Democracy for New Mexico

Guest Blog by Martin Heinrich: Beyond the Politics of Rove

This is a guest blog by Martin Heinrich, Democratic candidate for Congress in NM-01. He's one of the candidates featured on the NM netroots' True Blue New Mexico page.

Karl Rove is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with Washington and the Republican establishment. He’s the king of political dirty tricks and smear campaigns. His Machiavellian tactics have no moral compass and are divisive at a time when the nation is ready to unite for progress.

The politics of Rove are the politics of lies, thoughtless partisanship, deception and personal attacks. He allegedly sanctioned a racist push poll that wrongly claimed that fellow Republican John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. He was tied to a homophobic push poll that asked voters whether they are "more or less likely to vote for Governor [Ann] Richards if [they] knew her staff is dominated by lesbians." This is the same Rove that used the slash and burn politics of personal destruction to paint a genuine American patriot and Vietnam War hero, former Senator Max Cleland (D-GA), as a friend of Osama bin Laden.

It’s not just campaign tactics that define Karl Rove. As a Bush Administration official, Rove played a key role in the run up to the war in Iraq. He chaired meetings of the White House Iraq Group and devised communications strategies that the White House used to sell the disastrous war to the American people.

If orchestrating the sale of the Iraq War wasn’t bad enough, Rove was also investigated for his role in the Valerie Plame Affair. And, he was allegedly one of the prime movers involved in the U.S. Attorney scandal, which included firing New Mexico’s US Attorney David Igelesias.

At a 2006 White House holiday party, New Mexico Republican Party Chair Allen Weh complained to Rove that former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias failed to bring down politically motivated indictments during the campaign. Rove responded to Weh saying: “He’s gone.”

Today, Karl Rove is back in New Mexico helping his friend Allen Weh. He’s raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from hard right wing oil and gas fatcats. That’s money that will be used by New Mexico Republicans to employ Karl Rove’s style of slash and burn politics of personal destruction.

Together, we can fight back.

One of the things I am most proud of is my record of bringing people together and bridging the partisan divide.  On the Albuquerque City Council I brought business interests together with conservationists and citizen activists to craft an archeological ordinance and to conserve billions of gallons of our limited water resources.  Even when I successfully pressed an increase in the minimum wage, I kept my door open to those who disagreed or did not support the effort.  Had I not taken that inclusive approach, tens of thousands of hard working New Mexicans might not have gotten the raise they deserved.

I believe passionately that our adversaries need not be our enemies.  The Karl Rove approach ensures politics are mired in unnecessary partisanship -- even common sense solutions like the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (S-CHIP), which would give health care to tens of thousands of uninsured New Mexican children, are stymied by the kind of extreme partisanship that Rove represents. 

We can do better, and when I am in Washington, we will.

Obviously, Karl Rove has taken an early interest in New Mexico and you can be sure that he’ll be following this race very closely. That’s why I need your help. I need the resources to fight back against Rove’s politics of personal destruction.

Together, we can send a message to New Mexico Republicans that the smear and fear tactics of Rove have no place in New Mexico. I hope you’ll help by supporting my campaign and the New Mexico blogosphere’s True Blue New Mexico effort with a generous contribution.

This is a guest blog by NM-01 Democratic Congressional candidate Martin Heinrich.

To learn more about the NM netroots' True Blue New Mexico effort to raise campaign donations for NM Congressional candidates read our previous post or donate directly at the True Blue New Mexico page on Act Blue.

To see our previous coverage on the 2008 NM-01 Congressional race, visit our archive.

If you'd like to submit a guest blog for possible publication on this blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand side of the page.

Guest Blog: What Kind of US Secretary of State would NM Governor Richardson Make?

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, founder of New Millennium Fine Art in Santa Fe and Managing Editor of the weekly Santa Fe Sun News. He is working towards the establishment of a New Mexico Nutrition Council.

Just about everyone is perhaps beginning to recognize the increasingly endangered perception of the USA in every international context and by every standard, and that we are enduring ongoing serious trouble by allowing the most powerful USA corporations to entirely manipulate many branches of government, even if you don’t ascribe to a Hegelian or a Marxian view of history, particularly economic and political history.

I often, perhaps too often, write about the massively malfunctioning and manipulated FDA, and pray that the next President will appoint a real consumer protection advocate as FDA Commissioner, instead of the tools of Big Pharma who have occupied that position for most of the past twenty years, during both Republican and Democratic presidencies.

What could be of graver concern for health than the fact that powerful corporations, both food manufacturers and drug manufacturers, are adding to the destruction of health in hundreds of nations? Perhaps it is that also these corporations and several others like Kellogg, Brown and Root, Halliburton, and Blackwater have manipulated to their satisfaction the day to day functioning of the United States Department of State, to do their bidding in contracts, programs, and throughout the modus operandi of the State Department and the Pentagon. (Some might say it is the other way around with the Pentagon, which seems to always get what it wants from the corporations and from the US Congress).

This has had the cumulative effect of alienating almost all of the Islamic nations with almost 1.2 billion inhabitants, and further besmirches the USA entrepreneurially in South America and in Africa. I am so often reminded of the policies of Manifest Destiny as the USA expanded in the second half of the 19th Century by destroying millions of Native Americans, with a genocidal intent inherent in that policy of “Manifest Destiny.”

I see massive similarities between that and the way LBJ floundered in Vietnam and of course most of the dealings of the Bush administration in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. As a nation, we err terribly by tolerating and continuing such destructive nonsense and folderol.

Healing the Damage
The next President must immediately and surely move to repair this obviously dangerous malaise by appointing an international healer and diplomatist as US Secretary of State. I see no better person by temperament and intellect than New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for this job from 2008 to 2012.

After the bravado and maneuvering by the so-called “top tier” of  candidates has dispensed with the series of votes between now and January 2009, none could imagine any one more qualified, and I don’t mean in the usual resume sense of the word, than our own William Blaine Richardson III.

More important as qualifications were Richardson’s elevation of the international political dialogue amongst the candidates, his early strident support for unequivocally ending the Iraq War, on top of his history as a Cabinet Member (Secretary of Energy) and as United Nations Ambassador (to me, the last is the most important qualification).

