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Wednesday, October 26, 2005Anyway, when he shed tears for his son at our LD 26 meeting last week, he won my forever support. The boy had leukemia, had gone into remission, they sent him as soon as he went into remission, and now he is back out of remission. By the way, the social worker at Walter reed that they talked to said they are getting 5 soldiers a week home from Iraq with leukemia just from the toxic environment. Please look at his web site and let's see if we can agree on supporting Jeff Latas for US Congress in CD 8. by Rev. Gerry Straatemeier 
Thursday, October 06, 2005 Spidelblog: A new social gathering for progressives in the valley The Arizona PDA folks have started to host a "progressive happy hour” every 2nd and 4th Wed. This will be a place that all progressives (regardless of affiliation in groups, party, etc.) can come, network, and socialize. This will NOT be another meeting. We will encourage all sorts of groups to come, flyer, and maybe say a few brief announcements as an update to the group… but mainly… a place to network and socialize, to have fun and gain a sense of community with one another...
Tuesday, September 27, 2005It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's 'argument' for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons. He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their pre-presidential careers, and this president particularly is not disposed to such reflections." Read More...
Friday, September 23, 2005Last week's release of the report of the election reform commission headed by Jimmy Carter and James Baker has drawn fierce fire from civil rights and electoral reform organizations for recommending that voters be required to present photo identification at the polls. Because the ID recommendations in isolation would shrink the electorate, many reformers have pronounced the Baker-Carter recommendations DOA. We believe it a mistake to condemn the entire report because of the understandable voter ID objections. Dominated by aging politicians of the creaky two-party duopoly, the Commission on Federal Election Reform certainly was less than bold in many important areas. But building on his vast experience observing elections around the world and experiencing elections in the South, Carter earned bipartisan support for several forward-looking recommendations. The commission's boldest call is for universal voter registration, a practice used by many democracies around the world in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote. Universal registration would add more than 50 million unregistered Americans-nearly three in 10 eligible voters-to the voter rolls. These potential voters are disproportionately under 25, low-income and people of color. Their absence from the voter rolls helps to explain the shocking disparities in our voter turnout based on traditional measures of class status: income, education and race. Of course, the devil is in the details, and the commission fails to outline a clear plan for how the government would ensure that all eligible voters are registered. But if implemented fully, this would be one of the single most important government civil rights actions since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Remarkably, James Baker, architect of the Bush campaign's post-election strategy in Florida in 2000, joined Carter in a New York Times oped on September 23rd calling for universal registration. They wrote that the government should "assume the responsibility to seek out citizens to both register voters and provide them with free ID's that meet federal standards. States should open new offices, use social service agencies and deploy mobile offices to register voters." Once registered, people would stay registered; the report's goal is that "people would need to register only once in their lifetime." Other commission recommendations respond directly to problems in our recent elections. They include: Nonpartisan election officials. In the wake of presidential races in which Florida's former secretary of state Katherine Harris and Ohio's Ken Blackwell made clearly partisan decisions affecting a tightly fought national race, the commission calls for nonpartisan election officials. This would help rid our elections of the appearance of fraud-and might dissuade actual fraud.Although they would bring the United States up to international norms, none of these proposals are the transformative changes that might truly shake up partisan calculations. There's no call for direct election of the president despite the Electoral College's malfunction in 2000 and the ever-declining number of contested states. Commissioners neglect the potential of instant runoff voting despite recent high-profile elections with non-majority winners and "spoilers." The report is equally silent on establishing a constitutional right to vote, despite the obvious adverse impact on elections of having more than 13,000 jurisdictions able to make independent decisions about running federal elections. It overlooks how nonpartisan redistricting, campaign finance reform, fusion and proportional voting are necessary means to take on the shocking lack of voter choice and distortions in representation in our legislative elections. It doesn't even propose ideas like citizens assemblies to at least put such fundamental reform proposals on the table. In addition, liberals on the commission had to accept a trade-off to secure conservative support for policies designed to increase the voter rolls so dramatically. That tradeoff was a series of measures designed to address concerns about voter fraud, such as presenting photo IDs at the polls, regulating voter registration processes and preventing people from registering to vote in more than one state. Some of these anti-fraud proposals are problematic, particularly if adopted in isolation by states ignoring other recommendations in the report. Absentee voters-who are disproportionately well-off-need only sign their ballot to prove validity, while voters who show up at the polls would have to present a photo ID. And although the commission recommends IDs be free, some states may still charge fees and establish other practical barriers that would be tantamount to a modern-day poll tax. The reality is that the number of votes affected by fraudulent activities is dwarfed by voting barriers like lack of universal voter registration. But if a candidate you prefer loses because of fraudulent votes, as some argue happened in last year's razor-close gubernatorial race in Washington, fraud is a very big deal. Voters certainly demand that politicians "play by the rules," and in exchange for universal registration, democracy advocates should agree on what steps to prevent fraud would be acceptable. The commission's greatest flaw is calling on states to lead what should be a national system. There is no doubt that some states will abuse these recommendations, jumping to require photo IDs while not acting to register all eligible voters. The current leadership in Congress and many states certainly has put pro-democracy advocates on the defensive, struggling simply to maintain access to the polls for racial minorities and the poor. But Republican and Democratic leaders are both now unpopular among most Americans, and ignore reasonable steps toward free and fair elections at their political peril. Advocates should make fixing our elections a litmus test of support. As part of a proactive democracy strategy, we should not be afraid to support what's good in the commission's report and oppose what's bad. Certainly it is high time to call for clean and complete rolls with 100 percent registration as enjoyed by many other democracies. Who would have thought that James Baker would help lead that call?
