Message to G.W. re: Scooter

Mikaela says:
I finally answered one of those on-line petition thingamabobs to tell off George about his disgraceful commuting of Scooter Libby's jail sentence for obstruction of justice and lying (even though he was found guilty by a jury of his "peers" and was turned down for a petition stating that he had no case).

Every time I thought about it, I got too mad to think about it anymore.

Today, I decided I was ready to speak in a civil tone to the President of these here United States.

Mr. President,

If only you could show the same compassion to others who mess up. You're a hypocrite, George, plain and simple. You want to lock up poor minorities for drug violations and give harsh sentences, but if one of your white-collar cronies LIES to OBSTRUCT JUSTICE, you'll let him off with no jail time and a laughable fine that his friends pay for him in an hour or two.

What kind of message does this send to our children about justice in America?

Get rich or go to jail for trying.

You are worse than a liar. You are a liar's best friend.

I did not go one step further and end the way I wanted to:

Nice job, Brownie. Rot in hell.

Just my luck they'd call it a threat and throw me in jail for longer than it will take for him to LIVE THIS DOWN.

USSF in The Nation

marjorie says...

Since I've been such a lame-o when it comes to writing a reflection about the USSF, I thought I'd post this article from The Nation, which is quite good. I agree very much with his assessment. And for those of you who don't know, Michael Leon Guerrero is the former Co-Director of SWOP. He was with us here in Albuquerque for well over a decade. And of course, the People's Freedom Caravan began with our two buses here in the Q.


A Grassroots Social Forum
by DARRYL LORENZO WELLINGTON

The Nation
August 13, 2007

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/wellington (subscription only)

Imagine a racism workshop--not a touchy-feely "prejudice reduction" workshop but an all-out emotional and cathartic conversation on race. Now imagine a church service--not a solemn devotion but the kind of rocking, joyous communion that shakes the floorboards. Now imagine, lofted above the congregation, a sea of protest banners. The orations are secular; the pulpit is political.

This pretty much captures the spirit that dominated the first US Social Forum, held in Atlanta June 27-July 1. Having appropriately fine-tuned the World Social Forum motto to fit the host country ("Another World Is Possible, Another US Is Necessary"), this gathering-- with more than 900 workshops conducted in the Atlanta Civic Center, local hotels and theaters, and drawing some 12,000 registered attendees--made only partial concession to dry political strategy; it was a locus of progressive dreams and activist chutzpah.

"Our national dilemma today is not technological retardation but moral deficiency. We have a moral deficiency in establishing priorities when putting our technological advances to work for the common good," said iconic civil rights activist Joseph Lowery at the opening-day march. The crowd left from the State Capitol and wound down Peachtree Street, the main business thoroughfare of the city, as bankers, clerks and secretaries gathered on steps and watched in wonder. A crowd of a couple thousand was a rare display, even in a city accustomed to conferences and rallies. Lowery had positioned the spirit of the marchers vis-à-vis the American Republic to a
T: The problem was the need for an America less stingy, less conceited and altogether less thuggish.

The Civic Center sits blocks away from Task Force for the Homeless, which was also the site of a forum-sponsored art exhibit. The visibility of the homeless was much commented upon; invisible, however, were Atlanta public officials. The only Democratic presidential candidate to send representatives was Dennis Kucinich--who supports and in fact co-wrote universal healthcare reform bill HR 676, which was touted by several activist groups. The opening parade was too big a spectacle to be ignored by the press, but thereafter, the forum disappeared from the media, apart from a few rather trivializing articles.

What did it mean to sponsor a social forum in the United States--in the city of Martin Luther King Jr., but also in the heart of conservative Dixie? In Georgia, a state with heinous immigration policies? What the national media missed was that this meeting was big news among America's grassroots organizers, who focused on issues such as immigration, gentrification, homelessness and prison reform.

It was commented on from the first day that the US forum was different from previous World Social Forums. There was a notable absence of political scientists, philosophers, policy heads and large NGOs. While all fifty states and several countries were represented, the largest US contingents came from the Southeast and Southwest. There was a large Latino contingent, and most sessions at the forum were translated from English into Spanish, or vice versa. Hundreds of participants arrived via the "Freedom Caravan,"
commemorating the civil rights Freedom Rides of 1961. Buses that began in Albuquerque linked with others in Texas, the ravaged Gulf Coast and historic points in the Deep South such as Selma, Alabama, symbolically connecting the Gulf Coast with other seminal places in activist history.

A considerable number of attendees had never been to a World Social Forum--and often expressed scant familiarity with those gatherings. Most said they were in Atlanta to support a local group that practiced "bottom up" organizing. The workshops on antiglobalization and other world issues were accompanied by US-specific workshops on resisting the privatization of schools, building a black-Latino coalition and finding alternatives to foundation support, as well as a slew conducted by or addressing the concerns of hip-hop enthusiasts.

Nation-specific social forums are not new. The process initiated in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001 has already led to national and regional social forums throughout Europe and Latin America. According to researchers Jennifer Hadden and Sidney Tarrow, "In Italy alone, one of us found hundreds of local and regional social forums." Yet social forums have received relatively little publicity in the United States, and for the first few years at least, relatively few US citizens participated in the world conclaves. This is ironic, considering that the anti-WTO protest of 1999, familiarly known as the Battle in Seattle, was the major impetus behind the initiation of the social forums--the five-day gatherings being a "positive"
alternative to anti-WTO agitation.

The WSF International Counsel began talking with US activists about a US event as far back as 2003. Grassroots Global Justice, a California group that focuses on US trade policy, was integral to those early discussions.
Executive director Michael Leon Guerrero remembers, "We saw that it was very important that grassroots efforts taking place in the United States receive more visibility in the international community.... Many of our colleagues in other parts of the world have little knowledge of conditions here, and they often do not know there are organizations working for social change here.
But we thought it best at that time to delay a US forum. We found that the level of understanding wasn't high enough. We were getting too many questions like, How will this be different from any other conference?"

Eventually, a date was set for a US Social Forum: the summer of 2006. An organizing committee accepted bids from grassroots groups throughout the country; the finalists were Albuquerque, San Francisco and Atlanta. "I think we were swayed by Atlanta primarily for moral reasons," remembers Guerrero.
Project South of Atlanta became the lead USSF administrator. "We fought for it," says Jerome Scott of Project South. "The South bears a legacy of slavery and oppression, but also a legacy of resistance that no one can deny. There's no place better than the South to show that we can be--that we deserve to be--a part of the Global South."

Then Katrina struck. The floodwaters that demolished the Gulf Coast in 2005 stole the energies of numerous grassroots organizations. In particular, Project South was overwhelmed by its own relief work with Katrina refugees displaced in Atlanta. Walda Katz Fishman of Project South anticipated the first US Social Forum as the place "to start connecting the dots of a US justice movement--something visible, something national. We have allies worldwide, but you can't go from being local to global. First, you've got to be national. We did some tough wrangling over the decision to delay it, but I think it was necessary."