Personally, I am sure that he would be a better Secretary of State than Condi, Colin, Madeleine, and Warren Christopher all rolled together. Even the corporations may recognize in time by the decline of their profits, in a strictly Hegelian sense, that they need a Secretary of State who might sow the seeds of international dialogue and conflict resolution, close Guantanamo, reduce the US military presence and its ancillary costs by 40%, reshape a 21st Century Peace Corps, and rapidly return America to a new level of international sanity.

After 8 years of Halliburton running the State Department, military contractors running the Pentagon, Energy Corporations running the Department of industry and writing the Legislation, and Big Pharma running the Food and Drug Administration, maybe intelligent, internationally-minded people in the world have something great to look forward to, after all, eh?

If Richardson still has Presidential aspirations, which I am sure he does, he might take some small comfort in this fact: the first one, Thomas Jefferson, later was elected President. Jefferson was appointed September 26, 1789 by Washington when he was still serving as Ambassador to France.

In fact, James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe all served terms as Secretary of State and as President!

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide readers an opportunity to express their views on issues relevant to DFNM, and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog: Reminiscence on the Passing of Senate President Ben Altamirano

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, founder of New Millennium Fine Art in Santa Fe. He is working towards a ban on aspartame and the establishment of a New Mexico Nutrition Council, with powers to question and even challenge the FDA. He is presently the Managing Editor of the weekly Santa Fe Sun News.

A Truly Great Statesman
For two years, he endorsed and volunteered to sponsor the bill to create a powerful new Nutrition Council for New Mexico, of which I was the author, and he saw the need to have express powers to challenge the FDA when it was wrong. He spoke of the need to have viejos and comadres serving on the council, if it was really going to help the people improve their health, not just industry apparatchiks. He told me many times that although he didn’t have a lot of confidence in the accuracy of newspapers, he had never gotten such good press nor such positive feedback from constituents in his entire legislative career than he had gotten from taking on the Nutrition Council legislation and its related issues.

Then the corporate lobbyists who had nothing to gain and everything to lose if the Nutrition Council ever were passed by the Legislature, turned on him and forced the bill's evisceration in a couple of Senate Committees.

He always had time to talk and always saw deeply into matters of ordinary people and the problems deriving from poverty, stemming from his own experiences growing up somewhat poor in Grant County. He was no "hack" like some of the very powerful in the Roundhouse; I think the main reason he rose to power was his even handedness as Senate Finance Chairman for 18 years, disbursing the state's money even handedly, fairly, judiciously, and without the faintest hint of scandal or dishonesty!

Michael Sanchez noted in his personal eulogy that Ben got the Pro Tem job after he asked the Democrat Caucus after Richard Romero resigned to run for Congress if anyone objected to his being Pro Tem, because he wanted it to be unanimous, and of course, no one objected and he got the job. I was in his office a day or two later and he was beaming with happiness and saying “By golly, President Pro Tem of the New Mexico Senate: it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

All of New Mexico will miss him profoundly. House Speaker Luján noted that legislation sponsored this year by Altamirano took effect on New Year's Day, to increase minimum wage benefiting the lowest-paid workers in New Mexico. "He was a gentleman in a place that does not always treat gentlemen kindly. He was a statesman in a place that too frequently rewards those with more narrow concerns," said Luján. "He brought a calm, reasonable voice to a place that needs more calm and more reason."

What Killed Benny Altamirano?
At the Memorial Service in the Rotunda, his son Paul briefly touched on the “negative” aspects of what 36 years of public service in the New Mexico Senate really means: the 4:00 A.M. calls asking him to come to Santa Fe, the very long trip starting with the tortuous winding road over the Black Range, the 1 and 2:00 A.M. sessions in Senate Finance, the stress, the cumulative fatigue (all of which led his doctors to recommend that he “cut back and slow down.” Not Benny . . . no one was as driven as he was by a love of public service and legislating.

After visiting him in his office, I noticed several perpetual cans of diet Coke in his office refrigerator. I was horrified for his health: the sweetener Aspartame is metabolized as methanol and formaldehyde, obviously two horrible effects on anyone, particularly someone recovering from cardiac surgery and on a later occasion, from a severe bout with bronchial pneumonia. I gave him dozens of bottles of Organic Apricot Nectar from the Italian firm, BioNaturae, but he kept drinking the Diet beverages. His physicians were right to be alarmed. Anyone would suffer from the grinding schedule of New Mexico’s Senate President.

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have gone to Santa Fe in the later years, and shouldn’t have carried on those 100 hour weeks. Someone suffering from cardiac impairments and later a total knee replacement, the last of his surgeries, should have retired and told stories of his accomplishments to his eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren. But not Ben Altamirano ...

It was almost as if he believed his personal powers of civility and persuasion would allow him to prevail over the Grim Reaper himself. After all, he had conquered a divisive and even embittered Legislature and six different Governors with his civility, decency, and wit. Alas, that was not to be. My own theory is that a disproportionately large number of aged and ill people die after our gluttonous holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, much as Halloween is bad for all of the children goring on sugar, candy, and junk food and much as hundreds die in auto wrecks after imbibing on New Year’s Eve.

Ben and his family no doubt welcomed the lighter load as Pro Tem, compared to the 18 years of physical draining as Senate Finance Chairman. Having grown up in the Depression in New Mexico made him glad to accept the travel and perks offered the Pro Tem, like a trip to the Netherlands to examine nuclear fuel reprocessing, and international legislative conferences in China and in California. I even warned him several times about the impact of such travel on his health.

Altamirano’s Service to New Mexico
His service to New Mexico was profound and ongoing. I won’t baste his memory with any more honorifics than those already accorded to him by his sincere and grief-stricken colleagues speaking in the Rotunda, except to say that his enduring gift of Collegial Civility will almost be everlasting, and I hope Governor Richardson will find some buildings in both Santa Fe and Silver City to name after him. Richardson prefers to bestow such honorifics on the living, when the person is still alive, and we all know that Ben Altamirano deserves this as much or more than some of those already deemed to be so worthy. He touched every single area of state government. There is housing named after him at New Mexico universities, and there is the Altamirano Leadership Conference at Luna Community College, which might be developed at all of the New Mexico state universities, in the Political Science Department or at UNM Law School. Ben would have liked that ...

