Democracy for New Mexico

Bye Bye Bolton

Early Xmas present: Lunatic fringe hero John Bolton has resigned as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Having given Bolton a temporary recess appointment, Bush would have had to get Bolton appointed the old fashioned way this time, with a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No dice, even if Dems hadn't won back the Senate.

I've been thinking about proposing that Bolton grow a shaggy beard to go along with his shaggy gray mustache and floppy hair and get a job as a Macy's Santa Claus, but that would be cruel to the children. Maybe we should give him a pooper scooper and hire him to follow after Santa's reindeer to make himself useful. After all he was always good at bullsh*t, wasn't he? Just a sample:

There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference. --John Bolton

THANKSGIVING: 21 Reasons to Give Thanks

Courtesy of the Think Progress Report:

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list:

We're thankful for our country's troops.

We're thankful America dumped the 109th Congress.

We're thankful Rick Santorum will have more free time to find the WMD.

We're thankful we don’t have to go to war with the Secretary of Defense we had.

We're thankful for "red state values," like protecting reproductive rights, supporting stem cell research, and rejecting discrimination.

We're thankful Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who calls climate change the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," will no longer chair the Senate environmental committee.

We're thankful that Matt Drudge does not rule our world.

We're thankful Al Gore helped the country face the inconvenient truth.

We're thankful Bill O'Reilly does not resort to name calling - well, besides labeling the Progress Report/ThinkProgress as "far left loons," "kool-aid zombies," "hired guns," "vile," "haters," a "far left smear website," and "a very well-oiled, effective character assassination machine."

We're thankful minimum wage ballot initiatives passed in six states.

We're thankful the Dixie Chicks aren't ready to make nice.

We're thankful Ted Haggard bought the meth but never used it.

We're thankful for the 100,000 readers who responded to our Tell the Truth About 9/11 campaign.

We're thankful for "the Google" and "the email" (and the "series of tubes" that make them possible) -- but not iPods, which are endangering our nation.

We're thankful Maf54 isn't online right now.

We're thankful people send us Jack Abramoff's email.

We're thankful Keith Olbermann's ratings are up and Bill O'Reilly's ratings are down.

We're thankful President Bush's secret plan for Iraq is safe with Conrad Burns.

We're thankful we won't spend Thanksgiving turkey hunting with Dick Cheney.

We're thankful the "Decider" only gets to make the decision 789 more days.

And last but not least: We're thankful to the Progress Report readers for their tips, energy and support.

Happy Thanksgiving! – The Progress Report Team.

JFK Assassination: 43 Years Ago Today

Our 36th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated 43 years ago today. Many of us are still calculating what was lost on that day in Dallas, in terms of our nation and our planet and our own personal psyches. We still contemplate how his violent death was but the first of many premature and unnecessary deaths to come in the 1960s and beyond, of leaders and ordinary folks alike. The struggle Kennedy described below continues, unabated:

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" -- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. --JFK Inaugural Address, 1961

Genuine leadership is scarce. Inspiring rhetoric seems a lost art. The search for answers and a reawakening of our better aspects goes on. Info on many aspects of the assassination of JFK and his presidency can be found at wikipedia. Remember.

Repub Sex Scandal: Curiouser and Curiouser

The plot thickens. Here's Lawrence O'Donnell's latest revelation about Denny Hastert:

... Many chiefs of staff are close, very close, to their bosses on Capitol Hill. But none are closer than Scott Palmer is to Denny Hastert. They don't just work together all day, they live together [emphasis mine].

There are plenty of odd couple Congressmen who have roomed together on Capitol Hill, but I have never heard of a chief of staff who rooms with his boss. It is beyond unusual. But it must have its advantages. Anything they forget to tell each other at the office, they have until bedtime to catch up on. And then there's breakfast for anything they forgot to tell each other before falling asleep. And then there's all day at the office. Hastert and Palmer are together more than any other co-workers in the Congress.

Read the entire post by O'Donnell on Huffington Post to understand why this is important to the evolving Foley scandal. An earlier post by O'Donnell provides more background, as does this story from today's Washington Post -- which reports that another Congressional staffer has backed up the contention that Hastert knew of Foley's problems long ago.

