Democracy for New Mexico

Tonight: IndyMedia TV Tackles Big Oil Issues

From Allan Cooper of the IndyMedia Collective: Watch IndyMedia TV tonight on Comcast Cable's Channel 27 in Albuquerque at 7:00 PM. We're on the web too at https://quote-unquote.org/ in real time.

Shrayas Jatkar from the Sierra Club will be talking with us about the fallacy of 'Peak Oil' and how the big oil companies are raking in billions off the lie. Also, Senators Pierce and Mc Cain are recipients of millions for their upcoming campaigns. Last quarter the so-called big four oil companies made over 35 billions dollars in profits! That's 'our' money sisters and brothers ... Capitol X, political Hip-Hop artist will join us by phone to give us an ear full (and eye full). Plus, Armon from Burque will update us on the resistance building to stop the next war/attack on Iran. We all need to stand up and speak up NOW, please, for the children. Our call-in phone is 505-346-1633. Info? Call 505-304-3144.

Quick Hits

There's so much going on, I thought I'd link to some stories I don't have any time to write about.

About time: The Brennan Center for Justice has filed suit in state court on behalf of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas Inc. (FAWCO), New Mexico Public Interest Research Group (NMPIRG), and the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) challenging New Mexico's voter registration rules that were enacted in 2005:

"New Mexico has enacted one of the most chilling and restrictive voter registration laws in the country," stated Wendy Weiser, the Brennan Center's Director of Voting Rights and Elections and one of the attorneys in the case. "In a year in which unprecedented numbers of Americans are interested in participating in our democracy, New Mexico should be welcoming new voters, not putting up barriers to their participation," she added.

A public hearing is set for September 8th in Santa Fe on New Mexico's proposed medical marijuana rules.

The Santa Fe New Mexican will lay off 16.5 workers, including 10 in their newsroom due to fading advertising revenues.

Gov. Bill Richardson may miss the Dem Convention if the special session of the New Mexico Legislature is still in progress when Dems convene in Denver on August 25-28.

The latest poll by the Pew Hispanic Center shows Obama with a large lead among Hispanics, including those who supported Hillary Clinton.

The after raising $10.8 million in June, compared with only $24.6 million left in the coffers of its GOP counterpart, which raised $6 million last month. CQ Politics said this $20 million and growing cash advantage means likely Senate gains for Dems, and reported that the DSCC transferred $128,617 to the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

CQ Politics has changed its race ratings in 14 Congressional contests, . One of those is our own NM-02 race:

New Mexico’s 2nd (New Rating: Leans Republican. Previous Rating: Republican Favored). Steve Pearce made this southern New Mexico district all but untouchable since winning the seat in 2002, but his departure to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Pete V. Domenici opens up the race. Democratic pick-up efforts are aided by the fact that their nominee is a conservative Democrat who can appeal to a broad swath of the party. Harry Teague, an oilman and former member of the Lea County Board of Commissioners, defeated progressive Democrat Bill McCamley in the June 3 primary after bolstering his campaign with $765,000 through May.

The DCCC has added Teague to its “Red to Blue” list of highly competitive challenges to Republican seats that the campaign committee will give logistical support and, in many cases, money. Restaurant chain owner Ed Tinsley won the five-way GOP primary with 31 percent of the vote after putting $296,000 into his own campaign through May. Southern New Mexico’s longstanding preference for Republican representation gives Tinsley a slight edge in the race, but Teague guarantees a highly competitive contest.

The Obama campaign is buying $5M of network and cabe TV ads during NBC's coverage of the Olympics, the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years.

The massive federal housing bill is on a fast track to enactment. The usual Repub suspects voted against it in the U.S. House, including Steve Pearce, who apparently wants suffering homeowners and communities to fend for themselves. Even Bush has changed his tune, agreeing not to veto the measure, but Pearce won't budge. You know how he is when it comes to offering a helping hand to anyone but our most wealthy citizens.

