Democracy for New Mexico

More Scrutiny of Rep. Udall's Vote for Bill That Would Kill Net Neutrality

Steve Terrell has published an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican (with a companion post on his website) that examines CD3 NM Rep. Tom Udall's vote for the COPE bill that would destroy the system of net neutrality that has been in place since the inception of the internet. Terrell cites our recent post on Rep. Udall's vote, which takes him to task for the vote.

According to Terrell's article, Rep. Udall explained his vote this way:

I supported the COPE Act because it will bring faster broadband in more places, especially in rural areas like those in New Mexico, by boosting deployment of high-speed broadband as telephone providers upgrade their networks to offer video service," Udall said in an e-mail newsletter. "The COPE Act will also bring more jobs and make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy when telephone companies make new investments in advanced networks.

... Udall insisted that in spite of his vote, he is a supporter of "net neutrality." He pointed out he supported an amendment to the bill sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., that stated broadband-network providers must not interfere with users' ability to Internet access or offer lawful content. Markey's amendment was defeated.

Sure, we'd all like the telecoms to provide vastly expanded broadband access, especially in rural and poor areas. The problem is, they've already received more than $200 BILLION in tax breaks over the past 15 years to do just that. In addition, they have been collecting generous fees to use their services, often with little local competition. Where has all this money gone?

Another problem is that the bill's requirements for the telecoms to expand into underserved areas lack teeth to require compliance. The provisions for holding them to the bargain -- which amounts to allowing them to own the internet pipelines and control content, access and speed, in exchange for their expansion of broadband -- are weakly written and easily sidestepped.

Given the numerous organizations that support net netrality and also advocate on behalf of ordinary working class people and consumers, it seems odd they would be fighting against the COPE bill if what Rep. Udall claims is true.

Although Udall claims to be looking out for the interests of consumers in NM, here's a very critical economic analysis  of the bill, produced for Free Press, Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America.

Moreover, here's what Save the Internet has to say about a highly inaccurate and wrongheaded Washington Post editorial backing COPE:

The Post editorial laments “the fact that the U.S. broadband infrastructure lags behind that of East Asia and Europe.” It advocates network discrimination as the solution, but it fails to note that those nations did not get ahead by allowing network discrimination. On the contrary, the nations who have surpassed us have done so because they adopted national policies to promote broadband deployment and forced the network operators to run neutral networks, relying on competition for services, unimpeded by network gatekeepers and toll collectors, to drive adoption.

I've read that Democrats like Rep. Udall, who voted for Rep. Markey's unsuccessful net neutrality amendment but voted for the COPE bill, did so because they knew the bill would pass anyway. Why threaten your relationship with the telecoms and cable companies when you're going to lose anyway? Why not vote for the bill and please these corporations? You never know -- their financial support might come in handy in the future.

Unfortunately, this is the same excuse used by many Democrats in voting on issues pushed by corporate concerns and the right wing. Instead of using such votes to make a statement and highlight their opposition party status, they insist such stands would make no difference because their vote wouldn't result in a "win." Senator Jeff Binaman's vote for the horribly unfair bankruptcy bill and his refusal to support a filibuster of Sam Alito come to mind.

I have always had very high regard for Rep. Udall and believed him to be one of the most ethical lawmakers in Washington. In this case, however, he has made a big mistake. Read the article by John Nichols on Common Dreams for more on this issue and how big dollar lobbyists pushed for passage of COPE. Excerpt:

Joining [Bernie] Sanders in voting against the legislation were most members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including its co-chairs, California Representatives Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey...

...Among the Democrats who followed the lead of Hastert and Boehner – as opposed to that of Pelosi – were House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and Maryland Representative Ben Cardin, who is running for that state's open Senate seat in a September Democratic-primary contest with former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. Illinois Democrat Melissa Bean, who frequently splits with her party on issues of interest to corporate donors, voted with the Republican leadership, as did corporate-friendly "New Democrats" such as Alabama's Artur Davis, Washington's Adam Smith and Wisconsin's Ron Kind – all co-chairs of the Democratic Leadership Council-tied House New Democrat Coalition.

