Democracy for New Mexico

Lawless: Tell Congress to Do Their Damned Job

Raise a ruckess. If we don't do it, who will?

We Can't Make It Here Anymore: Labor Day Edition

The mood of the country this Labor Day seems ripe for a little James McMurtry. A house of cards collapsing in on itself because of crooked deals and unpayable debt. "Free" trade robber barons piling up their tax-free bloat. Criminals in the board rooms and government and K Street. We're entrenched in one corporate quagmire war, while another threatens as Bush plots ways to attack Iran. Oh, and here's what our Democratic "leaders" are saying about continuing funding for Iraq. Happy Labor Day 2007. Think I'll head to the mountains, for some grounding.

Visuals: Iraq Summer 'Take a Stand' in Albuquerque

I haven't had a chance to report on the moving and well-attended Take a Stand Town Hall organized in Albuquerque by the Iraq Summer campaign and others. The August 28th event at the UNM Continuing Education Auditorium attracted more than 300 people to hear Albuquerque City Counselor Martin Heinrich; ex-Marine Bruce Clark (videos above), the parent of two sons in the military, one of whom is stationed north of Baghdad right now; Major General Mel Montano, US Air National Guard, Retired, and former Adjunct General of New Mexico; Judy Pratt, activist, former NM State Senator and 1984 U.S. Senate candidate against Pete Domenici; and Greg Richardson of the Iraq Summer campaign.

Both Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson were invited to participate, but refused the invitation to speak with their constituents about what they plan to do to end the carnage in Iraq.

I've compiled images from the Albuquerque event in this photo album for you to check out.

City Councilor Martin Heinrich speaks to crowd

The videos at the top of this post are excerpts of Bruce Clark's extremely emotional and passionate speech. They're of rather poor quality, taken with our little digital camera, but I hope you'll listen to Bruce's words about the real intent of Bush, his cronies and his supporters like Domenici and Wilson. If everyone in New Mexico could hear Bruce speak, I know that most of them would have a clear picture of what's truly at stake here. The other speakers were also excellent, and I'll cover more of what they had to say later. For now, please listen to Mr. Clark and do what you can to convince Domenici and Wilson to do what's right for the country, not what's right for the GOP or the Bush administration.

The event was moderated by Carter Bundy of AFSCME, who did a bang up job, and began with what seemed like an eternity of total silence as we watched a slideshow with the faces and names of members of the military from New Mexico who have died in the war. Lives are at stake. Time is of the essence. And still Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson won't vote to stop the deadly and damaging occupation.

By the way, Iraq Summer, MoveOn, True Majority and others helped organize similar events in many other states around the nation that day. Click to see a slide show of photos from other states.

Help Elect Replacements for Wilson and Domenici
The Beat Back Bush New Mexico page was created at Act Blue to counteract Bush's recent visit to Albuquerque to raise money for Pete Domenici. It's designed to raise donations from New Mexico's progressive netroots-grassroots for candidates who will run against the Republicans here. If you haven't donated yet, there's still time. Contrbute a few bucks to Martin Heinrich and Don Wiviot -- candidates who want to get rid of Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici once and for all in November 2008.

Click to read our previous posts about Beat Back Bush New Mexico.

Scenes from Demonstration at Today's Domenici-Bush Lovefest in Los Ranchos NM

Demonstrators were on both sides of Rio Grande NW

Mounted police blocked the road to the site of the fundraiser

The photos above were taken by Terry Riley at the demonstration on Rio Grande NW in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque on August 27, 2007. Click for more photos from Terry. Bush flew into Albuquerque for a few hours and attended an expensive private fundraiser for Sen. Pete Domenici at the home of Los Ranchos' "Independent" Mayor Larry Abraham. The Albuquerque Journal and demonstrated estimated the crowd at more than 100 at its peak -- in the hot summer sun of New Mexico at mid-day. Albuquerque Code Pink was much in evidence. Although the demonstrators didn't get to see Bush arrive, they did manage to "greet" GOP bigwigs arriving in their vehicles. (Click on images for larger versions.)

According to the Albuquerque Journal the event raised more than $430,000 for Domenici and the state GOP, and that close to 200 people attended. The minimum donation was $1000 and photos with Bush went for $5000. One protester had this to say:

Air Force veteran George Boersig, 67, said he believes the war is about oil and money. Boersig, a member of the local Veterans for Peace group, carried a sign with a picture of Bush and the words, "Impeach Me: Clueless but Evil.'' "The only way to stop (the war) is to cut the funding. That's what we did in Vietnam and we need to do the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan,'' Boersig said.

To counter Domenici's windfall from Bush's fundraiser, visit BEAT BACK BUSH NEW MEXICO and donate a few bucks to the cause.