Technorati Tags:

A New Mexico Gem: Arthur Alpert (and Ruminations on The Line)

Have you been reading Arthur Alpert's (right) pieces on the New Mexico Independent each Friday? I have. Check out this week's post, which considers Pete Domenici's newfound admiration for CAFE standards and suggests how Pete might share his experience.

As Alpert's NMI bio says:

Once upon a time, Arthur Alpert was a newspaperman (N.Y. World-Telegram & Sun), TV producer-writer-host (news, documentaries), magazine contributor (New Republic, Washington Monthly) and journalism teacher. In New Mexico, he was news director at KGGM-TV, editor of Prime Time monthly and columnist for the Albuquerque Tribune.

I was reminded just how witty, informed and articulate Alpert is during his recent appearance as a guest on The Line panel on KNME's New Mexico In Focus, which airs every Friday night at 7:00 PM and repeats at 6:00 AM on Sundays. Mary Ellen and I were bravo-ing out loud as Alpert calmly eviscerated some of the more fact-less and clue-less pronouncements of regular panelists Jim Scarantino, who often claims to be an independent, and Scott Darnell, a paid NM GOP operative. Gumption!

Let's hope the show's producer, Kevin McDonald, and The Line's host, Gene Grant, invite Alpert back soon and often to provide some much-needed balance and heft to the show. UNM Law School Prof. Margaret Montoya, a regular panelist, does a bang-up job for the liberal side of the spectrum -- but it's often hard to counteract the one-two punch of Scarantino and Darnell if the guest panelist is reticent to join in the fray or trends to the right.

By the way, Scott Darnell will be departing The Line panel shortly to attend Harvard's JFK School of Government -- rather ironic, that -- and I wonder who will be chosen to take his place. Let's hope that if it's another professional paid by the Repubs to hawk their talking points, someone with a similar professional profile from the Dem side will be included on the panel regularly to offset that slant.

Of course my real hope is that Darnell will be replaced with someone whose positions are less lock step and whose thinking is more nuanced and unpredictable than Scott's has been. I think the show needs less rigid ideology and more spontaneity in Darnell's successor, if you know what I mean.

Thankfully, Scarantino wanders a bit on the ideology scale on some issues, although his oft-expressed, uncritical love for all things Pete can be tiresome -- at least to me. And his penchant to bring up polygamy every time the topic of gay marriage or domestic partnerships arises gets on my nerves. Hey, we all have our pet rants. Jim is Jim and he can be smart and funny if the topic is right. But he's like a broken record on Domenici and the environment, and he usually offers few facts or cites to back up his arguments.

Don't get me wrong. I think Kevin McDonald, David Alire Garcia, Gene Grant and everyone else involved with New Mexico In Focus does an excellent job of bringing local issues into, well, focus. I just think the show could benefit from some tweaking to make the panel segment more provocative and balanced.

Do you watch The Line on New Mexico in Focus? What do you think?

Technorati Tags:

Care About Fair and Accurate Elections?

If so, you should definitely give a listen to an interview with Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver conducted by Peter St. Cyr. It's posted on his blog, "What's the Word?" Peter is a well-known reporter with KKOB News Radio. His blog permits him to share interviews and other stories in their entirety, expanding on the short sound-bites that are typically aired on the radio.

As I'm sure most of you know, Maggie is running to retain her office after initially being appointed County Clerk in 2007 to replace Mary Herrera, who was elected Secretary of State. She's earned significant and widespread praise for the innovations and organizational prowess she's displayed since taking on the wide-ranging responsibilities of County Clerk in New Mexico's largest county.

St. Cyr's interview with Toulouse Oliver covers a lot of ground, from her experience with a recent audit of the county's electronic tabulator accuracy funded by the Pew Center to what she's doing to make sure the November 4th election runs just right. One of her top priorities is to ensure that an adequate supply of poll workers is well-trained and available to handle the massive turnout expected on election day this Fall:

“I’m going to be out this summer visiting neighborhood associations, and civic organization meetings, all over the place trying to recruit poll workers,” said Toulouse-Oliver. “I’m also meeting with a variety of stakeholder groups to ensure they are getting their people and parties, union organization and other activist groups who care about elections and the outcomes of elections.”