"Katrina still hurts," said an audience member at the Gulf Coast plenary. If the workshops were the nuts and bolts of the forum, the plenaries were the Oprah Winfrey version, charged and emotional auditorium gatherings. However, the Katrina panel, which included speakers on the black-brown coalition, marked a register of emotional turmoil that exceeded that of any protest at the USSF against the Iraq War. Panelist after panelist accused the government of indifference, racism, exploiting the hurricane as a gentrification scheme; some went so far as to use the words "murder" and even "genocide."

No wonder the Gulf Coast plenary brought many audience members to tears.
There were a number of Katrina warriors and veterans in the crowd; many belonged to groups that still have tentacles on the Gulf or that counsel Katrina refugees in their own communities. The decimation of the coast and its reconstruction affect the issues that grassroots activists take most personally, and see as their own: housing, healthcare, gentrification, community rights, wages and workers' rights.

Doubtless the disaster would be much worse without their efforts. There is nonetheless a sense of having failed to promote the cause of Katrina survivors. The country still has not confronted the implications of having several hundred thousand former Gulf Coast residents displaced and scattered across the country--largely because of government neglect of the levees--while in many cases their home communities are being gentrified.
From a bird's-eye view, Gulf Coast "reconstruction" looks a lot like homegrown neoliberalism.

The plenary discussion on a potential black-Latino coalition reached a climax when Daniel Castellanos of the Alliance for Guest Workers for Dignity described his journey from impoverishment in Peru to substandard employment in New Orleans. "I saw so many African-Americans, and I asked, Why aren't they getting this work?" he said. Then a dramatic pause. Instead of a lecture on how Bush's post-Katrina suspension of worker protections resulted in an influx of cheap immigrant labor, he delivered the big picture: "It's very clear. They want us to fight--they want the African-American and Latino communities to fight!" The crowd erupted in chants of approval.

The USSF may have been at its strongest in workshops combining information, practical experience and a human touch. Colin Rajah of the National Network of Immigrant Rights conducted a workshop titled "Trade and Migration:
Exploring the Intersection of Trade and Immigration Policies." Rajah's lecture on free-trade economics was accompanied by live testimonials from "NAFTA survivors." Says Rajah, "Even though we have different groups looking at trade and immigration issues, they are interlinked in a US foreign policy that seeks to accomplish two things: to open up markets and control those markets and, second, to manage and control the immigrant labor flow. I work for an immigrant rights organization, but to do my work effectively I need to be very savvy about trade policy. Trade and immigration work together to create a funnel effect, regulating the immigrant flow in ways that benefit multinational corporations. It's not coincidental that Operation Gatekeeper [the 1994 security initiative that fenced the US-Mexico border near San Diego] and NAFTA were implemented months apart." Testimonials that made the human impact of free-trade policies on immigrants real were provided by (among others) a former employee of a sweatshop operated by Levi Strauss before the company outsourced to China and a representative of a coalition of immigrant tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida, who led a successful protest for wages and health benefits against Taco Bell. "The real solution is to look at trade and immigration patterns together," says Rajah.

If by some miracle the USSF did receive widespread media attention--if, say, every plenary were broadcast on national TV--would it galvanize a hidden majority of closet or disenfranchised radicals? Or would the rhetorical excesses of aspects of the forum provoke dismay, or laughter? Social forums could be called "orgies of idealism," and thus would be easy to mock. But the few forum-related articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were characterized less by condescension than simple befuddlement. "Marchers Take Beefs to the Streets," ran the headline of a June 28 article that detailed few of their "beefs" in particular. A confusing article published during the forum began, "Karl Marx...held court Thursday night...at the US Social Forum" (the sixth paragraph finally explained that Marx was an actor in a performance), and summed up the week's events as "a Woodstock for the globally conscious set, sans drugs."

In addition to potential scoffing from without, there were treacherous fault lines within. Candido Grzybowski, one of the original founders of the World Social Forum, who now sits on the WSF International Council, said efforts to encourage groups to combine workshops often merely resulted in "two workshops in the same room," an apt metaphor for the doggedness and insularity of activists who, accustomed to oppositional stances, are often loath to compromise. The agendas that make up social forums do compete--for attention. The forum itself is left of center, but where is the center of the forum? At the final plenary Native American activists were insulted when time limitations resulted in a speaker being cut short. In the context of the forum--a space for dialogue on race, justice and stories of oppression--the move struck the first Americans as hugely symbolic. They reacted by flooding the stage and performing a healing ritual. The conflict was resolved; in fact, it was resolved with admirable grace. But the incident underscores the problems of building a movement between spheres of regional activism and among oppressed communities.

That said, there was a freshness to the USSF. It was a coming together of activists who operate under the radar in the United States, who brought something new to the table: an army of small organizations devoted to their communities, whose efforts rarely make the evening news, acting locally but
(potentially) connecting globally. The atmosphere was distinctly "hands on"
and tutorial--political science and strategy took a back seat to insider knowledge. For instance, the Ruckus Society conducted workshops on violent and nonviolent protest, including one on "Blockades: How to Effectively Hold Your Ground," just as other groups conducted workshops on maneuvering through the criminal justice system, the practical minutiae of voter organizing, immigrant organizing and resisting college military recruitment programs. There was an identifiable thrust behind the workshops considered as a whole: Teach organizing techniques that participants can then take home and use in their own communities.

It helped--greatly--that the planning and implementation of the USSF was a model of multicultural cooperation. The majority of the administrative personnel as well as the plenary speakers were women and people of color. It was not an environment where activists and minorities were lectured to by "others"--scholars, whites, representatives of establishment NGOs. "Where was the color in Seattle?" was a common joke that parodied the 1999 Battle in Seattle, implying that antiglobalization activism and its offshoots were the domain of a privileged white middle class. The USSF reversed that impression, bringing white activists initially inspired by the WTO protests together with radicalized blacks, Latinos and indigenous Americans.

The USSF won the respect of the participants by mirroring their own grassroots efforts. It was funded with a $900,000 budget--peanuts in today's world--from sponsors, donors and registration fees, and it depended largely on the volunteer efforts of grassroots groups. For most of the implementation stage, the forum employed only three full-time staffers. If the seventh World Social Forum, held in Nairobi this past January, was by some accounts corrupted by commercial sponsors, the USSF was smaller, humbler and underfunded, but also untainted.

