Democracy for New Mexico

REMINDER: NM Blog Radio Streams at 4:30 PM Today

The topic of today's New Mexico Blog Radio show will be Elections Evolve: Democracy Wins, with guests Matt Brix, Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Kelli Fulgenzi. Visit the program page at 4:30 PM for a live stream of the show, or visit later to listen to an archived copy. See our previous post for more info.

Even though clean election and campaign finance reforms are extremely popular with Albuquerque voters -- about 72% voted in favor of the 2005 ballot referendum that established the public campaign funding option for City Council elections -- some rightwingers remain opposed to such measures. Check out that discusses Republican blogger Whitney Cheshire's opposition to public funding of campaigns, as well as comments by Matt Brix that contradict some of her key claims.

Cheshire calls the public campaign financing law a "travesty," deeming it a waste of taxpayer money. I guess she prefers that candidates get their money in large "donations" from special interests so they can be beholden to deep-pocket benefactors if they win office. Heaven forbid that City Councilors would instead be representing the interests of their constituents!

I'd love to hear candidates who refuse to use the public financing option explain why they prefer to take money from special interests, wouldn't you?

New Mexico Blog Radio: Program Archive and Next Up

If you missed the live webcast of the premier episide of New Mexico Blog Radio last Thursday, you can visit the show's webpage and listen to an archived copy of the show, or download it as a wmv file or a podcast (mp3). Also, when you visit the program's webpage, the last show aired automatically begins playing. The first show, co-hosted by the show's creator, Suzanne Prescott, and me, featured guests Rey Garduno and Debbie O'Malley, who are running for Albuquerque City Council and using the new public financing option to fund their campaigns. The topic was Public Campaign Financing in New Mexico - Is it working?

This Thursday: Matt Brix, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Kelli Fulgenzi: The second episode of the show will be webcast live on Thursday, May 31, at 4:30 PM and I'll again join Suzanne as cohost. Scheduled guests include Matt Brix, who worked hard for clean elections and campaign reform in his previous role as executive director of Common Cause NM, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, our current Bernalillo County Clerk, and Kelli Fulgenzi of the Albuquerque City Clerk's office. Our guests will be discussing election innovations that Albuquerque and Bernalillo County can be proud of and how they work on a show entitled Elections Evolve, Democracy Wins.

Listen live here on Thursday at 4:30 PM. You can also call in live during the show with questions or comments: 718-664-9717.

Blog Radio is a relatively new phenomenon on the net, and we're new to it too. Check out the show and let us know how we're doing! You can leave your comments on the Show Notes section of New Mexico Blog Radio.

You can check out our previous posts on New Mexico Blog Radio here and here.

Rey Garduño First to Qualify for Public Campaign Funding in ABQ City Council Race

Suzanne Prescott has the story over at . If you can, remember to link up with the new web radio show, New Mexico Blog Radio, today at 4:30 PM. Rey, who's running for Albuquerque City Council in District 6, will be joined by Debbie O'Malley, who's running for reelection in District 2, to discuss their experience with Albuquerque's new public campaign finance law. Listeners can call in and ask questions during the half hour show by dialing (718) 664-9717. I'll be joining Suzanne, who produced the radio show Insight New Mexico that aired on 1350 AM during the Legislative Session, as a co-host for today's show. Visit https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nmblogradio at 4:30 PM today to listen in. And cut me some slack if I come across on the show as a bit nervous -- I'm a rank amateur in the radio hosting department, internet or otherwise!

For more info, see our previous post on New Mexico Blog Radio, as well as our post archive on the 2007 Albuquerque Municipal Elections, which will take place this coming October.

'We The People' Thursday: Eric Griego

Here Ye! Here Ye!

WE THE PEOPLE

Eric Griego 

A visit from former City Councilor who spearheaded
Clean Elections for Albuquerque

May 24, 2007 - 6 PM

Albuquerque, Channel 27
Worldwide On The Net!
call in - 505-346-1633
Click for Streaming Media
https://quote-unquote.org/

WE THE PEOPLE is an innovative 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 Premiers May 24

Rey Garduño & Debbie O'Malley Are the First Guests
on New Mexico Blog Radio

From New Mexico Blog Radio:
ALBUQUERQUE, NM, MAY 22, 2007 -- New Mexico Blog Radio modifies an old medium, radio, and dresses it up before  moving it to the Internet.  A new Internet radio show, ‘New Mexico Blog Radio’ begins Thursday, May 24th at 4:30 PM (Mountain time) live on the Internet. Host of the show, Suzanne Prescott, says the show will fill the need for coverage of local New Mexico issues, “We’ll cover issues with our guests that aren’t getting enough coverage in the press and on local TV or commercial radio.” Joining Suzanne as co-host for this first show is the force behind the popular blog, Democracy for New Mexico, Barbara Wold. (Yes, that's me.) Listeners can call in during the show at (718) 664-9717.

Please join Suzanne, Barbara and guests when the show airs on May 24th at 4:30 PM Mountain time (6:30 Eastern) at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nmblogradio.