Thursday, September 22, 2005Bill would elevate Reagan-established "Institute of Peace" to Cabinet-level department Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today introduced legislation that would elevate the current, nonpartisan, federally-funded Institute of Peace to a Cabinet-level department, dedicated to the study and development of policies to promote peace and expand human rights. Dayton's Department of Pace and Nonviolence Act is the Senate counterpart to House legislation (H.R. 3760) introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and cosponsored by 59 members of Congress. Speaking from the Senate floor, Dayton said, "If we are to remain the world's leader, and if we are to lead the world into a more secure and more prosperous future, we must become better known and more respected for our peacemaking successes than for our military forces. Peace, to have any lasting value, must be advanced, expanded and strengthened continuously. Doing so requires skill, dedication, persistence, resources, and, most importantly, people." In addition to making it a Cabinet department, Dayton's legislation would expand the focus of the Institute of Peace, which was established by President Reagan in 1984, to include domestic issues. The Department of Peace and Nonviolence would serve as a preventive counterpart to the Department of State and the Department of Defense, which resolve international conflicts and defend the nation from attacks. Currently, the U.S. spends $400 billion on national defense, not including the hundreds of billions being spent on the Iraq War. The Department of Peace budget would be $8 billion annually, equivalent to 2 percent of total defense spending. Appropriately, Dayton's legislation coincides with the 44th anniversary of the nation's oldest federal agency dedicated to peace. On this day, in 1961, President Kennedy signed legislation that created the Peace Corps, an idea originally proposed by Senator Hubert Humphrey in 1957.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005From the Arizona Democratic Party: Hayworth To Arizonans: Immigration Is Not My Problem Out-of-touch Washington politician should stand with Arizona taxpayers, not indicted Beltway lobbyists. While Congressman J.D. Hayworth was taking campaign money from indicted beltway lobbyist and insider, Jack Abramoff, he was telling Arizonans that they had to use their tax dollars to pick up the tab on the costs of illegal immigration. On Tuesday, Congressman Hayworth likened pleas from the State of Arizona for federal assistance to combat illegal immigration to "the brazen looters who seized on a natural tragedy to plunder downtown New Orleans." Have the beltway champagne, caviar and campaign contributions gone to Hayworth's head? "J.D. Hayworth must not have a very good memory," stated David Waid, ADP Executive Director. "He must have been too busy hobnobbing to read or remember the federal statues that clearly state that border security is a federal responsibility. That or he was still basking in the soft glow of prime rib heat lamps at lobbyist dinners to remember that he voted not once, but twice against authorizing the use of troops on our borders to combat illegal immigration." Now he says that it's Arizona taxpayers who should bear the burden. Governor Janet Napolitano has billed the federal government more than $217 million for the state's cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants. The Governor has also launched a task force to combat fraudulent ID's, implemented a stolen vehicle border enforcement strategy, deployed state law enforcement and National Guard to the border, and signed a trans-national agreement to strengthen border security. And in her emergency declaration, she is demanding that the federal government do its part. JD again has proven that he is more interested in filling up his campaign's bank account than providing Arizona cities, towns and law enforcement officers with the financial support they need from the federal government to effectively fight illegal immigration. It's J.D.'s turn to earn the paycheck taxpayers issue him by working for the people of Arizona instead of Jack Abramoff and his cronies. The federal government has a responsibility to fulfill its obligation to protect Arizona's border. Hayworth ought to see to it that they do. Here's how you can take action: Read the story in the Phoenix Business Journal and write a letter to your local paper's editor TODAY . Call Congressman Hayworth at 480-926-4151 and 202-225-2190 to demand that he stand up for Arizona. Forward this email to your friends and family and ask them to get involved too! Mike Sunnucks 9/20/2005 The Business Journal Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth and Gov. Janet Napolitano traded nasty jabs Tuesday over Hurricane Katrina and Mexican border security. Hayworth compared Napolitano to New Orleans looters, accusing the Democratic governor of trying to divert federal emergency dollars coming into the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A top Napolitano aide countered by calling Hayworth's assertion "clueless" and "appalling." Arizona and other states that helped with hurricane relief efforts and refugees are getting federal funds under a massive spending plan put forward by the Bush administration. Napolitano also wants federal emergency funds and resources to help the state deal with illegal immigration and porous border security. The governor declared a state of emergency last month along the Mexican border and has committed $1.5 million in state emergency money to help law enforcement fight Mexican immigrant smugglers and drug cartels. Hayworth, a Scottsdale Republican, issued a statement Tuesday accusing Napolitano of trying to divert federal emergency money away from Katrina reconstruction efforts. "While Americans are uniting to help