Although much ire at the gathering was directed against the United States, American pragmatism was in evidence in Atlanta. World Social Forums have been called confusing; in Atlanta the forum provided a space in which groups were able to make the connections they needed without the burden of having to sign off on every agenda or defend every plenary statement. The spirit of community and the welding of alliances was encouraging. "A disappointment of the grassroots left was that while there was a big response to Katrina, it wasn't an organized response," says Guerrero of Grassroots Global Justice.
"If Hurricane Katrina hit today, the response would be very different. From all the relationships that have developed here in terms of communication, infrastructure, the feeling of solidarity, we could put out a general call and create a unified response. This forum has created a different situation; there could be a much higher level of coordination."

A number of groups concerned with housing and urban issues decided to coordinate their efforts and drew up a collective "Right to the City."
Thirteen domestic workers' rights organizations from various parts of the country (New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco) voted to form a domestic workers' alliance. "We have those regions in our domestic workers'
alliance thus far. And we know of other cities where organizing is happening. We're hoping our example will inspire them," says Ai-jen Poo of Domestic Workers United.

This is movement--perhaps not "a movement" but movement-building. The best that interested parties can do now is find ways to facilitate and sustain those links until the next US Social Forum, in 2010.

The Potter Phenomenon

Mikaela says:
We write a lot here on m-pyre about community and the things that bring people together.

This predisposition has got me pondering the global phenomenon of a millions and millions of people holding their breath in anticipation of getting their hands ... on a book.

A book!

Kids lining up outside of bookstores around the world for midnight distribution on the release date (which is generating a lot of controversy in Israel, since the release is on the Sabbath). For a book!

Lola Lorber, 14, wears a wizard's hat while reading "Jane Eyre" as she waits in the prepaid line to pick up her copy of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" at Books of Wonder bookstore in New York on Friday. -- AP

Isn't this amazing?!?

I've been wracking my brain to think of a similar instance. The Star Wars movies? Lord of the Rings?

The fact that there have been 7 books helps build the anticipation and readership with each new installment. The fact that the movies don't suck and pull in fans who wouldn't normally read helps. The power of the stories, characters, and writing helps. The secrecy and integrity of the author and publishing houses have helped more than we know.

But still... it's a little overwhelming. And it's about reading! Reading is fun? Reading engenders community? Wow! We've lived to see the day.

It's got major capitalism implications, too. As far as I can figure (with very little research), the first 6 books have sold 325 copies worldwide, in over 60 languages. The 6th book sold 9 million copies in the U.K. and U.S. in its first 24 hours!

The 7th book has broken all pre-order sales records, with 2.2 and 1.4 million sales from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, respectively. The American publisher (Scholastic) has published 12 million of the latest and final book in the series, its largest-ever print run.

The first 4 movies have earned $3.5 billion in global ticket sales. The 5th movie took in $77.4 million the first weekend and is expected to rake in $1 billion worldwide.

So if you figure that the books sell for an average of $10 each that's $3.25 billion in book sales w/o the 7th book, compared to $3.5 billion for movie ticket sales for the first 4 movies.

All of this from a book!

Here at my office, where we toil away all day in silence, hardly ever chatting or even saying hello, we just had a 15 minute spontaneous conversation about books just from speaking the word Potter.

And best of all, all those millions of Book 7 are being printed on recycled paper after a successful lobbying effort by an environmental group in Canada, which got the support of the author, and now all the publishing houses have agreed to do so, saving untold acres of forests. That's the power of consumer pressure!

Harry Potter, boy wizard, community builder, saver of trees. He's made so many millions of us so very happy.


With hours to go,

M

Buy a blogging car!

Maggie says:
One day soon, fair readers, I will be able to write about things unrelated to huge life decisions and moves. But that day will not be here this month. And on that note...

Remember back in the day when I wrote about my cute new bumper stickers? Do you want them for yourself? Do you figure you might as well buy the 1989 Saab Turbo 900 the stickers are attached to while you're at it?

Well it's your lucky day!

I'm selling my car rather than traveling with it. I love this car. It was my quirky, nerdy, weird, single-girl car. (Although it's not girly, guys, never fear!) But I'm not single anymore, and the car belongs in New Mexico.

And on that note... here's my craigslist ad. Spread the word and help my blogging car find a new owner!

More Movie Madness ... Domes and Shootouts

Mikaela says:
This Friday marks the kickoff for not one but TWO film festivals done Q-style: Domefest and the Duke City Shootout.

Did you know Albuquerque is a Dome Capitol of the world? We have one of the best venues and preeminent artists of full-dome visual presentations, and we're sharing them with the world this weekend.

Domefest 2007 runs Friday through Sunday, with public screenings throughout, at the Lodestar Dome housed in the Natural History Museum in Old Town.

Here are the highlights:

3D Stereo Fulldome Show
Friday, July 20 @ LodeStar
See a host of full-color 3D stereo content from the best of both the CG and the real world. The 3D stereo demo will include original animations by collection of invited artists as well as a performance of astronomical and other scientific imagery.
Public screenings at 8:30, 9:30 & 10:30pm

2007 Juried Show & Domie Awards
Saturday, July 21 @ LodeStar
Take a 40-minute ride through the best and boldest immersive art, science, entertainment and experimentation made for fulldome. The show is comprised of short works, up to four minutes
each.
Public screenings at 8:30, 9:30 & 10:30pm

Interactive Immersive Art Performances
Sunday, July 22 @ LodeStar
The world premiere of J. Walt Adamczyk’s “Spontaneous Fantasia” real-time fulldome performance art.
Public screenings at 8:30, 9:30 & 10:30pm

Fulldome Show Screenings
Saturday & Sunday, July 21-22 @ LodeStar
Producers of up to four recent fulldome shows screen their work. Two shows will be presented each day.
Public screenings at 1, 2, 3 & 4pm

Duke City Shootout starts this Friday, too, at 7 pm with a dramatic Shotgun Start, taking place this year at the Albuquerque Studios in Mesa del Sol. After that, there's a Green Screen kickoff party at Carom Club. Finals Night w/ movie screenings & winner announcements on Saturday, July 28 at 7 pm in Kiva Auditorium.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- In a few days, seven screenwriter/directors from around the country will begin the week-long race to shoot, edit and premier their 12-minute screenplay as part of the Duke City Shootout, which will take place in Albuquerque July 20-28.

Opening Night Gala- FRIDAY, JULY 20, 8 p.m. (Carom Club, Third and Central)
The Duke City Shootout will be going "green" this year with a green carpet and green screen action. Get in front of the screen for a chance to be part of Duke City Shootout History. Screen available from 8 to 10 p.m. In addition, the first 200 green screeners will get a ticket for a green chile burger and a beer from our sponsor Santa Fe Brewing Company. Green menu and drink specials.