The first show will bring together candidates for Albuquerque’s City Council, Rey Garduño  and Debbie O’Malley. Both candidates are using Albuquerque’s new public campaign finance law. The City Council Election on October 2nd will be the first test of the public campaign finance regulations. How well have the regulations worked so far? What do the candidates who are trying out the law have to say about it?

Since its beginning in late 2006, Blog Talk Radio has mushroomed rapidly into one of the most popular sites on the Internet. New Mexico Blog Radio joins over 1000 political blog radio shows already on the Blog Talk Radio site. 

For a lineup of guests who will be on future shows contact Suzanne directly at (505) 304-3960.

Iglesias Today (in the Land of Grumbling Mountain Lions)

Today's Washington Post has a lengthy personal profile of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, what he's been through and what he's doing today, based on a reporter's visit to Albuquerque to interview Iglesias and his wife, Cyndy in their foothills home. The article traces his life to this point, goes into his many recent media appearances and recaps the details of the U.S. Attorneys' scandal, but what tickled me was this opening paragraph's description of Albuquerque:

At 9 a.m. on the very edge of the dusty, desolate collection of adobe homes and Vietnamese restaurants that seem to form this city, David Iglesias begins his run through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. This is not easy terrain. The footing is terribly uneven. The altitude can be unbearable. At certain times one can hear the grumbling of mountain lions and the feasting of coyotes.

I don't know about you, but I've never personally been aware of any mountain lion grumbling in our "desolate" locale packed with Vietnamese restaurants....

Tonight on KUNM's 'Espejos de Aztlan': Creators of Play About Working Poor Fighting Injustice

From Javier Benavidez:
Check out KUNM 89.9 FM tonight, Monday, May 21st, at 8:00 PM for a half-hour live interview by host Javier Benavidez on "Espejos de Aztlan" with creators of the political theatrical production "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" Written by Nobel Peace Prize for Literation winner Dario Fo and locally produced by the Southwest Organizing Project and OmniRootz Productions, the play focuses on the desperation of the working poor in one neighborhood faced with ridiculously high food costs and the families who join in protest to fight the associated economic injustices. Local Stefani Willis directs the play which features local youth actors Venessa Katzenberger, Cherish Henson, Virginia Hampton, Ife Hampton and Shrayas Jatkar. Locas Enrique Cardiel, Rosina Roibal, Patrick Clark create the production's music score.

The Albuquerque running of "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" will conclude with three productions on Friday, May 25th at 8:15 PM, Saturday, May 26th at 8:15 PM and Sunday, May 27th at 3:15 PM. Each play takes place at the Out ch’Yonda Live Artz Studio, 929 4th St. SW (9 blocks south of Central Avenue). For more information, contact Out ch'Yonda at 385- 5634 or the Southwest Organizing Project at 247-8832.

Espejos has been on-air since 1979 and is part of the Raices Colectiva which conducts programming on news, culture and music from a Latino perspective on KUNM 89.9FM.

Obscure NM News Item of the Day

The kind of info that's often revealed only in short paragraphs on the interior pages of newspapers can be startling. Editorial decisions to downplay certain news stories so that more prominent coverage can be given to more "entertaining" or non-controversial news are rampant. No wonder so many of our citizens are so poorly informed if and when they head to the voting booth.

Here's a prime example of a story you'd think would be front page news because it deals with a potential danger to Rio Grande water quality -- a current water source for Santa Fe and a near future water source for Albuquerque. It was limited to these few paragraphs on the Around New Mexico page of a Saturday edition of the Albuquerque Journal:

LOS ALAMOS— Los Alamos National Laboratory should develop a system to advise the city of Santa Fe when it should temporarily stop drawing water from the Rio Grande due to radiological contamination, a new report recommends.

The state Environment Department report found that radiological contaminants left in sediment along the river by the lab decades ago pose no immediate health risk.

But in a statement issued Friday, agency scientists urge the lab to do more to stop contaminants from washing down the Rio Grande and to develop a notification system whenever flooding may increase river contamination.

The statement released by the agency states that LANL can control the movement of sediment through the installation of weirs, stabilizing eroding banks, planting riparian vegetation and restoring damaged wetlands.

LANL's communications office was not available for comment Friday night.

No big whoop, eh?

New Ownership Relaunches Air America Radio

From Air America Radio:
NEW YORK – May 17, 2007– Air America Radio today released a new website and ad campaign in conjunction with the official "ReLaunch" of Air America 2.0 on Monday May 21. All 12 Air America hosts starting on the 21st will air some 30+ taped interviews with prominent headliners (see list below) who discuss their thoughts on the Iraq war, campaign finance reform and the ’08 election, among other topics.

"The completely redesigned website will give Air America listeners another platform to participate in the progressive movement through an interactive blog where they can read and give commentary on topical issues of the day," said Mark Green, the new president of Air America; the site will also be easier to navigate with updated information about AAR shows and talent.

