Democracy for New Mexico

(Updated) Thursday: Tavis Smiley to Moderate PBS Dem Prez Forum on Domestic Issues

Tavis Smiley will host the All American Democratic Presidential Forum from Howard University in DC on Thursday night, June 28th, from 7-8:30 PM Mountain Time on PBS stations, including KNME, with a live stream at the PBS Forum website. The show will also be available as a video download or podcast after the show, and will be rebroadcast on PBS at 2 AM MDT.

For the first time, a panel exclusively comprised of journalists of color will be presented in primetime. Questions to the candidates will be posed by Tavis and journalists Michel Martin of National Public Radio, nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. and USA Today and Gannett News Service columnist DeWayne Wickham. The topics of the questions will be limited to top domestic issues including healthcare, education, criminal justice, immigration, affordable neighborhoods, voting, rural development, economic prosperity, environmental justice and the digital divide. All eight declared Dem candidates will participate.

Unfortunately, PBS has selected much criticized Republican pollster Frank Luntz to do its after-event analysis on public response to the forum. As reported on Media Matters:

... Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who the Public Broadcasting Service has announced will provide "public feedback" following PBS' coverage of the June 28 Democratic presidential forum, has shown open disdain for Democratic priorities and candidates and has reportedly been reprimanded and censured by his peers for withholding and misrepresenting polling data and methodology. But, in addition to leaving out these facts from its press release announcing Luntz's participation, PBS, which referred to Luntz only as a "noted pollster," made no mention of the fact that Luntz has worked for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a potential general election opponent of one of the forum's participants, and has heaped praise on Giuliani this year.

... Luntz worked for Giuliani during each of Giuliani's three previous political campaigns: his campaign for New York City mayor in 1993, re-election bid in 1997, and aborted campaign for U.S. Senate in 2000. On the second page of the introduction to his book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear (Hyperion, January 2007), Luntz describes himself as "[t]he man who worked for Rudy Giuliani, two-time Republican mayor of a city where Democratic voters outnumbered Republicans 5-to-1 (xii)."

6.28.07 UPDATE: Frank Luntz will no longer be providing presidential forum analysis on PBS' after-forum commentary, but he's still scheduled to appear on Tavis Smiley's Friday show discussing the forum. Here's the latest from Media Matters.

Video: Santa Fe Reporter Editor Interviews David Iglesias

As reported on the AAN Wire, Juliia Goldberg, editor of the Santa Fe Reporter, recently interviewed fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' First Amendment Luncheon at the organization's convention in Portland, OR after Iglesias spoke to the group:

At Saturday's First Amendment Luncheon, the former federal prosecutor for New Mexico who helped sparked the scandal presently engulfing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush Administration discussed loyalty, politics, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) with Santa Fe Reporter editor Julia Goldberg. "I'm still processing the damage that could be done to the rule of law [by the administration]," he said. Among other things, Iglesias also said that John Ashcroft's staff at the DOJ was older and more experienced than Gonzalez's, and that Gonzalez led a shift in the department from "working for the people" to "working for the White House."

We have three video clips available from the luncheon. Part one is embedded above; part two can be found here, and part three, here. MORE: Read bloggers' reactions (scroll down) to the Iglesias' speech at the convention.

Must See TV Tonight: Endgame (in Iraq)

PBS FRONTLINE's Endgame will be aired on Albuquerque's KNME tonight at 9:00 PM (and rebroadcast on June 20 at 3 AM, June 22 at 10 PM and June 24 at 8 AM). According to the FRONTLINE website:

The show examines the reasons for the current situation in Iraq, including failure to plan for an insurgency; the “light footprint” strategy pushed by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; and the 2005 Iraqi election, which the Sunnis boycotted.

...  As the United States begins one final effort to secure victory through a "surge" of troops, FRONTLINE investigates how strategic and tactical mistakes brought Iraq to civil war. The film recounts how the early mandate to create the conditions for a quick exit of the American military led to chaos, failure, and sectarian strife. In Endgame, producer Michael Kirk (Rumsfeld's War, The Torture Question, The Dark Side, and The Lost Year in Iraq) traces why the president decided to risk what military planners once warned could be the worst way to fight in Iraq -- door-to-door -- and assesses the likelihood of its success. Top administration figures, military commanders, and journalists offer inside details about the new strategy.

Following the broadcast, Endgame will be available to view on FRONTLINE's website.