Corporate Lobbyists’ Stranglehold on Legislation
I am still angry about the way that the corporations involved and their lobbyists robbed New Mexico of the powerful new Nutrition Council sponsored by Ben in 2005 and in 2006. Actually, on the strength of his great personality and power, the bill made it all the way through in 2005 passing resoundingly in both Houses, but died on the last day as a result of a long and destructive filibuster by Roswell Republican Dan Foley which in fact killed about six bills and five memorials. Throughout both years, the lobbyists leaned on Ben about this bill: he even shared with me in 2006 that particularly Coca Cola was upset with him for sponsoring such pro- consumer legislation, reminding him that they had donated many thousands of dollars to his slate of Senators for reelection, in golf tournaments and in outright direct contributions.

Like many parents with large families, he wanted all in his Legislative family to be happy, even the lobbyists, although I told him many times that if you are going to do real consumer protection to benefit the families, the poor, and the minorities of New Mexico, you are going to make some corporation angry, perhaps even several.

Ultimately, he caved into the demands of these unscrupulous lobbyists, because they too were his long time friends. The same corporations hired “friends” of Bill Richardson to be their lobbyists one year, which resulted in a 15-day delay in putting the bill on the Governor’s “call,” and in a 30-day session, a fifteen-day delay is a death knell for even the most profoundly needed legislation.

It is a bathetic and a pathetic ghastly situation in which corporate lobbyists from Ajinomoto, a Japanese company making aspartame and monosodium glutamate, can purchase their stranglehold on government, as they do in Santa Fe, in Washington, and in every international capitol, a condition that will go on and on, even as human bodies pile up from Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer, Sudden Cardiac Death from Aspartame in Diet Cokes (please take the time to read Neurosurgeon Blaylock’s alarming article on this), mesoepithelioma cancers from asbestos, brain damage from lead paint, autism from mercury in flu shots and infants’ vaccines–the list goes on and on. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Genius of Finance and Civility That He Was ...
Altamirano couldn’t remedy all of the above, but for two years, at least he tried to establish a Nutrition Council, to advise the schools, and even occasionally challenge the FDA when it was obviously dead wrong. Ben once told me he how he passed a bill in 30 minutes for the Secretary of State on the last day of one session to pay for some voting machines the legislature had previously voted to require, but had forgot to secure funding for. He personally walked the bill through the Senate Committees then over to the House, which voted on it and passed it with three minutes to spare before noon.

Altamirano’s Last Joke
His son Paul at the Memorial Service told a joke that Benny would have liked to share with his fellow legislators: a fellow was extolling the virtues of his new hearing aid to his neighbor. “I can even hear a bird chirping across the street.” “Well, that is some hearing aid.” “Yes, I can even hear a butterfly flapping its wings on the next block.” “Great! What an amazing hearing aid. What kind is it?” The fellow looked at his watch and said: “2:15.”

What a legacy Altamirano leaves. As Lt. Gov. Denish said: "Of all the people that I thought made the Senate kind of balanced, warm and welcoming, it was Ben. He was such an even-handed, upbeat, optimistic person. Someone will be appointed, but no one will ever replace him.”

What comes next in the New Mexico Senate?
Insiders as well several un-named members of the Senate speculate that what is likely to happen next is that an Interim (or "caretaker") Pro Tem President will be chosen, and later a formal election will be conducted next November. Many speculate that if the decision were based entirely on Seniority, as occurs in Senates all over the world, John Pinto (Navajo of Tohatchi) will get the job, and it would be the first time for any Native American in the state legislatures of our nation. Others wonder if Roswell's Tim Jennings, Finance Co-Chair, will press hardest for the job, yet might not because of the time it would require away from his wife, Patty, who is being treated for cancer.

Majority Leader Michael Sanchez might also be interested, although he is quite happy with the power inherent in the Majority Leader's position. Appropriately, Sanchez declined to speak of such questions of ambition after the New Year's Eve Altamirano Memorial Service in the Rotunda concluded. Still others surmise that Deming's John Arthur Smith, Finance Co-Chair, would be a likely candidate who would be acceptable to Conservative Democrats and to the Republicans, and that more might actually get accomplished with a strong conserative in the position.

We encourage all of them, particularly one of our favorite Senators, Cisco Mc Sorley of Albuquerque, Judiciary Chairman; Linda Lopez, Rules Chair; and Dede Feldman, Public Affairs Chair, all of whom are liberals and would do the job very commendably. In due course, may the best person win, and above all, may the entire 2008 Legislature refresh the unforgettable civility of Ben Altamirano!

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on issues relevant to DFNM and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog: Democrats, Walking the Walk, Supporting the Troops

Delivering the packages

This is a guest blog from Terry Riley and George Boersig, who worked hard on this project along with many other Democrats in Albuquerque: We so often hear politicians talk about supporting our troops. That is usually used to encourage us to not ask to bring our troops home and to encourage the next war. It would seem that truly supporting the troops would be doing something that reduces their risk of getting killed or injured. It also should mean providing all of the health and other care that they may need after they have served for us.

This Saturday, December 22, 2007, the Bernalillo County Democratic Party delivered clothes, toiletries, and food to the New Mexico Veterans Integration Center. The NMVIC is a housing, counseling, and job placement center for homeless veterans. This is not a government institution, though they do receive some government money. There are presently 69 male residents and three female residents. Members of the party gathered the items and brought them to the Bernalillo County Democratic Party third Thursday regular business meeting and then sorted items and boxed them so that we could wrap a variety of items in one box per individual. We collected more than enough for the residents so we were able to give the extra items such as underwear and towels for the NMVIC “general store” for later use.

Members of the US military branches believe in not leaving a soldier behind on the battlefield. The NMVIC believes in “Beyond the Battlefield”. Their hope is to provide needed help to any veteran. Our country needs to adapt the policy of leaving no soldier behind, active or veteran, no matter what his or her ailment or problem may be. We must act to fully fund our Veterans Administration so that the best care is available to everyone who served, no exceptions! This is Supporting Our Troops!