Insomnia Lounge- JULY 22-28 (ABQ Hyatt Sendero Ballroom)
Hang out, chill, play. Immerse yourself in a free-form mix of emerging media ,story writing, games, animation, interactive art and sound. Connect to create with other artists, live in the lounge. Plug into the latest in digital technology with professional speakers and hands-on demos from Apple, Intel, Adobe and Sony. Bring your laptops, DVD's, hard drives and mini-DV camcorders to share finished works and your ongoing projects. We bring the FireWire, you the binary code. Insomnia is open free to the public.

MiniCini Moviemaking Competition - JULY 22-27 (Insomnia Lounge)
Anyone can join the digital revolution, and vie for cool prizes. Aspiring filmmakers of any age can participate in the Shootout's "MiniCini" competition sponsored by Intel. Participants have five days to write, shoot and edit a three-minute movie around a predetermined theme. Winners receive a 15" Apple MacBook Pro.

GAMESLAM- JULY 23-27 (Insomnia Lounge at the ABQ Hyatt)
Game on! Gear up for a five-day game design clinic and competition at the Shootout's Insomnia Lounge. Participants are trained then issued a game design challenge. They create a game concept and design to pitch on Friday to a panel of game development pros. Spaces are limited.

Gala Premier- SATURDAY, JULY 28, 7 p.m. (Kiva Auditorium)
And the winner is... The public views the seven new Duke City Shootout movies filmed the previous week. Prizes are awarded, the 48 hour film festival winner and MiniCini competition winners are announced.

Film Festival Time!

Mikaela says:
Tonight's your chance to view the results of this year's 48 Hour Film Festival. Remember the mockumentary Stare Down? I sure do!

Last year was a blast at the Guild. This year may be more ... formal ... at the Kimo Theatre downtown.

Meet me there!

Filmmaking teams from throughout the New Mexico area successfully completed a weekend of filmmaking. Films were due on Sunday, July 15, and the last few minutes before the deadline saw filmmakers, operating on little sleep and lots of adrenaline, rushing to get their films in on time.

Date:	Tuesday, July 17th
Time:	Group A will screen at 7pm Group B will screen at 9:15pm
Place:	KiMo Theater, 423 Central Ave. NW, Albuquerque
Notes:	Buy Tix at the door of the KiMo for $9.

Wet your appetite for local theatre-making, because next week's the Duke City Shootout.

Woo-hoo!

Celebrating Maggie Mae

marjorie says...

As you all know by now, Maggie is leaving Albuquerque for good (although she is *not* leaving m-pyre!). Mikaela and I have decided to reserve our mourning for after she is gone and enjoy our last weeks of having Maggie right down the road from us. And part of that includes, of course, a time and a place for all of you who know and love Maggie to come say goodbye. Since we don't have all of your email addresses or phone numbers...here is an open invitation. If you would like to drop by to get one more dose of that magnificent Maggie Mae smile, you'll have your chance on Saturday evening, July 21. It's BYOB, BYOF, BYOS, all that stuff. :-)

Checking out the clouds...

marjorie says...

Who says you need a plane or a helicopter to fly? I want to be this guy!!

UPDATE: Deathly Hollow Waiting

Mikaela says:
I am on tenderhooks.

I can't sit still. I've checked my Amazon pre-order (Feb. 1, baby!).

There's nothing interesting on the web.

There's nothing to do but wait.

Tick tock, tick tock.

I've re-read the last two books to prepare for the movie and newest installment and last book of the series (sob).

Oh, Harry. I hope you're gaining strength and maturity, cause you've kinda bugged me the last few books.

Here's what I'm dying to know:

• Are they really not going to school next year? What kind of a message is that??? Should our kids similarly be thinking of skipping their senior year to fight Al Queda (or George W. for that matter, a much bigger evil in my opinion)? Ummm... no?
• Is Dumbledore really dead? Was it an Obi-Wan Kanobi kinda thing? Is he even stronger now, able to help out from the other side like Harry's parents when he squared off against Voldemort in the cemetary?
• How much kissing do we have to endure from Ron & Hermione? Ewwww...
  
• Will Ginny finally get to play a bigger role? She's been set up as one of the more talented witches, she's been taken over by Voldemort for a semester, and she's Harry's love interest. She better get to kick some ASS in this book. Harry breaking up with her to protect her? Eye roll. She needs to come to HIS rescue, especially because LOVE has been set up as the one thing Harry has over Voldemort. How many times has Dumbledore said that? Actually, having Ginny sacrifice herself for Harry like Harry's mom did would be a cool twist. Harry: The Hero Who Lives Because of the Kick-ass Women Who Love Him. That would redeem him some in my eyes. And it would balance that obsessed focus that's been given to Harry's father versus his mother. Bad boys bleh. Heroic, strong women, oh yeah.

From my planner's perspective, I'm fascinated by the latest ploy from Amazon. They've set up a competition to see which town in America has the most pre-orders. They're listed here. The Harry-est town gets a sizeable donation to a local charity. Kinda cool. Global capitalism go! (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

And the winner is ...

Falls Church, VA! Residents of Falls Church ordered more copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon.com per capita than any other town in America. As a result of Falls Church's "Harry-ness," Amazon.com is donating a $5,000 Amazon.com gift certificate to The Mary Riley Styles Public Library Foundation Trust of Falls Church.

The top 10 Harry-est Towns in the U.S.

1. Falls Church, VA
2. Gig Harbor, WA
3. Fairfax, VA
4. Vienna, VA
5. Katy, TX,
6. Media, PA,
   
7. Issaquah, WA,
   
8. Snohomish, WA,
   
9. Doylestown, PA, and
   
10. Fairport, NY

Amazon.com used the most recent U.S. Census data and included all U.S. towns and cities with a population of more than 5,000 people.

Cheering on SWOP!

Maggie says:
Feeling despondent, powerless, and uninspired today? I've got two fixes for you:

• SWOPblogger: Day 6: Heading into Atlanta. Read thoughts from folks on the bus en route to the US Social Forum, including some dear friends of m-pyre. Every day I wish I was there more and more.

• People's Freedom Caravan Photos. These photos are so great, and really capture how the group has been engaging across the South toward Atlanta. Go SWOP, go!
  

Hurray for Planning! (And the residents that make plans work!)

Mikaela says:

HUGE news today. North Valley residents have successfully fought a supercenter Wal-Mart, thanks to a persistent, dedicated, organized grassroots citizen effort and the City's backbone to make a decision according to its own adopted plan!

But you don't have to take my word for it...

Dear North Valley Friends and Neighbors:

In case you haven't heard, Wal-Mart has decided not to appeal the recent decision by the City's Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) to deny the company's application for a Supercenter store at Osuna Road and Vista del Norte Blvd. One of the reasons the EPC cited for denying the application was its inconsistency with the North Valley Area Plan (NVAP). Consistent application of the North Valley Area Plan is important to residents of the Valley and is fundamental to the original mission of the North Valley Coalition. Thus, both the EPC's decision to deny the permit and Wal-Mart's decision not to appeal represent a victory not only for the residents of Vista Del Norte, but for the principals of the NVAP and all North Valley residents.