Participate in Take Back America and AFSCME Events Via Web

Two big political events are taking place in DC over the next few days. The Take Back America conference put on by the Campaign for America's Future is providing a lot of interactive web features that involve Dem prez candidates, bloggers and more. Meanwhile, the AFSCME Leadership Forum includes a presidential candidate forum and more. MyDD, among others, is blogging both conferences.

Tonight on Espejos, KUNM 89.9 at 8 PM: Human Rights Vigil & the NHCC Foundation

Check out KUNM 89.9FM tonight, Monday, June 19th, at 8:00 PM for a two-part live interview on "Espejos de Aztlan," a weekly radio show dedicated to highlighting community affairs in New Mexico since 1979.

Part One (8:00 PM) of tonight's show will focus on the work of local civil rights attorneys fighting to bring fair representation to the hundreds of immigrants being detained in Albuquerque's downtown regional detention center (4th and Roma), separated from family and living under inhumane conditions. Tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 19th at 7 PM, a peaceful vigil will be held in front of the Downtown ABQ detention center, in support of human rights, family unity, and against the mass detention of immigrants. For more information, please call 246-1627.

Part Two (8:15 PM) of tonight's Espejos show will feature the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the funds necessary to help support the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Recently, the Foundation has launched Club Social, a new outreach program aimed at engaging the community's young professionals in the Center's dual worlds of Hispanic arts and culture and philanthropy, while also providing unique opportunities for networking surrounding the Center’s world-class programming. For more information, please call 766-9858.

Espejos is part of the Raices Colectiva which conducts programming on news, culture and music from a Latino perspective on KUNM 89.9FM.

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund Launches Ad Campaign Targeting Rep. Pearce on Global Warming Issue

Group Launches "Heads in the Sand" Internet and Radio Campaign focusing on Five Anti-environmental Congressmen

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund (Defenders Action Fund) launched a targeted radio and web campaign -- www.headsinthesand.org -- to hold accountable Congressman Steve Pearce as one of five anti-environmental congressmen who have their "heads in the sand" on global warming. The five Congressmen – also including Reps. Ken Calvert (CA), John Doolittle (CA), Dean Heller (NV), and Rick Renzi (AZ) – have ignored the facts on global warming because of the undue influence of corporate polluters and their lobbyists.

"Americans want action now on global warming," said Defenders Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen. "But extreme anti-environmentalists in Congress, like Rep. Pearce, continue to have their heads stuck in the sand on energy policy while taking money from big oil and polluters. We're launching the 'Heads in the Sand' campaign to hold these members accountable to their constituents."

Visit the campaign's Steve Pearce page to learn more about Pearce's deplorable environmental record, as well as listen to the radio ad that will be airing in New Mexico 2rd Congressional District.

“Congressman Pearce’s way of thinking is out of sync with America and … the values of New Mexicans.” - 2007, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance

All five congressmen have a record of anti-conservation, pro-global warming votes and have accepted significant donations, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars, from Big Oil and other corporate polluters.  The four congressmen who served in the 109th Congress scored 5 percent or lower on the Action Fund's latest Conservation Report Card. On Wednesday, Reps. Pearce and Heller – both members of the House Natural Resources Committee – voted against legislation to help combat global warming and protect wildlife from its impacts.

"We're looking to send a clear message that the American people won't tolerate representatives who continue to favor big polluters and their special interests," Schlickeisen said. "Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, there are still members of Congress with their heads in the sand on global warming. That's why we're launching this new project to hold these five lawmakers accountable for endangering our wildlife, our wild places and our children's future."

"These are just the first five members we're targeting; any anti-environmental member who favors oil and gas money interests and obstructs meaningful effort to combat global warming could be next," added Schlickeisen.

To listen to the ads, visit www.headsinthesand.org.

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund www.defendersactionfund.org provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage. Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm.

Editor's Note: Also see the Politico blog for another report on the Defenders' campaign. For current info on what's going on in the Congressional race in NM-02, including two announced Democratic challengers, see this post on Heath Haussamen.

