Democracy for New Mexico

Guest Blog: An Updated Voting Machine Audit Provision (SB179)

This is a Guest Blog submitted by Paul Stokes of United Voters of NM and Verified Voting NM, which were instrumental in gaining passage of last year's legislation that mandated the use of paper ballot voting systems in all NM counties:

An evaluation presented to the Election Reform Task Force of 2005 of the audit provision in the New Mexico Election Code revealed ambiguities and substantive issues that need to be addressed. In addition, changes are needed to make the audit compatible with our new paper ballot voting systems.

We have, therefore, developed a new audit provision to address these needs, and while we were at it, we developed a new audit concept that is just now gaining currency in the election integrity community. The essence of the concept is to randomly select a sample of voting machines in such a way that the size of the sample would assure that, if faulty machines existed, there would be a high probability (e.g., 90%) that at least one faulty machine would be in the sample. The sample size would be dependent on the margin between the winner and the loser - the larger the margin, the smaller the sample size needed to catch faulty voting machines that could change the winner.

If no errors are found in the sample, the winning candidate is selected based on the voting machine counts. If errors are found, then an election commission decides whether the magnitude of the errors is such that the election result might be reversed. If so, further sampling or a full recount would be called for, depending on the details of the errors. If the election commission decides that it would unlikely for the election to be reversed, no further recounting would occur, and the winner would be declared based on the original results, as corrected for errors found in the sample that was recounted.

Some features of audit provision are:

- It will cover votes cast by absentee ballots, at early voting sites, and during election day in a uniform way.

- Offices covered are the governor or president (whichever is on the ballot), the statewide office for which the winning margin is smallest, and the federal office for which the winning margin is smallest.

- An election commission will be formed consisting of the director of the bureau of elections, the attorney general or designee, the state auditor or designee, and three public members, one of whom is an expert in statistics and two of whom represent different nonpartisan voter information/education organizations.

- The election commission is responsible for establishing the rules for carrying out the audit, for overseeing the audit, and establishing standards and procedures for the audit.

This audit provision was selected by United Voters of New Mexico and Verified Voting New Mexico as one of their priorities for the 2007 Legislature. It was presented to the interim legislative committee on Courts, Corrections, and Justice, and was approved for the 2007 Legislature. Senator McSorley introduced legislation embodying the audit provision as Senate Bill 179. Representative Stewart has offered to carry the bill in the House.

You can help get this audit provision passed by writing your legislators, Senator McSorley, and Representative Stewart, and by attending Legislature committee sessions where the bill is being heard. Visit the NM Legislature website for contact information, bill tracking, etc.

Thanks, Paul Stokes

Editor's Note: This is a Guest Blog by Paul Stokes of Albuquerque. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a Guest Blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Guest Blog: Support the NM Bill to Ban Aspartame

Guest Blog by Stephen Fox:
The House bill for New Mexico to ban Aspartame was turned in; it has a number now, House Bill 391, with three committee assignments: Consumer and Public Affairs; Business and Industry, and Judiciary.

The bill is to ban the sale of Aspartame in New Mexico. This is a neurotoxic artificial sweetener that metabolizes as methanol and formaldehyde and even one more brain tumor causing agent, diketopiperazine. Its approval was forced through the FDA in 1981 by then CEO of G.D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld, for vast personal gain, despite the FDA having turned down the approval for 15 prior years.

This broad base of support in the New Mexico House of Representatives proves that there is deep concern among legislators for the failures of the USA FDA to recognize the harm done by Aspartame to rescind FDA approval; therefore, the legislators are choosing to act at the state level in order to protect the health of all New Mexicans from further damage caused by this neurotoxic carcinogen, presently found in 6000 USA food products including diet sodas, sugarless gum, low fat yogurt and Equal (table sweetener), as well as more than 500 medications, including children's vitamins and aspirin.

