Democracy for New Mexico

Watching Pat Lyons

Have you seen Lyons Watch yet? Republican Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons is under the magnifying glass and the most disturbing things are coming into focus. 

ACTION ALERT: Net Neutrality Sleaze

According to Matt Stoller at MyDD:
Sen. Ted Stevens wants his [telecom] bill, and he's pushing like crazy to get it. It's going to be very hard for him to lobby Senators during the August recess, so he's looking to sign up 60 Senators who will commit to cloture during the lame duck session before the recess starts. In case you're wondering, that's unusual and somewhat sleazy.

The August recess starts Thursday, so we've got to put some heat on wavering Senators to make sure they don't commit to Stevens.

Rumors are flying about what Stevens is promising different Senators for their support, and we're not quite sure who he's going after specifically to convert. There are many Democrats who haven't taken a firm position on the Stevens bill yet, according to Save the Internet.

NOTE: NM Senator Jeff Bingaman is one of those who hasn't taken a position on the bill. I don't know what he's waiting for, do you?

Please call these Sen. Bingaman at 202-224-5521 and ask him to oppose the Stevens bill unless it contains strong provisions protecting net neutrality.  If you have time, you can also call some of the others who have refused so far to go on record on this horrible bill. Click for contact info.

Long Time Gone

I had much to say and post yesterday, but TypePad wouldn't let me. The software used to run this website was completely down all day. People could visit the site, but couldn't make any comments. I couldn't get to the application pages used to make posts and other changes on the site. TypePad is back in working order today, but there still appear to be some glitches and everything is working very slowly right now. We'll see if TypePad manages to stay up today and recapture its usual quickness. Now, what was I going to say yesterday....

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.

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: " 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.

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.

Act Now to Save Internet As We Know It

From SavetheInternet.com:
Trust AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth? AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth want us to trust that they’ll be good stewards of Internet freedom. Meanwhile, they’re selling out ordinary Americans to the National Security Agency. A report in Thursday’s USA Today tells how these three carriers secretly provided to the NSA the phone call records of tens of millions of people — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime. These companies apparently have no qualms about betraying customer trust — or breaking federal law.

Now they are asking Congress to strip away Net Neutrality protections so they can become benevolent overlords of the World Wide Web.

According to the report, Section 222 of the Communications Act, prohibits companies from giving out information regarding their customers’ calling habits: whom a person calls, how often and what routes those calls take to reach their final destination, and who calls in to the number. When asked about their potentially illegal handover of this personal information, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth declined to comment, citing “national security matters.” (You can sign an ACLU petition to demand that these companies stop participating in the NSA spying program.)

Would you trust these corporations with your Internet?

Tom Tauke, Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, thinks you should. Earlier this week, he swore up and down that the telephone giant would never deny consumers access to what they want on the Internet. Tauke said that doing so would be “akin to Starbucks hatching a plan to secretly serve customers Folgers crystals.”

We’re not talking about coffee, Tom. Internet freedom is not a commodity for Verizon’s to sell off to the highest bidder. The only thing that Verizon is “secretly serving customers” is a lie about improved choices and innovation. And they’re asking Congress to pass a law that allows them to become gatekeepers to the information superhighway.

Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth maintain networks that reach into the homes and businesses of tens of millions of Americans. These companies built this access to our private lives — and the billions in revenues that come with it — on a “bedrock principle” of consumer protection.

Now, that they’ve sold out this trust to help the government monitor ordinary Americans, how credible are their claims that no Net Neutrality safeguards are necessary?

The New York Times wrote:

'Net neutrality' is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. ... One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.

This provided a powerful boost to Net Neutrality advocates, who are up against a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign by Internet operators like AT&T, who want more control over what Web sites people see and use online. A House committee has already voted to gut Net Neutrality, but the full House and Senate have yet to weigh in. Votes are expected in upcoming weeks.

Adding to that momentum, the SavetheInternet.com Coalition announced that in less than a week, its petition signatures to preserve Net Neutrality jumped from 250,000 to 500,000. The number of organizations participating in the coalition jumped from 50 to 400.

"The fight for Internet freedom is gaining big momentum," said Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, a national, nonpartisan media reform and Internet policy group. "Every day, companies like AT&T and Comcast lose ground in their fight to end the free and open Internet that has revolutionized democratic participation and economic innovation."

The SavetheInternet.com coalition includes: Gun Owners of America, MoveOn.org, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Glenn Reynolds (aka libertarian blogger Instapundit), Parents Television Council, American Library Association, United Church of Christ, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, and other major public interest groups. The coalition is spearheaded by Free Press.

