Hello New Mexicans for Obama,
I hope you are still as fired up as I am after last fall’s campaign, and after the incredible start the Obama administration has had, and that you are still motivated to organize for change.
I wanted to introduce myself to those of you I don’t know. My name is Eric Hilberg and I worked as a volunteer grass roots organizer on the Obama campaign in Southern New Mexico. Just like many of you, I knocked on lots of doors, made phone calls, led a neighborhood team of volunteers, and prepared walk lists and call lists for dozens of other teams here in Las Cruces. Together we won this election.
I am excited to serve as New Mexico’s Volunteer Liaison to Organizing for America, and I’m excited to tell you that Organizing for America is up and running. OFA’s mission is to mobilize our grassroots movement in support of President Obama’s policies for change and to build on and strengthen that grassroots organization we have all built together. I am an unpaid volunteer (not an official OFA staffer) who has been asked to help coordinate our efforts here in New Mexico with OFA’s national office.
I know that many of you are already utilizing the Obama network to organize in your communities. Your efforts holding house parties and collecting stories about the impact of the current economic crisis on New Mexicans helped pass the Economic Recovery and Stimulus Act, and your involvement will be critical to its success.
You can act today to support our economic recovery. Take a minute to thank the Senators and Representatives in New Mexico who supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and encourage them to continue working with President Obama to lift America out of the economic crisis. When you’re done, report back to us about the calls you made.
Throughout the next weeks and months, I look forward to working with all of you to ensure that Organizing for America is successful here in New Mexico. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas as we continue to organize for change.
Thanks so much,
Eric Hilberg (erichilberg@gmail.com)
New Mexico Volunteer Liaison, Organizing for America
This was presented to me on a forum somewhere in cyber IDEAS world. It is an excellent question. It was followed up with this:
"I know you guys hate Bush and consider McCain the same as Bush.
But...
If it were any other scenario. If we were not at war, and Bush wasnt president. Would you vote for Obama?
I just cant wrap my head around people voting for someong with no experience and no history of accomplishing anything. Is it just an "anti-Bush" vote? As I have said before, If Obama were a carpenter, Mechanic, Plumber, or Electrician, you would hire him with the lack of experience he has."
I prefaced my response with this:
why?
he has real integral consciousness:I believe "a new, historically significant “level” of consciousness and culture is emerging in our time, and that the emergence of this new integral worldview is in many ways the evolutionary equivalent of the emergence of the modernist worldview during the period known as the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries. And just as the rise of modernism changed the world forever, we can expect similar (but more benign) progress from the rise of integralism. “Integral consciousness” is a new perspective on the world that expands our perception of reality and provides fresh motivation to make a positive difference. This new way of seeing and living arises from an enlarged set of values framed by an expanded understanding of cultural evolution."(McIntosh)
and continued my thoughts here:
This is simple. 21st Century ideas are being born out into action through the Obama movement. Obama has lived Integral consciousness much of his adult life.
What does that mean? Live simply within the belief that what you do is for the benefit of others (all others). Do it in your actions and deeds. Be yourself and seek self advancement. Realize personal growth and the benefit of your hard work but not at unfair cost to others. This is his proven record. Has he been perfect on the way? Has anyone? of course not, but he is the best we have seen to actually dare move into the political arena. I think the Y generation really gets it. That is why Obama has such support from the youth-- not because they are young and don't know, but precisely because they do understand the world from a very different cultural point of view than the generations before them. The boomers paved the way with pluralism, but that stalled in "commissions" and feel good meetings that simply couldn't get enough of the simple things done to keep all of us on track as technology evolved faster than "we," as a culture could. Look at the incredible work and tragedies of the Jeremiah Wrights, the Clinton's, the Carter's, MLK,JFK, my parents, etc. People who went only so far before the cultural evolution of the past generations strangled their progress, or they became exhausted and began to thank or think of themselves first. The X'ers were the first to step out, stop, look at, process, and really meet the reality of a 21st Century. The Mystery, God, Buddha, Allah, or whatever you call spirit blessed us with a new responsibility. We did not have to fight as hard for equal rights as our parents did (thank you boomers), but we had to fight those who wish to turn back those advancements. Because of the social and cultural work of the generation before, we knew our neighbors in different ways than our parents did, we didn't go home to as many snide racist comments after playing, or working with folks from different cultures. We grew up with less tribal hatred. We had great educations and we learned how to do for ourselves despite a changing economy. Many met it with protest at first by stepping out of the way of a Tsunami; the great heave of might and wealth spread across the world... we stepped out of the way instinctively as not to be crushed by the greedy progress bulging from unregulated American growth... those on the liberal side of the political spectrum left the democratic party for example.
in the meme time...
Many X'ers made millions from the technology boom. Most benefited in multiple ways from the advancements in technology.
Many of us have found simple niches in the world. Natural Capitalism became a reality at the local level. We started small green construction supply businesses, producing green products for cabinetry, flooring, roofing, alternative energy products, etc. We started organic farms for food and environmentally sound products. We advanced the field of education and started the pioneering work of understanding human challenges like Autism. We have kept focused on the 21st challenges while watching the Rove's and Cheney's self destruct. We have continued to fight the Bush doctrine's "long cherished belief in Catastrophe." We saw how the Tsunami came back to haunt us. We see another stage of the past's orgy of delusion and denial slowly dying out. This is not a joke, and we know the Y's are right there with us. So are many, many Boomers and many from the Greatest generation. Integral consciousness does not discriminate by color, sex, class, creed or age, but by understanding.