These 19 Representatives have signed HB391:
Irvin Harrison (Sponsor, Vice Chair, Consumer and Public Affairs Committee)
W. Ken Martinez (Majority Leader New Mexico House of Representatives)
Henry Kiki Saavedra (Chairman, House Appropriations Committee)
Gail Chasey (Chair, House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee)
Debbie Rodella (Chair, House Business and Industry Committee)
Roger Madalena (Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
Dan Silva (Chair, House Transportation Committee)
Jose Campos (Chair, Voters and Elections)
Miguel Garcia (Chair, Labor and Human Resources)
Nick Salazar (Chair, Rules and Order of Business; Vice Chair,Health and Government Affairs)
Bobby Gonzales (Vice Chair, Taxation and Revenue)
Patricia Lundstrom (Vice Chair, Transportation)
Ray Begaye (Vice Chair, Agriculture and Water Resources)
Joni Gutierrez (Member, Appropriations and Finance)
Elias Barela (Vice Chair, Enrolling and Engrossing)
Dr. Danice Picraux (Vice Chair, Finance and Appropriations)
Jim Trujillo (Vice Chair, Energy and Natural Resources)
Tom Swisstack (Member, Judiciary)
Andrew Barreras (Member, Business and Industry)

The Committee Assignments (3) are challenging; following are lists identifying the members of which committees we should be concentrating our efforts on to convince. Those wanting to help this effort could send quick 2 sentence notes of thanks and appreciation to these members above. Here are their email addresses, and if they don't do email, I have listed their Capitol Telephone numbers.  Letters to Governor Richardson and to Lt. Governor Denish are also helpful; they have email forms at their respective websites.

Irvin Harrison (irv4u@cnetco.com)
Ken Martinez (mlo1@7cities.net)
Henry Saavedra, in care of Buffie.Saavedra@state.nm.us
Gail Chasey gailchasey@msn.com
Roger Madalena: 505 986-4417
Debbie.Rodella@nmlegis.gov
Jose Campos josephs@plateautel.net
Miguel Garcia  Miguel.garcia@nmlegis.gov
Nick Salazar  nlsalazar@lanl.gov
plundstrom@nwnmcog.com
Danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov
Joni Gutierrez jonig@zianet.com
Dan Silva (505) 986-4425
ray.begaye@nmlegis.gov
danice.picraux@nmlegis.gov
jimtrujillo@msn.com
Tom Swisstack tswiss1@msn.com
elias@barelalaw.com
ajbarreras4staterep@hotmail.com

Thanks for helping so much, thus far....I think the real battle is going to be in the committees where the corporate lobbyists will concentrate on trying to slow down, subvert, and defeat this vital, long overdue legislation entirely. Some members I don't list because they have already informed me
that they will vote against it, so we won't waste effort on opponents: there is plenty to do to convince the fence-sitters!

Key Committee members are going to be:

House Consumer and Public Affairs:
antonio@moejustice.com Antonio Maestas
alpark.nm@gmail.com Al Park, also Chairman of House Judiciary
noralee@cableone.net Nora Espinosa, Republican from Roswell
Dub Williams (505 986-4454)

Business and Industry:
George Hanosh (Vice Chair) 505 986-4243
Justine Fox Young (Albuquerque Republican) jfoxyoung@gmail.com
Tom Garcia (ocate@hotmail.com)
Dona Irwin (donagale@zianet.com)
Tom Taylor (tom@tomtaylor.net) House Republican Leader
Gloria Vaughn Alamogordo Republican 986-4453
Richard Vigil rrvigil@plateautel.net

House Judiciary: Most emails should be sent to Al Park, Joe Cervantes,Dan Foley, Bill Rehm, Mimi Stewart, Eric Youngberg, and Teresa Zanetti

Al Park, Chair Democrat (alpark.nm@gmail.com)
Joseph Cervantes, Vice Chair Democrat (cervanteslaw@zianet.com)
Elias Barela, Democrat (elias@barelalaw.com)
Gail Chasey, Democrat gailchasey@msn.com
Daniel R. Foley, Republican (Arch conservative, Minority Whip)
daniel.foley@nmlegis.gov

Antonio "Moe" Maestas, Democrat antonio@moejustice.com
W. Ken Martinez, Democrat mlo1@7cities.net
William "Bill" R. Rehm, Republican bill.rehm@comcast.net
Mimi Stewart, Democrat mstewart@osogrande.com
Thomas E. Swisstack, Democrat tswiss1@msn.com
Gloria C. Vaughn, Republican 505 986-4453
Eric A. Youngberg, Republican eric_youngberg@msn.com
Teresa A. Zanetti, Republican electzanetti@comcast.net

I appreciate your immediate attention to these requests for correspondence in favor of banning aspartame: they will make the difference. In all cases, even with telephoning, always ask for a response in writing which will state their position. This will be invaluable in assesing where we stand, i.e., in counting the votes....