It's really unfortunate that Rep. Udall sided with most DLC Democrats, rather than the progressive wing of the Dem Party, isn't it? Depressing and confusing are the words that come to mind.

The COPE bill is now in the Senate. I suggest you contact both of New Mexico's Senators to encourage them in no uncertain terms to vote against this bill.  Click for contact information for both Sen. Domenici and Sen. Bingaman.

YearlyKos CSPAN Right Now

This morning, the YearlyKos panel discussion on the CIA leak investigation is being aired live by CSPAN2 on TV and online. Click here for the webcast. They will be airing various elements of the Kos convention today and tomorrow. I will update below.

UPDATE: Here's a video of Barbara Boxer speaking at the conference and a special interview with Wesley Clark in Las Vegas, both provided by Politics TV.

You can watch Markos' keynote speech at Fora TV if you beta register at the site.

Meanwhile, The Young Turks have their own interview with Clark and will be webcasting interviews into the evening:

4:15pm MT -- Former Ambassador Joe Wilson
4:30pm MT -- Larry Johnson, Former CIA Analyst
4:50pm MT -- Adam Green, Moveon.org
5:00pm MT -- Judd Legum, Thinkprogress.org
5:15pm MT -- Joe Trippi, Former Campaign Manager for Howard Dean
5:30pm MT -- Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
6:00pm MT -- Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of CREW
6:30pm MT -- Paul Reickoff, Executive Director and founder of IAVA
And tomorrow -- we will be sitting down w/ Howard Dean

Watch YearlyKos Convention on CSPAN, Air America

The video above was created by 15-year-old Ava, who blogs on Peace Takes Courage, in honor of YearlyKos. Inspiring.

Listed below the fold is the latest on CSPAN's plans for live TV and internet coverage on Friday and Saturday of portions of the first YearlyKos convention that takes place June 8-11 in Las Vegas NV. The convention schedule is loaded with talent from all corners of the netroots, politics, media, academia and more. It was created entirely by volunteers who are a part of the Daily Kos online community.

You can also watch live gavel to gavel webcasts of the entire 3-day conference at the Air America website by signing up for their premium membership or paying $10 to cover their costs.

Governor Bill Richardson will be participating in a panel discussion at the conference on Friday from 9:30 to 10:45 AM: "A Sustainable Energy-Energize America along with Jérôme Guillet, Mark Sumner, Adam Siegel, George Karayannis.

Additional coverage of YearlyKos will be provided by Link TV which is an outstanding channel that features news from around the world, as well as news that is near to home from a unique perspective. Link TV will be covering many aspects of YearlyKos for use in a variety of programs. Link TV can be seen on Channel 375 on DIRECTV® satellite TV service or on Channel 9410 on Echostar Communications Corporation's DISH® Network satellite TV service.

The Young Turks will also be broadcasting live from YearlyKos, as will Politics TV, where you'll also be able to be part of the YearlyKos action.

Not yet released: which CSPAN channel will broadcast each segment. ALL TIMES BELOW ARE EASTERN TIME. SUBTRACT TWO HOURS FOR MOUNTAIN TIME.

FRIDAY JUNE 9, 2006

11AM-12:15 PM ET
Progressive Players - leaders of the new progressive movement, including
Tom Matzzie of MoveOn
Arshad Hassan of Democracy for America
Gloria Trotten of Progressive Majority
Nathan Newman of Progress States Network

12:30PM - 1:45 PM
CIA Leak Investigation
Amb. Joe Wilson
Dan Froomkin - WashingtonPost.com
Murray Waas - National Journal
Larry Johnson - former CIA analyst and counterterrorism expert at the State Department
Marcy Wheeler - Blogger Emptywheel
Christy Hardin Smith - attorney, former prosecutor & blogger at Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher - producer (Natural Born Killers), author & blogger at Firedoglake