Please join me and the North Valley Coalition in extending a great big CONGRATULATIONS to the Vista Del Norte Alliance, the residents of the Vista Del Norte Neighborhood, and everyone else who spoke, wrote, or otherwise participated in this tremendously successful grass roots effort! For the past year and a half residents stepped forward to demand appropriate development at this location. Our efforts have raised the bar for citizen and neighborhood involvement in zoning decisions in our communities. Democracy only works when citizens are paying attention... so: GOOD WORK TEAM! And don't forget, there is more to be done to secure the site for large balloon landings and a multi-use recreational area.

For more information, please visit the VDN website: http://www.vdnalliance.org

You may also wish to contact:

• Rod Crawley, Vista del Norte Alliance, amerrod@yahoo.com
• Steve Wentworth, Alameda North Valley Association, Anvanews@aol.com

Chris Nyman Weller
President, North Valley Coalition

Email: pres@northvalleycoalition.org

Because it's on my mind...

Mikaela says:

I heard this quote in church, actually, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. It's in tribute to both m's, and to the three ms, and others out there in the world doing what needs to be done.

It's from Starhawk...

We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been — a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.

Heading to Atlanta

marjorie says...

I've been on the road since Friday with almost 100 people from New Mexico, on the "People's Freedom Caravan" heading to the US Social Forum in Atlanta. We're stopping in a number of cities along the way, where other community groups are sharing their history and current realities with us, not to mention taking great care of us! Yesterday we had an incredible day in San Antonio. We toured the communities surrounding Kelly Airforce Base, which have been incredibly polluted by the base and Union Pacific railroad. We then had a great rally at the Alamo for immigrant rights...which really made me happy. I grew up going to the Alamo pretty regularly...it's a big (problematic) part of Texas history. So it was great to return in this context. After the rally we marched to Senator John Cornyn's office to protest his racist "enforcement only" stance during the current debates on an immigration bill. Before we left, we made sure he knew some of the names of those who've died trying to cross the desert they've been pushed into by the militarization of our border:

After we had our say, we went to San Pedro park for barbecue and relaxation, then later had a great dinner at Ruta Maya coffee shop near the river walk. It's been a long time since I spent time in San Antonio. What a great city...it was very nice to be back.

In the coming week, I'll mainly be putting up posts at Swopblogger, but I'll also try to keep m-pyre posted as well. Now we're on the road to Houston, with a third bus from San Antonio having joined us. By the time we get to Atlanta we'll be 8 buses strong with many cars and vans with us. Over 75 community based organizations from the southern U.S. are participating, and there will be almost 1000 of us when we drive into Atlanta.

The long goodbye

Maggie says:
I’m finally writing something I’ve been waiting months and months to be able to say, and it’s been coming for such a long time now that it almost feels like old news. But here it is: I am leaving Albuquerque. And I can honestly say that I’m more excited about what’s next than I’m sad about leaving what’s been.

The toughness of writing this goodbye is in thinking I need to say everything at once, so I'll get over that right now. I thought I needed to take on the mind-numbing frustration of being a planner in a city that hates planning. I needed to say how desperately I’ve wanted to scream and vent about local politics and planning issues the last nine months, but how work meant that I had to keep quiet. I needed to take pains to celebrate everything I adore about this community, because there’s more of it than I could ever list. I needed to explain how heavily this choice has been hanging over everything, so that writing about politics or food or community or gender or place or all the other non-Albuquerque topics I usually write about has been next to impossible, given my absolute preoccupation with what I was going to do next.

But now, finally, I know.

I’ve spent five years in Albuquerque learning, listening, connecting, and being part of the uniqueness of this place, and for that I'm deeply honored and grateful. I’ve spent time learning from some of the most insightful, committed faculty members I’ve ever known. I’ve spent time talking with communities about how they might balance their spirit with the crushing growth charging at them from every direction. I’ve made some of the most amazing friends I will ever have, met some of the most incredible, inspiring people I will ever know. There have been amazing highs and heartbreaking lows here, but there has always been connection, and there has always been laughter, and there has always been strength in unexpected places. New Mexico has a part of my heart forever.

Earlier this month, I spent a week of twelve-hour days in Bernalillo, getting to know amazing folks who showed me left and right why being a planner matters, and why it’s about love of place and family and community first, and why it’s an honor when you’re able to do it right, for the right people. I knew that would be my last planning project in New Mexico, and it felt like an appropriate end to my work here, with shared values rising above differences of opinion and turning into something tangible. I wish planning could always be like that.

But meanwhile, home calls me stronger than ever. My family is on the other side of the country, and they’re getting increasingly restless that I’m so far away. I have a niece who’s less than a week old, and I’ll get to meet her next month at the beach. It makes less sense than ever to stay in the desert when little Taylor Rae lives by the Atlantic.

So it’s a pit-stop, then. Halfway between here and there, I’m going to hole up in a city I never, ever thought I’d live in to work on transit-oriented development projects on a scale that neither New Mexico nor North Carolina can offer, a city where conversations about transit and walkability start at square one rather than negative one hundred. Transit and sustainable development are increasingly what matters to me, and what I’m convinced will make or break Albuquerque’s legacy. But that’s not my fight to win or lose; not here, not now. In my next stop, I’ll be a time zone closer to home, a flight closer to Taylor and the rest of the fam, and I'll be able to jump into good projects that are already off the ground.

I’m almost being dishonest not mentioning the rest of it, though. See, one night over a year ago, I found myself in a terrible mood at Anodyne, accusing a charming, imported campaign staffer of representing why we would lose a big election in the fall. Not my best night, trust me. But all this time later (and an election lost through no fault of his own) he continues to be amused (and dare I say equally charmed) by my weird, optimist self, still finding my way between world-changer, connection-maker, word-shaper, and place-lover. He’s waiting in the new city, the one with the kind of TOD projects that are decades away from happening in Albuquerque, with the baseball games, with the halfway-thereness to home, and with that charm of his that even my terrible Anodyne mood and my most obnoxious utopianism somehow aren’t able to dampen. I love that we met each other in this quirky place of anything goes, and even though I’m leaving, it’s a sentiment I hope I’ll carry on with me forever.

So in August, I will leave Albuquerque in the capable hands of Marjorie and Mikaela. With those two in the mix, this town is bound to be charged through and through with the seeds of community-based, transformative change. Lucky for all of us, they'll still be here to talk us through it. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Hey Q! What makes you?

Mikaela says:
Ah, that's the question.

Eric Bodwell and Adam Rubinstein, members of our eminent and vibrant poetry community here in the Q, are putting together an "underground guide" to Albuquerque for poets visiting from nearby states as part of the Southwest Shootout, a regional poetry Slam competition in July (more on that later).

