Democracy for New Mexico

Behold the Satanic Symbol Wreath!

Sign o' the times: A homeowners association in Pagosa Springs, CO has decided to fine one of their own in order to protect townspeople from the nasty effects of what some are calling a Satanic symbol, shown above. According to an AP story, "residents were offended by the sign and the board will not allow signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive":

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan. Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday. Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing."

I do seem to recall a time when we were known as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but apparently that's now considered a pre-9/11 thing. Our freedoms and the courage to express them are now trumped by the controling interests of privatized homeowners associations and their rules. I wonder what would happen in Pagosa Springs if someone had the audacity to put up a sign honoring the Prince of Peace on his Christmas birthday celebration.... Mighty devisive and Satanic!

What next? Xtian fundies demanding people take down their Xmas trees because they're pagan symbols?

Here are the facts on the origins of the peace symbol and what it really means.

Which reminds me. The Xmas light peace sign we've had hanging on the front of our house for a few years now (above) needs some sprucing up for the holiday season. Many lights have burned out over the past few months. Maybe we'll add some evergreen branches in solidarity with the banned wreath in Pagosa. By the way, over the years we've only had one instance of someone tearing down our sign in the dead of night. Not bad considering the atmosphere of hatred for peace the Bushies have been nourishing for 6 years now.

LWV to Hold Forum on Citizen Lobbying

From the Albuquerque Journal:
The League of Women Voters of New Mexico plans "A Public Educational Forum on Citizen Lobbying" from 9:30 AM to 1 PM on Saturday, December 2, at the Montezuma Lodge No. 1, 431 Paseo de Peralta in Santa Fe. The event is designed to help the public communicate with legislators and participate in democracy.

The workshop is about the process of lobbying, the league said in a news release. Specific political issues will not be addressed during this meeting, but attendees can use the general information when they want to support or oppose issues in 2007.

Speakers include a Bureau of Elections lobbyist registrar; legislative representatives; a paid lobbyist; a citizen lobbyist from the American Association of University Women; a citizen lobbyist and Webmaster from the league; and other citizen organization representatives.

Handouts and discussion will blueprint ways for attendees to communicate with their legislators in their neighborhoods, on the telephone, on the Internet and at the Roundhouse. People are invited to bring questions about process, not about issues.

The forum is free, but the audience is limited to 50. Coffee, water and cookies will be provided. For more information contact Marilyn Morgan at lillemor@nmia.com or at (505) 884-8441. A League of Women Voters' action committee meeting will follow at 1 PM.

Denish to Promote Automatic Recount Measure

More good news. This week Lt. Governor Diane Denish announced she will promote passage of a bill called the Every Vote Counts Act, set to be introduced at the 2007 NM legislative session. NM Democratic Senators Dede Feldman and Gerald Ortiz y Pino joined Denish in touting the bill's merits. According to an article in theAlbuquerque Tribune:

The Every Vote Counts Act would set aside $500,000 in state money and require recounts when the difference in the votes is less than one-half of 1 percent in federal or statewide races.

"I want to ensure that the vote of every New Mexican is counted properly and fairly to provide voters equity and foster confidence in the Democratic process," Denish said in a statement.

Many states have laws requiring an automatic recount if the margin between candidates is under a specified percentage of the total vote. If we had such a law on the books here, a mandatory recount would be going on right now in the NM-01 congressional race between Patricia Madrid and Heather Wilson. Wilson's margin of victory was only 875 votes, or less than half a percentage point. Rather than the Madrid camp facing the rather daunting task of raising what they determined would be around $300,000 if they wanted a complete recount, the state would pay the costs on behalf of the entire state's electorate to make sure election results are accurate in close races.

A fund to pay for the mandatory recounts would be created by instituting a candidate registration fee based on the number of registered voters in the candidate's district.

"Ensuring that every vote is counted and counted properly is essential to our system," Ortiz y Pino said. "Mandatory recounts in some cases are necessary to preserve the confidence of the people."

12/3 Screening: Committing Poetry in Times of War

The film "Committing Poetry in Times of War" will be screened Sunday, December 3, 2006 at 7:45 PM at the NM Film Museum (former Jean Cocteau Cinema) in Santa Fe as part of the NM Film Expo of the Santa Fe Film Festival.

This independently made NM feature documentary film tells the story of how poets, educators and outraged citizens rallied in support of the Rio Rancho High School student Slam Poetry Team and its coach, Bill Nevins, when the team was shut down in early 2003 at the time of the start of the Iraq War. For more information, visit www.committingpoetry.com or email sirotkin@igc.org.

Cowboy Up

This is a Guest Blog submitted by Ben, who runs the local blog Cyberquerque: While a lot of people are saying it’s nice to have the election cycle over, political junkies like me are preparing for the next group of elections in ‘08.  Especially out here in New Mexico.  Where the Congressional run for NM-01 is always a nail-biter!

Watching the results and the slow going in NM-01 afterwards reminded me of something that my dad, a Democrat in a sea of red in Denton, Texas, said a couple of years ago when I was bummed about the 2004 elections. (a paraphrase follows)

“What are you depressed about? Yeah the democrats lost. Bitch about it for a couple of days then cowboy up. You need to realize it’s less than two years until the next election and there’s work to be done!”