Sorting and filling the packages

Walk the walk. Vote for candidates who pledge to REALLY support our troops AND our veterans. Follow through, check on the people you voted for and make sure that they do vote to provide the needed services and care for ALL of our veterans. Help your elected officials keep their promises and replace ANY elected officials who do not do everything possible to Support Our Troops!

Now, after all of this we have an important request to make of everybody. The NMVIC has a serious budget shortfall and has asked for emergency appropriations from the state legislature. If you consider that New Mexico provided approximately $275,000 this last year for operations at the NMVIC and that New Mexico spent approximately $9,000,000 for monuments and memorials for those who served and for the campaigns they served in, it would seem a better choice to spend a lot of money on people who served – AND ARE IN NEED AND STILL ALIVE, than to spend on commemorations on those who have passed.

George with wrapped packages

Please contact your state legislators and ask them to commit to always spending more money on veterans who are alive than they spend on memorials. Just imagine how many veterans could be helped and how much care could be provided if we had multi-million dollar appropriations.

This is a guest blog by Terry Riley and George Boersig of Albuquerque. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog: State of Fear Averts Eyes from Bush's Errors

This is a guest blog by Ashleigh Steele, who graduated from Albuquerque's Eldorado High School in 2005 and is currently a junior majoring in international studies at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She writes a weekly op-ed for the Daily Nebraskan. This piece was originally published in that newspaper on December 7, 2007.

For the past several months, both the media and the government have inundated us with information about the developing nuclear weapons program in Iran.

According to the media and the Bush administration, Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, and they pose a serious threat to the United States. But according to the National Intelligence Estimate released earlier this week, Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003. This report came as a surprise to most Americans who have been forced to listen to the rhetoric of the Bush administration in their media battle against Iran.

The National Intelligence Estimate stated that "in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program" due to heightened international pressure. This is contrary to recent statements made by the Bush administration concerning the Iranian government.

The administration has repeatedly accused the government in Tehran of pursuing a weapons-grade uranium enrichment program. Even after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, the Bush administration has maintained this stance against Iran.

On Tuesday President Bush said, "Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Clearly the administration has learned nothing from the occupation of Iraq.

Before entering Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration adamantly maintained that Saddam Hussein was desperate to obtain weapons of mass destruction. In spite of the fact that both the CIA and the United Nations' weapons inspectors could not find any evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction, the administration still sent forces into Iraq.

The parallels between the rhetoric leading up to the war in Iraq and the rhetoric the administration is using to describe Iran today are striking.

Before the war in Iraq, the administration maintained that we, as Americans, should be terrified of the prospect of Saddam Hussein obtaining weapons of mass destruction; today it seems as though the administration would like us to be just as afraid of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the prospect of Iran enriching weapons grade uranium. 

Bush wants nothing more than to keep us in a constant state of fear. This constant state of fear only serves to distract us from the economic slump, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the illegal surveillance of the American people and the various other sins of the Bush administration.

The National Intelligence Estimate was released at a most inopportune time for the administration. In previous weeks, Bush has stated that a nuclear conflict with Iran could set off World War III; Cheney warned us that Iran is a terror-supporting state attempting to fulfill its grandest ambitions of acquiring nuclear weapons and taking control of the Middle East.

According to Flynt Leverett, a former senior director on Bush's National Security Council, the President and his staff were well aware of the conclusions of the NIE as early as August 2006. Yet the administration has maintained its adamant stance against the government in Tehran and continues to claim an attempt to enrich weapons-grade uranium.

This deception of the American people has to stop. The Bush administration has demonstrated its contempt for the truth throughout its time in office by lying to us about the reasons for invading the nation of Iraq and blocking a full investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - this only continues with the claim that Iran is attempting to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

When will this deception end?

An April 2006 article in the New Yorker suggests that President Bush believes that Iran will be his saving grace. If he can force some type of regime change in Iran and prevent the development of nuclear weaponry, then his presidency will be vindicated. The majority of opinion polls put the President's approval rating somewhere between 30 and 35 percent.

Due to the war in Iraq, the growing deficit, the torture of prisoners of war, the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina, the controversy surrounding the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys and thousands of other mistakes, the presidency of George Walker Bush is now viewed by the majority of Americans as a failure.

So he's convinced that if he can save the United States from the threat of Iran that his legacy will be saved.

But the NIE tells us that Iran poses no threat. The earliest Iran could produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb is 2010, but they have stopped working toward the production of a nuclear weapon and are complying with the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Clearly the Bush administration has motives other than protecting the interests of the American people. The United States should learn from its previous mistakes in Iraq; the American people should not allow themselves to once again get caught up in the rhetoric of the Bush administration and be driven into a senseless action against another nation in the Middle East.

This is a guest blog by Ashleigh Steele, a student at the University of Nebraska. You can reach her at ashleighsteele@dailynebraskan.com. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Ortiz y Pino: Hillary Is a Symptom of America's Malaise

This is a guest blog by NM State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a Democrat who represents District 12 in Albuquerque. This article recently appeared in other publications including the Seoul Times, OpEdNews.com and Santa Fe Sun News:

Watching the Democratic Presidential candidates' televised debates has become painful for me. Oh, sure: watching the Republicans' version of the rainbow coalition (white, off-white, grey, bone, ivory, buff and cream) in action on television in (pardon the expression) "living color" is even more dreadful, but we know those guys are going to lose, so who cares how bad their act is?

The Democrats, on the other hand, are in all likelihood sifting through the options leading up to actually picking a winner—the next occupant of the Oval Office. If the point of these debates is to give us, the voters, any insight into what our next Chief Executive is going to be like, we are in big trouble. I say this knowing that the Press has already accorded Senator Hillary Clinton not only the Democratic nomination, but the ultimate prize, the White House, as well. This was done without a single vote having been cast and simply on the strength of one solitary measure: dollars raised. She must be ahead, the pundits reason, because she's lapped the field in the money-grubbing sweepstakes.