Here's the challenge Eric poses for all of us insiders:

In the next 48hours, please email me what you would do, eat, or not miss that is quintessentially ABQ. I'm looking for 5-10 items. Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

Okay, you've got your assignment. Top 10 lists of things not to miss if you're in the Q for two days.

Go!

Feel free to leave a comment, and I'll forward to Mr. B, or e-mail him directly at ericbodwell@netscape.net

Heinrich Fundraiser tonight

Maggie says:
If your inbox looks anything like mine, you've been e-mailed more reminders about tonight's Martin Heinrich fundraiser than you can count. So to come full circle, here's my little reminder to everyone else:

You are Invited
to a
Young Professionals Fundraiser
for
Martin Heinrich
Democratic Candidate for Congress

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

O'Neill's Pub and Grill
4310 Central Ave. SE
(Central and Washington in East Nob Hill)

$100 Suggested Contribution
(all contributions accepted)

To contribute on-line go to: www.ActBlue.com

Margaret Randall: Woman We Love

Maggie says:
I'm so proud to have been part of an amazing night for change last Friday. Amidst friends, music, and community, the SouthWest Organizing Project hosted a Silent Art Auction at the Central Park Deli in the Silver Moon Lodge for a very special cause.

Late next week, a delegation of 100 New Mexicans will travel together across the Deep South, with very special stops along the way to pick up fellow grassroots organizations, arriving in Atlanta for the U.S. Social Forum at the end of the month. The trip's going to be powerful, taking many folks through communities they otherwise might never see first-hand. The Social Forum itself will be an event to be remembered, and I love that the organizers chose the South as their host. Lucky for us, we'll get to experience the tour and the forum through one M's blogging (leave it to Marjorie to ensure wireless internet access on the bus!).

The highlight of Friday's auction was a collection of 19 Margaret Randall photographs from Nicaragua. I'd seen these photos in the shape that SWOP found them in previous to the event - a little bit dusty, a little bit disorganized, and basically the best "under the couch" kind of find a grassroots organization can hope for. That said, I was unprepared for the impact of seeing them displayed together, beautifully matted and framed, and signed by Randall herself. The photos were taken in 1979, just after the Sandinistas came to power, and the imagery is overwhelming. Take a look at the link above to see the entire collection and I think you'll agree.

In addition to the Randall photographs, the other highlight of the auction was a room full of political posters from all over the world. The variety was really amazing, and the collection was pretty outstanding.

For me, though, it had to be a Randall. Right away, one jumped out at me, and sure enough, the bidding escalated... but my shopping instincts took over (not to mention my texting instincts to a favorite co-buyer), and I won it in the end. Here's what I took home:


Tonight, I spent some time adding some nuance to what my winning bid got me (although owning an original photograph that I really adore is enough in itself). What I discovered was truly incredible, because I had no idea just how amazing a woman Margaret Randall is. (It's outrageous this woman doesn't have a wikipedia entry, by the way!) Her story - as told in a documentary I'd love to see, "The Unapologetic Life of Margaret Randall," takes her through chapters of poetry, photography, activism, art, and fiction so "subversive" that the U.S. government tried to deport her. The author of more than 70 books, "Sandino's Daughters: Testimonies of Nicaraguan Women in Struggle," is considered a classic. Happily, I discovered that my photograph appears in her book "Women Brave in the Face of Danger: Photographs of and Writing by Latin and North American Women."

Finally, the photo itself has a wonderful story of its own. Here's what Randall says about the moment she took it:

There was the day I spotted those lines from Leonel Rugama’s poem, jumped out of the jeep and raised my camera to capture the wall with the words “Los heroes, nuestros heroes, nunca dijeron que morían por la patria sino que murieron . . .” Three women carrying loads of wash walked into the picture plane, and turned and posed just as I snapped the shutter. Rugama had been a 20 year old seminary student when he was assassinated in 1967 by Somoza’s National Guard. Had he lived, he would have been one of his country’s finest poets. Many ordinary Nicaraguans know his poetry by heart.

I'm appalled I'd never before heard of Leonel Rugama, but reading more about him online and knowing the full context of this amazing photo, not to mention the woman who took it, makes me one satisfied SWOP contributor.

For more information on Margaret Randall, head over to the Center for Southwest Research at UNM. The Margaret Randall Papers are housed there, and include a significant amount of material and correspondence from throughout her life, much of it related to her lawsuit against the U.S. government over her immigration status. Now aging gracefully (and spunkily, I'm sure) in New Mexico, Randall recently signed all the mats at SWOP and was generous enough to write a reflection supporting the delegation to the U.S. Social Forum. No question about it; Margaret Randall has officially become one of m-pyre's "Women We Love."

For more information on how you can still contribute to the SWOP delegation, contact the office. And don't forget about SWOPblogger, too! Jo Ann, another woman we love, has been doing an incredible job over there. And I continue to give all the credit in the world to SWOP for being able to pull off such a fantastic night; I can only imagine the goodness that'll come out of the delegation.

PS: I swear the Central Park Deli has the best falafel sandwich in town. I know, who would've guessed?! They also have really kick-ass fries for when falafel's not going to cut it. Go support them when you're craving something good; they were extremely generous to SWOP in hosting the event and couldn't be nicer folks.

Cheney's Monopoly

Mike Luckovich says:

Immigration Reform is about Worker's Rights

marjorie says...

I’ve been struggling with how to say all the things that come up for me when I consider the reactionary attitude toward immigrants so prevalent in this country. As immigration has increased over the past decade, it’s obvious that much of this reaction is under girded by a strong racist impulse. Working people of a different culture and ethnicity are easy targets for the frustration and anger that ought to more accurately be directed at the top of the corporate/government pyramid. It’s at the top that decisions have been made resulting in the decimation of our manufacturing base, the decline of our labor unions, and the consequent shrinking of our middle class. Combine the historic racism so prevalent in this country with rampant job insecurity and you have a tailor made recipe for reactionary impulses toward a predominantly Latino immigrant working class.

When I get asked what my “solution” to the “immigration problem” is, I find myself struggling with how to answer without upending entirely the notion that there is a problem. Because I do believe there’s a problem, but it’s primarily a problem of how to take care of the needs of our lowest-paid workers, both immigrant and non-immigrant. It isn’t a problem of how to protect ourselves as a culture or an economy from a threatening horde of foreigners.

It disturbs me greatly to see the pitting of normal, everyday working people from this country against those who should be their allies in a struggle to maintain some semblance of economic equality in this country. The reality is that we are all enmeshed in a restructured global economy together, an economy in which a global capitalist class literally sucks the resources out of the global south to their benefit, leading to mass migrations of workers the world over to the richer, first world countries. At the same time, our own high wage manufacturing jobs have been taken away.