There is one very big reason Obama is where he is. He understands the foundation that will solve the challenges of the 21st century.
Us
I would love further comment on this...
Currently, I am in Anchorage, Alaska and have been here for the past 4 weeks. My husband has a temporary job in Anchorage, so during the day I volunteer with the local Obama Campaign for Change.
After the Democratic National Convention in Denver, I passed through Washington on my way to Anchorage. My memories still so fresh of the excitement and historic convention. I am Fired UP! Ready to GO!
The campaign office is busy with volunteers writing postcards to voters out-of-state, making buttons for local use and meeting other Obama supporters who share their stories and enthusiasm for Senators Obama and Biden. Supporters who work in the Alaskan oil fields, Republicans who will vote democratic for the first time, moms with babies, seventeen year old students who feel the urgency of changing our country now...it's inspiring for me.
When I first arrived, the office was staffed with several Obama organizers some whom have since been assigned to new offices in swing states for the the rest of the campaign season. The nomination of the Alaskan governor changed the landscape of the election and caused the uprising of many Obama supporters to action. A rare political rally was organized and another is scheduled for October and debate watch parties are scheduled.
Meanwhile, Washington supporters are helping with a yard sign project that will suppy voters in Wasilla, AK. A partial shipment arrived yesterday and when the rest arrive, I and a couple other Alaskans, will deliver the signs to Wasilla supporters...it's gonna be fun!!!!
Hope in Alaska!
Well, it was great to see the man in person in Espy today. I got there early and stood for 5 hours in the hot sun, and it was worth it. I was very close to the podium, maybe 30 feet max. He's awesome, and better in person.
Pix:
http://flickr.com/photos/66336125@N00/sets/72157607366782577/show/
I enjoy Garrison Keillor and his radio show "A Prairie Home Companion". Last month, my husband and I happily attended his Rhubarb Tour show in Santa Fe. His funny, warm, and thoughtful music, prose, and humor are reminiscent of a fine blend of Woody Guthrie and Will Rogers -- American humor with a populist national conscience. He recently wrote in The Baltimore Sun his reflection on the Republican National Convention:
So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They've been running Washington like a well-oiled machine, to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves. And Giuliani is an advocate for small-town America. Bravo.They are coming out for Small Efficient Government the very week that the feds are taking over Fannie and Freddie, those old cash cows, and in the course of a weekend 20 or 50 or (pick a number) billion go floating out the Treasury door. It is a bold move on the Republicans' part - forget about the past, it's only history, so write a new narrative and be who you want to be - and if they succeed, I think I might declare myself a 24-year-old virgin named Lance and see what that might lead to. Paste a new face on my Facebook page, maybe become the Dauphin Louie the 32nd, the rightful heir to the Throne of France, put on silk tights and pantaloons and a plumed hat and go on the sawdust circuit and sell souvenir hankies imprinted with the royal fleur-de-lis. John McCain has decided to run as a former POW and a maverick, a maverick's maverick, rather than Mr. Bush's best friend, and that's understandable - but how can he not address the $3 trillion that got burned up in Iraq so far? It's real money; it could've paid for a lot of windmills, a high-speed rail line in Ohio, some serious research and development. The Chinese, who have avoided foreign wars for 50 years, are taking enormous leaps forward, investing in their economy, and we are falling behind. We're wasting our chances. And a former mayor of a town of 7,000 who hired a lobbyist to get $26 million in federal earmarks is now running against the old-boy network in Washington who gave her that money to build the teen rec center and other good things so she could keep taxes low in Wasilla. Stunning. And if you question her qualifications to be the leader of the free world, you are an elitist. This is a beautiful maneuver. I wish I had thought of it back in school when I was forced to subject myself to a final exam in higher algebra. I could have told Miss Mortenson, "I am a Christian, and when you gave me a D you only showed your contempt for the Lord and for the godly, hard-working people from whom I have sprung, you elitist battleax, you."In school, you couldn't get away with that garbage because the taxpayers know that if we don't uphold scholastic standards, we will wind up driving on badly designed bridges and go in for a tonsillectomy and come out missing our left lung, so we flunk the losers, lest they gain power and hurt us. But in politics, we bring forth phonies and love them to death.When you check the actuarial tables on a 72-year-old guy who's had three bouts with cancer, you guess you may be looking at the first female president, a hustling evangelical with a chip on her shoulder who, not counting Canada, has set foot outside the country once - a trip to Germany, Iraq and Kuwait in 2007 to visit Alaskans in the armed service. And who listed a refueling stop in Ireland as a fourth country visited. She's like the Current Occupant but with big hair. If you want inexperience, there were better choices.http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.keillor11sep11,0,4084302,print.story
This is an excerpt from the opening of an alternet.org article found under the title human rights...There is a video embedded in the story. It's a very interesting take on the church that she has been a member of for many years.
When John McCain announced his intention to make a freshman -- and female -- Alaska Governor the next vice president on the eve of the Republican convention, the liberal media conspiracy went predictably haywire. The litany of revelations about Sarah Palin only grows as time goes on. And though it has been overshadowed by teenage pregnancies and doctored photographs, one question has got the lattes shaking in a great many progressive hands: is Sarah Palin a creationist?
The Los Angeles Times called her that outright. Newsweek, theBoston Globe, and the New York Times were more cautious, reporting that Palin supports teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools. But even this isn't quite right. While, in a 2006 gubernatorial debate , she may have declared herself "a proponent of teaching both," she backed down somewhat in a subsequent interview: "I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn't have to be part of the curriculum." All she's asking, it seems, is that students not be suspended for asking a question about God.
