Democracy for New Mexico

Watch "The Lost Year in Iraq" Online

If you missed PBS' Frontline this week, you missed a compelling and penetrating analysis of the early decisions that set us on a course to disaster in Iraq. Luckily, you can now watch the entire show online. The one-hour program, entitled "The Lost Year in Iraq," has been broken into seven video segments. The website provides pertinent documents, a timeline, additional information about the issues examined and extended interviews with the key players featured in the piece. Definitely must-see. A jarring reminder of what exactly we are working so hard to counteract and replace. and why it is so vital to stop the right-wing Bush horrors here and now. On November 7th.

Bush and Wilson: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

---------We Need Change in Washington: Watch Madrid's latest ad

It's no wonder that George W. Bush and Heather Wilson are viewed as bosom buddies -- they both lie like rugs, on many of the same topics. There are reams of documentation about Bush administration lies on a myriad of issues, including the whoppers they've spewed since they first decided to invade Iraq. Some of the latest revelations are in Bob Woodword's new book, State of Denial, and the leaked intelligence report that states the Iraq occupation is creating more terrorism, not making us safer.

Wilson, the Repub incumbent who's running against Dem challenger Patricia Madrid in NM-01, can surely be seen as a kind of co-conspirator in these lies. After all, she a longstanding member of the House Subcomittee on Intelligence Policy and raised nary a peep to challenge the distortions churned out by the Bushies, even though she now claims she did. Wilson continues to lie about what she did to help "sell" Bush's Iraq invasion. And her story's getting just a might muddled.

Which Is It, Heather?
According to a Saturday Albuquerque Journal article,

"The intelligence that caused me to vote in favor of authorizing the use of force was not Saddam's nuclear program, but his biological program," Wilson said in the written statement this week.

However, back on March 8, 2003, just before the Iraq War started, Wilson told the Albuquerque Tribune that it wasn't just biological weapons - that it was also Saddam's chemical weapons and his desire to obtain nuclear weapons that caused her to vote for the war:

"For me," (Wilson) said, "the action against Iraq has to do with chemical and biological weapons and Saddam Hussein's desire to get nuclear weapons. We can't let him have those weapons."

This dishonesty follows on the heels of a similar factual foul-up just a few weeks ago. In that case Wilson told the Albuquerque Tribune she'd questioned how accurate the intelligence was, but still voted for the war. Oops -- three years earlier she told the Journal that there was no incorrect intelligence used to hype the war, period.  Again, which is it, Heather?

Had enough? Call the Madrid Campaign at 505-242-6000 and volunteer and/or click to make a campaign donation. We need change in Washington and it needs to start right here.

Today: Madeleine Albright, Patricia Madrid to Discuss Intelligence Failures, Need for Change

Attorney General Patricia Madrid, the Democratic challenger in the NM-01 congressional race, and former U.N. Ambassador and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will today discuss the intelligence failures that led us to war and the need to take national security in a new direction to make America safer.

The event will take place at the American Legion Post 72, 5107 Central NW (just east of Old Coors), at 4:00 PM, Monday, October 9 (TODAY). The public is invited to attend. Click for map.

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

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

Latest Madrid Ad: Heather Wilson Lies for Bush

The latest ad from the campaign of Dem challenger Patricia Madrid who's running against Repub incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-01). Now THIS is an important issue.

Heather Wilson: Lying for George Bush. Leaving America less safe. End of story.

Top Retired Officers from Iraq War Courageously Speak Truth About Rumsfeld

I think every concerned citizen needs to become informed on what just took place in Washington. I watched most of yesterday's hearing by the Democratic Policy Committee on the Iraq occupation. It featured absolutely riveting and alarming testimony on Rumsfeld's grievous errors and deadly mistakes by three high-ranking military officers with recent on-the-ground experience in Iraq -- U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Batiste (right), U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Hammes, all recently retired. Their statements about what can only be called dereliction of duty and profound arrogance and stupidity on the part of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld must be heard and read to be believed.