Toulouse-Oliver says if you don’t mind working a long shift you should consider volunteering. Election poll workers are compensated for their time, but need to be patient working with the public. More information about being a poll worker is posted on the Bernalillo County Clerk's website here.

We need to pitch in if we want the incredibly important election this year to run smoothly, with results we can count on. Maggie and her excellent staff are doing all they can to make that happen, but they need our help. Just do it.

Maggie also needs our help to retain her office. She'll face Republican Richard Lloyd Abraham on November 4th. You can sign up volunteer and/or donate at her campaign website.

Technorati Tags:

Eric Griego on 'We The People' Wednesday

WE THE PEOPLE: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Eric Griego, NM Senate District 14
Victorious Candidate who followed his ideal of grassroots--clean money--donations and defeated the big money special interest backed campaign of the incumbent by a wide margin.

Comcast CABLE Channel 27, 1st and 3rd Wednesday - 6 PM
or ON THE WEB:  www.quote-unquote.org
Click for Channel 27's [3rd oval down] Media Stream
Mickey Bock, Host; Judith Binder, Producer
Mission: Truth and Transparency in Government

Obama's Albuquerque Visit: Video Clips and More

Above are four video clips we shot at Barack Obama's meeting with working women at the Flying Star Commissary in Albuquerque yesterday. The first is a clip from his speech and the rest are from his question and answer session with participants. You can view the clips individually here. Also see our previous first-person account of this event, as well as our photo album on Flickr.

Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Kate Nash working away at Obama event

You can read Nash's article on the Obama visit here. Kate was by far the friendliest of the mainstream media folks at the event. Some others, especially a few of the TV folks, didn't seem too pleased to have their territory invaded by mere bloggers.

Leslie Linthicum (Albuquerque Journal), Stuart Dyson (KOB)

Leslie Linthicum's Journal article about the event and her interview with Obama is here. KOB-TV's Stuart Dyson has a video report here.

P.S If you'd like to help us provide better quality video and audio on DFNM, I hope you'll consider making a small donation so we can purchase better equipment we can use at future events.

Mary Ellen and I will be representing New Mexico at the Dem Convention in Denver in August as part of the DNC's State Blogger Corps. DFNM is credentialed for seating with our state delegation, right on the Convention floor, and we'll be live-blogging and providing extensive coverage of the event. We have to pay our own hotel and other travel costs (as well as provide our own tech equipment) -- an expensive proposition considering the pricing of accommodations in Denver during Convention week.

Click the orange Donate button on the upper left-hand corner of this page to contribute, or email me at dfnm_albq AT comcast.net to learn of other ways to donate.

Technorati Tags:

Paper Ballot Surplus: Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing

The Albuquerque Journal seems to be ever-vigilant about certain types of perceived errors or wrongdoing on the part of Dems that can be used for political fodder. Lately, it's been hitting hard on the existence of a surplus of paper ballots for New Mexico's June 3rd primary. Given their continuing front-page coverage of this issue, you'd think it constituted a scandal of epic proportions. The problem is, their reporters don't ask the right questions to get at the facts or the real problems. Many Journal reporters seem to have that habit -- or at least that's how their editorial bosses make them look.

Almost Flawless Election in Bernalillo County
The Journal started out hitting Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who just happens to be a Dem running for re-election this Fall against Repub challenger Richard Abraham. By all accounts, Oliver ran one of the most problem-free elections in recent years on June 3rd. She added three more early voting sites, effectively communicated important voting info to the public, operated with maximum transparency and improved poll worker training. The election went off without a major hitch. No long lines. No shortage of ballots. Timely reporting of election results. Everyone who wanted to vote got to do so easily and quickly -- a real success in a county that has experience election problems in the past.