I know that all the commentators realize that technically some sort of voting has to take place before the coronation is allowed to happen, but to the skilled political observer's eye, this is just so much red tape and hokum. The matter has been decided. She was the first in the sprint to raise $10 million this year, which shot her to the forefront in the early analyses and which then generated an avalanche of additional money from those eager to be lined-up on the same side as the ultimate victor. Then that extra money was widely interpreted to mean she was enjoying soaring, even skyrocketing popularity, far more than her primary opponents…and that attracted yet more contributions. A classic snowball effect played out.

It should be no surprise that the polls show her well ahead of Obama, Edwards, Richardson, and the rest of the pack. She's riding a tsunami of cash, and she seems expertly shrewd in the art of spending it wisely. Her commercials (definitely carried on network television, not the dusty back shelves of cable rerun channels) are certain to be slick. Her mailings will be models of Madison Avenue wizardry. Her telephone push polls will, of course, be put together so subtly that no respondent will ever be aware they've been pushed or polled. If money can buy it, Hillary will have it in her arsenal and all the gadgetry of modern political "witch doctorism" will be immediately at her disposal.

You've got to hand it to her: Senator Clinton plays this version of the political game like the old pro she is, and she plays it to win, with nothing left to chance. So I admit to a certain admiration for this tough, smart, supremely polished woman. She might have made a terrific President at one time, but now when I see her in action in front of the cameras, I cringe. She has become the number one symptom (and not the solution) of all that ails American Democracy in these most cynical of times.

In her probable victory a year from now, we will have reflected back to us the dismal portrait of what we have devolved into: a culture that can't be bothered to decide the value of anything except by one solitary measure: the marketplace.

Equally on full display is the frightening picture of how corrosive the influence of money is on political processes. I can't blame Hillary for playing to win by these rules; she didn't write them, she just figured out how to make them pay. It can be argued that it was the Supreme Court that did the dirty deed when it ruled some years ago that any attempt by law makers to limit the influence of money in elections is an unconstitutional attempt at limiting free speech!

One corollary to this ruling has always seemed to me to be: he who has the most money has the most free speech, and the poor, by virtue of their lack of money, have practically no free speech. A second corollary is what Clinton appears to be demonstrating so precisely this primary season: when dollars are the equivalent of votes, who needs elections as long as we have bankers?

This, then, is the American political malaise. Our worship of money has logically produced an electoral process in which nothing will be said that might antagonize the sources of political cash: the wealthiest of the American Corporate lions. Senator Clinton's rhetoric becomes increasingly bland and forgettable as her campaign treasury deepens. In the end stages (now), she says nothing and promises only to avoid (her favorite word) "irresponsible" action. Wonderful. We will get four years of "responsible inaction" if she assumes the mantle.

This rapid ride to the bottom of insipid inoffensiveness was on pathetic display most recently when she forgot herself during an answer to a question on issuing drivers licenses for undocumented persons. She said something just a wee bit venturesome—then spent five minutes thrashing around trying to re-establish herself as sitting squarely on the fence on this (and every other) issue imaginable. "I can see all sides of this controversy," she seemed to me to be saying, "and you can be assured that as President I will do absolutely nothing about it…for fear that taking action might offend someone, especially someone who possibly might have supported my campaign financially. I just can't take that risk. Nor will I promise to end the Occupation of Iraq during my term, either."

A campaign run the way this one is being run seems exquisitely crafted to produce record low voter turn-outs. The message is clear. Our leading candidates feel passion about nothing but the size of their campaign's bank deposits. They intend to do nothing to change the status quo. When Democrats and Republicans are indistinguishable, will voting make the slightest difference? There isn't a whole lot of Democracy left in this country, just a powdery covering with a lot of bare spots. Watching our leading Democratic Presidential contender brush away even those remnants isn't a pretty sight.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by NM State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino. Click to read a previous guest blog by the Senator. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog: Jason Call for Congress

This is a guest blog by Jason Call, who's running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in NM-01:

Dear DFNM members,
Allow me to introduce myself, for those who have not yet either met me or heard me speak. My name is Jason Call, and I’m a citizen-activist, high school math teacher, and candidate for US Congress in CD 1.

I would first like to thank Barb Wold for kindly allowing me the time and space on the DFNM blog to present myself to you. I worked for the Howard Dean campaign for nine months in the last election cycle, and I am now proud to call myself a Dennis Kucinich supporter.

We need a Democrat in Congressional District 1, that much is clear. I have been a lifelong registered Democrat, though I have on occasion voted outside the Democratic Party (I have never cast a vote for a Republican.) However, I have lost faith in the Democratic leadership. I have lost faith in Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel. I have lost faith in Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. My faith in some of my past heroes, such as Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer, is slipping. The reasons are plain and simple: These Democrats are not listening to the American people on some of the most important issues of our time. I have come to a point in my life as an American citizen, who believes desperately in the inherent goodness of our foundation – the US Constitution - where I have to ask whether the Democratic Party under its current leadership in Washington DC is serving the American people as it should.  And if the answer to that question is ‘no’, then what can I do about it?

I want to help bring the Democratic Party back to its senses. Here are a few of the things I want to ask you, the members of DFNM, about the Democratic Party.

Jason Call speaking at last Saturday's DPNM SCC Meeting

1)  We all understand that money is a corrupting influence in politics. Why do we stand idly by and let candidates essentially ‘win’ seats based on how much campaign money they can raise? Why haven’t we, as a citizen body, demanded campaign finance reform and public financing of elections? Shouldn’t a candidate’s position on issues be held in higher regard than fundraising ability? Can we ever truly trust a candidate who has big-money donors? Why have we allowed the media to make such a spectacle of fundraising (it seems to be the only issue in the Democratic presidential primary race.)

2)  We know that we were out-and-out lied to by the Bush administration about the Iraq War. We know that they are lying to us about Iran and its nuclear capability and intentions. Why is the Democratic leadership resisting impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, when clearly it is what the American public wants? The Bush administration has violated, repeatedly, both U.S. and International law. Their actions have caused almost 4000 US troop deaths, tens of thousands of the most heinous life-altering injuries, and untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. I would see them stand trial not only for impeachment, but in an International Criminal Court, to face charges of crimes against humanity. Can we not say this without fear of reproach from not only political adversaries, but those who we are supposedly allied with? What has happened to us when we cannot speak plainly in our political sphere about what is clearly reality? Since we are there illegally (and always have been), then any vote to further fund military action is both pro-war, and a vote to continue a criminal course. There is no “we broke it, we need to stay and fix it.” There is only “Get out now.” Not a graduated withdrawal. The Iraqis don’t want us there, and we have no right to be there. Go. Now.