On our trip north to Colorado this week, I stopped with my co-workers at the Ludlow Massacre Memorial just northwest of Trinidad. To be in the space in which 24 distinct languages were spoken among a striking workforce that lived in a tent colony together for almost a year was just what I needed this week. The kind of unity that existed in that space in 1913 and 1914 is what we need now.

Right now there is great debate in the Senate about proposed immigration reform legislation. If a package gets passed, it will have enormous life consequences for millions of people who work here, and it will also greatly impact all of us in other ways.

For instance, one measure would build a fence along the U.S. Mexico border and greatly ramp up the military and police presence there. This isn’t to keep terrorists out…it’s to keep workers out. Frankly, I find the advocacy of, not to mention the building of, such a wall…immoral. It isn’t good for immigrants, nor is it good for my own peace of mind.

Concurrent with the border “security” provisions are proposals to create a worker program in which a person could hold their job for only two years. A New York Times editorial called this a “system of modern peonage” and I wholeheartedly concur. I encourage all of you to read that editorial, in fact, for a better understanding of what is being considered by congress. You can see the editorial in its entirety on Swopblogger here, along with a breakdown this week of points to highlight in calls to Domenici and Bingaman, provided by Santa Fe immigrant’s rights organization Somos Un Pueblo Unido.

The immigration package being debated is going to change dramatically over the coming weeks. I believe that the package as originally proposed is a bad deal. But it’s possible that it could be fixed…please join me in communicating with our senators about what should be the core principles: the valuing of human rights and family unification for everyone who works in this country.

Some of the essential points, in my mind:

· All workers in this country regardless of status should be afforded safety, dignity, and a living wage.

· Building a wall and militarizing our border endangers the lives of working people and must be stopped.

· Immigration policy should recognize reality and provide a safe route to work in this country, and legal status to the millions who come here seeking work.

· The right to organize is fundamental to having a just and equal society, for all of us regardless of whether or not we are part of a union. This right needs to be protected and enhanced through our legal system. And we need to direct resources to organizing across the board.

Senator Bingaman: 505-346-6601.

Senator Domenici: 505-346-6791.

Or the DC switchboard: 800-417-7666.

En La Lucha!

Rey Garduño for District Six: He's Running Clean!

marjorie says...

A good friend of mine, Rey Garduño, has announced his campaign for the District 6 City Council seat.

Rey is running a "Clean" campaign, which means he is undertaking a series of steps outlined through legislation to qualify for public financing of his campaign. Once he's successfully qualified he will not accept any private money to finance his campaign, including his own family money.

As a private citizen, Rey has been a strong advocate of clean elections legislation and ethics in government reform bills. I think its very fitting that he would now run for City Council utilizing the clean elections rules. In addition to his work in this area, I can attest to the strong progressive values that Rey holds and hope you will all take a moment to read more about him on his website.

For those of you living in District 6, I have another strong request: support the concept of "clean elections" by contributing $5 to Rey's campaign by the last week in May, which will qualify him as a "clean" candidate. The rules state that a candidate has to turn in just under 300 signatures with accompanying $5 contributions by the end of May in order to qualify. Let's all do as much as we can to ensure that all those who want to run clean campaigns are able to do so by meeting this benchmark. In fact, you can contribute the $5 to any and all candidates who are running in your district...because this is about ensuring that everyone is able to compete for office, not just those who have access to the big moneybags.

How can you contribute? Well, you can track me down because I have some of the forms. Or, you can contact Rey directly. In fact, he is having a "signing party" this Saturday. Please see below for a note from him and details about the signing party. And, please pass this information along to everyone you know who lives in District 6!

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters of Rey Garduño for City Council District 6:

We are moving forward at a steady and measured pace with The Clean Elections process. We turned in to the City Clerk about a third of the necessary signatures and contributions on Tuesday the 15th; albeit, they need to be vetted. This is great; now, we need commitments from all of us to get at least five (5) of our friends and neighbors to come to a “Signing” Party at my house at 414 Vassar, NE in the UNM Campus (Directions below) from 10am-12pm this Saturday, May 19th

What is this signing party you ask? Quite simply it will be a centralized place where we can ask folks to sign the qualifying form and contribute $5 to democracy. This will qualify me to run as a clean candidate for City Council District 6 this fall, and not have to take campaign contributions from special interests. It is most urgent that we gather these signatures as soon as possible, our deadline is May 29; having begun the process now I can take the forms on a weekly basis to verify the signatures. The sooner we have 271 qualifying signatures the sooner we can begin the campaign and formulate how we are going to improve on the good initiatives already in District 6. Furthermore, we can build a framework cooperatively with the rest of the city to make this a great community.

Thank you in advance for your dedication to Democracy, to our community and my campaign.

Gracias, Rey Garduño

505-266-4424

reygard@unm.edu

http://reygarduno.blogspot.com

414 Vassar NE: From Girard at Campus [street between Central and Lomas] you would go West on Campus into UNM campus turn North or right onto Vassar, the first house on the right is 414 Vassar).

State Rep. Miguel García statement about Posada Carriles

marjorie says...

Here is the statement released this morning by State Representative Miguel Garcia demanding that Posada Carriles be extradited to Venezuela. It was from Venezuela that Posada Carriles plotted and carried out his bombing of the Cuban airliner.

Statement in Support of Extradition of Luis Posada Carriles

Hon. Miguel P. García
New Mexico House of Representatives District 14

Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 11, 2007

Luis Posada Carriles committed the worst crime of terrorism in 1976 by masterminding a mid air bombing of a Cuban airliner killing seventy-three innocent human beings. These victims were our brother and sisters in Christ. They left behind a grieving spouse, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, uncles, cousins, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.

American citizens are freedom loving individuals that deplore the innocent taking of a life by deranged individuals who have no respect for human decency. It has come to my attention that the Bush administration has created a precedent setting act of malfeasance in government by objectively giving Luis Posada Carriles card blanc asylum in the United States, knowing that Mr. Carriles illegally entered the United States in 2005.

Worst of all is the fact that the Bush administration fails to abide by international extradition laws pertaining to the harboring of terrorists. Venezuela is rightfully seeking extradition of Mr. Carriles to hold him accountable for the horrific tragedy of the 1976 incident.

As American citizens, we have an obligation to uphold our constitutional obligation in upholding the health, safety, and welfare of our communities. The Bush administration, by refusing to extradite Mr. Carriles, and by having his presence in our midst, gives us no choice but to side with our constitution and seek the “citizens arrest” of Luis Posada Carriles.

Freedom loving people in New Mexico and the United States must engage in an effort to apprehend Luis Posada Carriles and carry out a “citizens arrest” of the individual. Mr. Carriles creates a serious breach of peace in our presence with the potential for violent injury to our citizenship given his terrorist background.

