate have been invited to present their views of United States-United Nations issues. Since the United Nations has so many facets, each participant may select his or her own topic to discuss. However, we have suggested concentrating on controversial subjects such as:

• Enlargement of the Security Council.
• To block a Security Council action, more than one permanent member must cast a veto.
• Should the USA become a member state of the International Criminal Court?
• Should there be a permanent UN rapid reaction force?
• What role is there for the UN in Iraq?

The moderator will be Professor Mark Peceny, Chair of the Dept. of Political Science at UNM. Each candidate would speak for 10 minutes. After each has spoken, there would be questions from the audience, from the moderator and from one another. Please contact Maureen Wright for more info: 881-4536, mgwright@comcast.net.

Editor's Note: You're urged to encourage the Congressional primary candidates of both parties in your district to participate in this forum. You know what to do!

Study This

Today is Constitution Day. On this date in 1787 the constitutional convention in Philadelphia completed work and signed the document that defines our representative system of government based on checks and balances. You'd never know it watching Bush's "unitary presidency" in action today or by witnessing our members of Congress abdicating their duty to protect the Constitution with such abandon. Maybe we should send an email to them today suggesting they need to refresh their memories by studying this material. I wonder how many of our representatives or citizens have actually read the document and its amendments. Have you?

Another timely must read for today is by John Nichols of The Nation. He explains how the framers of the Constitution set out to "chain the dogs of war," not set them free. Quote: "The founders would not question for a moment that the Congress has the authority to use the power of the purse to end this war. Indeed, they would argue today as they did in their time, that a failure to do so would imperil the Republic."

Meet the Author - American Torture

From Citizens for Global Solutions:
Citizens for Global Solutions and Amnesty International USA are cosponsoring several events in New Mexico with Michael Otterman, an award winning freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker, and author of ‘American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond.’ Please join us and Michael while he discusses his book and answers your questions. The events, scheduled for September 17-18, 2007, are free and do not require you to register in advance. The schedule is below:

Albuquerque:

Webster University (Albuquerque Campus)
8500 Menaul NE Suite B-395, Albuquerque, NM 87112
(September 17th, 1:00 – 3:00 PM, Room A317)

University of New Mexico School of Law
1117 Stanford NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
(September 17th, 6 – 9 PM, Room 2401)

Santa Fe:

Mary Charlotte Domandi
KSFR Public Radio – 25 minute radio slot - 8 AM

College of Santa Fe
1600 St. Michael's Drive, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(September 18th, 3:15 – 5:15 PM, O’Shaughnessy Theater in Benildus Hall)

Collected Works Bookstore
208B West San Francisco, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(September 18th, 6:30 – 8:30 PM) 

In 'American Torture' Michael Otterman reveals how torture became standard practice in today’s War on Terror and how it was refined, spread and legalized. Long before Abu Ghraib became a household name, the U.S. military and CIA had used torture with impunity both at home and abroad. Billions of dollars were spent during the Cold War studying, refining then teaching these techniques to American interrogators and to foreign officers charged with keeping Communism at bay. 

Michael Otterman is a New York native and is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney.  He has covered crime and culture for an array of publications, including Melbourne’s Is Not magazine, The Sydney City Hub newspaper, and Boston’s Weekly Dig.  His website is www.americantorture.com. 

Citizens for Global Solutions is a grassroots membership organization that envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. To that end, we work to educate Americans about our global interdependence, communicate global concerns to public officials, and develop proposals to create, reform, and strengthen international institutions such as the United Nations.  Our website is www.globalsolutions.org. For more information, please contact Tom Moran at tmoran@globalsolutions.org.

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.

Guest Blog: Senator Bingaman, You Work for Us Summer Tour

This is a guest blog by Barbara Grothus, sending along a report from a small group of grassroots activists who requested a meeting with Senator Jeff Bingaman, and who had an opportunity to sit down with him this past Monday in Albuquerque for a productive discussion. It's cross-posted at Firedoglake as an excellent example of using their You Work for Us Summer Tour idea.

Our small group met with Senator Bingaman at a chain restaurant near the airport where he was between flights to small NM towns.  He arrived with a fact sheet designed to dispel the Republican Main-Stream-Media Talking Point that we have a "Do-Nothing Congress."  The list of legislation passed and signed, passed and waiting to be signed, and passed in both houses but awaiting completion of conference reports is impressive.  Unfortunately, the list of legislation passed AND SIGNED was quite short, making it clear that we need more than a marginal Democratic majority if we hope to see significant change.

Senator Bingaman was very clear that the agenda has certainly been changed by the Democratic Congress.  Under bare-bones Democratic control, there have been significant legislative accomplishments on behalf of students and children (higher education, head start, student loans, health insurance), workers (raise in minimum wage), small businesses (tax relief), the environment and energy (renewables, efficiency, biofuels), implementation of 9-11 Commission Recommendations, more benefits for war vets, significant ethics reform, and support for research and development (from the National Labs to schools) to increase America's competitive edge. 

Our group is aware that the 110th Congress has been productive with some very good legislation, including ethics reform, however, we were more interested in discussing our disappointment that the message sent by the voters last November has failed to penetrate the Washington bubble.

Our representative from Voter Action had prepared his own handout for the Senator on the disaster of Senator Feinstein's pathetic attempt at voting protection.  In contrast, the superior bill HB 811 (Holt) needs sponsors in the Senate.  Paul emphasized the strong (paper, verifiable) and weak (audit needs improvement) elements of New Mexico's voting reforms, and he encouraged Senator Bingaman to become a Senate sponsor of S.559, the Senate version of the Holt bill.

We had a great opportunity to press Senator Bingaman over issues like FISA.  What happened?  Was it leadership failure?  How did this get the support of 16 Democratic Senators?

In brief, it appears that being called "unpatriotic" and "soft on terror" is more terrifying to some elected officials than the loss of habeas corpus.  Further, the 6 month limit and legislative weariness (August break) compelled many to vote for the FISA bill. 

We discussed the criminal activity throughout the executive branch, subpoenas, and especially the failure of Democrats to create and always use effective talking points to counter the prevailing message of the Republican-controlled corporate media. We suggested that the Democrats adopt the strategy of attacking perceived Republican strengths: for example when the Republicans accuse the Democrats of being weak on national defense, instead of denying the charge, the Democrats should strike back by pointing out that the US spends more on national defense than all the rest of the world combined. This does contribute to national security, but it is national lunacy, because it results in wrong-headed budgets that leave us fatally vulnerable to collapsed bridges, not to mention lost cities from breached levees, an unimaginable horror from which there remains no recovery.

Raul Torrez, an Assistant Attorney General noted that along with our failing infrastructure, all the resources--time, energy, money--that are being consumed by Iraq and necessary investigations of the Executive Branch results in practically no resources available to deal effectively with other pressing domestic problems such as a growing methamphetamine epidemic. 

What the people want most is to end the war and to have universal single-payer health care.  With regard to the war, we emphasized that Democrats want to see some strong indications of push-back against the Republican policy of continuing the war indefinitely.  The Democratic base would be energized, even though the votes aren't there yet.  As one of our group said, "We have your back".

The bottom line on the war (as with all legislation) is that we need 60 votes in the Senate.  A campaign to influence some Senators who have been unwilling to cross the President is the only hope.  Senator Domenici, you work for us. We need to talk.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Barbara Grothus. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant political topics and may or may not represent our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Bill Maher: The Decider

The new HBO special by Bill Maher, Part 5 of 8 on YouTube. Click to see the rest. We all need a laugh ....