3)  Why have we allowed our leadership to cave to such nonsense as the Patriot Act, and warrantless wiretapping? What have we become, as a nation, when security (and false security at that) is more important than liberty? What happened to “Live Free or Die” and “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”? Are we so wanting in our understanding of history that we cannot look to the past and see where this path leads? Why do we not dare to call it what it is? It goes beyond merely ‘unconstitutional’ and has broached the realm of totalitarianism. We all talk behind closed doors about what is happening to our freedoms – why do we fear to stand up publicly and call a spade a spade? Didn’t we cringe when Nixon said, “When the president does it, it’s not illegal”? Then why does our Democratic leadership stand for such tripe as signing statements, as if they were in agreement that ‘yes, the president is above the law’?

4)  Why do we continue, at all levels of government, to allow such nonsense as electronic voting to continue? These voting machines are the death of democracy. Unauditable. Hackable. Run using covert proprietary software written by partisan corporations. And we expect clean elections? How absurd. The evidence is overwhelming that the 2004 presidential election was stolen and the 2000 election was caged. Yet we only had one Senator (Boxer) and a handful of Representatives who stood up and said “something is wrong here” after November 2004, and a candidate who folded like he had a bad poker hand, because the DNC didn’t want to put up a fight. 

5) Why do we not have a national healthcare system in which all Americans have access to quality healthcare, regardless of income? Isn’t this a fundamental foundation of a healthy society? The Democrats keep tossing healthcare plans back and forth, as if any of them did anything but secure corporate profits for insurance companies. When did it become written in stone that private insurance companies have an inherent right to play a part in our healthcare? I didn’t see it in the Constitution, perhaps I missed it. Yet we, and our leadership, treat the situation as if there can be no other way, or that to remove private insurance from the picture would be too difficult, being that they are so entrenched in the current system. How have we allowed ourselves to be conned into this thinking?  I’ll tell you – because our leadership is funded by private insurance companies. It’s as simple as that. If the insurance companies weren’t dropping fat donations into campaign coffers, we would have national single-payer healthcare now, and it would be more efficient and cost less money than we are currently paying, and it would cover everyone - every man, woman, and child. Clinton: wrong on healthcare.  Edwards: Wrong on healthcare. Richardson: Wrong on healthcare. Kucinich: (like so many other issues) Right on healthcare.

6)  Here’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. 9-11. Did we get a fair and impartial investigation? Why wouldn’t anyone in the Bush administration testify under oath? Why wouldn’t Bush and Cheney testify separately? Why did the Bush administration stonewall an investigation for an entire year, and when they finally caved to the pressure of forming a commission, why did they choose Henry Kissinger – the least credible person on the planet when it comes to telling the truth about the government – to lead the commission?  The list goes on and on. People ask me “Well if the government isn’t telling the truth, what happened?” I don’t know what happened. That’s the point. None of us know. And I want to know. I want to know who knew what, and when, and how. None of us know what happened for sure. But many of us are pretty damned sure that the Bush administration isn’t telling us the truth – not even half of the truth. Will we ever get an impartial independent investigation? Who knows. Probably not. But I believe that the obvious cover-up of events of 9-11 will be one of the blackest stains on this country’s history, and I want you to know that I can be honest about saying that.

So I ask the good people of DFNM – what do you want in a candidate and an officeholder? Are we so far gone down the path of political pandering and posturing that we can no longer expect an honest politician, as I hear from so many people these days? Can we no longer expect a candidate for office to commit to principled stands, such as “No, I won’t vote to pay for this illegal war”? Or, “Yes, I will commit to the fight for single-payer healthcare”? Are politicians so afraid of the media that they cannot speak plain truth?

Here is the reality of the current CD 1 race. A candidate needs 20% of the state delegation’s votes at the primary convention in March in order to get on the primary ballot. I ask you to consider the current field of candidates. Compare our websites. Listen to what we say between now and March. There are some monumental issues that need to be discussed in open forum. Do you want these issues to be debated publicly? If the state delegation crowns a candidate in March, that much needed debate ends. Does ceasing that debate help or hurt the Democratic Party?

I raise the above issues, and others, on my website. I talk about them in detail. I can’t promise a glitzy 30-second television ad in which I use catchphrases like “We need to work together” or “I have the experience to build a brighter future.” But I can promise you open and frank assessments of the problems we face, and what is needed to fix them. I don’t need to be guarded in my speech or my writing, because in the end, I’m not a career politician, and I don’t have big-money donors that I need to keep happy. I’m simply an American citizen, I love my country, and I’m not afraid of speaking my mind. I hope that that is enough to get me on the primary ballot.

Please check out my website at www.Call4Democracy.org. If what you read here and there resonates with you, send me an email and work with me. It is time to not only take our country back, but to change the face of the Democratic Party.

Sincerely, and in Peace
Jason Call

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Jason Call of Albuquerque, who's running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in NM-01. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page. Photo credit: M.E. Broderick.

Ortiz y Pino Guest Blog on Blackwater: The Visigoths

This is a guest blog by NM State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino (right), a Democrat who represents Senate District 12 in Albuquerque. This piece was originally published in Santa Fe Sun News:

When the full accounting of the worst excesses of the Bush (Junior version) administration is at last tallied by historians, I will not be surprised to find heading the pathetic inventory the inglorious adventures of that uniquely American institution, the Blackwater Company. In a way that is exquisitely appropriate, Blackwater may well become recognized as the perfect example of the Bush-Cheney administration in microcosm, W's ideal and exemplary "MINI-ME"; a band of clumsy mercenaries wreaking havoc everywhere they tread (even while making quite a bundle of money in the process).