Ellen Theisen and Brad Friedman Discuss the Dismantling of our Democracy TONIGHT on Voice of the Voters

From the Coalition on Voting Integrity:

Ellen Theisen, Author of the Theisen Report
and Brad Friedman, editor of the Bradblog,
Discuss the Dismantling of our Democracy

TONIGHT on Voice of the Voters Heard on
1360 AM, Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio,
and on the internet (https://wnjc.duxpond.com/)
Wednesday, June 13 -- 6 PM Mountain Time
All Shows archived here

In the wake of the controversy stirred up by the flawed Holt bill, H.R. 811, voting rights activists all over the country hoped that the Senate would provide an improvement. What they got instead was a mandate for the demise of democracy. From Teresa Hommel of WheresThePaper.org:

[Parts of "The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007"] "explicitly sell out American democracy to corporate commercial interests. The EAC and vendors, without other stakeholders such as states, parties, and citizens, will develop a process to protect private interests from public knowledge of how our elections are conducted."

Tonight's special guests on Voice of the Voters will address the legislative questions that are swirling around voting reform. Ellen Theisen, founder of Voters Unite and author of the recently released Theisen Report, will discuss in depth the dangers of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate Bill 1487, "The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007." The Theisen Report is available here.

Brad Friedman, editor of the BradBlog.com, will be on hand to discuss S. 1487 as well as the controversy surrounding H.R. 811. Brad will also report on breaking election integrity news from around the country as only he can.

Listen tonight to find out how S. 1487 threatens the integrity of American elections by:

Establishing a Class System within Our Electorate: The bill systematically dismantles go of the people, by the people and for the people and sanctions the creation of a class structure with different rules for distinct communities such as racial minorities and the elderly. Who's next?

Elevating the Elections Assistance Commission to Dangerous and Unconstitutional Levels of Power:(from the Theisen Report) In an astonishing undercutting of the governmental structure established by the Constitution, this bill would combine Executive and Legislative powers into one agency, under the President and unaccountable to the people or any government structure.

This bill not only does the bill give the EAC authority to execute laws, but by making the EAC guidelines and certification process mandatory, this bill would also give EAC lawmaking powers. The guidelines and certification process - established by these four Presidential appointees unaccountable to the public - would become federal law.

Corporatizing our Elections: (from the Theisen Report) The "disclosure" provisions declare unequivocally that corporations, in league with the EAC, rightfully own and operate the secret counting of the votes in all states.

S. 1487 places control of elections in the hands of four Presidential appointees, who have no direct accountability to the citizens and no oversight. Under this bill, the EAC, in collaboration with corporations, would decide which voting systems would be allowed to count votes. The EAC would establish how many such systems should be available at each poll site and where early voting poll sites should be located. Corporations approved by the EAC would own and operate the proprietary (secret) software that counts the votes. The EAC, in collaboration with those corporations, would determine how to enforce that proprietary ownership. The EAC would determine who is accredited to observe elections.

As always, John Gideon, Executive Director of Voters Unite will give Voice of the Voters listeners a round-up of all the week's voting news.

****************************************************
Voice of the Voters is an hour devoted to voting rights, election reform and voter-verified paper ballots. Ultimately it is an exploration of Representative Democracy itself and the responsibilities of citizens and their elected representatives. It airs every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM ET on 1360 AM and on the Internet at https://wnjc.duxpond.com/.

Note: If you use dial up Internet, it is best to turn off all other programs in order to receive clearest broadcast.

Listeners can call in questions live at 856-227-1360 and submit questions in advance at the SaveOurVote.com website.

Voice of the Voters now also available as a podcast at iTunes.com under "Voice of the Voters" in the News & Politics category.

Archived shows are available at here.

Guest Bios:

Ellen Theisen is founder of VotersUnite.Org and the Co-Director and Managing Editor of VotersUnite! In her 22-year career as a software technical writer, she has written hundreds of user manuals, functional and design specifications, online help systems, and programmer guides. Ellen created and maintains the VotersUnite! website, developing most of the informational resources available on the site.

Early in 2004, Ellen wrote "Myth Breakers for Election Officials" to dispel myths about HAVA and inform decision-makers of important, under-publicized facts about electronic voting issues. The document has been distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local decision-makers, and volunteers are now distributing the second edition. The document has also been included as testimony in three court cases regarding electronic voting issues.

Ellen's work in the voting integrity movement led directly to the development of the Vote-PAD as an accessible alternative to computerized voting devices. During much of 2006, she focused her attention on providing that alternative, and has now resumed developing the resources available at VotersUnite!

Brad Friedman: Aside from being named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year", Brad is an investigative citizen journalist/blogger, political commentator and broadcaster. He is the Creator and Managing Editor of The BRAD BLOG (https://www.Bradblog.com).