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Respectfully,
Stephen Fox
stephen@santafefineart.com
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-983-2002

Editor's Note: This is a Guest Blog by Stephen Fox. If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication as a Guest Blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page. Guest Blogs provide an opportunity for readers to express their opinions on issues of interest to them and don't necessarily reflect the views of DFNM or myself.

Guest Blog: Richardson Running for President a Breath of Fresh Air

This is a Guest Blog submitted by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe:
What wonderful news. Sorry to say, but Hillary, Obama, John Edwards, et alia., seem like recycled hacks to me, and the alternative with Bill Richardson is much more interesting. My focus is international, almost entirely international, and Richardson and his lengthy international resume is a breath of fresh air, after the inanities and ghastly absurdities evidenced thus far by Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Rumsfeld and the reign of plutocrats.

Let's face it: we are going to need an internationalist Democrat, if there will ever be any hope of rebuilding the USA's image internationally! Can the USA ever really recover from them and what they have perpetrated nationally and internationally? Gouging the USA's expenditures into weapons and deployment and grudge matches and another $160 billion to waste in Iraq and in Afghanistan, regardless of the loss of markets and esteem for the USA in Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America due to these depravities and depradations?

Bill Richardson could lead such a recovery, even through the course of the candidates' dialogue, if given the chance he will get as a viable presidential candidate. I welcome his presence in the ostensibly crowded field of Democratic candidates. He won't be one to perpetuate the kind of international idiocy and unavoidable resultant decline, both internally and internationally, from which we have suffered from during the past 6 years.

Let us New Mexicans help him win by talking with our friends, family, and colleagues in other states.

Podemos esperar, que non?

Guest Blogger Stephen Fox is an art dealer from Santa Fe, founder of New Millennium Fine Art, an eclectic Santa Fe gallery since 1980. Active in international and Legislature Democratic politics, 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 was a "snowball-in-hell" candidate for the US Senate in 1978, and has been deemed by a Taos newspaper as a "professional idealist," from the M.K. Gandhi/Eleanor Roosevelt wing of the Democratic party. Beyond the Legislative Session, Fox is focusing hope that the World Peace Conference May 16-17 in the Capitol will turn into an eventual Peace University in Santa Fe.

Editor's Note: We periodically publish Guest Blogs submitted by readers. If you'd like to submit a Guest Blog for possible posting here, contact me by clicking on the Email Me button on the upper left-hand corner of DFNM's main page. Guest Blogs specifically represent the views of the writer of the post and do not necessarily express the views of DFNM or others who write here.

Video: 19 Miles from Baghdad

From Bring 'Da Noise:
I was listening to Democracy Now recently and heard one of the most inspiring songs I've ever heard. Amy Goodman said that it was sent in by other viewers and that it was by Lizzie West & The White Buffalo, so I visited their website at www.lizziewestlife.com, and contacted the band via e-mail. I expressed to them that I wanted to create a video for it, and they were nice enough to send me the whole song! Check out the video at www.bringdanoise.com.

Baba Buffalo, from the band, informed me that they wrote the song when they were with Warner Bros. and the record label refused it because, according to them, "It didn't belong in American culture." You be the judge. Its a great song and I know everyone who watches the video will instantly become a Lizzie West & The White Buffalo fan. Have a Great New Year! --Thomas

Guest Blog: Support NM Impeachment Effort

Submitted by guest blogger Terry Riley:
I am mad as hell and I am going to do something. I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Santa Fe. Leland Lehrman worked with me on the paper ballot / election reform legislation in the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions. He is proposing that we get out state legislature to bring impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Please read his message. He is right, the states can initiate the action and then the "Democrats" will have to deal with it. Please read, and contact your legislator.