Watch your tax dollars go down the drain in this Albuquerque Tribune raw video as Bush's motorcade full of "security" heads to the fundraiser for Domenici on a cleared Rio Grande Boulevard this morning. As the host of the fundraiser -- Los Ranchos' "Independent" Mayor Larry Abraham -- has said, the village of Los Ranchos won't pay a penny for the extra cops and other security -- residents of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and other places will, by providing the extra details.

Here are videos of the protests and more from KRQE News 13 and .

Tragedy in the Motorcade
Very sadly, one Rio Rancho police officer riding a motorcycle in Bush's motorcade paid with his life. He crashed into a tree near I-26 as Bush was on the way back to the Sunport. Germaine F. Casey, 40, left a wife and two children behind with his passing.

More from demonstration and Bush visit to Albuquerque:

• Story and photos of Terry Riley and Bruce Barnaby from the Albuquerque Tribune
• Reuters photos here and here
• Yahoo News Photos
• Albuquerque Code Pink photos:

If anyone else has photos or videos from the day, I'd be happy to post or link to them.

To counter Domenici's windfall from Bush's fundraiser, visit BEAT BACK BUSH NEW MEXICO and donate a few bucks to the cause.

New TV Ad: Tell Pete Domenici to End the War

Just released: Here's the new TV ad by Americans United for Change aking that citizens call Pete Domenici and urge him to vote to end the Iraq occupation. Do It Now:  202-224-6621. Here's the text of the ad along with documentation on the points it makes. See my previous post for more info.

Sunday Bird Blogging: YearlyKos Edition

As you can see above, Sunny the sun conure wants nothing to do with YearlyKos. Even seeing one of our bags of swag from the blogger convention caused him to flee. He was all wet, having just taken a bath, so we thought he might be cool and calm enough to hang out near the dreaded object. We even tried to bribe him to stay near the bag with one of his favorite treats -- a piece of Rice Chex -- but he just grabbed it and flew the coop, wet wings and all.

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird (above) didn't want to pose with anything YK either, but we managed to get a quick shot before he scrambled up Mary Ellen's arm and onto her shoulder, peeping loudly in protest.

Seems both Bosco and Sunny were less than pleased that we were away for 10 days to attend the convention and vacation in my old home town of Chicago. They missed us and all their daily routines. We missed them too, but we arranged for experienced bird sitters to hang out with them, play with them and feed them while we were gone. It went well, all factors considered, but they still wish YearlyKos never happened. Some avians are demanding like that. The parakeets, on the other hand, could have cared less that we were gone. They have each other and, as the old saw says, birds of afeather flock together.

Bosco did agree to pose with one of our anti-Bush-Clinton-regime-themed buttons (there were many versions), but only because he is so opposed to another Clinton administration. He let us know in no uncertain terms that he absolutely refuses to support Hillary in her presidential run. He reminded us that she and Bill promised so much in terms of equality under the law for lovebirds, but failed to deliver. We know how he feels. (Click on photos for larger images.)

Time Waster of the Day

Since it's Saturday ... go ahead, you know you want to try it!
(h/t Suburban Guerilla)

Blue America: Bush Approval Ratings in June '07

Click on thumbnail for full-sized image.

Approval ratings for Bush . There are no safe districts for Republicans in 2008. See why.

Isn't It Time to Impeach Cheney?

ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT FOR CHENEY
From HR 333 Introduced in US House of Representatives

ARTICLE I. Fabricated threat of Iraq WMD.
Cheney has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.

ARTICLE II: Fabricated ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Cheney purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.

ARTICLE III: Threatening Iran.
Cheney has openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States, and done so with the United States proven capability to carry out such threats, thus undermining the national security of the United States.

Dozens of supporting documents for all three articles of impeachment can be found here.

The complete H.Res 333, Articles of Impeachment Against Vice President Richard B. Cheney, is available here.

The Washington Post's 5-part series on the Cheney Vice Presidency.

Wikipedia has the history of H.Res 333.

A thorough archive of Cheney's distortions and deceptions on Iraq is available from Rep. Henry Waxman's office here.

Go on now, !

Coalition:

14 Representatives support H. Res. 333, Articles of Impeachment Against Dick Cheney: Yvette Clarke William Lacy Clay Keith Ellison Bob Filner Jesse Jackson Jr. Hank Johnson Dennis Kucinich Barbara Lee Jim McDermott Jim Moran Jan Schakowsky Maxine Waters Lynn Woolsey Albert Wynn

A28.org AfterDowningStreet Backbone Campaign BradBlog Brave New Films BuzzFlash Code Pink Democracy Rising Democrats.com Grass Roots America 4 Us HipHopCaucus ImpeachBush.tv Impeach For Peace.org ImpeachSpace.com The Nation National Lawyers Guild OpEdNews.com People's Email Network Progressive Democrats of America United for Peace and Justice Velvet Revolution World Can't Wait

Hurting?

YborCityStogie

Of course they mean the Republ version, not a REAL elephant!