Democracy for New Mexico

Action Alert: Environmental Issues at Monday's ABQ City Council Meeting

From Environment New Mexico:
Fewer words spoken about politics are more important to remember than that quote from Tip O'Neill, longtime Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress: "All politics is local." There's a great opportunity for progress on key environmental issues coming up at the local level next week -- right here in Albuquerque.

This coming Monday, April 21, the Albuquerque City Council* will be considering measures dealing with:

• developer subsidies for sprawling subdivisions
• toxic mining on our public lands**
• conserving New Mexico's limited water supply

That's a lot to cover in one meeting, and we need your help! By attending next week's City Council meeting you'll be letting your Councilor know that you support the important environmental protections being considering and improve their chance of passage.

Please RSVP today for next week's City Council meeting and let me know you'll be joining me in standing up for New Mexico's environment by clicking here. Here are the details for the meeting:

Continue reading "Action Alert: Environmental Issues at Monday's ABQ City Council Meeting"

Report: Albuquerque Equal Voice for America’s Families Town Hall Meeting

From Albuquerque activist Terry Riley:
On April 9, 2008 I attended a Town Hall meeting called by the Albuquerque Equal Voice for America’s Families Campaign. The event focused on the broad issues of Seniors in Poverty, The Foreclosure Crisis, Environmental Justice, Criminal Justice, Health Care and Immigration. Click to see my report (doc) on the activities at the town hall and how health care issues were at or near the top of citizen concerns.

Tonight on We The People: Grassroots Delegates

WE THE PEOPLE

Dory Shonogan & Bradford Lyau

Choosing Delegates for

National Conventions

April 16, 2008

Comcast Cable - Channel 27

1st and 3rd Wednesday - 6 PM
or
ON THE WEB:  www.quote-unquote.org
On the right - Click for Channel 27's Media Stream
Mickey Bock, Host; Judith Binder, Producer

Your Morning Read: Pre-Debate ABC/WaPo Prez Poll

(Click on image for larger version.)

New national polling by ABC News and the Washington Post shows Obama ahead of Clinton now in almost every major category. The new numbers should provide some fodder for tonight's Dem candidate debate in Philadelphia, which will air on ABC at 6:00 PM Mountain time. Tonight's debate is the last chance for the candidates to face off before next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.

Complete Poll, Crosstabs. Excerpt:

Obama Surges on Electability, Challenges Clinton on Leadership
Barack Obama has knocked down one of the three tent poles of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, surging ahead of her as the candidate Democrats see as most likely to win in November. He’s challenging her on leadership as well, leaving only experience as a clear Clinton advantage in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

On the eve of their debate before the Pennsylvania primary next week, Democrats by a 2-1 margin, 62-31 percent, now see Obama as better able to win in November – a dramatic turn from February, when Clinton held a scant 5-point edge on this measure, and more so from last fall, when she crushed her opponents on electability.

The poll finds other pronounced problems for Clinton. Among all Americans, 58 percent now say she’s not honest and trustworthy, 16 points higher than in a pre-campaign poll two years ago. Obama beats her head-to-head on this attribute by a 23-point margin.

The number of Americans who see Clinton unfavorably overall has risen to a record high in ABC/Post polling, 54 percent -- up 14 points since January. Obama's unfavorable score has reached a new high as well, up 9 points, but to a lower 39 percent.

Continue reading "Your Morning Read: Pre-Debate ABC/WaPo Prez Poll"

NM-01: 1Q 2008 Fundraising Totals

Okay, I give, starting with the NM-01 reports. Here are the numbers for the first quarter of the year that were reported to the FEC yesterday by candidates in the Congressional race in New Mexico's First District:

Martin Heinrich, Democrat
Raised $201,046; Spent $135,049, Cash on Hand $342,423

Darren White, Republican
Raised $233,510; Spent $108,568; Cash on Hand $297,499

Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrat
Raised $109,080; Spent $65,777; Cash on Hand $139,095

Rebecca Vigil-Giron, Democrat
Raised $5,615; Spent $13,917; Cash on Hand - (minus) $8,302

Robert Pidcock, Democrat
Raised $36,095 (from Dec. 4 to March 31) including a self-loan of $24,500; Spent $26,665 during the same period

Joe Carraro, Republican
Raised $33,000 (including self-loan of $10,000) reported via press release, no FEC report yet

Technorati Tags:New Mexico, NM-01, fundraising, Martin Heinrich, Darren White, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, Robert Pidcock, Joe Carraro

Newsflash: Large Amounts of Money Being Raised by Candidates

This is the day that candidate financial reports are due at the FEC, so campaign press releases filled with braggadaccio -- justified or not -- are piling up in many bloggers' and reporters' email boxes. I know I'm supposed to be excited about the fact that many of the candidates I support are doing incredibly well in the area of campaign donations.

I know that as a political blogger I'm expected to rush to the keyboard and try to "scoop" other sites by being among the first to reveal the official numbers. I know I'm supposed to plug in the always boring and totally predictable candidate quotes about how "grateful" they are for all the support and how they will use it to change everything that needs changing in Washington. But I just can't do it today.

I was off wandering on the web, from link to link, wincing at explicitly bloody photos of the Tibetan victims of Chinese brutality. I found myself reading more than I have in weeks about the seemingly intractable problems we face due to global warming, habitat destruction, water depletion and exploding food prices in already starvation-filled parts of the world.