"Without statutory network neutrality, there is nothing to prevent big telecom companies from injecting political bias into the very skeleton of modern communications," said Craig Fields, director of Internet operations for Gun Owners of America. "Whenever you see people on the left and right joining together about something Congress is getting ready to do, it's been my experience that what Congress is getting ready to do is basically un-American."

Actions that members of the public are being urged to take include:

Call Congress
Write a letter to Congress
MySpace: Add "Save the Internet" as a friend Blog on this issue
For more information

This post on Daily Kos describes what is at stake and what would happen should the telecoms win their battle to control the free internet, its content and what kind of access individual users can have. Democracy for New Mexico has signed up as a supporter of the Save the Internet effort. You can do the same as an individual, blogger or organization.

A First for NM: Governor Richardson's State of the State Address to be Simulcast on Web

2:00 PM UPDATE: I don't see the video download on the site yet, but here's a link to a of the text version of the State of the State.

Webcast of the State of the State Address
Approximately 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM Start Time
Tuesday, Jan 17th

If you can't make it to Santa Fe to see the Governor's State of the State speech, hit the link below to see the live webcast. This is the first time a State of the State Address will be streamed live. After the speech, you'll be able to download video or audio of the address at the same site.

To access today's address, log onto https://www.governor.state.nm.us and follow the link for the live broadcast.

To track bills or contact your legislator, visit the website of the New Mexico Legislature.

TypePad Trauma

If you visited here earlier today you may have noticed that the site had reverted to December 9th. TypePad, the blogging service I use for this site, had a major breakdown that caused this and other problems with all the blogs that use it. In addition, the application software itself was down until just now, so I couldn't inform readers of what was happening.

Some glitches remain, mostly with photos and other items uploaded recently, but at least I can let you know what's been happening. I'm sure it's been a hectic, anxiety filled day at the TypePad offices. I feel for them. Ironically, it's made for an easier day for me because I didn't have to create any new posts.

TypePad has informed us that everything should be up to snuff by the end of this weekend. Until then, you'll probably notice some continuing oddities on the site.

Calling All Bloggers!

From an "unnamed source" --

Do political campaigns stir your passion? Are you addicted to DFNM, Joe Monahan, Daily Kos and/or Duke City Fix? Do you fancy yourself a "political insider?" Can you write? Do you want to help get rid of Heather Wilson? If so, we want to hear from you!

A new blog is brewing and they're looking for contributors. The blog will focus on a prominent New Mexico political campaign. If you're interested in being a featured blogger, please send an email to nmpoliticalblog@hotmail.com and let us know a little bit about your blogging/writing experience and share with us some blog entries you've written. Pseudonyms accepted.

Around the NM Blogs

Burning of Zozobra, 9/8/05, Santa FePhoto by: Karl Stolleis

Cocoposts discusses the mayoral race and money. Be sure to click on their link to a column in the Alibi by Jim Scarantino that includes an intriguing account of how Mayor Marty is raising all that money.

Marston Moore at Duke City Fix has the skinny on Eric Griego's comedy gig at Gorilla Tango to benefit the Albuquerque Living Wage Campaign, including Eric's hilarious take on David Byrnes' tune, "Once in a Lifetime."

Greg Burton's Albuquerque Blog displays the strange combo of counties that were included in Bush's first two emergency declarations for Lousiana.

Julia Goldberg's Blog takes on the significance of Santa Fe's burning of Zozobra last night (photo above), in terms of Katrina, while provides an obituary for Santa Fe's Burning Man.

Ex-Mayor Jim Baca's Only in New Mexico comments on Bush's declaration of a national prayer day, as well as Mexico's skirting of the minutemen patrols on the border to bring aid to Louisiana.

Soy Blue reports on Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-CO) demand that aid to Louisiana be stopped, as well as the tanking approval ratings for Republican members of Congress.

There's a good rundown on editorials from Louisiana newspapers and others that point the finger at Bush and FEMA at .

m-pyre has alot of excellent stuff on Katrina, including a report on a recent phone call from a Red Cross volunteer in New Orleans.

It's so good to see an expanding and quality blogosphere developing here. Visit their sites often by clicking on the links on the left-hand sidebar on this page under NM Blogs. And be sure to check out the always compelling photos generously provided by Taos' FarrFeed in the top right-hand corner above. Click on the FotoFeed of the day to see previous shots. Some respite from the storm...