They are our Visigoths, the armored warriors who've swept in mindlessly and knocked down the last props holding up the American Empire, the very Empire our hapless President was apparently attempting to deputize them to protect. If it were a soccer match, Blackwater would have just managed to score an "own goal"... one for the other side. Recognize, too, that Blackwater is not an aberration, an unfortunate mistake, one noteworthy precisely because it is so different from all else that is going on. Oh no! These guys are no glitch; they are actually the vision! They are what Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld and the rest of that "New American Generation" crew had in mind when they talked about market forces and the "opportunity for regime change" and when they driveled-on about spreading American entrepreneurial capitalism across the globe. They saw the future and the future was ... Blackwater: another in the endless stream of governmental functions to be privatized; the endless chain of thefts from the public treasury for private gain; you know, the hallmark of all that Bush stands for! It's been so simple, really, to reverse the pumps.

It used to be Washington's task to bring money into the Government. No more. By the time they finally stagger away from their time at the trough, Dubya and his guys will have pretty well emptied out the Federal Government's cash reservoirs and filled their own and their buddies' up to the brim. What with Halliburton sopping up billions through creative bookkeeping of its non-activity in Iraq and dozens of corporations evading all tax liability by the simple expedient of listing their headquarters address off-shore in some businessman's tropic paradise; with Defense contractors, oil companies, major pharmaceuticals and money lenders all gorged just about to capacity from sucking up Federal largesse, it now turns out that (surprise!) there isn't much left in the accounts to actually run governmental services with. So there are plenty of villains to point at these days, no end to the larcenies being committed at public expense. Yet even among the ranks of all the many rogues with the foresight to cozy up to Republican elected officials and the willingness to exchange ethics for no-bid contracts, Blackwater stands out.

They all stink, of course; they all invite outrage, and they all should be made to pay the money back. But there is a clinging to this particular Virginia-based enterprise, this armed-muscle-for-hire company, an especially repugnant aroma that does set it apart even among the other opportunists and jackals that avidly fatten themselves at the expense of the miserable. You see, these guys are not just hired guns, mercenaries willing to serve whoever signs their pay vouchers. They fancy themselves as being our privatized Armed Forces: the ultimate in out-sourcing of essential governmental functions. And unfortunately, the President seems to agree with them.

Thus, when thugs in the employ of Blackwater commit murder, assault, mayhem and similarly impolite other forms of behavior during their stay in Iraq, as described so numbingly by Reporter Jeremy Scahill in his just-published book on the company called, simply, Blackwater, it is not the corporate investors in the company who will feel the heat of Iraqi outrage, it is the American people who will be blamed.

This is what the Romans learned the hard way over sixteen hundred years ago.

Those darned mercenaries are more trouble than they are worth. Not only can they prove difficult to control, but you have to bear the weight of all the errors they make. They are not independent of those who hire them. The illusion is that it is easier to pay big bucks for contractors to do the dirty work than to recruit, train and supervise your own troops. That is the illusion to which the current occupant of the White House has fallen prey. That is why we now have more private contract manpower in Iraq than we have troops (200,000 versus 170,000), even if we don't keep close tabs on their deaths -- must be a clause in their employment contract or something, a kind of "you don't have to mark my passing" authorization. But it is starting to look like even the Iraqi government (whose puppet strings we routinely jerk just to remind them who's boss) has finally tired of the arrogance and blood-letting of the contractors. The general populace did so long ago, of course. But then the general populace tired of all of us long ago, so it's no use asking them.

The government, though, now wants Blackwater gone; removed; their contract ended. They will soon be forced out of Iraq, I assume. But that will end neither the Bush entanglement with mercenaries in Iraq nor the profitability of Blackwater. Some other company of soldiers of fortune will fill their shoes, with little or no change in how badly we are served by using unaccountable and uncontrollable troops like that. Blackwater itself will scoop up some other juicy contract for work somewhere else in the world: Afghanistan, Mississippi (yes, they were there during Katrina), Darfur -- wherever there's a buck to be made and a code of ethics to be ignored. Blackwater is the Bush doctrine: private gain squeezed from public coffers. Now it is up to us, the American people, to decide if we are going to tolerate what it represents. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Blackwater are three very smelly pieces of inheritance to pass on to our children.

They don't deserve it. We must turn away the Visigoths.

This is a guest blog by Democratic NM State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog: NM Health Security Act & Legislative Health & Human Services Interim Committee

This is a guest blog by Terry Riley, who is an advocate for the Health Security Act for New Mexico:

New Mexico needs health care reform as badly as any other state in the union. We are in a very fortunate position because our legislature has been studying the problem over the last two years at least and there are several proposals being considered. There is only one proposal that is significantly different from the other proposals. I have been attending the Health and Human Services Interim Legislative Committee all around the state this year. There have been some very amazing presentations from experts from outside of New Mexico and from within New Mexico. I have learned a tremendous amount about the problems of health care financing as have our legislators. I believe that they have enough information to make an intelligent decision.

The Health Security Act is offered as a co-op and as such is the closest thing to a single-payer universal coverage plan. All of the other plans being considered protect the position of the private-for-profit insurance companies. The insurance companies provide a service that has nothing to do with your care.  In addition to the cost of processing the claims from health care providers and collecting the premiums from their clients, the health insurance companies have to provide a profit to the investors of their companies.  One company, United Healthcare, paid out a retirement package to their CEO upon retirement of $1.6 BILLION.

I like to consider how many medical procedures could have been paid for out of that obscene payout. I also ask you to consider how much more could the insurance company have paid their base employees if they had not paid this huge retirement?

The most recent sessions were held this month in Espanola on Wednesday and in Santa Fe on Thursday and Friday, Oct 17, 18, and 19. I attended the hearing on Thursday Oct 18th. During the previous meetings around the state I have been impressed with the overall tone of the discussions. Thursday I became terribly disappointed. Chaos prevailed! My best assessment of that session is that nobody wanted to be responsible for the decision. Individual legislators were strong in their support of the Health Security Act or the other plans but the committee wanted nothing to do with the decision. 

At one point the committee chair, Senator Dede Feldman, called for a straw poll by ballot for who supported a single-payer system and who supported an insurance industry system. The results were 8 supported a single-payer system and 6 supported the insurance industry system. Senator Feldman moved quickly on to further discussion. NOTHING was done about the vote that supported a single-payer universal health care system!