Remember, too, that official congressional hearings with straight-talking realists like these officers have never been called or allowed by the Republican leadership. Instead, Dems have been forced to hold more informal hearings on their own, with only Democrats participating in most cases. I guess the Repubs aren't interested in hearing the truth. It would interfere with their election season spin. Meanwhile, more unecessary, tragic death and destruction occurs daily, with nothing but "resolve" coming from the Bush administration -- resolve, apparently, to ignore any and all informed advice or criticism.

AlterNet has complete transcripts of the opening statements by all three high ranking officers, as well as a video clip of part of Gen. Batiste's testimony. There's much more in the question and answer segments, and you can see the entire hearing, convened by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), on CSPAN's website.

A few quotes:

"Secretary Rumsfeld's dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American servicemen and women, our allies, and the good people of Iraq. He was responsible for America and her allies going to war with the wrong plan and a strategy that did not address the realities of fighting an insurgency. He violated fundamental principles of war, dismissed deliberate military planning, ignored the hard work to build the peace after the fall of Saddam Hussein, set the conditions for Abu Ghraib and other atrocities that further ignited the insurgency, disbanded Iraqi security force institutions when we needed them most, constrained our commanders with an overly restrictive de-Ba'athification policy, and failed to seriously resource the training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces as our main effort." -- Maj. General Batiste (Ret.)

"The President charged Secretary Rumsfeld to prosecute this war, a man who has proven himself incompetent strategically, operationally, and tactically. Mr. Rumsfeld came into his position with an extraordinary arrogance, and an agenda -- to turn the military into a lighter, more lethal armed force. In fact, Rumsfeld's vision is a force designed to meet a Warsaw Pact type force more effectively.

We are not fighting the Warsaw Pact. We are fighting an insurgency, a distributed low-tech, high-concept war that demands greater numbers of ground forces, not fewer. Mr. Rumsfeld won't acknowledge this fact and has failed to adapt to the current situation. He has tried and continues to fight this war on the cheap." -- Maj. General Eaton (Ret.)

"The critical issue is leadership. All of the suggestions I have made will not be carried out unless the leadership believes it needs to be done. Given the fact that the Secretary of Defense has not acknowledged the numerous, serious mistakes made to date, I do not believe it is possible for him to provide the leadership necessary to succeed in Iraq. It is time for him to provide the nation the last in a long series of services, and step down." -- Colonel Hammes (Ret.)

Public Invited to Speech by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff in ABQ

From the Kirtland Partnership Committee:
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking military officer in the United States, Marine four-star General Peter Pace, is coming to Albuquerque to speak on "America's Armed Forces" at a luncheon. The luncheon will be at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town (formerly Sheraton Old Town) on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 11:30 AM. The invitation is to "the citizens of Albuquerque."

Cost is $23.00 total per person. Payment can be made by credit card, by calling 241-4810, or check can be mailed to Kirtland Partnership Committee, KPC, 320 Gold SW, Suite 300, Albuquerque NM 87102. The $23.00 per person payment covers the exact cost of the lunch; this is not a for-profit event. Questions? Call the Kirtland Partnership Committee, KPC, 241-4810 or 241-4812.

Intelligence Assessment Conclusions: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

I can't tell you how strongly I agree with a suggestion by Glenn Greenwald in his recent post about the incredibly damning conclusions of the classified April National Intelligence Estimate, recently reported on by the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times:

This report alone ought to dictate the outcome of the election: If I were shaping the Democrats' election strategy, I would create a television commercial where someone reads the following four paragraphs -- from a new report in the NYT today [Sunday] -- and then I would air it over and over and over every single day as much as possible until November 7:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Remarkably, but certainly not surprisingly, Bush and his bunch are putting the word out that they "disagree" with the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate. Yes, Bush and his reality avoidance team are claiming that their spin machine is more accurate than the combined fact finding and analysis skills of our top 16 intelligence outfits. As they've done many times in the past, Bush and his cohorts are denying reality and refuting facts that don't quite fit their predetermined frames and -- most of all -- their political strategies.

