Democracy for New Mexico

Gore Nails It (Again)

Go watch, then go read what Al Gore has to say. Then answer the question, "Who should be his running mate?"

Readings from 'Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace' Set for 12/1 at Pojoaque Pueblo

From Koa Books:
Tomorrow night , Friday December 1, at 7 PM, at the Roxane Swentzell Tower Gallery in Pojoaque Pueblo, eight miles north of Santa Fe, Lee Swenson and Doug Zachary will be reading from a new collection of writings gathered by National Book Award winner Maxine Hong Kingston, entitled Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace.

For 15 years, Maxine has been leading writing and meditation worships for veterans and their families. The harvest of their creative, redemptive storytelling -- nonfiction, fiction, and poetry -- was published this month by Koa Books. Hearing the words of these veterans of war and peace, we witness worlds being torn apart and rebuilt.

Lee Swenson was director of the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in Palo Alto. Doug Zachary, a Marine from 1968-1970, is national fundraiser for Veterans for Peace. Please join Lee and Doug for this free event, open to the public. Copies of Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace will be available for purchase.

Directions from Santa Fe: Drive North on Highway 285 for 15.2 miles. Upon arriving at Pojoaque, turn right at the second stop light. Make another immediate right turn on Cities of Gold Road. The Roxanne Swentzell Tower Gallery will be to the left in the large (45-foot high) adobe tower.

For more information about the reading, call the Gallery at 505-455-3037. For more information about the book, visit www.vetsofwarvetsofpeace.org.

Note: The ads in Pasa Tiempo say the reading starts at 6 PM. The correct time is 7:00 PM.

Aloha,
Arnie Kotler, Koa Books
PO Box 822
Kihei, Hawai'i 96753
www.koabooks.com

Dancing With the Stars: Cheney Edition

Cheney zips into Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (above) to confer with his oil allies on what to do next in Iraq. Or something. Meanwhile, as Glenn Greenwald writes:

Seeking input from the neocons on how to solve the Iraq disaster would be like consulting the serial arsonist who started a deadly, raging fire on how to extinguish it. That actually might make sense if the arsonist were repentant and wanted to help reverse what he unleashed. But if the arsonist were proud of the fire he started and actually wanted to see it rage forever, even more strongly -- and, worse, if he were intent on starting whole new fires just like the one destroying everything and everyone in its path-- it would be the height of irrationality for those wanting to extinguish the fire to listen to what he has to say.

... Back in 2002, when the U.S. was debating whether to invade Iraq, those who opposed the invasion were, for that reason alone, dismissed as unserious morons and demonized as anti-American subversive hippies. Despite the fact that subsequent events have largely proven them to have been right, and that those who did the demonizing were the frivolous, unserious, know-nothing extremists, this narrative persists, so that -- even now, when most Americans have turned against this war -- the only way to avoid being an "extremist," and to be rewarded with the "centrist" mantle, is to support the continuation of this war in one form or another.

Who cares anyway? Seems most Americans are content to fixate on joining the mob scenes at mall sales and fuggedaboutit as far as Iraq goes. 'Tis the season. I just can't wait to see what the Iraq Study Group's "solution" to this civil war is all about and what George himself will recommend in that department to save his sterling "legacy." I think Repub Senator Chuck Hagel is more on target than most in his recent column in the Washington Post, although even he seems to be more hopeful than realities on the ground indicate.

A profound sense of unending tragedy emanates from the Middle East these days, and from the hearts of all who are open to seeing the handwriting on the wall about the horrors spawned by Bush, Cheney, Rummy and the rest of the neocon death squad.

Behold the Satanic Symbol Wreath!

Sign o' the times: A homeowners association in Pagosa Springs, CO has decided to fine one of their own in order to protect townspeople from the nasty effects of what some are calling a Satanic symbol, shown above. According to an AP story, "residents were offended by the sign and the board will not allow signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive":

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan. Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday. Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing."

I do seem to recall a time when we were known as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but apparently that's now considered a pre-9/11 thing. Our freedoms and the courage to express them are now trumped by the controling interests of privatized homeowners associations and their rules. I wonder what would happen in Pagosa Springs if someone had the audacity to put up a sign honoring the Prince of Peace on his Christmas birthday celebration.... Mighty devisive and Satanic!

What next? Xtian fundies demanding people take down their Xmas trees because they're pagan symbols?

Here are the facts on the origins of the peace symbol and what it really means.

Which reminds me. The Xmas light peace sign we've had hanging on the front of our house for a few years now (above) needs some sprucing up for the holiday season. Many lights have burned out over the past few months. Maybe we'll add some evergreen branches in solidarity with the banned wreath in Pagosa. By the way, over the years we've only had one instance of someone tearing down our sign in the dead of night. Not bad considering the atmosphere of hatred for peace the Bushies have been nourishing for 6 years now.