The network's hosts will begin to regularly blog on the 21st ReLaunch, along with Nancy Scola, who has been chosen as Air America's chief blogger. Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based blogger and writer who has served as a congressional aide and a presidential campaign staffer; she writes widely online, on everything from the latest in technology policy to the rebuilding of New Orleans. 

The network also kicked off a new “I'm an Air American!” ad campaign in various radio trade publications, featuring the actor Paul Newman, as well as a series of talent-based ads beginning with Lionel, who joins the network from 9 AM-12 PM.

The two new weekday shows include "Lionel" and "The Air Americans" hosted by veteran Mark Riley, with correspondents Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, David Bender and Laura Flanders, airing at 8p-12a weeknights. The new weekend shows include "Seder on Sunday" from 4-7 PM Sunday and "7 Days in America" 6-7 PM Saturdays, a week-in-review show with Arianna Huffington, Mark Green, Bob Kerrey and Bob Shrum.

"This new phase in Air America's three year history has three goals," concluded Green. "First, we’ve created an even stronger lineup based on proven veterans, like Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, and The Young Turks. Second, we’ve rebuilt the website to create a community and conversation that becomes the go-to progressive bulletin board and social network in the country. And third, we’re asking all progressive patriots interested in talk radio to become 'Air Americans.' The critical mass of 30 headliners kicking off Air America 2.0 is the kind of news and views that we'll be offering for years to come and that no other radio or TV network now provides."

Air America Radio is the national progressive entertainment talk radio network. It is broadcast on 64 stations nationwide and on XM satellite and can be heard via live Internet streaming on www.airamericaradio.com.

The guests interviewed include:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg
David Brooks
A.G. Jerry Brown
Ron Brownstein
Senator Hillary Clinton
Howard Dean
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator John Edwards
Senator Russ Feingold
Al Franken
Senator John Kerry
Tony Kushner
Josh Marshall
Chris Matthews
Markos Moulitsas
Ralph Nader
Paul Newman
Senator Barack Obama
Rep. Charles Rangel
Robert Redford
Senator Jack Reed
Gov. Bill Richardson
Anthony Romero
Liev Schreiber
Rep. Louise Slaughter
Ted Sorensen
Gov. Eliot Spitzer
Gloria Steinem
George Stephanopoulos
Joe Trippi
Rep. Henry Waxman
Rep. Anthony Weiner

Editor's Note: Air America programming is carried on Progressive Talk KABQ 1350 AM in Albuquerque. Click to visit their website. Air America is also aired on KTRC 1260 AM in Santa Fe and in Taos, and can be heard nationally on XM satellite radio channel 167. You can also listen to a live stream on Air America's website.

Gore: The Assault on Reason

I'ts (another) rainy day in New Mexico -- perfect for reading. I suggest you start with a substantial excerpt from Al Gore's soon to be released new book, The Assault on Reason, courtesy of Time magazine. Some quotes:

Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?" The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.

... It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know I am not alone in feeling that something has gone fundamentally wrong. In 2001, I had hoped it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on Sept. 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public still believes Saddam was connected to the attack.

... what television's dominance has come to mean is that the inherent value of political propositions put forward by candidates is now largely irrelevant compared with the image-based ad campaigns they use to shape the perceptions of voters. The high cost of these commercials has radically increased the role of money in politics—and the influence of those who contribute it. That is why campaign finance reform, however well drafted, often misses the main point: so long as the dominant means of engaging in political dialogue is through purchasing expensive television advertising, money will continue in one way or another to dominate American politics. And as a result, ideas will continue to play a diminished role. That is also why the House and Senate campaign committees in both parties now search for candidates who are multimillionaires and can buy the ads with their own personal resources.

... Fortunately, the Internet has the potential to revitalize the role played by the people in our constitutional framework. It has extremely low entry barriers for individuals. It is the most interactive medium in history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge. It's a platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and distribution of ideas, in the same way that markets are a decentralized mechanism for the creation and distribution of goods and services. It's a platform, in other words, for reason.

But the Internet must be developed and protected, in the same way we develop and protect markets—through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and the exercise of the rule of law. The same ferocity that our Founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the Internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic. We must ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of individuals to choose the content they wish regardless of the Internet service provider they use to connect to the Web. We cannot take this future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it, because of the threat of corporate consolidation and control over the Internet marketplace of ideas.

Gore to Join Prez Race?
By the way, Gore has provided the strongest hint yet that he may still have plans to enter the presidential race. A soon to be published article in the New York Times reports:

When I asked Gore why he hasn’t dismissed all the speculation by issuing a Shermanesque refusal to stand, as he did in 2002, Gore said, "Having spent 30 years as part of the political dialogue, I don’t know why a 600-day campaign is taken as a given, and why people who aren’t in it 600 days out for the convenience of whatever brokers want to close the door and narrow the field and say, ‘This is it, now let’s place your bets’ — If they want to do that, fine. I don’t have to play that game."