You really have to wonder about these odd, secretive, repressed Republicans and what they are capable of doing to protect their own interests -- including the stealthy actions and lies of Rep. Heather Wilson regarding the infamous disappearing file on her husband when she was Secretary of the NM Department of Children, Youth and Families.

What emerges is how hypocritical so many of these right-wing types are, always putting themselves out front as sterling models of morality and "family values," meanwhile using gay marriage and other wedge "morality" issues to stir up hatred. Not surprisingly, they themselves often eventually get caught doing the very things they are supposedly so vehemently against.

I have to say that this kind of denial, dishonesty and mean-spiritedness is evident in the handling of almost every right-wing issue these days, from the Iraq occupation, to their sorry excuse for a prescription drug plan, to economic fairness. These types are masters of saying one thing and doing another. But maybe -- just maybe -- the tables are turning at last and more will be revealed. Has the light of day ever been more essential in discovering the real meaning of what's gone on in Washington during the Bush years?

Drive Out the Bush Regime: The World Can't Wait

Marches and demonstrations against the horrors of the Bush administration took place all over the country yesterday, including Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Above is video clip taken during the Albuquerque march from the UNM area to downtown provided by local blogger Johnny Mango on Albloggerque and at Google Video. Be sure to check out the rest of his clips uploaded on his website, which trace the progression of march. Mango, as usual, comes up with good visual coverage. There were more than 200 participants. You can see reports on activities nationwide at https://worldcantwait.org/.

FoleyGate: Quote of the Day

Glenn Greenwald does it again:

If the term "moral degenerate" has any validity and can be fairly applied to anyone, there are few people who merit that term more than Rush Limbaugh. He is the living and breathing embodiment of moral degeneracy, with his countless overlapping sexual affairs, his series of shattered, dissolved marriages, his hedonistic and illegal drug abuse, his jaunts, with fistfulls of Viagra (but no wife), to an impoverished Latin American island renowned for its easy access to underage female prostitutes.

Yet that is who Hastert chose as the High Priest of the Values Voters to whom he made his pilgrimage and from whom he received his benediction. The difference between Rush Limbaugh and Mark Foley, to the extent there is one, is one of hedonistic tastes, not moral level. Rush Limbaugh isn't just tolerated within the party that stands for religious piety and moral strength. He is a leader of it, arguably the leader of its most righteous wing. Is it really all that surprising that a political movement that has chosen a moral degenerate like Rush Limbaugh as one of its most revered and morally respected leaders is not all that bothered by -- and therefore actively harbors -- the Mark Foleys of the world?

And just think, Republican incumbent candidate Heather Wilson (NM-01) is a proud member of that wing of the party (unless it's election time and she's claiming to be "independent"). And she still refuses to urge Hastert to step down. As Wilson said yesterday, she doesn't have enough of the facts yet to take that plunge. She must be hanging with rest of the Bush bunch who have been viewing the trainwrecks they are causing from the artificial safety of a big, fat denial bubble. I don't think any of them have truly gotten it yet -- that their masks have fallen away at last and their house of cards is quivering violently. Meanwhile, voters seem more and more aware that Republican Party hypocrisy is breaking out all over. Even many Republican voters. Is the jig finally up?

I can't help myself. One more quote from that Greenwald piece

We have been barraged with laws, programs, sermons, demagoguery and all sorts of moral demonization from a political movement whose most powerful pundit is a multiple-times-divorced drug addict who flamboyantly cavorts around with a new girlfriend every few months in between Viagra-fueled jaunts to the Dominican Republic. It is a political movement whose legacy will be torture, waterboards, naked, sadomasochistic games in Iraqi dungeons (or, to Rush, "blowing off steam"), with all sorts of varied sleaze and corruption deeply engrained throughout its DNA -- all propped up by a facade of moralism and dependent upon the support of those who have been propagandized into believing that they are voting for the Party of Values and Morals.

Tell it, Glenn.