2:15PM - 4:15PM  Lunch Keynote
Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer with Q&A
2:20 Greeting by MC
2:25 Sponsor comments
2:30 Leader Pelosi
2:50 Q&A with audience
3::35 Sen. Boxer
3:55 Q&A with audience
4:15 end

4:30PM - 5:45 PM: MetaKos - the top bloggers of DailyKos
Markos - Contributing Editor, Daily Kos
Hunter - Contributing Editor, Daily Kos
Armando -Contributing Editor, Daily Kos
SusanG Contributing Editor, Daily Kos
Chris Bowers - MyDD (title being confirmed)

SATURDAY JUNE 10, 2006

12PM - 1PM: Communicating the Progressive Vision
John Javna - Author and Columnist, 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right
George Lakoff - University of California, Berkeley, Linguistics
Jeffrey Feldman - Frameshop, Editor-in-Chief/Founder
Justin Krebs - Founder, Drinking Liberally and The Tank
Jim Derych - Author, Confessions of a Former Dittohead

1:10 - 2:10 Blogosphere Experts - an introduction to major bloggers, looking at issues such as What is the position of the blogosphere in the insider / outsider political dialetic?

Chris Bowers - MyDD
Peter Daou - Salon
Matt Stoller - BOPnews.com
Matt DeBergalis   -- ActBlue
Tim Tagaris - swingstateproject.com

2:20-3:20: Political Journalism
Matt Bai - New York Times
Jay Rosen - NYU
Duncan Black - Atrios - Eschaton
Christy Smith - Firedoglake

The YearlyKos Convention will be held at the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas from June 8-11, 2006. This is the first convention of its kind-bringing together progressive bloggers, netroots members and leading elected officials. The YearlyKos Convention is organized to bring together the netroots to build progressive infrastructure and effect positive change.

NM Indy Media Show to Focus on Secretary of State Race and Ethics

On Friday, June 2nd, at 7:00 PM, Suzanne Prescott will host Albuquerque cable channel 27’s NM Indy Media “Live” show. She'll have interviews with NM Secretary of State candidates Shirley Hooper, Mary Herrera and Stephanie Gonzales. Matt Brix, Executive Director of Common Cause NM, will be the live guest and will talk about the three candidates in terms of their responses to a questionnaire distributed by his organization. He’ll also talk about the need for campaign finance reform and clean and fair elections. You're encouraged to call in live during the show.

You can also watch the show streamed live nationwide on Channel 27's website.

Terry Riley on 'We The People' Tonight

WE THE PEOPLE May 25, 2006
PROGRAM: Activist, Are You? Terry Riley, Albuquerque Activist fighting the good fight for Paper Ballots and the Minimum Wage. Let's talk Clean Elections

Watch us every Thursday 7-8 PM on Albuquerque Community Cable Channel 27. CALL-IN 505- 346-1633. HOST Mickey Bock. mickbo@earthlink.net

Saturday Morning Funnies

Watch the video. If Gore were president: Al Gore on Saturday Night Live last Saturday. When you're done chuckling (and pining for what might have been), go pledge to see Gore's new movie on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," on its opening weekend. The movie opens at the Century 14 in Albuquerque on June 16 and in Santa Fe at the DeVargas 6 on June 23.

Fried Friedman Smokes With the Neocons

I've never been a fan of New York Times writer Tom Friedman. I think he's one of the most overrated reporters in the world and I certainly couldn't support his zesty passion for attacking Iraq, er, for bringing democracy to the Middle East. I think he's a pompous and self-serving dreamer who keeps insisting, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we're doing just fine in Iraq and will be leaving shortly.

After all, as they stand up, we stand down. Ouch. The scary thing is that he really seems to believe his own schtick. It is said that if you repeat a lie long enough, you'll begin to believe it's the truth.