Palin went on to say that her father was a science teacher and taught her about "his theories of evolution." When pushed for her own conclusions, she admitted only, "I believe we have a creator." Sorting through her equivocations, creationist organizations like Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute are still reluctant to declare her one of their own.
In contrast, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have made their positions on evolution clear, even while reaching out to religious voters. Clinton is "shocked" by creationism advocates. "One of our gifts from God," she adds, "is the ability to reason." For Obama, "it's a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don't hold up to scientific inquiry."
I recommend you go to one of these two sites: (The links edit was not working this afternoon.)
http://www.alternet.org/rights/97939/weird_theology_in_wasilla%3A_a_look_inside_sarah_palin%27s_pentecostal_church/
and to see about the makers of the video about extreme religion and who they are, go to this site:
http://www.talk2action.org/user/Bruce%20Wilson Bruce E. Wilson is the person who posted the video exposing the extreme
views of the church Sarah Palin is a part of and others like that.
Barack Obama has been repeatedly chastised -- even badgered -- for opposing the "surge." His attempts to refocus the debate more broadly on the wisdom of invading Iraq in the first place are rudely rejected by Big Media interviewers.
The latest example came during an ABC News "This Week" interview on Sept. 7 when George Stephanopoulos demanded of Obama: "How do you escape the logic that ... John McCain was right about the surge?"
When Obama responded that he didn't understand "why people are so focused on what has happened in the last year and a half and not on the previous five," Stephanopoulos cut him off, saying "Granted, you think you made the right decision about going in, but about the surge?"
In other words, the big-name journalists don't want a discussion about the decision to illegally invade Iraq under false pretenses in 2003 (presumably because they almost all were cheering the invasion on), but instead they want the debate to center entirely on their latest false assumption, that the "surge" has virtually won the war.
In reality, the "surge" of about 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq appears to have been only one factor and -- according to military officials interviewed for Bob Woodward's new book, The War Within -- possibly a secondary one in explaining the drop-off in the violence that had made Iraq a living hell.
As Woodward writes, "In Washington, conventional wisdom translated these events into a simple view: The surge had worked. But the full story was more complicated. At least three other factors were as important as, or even more important than, the surge."
Woodward, whose book draws heavily from Pentagon insiders, reported that the Sunni rejection of al-Qaeda extremists in Anbar province (which preceded the surge) and the surprise decision of radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr to order a unilateral cease-fire by his militia were two important factors.
A third factor, which Woodward argued may have been the most significant, was the use of new highly classified U.S. intelligence tactics that allowed for rapid targeting and killing of insurgent leaders. Woodward agreed to withhold details of these secret techniques from his book so as not to undercut their continuing success.
But there have been previous glimpses of classified U.S. programs that combine high-tech means of identifying insurgents -- such as sophisticated biometrics and night-vision-equipped drones -- with old-fashioned brutality on the ground, including on-the-spot executions of suspects. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com's "Bush's Global Dirty War" and "Iraq's Laboratory of Repression."]
Successful Repression
As we've reported previously, other brutal factors -- that the Washington press corps almost never mentions -- help explain the decline in violence:
But this dark side of the "successful surge" is excluded from the U.S. political debate. As during the pre-invasion period, the Washington press corps acts more like Bush's propagandists than anything close to skeptical journalists.
The only time they get tough in interviews is with Obama, demanding that he get in line with the rest of Washington's conventional wisdom and hail the media's old favorite, John McCain, for his courage and wisdom.
From Alternet.org
complete story, copy and paste this address: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/98171/?page=1
This story just in from the International Herald Tribune
Did anyone think it would happen? Just the other day, I was wondering, "Have we viewers forgotten about Pakistan? Take a look.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who has little experience in governing, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday by a wide margin.
Zardari, 53, who spent 11 years in jail on corruption charges that remain unproved, succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month under the threat of impeachment. He is expected to be sworn in on Monday or Tuesday, Pakistani officials said.
Zardari has the tacit approval of the United States, which views him as an ally in the campaign against terrorism. He has promised a tougher fight against members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda ensconced in the nation's tribal areas, from where they mount assaults on American and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan.
His election coincides with a stepped-up effort by the United States to root out the Taliban and Al Qaeda from the tribal areas. American commandos attacked militants in a village near the Afghan border on Wednesday, in what American military officials said could be a continuing campaign in Pakistan's tribal region.
Zardari becomes president amid increasing evidence that the Pakistani government and military face almost overwhelming difficulties in battling the militants, who now virtually control the tribal areas. In a reminder of that challenge, a suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and wounded 80 at a police checkpoint near Peshawar on Saturday.
Official results from voting in the two houses of Parliament and four provincial assemblies showed that Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, won 481 of 702 votes. His closest competitor, Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, won 153 votes, and a third candidate, Mushahid Hussain Syed, received 44 votes.
After Bhutto was killed in December, Zardari became the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which was founded by Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and is considered to be almost a cult of the Bhutto dynasty.
Zardari led the party to victory in a parliamentary election on Feb. 18 and formed a coalition with Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N.
That coalition collapsed last month amid recriminations over the reinstatement of some 60 judges fired by President Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule in November.
In a sign of conciliation, Sharif telephoned Zardari on Saturday to congratulate him on his victory and pledge his support, according to television accounts of the call.
The White House issued a supportive statement on Saturday. "The United States congratulates Asif Ali Zardari on his election as president," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman. "President Bush looks forward to working with him, Prime Minister Gilani and the government of Pakistan on issues important to both countries, including counterterrorism and making sure Pakistan has a stable and secure economy."