It looks like Bush is going to put another 30,000 soldiers into Iraq after the first of the year and hold the troop strength at 185,000 for two years. Think about our soldiers. In order to maintain this troop level the Pentagon will have to put every soldier and EVERY reservist into a tight rotation, much more than any individual can be expected to survive.

Save our Soldiers! Impeach Bush
Terry Riley
Veterans for Peace
Son of a Veteran
Veteran
Brother of a Veteran
Father of a Veteran
Father or a combat Veteran

Leland Lehrman's Email:

Friends and Legislators,
We're working on a resolution that will impeach President Bush at the NM State Level. According to Jefferson's Rules of the Federal House, if an impeachment resolution passes at the State Level, the Federal Government is required to stop all business and hear impeachment proceedings immediately.

Quoting from ImpeachFor Peace.org:
"In the House of Representatives there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate (II, 1303; III, 2342, 2400, 2469; VI, 525, 526, 528, 535, 536); by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination (III, 2364, 2491, 2494, 2496, 2499, 2515; VI, 552); or by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee (April 15, 1970, p. 11941- 2); by a message from the President (III, 2294, 2319; VI, 498); by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State (III, 2469) or Territory (III, 2487) or from a grand jury (III, 2488); or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House (III, 2399, 2444)."

According to Section 604 of the Manual, "direct proposition to impeach is a question of high privilege in the House and at once supersedes business otherwise in order under the rules governing the order of business." It does not lose its privilege just because "a similar proposition has been made at a previous time during the same session of Congress." On the other hand, "a resolution simply proposing an investigation, even though impeachment may be a possible consequence, is not privileged." Where, however, "a resolution of investigation positively proposes impeachment or suggests that end, it has been admitted as of privilege."

It is also possible to impeach through the submission of a memorial by any private citizen, given a Congressional Committee picks it up and acts on it. This type of initiative has been organized by Impeach for Peace here.

Furthermore, Impeachment of the President was passed with overwhelming support by the NM Democratic Party when it held its most recent statewide Platform hearings. It is an official policy of the NM Democratic Party to impeach President Bush.

We will have to repeat that over and over because it is not common knowledge.

Also, Georgia Dem. Rep. Cynthia McKinney has written articles of impeachment during the last few weeks of her term and we can use those at the State Level. I need everyone to call Senators John Grubesic and Gerry Ortiz y Pino (Santa Fe and Albuquerque) and ask them to support an impeachment resolution and to help us get it drafted before the January session. Rep. Peter Wirth is my target for the House, although we may have better luck with someone else. Please call your Legislators now, and email, mail or fax this information to them.

Grubesic and Wirth are Santa Fe's own, we can hopefully count on them. Ortiz y Pino is one of  the best legislators in the NM House overall; he is associated with the NM PACE and the Albuquerque Peace and Justice social fabric. A social worker by profession.

Grubesic: 820-1825
Ortiz y Pino: 505.250.1280
Wirth: 988-1668

Also, essential to success with be Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, Majority Leader Ken Martinez, Sen Majority Leader Michael Sanchez and President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano. Get familiar with them at the NM Legislature website. All are Democrats. The Governor will have to be invoved as well. With Democratic control of every governmental body in the State, NM has a good chance to make history here.

Please forward to all interested. I have yet to hear from anyone, but will be in their offices or on the phone again with them this week coming. Once we get the OK to draft, we will proceed to incorporate McKinney's articles of impeachment and those in the book, "The Case for Impeachment." Also, below, I include information compiled by of the Green Party, much of which is at the website ArticlesOfImpeachment.net where you can get completely sorted out about the legal methods and more.

Leland Lehrman (505) 982-3609

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Terry Riley. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Donate to Child's Play and Get Games to Sick Kids at UNM Hospital

From Avelino Maestas of local blog Live From Silver City:
Child's Play uses wishlists at Amazon.com to get toys, books and games to sick kids in children's hospitals. One of their partners is UNM Children's Hospital. So, I'm trying to get the word out about this charity, because it might make for a better holiday season for a lot of children in the state. I know there are a lot of charities helping people during the Christmas season, but this one is Web based, and it appeals to me as a blogger. Click here for more information.

