A "Tell" from Heinrich's chief of staff

From Wikipedia:

A tell in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand.

Outside of poker a "Tell" is an inadvertent release of information while discussing an issue.

In this case the Tell occurred during last night's Third Thursday meeting. The topic was of course health care. There were representatives from Heinrich, Bingaman and Udall. Steve Haro, Martin Heinrich's chief of staff, was probably the most talkative of the three and the source of the Tell.

During an exchange where he was asked if Martin would join the 60 other members of the House that had signed a pledge promising not to vote for a Health Care Reform bill without a strong public option he challenged the fact that such a list existed and then came the "Tell" when he said that if such a list existed Health Care reform was already dead.

Tells are always tied to a hidden piece of information - in this case the inference is clear - the public option won't be part of the bill and if there are indeed 60 members of the House that won't vote for it without a public option the bill is dead.

We can only hope that this is true - what Baucus & Associates (the Gang of 6 including our very own Jeff Bingaman) are crafting will no doubt be worse than the present situation. Better to do nothing than enact a bill written by and for the health care industry.

There was one amusing aside - Haro thanked us for his job. Sad to say it but the way things are going he needs to enjoy it now because he won't have it for long.

Ruh! Roh! There goes Whole Foods!

Wow, via JUSIPER and then OpenLeft looks like the CEO and founder of Whole Foods, a.k.a. Whole Paycheck, stuck his foot is some of Scooby Doo's doodoo when he published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal blasting the whole ideal of Health Care Reform. Seems all we have to do is free Mr Market from its shackles, let Insurance Companies do anything they want and everything will be hunky dory over night. Sini at JUSIPER feels a boycott of Whole Foods in in order. Fine with me, I can do without listening to announcements like "Phone call for Natural Living" over their PA system, but I will miss their bakery - its the only decent one in town.

Bingaman has turned his back on New Mexicans

For several weeks now I and others have become increasingly upset with Senator Jeff Bingaman and his work with the Gang of Six to torpedo health care reform. This felling only grew after his interview with the Albuquerque Journal last Saturday.

For whatever reason Jeff Bingaman has decided to "negoiate" with 2 fellow Democrats (M. Baucus & K. Conrad) and 3 Republicans (C. Grassley, O. Snowe & M. Enzi) to come up with a "bipartisan" bill to shove down out throats. The leaders of this special gang of 6 are Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley. They are both notable for how much money they have received in political contributions form the Health Care Industry and how strongly they oppose the "Public Option". Just to get the numbers straight:

- Senator Max Baucus Senate Finance Committee chairman and recipient of "$3 million from the health and insurance sectors from 2003 to 2008" (about 20% of the total donations from that sector)

- Senator Chuck Grassley - he's gotten about $2,000,000 from the same folks since 2003

Those are indeed large numbers. Certainly they are both bought and paid for representatives of the Health Care Industry. But, as they say, it only gets better! Now it turns out that not only is Jeff Bingaman sitting at a table with Health Care Industry flacks but also a "Deather" and that's no other than Senator Chuck Grassley, his partner in these "bipartisan" negotiations. From the Iowa Independent

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”

That should end the charade of Grassley's bipartisan concern for Health Care. Grassley got up and lied in front of a group of folks in Iowa and knew it when he did so. How can anyone take his "bipartisan" concerns seriously now?

Its time for New Mexico's senior Senator to stand up and condemn Grassley for his lies and Baucus for his corruption and end the charade that this little gang of 6 has any bipartisan concern for Health Care Reform at all. Jeff - as my dearly departed granny used to say "birds of a feather do flock together!"

Birther nonsense

This simply can't be seen enough! Bill Maher deals with the birther nonsense.

Enrique Ortez Colindez talks about Obama and the US

This is way too funny.

As the US State Department turns its back on Democracy and negotiates with the illegal government in Honduras the "new" Honduran Secretary of State gives us a taste of its mindset. One has to hand it to them though - even the most right winged racist Republican on the planet would never ever use the term "pickaninny" to refer to Obama but here we see a Honduran "Official" throwing it out without a moment's hesitation. One wonders if the US State Department will ever learn.

Tim Kaine's record on Gay rights -

I wondered if DBY in the post below had been fair to Tim Kaine, former Governor of Virginia and current head of the Democratic Party. On Google I used the search phrase/words:

         Tim Kain gay record

What you find below is from the results of the first half of the first page of that search. You decide -

From Rod 2.0:Beta when Kaine was being considered for VP:

The icing on the cake is Kaine's woeful record on gay rights—against gay adoption, partner benefits, discrimination legislation, and ,of course, against same-sex marriage and supported the amendment that now bans gay marriage in the Commonwealth. The Virginia governor also has the distinction of running one of the more creative gay-baiting campaigns in recent history, branding his anti-gay Republican opponent "having a gay sounding voice."