Zardari's aides have promised that as president, Zardari would agree to the elimination of a constitutional provision that allows the president to dismiss Parliament, long considered a weak institution.
The minister of information, Sherry Rehman, a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said the relationship between the presidency and Parliament would be better balanced under Zardari, resulting in a "new era of democratic stability." Rehman added, "Today, every Pakistani can raise his head with pride."
After the vote, Zardari spoke briefly outside the prime minister's residence. Flanked by his two teenage daughters, Bakhtawar and Asifa, Zardari said he would uphold the democratic philosophy of Bhutto.
"Parliament will be sovereign," he said. "This president shall be subservient to the Parliament."
But there was considerable skepticism among politicians and in the news media that Zardari would agree to a diminution of power. An editorial on Saturday in the daily newspaper Dawn said it hoped that "his commitment to make himself a titular head of state will not waver."
Most Pakistanis looked on the presidential vote with considerable indifference, a sharp contrast to the excitement during the campaign leading to parliamentary elections.
In the Aabpara market in Islamabad, some storekeepers viewed Zardari's victory as a foregone conclusion.
Several said it was good for Pakistan to have a president and a prime minister from the same party, reflecting the official line of the Pakistan Peoples Party. "He can be a good president because the whole party is behind him," said Malik Zahoor, 50.
But some vendors said the corruption charges against Zardari made him unsuitable for the presidency.
"He's a certified thief," said Akhlaq Abbasi, 60, the owner of a fabric and tailoring shop.
Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
MY COMMENT: Walmart in Mexico was making workers take a portion of their salaries in merchandise from the store they worked at! Our relations are important. When Bush admin supports these practices in Mexico, what do they intend for the USA?
Friday, September 05, 2008 Mexico Supreme Court orders Wal-Mart to stop paying workers in store vouchers Joe Shaulis at 11:27 AM ET [JURIST] The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice [official website] on Thursday ruled [press release, in Spanish] that Wal-Mart de Mexico [corporate website; JURIST news archive] may not pay employees in part with vouchers redeemable only at its stores. The court nullified the employment contract of a worker who challenged the voucher payments, finding that they violated Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution [PDF text], which guarantees the right to "dignified and socially useful work." The court likened the arrangement, which Wal-Mart called the Plan of Social Welfare, to a practice that prevailed during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz [profile], who ruled Mexico [JURIST news archive] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Until the practice was abolished by the current constitution in 1917, workers could be forced to buy exorbitantly priced goods at company stores. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage. From Mexico City, El Universal has local coverage. Among other legal setbacks for Wal-Mart [JURIST news archive], four labor groups filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the Federal Election Commission last month, alleging that the retailer forced employees to attend meetings where political campaigns were discussed. Last year, a Philadelphia judge ordered Wal-Mart [JURIST report] to pay nearly $47 million in legal fees and costs resulting from a class action brought by employees who had been denied pay for work they did during breaks. A jury awarded the same plaintiffs $78 million for their off-the-clock labor, plus $62 million in damages [JURIST reports] under a Pennsylvania law that prohibits employers from withholding pay for more than 30 days. Also last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the certification [JURIST report] of a class alleging that Wal-Mart had discriminated against female employees.
From the Morning Joe Show, MSNBC ... Here's another Sarah Palin email received today. I think McCain's poor judgment is strikingly evident in his choice of Palin. On a brighter note, I'm making a conscious effort to stay in the state of joy and gratitude I felt last week when Obama was nominated. We have lived through another wondrous moment in which we see the broadening of American democracy. I pray that he and his wonderful wife and children will be safe, and I pray also that this country will have the wisdom to accept the gifts that he brings to us.
From anonymous; Please don't laugh ... Subject: Fwd: sarah palin Begin forwarded message: from a friend of a friend..... Dear classmates - As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her. The most accurate description of her is red neck. Her husband works in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. * She is a life time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska , particularly wolves and bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial hunting of these predators from helicopters and airplanes, dollars that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska 's failing school system. We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad, but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is appropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to informative web sites. * She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has "green" policies. The only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home town of Wasilla ), strip mining, and almost anything else that will unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy its environment. * Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska , she was mayor of Wasilla, a small red neck town outside Anc horage. The average maximum education level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade. Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about. These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the serious issues facing the US . Furthermore, they don't care. So long as they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the wilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating. * Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal. She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin isn't "squeaky clean" and causes me to think there may be more issues that could come to light. Clearly McCain doesn't care. When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics (admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs, knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment, health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me. In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in the US , Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate as Sarah Palin. The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. When McCain introduced her today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton. To those of you who, like me, supported Hillary and were upset that she did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of Palin sway you in favor of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualified McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgment. While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, literally, a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president. I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high. I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis. Sort of like letters from the Front. I couldn't bear to edit it down. "I am not a Blogger...But I play one on the internet."