Terry Riley Guest Blog: Support Maggie Toulouse for Bernalillo County Clerk

From guest blogger Terry Riley:
On January 1st Mary Herrera will tender her resignation as county clerk and be sworn in as Secretary of State of New Mexico. At that point Bernalillo County commissioners will have to meet to appoint a new County Clerk.

I attended a meeting of Democracy for New Mexico last week where Maggie Toulouse spoke. She told a bit about herself and she asked for suggestions for priorities for change in the county election process. She recognized that she was speaking with people who had participated in this year's election process. The input from the group was varied and her responses appeared thoughtful.

Ms. Toulouse asked for support for the nomination. She indicated that she would submit a summary of her qualifications to the Democracy for New Mexico web site. (Editor's Note: She did submit this info, which can be found in this post.) From a little experience that I have had working with her and very heavily from her presentation at DFNM I feel that she is a very good candidate for replacing Mary Herrera. 

If you are a Bernalillo County resident and you want to recommend Maggie Toulouse for Bernalillo County Clerk I ask that you contact your commissioner and indicate your support. You can also have an effect if you contact the other commissioners, be sure to indicate whose district you reside in.  The contact information for the Bernalillo County Commissioners is:

Alan B. Armijo, 505-768-4027, msalazar@bernco.gov

Teresa L. Cordova, PhD, 505-768-4448, bmiera@bernco.gov

Deanna A. Archuleta, 505-768-4108, sdanciger@bernco.gov

Tim Cummins, 505-768-4001, emckinley@bernco.gov

Michael Brasher, 505-768-4002, rdoucette@bernco.gov

Address: One Civic Plaza NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
They are located on the 10th floor. 

Please take action.  New Mexico needs the most qualified people in county clerk positions, especially Bernalillo County.

Editor's Note: This opinion piece is a guest blog submitted by Terry Riley. If you would like to submit a post for possible publication as a guest blog here, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the main blog page.

Guest Blogger Mike Smith on My Strange New Mexico

This post was submitted by guest blogger Mike Smith:
My name is Mike Smith, and I write a weekly column of strange New Mexico history and lore, “My Strange New Mexico.” For now, the column appears every Thursday in the New Mexico Daily Lobo, though I do have aspirations for it to someday soon be read by a wider audience. 

I also post all of my columns on a website, www.mystrangenewmexico.com, along with photos and relevant links. 

I’ve been writing the column so far for just over three months and, despite its constant demand for research and time and late-night writing, it has been incredibly rewarding for me. At last, I’ve been able to give my attention to subjects that I’ve been interested in for years but have never had the time or the motivation to check out. I’ve been able to research and write about everything from stories of a dead Santa Rosa SCUBA diver turning up in Lake Michigan, to New Mexico’s role in the development of the space elevator, to New Mexico’s first serial killer—and his alleged killer—and how his killer was killed.

It’s also been a great way for me to find out strange New Mexico stories that I never would have heard before. Because of the strange subject matters of my column, people have come to me with all sorts of bizarre stuff—escaped monkeys living in a cave near Tijeras, Pterodactyl sightings in the Antelope Wells area, strange cases of the bubonic plague, and a cult of marathon runners near Datil, just to name a few of the subjects I haven’t even gotten to yet.

It’s made me love New Mexico even more than I already did, because it’s made it seem like a place where anything is possible.

People have asked me how I come up with a new subject every week, but the state we live in really makes it pretty simple. I have a list of about seventy or so topics that I still haven’t written about, and the list grows almost every day. If any of you reading this have any additional suggestions, e-mail me at antarcticsuburbs@yahoo.com, include a mailing address, and I’ll send you a free “My Strange New Mexico” cabbit button. (Cabbits are legendary half-cat/half-rabbit hybrids said to have been bred by the government near Dulce—see my website for more details.)