From a Washington Blade article titled "Va. House approves gay marriage ban amendment":

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said that the governor-elect will sign the bill to call for a referendum. Kaine supports the amendment and opposes civil unions, she said. She added that he is interested in discussing measures “to make sure people can still be able to contract with each other.”

From a 2005 post to Sic Semper Tyrannis, a Virgina blog, we get an analysis of Kaine's statements showing how he moved over time to support Virgina's constitutional amendment banning both recognition of Gay Marriage and Civil Unions :

"I think the institution of marriage is fine. I don’t believe we need to create an alternative," Kaine tells Style. "Gays and lesbians should not be discriminated against in housing, or employment. When the question came up in the debate I said I support changing the state discrimination laws to [include gays]."

.....

"I have never said I supported gay civil unions, gay marriages," Kaine told the AP last Friday. "I do believe that people shouldn’t be kicked out of their jobs or discriminated against because of who they are."

.....

"Marriage between a man and a woman is the building block of the family and a keystone of our civil society. It has been so for centuries in societies around the world. I cannot agree with a court decision suddenly declaring that marriage must now be redefined to include unions between people of the same gender.

"Virginia defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and I strongly support that law. Regardless of the court ruling today in another state, I am confident that there is nothing in the Virginia or federal constitutions that would require Virginia to alter its longstanding policy about marriage."

.....

The Democrat [Tim Kaine] also insisted that he opposes gay marriage and gay civil unions but supports contractual rights for gay and lesbian Virginians.

Kilgore said he favors a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which Kaine opposes.

.....

Kilgore and Kaine said they support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages. Both said they disapprove of adoptions by gay couples.

But Kaine said that when he was a missionary in Honduras, he witnessed orphans who were treated "hellaciously." As a consequence, he would favor allowing individual gays or lesbians to adopt, so long as they create a loving environment, he said.

I could go on but its clear that Tim Kaine opposes gay civil unions, gay marriage, and adoption by gay couples. The good news is that he doesn't support beating up gays and lesbians because of their sexual orientation. I guess we should be glad for that.

Remember that Barack Obama appointed Tim Kaine as the head of the Democratic Party and considered him for the VP slot. As DBY says the signs were clearly there early on - either Barack Obama is a homophobe or simply doesn't care about LesBiGay rights. Sadly we put hope before reality now we must accept and deal with our mistake.

DBY gets it right - the Democratic Party isn't a friend to the Gay Community

Comments are great things to read. Sometimes they get to the bones of a problem faster than any series of articles could. The comment below is a perfect example of that. From a comment to an Editorial titled Don’t Let Our ‘Leaders’ Give Cover to Obama published in the NewYork Blade DBY describes the problem the LesBiGay Community is having with the Democratic Party perfectly. DBY says:

Welcome under the bus, my fellow gay Americans! Some of us have been here for a while. I started realizing something was amiss with Obama when he stood side-by-side with Donnie McClurkin, James Meeks, Mary Mary early in the primaries. And then refused to be interviewed by gay publications for most of the Democratic primaries. And then refused to have his picture taken with the (heterosexual!) Gavin Newsom. And then refused to attend the Chicago Pride Parade last summer. And then had Douglas Kmiec, major opponent of gay marriage, campaign for him in CA just as Prop 8 heated up. And then came Rick Warren. And the snubbing of Bishop Robinson. You see a pattern developing, don’t you? But even for someone who’s been paying attention to Obama’s homobigotry as much as me I was stunned by the DOMA-DOJ brief. The Administration sunk to a new low. And it’s time to stop making apologies for Obama’s actions. Let’s look reality in the eye and take our rights, even if they refuse to give them. The idea that we must “wait our turn” is absurd. We didn’t start asking for our rights last month!