The GOP: Always Whining
The smoothly run election must have irritated GOP operatives who like to whine about fake "voter fraud," despite their accusations being found to be thoroughly without merit, time and time again. This is the bunch who is also up at arms because New Mexico switched to a paper ballot system that replaced dreaded touchscreen and other electronic voting machines proven to be unreliable and hackable. You know, the machines being banned all over the nation because they lack any verifiable way to ensure votes are counted accurately. The GOP hacks consider the switch to paper ballots a step backward, probably because paper ballots provide a permanent record of what goes down on election day.

Whipping Up a "Scandal"
It's common knowledge that the Journal has always been highly amenable to regurgitating GOP talking points. I think the paper ballot oversupply "scandal" is just one more instance of this propensity.

The Journal keeps repeating that it cost $1.3 million for the 1.5 million unused paper ballots that were shredded after June 3rd, and wringing their hands about how much this cost taxpayers. Oh, shame on the Bernalillo County Clerk for following the formula for ballot printing designated by the Secretary of State. This, after the Journal made it a virtual crusade to milk the story of insufficient ballots for February's Dem Party presidential caucus for maximum political gain. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

First off, the Journal cites a per-ballot price of 93 cents. Based on that, they total up how much extra it cost for the surplus ballot supply. The problem is that everybody (except, apparently, the Journal reporters) knows that printing costs aren't figured like that. The main costs come from the set-up and initial run of the job. As more and more copies are printed, the unit cost actually goes down.

Say the print job costs $150,000 for an initial run of 200,000. A significant portion of that pays for the intial set-up. Each additional copy printed after the 200,000 will cost substantially less because the set-up costs have already been offset. The farther away you get from the initial run, the less the per-copy cost. So there's no way that the surplus ballots cost 93 cents each. They may still have been overpriced, but the figuring is off.

The Journal did have to reveal that similar numbers of surplus ballots were printed in the past. And that many extra ballots have to be printed to serve early voting sites that require 850 different versions of the ballot needed for precincts that might have voters show up. But they still insist that there was extensive "waste" in this primary, and then place the "blame" on officeholders who just happen to be Dems.

Start Investigating the Real Culprits
I wish Journal reporters would target the real culprits making our elections such expensive affairs -- the big, mostly Repub-owned corporations that produce, sell and service modern voting equipment and materials. The way things are run in Bush World pretty much dictates that election officials must go to one or another of these often secretive and monopolistic vendors for what's needed in elections. ES&S, Automated Election Services, Diebold (now Premier Election Solutions) and a few others dominate the business of elections. They sometimes tend to jack up costs and keep everything proprietary so no-one knows what's going on inside the machines.

A handful of corporations literally owns American elections, and they force election officials to buy on their terms and enter into expensive maintenance and other contracts after their systems are purchased. It's a very lucrative racket, especially when you consider how unreliable their equipment and services have often proved to be. The public needs to be informed about these kinds of issues so pressure can be brought to convince government representative to fix the problems pronto.

Having a generous supply of extra ballots is part of the solution, not part of the problem. So is switching to voter verifiable paper ballots, as we've done in New Mexico. We're definitely moving in the right direction with our elections, even if some new problems emerge as we move into the paper ballot era. Let's praise election officials when praise is due, as in the case of the Bernalillo County Clerk.

Concentrate on Informing the Public
Another good idea for local journalists would be to provide more in-depth, quality reporting on local and national politics year-round so that more potential voters are knowledgeable and excited about participating in voting. As it stands, a 30% or so turnout of registered voters is considered excellent in these parts. And don't even begin contemplating the huge numbers of our citizens who aren't even registered.

Don't you wish the Journal would try to do something about improving its political coverage instead of pounding on an election official who's done a knock-out job so far? Less pseudo-scandals and rumor-mongering; more fact-based reporting on issues, candidates and voting, please.