The show was called Morning Joe from MSNBC
A Swarm of Lobbyists Would Run McCain's White House
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown. Posted September 1, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/96395/?page=entire
(copy and paste into your browser for source)
Charlie Black. Known as "the Republican party's quintessential company man," Black has been McCain's top strategist for more than a year while also heading a powerhouse lobbying outfit that represents a menagerie of special (and sometimes shady) interests. Until forced by the "clean house" rule to step aside from his firm in May, Black's corporate clients included Blackwater, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, GM, GE, Rupert Murdoch, and Philip Morris. While working for McCain and representing AT&T last year, Black was the principle mover in a then-secretive lobbying campaign to win retroactive immunity for telecom corporations that helped Bush spy illegally on millions of us Americans. Charlie conceded that he has done a lot of his lobbying chores by phone from McCain's campaign bus, which is named the Straight Talk Express. He's also been a hired gun for the heads of repressive regimes in Angola, Somalia, and Zaire. Most infamously, Black was the chief Washington escort for Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi huckster who worked with Cheney, Rummy, and the neocon ideologues to drum up false information that led to the disastrous occupation of Iraq. Charlie became a multimillionaire lobbyist through his tight political connections with the Republican right wing. He was a crony of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove in developing the GOP's style of slime politics, and he began his electioneering career in 1972 as political director of Jesse Helms' first Senate race.
Palin Scrubbing Turns Up an Undeclared Car Wash
Updated 7:28 p.m. By Matthew Mosk ST. PAUL — In addition to being a mayor and raising four children, Sarah Palin found time for another venture in her Wasilla years — she was part-owner of an Anchorage car wash.
Palin and husband Todd each held a 20 percent stake in Anchorage Car Wash LLC, according to state corporation records filed in 2004.
A review of Palin’s gubernatorial disclosure filings indicates that she failed to report her stake in the company on the form that requires candidates for governor to disclose any interest in a nonpublicly traded company.
“He’s right on war, he’s right on with energy independence measures that need to be taken. Wrong on ANWR, but we’re still working on that one,” Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in July.
The Bush administration estimates ANWR could produce more than 10 billion barrels of oil. Palin’s place on the ticket “gives us the opportunity to have a live, walking platform to advocate for the development of our oil and gas resources,” said Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, who has a checkered history with Palin.
“The opposition is based on premises we think are totally false,” said alternate delegate Frank McQueary.
“It’s not what you see in the ads. It’s a barren arctic plain.” Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed. “It looks like Mars and we want to dig on a part the size of a golf course. You get into that a lot easier than you do deep-water oil wells,” Donohue said. “If you’re not going to do it, you’ve got no credibility if you don’t go see it.”
The Republican platform simply says the party opposes “any efforts that would permanently block access to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
Comments from readers....
The Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, which represents 229 Native Alaskan tribes, officially opposes any development in ANWR. Drilling in ANWR is “a human rights issue and it’s a basic Aboriginal human rights issue. Sixty to 70 percent of the original alaskan people’s diet comes from the land and caribou is one of the primary animals that they depend on for sustenance.”
A part of the Inupiat population of Kaktovik, and 5,000 to 7,000 Gwich’in peoples feel their lifestyle would be disrupted or destroyed by drilling. The Inupiat from Point Hope, Alaska recently passed resolutions recognizing that drilling in ANWR would allow resource exploitation in other wilderness areas. The Inupiat, Gwitch’in, and other tribes are calling for sustainable energy practices and policies. The Tanana Chiefs Conference (representing 42 Alaska Native villages from 37 tribes) opposes drilling, as do at least 90 Native American tribes. The National Congress of American Indians (representing 250 tribes), the Native American Rights Fund as well as some Canadian tribes also oppose drilling in the 1002 area.
Members of the Alaska delegation argued that ANWR isn’t the pristine refuge that environmentalists claim. “The opposition is based on premises we think are totally false,” said alternate delegate Frank McQueary. “It’s not what you see in the ads. It’s a barren arctic plain.”
Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed. “It looks like Mars and we want to dig on a part the size of a golf course. You get into that a lot easier than you do deep-water oil wells,” Donohue said. “If you’re not going to do it, you’ve got no credibility if you don’t go see it.”
SEE THE STORY AT THIS PAGE:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/03/will-palin-change-the-game-on-anwr/
WHO IS FRANK McQUEARY?
Frank and Linda McQueary were divorced in 1988. The sole issue arising out of the superior court's division of their property is the valuation of the "Diamond H" ranch, a horse stabling and riding business which the couple co-owned.
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Mapping software; Mapping the Alaskan Wilderness...Do you see any conflicts of interest arising from a friendship with Frank McQueary?
Palin says on youtube, Glen Beck show, that "extreme enviromnetal activists" are trying to make a big deal about ANWR, and that we need to open Alaska to more oil production.
I say it's our natural resource, not the oil companies playground.
Issues: Wildlands from 2005, No surprises.
to see the original context, go to web page:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/artech/farc2000.asp
Drilling in the Arctic Refuge: The 2,000-Acre Footprint Myth Oil development would stamp a spiderweb of industrial sprawl across the whole of the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain.
Proponents of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development continue to make the claim that oil could be extracted by drilling on a mere 2,000 acres of the refuge. Here are the facts that give the lie to this canard.
ARCTIC REFUGE LAND GRAB Map: see what drilling will do
President Bush made a speech on March 9, 2005 in which he repeated the widely discredited claim that the oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be reached by drilling on only 2,000 acres.
"Thanks to advances in technology...we can now reach all of ANWR's oil by drilling on just 2,000 acres," he said. "Two thousand acres is the size of the Columbus [Ohio] airport. By applying the most innovative environmental practices, we can carry out the project with almost no impact on land or local wildlife."
His assertion goes back to two bills that were intended to placate those who reject the idea of turning one of America's last pristine wildernesses into oil fields. In August 2001 and April 2003, the House of Representatives narrowly passed energy legislation (H.R. 4 and H.R. 6, respectively) that would have opened the Arctic Refuge to drilling, but included an amendment "limiting" the oil industry to developing only 2,000 acres of the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain.