The problem, sadly, is bigger than just Obama and his Administration. It is also the wider DNC. Tim Kaine, head of the DNC, is a rabid homophobe. And let us not forget that Donna Brazile famously declared that comparing gay rights to civil rights is an “affront to the civil rights movement.” Nancy Pelosi says she wants Congress to stay out of gay marriage. Harry Reid says he wants to see DADT addressed “Administratively.” Obama says his hands are tied and he can’t do anything! Excuse me, but so-called “Democrats” are controlling all three branches of government and nobody wants to touch gay rights with a 10 foot pole? Everyone likes to run around screaming that Bill Clinton gave us DOMA. Actually, the President doesn’t write legislation. Congress does. Congress wrote DOMA and passed it. Have you looked at the vote? House passed it 342-67. Senate passed it 85-14. Look at those numbers! I wish President Clinton vetoed the bill, but those numbers are not only veto proof, they wipe the floor with the Presidential veto. That’s a lot of Democrats voting for DOMA. Many of those same Democrats are still in Congress today. Let us not kid ourselves that Democrats are any better on this than Republicans. When Darth Cheney is to the left of Democrats on gay marriage….we have a serious problem on our hands! And the problem won’t go away until we ask for payment upfront from Democrats from now on. Not “We’ll help you now if you help us later.” No, DNC has to do something for us first. No more “I owe you’s!”

New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

An endorsement - Greg Solano for Lt. Governor
because
New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

Thursday night at Bernalillo County's monthly Third Thursday meeting many of us meet Greg Solano, Sheriff of Santa Fe County, for the first time and were won over. In fact I was so impressed I just made a small donation to his campaign via Act Blue. You can find his campaign's web site here and page for donations here.

From a practical political point of view he's new, has a fantastic life story, free of all the mess, corruption and political infighting in the Democratic Party and knows how to work a crowd. I walked out of the meeting a happy political camper knowing he has the stuff to go the distance and would be an asset to the Party who will work with Diane Denish to win next year. As far as I am concerned we have our candidate for Lt. Governor. Now its time to move on.

Obama's Plan for Gay Rights

before the sun sets on this administration

Well the Obama Admin trotted out John Berry, their highest ranking gay guy to talk to the Advocate - find the brief interview here.

Here's the money quote from Berry:

We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you’ve got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I’m going to list them in an order but it’s not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we’re hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We’re going to try, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively “don’t ask don’t tell,” and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Now, I’m not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date. The pledge and the promise is that, this will be done before the sun sets on this administration – our goal is to have this entire agenda accomplished and enacted into law so that it is secure.

So folks "before the sun sets on this administration" they will try to get something done.

Looks like we have just been thrown back under the bus by yet another Democratic Administration.

Blogs for DOMA updates

Since the Daily Kos and others only function in the current Obama DOMA mess is to say the LesBiGay Community needs to calm down and everything is just wonderful here's a few sites that are letting folks know what's happening and what it all means:

AMERICAblog
Pam's House blend ...always steamin'!
hunter for justice
WordInEdgewise
The Volokh Conspiracy

Others will be added as I find 'em!

Update - 061909, 10:04 PM
WhoRunsGov.com - The Plum Line
the widdershins
Washington Blade
New York Blade

Its becomming clear - Obama is no friend to the gay community.

As I have looked around today on liberal blogs its has become clear that if mentioned at all there is not much concern about Obama's DOJ defending DOMA. In MyDD Josh Orton first seems concerned then in less than an hour added an update where he pronounced it was no big deal. Most of the comments on his posting seemed to express the same view. Nowhere did anybody ask about Obama's track record on gay rights.

To me the real basis of the uproar is very simple - its not about DOMA per se its about Obama's record or rather lack of a record on gay rights since coming to the White House. To date he has done nothing to repeal DOMA or Don't Ask - Don't Tell, end the travel ban for HIV positive individuals or support gay marriage. In fact his view on gay marriage closely reslembles those of leading Republican homophobes.

The Liberal community will excuse us while we make a bit of noise while we throw a fit - we are just realizing Obama was a major mistake.

Obama's betrayal to the gay community continues -

Everybody is all over this - seems that Obama's Dept. of Justice has decided to trash the Gay community while it defends the homophobic DOMA bill signed by Bill Clinton. For the latest and greatest on this see Andrew at the Daily Dish, Pam at Pam's House Blend and a host of others.

For a good round up go to John Aravosis' post at AMERICAblog.

So much for Obama's promises to the LesBiGay Community. Seems the invite to Rev. Wright was more of a harbinger of things to come than even I thought.

Summit on LGBT Rights

Well the secret is out -



The only reason I know about it is because I walked out the door of a meeting at just the right time to overhear a conversation about the upcoming 'Summit".

We will see if we can slow the domestic partnership freight train. Why "they" want to agree to a second class status for Lesbian and Gays is really beyond me.

Update: Please note that the flyer only invites representatives of Organizations not members of the Community to the "Summit" (see the first sentence below the red line). Also, the next sentence is quite telling - its seems the discussion will be aimed at building support for the "next steps" not determining what the "next steps" will be. It seems that we, the little people, need a lecture about what the "next steps" should be.

Dead Meat?