I am committed to do what I can in my capacity as a State Representative to engage in a citizen to government relation with Venezuela to ensure the return of Luis Posada Carriles to that country for prosecution and incarceration of his terrorist act. It does us no good to engage in a “citizens arrest” of Mr. Carriles and turn him over to U.S. federal officials only to see him go free again in order to see him return to his mansion in Miami so he can continue watching the novelas on TV and drinking his rum & coke.

Support New Teen Art & Entertainment Center for ABQ

Mikaela says:
How many times have you heard a teen complain there's nowhere to go, nothing to do?

How many times have you heard this used as a reason why some kid or other got in trouble making trouble?

I'm not sure what the cool factor is on teen centers, but I know that having one is a lot better than not having one. This town owes its youth in a big, bad way. How do you discourage behavior you don't want? By encouraging behavior you do. We all know this. Well, most of us know this...

Tonight, you can do something about it and show your support.

WHAT:
City of Albuquerque Public Meeting with the City Council
about a new Teen Art & Entertainment Center

WHERE:
Taylor Ranch Community Center
4900 Kachina St. NW (Kachina & Montano)
Phone: (505)768-6006 Fax: (505)768-6009

Contacts:

• Dave Pulliam, Community Recreation Center Supervisor (DPulliam@cabq.gov)
• Patrick VanHorn, Community Recreation Activities Coordinator (PVanHorn@cabq.gov)
• Marissa Kutzscher, Community Recreation Activities Coordinator (mkutzscher@cabq.gov)

Give the Terrrorist Posada Carriles the Boot!

marjorie says...

As Mikaela so aptly points out, the Bush Administration is completely hypocritical. One of the most egregious examples is playing out this very week with all charges against Luis Posada Carriles dropped by a federal judge in El Paso who said the Justice Department had improperly dealt with his case. Of course, the charges dropped were illegal immigration charges, not charges against Posada for his long history of terrorism. As we have pointed out numerous times on m-pyre (see here, here, here, and here) Posada is an international terrorist. This is acknowledged almost across the board. Even the U.S. government doesn't deny it.

How can the Bush administration continue to hold the banner high against "terrorism" and let an utter terrorist walk the streets of Miami freely? I'll tell you why...because the U.S. government is just fine with "terrorism" if the acts are done by those who act in accordance with U.S. foreign policy objectives. You want to blow up a plane full of people? And those are Cuban people? "Well...ok!! Because, you know, we don't like Cuba!"

That's exactly what this man did, and it's a well-known fact. So why isn't he being extradited to Venezuela, which is the country from which he plotted and carried out that act, a country which has had a long standing case against him that predates Chavez? He went on to engage in smaller terrorist acts for decades, moving from country to country. And seemingly, its just fine with our government.

He does not belong in this country unless we are utter hypocrites. Join us in a protest tomorrow at the Federal Courthouse. It's really too egregious to let slide by with a shake of our heads.

Bush Democracy=Hypocrisy

Mikaela says:
If I hear one more time that we're in Iraq to foster Democracy -- at the point of a gun and even if we have to wall off every faction from every other -- I'm going to scream. Cheney's heading to Iraq this week to intimidate its Parliament to move faster. Sounds like a healthy way to encourage an independent government, no?

The Bush Administration doesn't believe in democracy. It believes in loyalty at all costs. It's holding all of us hostage until it gets what it wants. Gotta love freeedom. Ah, America. Land of Tyranny with very long, bloody, not-so-invisible global arms.

Here's the latest evidence:

WASHINGTON, May 9 — Moderate Republicans gave President Bush a blunt warning on his Iraq policy at a private White House meeting this week, telling the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war.
...

Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually [emphasis added] candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts.

One told Mr. Bush that voters back home favored a withdrawal even if it meant the war was judged a loss. Representative Tom Davis told Mr. Bush that the president’s approval rating was at 5 percent in one section of his northern Virginia district.

The response to this candid assessment and plea for sanity?

Mr. Bush made no commitments, but seemed grateful for their support and said a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq could cause the sort of chaos that occurred in Southeast Asia after Americans left Vietnam.

Meanwhile, speaking out of the other side of his smug mouth:

The White House on Wednesday promised a veto of the emerging House bill, which would essentially provide financing for combat operations through midsummer, but require the president to provide a series of reports on the state of the Iraqi military and the progress of the government in achieving political unity.

There's democracy in action.

More polls show that more and more Americans directly oppose the President and his misguided stubbornness putting American and Iraqi lives at risk (reposted from White House Watch):

Susan Page and William Risser write in USA Today: "Most Americans don't believe that the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is the key to preventing a full-scale civil war there or protecting the United States from new terrorist attacks, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

"Amid broad pessimism about what's ahead for Iraq and the region, one-third of those surveyed would be bothered 'a great deal' if the United States is seen as losing the war. One in four would be bothered 'not at all.'

"Six in 10 support setting a timetable for withdrawal and sticking to it regardless of what's happening in Iraq; 36% say the United States should keep troops in Iraq until the situation there improves . . .

"Only 22% of Americans accept the administration's argument that U.S. forces in Iraq are preventing new terror attacks on the United States; 17% say the troop presence is making those attacks more likely. Another 58% say the U.S. deployment doesn't affect it either way."

CNN reports, similarly: "A majority of the U.S. public disapproves of President Bush's decision to veto a war spending bill that called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq in 2008, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

"The poll found that 54 percent of Americans opposed Bush's May 1 veto. . . .

"Now that the veto has been cast, 57 percent of Americans said they want Congress to send another spending bill with a timetable for withdrawal back to the White House, the poll found -- but 61 percent would support a new bill that dropped the timetables in favor of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet to maintain American support."

If only anyone trusted the Democrats to be strong enough to make that happen...

The Decider

From Tony Auth:

All is not lost... Naomi Shihab Nye

Mikaela says:
Apologies, but I'm reposting from a YogaNow newsletter. Too good not to! This poet has several amazing books, including one of my favorite kids books these days, a collection of poems from around the world, "This Same Sky."

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal by Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem?

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew however poorly used - she stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you'll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English.

I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts out of her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo; we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers and the two little girls for our flight, one African-American, one Mexican-American ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend by now we were holding hands had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves.

Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in.

The shared world. Not a single person in this gate once the crying of confusion stopped has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.

This can still happen, anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Kindness -- Naomi Shihab-Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
You must lose things,
Feel the future dissolve in a moment
Like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
All this must go so you know
How desolate the landscape can be
Between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
Thinking the bus will never stop,
The passengers eating maize and chicken
Will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
Lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
How he too was someone
Who journeyed through the night with plans
And the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
Catches the thread of all sorrows
And you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
Only kindness that ties your shoes
And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
And then goes with you everywhere
Like a shadow or a friend.