Now Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has compiled a one and half year record of his predictions that we'll be withdrawing from Iraq in six months (or a few weeks or a few months or 9 months). Regardless of what happens in Iraq, Friedman keeps making the same prediction that another six months will do the trick. Over and over and over again. Reality never penetrates and he never changes his tune. Consider:

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time." (New York Times, 11/30/03)

"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?" (NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)

"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war." (CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)

"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile." (New York Times, 11/28/04)

"I think we're in the end game now…. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that's my own feeling— let alone the presidential one." (NBC's Meet the Press, 9/25/05)

"Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won't, then we are wasting our time." (New York Times, 9/28/05)

"We've teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it's going to come together." (CBS's Face the Nation, 12/18/05)

"We're at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it." (PBS's Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)

"The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful." (New York Times, 12/21/05)

"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand." (Oprah Winfrey Show, 1/23/06)

"I think we're in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We've got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they're going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they're not, in which case I think the bottom's going to fall out." (CBS, 1/31/06)

"I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq." (NBC's Today, 3/2/06)

"Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don't, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we're in the end game in the sense it's going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there's an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us." (CNN, 4/23/06)

"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out." (MSNBC's Hardball, 5/11/06)

I'm all for optimism, but this constantly expanding "window of opportunity" thing is beginning to feel like a never-ending story, a fantastical fairytale. Unfortunately, there's lots of real blood and guts and brains exploding out of bodies in Iraq, as the dreamers dream on. The neocons' strange addiction to the myth of spreading of democracy at gunpoint, The Decider's unyielding wet dreams of triumph despite growing chaos and Friedman's fried and phony predictions -- all products of reality-challenged egos disconnected from how the world really works and how people really bleed. These kinds of things always looks good on paper. Not so good where the boots hit the sand.

I've decided that Friedman must be smoking the same thing Bush and his neocons have been inhaling. He sounds less like a factual reporter and more like another shill for BushCo with each passing week.

And no, Tom, the world isn't flat at all -- it's tilted to favor rich oligarchists, monopolists, slave labor employers and greedy militarists, to the detriment of ordinary people everywhere. Stop sucking on the hookahs with the neocons and "free" traders and you'll see. Just say no.

HEADS UP: Palast on Randi Rhodes Today

5/17 UPDATE: ChoicePoint gave Randi Rhodes hell yesterday, but she stood up well. Then Greg Palast joined in and demolished ChoicePoint's arguments. Read about it here.
*********************

Investigative journalist Greg Palast will be interviewed for a second day on the Randi Rhodes show. Yesterday, he discussed ChoicePoint's involvement with the NSA phone records scandal and ChoicePoint will be responding to his comments today. Randi says she'll speak with Greg again to get his reaction. Tune to Air America (KABQ AM 1350 in Albuquerque) today at 2:30 PM Mountain Time to hear the dust-up.

TONIGHT at 8 PM: KUNM Airs Analysis of Bush's 6PM MT Address on Immigration

From Javier Benavidez:
Check out Espejos de Aztlan on KUNM 89.9 tonight, Monday May 15th, at 8:00 PM for an analysis of President Bush's 6:00PM MST national address upon the issue of immigration. I will be interviewing local community organizers Tomas Garduno of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ) and Rachel Lazar, Director of El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos.

Espejos de Aztlan 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 89.9. For more information or to submit input about the Espejos de Aztlan, please visit the "Espejos de Aztlan" link at https://kunm.org/culture/.

Listeners to tonight's show will also have an opportunity to win tickets to "Frida K," a presentation by Teatro Paraguas and El Museo Cultural, running Thursday, May 18th through May 28th (Thursday through Saturday at 8:00PM and Sunday matinees at 3:00PM) at El Museo Cultural, 1615 Paseo de Peralta. For more information and reservations about the show, please call 473-0143.

Thank You Steve Colbert

Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's Colbert Report was the featured guest at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington and he went after Bush no holds barred. With Bush sitting a few seats down from the podium. Visit the new website Thank You Steve Colbert and you can watch excellent quality video of his performance in three parts. You can also express your appreciation to Steve for his in-your-face courage in confronting Bush.

Visit this post on Daily Kos for a complete transcript of Colbert's segment. You can currently watch the entire show on CSPAN's website, under Recent Programs, including Bush's segment, that featured a Bush impersonator that was funny (and tragic) to me in ways I don't think Dubya anticipated.