the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast region, it is sad to watch the governor of Arizona attempt to elbow Katrina's suffering victims aside and make phony claims on federal emergency disaster funding," said Hayworth, a frequent critic and top political rival of Napolitano. "Simply put, the governor of Arizona is no better than the brazen looters who seized on a natural tragedy to plunder downtown New Orleans. The governor knows and federal officials have confirmed that these funds are intended for relief and recovery from natural disasters, not to reimburse Arizona for law enforcement on the southern border." Hayworth also challenged Napolitano to call up the Arizona National Guard and dispatch them to the Mexican border. The governor's office quickly responded Tuesday to the Scottsdale Republican's looting comparison. "The Congressman's press release is appalling, clueless and bureaucratic. It's typical Beltway-speak from another member of Congress," said Napolitano co-chief of staff Dennis Burke. "It is particularly shameless for an Arizona member of Congress to use Katrina as an excuse not to protect our border; yet, he had no problem wasting $231 million in taxpayers dollars for a bridge-to-nowhere in Alaska. Under Governor Napolitano's leadership, theArizona National Guard is already assisting on the border, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and working in the Gulf Coast region. If the Congressman had bothered to call before firing off an inane press release, we could have told him that." State National Guard troops have been helping federal border security agencies in a non-patrolling capacity at the border for some time. Hayworth considered a run against Napolitano in next year's election, but opted to keep his House seat which represents Tempe, Scottsdale and Ahwatukee. The conservative Republican is an increasingly outspoken advocate of tough immigration and border security policies to curtail illegal crossings into Arizona from Mexico. Democrats, including Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, have become aggressive on border security issues over the summer, pressing the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress for more resources and funding to help stem illegal crossings, organized crime and drug cartel activity. Richardson issued a similar state emergency in New Mexico this summer. Napolitano is getting heat from immigration hawks for opposing a successful ballot question last year that denies state welfare benefits to illegals and vetoing GOP state bills aimed expanding that referendum.
Monday, September 12, 2005The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters. We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter. We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed, were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded. Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water. On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts of resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were pouring in to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been invisible because none of us had seen them. We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute the arrived at the City limits, they were commandeered by the military. By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement". We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowd cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you thatthe buses are there." We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched past the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it didnot dampen our enthusiasm. As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move. We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans. Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to be seen buses. All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot. Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New Orleans had become. Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts. Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and cardboard. We designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids built an elaborate enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken umbrellas, and other scraps. We even organized a food recycling system where individuals could swap out parts ofC-rations (applesauce for babies and candies for kids!). This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community. If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in. Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people. From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it. Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water. Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups. In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies. The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an urban search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and managed to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen apologized for the limited response of the Louisiana guards. They explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they were assigned. We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press ofhumanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas. There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches. Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children, elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases. This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more suffering than need be. Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt. At the time, gasoline was in short supply across the country because of Katrina. Prices increased dramatically and lines formed at pumps across the South. Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately."
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