Bill Jordan Guest Blog: WalMart, Out of State Corporations and NM Taxes

This is a guest blog by Bill Jordan, Deputy Director for Policy, New Mexico Voices for Children:

There’s been a lot of press coverage lately on WalMart and its low salaries and poor benefits. There’s another reason that New Mexicans should be unhappy with WalMart--they don’t want to pay their NM corporate income taxes. The state Tax and Revenue Department recently won a hearing to collect $11.6 million in back taxes, but a loophole in New Mexico’s corporate tax law allows many big multi-state corporations to avoid paying corporate income tax (CIT) on the money they make here.

This corporate tax loophole allows multi-state corporations to move their profits to a state like Delaware that has no corporate taxes in order to avoid showing a profit in New Mexico and paying tax on that profit. New Mexico businesses pay their corporate taxes, thus giving out-of-state businesses a competitive advantage. New Mexico owned businesses end up paying a heavier proportion of the business taxes our state collects. As one small business owner in Deming said to me recently, “WalMart doesn’t pay tax to pave the road in front of their store, but I pay my taxes to pave the road in front of my store AND their store.”  Exactly!

I urge you to support the Business Opportunity Act (technically called the Mandatory Combined Reporting Act, Rep. Peter Wirth, HB 123 in the 2006 legislative session), which would require out-of-state corporations to pay their fair share for the money they make here in New Mexico. This would level the playing field for our New Mexico businesses. It would not hurt our efforts to attract new out-of-state businesses since most of our neighbor states require combined reporting too.

Closing this tax loophole would bring more than $50 million in revenue to the state of New Mexico each year. Only a few dozen multi-state businesses would be required to pay their fair share of state taxes, while 17,000 New Mexico businesses would benefit from a level playing field.

So why haven’t we passed legislation that would give our locally owned businesses a fair shake? Giant multi-state corporations – with their skyscrapers full of tax lawyers and lobbyists – have so far defeated attempts to reform this tax law. Our state legislators are lobbied hard by the Association of Commerce and Industry (ACI) as well as by local chambers of commerce, which appear to be representing the interests of the large national corporations instead of the New Mexico owned businesses they claim to represent. We feel certain that if we can shed light on this issue, we can get New Mexico legislators to support New Mexico businesses, not WalMart and the big out-of-state guys.

If you own a New Mexico business and are outraged by this, please let your local chamber of commerce know!  If you would like to raise your voice in support of New Mexico businesses, or you would like more information about combined reporting, please contact Bill Jordan, Deputy Director for Policy, New Mexico Voices for Children at bjordan@nmvoices.org.

Guest Blog: Divine Strake and the Rebirth of Democracy

This guest post was submitted by Andrew Kishner of Kanab, UT. Mr. Kishner is a member of the Stop Divine Strake Coalition and founder of www.StopDivineStrake.com.  In June, he co-organized a rally in Kanab, Utah, against the Divine Strake test.

In a 2,000-mile stretch of uninterrupted red-statehood from Indiana to Nevada, ordinary folks who had never attended a rally, or spoke out against an elected leader, or submitted an opinion to their newspaper editor got fed up. It was the unexpected protest of average people demanding that a defense agency and its unelected public servants adhere to the same natural laws that protect citizens from those who negligently or wilfully threaten health or life. The citizens' protests alone forced the intelligence and planning arm of the military to scrap plans to test out a dirty bomb in a radioactive field of death in Nevada, and later the fragile ecosystem, and a more densely populated area, in Southern Indiana.

Although the citizens' chorus of protests was aroused by the fear of a huge dust cloud of toxic substances from Divine Strake, the words they spoke were not new. They were the words from a verse that we all learned in our youth.

It was in elementary school, when we pledged - en masse - our commitment to two radical concepts in front of Old Glory, that the seed of the democratic model that each of us carries through life was planted. In that pledge, we vowed to uphold liberty and justice, two glorious resources of our nation. Those hallmarks of our democracy, however, are not the patented concepts of our founding fathers, nor the registered trademarks of our Congressmen. They are the people-given - some would say God-given - gifts to all Americans, past, present and future.

It may be decades or generations before a community will rise up to fulfill the pledge to democracy. When that time comes, when what is best for the people takes a back seat to misconduct, greed or power mongering, ordinary men and women must educate their fellow citizens, exercise their common freedoms, and, if necessary, indict or impeach those persons and agencies that contravene the institutions that safeguard our democracy and our collective health and well-being.