With Republicans again attempting to convince us that we must vote for them, regardless of other considerations, because only they can protect us from terrorism, this intelligence assessment is a severely embarassing development. Its conclusions fly in the face of repeated pronouncements by Bush and his cronies that Iraq is helping us "win" the war on terrorism. On the contrary -- the neocons' Iraq invasion and occupation has made the situation much worse, worldwide.

If the Dems don't take advantage of the intelligence community's revelation of the truth about Bush's war and the neocon strategy, I don't know what else can be done to help them bring the facts to the American people before November. The assessment powerfully refutes the very basis for Bush's presidency, as well as the campaign talking points being used by Republican candidates all over the nation. Clearly, Bush and the Republicans are now running purely on distortions. They aren't "making us safer," they're increasing the dangers we face now and for years to come.

If Dems can't point that out forcefully and repeatedly, I really will have little hope left for them as any kind of genuine or competitive opposition party. And I'm afraid they will lose, once again, in November.

What do you think?

This Made My Day

Today something historic happened in the Hart Senate Office Building, By Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Cofounder

Standing in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building today [Friday] at noon, I was overcome by a feeling of awe and joy. About 20 of us had managed to carry out a complex, beautiful action-bringing our message of peace to our Senate—in almost flawless fashion. For about 30 minutes, we liberated the HART Building in a display of non-violent direct action at its finest ...

First, on each of five floors, women perfectly aligned themselves by the elevator balconies. At the designated moment, they took off their jackets. Each had on a pink tunic with one letter. When they draped the tunics over the railing, from the top floor down, it spelled NO WAR. To our amazement, no police rushed over immediately to grab their signs and threaten to arrest them, as has happened on many other occasions in the same building. This time, the women stood there boldly, flashing peace signs and gently swaying.

A few minutes later, another group of women unfurled one of the signature "pink slips" we make for people we'd like to fire. This one was a gorgeous 40-foot banner in the shape of a woman's slip, with HUGE lettering saying VOTE PEACE, FIRE BUSH. Made of hot pink fabric surrounded with frilly white lace, it hung majestically from the 5th floor down to the 3rd floor. As soon as the women successfully unfurled it and tied it securely on top and bottom, two other banners appeared. The one below said Give Peace a Vote. The one next to it called for Peace on Earth.

Looking up at this amazing vision of serenity and peaceful energy warming the cold halls of Congress, those of us in the lobby started singing. First softly, very softly, then louder and bolder. The people above us holding the banners starting joining in and suddenly the joyful sounds of peace echoed throughout the building. WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT; WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT. John Lennon would have been proud. So would Yoko Ono. Over and over and over again, we kept singing. I started to cry-it was so overwhelming, so powerful. The Senators' aides started streaming out of their offices to see what was happening, many of them smiling, waving and flashing peace signs. It felt like a dream. Was this really happening in the heart of the Hart Building???

We had called the news media beforehand, telling them to come see a beautiful visual but not giving away the precise plans. CNN, FOX and several photographers showed up. Who knows what, if anything, they'll use. We've become so accustomed to the mainstream media ignoring us. But it would be a lovely sight, and sound, for the American people to behold. There is something very visceral about the message that war is over, if you want it. It makes you feel such a sense of responsibility, a sense of power, a sense of possibility. And of course, that's what the American people need to start feeling-that if enough of us want to, we can stop this war and the future ones that are looming ahead.

One reason we felt so empowered was that, for a change, the police were respecting our right to protest. This is the way it should be in a democracy. We've become so accustomed to having our rights violated that it seemed strange—almost surreal—to maintain our ground for enough time to have our message heard.

When the police did start giving people warnings that they would be arrested, we stopped. Elated, we descended to the lobby, hugging and kissing and grinning ear to ear. We formed a circle, held hands and sang some more. And when the police told us not to press our luck, we broke up and spread around the lobby hugging everyone in sight—the cameramen, the reporters, the senators' aides, even the plainclothes cops. We knew enough not to try to hug an armed officer, but we thanked them profusely.