Especially for those of us in New Mexico, where NM-01 is always a fight, plus the possibility that Heather will jump to try and take St. Pete's seat in the Senate.  Dems, celebrate taking back the House and Senate and mourn this loss for now, and Reps, vice versa - celebrate Heather winning and plotting her move to the Senate next year and cry about losing Congress for a few days.  Then it's time to get back to it.  Politics are moving at the speed of, what I call, the 24-7-365 campaign.  Unlike the hacks that sell the campaign by the same name, it's my personal belief, we need to be ready to take the fight to our opponents.  I kinda take Churchill to heart when he stood in the House of Commons and said:

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

So, for both sides of the political divide, celebrate or cry for a few days then start working for ‘08.  Like the old man said, "Cowboy up. There's work to be done."  And this time (not working at the paper), I hope to take a place in the trenches.

This post is by guest blogger Ben of Cyberquerque. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a Guest Blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link in the upper left-hand corner of our main page.

Quote of the Day: Shapes of Things to Come

Relaxing on a holiday weekend, it's satisfying to imagine what will happen when the new Democratic-led Congress convenes in January. One much anticipated development is reported in the New York Times:

Seeking information about detention of terrorism suspects, abuse of detainees and government secrecy, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are reviving dozens of demands for classified documents that until now have been rebuffed or ignored by the Justice Department and other agencies.

“I expect real answers, or we’ll have testimony under oath until we get them,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who will head the committee beginning in January, said in an interview this week. “We’re entitled to know these answers, and in many instances we don’t get them because people are hiding their mistakes. And that’s no excuse.”

Bernalillo County Sets Date for Wage Vote

From ACORN:
The Bernalillo County Commission will vote of Commissioner Alan Armijo's proposal to match the City of Albuquerque's minimum wage ordinance on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, November 28. The meeting begins at 4:30 in the Commission/City Council Chambers in the basement of 1 Civic Plaza, so please come early if you want to sign up to testify.

The proposal would provide an almost immediate raise to workers in the county, providing a wage of $6.75 on January 1 and rising to $7.50 by 2009. The ordinance would allow no exemptions for teenagers or small businesses. For more information, contact Matthew Henderson at ACORN: 242-7411.

Pondering Peace Poems on TDay

I read the news today, oh boy: "A string of apparently coordinated bombings erupted today in Sadr City, a Shiite slum of Baghdad, killing more than 140 people. Shiites responded almost immediately, the AP reported, firing 10 mortar rounds at the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad, the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque in Azamiya." Then I read some peace poetry, as a sort of antidote:

This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed – or were killed – on this ground
hollowed by the neglect of an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

--by William Stafford, USA (1914-1993)

The End and the Beginning by Wislawa Szmborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa-springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.

Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.

From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass which has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out,
blade of grass in his mouth,
gazing at the clouds.

Wislawa Szmborska was a Polish poet. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. She died in 2002, at the age of 101.

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle.
It smashes down forests and crushes men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm
    and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

--by Bertolt Brecht, Germany (1898-1956)

Poems from WagingPeace.org.

As for me, I am thankful today that we seem to moving, if only mostly imperceptibly so far, towards  peace, or at least an ending to this particular version of The War. And I am thankful for my returning health, my loving partner, my delightful birds and all who work for positive, peaceful, just change in any way, shape or form. You know who you are. Namaste. --Barb

THANKSGIVING: 21 Reasons to Give Thanks

Courtesy of the Think Progress Report:

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list:

We're thankful for our country's troops.

We're thankful America dumped the 109th Congress.

We're thankful Rick Santorum will have more free time to find the WMD.

We're thankful we don’t have to go to war with the Secretary of Defense we had.

We're thankful for "red state values," like protecting reproductive rights, supporting stem cell research, and rejecting discrimination.

We're thankful Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who calls climate change the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," will no longer chair the Senate environmental committee.

We're thankful that Matt Drudge does not rule our world.

We're thankful Al Gore helped the country face the inconvenient truth.

We're thankful Bill O'Reilly does not resort to name calling - well, besides labeling the Progress Report/ThinkProgress as "far left loons," "kool-aid zombies," "hired guns," "vile," "haters," a "far left smear website," and "a very well-oiled, effective character assassination machine."

We're thankful minimum wage ballot initiatives passed in six states.

We're thankful the Dixie Chicks aren't ready to make nice.

We're thankful Ted Haggard bought the meth but never used it.

We're thankful for the 100,000 readers who responded to our Tell the Truth About 9/11 campaign.

We're thankful for "the Google" and "the email" (and the "series of tubes" that make them possible) -- but not iPods, which are endangering our nation.

We're thankful Maf54 isn't online right now.

We're thankful people send us Jack Abramoff's email.

We're thankful Keith Olbermann's ratings are up and Bill O'Reilly's ratings are down.

We're thankful President Bush's secret plan for Iraq is safe with Conrad Burns.

We're thankful we won't spend Thanksgiving turkey hunting with Dick Cheney.

We're thankful the "Decider" only gets to make the decision 789 more days.

And last but not least: We're thankful to the Progress Report readers for their tips, energy and support.

Happy Thanksgiving! – The Progress Report Team.

JFK Assassination: 43 Years Ago Today

Our 36th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated 43 years ago today. Many of us are still calculating what was lost on that day in Dallas, in terms of our nation and our planet and our own personal psyches. We still contemplate how his violent death was but the first of many premature and unnecessary deaths to come in the 1960s and beyond, of leaders and ordinary folks alike. The struggle Kennedy described below continues, unabated:

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" -- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. --JFK Inaugural Address, 1961

Genuine leadership is scarce. Inspiring rhetoric seems a lost art. The search for answers and a reawakening of our better aspects goes on. Info on many aspects of the assassination of JFK and his presidency can be found at wikipedia. Remember.