The amendment that introduced the limit, sponsored by New Hampshire Republican John Sununu, stated (Section 6507(a)(3)): "The secretary shall...ensure that the maximum amount of surface acreage covered by production and support facilities, including airstrips and any areas covered by gravel berms or piers for support of pipelines, does not exceed 2,000 acres on the coastal plain."
Close examination, however, reveals that the oil industry could not possibly develop the coastal plain in a compact, contiguous 2,000-acre area, and the way the amendment was worded would open up the entire refuge coastal plain to development, which would damage it permanently. Below is a look at the realities of the "2,000-acre footprint."
Oil Infrastructure Would Spread Across the Coastal Plain
The relatively little economically recoverable oil in the refuge is not concentrated in one large reservoir within a 2,000-acre area but is spread across its 1.5-million-acre coastal plain in more than 30 small deposits, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.1 To produce oil from this vast area, supporting infrastructure would have to stretch across the coastal plain. Networks of pipelines and roads obviously would fragment wildlife habitat. (For a map of what a 2,000-acre oil and gas development scenario on the coastal plain would look like, go to http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arcticmap_2000acres.pdf.)
The oil field industrial sprawl on the North Slope provides a relevant example. Including drill sites, airports and roads, and gravel mines, it has a footprint of 12,000 acres, but it actually spreads across an area of more than 640,000 acres, or 1,000 square miles.2
Proponents of drilling in the refuge also point to the 100-acre Alpine oil field west of Prudhoe Bay as the state-of-the-art model for developing the refuge. But the 2,000-acre "limitation" would allow 20 oil fields the size of Alpine scattered across the refuge's coastal plain.
Even if the 2,000 acres were contiguous, such an area could cover a lot of ground. For example, the 12-lane-wide New Jersey Turnpike, which stretches more than 100 miles across the state, covers only 1,773 acres.3
The so-called 2,000-acre limitation would have allowed oil development to take up as much area as the following items, which could be connected by a network of pipelines and roads:
The House Bills Would Have Opened the Entire Coastal Plain
The House bills would have opened the entire 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas leasing and exploration. The so-called 2,000-acre limitation would not have required that the 2,000 acres of production and support facilities be in one compact, contiguous area. As with the North Slope oil fields west of the Arctic Refuge, development could be spread over a very large area.
The 2,000-acre limitation only addressed "surface acreage covered by production and support facilities." In other words, it only includes the area where oil facilities actually touch the ground. Using Rep. Sununu's math, the 37 miles of pipeline at the Alpine oil field west of Prudhoe Bay would take up less than one-quarter of an acre of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain -- where the pipelines' 12-inch-diameter posts hit the tundra.7 The limitation also would not have covered land excavated to bury pipelines.
The 2,000-acre limitation would not have included seismic or other exploration activities, which have significantly degraded the arctic environment west of the coastal plain. The oil industry conducts seismic activities with convoys of bulldozers and "thumper trucks," which drive over extensive areas of the tundra. Meanwhile, exploratory oil drilling requires moving heavy equipment, including large rigs, across the tundra. The limitation would not have prohibited oil companies from drilling exploration and production wells anywhere on the entire 1.5 million-acre coastal plain.
The 2,000-acre limitation also would not have included gravel mines or roads. The House's limitation would have allowed for 20 oil fields the size of the 100-acre Alpine oilfield west of Prudhoe Bay, which required a 150-acre gravel mine and 3 miles of roads. And more roads are planned at Alpine.8 Meanwhile, oil companies in the North Slope oil fields excavated gravel from mines that stretched over 2,000 acres, and then covered 10,000 acres of tundra with gravel for roads, drilling pads and building foundations.9
Finally, development will affect areas well beyond the boundaries of roads, pads and other facilities. The journal Science reported in the late 1980s that the cumulative impact of oil exploration and development on the North Slope has indirectly affected more tundra than what was directly filled or excavated.10 More recently, biologists found that decreased caribou calving within a 2.5-mile zone of pipelines and roads show that the "extent of avoidance greatly exceeds the physical 'footprint' of an oil-field complex."11
Notes
1. U.S. Geological Survey, 1999, "Oil and Gas Potential of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 Area, Alaska, " (U.S. Department of the Interior, Open File Report 98-34); see also, Richard A. Fineberg, "Understanding the U.S. Geological Survey Analysis of Estimated Oil Beneath the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, " Fairbanks: Research Associates (June 20, 2001). 2. Washington Post, "Reluctant Regulator on Alaska's North Slope, " September 13, 2000; GIS analysis, Ecotrust/Alaska Conservation Alliance, Conservation GIS Support Center (2000). 3. There are 1,219 "lane miles" contained in the New Jersey Turnpike (the road itself is 118.5 miles) and all lanes are 12 feet wide. This comes out to 1,773 acres. That number does not include the shoulders because no exact number of miles of shoulders was available. If one assumes that shoulders run along either side of the turnpike for the entire length (118.5 miles) then that would add 287 acres, making the total 2,060 acres (the shoulders are 10 feet wide). See: http://www.nycroads.com/roads/nj-turnpike/. 