We later heard from Jesse and Leslie, who had been on the 7th floor displaying the N in NO WAR, that the policeman on their floor had been very patient with them. When they thanked him, he replied somberly, "No need to thank me. My son died in Iraq." Jesse, taken aback, gave his condolences and started to weep. The pain of the war became all too real. So, too, did the need to stop it.

Today something historic happened in the Hart Senate Office Building. For a brief moment, the cold atrium of a government body—a body that ushered us into a disastrous war and is refusing to get us out of it—was peacefully liberated by the people. Now let's liberate the rest of the nation ....

CodePINK photo of the event (click on image for larger version). More at the CodePINK website. To join the Albuquerque chapter of CodePINK, visit their website.

Nailing Bush: The Videos

Wesley Clark nails Bush on terrorism and the Iraq War on Fox News (above). Excerpt:

The attack on 9/11 occurred on the president's watch. He took us into a war with Iraq we didn't have to fight. It's been used to incentivize recruiting in Al Qaeda. The number of people who are affiliated with Al Qaeda worldwide has more than doubled since 2001. Our armed forces are bogged down in Iraq. We haven't been able to effectively engage with North Korea. We're hearing the tom toms beating for war with Iran. I think the American people can judge. This administration's policy has been a mistake and he's not made us safer. He's left us more vulnerable.

Countdown's Keith Olbermann nails Bush on the administration's new Rovian tactic of conflating Nazism and its appeasement with terrorism and criticism of Bush's actions, trying the scare both the media and the populace (above). He asks Bush, "Have you no decency, sir?" Text version:

It is to our deep national shame—and ultimately it will be to the President’s deep personal regret—that he has followed his Secretary of Defense down the path of trying to tie those loyal Americans who disagree with his policies—or even question their effectiveness or execution—to the Nazis of the past, and the al Qaeda of the present.

Today, in the same subtle terms in which Mr. Bush and his colleagues muddied the clear line separating Iraq and 9/11 — without ever actually saying so—the President quoted a purported Osama Bin Laden letter that spoke of launching, “a media campaign to create a wedge between the American people and their government.”

Make no mistake here—the intent of that is to get us to confuse the psychotic scheming of an international terrorist, with that familiar bogeyman of the right, the “media.”

The President and the Vice President and others have often attacked freedom of speech, and freedom of dissent, and freedom of the press.

Now, Mr. Bush has signaled that his unparalleled and unprincipled attack on reporting has a new and venomous side angle:

The attempt to link, by the simple expediency of one word—“media”—the honest, patriotic, and indeed vital questions and questioning from American reporters, with the evil of Al-Qaeda propaganda.

That linkage is more than just indefensible. It is un-American.

Mr. Bush and his colleagues have led us before to such waters.

We will not drink again.

And the President’s re-writing and sanitizing of history, so it fits the expediencies of domestic politics, is just as false, and just as scurrilous.

“In the 1920’s a failed Austrian painter published a book in which he explained his intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany and take revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews,” President Bush said today, “the world ignored Hitler’s words, and paid a terrible price.”

Whatever the true nature of al Qaeda and other international terrorist threats, to ceaselessly compare them to the Nazi State of Germany serves only to embolden them.

More over, Mr. Bush, you are accomplishing in part what Osama Bin Laden and others seek—a fearful American populace, easily manipulated, and willing to throw away any measure of restraint, any loyalty to our own ideals and freedoms, for the comforting illusion of safety.

It thus becomes necessary to remind the President that his administration’s recent Nazi “kick” is an awful and cynical thing.

And it becomes necessary to reach back into our history, for yet another quote, from yet another time and to ask it of Mr. Bush:

“Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
*******

Editor's Note: this same question was asked famously by Special Counsel for the Army Joseph N. Welch of Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy red-baiting hearings broadcast live on CBS news in 1952. See https://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444/