I eventually want the column’s subjects to have covered every New Mexico county, the top five or so New Mexico cities, and every 25-year-period since the state’s European history began, with several pieces about before then as well. 

I’ve always been interested in the strange, and I blame it mostly on my family. My older brother Rob had a superhero alter-ego well into his teens, and would often walk across the bottom of our swimming pool in a homemade plastic diving bell. My older brother David, before he was even ten years old, frequently stole my dad’s car.  And my younger brother Jeff had a longtime hobby of badgering Wal-Mart employees and customers while pretending he was mentally handicapped, a hobby that fit well with his other favorite pastime—getting physically removed from Wal-Marts.

Moving to New Mexico as a kid only increased my exposure to strangeness, and I liked that. I’ve walked across America before on a year-long charity hike, I’ve traveled the world, and I don’t think I’ve ever found such an intense concentration of strangeness as I’ve found in New Mexico. Maybe that’s just because I’ve spent more time here, or because I’m more in tune with it, but I like to think that the state—whether because of the landscape or the atomic program or attention from the Roswell Incident—is just a little bit odder than everywhere else.

And if that ever changes…I’m moving.

Check out "Towns of the Sandia Mountains," by Mike Smith, now available from Arcadia Publishing. Or read about New Mexico's strangest history and lore at https://www.mystrangenewmexico.com/.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Mike Smith of Albuquerque. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Guest Blog: Maggie Toulouse, Candidate for Bernalillo County Clerk

Editor's Note: When Maggie Toulouse spoke at our DFA-DFNM Meetup last week she promised to send us more information about her qualifications and goals related to her campaign for the position of Bernalillo County Clerk. The Bernalillo County Commission will appoint a candidate on January 1, 2007 to fill the vacancy created by Mary Herrera's election as NM Secretary of State. Here's what Maggie sent:

Maggie Toulouse is the only candidate for Bernalillo County Clerk who has the academic and hands-on experience to improve our electoral system and has a clear agenda to make our elections more transparent, efficient and accessible. 

As the State Director for the non-partisan League of Conservation voters, Maggie led public education campaigns that registered thousands of voters and mobilized hundreds of volunteers to turn out the vote on Election Day.  She has successfully managed several statewide conventions with elections, including the 1996 Democratic Pre-Primary Convention.  As an appointee of the Bernalillo County Commission to the Board of Voter Registration, Maggie pushed for improvements to the voter registration process.

A UNM Phi Beta Kappa with a Masters in Political Science, Ms. Toulouse is a recognized academic having published in the Critique Journal of Politics on New Mexico voting behavior.  She serves as faculty at the UNM Political Science Department and teaches Political Science 200: Introduction to American Politics.

Maggie is running on an agenda for improving our elections process.  As Bernalillo county clerk she will:

• Create new efficiencies and streamline the process of absentee and hand-tallied ballot counting for future elections to ensure reliable results in a time-sensitive manner.

• Implement an election worker retention program and expanded election worker training in order to ensure that Bernalillo County has the best-trained and experienced election team in the nation.

• Work to ensure safeguards against voter fraud and voter intimidation and further protect the privacy of the paper ballot system.

She currently serves as a consultant to Common Cause New Mexico.  Maggie is the proud mother of Christian Toulouse, age 9.

If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Maggie Toulouse at magtoulouse@hotmail.com or 505-833-2023. Click for a Word document version of this resume, should you want to share it with others.

Editor's Notes: If you'd like to contact your Bernalillo County Commissioner to express your views on the candidate they should appoint as Bernalillo County Clerk, . To determine which Commission district you reside in and enter your street address.

This post was submitted by guest blogger Maggie Toulouse. If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication here as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Organize or Attend a Screening of "An Inconvenient Truth"

From Terry Riley:
MoveOn is working to help educate people on environmental issues. They are holding screenings of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Please go to this URL to find a screening near you or organize one yourself. Bring a friend. The more people who know what is really happening, the better our chances of changing our world.

Also, if you can, why don't you e-mail your Senator's and Representative's offices and invite a member of their local staff to attend.  THIS is where change really starts. Congress.org makes it easy.