Continue reading "Newsflash: Large Amounts of Money Being Raised by Candidates"

Guest Blog: Mikhail Gorbachev in Santa Fe

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, alternative newspaper managing editor and gallery owner of Santa Fe, who participated in yesterday's press conference in Santa Fe featuring the former President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. President Gorbachev also appeared at a fundraising dinner to benefit the Santa Fe Institute and Global Green USA, and spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

On Monday I asked former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev if, after November, he would please be so kind as to lead and advise the next USA President as to how to get out of our quagmire. This is Gorbachev's reply, through a translator:

“The Middle East is what the entire world is watching. If things go badly for the USA, things go badly for all of us. America must not abuse the trust it has from its allies, much of which has virtually stopped. I am glad to see in this election a resurgence of interest in international affairs. As I will say in my talk tonight, judging from the USA’s military budget, your nation seems to be at war with the world, and I sense that the American people don’t like this at all. The size of your weapons budget is larger than it was at the peak of the Cold War, and larger all of the rest of the nuclear nations put together. Why do you continue to build these weapons? This is amazing to me!

I think that [former Secretaries of State] George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, [former US Senator] Sam Nunn, and [former Secretary of Defense] William Perry have put together recently a very interesting plan in this regard, for which I appreciate their initiative.

Continue reading "Guest Blog: Mikhail Gorbachev in Santa Fe"

A Message to Our Grandchildren: Stewart and Lee Udall

Stewart Udall flanked by son Tom Udall and wife Jill at polling place in 2006

Recently a friend emailed me an essay (included below) by Stewart and Lee Udall. They are the parents of Rep. Tom Udall, who's running for U.S. Senate in New Mexico. Written as a letter to the Udall grandchildren, the essay was also published in the High Country News. It struck me that the piece is a must read for all of us, regardless of our age, ancestry or any other factor. If we live on the Earth, and intend that others who come after us will be able to do so, we need to keep the thoughts and goals described in the letter foremost in our minds, hearts and souls.

The message seems especially timely today, with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev having offered similar advice yesterday in Santa Fe about the urgency of the need for individuals and nations to work together on the emergencies we face:

Only through countries working together can the world solve its military conflicts, epidemics, fights for resources, poverty and the global environmental crisis — those problems are just too big, Gorbachev said. "We need planetary glasnost, global glasnost," he said, noting his call for openness in government in the 1980s. "We still can do a great deal" to save the planet, he added.

... "Right now priorities in the world are distorted, they're skewed," he said, adding that it's time for "real, radical change" in the way countries work together through organizations like NATO and the United Nations.

A Message to our Grandchildren, High Country News
ESSAY - by Stewart and Lee Udall, March 31, 2008

Among other accomplishments in a life of public service, Arizona native Stewart Udall was perhaps the most influential secretary of Interior ever. He served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations from 1961 to 1969, and played a part in some of the nation's landmark environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. He now lives in Santa Fe, N.M., where he and his wife, Lee, penned this letter to their grandchildren.

My dear ones, your generation will face a series of environmental challenges that will dwarf anything any previous generation has confronted. I'm hoping to add some insights of my own based on things I learned as a policymaker in the 1950s and '60s, when I observed and participated in some monumental achievements and profound misjudgments.

As a freshman congressman in 1955, I regrettably voted with my unanimous colleagues for the Interstate Highway Program. All of us acted on the shortsighted assumption that cheap oil was super-abundant and would always be available. This illusion began to unravel in the 1970s, and it haunts Americans today.

Oil lies at the epicenter of a critical energy crisis. Petroleum is a finite resource and is the most precious, versatile resource on the planet. Cheap oil played a crucial role in the development of American power and prosperity, and sustains the military machine that dominates the world today. Oil is now nearing a historic transition that will alter the civilization Americans have come to take for granted.

Continue reading "A Message to Our Grandchildren: Stewart and Lee Udall"

Who's Really Out of Touch? Bush III, Er, McCain

For a painful picture of the horrible economic impacts to New Mexico of the Iraq occupation -- and McCain's Iraq and tax plan proposals -- see this post on Clearly New Mexico. Already, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has show in a recent report that New Mexico ranks 6th in the nation for income inequality. This will only get worse if McCain is allowed to carry Bush II's agenda into another presidential term. Know anyone who seems attracted to the "maverick" McCain? Make sure they get the facts.

Technorati Tags: John McCain George Bush Out of Touch Progressive Media

NM-01: Vigil-Giron Stays on Ballot, Lujan Grisham's Complaint Rejected

The AP reports:

Judge Daniel Sanchez rejected a challenge brought by the campaign of another congressional candidate, Michelle Lujan Grisham ... The Lujan Grisham campaign claimed that Vigil-Giron did not have enough valid voter signatures on her nominating petition to meet state requirements for getting on the ballot. The judge disagreed after a hearing late Friday, saying Vigil-Giron had a sufficient number of valid signatures.

Also check out this later, more detailed AP story. Here's my previous post on this challenge that lays out the details of the suit. Does anyone else find it odd that former Dem Party Chair John Wertheim would agree to represent the Lujan Grisham supporters in this suit if he didn't have an iron-clad case? The suit claimed that 600 of the signatures submitted by Vigil-Giron were improper. Guess not.

And then there's this:

Vigil-Giron countered that the challenge was based on voter databases that were unreliable and incomplete. [emphasis mine]

Continue reading "NM-01: Vigil-Giron Stays on Ballot, Lujan Grisham's Complaint Rejected"