It's fine to investigate the surplus ballot issue and whether it would be workable to have print-on-demand ballots at early voting sites or pursue other improvements. But making this story a front-page "scandal" for days on end is just more politically biased BS in my book. Much ado about (almost) nothing, but rife with the juicy anti-Dem innuendo too many in our local media are so fond of.

Technorati Tags:

Tonight on NM In Focus: Tom Udall, Brian Colon, Diane Denish, Primary Wrap-Up

Tonight at 7:00 PM, KNME's New Mexico In Focus features a wrap-up of Tuesday's New Mexico primary and a look ahead to November. David Alire Garcia interviews Tom Udall, special guests give their takes on the results and Gene Grant and The Line panelists provide analysis.

Guests:
• Brian Colon, Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman
• Diane Denish, Lt. Governor
• Tom Udall, Dem Candidate, U.S. Senate
•  Dan East, Repub Candidate, U.S. Senate
• Allen Weh, Republican Party Chairman

Guest Panelist:
• Michael Coleman, Albuquerque Journal Reporter

Regular Commentators/Panelists
• Hosts: Gene Grant and David Alire Garcia
• Margaret Montoya, UNM School of Law / UNM School of Medicine
• Scott Darnell, Communication Director, Republican Party of New Mexico
• Jim Scarantino, Weekly Alibi Columnist

Technorati Tags:

Tonight: NM In Focus Airs and Discusses Last Wilson-Pearce Debate

KNME's New Mexico In Focus will broadcast the New Mexico Broadcasters Association GOP Senate Debate between Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce live on Friday, May 30th, at 7:00 PM; no Sunday repeat. Afterwards, the show will feature a follow-up from 8:00-8:30 PM with debate analysis. Regular panelists and host Gene Grant will welcome these guests to the table: Michael Coleman, Albuquerque Journal Reporter; Gabriel Ramon Sanchez, UNM Political Science Professor; Joe Monahan, political blogger. KNME will also live-stream the debate and analysis on their website, where you can also watch the videos after the fact. This is the last GOP Senate debate before the June 3rd primary. The winner will face Democratic Rep. Tom Udall in the general election in November.

NM Featured on Travel Channel Show Tonight, Saturday

And now for something completely different. After all the turmoil roiling the blogs and news outlets this week related to negative campaigning of one sort or another, it's satisfying to post something about New Mexico, nature and outdoor adventures. Peter St. Cyr sent along the following info about a new TV show on the Travel Channel. By the way, if you haven't yet checked out St. Cyr's new blog, Word for Word, be sure to do so. St. Cyr, who is KKOB's morning news reporter, does some PR work and writes for Albuquerque magaine, is uploading complete interviews and other audio material that only gets aired in short clips on the radio.

Into America’s West debuts this week on the Travel Channel. Emmy Award Winner Jeff Corwin’s trail of discovery and adventure shows off the state of New Mexico to an international audience.

Corwin and his crew explore the Land of Enchantment with a visit to the Taos Pueblo, a National Historic Landmark and World Heritage Site, a ride on the Sandia Peak Tram, and a snowmobile race through Red River Ski Area. Corwin gives viewers a close look at a den of Western Diamondback rattlesnakes after he climbs inside a rock cave. He also photographs and shows off a huge Gila Monster.

Wearing a cowboy hat, Corwin saddles up, rides a horse and ropes a few steer at a New Mexican ranch.  The show takes viewers on a tour to White Sands where Corwin shows off beetles, insects and turtles. Later he races through the Taos Box on a guided whitewater rafting adventure. The show also takes viewers to Santa Fe.

During the program, Corwin floats over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in a colorful hot air balloon.  Viewers also watch as Corwin’s crews relax during an afternoon soak at Ojo Caliente  Mineral Springs Resort & Spa.

The one hour program is scheduled for Thursday, May 22nd at 9:00 PM (MT) and re-broadcast  on Saturday, May 24th at 4:00 PM (MT) on the Travel Channel (check local listings for channel number in your community). For more information on the program visit https://www.TravelChannel.com.

Technorati Tags: