Democracy for New Mexico

Gov. Richardson to Call for Halting New U.S. Nuke Weapons Programs

On Thursday, Governor Bill Richardson will make what his presidential campaign is calling a "major address" on foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. According to the Campaign News Advisory (see below), Richardson will include among his proposals "halting new American nuclear weapons programs." Quite a compelling announcement considering the roles New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories play in the nuke weapon industry. In fact, Los Alamos is one of two labs to have submitted a design to build what's being called the next generation of nuke bombs, the very controversial "reliable replacement warhead."

According to a January article in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

... last month, the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory listed the new warhead design among the lab's accomplishments. "I think our team did a great job," director Michael Anastasio told employees in a December speech.

At least two watchdog groups in New Mexico -- Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Los Alamos Study Group -- are opposed to the project, saying it will further nuclear proliferation.

Greg Mello of the study group said the program is primarily about keeping the nuclear weapons complex alive.

Reportedly the Bush administration is considering combining the designs submitted by Los Alamos Lab with that proposed by Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California.

CAMPAIGN NEWS ADVISORY
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to Outline Bold, Strong Foreign Policy Vision for America

US must address threat of nuclear terrorism, should stop new nuke programs

Governor Bill Richardson on Thursday will deliver a major address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.  In the speech, entitled “The New Realism and the Rebirth of American Leadership”, the Governor will outline his vision for a renewed and strong American foreign policy and his detailed philosophy to confront world challenges.

Governor Richardson believes that under the Bush administration the country’s foreign policy has been guided more by “wishful thinking than by reality”.  He believes the United States must take a different path in foreign affairs, “a path not of hard words, but of hard work.” The Governor will offer his assessment of the true challenges facing America and the world, and his plan on how to deal with them.

Governor Richardson will also discuss ways to make America and the world more secure, specifically by addressing the threat of nuclear terrorism and the need to secure the world’s existing nuclear materials.  He will also propose halting new American nuclear weapons programs.

Bill Richardson is uniquely qualified to discuss foreign policy, having served as a US Congressman for 14 years, Ambassador to the UN, Energy Secretary, and as the two-term Governor of a border state.   

What: Governor Bill Richardson major foreign policy address to CSIS

Where: 10 am Thurs. February 8, CSIS offices, 1800 K Street NW, Washington, DC

Site Contact: Andrew Schwartz, CSIS (202) 775-3242 aschwartz@csis.org

News Advisory: February 7, 2007
Contact: Pahl Shipley, Santa Fe (505) 982-2291

Stop Corporate Welfare and Government Secrecy in New Mexico

From Sue Dayton:
On January 27, 2007, the Albuquerque Journal published a front-page article, “Sandia’s Manager Receives Bonus: Lockheed Earns a Contract Extension and $7.7 Million.” The article reported on Lockheed Martin’s “outstanding management” of Sandia National Laboratories. Lockheed’s management was so outstanding that Lockheed executives got $7.7 million in bonuses on top of its $16.6 million “fixed fee” for running the nuclear weapons lab! To add insult to injury the so-called “report card” with the information about Sandia’s performance and the executive bonuses is being withheld from the public. Along with the article the Journal published an editorial calling for the release of Sandia’s “report card” titled, “Let Taxpayers in On Sandia’s Open Secret.”

American taxpayers - and especially New Mexicans - should be OUTRAGED! Why?

• It’s called corporate government welfare. Taxpayers’ hard-earned money should not be used to pay the bonuses of Lockheed executives for doing what they should be doing.
• Sandia National Laboratories and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the sub-autonomous agency of the U.S. Department of Energy now in charge of the nation’s nuclear weapons labs, is creating its own system of classifying documents that should be made public.
• The “classified report card” on Sandia’s performance reeks of government cover-up under a closed-door policy instead of the new open-door policy of government that the House has now pledged to implement. The NNSA’s authority to designate public documents “for official use only” is out of control and the NNSA should be removed from running the labs altogether.
• Sandia’s “classified report card” needs to be released in its entirety. Not 50%, not 75%, not 95%, but in its entirety.

The new House Democratic leadership has pledged to “clean up Washington” by creating an honest government and open leadership policy. Your representatives need to hear from you now. It’s time to tell them that corporate welfare is not the responsibility of American taxpayers and government reports that are not classified should be made available to the public.