Reports and breaking news from his popular website, The BRAD BLOG, are frequently cited by the national media, and can be read at www.BradBlog.com. He has appeared in numerous documentary films, as well as on ABC News, CNN, CourtTV and elsewhere to discuss his reporting and expertise on a variety of issues.

He's a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and has written articles and editorials for Mother Jones, Editor & Publisher, ComputerWorld, Columbus Free Press, Salon.com, TruthOut.org, Harvard's Nieman Foundation of Journalism, Hustler and other non-pornographic publications and websites.

In addition to live speaking engagements around the country, Brad has Guest Hosted on a number of radio programs for Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy, The Young Turks and others. He's also the host of The BRAD SHOW, a radio program co-produced with Internet news site RAW STORY and a frequent Guest on radio shows across the country. More information, online listening links, and archives to previous BRAD SHOW's can be found at www.BradShow.com.

Mary Ann Gould
Coalition for Voting Integrity
votingintegrity@aol.com

Editor's Note: Also see our previous post on the proposed election reform bills currently in Congress.

Next 'We The People': Dynamic Advocacy

WE THE PEOPLE

June 14,  2007 - 6 p.m.

Lively Discussion with Santiago Juarez

Mr. Juarez holds a B.S. from Eastern New Mexico University and a J.D. from the University of Washington. He is an outspoken advocate in the tradition of working-class, community-based political activism.

Live - Channel 27!

Worldwide On The Net!

Click for Streaming Media

https://quote-unquote.org/

Second and Fourth Thursday, 6-7 p.m. Mountain Time

Community Cable Channel 27

Albuquerque, NM

Call-in:  (505) 346-1633

Kindly forward this message to your friends.

TAPE the program if you cannot be present.

WE THE PEOPLE is an innovative call-in television show looking for TRUTH and TRANSPARENCY in local, state and federal governments.

THANKS FOR WATCHING

Mickey Bock/Judith Binder - Hosts

New Mexico Blog Radio, The Third Show: Heath Haussamen & Matt Brix

Guest Host Heath Haussamen & Featured Guest Matt Brix

From Suzanne Prescott: Tune in to the third New Mexico Blog Radio show on June 7th at 4:30 PM Mountain time. Blogger and journalist, Heath Haussamen, will guest host the show which features Matt Brix, who currently serves on the Governor's task force on ethics reform. Heath and Matt will discuss what's in store for the next legislative session for ethics reform and difficulties passing ethics reform in the past session.

You can hear the online radio show by tuning in at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nmblogradio. Each show is recorded and saved so you can catch the show later by going to the link and listening to the archived version. But if you call in during the live show, you can talk with the show's guests and hosts. The live call-in number of the show is (718) 664-9717.

Editor's Note: You can find our previous posts on New Mexico Blog Radio in our media archive.

Ranting the Dem Prez Debate: Blitzer Glitz

I confess I'm finding these psuedo-debates more and more useless, shallow and boring. I can only imagine how unappealing non-political junkies are finding this fare. I think the CNN version was the worst yet, clearly staged mostly to show off the self-perceived incisiveness and cleverness of Wolf Blitzer. He is, after all, a legend in his own mind. Mostly, he needs a shave and an apprenticeship with a real journalist (or a serious blogger) so he can learn to avoid the vapid questions he poses in his gotcha game-show performances: "Raise your hand if you are for English! Raise your hand if you're for higher gas prices! Raise your hand if you think I'm a pontificating control freak!" And then there's always some variation on "What would you do if Osama bin Laden threw an A-bomb into the middle of Washington DC?" to test whether candidates are "tough enough" on terrorism. Juvenile, juvenile, juvenile.

Every time a candidate veered even slightly towards saying something meaningful, Wolfie shut them down like a sh-shing schoolmarm. It was heartening to witness a few of the "debaters" pounce on him more than once for his silly attempts to elicit a "devisive" or "newsworthy" sound bite from the bunch.

Pickin' and Choosin'
I'm also sick of these mainstream media types deciding for us who should get to be center stage and who should get the most air time. You could barely see or hear Kucinich or Gravel, who were placed at the far edges of the glamour lineup even though, once again, they were the only candidates entirely willing to utter what they really believed instead of canned PR lines. Agree or disagree with their positions, at least they offered them without much window dressing or weasling.