4. A football field is 360 feet by 160 feet, 57,600 square feet, or 1.322 acres. National Football League, 2001. See: http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/field.html. 5. The Mall of America is 4.2 million square feet. That equals 96.4 acres (rounded to 100, or 1/20th of the proposed drilling area). See: http://www.mallofamerica.com/moa/servlet/ SMTMall?mid=369&pn=STATIC&frame=main&rs=0&file=General/media_fastfacts.html. 6. Port Columbus (Ohio) International Airport has two runways: one is 10,125 feet long; the other is 8,000 feet long, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. Both runways are 150 feet wide (personal communication with Columbus International Airport by Elizabeth Heyd, Natural Resources Defense Council, on March 14, 2005). The two runways cover a total of 62.4 acres. 7. The 34-mile pipeline connecting Alpine to the oil fields to its east has 2,760 Vertical Support Members (VSMs) while the 3-mile in-field pipeline for Alpine has 450 VSMs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Permit Evaluation and Decision Document, Alpine Development Project, Colville River 18 (2-960874), p. 3 (February 13, 1998); Each VSM is approximately 12 inches in diameter (personal communication John Schoen, National Audubon Society with Alaska Department of Fish and Game (August 2001), which equals 3.14 sq. ft. 3.14 sq ft. X 3210 VSMs = 10,079.4 sq. ft, or roughly one-quarter acre. 8. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Permit Evaluation and Decision Document, Alpine Development Project, Colville River 18 (2-960874), p. 2 (February 13, 1998); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Colville River 17 (4-960869) to Nuiqsut Constructors (Alpine gravel pit) (June 24, 1997). 9. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Comparison of actual and predicted impacts of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and Prudhoe Bay oilfields on the North Slope of Alaska, draft report, Fairbanks, p.12 (December 1987); U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Final Integrated Activity Plan/ Environmental Impact Statement, Tables IV.A.5-3 and 5-5 (August 1998); State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), North Slope lease tracts database, (March 28, 2001). 10. Walker, D.A., P.J. Webber, E.F. Binnian, K.R. Everett, N.D. Lederer, E.A. Nordstrand, and M.D. Walker. 6 November 1987. "Cumulative impacts of oil fields on Northern Alaska landscapes," Science Vol. 238: 757-761. 11. Nellemann, C. and R.D. Cameron. 1998. "Cumulative impacts of an evolving oil-field complex on the distribution of calving caribou, "Can. J. Sool. 76: 1425-1430.
1. U.S. Geological Survey, 1999, "Oil and Gas Potential of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 Area, Alaska, " (U.S. Department of the Interior, Open File Report 98-34); see also, Richard A. Fineberg, "Understanding the U.S. Geological Survey Analysis of Estimated Oil Beneath the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, " Fairbanks: Research Associates (June 20, 2001).
2. Washington Post, "Reluctant Regulator on Alaska's North Slope, " September 13, 2000; GIS analysis, Ecotrust/Alaska Conservation Alliance, Conservation GIS Support Center (2000).
3. There are 1,219 "lane miles" contained in the New Jersey Turnpike (the road itself is 118.5 miles) and all lanes are 12 feet wide. This comes out to 1,773 acres. That number does not include the shoulders because no exact number of miles of shoulders was available. If one assumes that shoulders run along either side of the turnpike for the entire length (118.5 miles) then that would add 287 acres, making the total 2,060 acres (the shoulders are 10 feet wide). See: http://www.nycroads.com/roads/nj-turnpike/.
4. A football field is 360 feet by 160 feet, 57,600 square feet, or 1.322 acres. National Football League, 2001. See: http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/field.html.
5. The Mall of America is 4.2 million square feet. That equals 96.4 acres (rounded to 100, or 1/20th of the proposed drilling area). See: http://www.mallofamerica.com/moa/servlet/ SMTMall?mid=369&pn=STATIC&frame=main&rs=0&file=General/media_fastfacts.html.
6. Port Columbus (Ohio) International Airport has two runways: one is 10,125 feet long; the other is 8,000 feet long, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. Both runways are 150 feet wide (personal communication with Columbus International Airport by Elizabeth Heyd, Natural Resources Defense Council, on March 14, 2005). The two runways cover a total of 62.4 acres.
7. The 34-mile pipeline connecting Alpine to the oil fields to its east has 2,760 Vertical Support Members (VSMs) while the 3-mile in-field pipeline for Alpine has 450 VSMs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Permit Evaluation and Decision Document, Alpine Development Project, Colville River 18 (2-960874), p. 3 (February 13, 1998); Each VSM is approximately 12 inches in diameter (personal communication John Schoen, National Audubon Society with Alaska Department of Fish and Game (August 2001), which equals 3.14 sq. ft. 3.14 sq ft. X 3210 VSMs = 10,079.4 sq. ft, or roughly one-quarter acre.
8. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Permit Evaluation and Decision Document, Alpine Development Project, Colville River 18 (2-960874), p. 2 (February 13, 1998); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, Colville River 17 (4-960869) to Nuiqsut Constructors (Alpine gravel pit) (June 24, 1997).
9. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Comparison of actual and predicted impacts of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and Prudhoe Bay oilfields on the North Slope of Alaska, draft report, Fairbanks, p.12 (December 1987); U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Final Integrated Activity Plan/ Environmental Impact Statement, Tables IV.A.5-3 and 5-5 (August 1998); State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), North Slope lease tracts database, (March 28, 2001).
10. Walker, D.A., P.J. Webber, E.F. Binnian, K.R. Everett, N.D. Lederer, E.A. Nordstrand, and M.D. Walker. 6 November 1987. "Cumulative impacts of oil fields on Northern Alaska landscapes," Science Vol. 238: 757-761.