Feel free to use the bullet points above and send your letter to the following representatives:

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Office of the Speaker
235 Cannon House Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4965
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
www.house.gov/pelosi
(letters can be submitted via e-mail, website or by mail) 

Bart Stupak, Chairman
Energy and Commerce Committee
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation
2125 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-2927 telephone or FAX  (202) 225-2525
(no e-mail address is available so send letter by mail or fax)

Senator Jeff Bingaman
United States Senate
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5521
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
(letters can be submitted via mail or e-mail)

Congressman Tom Udall
1410 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
www.tomudall.house.gov
(letters can be submitted via website or by mail)

Congresswoman Heather Wilson
318 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6316 phone
202-225-4975 fax
www.wilson.house.gov
(letters can be submitted via website, fax or mail)

Government Accountability Project
Gloria Jarmon, Congressional Relations
441 ‘G’ St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20548
(202) 512-3000
E-mail: congrel@gao.gov

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via e-mail. Many thanks for taking the time to write your representatives about this matter of utmost importance. 

Sincerely,
Sue Dayton
sdayton@swcp.com

2006 Year in Review: Drum Major Institute

I like the year-end review produced by the Drum Major Institute, a progressive, populist think tank. Click to read or download the report, which emphasizes issues of social and economic justice -- sure to be major topics in the coming presidential race. It's broken down into the following categories:

• The Executive Summary
• The Best of Public Policy in 2006
• The Worst of Public Policy in 2006
• The State of the States (produced with Progressive States)
• The DMI 2006 Injustice Index
• Eye on the Right
• DMI Interviews 8 People Advancing Progressive Public Policy in 2006
• Hot List: The 2006 Required Reading List for Progressives
• The Year in the Netroots
• Voices of 2006

They deem 2006 'The Year of Systems Failure' because, "Most Americans were tired of the status quo—on the war, on the economy, on the lapsed ethics of those entrusted to represent our interests. The result: on Election Day, they rebooted, ready to try again."

Their choices for best national public policy this year? Legislation that would reverse the raid on student aid, protect access to the polls, shield troops from predatory lending, preserve a neutral internet, replace hunger with health and close the Medicare drug plan's donut hole.

I especially like their rundown on what right-wing think tanks are producing, as well as their Injustice Index, which includes these nuggets:

Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year

Ratio of the average U.S. CEO’s annual pay to a minimum wage worker’s: 821:1

Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid vacation time at all: 37

Payment per episode that Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice: $3,000,000

Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in Times Square responding to ads for “on-the-spot” hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000. Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour

Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10

Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year’s energy bill paid out to the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices at the pump: $6 billion

Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative net worth, respectively: 31 and 38

Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called “corporate welfare” by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion

Percentage of the GDP that went to wages and salaries in the first half of 2006: 51.8

Time when the percentage of GDP belonging to wages and salaries was lower than in 2006, out of the 77 previous years for which these data are available: never

Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average American in the past 5 years: 93

Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000

Free Downloadable Book Discusses Why Millions of American Children at Risk

From Every Child Matters:
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the U.S. does not do well by millions of its children. In comparison to the other rich democracies, we have the poorest standing on:

• infant mortality
• teen birth rates
• health insurance coverage
• child abuse deaths
• child poverty

“Our children deserve better than this,” says Michael R. Petit, president of Every Child Matters and author of Homeland Insecurity … American Children at Risk, a newly published book that can be downloaded free at www.everychildmatters.org.

Drawing from mostly official federal data, Homeland Insecurity argues that the extreme conservative ideology that has dominated official Washington for two decades has failed to address the needs of millions of children. The book dispels the two principal myths upon which conservative ideology is based—that government itself is the enemy, and that taxes are evil. It compares state data on children and shows that the states which most strongly embrace anti-tax/anti-government ideology produce the worst outcomes for children. "The states with the best outcomes generally tax themselves at a higher level," said Petit, "and therefore are able to make greater investments in children."

Homeland Insecurity is just over 100 pages, but it’s jam-packed with straightforward charts and data, and ample photographs and anecdotes. Divided into seven chapters, it presents the latest data on health care, child abuse, imprisonment and child poverty. Petit says he wrote the book to help spark debate in the ’07-’08 presidential campaign about making major new investments in children, youth, and families.

Renowned pediatrician and author T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. writes on the book's jacket, “We do have solutions for the children’s problems the statistics in this book expose, but we need the national will to put them in action.” Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell writes, “Whatever their persuasion, most people who read Homeland Insecurity will find it makes compelling arguments for why new investments in children must be treated as a political priority. This is a must read for anyone seeking elective office—and everyone who cares about children.”

Homeland Insecurity is available free as a PDF downloadable document by visiting www.everychildmatters.org. The site also provides information on how citizens can help make children, youth and families a political priority.