I loved how they called out the others on their pro-attack-Iraq votes, and their insistence that universal, single payer health coverage is the ONLY sensible and practical way to improve our system. If you don't cut out the profit suckers in the middle and the for-profits that waste about 19% of health care spending on administrative costs, you ain't gonna be able to afford to cover everyone. I don't care how much exercise and "preventive care" you require of Americans. The "serious" candidates all know this but prefer to pretend otherwise, trying instead to baffle Americans with BS on this issue. Oh, they're all for universal health care, as we've heard from every Dem candidate for decades now. They're just not prepared to do what it would take to really provide it: confront Big Pharma and Big Insurance in no uncertain terms.

Bill Richardson didn't get to answer a question until almost 20 minutes into the two-hour event, and he was repeatedly shut down throughout. Personally, I thought he gave one of his strongest answers on gay rights:

"I love all this parsing and senatorial courtesy and 'on the one hand, on the other hand.' Here's what I would do. I would do what I did as governor of New Mexico. One, I would move in the Congress for a hate crimes law. I would have domestic partnerships. I would have civil unions. I would initiate laws that practice non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. I would get rid of 'don't ask, don't tell.' I voted against it as a congressman. A president has to show leadership...and this country should not be asking a person who is giving up their life for this country in the military...they should not be given...a lecture on sexual orientation."

I also liked his proposal to threaten to boycott the Peking Olympics if China doesn't quit coddling Sudan's murderous behavior in Darfur so they keep their oil spigot open to them. I thought his worst answer had to do with providing Presidents with line item veto power on the budget. Can you imagine what Bush would have done with that? And how it would decimate Congress' powers to negotiate?

Wolfie felt perfectly justified in cutting Richardson off in mid-sentence whenever he felt like it, something he rarely, if ever, did with the media's preferred "top three." Biden and Dodd got the same treatment. Wolfie seemed to give the most time by far to Hillary, Barack and Edwards. He is one powerful dude. He gets to pick and choose and shape and sell and to hell with fairness and equal time.

Pre-Fab Bells and Whistles
I really didn't like the contrived and artificial attempt to include "audience questions" in the second hour. Could the CNN producers have selected a more canned and melodrama-enriched group of questioners? There were the obligatory people with relatives serving in Iraq, and the "everyman" and "everywoman" types who own hair salons and teach school. Does anyone really care how many kids they have or what they do for a living when they're posing another milquetoast, generic question?

Did you get a load of that graphically imposing stage set CNN no doubt spent tens of thousands of dollars to create? Too bad they couldn't get the reporters' microphones to work properly. Minor detail, I know. More time wasted on repeating certain questions over and over because a candidate couldn't hear a thing. Hey CNN: less graphics and strobing lights, more basic broadcasting professionalism.

Probing Past Pablum Answers
I note the endless regurgitating of the media over who "won" the debate, which really entails determining which candidate managed to cram the most prepackaged, scripted gotcha quotes into their answers, and do so as fast as possible without any ums or ers. This is how we judge candidates for a job that will require enlightened leadership and out-of-the-box thinking to the nth degree given the emergencies wreaking havoc in almost every area of foreign and domestic affairs?

Just once, I'd like to see the polished talking points of the frontrunners punctured by real followup questions. You know, the kind serious journalists used to ask back when reporting was more than a ratings game. One example: how about probing a little deeper on the (always evolving) excuse used by Hillary to justify voting for unlimited war powers for Bush in Iraq? Her latest tactic is to claim she really thought she was voting merely to give Bush a way to get inspectors on the ground in Iraq. Heaven forbid -- she had no idea Bush Boy would use his open-ended permission slip to rush to war! Who'da thunk it?

Bottom line: I think these fake debates are worthless in every aspect except, perhaps, judging the quality of the candidates' hair and makeup teams. Did you notice that Hillary's face didn't have one wrinkle evident? An amazing feat given her age. Did you dig the latest evolution of Biden's intricate comb over of his balding head? Did you notice the tannish skin tones on so many of the candidates? Pockmarks and pimples begone.

Dream Debates
Wouldn't you like to see someone like Juan Cole asking the quesions about Iraq? Or Paul Krugman pummeling the candidates with questions about health care reform and economic fairness? How about David Sirota stripping the candidates down to their real views on "free" trade? Or Bill Moyers posing pointed questions about media conglomerates and big money in politics? Wouldn't you like to witness Glenn Greenwald pressuring the candidates to explain their views on habeas corpus and warrantless wiretapping? Now THAT would be must-see TV....

In case you missed the debate and want to see it, visit the CNN debate page. And Steve Terrell was in New Hampshire for the debate and has blow by blow coverage, as well as lots of photos. Photos: Reuters.