Pondering Peace Poems on TDay

I read the news today, oh boy: "A string of apparently coordinated bombings erupted today in Sadr City, a Shiite slum of Baghdad, killing more than 140 people. Shiites responded almost immediately, the AP reported, firing 10 mortar rounds at the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad, the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque in Azamiya." Then I read some peace poetry, as a sort of antidote:

This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed – or were killed – on this ground
hollowed by the neglect of an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

--by William Stafford, USA (1914-1993)

The End and the Beginning by Wislawa Szmborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa-springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.

Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.

From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass which has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out,
blade of grass in his mouth,
gazing at the clouds.

Wislawa Szmborska was a Polish poet. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. She died in 2002, at the age of 101.

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle.
It smashes down forests and crushes men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm
    and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

--by Bertolt Brecht, Germany (1898-1956)

Poems from WagingPeace.org.

As for me, I am thankful today that we seem to moving, if only mostly imperceptibly so far, towards  peace, or at least an ending to this particular version of The War. And I am thankful for my returning health, my loving partner, my delightful birds and all who work for positive, peaceful, just change in any way, shape or form. You know who you are. Namaste. --Barb

Voters Want New Direction in Iraq

From today's Center for American Progress Report:
Because Of Iraq... When Americans go to the polls on November 7, they will not be voting because Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) botched a joke about President Bush on Monday, notwithstanding the national media's 48-hour fixation on Kerry's remarks. Nor will they be voting because President Bush, also on Monday, claimed that if critics of his Iraq policy are victorious, "the terrorists win and America loses." (That comment was mostly ignored.) According to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS poll, Americans will be voting because they desperately want a new direction in Iraq. The Times reports, "Americans cited Iraq as the most important issue affecting their vote, and majorities of Republicans and Democrats said they wanted a change in the government’s approach to the war."

Just 29 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is managing Iraq strategy, "matching the lowest mark of his presidency," and nearly 70 percent "said Mr. Bush did not have a plan to end the war." (Veterans advocacy group VoteVets.org has released a powerful ad underscoring this point, titled "Because of Iraq..." Watch it.)

New Madrid Ad: The Real Issue

With the election only days away and Repub opportunities for victory dwindling by the hour, the Rove Repubs are pullling out all the stops to create fake controversies and take the focus away from what's really at stake. They want to direct voters' attention to non-issues, trivial missteps and juvenile talking points because they don't want people entering the voting booth with a clear-eyed view of the genuine policy differences between the candidates.

They don't want people considering the horrendous impact of the misguided policies, inaction and downright failures of Bush and the Republican-run House and Senate. Instead, they want us thinking about passages in novels, operatives in duck outfits, verbal faux pas and issues framed by the right-wing media echo chamber. We can't let them get away with it anymore.

Go vote. Go help the Madrid campaign. Talk to your friends, neighbors and colleagues and ask them to do the same. The very future of our nation and even our planet is at stake.

Last Minute Dustup: Kerry KOs Rove Repubs

Unable and unwilling to debate genuine issues in honest terms, the Rovian Repubs are now smearing Kerry for a joke he made during a speech at a junior college. Must watch: Here's video of Kerry calling a spade a spade and hitting back. Excerpts:

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq . It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won't work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq ."

From the New York Times - Think about this and how desperate to retain power Bush and Rove and Cheney and the rest must be right now:

President Bush said Monday that a Democratic triumph in the races for the House and Senate would amount to a victory for terrorists.

Here's what Kerry said to set off the rightwingnut echo chamber:

The senator, who was campaigning for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides, opened with several one-liners, joking at one point that President Bush had lived in Texas but now “lives in a state of denial.”

Then, Mr. Kerry said: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

How low will they go? How hard are you willing to work between now and election day to show them their dishonest smears won't work?

Bush Lies About Iraq War, Just Like Heather Wilson

Remember, according to Bush, his Iraq policy never consisted of "stay the course." And remember, according to Heather Wilson, we're "making great progress" in Iraq. These people will say anything to hold onto power. Why?

One reason: if Dems win back at least one House of Congress, we can revitalize the oversight the legislative branch was designed to extend over the executive branch and find out what's really going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the growing chaos in both of those areas, you can understand why Bush and Wilson, two peas in a pod, want to cling to their power even if they have to lie and lie and lie. Be a part of the solution: Be sure you vote, volunteer, get all your friends to vote. We need a change in America and this is our best chance to start getting it.

ABQ CodePINK Hangs Huge GIVE PEACE A VOTE Banner Facing Heather Wilson's Office

All photos from ABQ CodePINK. Click photos for larger versions

From ABQ CodePINK:
We did it! Joan Baez's concert last night was a great springboard for our 60-foot Banner Drop across from Heather Wilson's congressional office in downtown Albuquerque this morning. Our banner flew for 20 minutes until "someone" phoned security.

More photos below:

10.25.06, across from Rep. Heather Wilson's office (NM-01)

Peace,
Rebecca Wilson
Albuquerque Coordinator
CODEPINK Women for Peace
Albuquerque, NM
abqcodepink@mac.com
www.albuquerquecodepink.info

CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities. CODEPINK rejects the Bush administration's fear-based politics that justify violence, and instead calls for policies based on compassion, kindness and a commitment to international law. With an emphasis on joy and humor, CODEPINK women and men seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to non-violence.