In Owen Wister's "The Virginian," Judge Henry eloquently and brilliantly asserts this morality: "The courts, or rather the juries, into whose hands we have put the law, are not dealing the law. They are withered hands, or rather they are imitation hands made for show, with no life in them, no grip. And so when your ordinary citizen sees this, and sees that he has placed justice in a dead hand, he must take justice back into his own hands where it was once at the beginning of all things."

We must never forget that the delegated powers in our democracy are, have and always will be ours to give, and to take back. When our elected or unelected leaders fail to fulfil their pledge to serve us and protect our health, our safety, our rights, our laws and our nation, then it is the people who, in the end, will exercise their absolute power to restore the institutions of democracy.   

As New Mexicans prepare to protest the Divine Strake test that is now threatening their state, we must all continue opposition to this test with the firm confidence that our protests - in the name of protecting health, peace, and justice - are not a defiance of democracy but rather an assertion of it.  Judge Henry called it the "fundamental assertion of self-governing men, upon whom our whole social fabric is based."

Guest blog by by Andrew Kishner of Kanab, UT. If you'd like to submit an article for possible publication on DFNM as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the main blog page.

Rant of the Day: David Sirota Does It Again

Highly recommended if you're pondering change and the reactions of the establishment to threats of change: The tidal wave heading straight for the hall of mirrors.

Remembering Ann Richards

Ann Richards: September 1, 1933 - September 13, 2006

The extraordinary Ann Richards passed away at 73 from cancer while I was up in Colorado this past week, so I wanted to write something to mark her passing. I always was taken by her ability to connect with ordinary people and work tirelessly, with grace and razor-sharp wit, for a place at the table for all. She was a Democrat through and through. She was a colorful character in the best sense. She exhibited a deep understanding of human frailties and the ups and downs that come with a life lived fully and with zest because she had experienced all of that herself. She had warts and weaknesses and transcended them. She showed us how. And she did it with humility crossed with spunk. People just loved her, as a human, in a way that's so rare in political life today.

Ann came across as compassionate, charismatic and dedicated to inspiring, motivating and sparking others to take that chance, to dream that dream, to stand that ground, to work like hell for positive change and to have fun doing it. Every woman I know was a fan. In an era of bland, spineless, self-serving politicians, she was a disarmingly honest, charmingly persuasive and flamboyantly present whirlwind. She was elegant but grounded. She swore and told kickass stories, articulate but earthy. She rocked. And she did so with an uncommon combination of dignity and downhome grit.

I got to personally experience Ann's unique brand of often ribald humor, political passion, no-nonsense wisdom and plain old common sense only once, at a 2004 women's event at Albuquerque's Tiguex Park in support of John Kerry's presidential run. It was a doozie. She was wonderful and as down to earth as anyone in public life I've ever run into. She hung around and took the time to talk with everyone who cared to do so, just folks, with her sparkling blue eyes and her spectacular white hair and her awesomely lined face crinkled into a smile, intently listening.

It's a shame that her special cross to bear was losing to George W. Bush when she ran for a second gubernatorial term. It became our cross to bear too. The suffering continues. But Richards continued to take a stand against the madness. We continue, too.

I could never capture Ann's spirit better than another plain-talking Dem from Texas did, so I'm including the words of another national treasure, Molly Ivins, in memory of Gov. Richards. Ann was a pistol, but never needed one to persuade:

REMEMBERING ANN RICHARDS by Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas -- She was so generous with her responses to other people. If you told Ann Richards something really funny, she wouldn't just smile or laugh, she would stop and break up completely. She taught us all so much -- she was a great campfire cook. Her wit was a constant delight. One night on the river on a canoe trip, while we all listened to the next rapid, which sounded like certain death, Ann drawled, "It sounds like every whore in El Paso just flushed her john."

Read the rest .

Austin's American-Statesman has the story on Richards' funeral  and other coverage here and here. You can find out more about Gov. Richards at Wikipedia. So many will miss her. She mattered and she helped so many of us believe that we matter too.

My favorite Ann Richards quote? This one, which was part of her famous speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention, when she first burst onto the national scene:

Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.

Yes, maam! You can listen to or read that speech here. And you can watch an unedited video of Ann's memorial service here.