11. Nellemann, C. and R.D. Cameron. 1998. "Cumulative impacts of an evolving oil-field complex on the distribution of calving caribou, "Can. J. Sool. 76: 1425-1430.
last revised 3.15.05
I just got off the phone with Taos County Elections and was told that the only registration they showed from me was dated September 2007, the month I left for Korea. She said that if a person does not vote in four years time, their name is deleted from the system. So, in an earlier post, I mentioned voting troubles in Taos County in 2004. I know I voted, and maybe provisionally. Yet, since I was thrown out of the system prior to re-registering in 2007, a question arises as to the efficiency of the system. It also means to me that my vote was never even considered and perhaps my provisional ballot was even thrown out. The provisional ballot would have been the reason to keep me on the roll, ie; proof that I voted in 2004. If this is confusing to you, it's not to me.
The rule is if you have not voted in four years you are tossed out of the system and will need to re-register, or since you were tossed out, consider it a new registration.
It has impact as there are deadlines for new voters. Remember, thirty days before the general election, you must be registered.
One more point for new voters. You do not have to be 18 to register to vote!!!!Just be 18 before election day!
To sum up.
Check your voting status, NOW! If you had the slightest problem or concern at the last geneal election, you may not even be in the system.
Don't wait. October 4th will be your deadline, just tell yourself you have no more than the end of this month to get your affairs for voting in order.
On my absentee, she will send it to my friends house, the application that is, and he to me in South Korea, and me to him or the registrar. There is a lot at stake here and having to rely on friends and two postal services.
Take my advice, tell your friends, register your friends, print this letter, post it, but do something to let people know.
On an off note, I just read about illegal immigrants braving the storm in New Orleans, and nine out of nine comments suggested they should havebeen deported. No wonde they were afraid to leave. In any case, this election is about what kind of country we really want. There is no one central issue. Don't believe the media. This is about our lives, and our communites. Hold back emotions, and remember this is our country...why, because we live here!
A sample from alternet..Try it if you like real news!
Sarah Palin's Big, Sleazy Safari
By John Dolan, AlterNet. Posted September 2, 2008.
Most people had never heard of Sarah Palin when she was named the Republican VP nominee. But I'd been hearing her name all too often, because I belong to a group called Defenders of Wildlife -- and in her time as governor of Alaska, Palin has used her position as governor of Alaska to ruin the Alaskan wilderness in every way she could.
Her most recent "victory" came on Aug. 26, when Alaska's voters defeated Measure 2, an initiative that would have banned hunting wolves from airplanes for sport.
Palin organized a campaign against Measure 2 and funded it with $400,000 of state money. For most of us, the idea of zooming around in a private airplane over snowbound wilderness just for the chance to spot a terrified wild dog and blow it apart with a high-powered rifle is insane. But there's a whole culture out there in love with the idea. Palin did her part by playing the tired old Alaskan pioneer card, saying that lower-48 naysayers who dared to object to the idea of dive-bombing wildlife didn't "understand rural Alaska."
Alaska isn't really very hard to understand. It consists of a minority that loves the wilderness and an overwhelmingly Republican majority that wants to squeeze all the cash it can get out of the state before the oil dries up, the fish die out and the wildlife disappears. Nowhere else does the Republican formula of manipulating the suckers by playing on their silly hatreds and even sillier vanities play out more clearly than in Alaska.
To get an idea of Palin's core constituency, just go to the home page of Safari Club International, one of the groups that fought hardest against Measure 2 -- and is now gloating loudest over this proud victory.
Even the name is a little skewed -- "safari"? When was the last time you heard that word? Most people are trying hard to forget the "safari" era, when rich white jerks had themselves carried into the African wilderness by nameless black servants, at vast expense, to kill animals they could barely identify.
But for Palin's core constituency, "safari" is still the dream. And Measure 2 would have interfered with that dream, the dream of strafing social canids from a Cessna plane. Alaska politics runs on the vast opportunities for graft offered by a small, easily manipulated constituency addicted to subsidies and self-delusion. Alaskans like to imagine themselves the last pioneers, hardy individualists, etc. -- which makes them classic suckers for Republican propaganda. And they also like the petty cash that trickles down to them from the mining companies, timber companies and hunting guides who make the real money. Palin, an undistinguished part-time sportscaster on a local TV station, was a perfect non-threatening mouthpiece for the companies that want to gouge as much oil, ore and timber from Alaska as they can -- while it lasts.
Palin is totally consistent in her anti-environmental stance. She not only wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, but actually vowed to sue the EPA if it dared to declare polar bears an endangered species.
It's hard for most people to understand this sort of hatred for the great mammal species struggling to hang on at the edges of this continent. But then, Palin is an Alaska Republican. And Alaska's Republican politicians are the most corrupt, ignorant and generally loathsome political clique in America, bar none. The so-called "dean" of the gang is Sen. Ted Stevens, finally indicted this year after a lifetime of graft. One of the crimes of which Stevens is accused sums up the relationship between Alaska's Republican ruling gang and its big-money backers: a construction crew hired by an oil company called Veco jacked Stevens's house up on stilts and added a whole new floor featuring two bedrooms and a bathroom -- just returning all the legislative favors Stevens had done for it over the years.
Palin was one of the founding members of Stevens' 527 corporate slush fund, which skated around campaign finance laws to allow the senator to raise unlimited funds from big oil and other exploiters. Stevens' fund bore the self-parodying name "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service Inc." -- which is pretty droll, considering that Stevens is not only corrupt but one of the stupidest people in the Republican Party, no small feat in itself. In fact, Stevens' only claim to the attention of the American people before he finally met his fate was for defining the Internet as "a series of tubes." Thanks to YouTube, you can actually hear Sen. Stevens dithering for several minutes before uttering that famous phrase. A warning, though: Listening to Stevens will cure you forever of the idea that America is a meritocracy.