Call Senator Feldman and ask her why she did this! She suddenly reminded me of House Speaker Nancy Peloci. I doubt that the committee will be able to propose any legislation other than the Governor's plan. The Governor's plan may be the worst legislation that he will have offered in his whole term as Governor of New Mexico. You can contact Senator Feldman at:

Senator:  Dede Feldman, District: 13
County(s): Bernalillo
Senator Since: 1997
Party: Democrat
Occupation: Public Relations
Address: 1821 Meadowview NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104
Capitol Office Phone: 986-4482
Office Phone:   
Home Phone:  (505) 242-1997
E-mail:  dede.feldman@nmlegis.gov

The New Mexico Legislature almost always has a public input period in committee hearings. I would like to share with you what I had to say. The very last part of my comment had to be trunkated because I ran over the two minutes allowed. I cut it off of the recording because it did not make sense because I did not finish my statement. Download rileyclip.wav

Information regarding the Health Security Act is available from www.whatifyouknew-nm.com and www.nmhealthsecurity.org . You can read the Health Security Act on either web site and you can read the Mathematica Report on the www.whatifyouknew-nm.com web site.

Terry Riley
Advocate for: Health Security Act for New Mexico

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Albuquerque activist Terry Riley. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on relevant issues of the day. They may or may not express 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.

Guest Blog: Al Gore in Albuquerque

This is a guest blog by Linda in Santa Fe NM, who an organizer in the grassroots effort to draft Gore for president. As I'm sure you know, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in tandem with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It kicked the movement to urge him to run for president into overdrive.

October 3rd was the day of Rio Rancho's Al Gore Live Presentation with his slide show, "An Inconvenient Truth." Of couse this was a chance to learn important information about the climate crisis, but it also allowed us to express our support for Mr. Gore running to be our next President.

We arrived at the Santa Ana Star Center over an hour before the event was scheduled to start. Unfortunately the police said they were given orders that no signs be on the property. Given so many expected this to be "the place" to be, we had people working for many other candidates, Presidential and Senate, that were pushed to the sidelines as well. We stood on the sidewalk facing the entrance armed with buttons, fliers and displaying our banner. I don't know if Mr. Gore had a chance to see us, but the people sure did.

It was great to hear pretty much everyone saying they want a Gore presidency. Almost everyone we asked was thrilled to put on a Gore button. Of course we weren't getting many walking by us, since we weren't in front of the door, so I sent someone over with a bag of them to pass out in front of the entrance. He walked back to get more three times within minutes because they were gone instantly.

The people were very excited about Gore for President. The one person who displayed skepticism that he would run, and didn't want a button, came up to me after the presentation to say, "I changed my mind, can I still have a button?" Even people who were not part of the "official Draft Gore" movement were all on the same page and were doing their own individual parts. It was so exciting. I met a couple with their daughter coming up with signs and petitions to join the Kyoto Treaty. Another couple inside painted R U N down their shirts. Yet another couple in front of us were from Santa Fe too, and excited to hear there was a movement. Because the buttons we made have the website's address, www.algore.org on them, it will be easy for them to officially get involved.

After arriving at our seats and realizing there was an opportunity to hit up the folks sitting in the front of the stage where Mr. Gore would be speaking, I walked over to ask if anyone wanted buttons. If they weren't already wearing them (we saw them on the chests of people everywhere we looked), they asked for them. Then the folks sitting on the side realized I had buttons and they all started yelling out that they wanted some, and I started getting "we need five over here." I had to excuse myself to get more because I ran out of them. When I returned with more buttons, people asked if they could shake my hand to thank me for my work, and one man yelled out, "I love you."

Mr. Gore was absolutely incredible. He was so energetic, passionate, strong and funny. He opened up with some humor before giving the facts. He carefully alleviates the tension from the intense information he is sharing with a slight break of humor every once in a while. The information and facts he shares just roll off effortlessly, with intense passion being displayed when the news gets deep. The standing ovations he received when entering paled in comparison to what happened when he finished his presentation. I don't think any of us wanted to sit down.

The information Mr. Gore shared in his presentation was updated with current information. After thinking I had seen and heard everything before from the movie, It was disturbing to see and hear the latest news, including information highlighted for our state. Most troubling was hearing we are indeed running out of time because everything is happening faster than we thought. As he clearly stated, we are speeding up the warming at an alarming rate.

First we went from 100 years' time to act down to 50. Then a long-awaited study showed so much damage we went down to 34 years to act. Last month, new information came out saying the rate of warming was advancing so quickly to melt the arctic ice that we had only 23 years before the tipping point. Then there was last week's news that ice twice the size of England melted, then that ice the size of Florida disappeared. The day prior to his talk, Mr. Gore received word that our tipping point actually may be only seven years away. Seven years. I started to cry.

Mr. Gore said he believes we can still solve these problems, but we need to act with urgency. He is asking for citizen activism. Get involved. Go online and find out what you can do to help. He also made it clear that we must restore our democracy as we go forward. There is much work we can do.

The evening ended with Gore taking questions from the audience. At this point I figured if I got kicked out it would be worth it, so I took my draft Gore banner, opened it up and dropped it, hanging it from our legs. I know it was seen, because a friend sitting on the opposite side of the Center noticed it, and people in their seats pointed to the banner and gave it a "thumbs up."  I can only hope that Mr. Gore caught a glimpse of it during a pause in the questions because, after all, it is time. Time for a COOL change with Mr. Gore.

The final questions of the evening were from a young girl and boy, ages 12 and 13. They both wanted to know if this would be solved and by whom. They asked, "do I and my children have a chance?" That pretty much said it all as to what's on the mind of their generation. The little girl added, "good luck in winning the Nobel Peace Prize." Mr. Gore bowed his head with that and then responded that it is our 
responsibility to solve this for them and their children. And he hopes they will ask the question of how we managed to solve this. I do too. While leaving the very emotion-filled presentation, I had a chance to find that little girl and give her a button. I hope it will help give her some added hope that we will solve this crisis for her and those like her all over the world. Thank you Al Gore.

This is a guest blog by Linda in Santa Fe NM. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express themselves 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.