While the main focus of the post was on the NM Democrats State Central Committee meeting Peter St. Cyr dropped a bit of a bomb at the end. It appears that Senator Linda Lopez, the person who voted with Republicans to elect Tim Jennings as President Pro Tem of the NM Senate, the main proponent in the Senate for the Suncal TID (SB 249), one of the Senators who voted to allow sleazy politicians to sue nonprofits (SB 652), the former Bernalillo Democratic Party County Chair who was thrown out because she was so obnoxious is running for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor.

This is gonna be interesting. While I'm sure the folks at SunCal are thrilled who else cares? The progressive wing of the Democratic Party dislikes her imensily and generally distrusts her. I really wonder what she is thinking.

Stick a fork in it - this candidacy was dead before it began.

I'm pissed!

In an article by David Alire Garcia titled "N.M. Catholic Church, gay activists seek compromise on domestic partnerships" some the internal controversy in the Lesbian and Gay Community that has surrounded these talks starts to erupt. Having been a part of that conversation and knowing that my views and those of other I respect were being ignored I decided to repurpose one of my emails as a comment and throw some fat publicly on the fire.

I fear that there is much more furor about these negotiations in the LesBiGay Community than Ms. Seigal suggests. As she readily admits she is a "professional" and her job is to get a deal done and move on. Those of us that remain in NM will be left to deal with the aftermath of her skills as a "professional lobbyist".

As I have said elsewhere, to Ms. Seigal and others, my problems with these negotiations starts with the fact that my rights are the subject of negotiations with religious leaders that I do not support nor believe have any right to cast me into the pit of second class citizenship. Everything that I have heard since the initial news of these discussions supports my fear that these unappointed and unelected representatives of the LesBiGay community have little interest in its feelings or opinions.

As I understand it these negotiations are aimed at dealing with the Church's objections to use of the word marriage in the Domestic Partnership (DP) bill. They disliked the fact that the DP bill used the word marriage and said that Domestic Partners had the same rights as a married couple. This appears to be based on the fact that the Church opposes the use of the word "marriage" in any way, shape of form that may connote some dignity to a lesbian or gay relationship. Hence all we need to do is yank the word "marriage" out of the DP bill and all would be well.

My underlying problem with this effort is that it simply reeks of the old ploy by the Southern segregationist - separate but equal. I, as a child of the 50's, who grew up in Alabama knows what this means, how it turned out back then and am not excited about revisiting it again. Its as if all the NAACP needed to do was sit down with Bull Conner and change a few words on their signs and in their songs and everything would be just lovely.

Certainly the folks at Legislative Services have their work cut out for them. To enumerate a list of all the rights and responsibilities of marriage while never mentioning the sacred word will be a massive task and its almost guaranteed that "things" will be left out. Whether these will be sins of omission or commission history will never now. I certainly look forward to reviewing this list and wonder how the Bishops will respond to it. Surely the production of the "list" will eviscerate the spirit of the original bill. Under this scheme our "partnerships" will never equal marriage, frankly they won't even equal a Domestic Partnership - they will just be a list of things to be negotiated like how many dozen eggs you get for a dollar or the cost current of an indulgence. Here Lucifer lies with the details. When it lists that a LesBiGay couple has the right to adoption what will the "Church" say? When the howl from the fundamentalist comes up will the Catholic Church be silent, join in or will they defend our rights to adopt children? Wanna make a bet what "they" do?

Moreover and from a tactical viewpoint probably much, much, much worse - this legislation will quickly be seen as a "list", as Seigal herself says, of our rights and responsibilities to be picked apart and ridiculed by our opponents. The production of such a "list" violates the basic principles of Politics 101 and is an out and out disaster. It makes me wonder about the political skill set of those that are suppose to be representing "us".

Once the "list" is produced then the real negotiations will begin in Santa Fe and I don't expect us to fare well by them. We will be whipsawed from stem to stern and rights will disappear or be limited all along the Legislation's tortuous path from when our "representatives" prostrate themselves before the Catholic Church to seek their indulgence to the numerous and sundry Legislative Committees that the bill will have to move through. Since we will have agreed to tying our basic human rights to a "list" subject to negotiations every Committee that has some jurisdiction over some component of that "list" will have to have its say. Surely adoption will be the topic of some heated hearings. No doubt it will be the first to go or to be "studied later" then other things will follow. All the while what our opponents cannot remove they will poison so that ultimately the "list" dies as a cruel joke or, even worse, we will have our "marriage-less", meaningless "list" passed and be signed into law - a disaster for all to see.

I have no doubt that those running the other side's negotiations understand perfectly what the production of this "list" means and worry that we are fundamentally out gunned at the negotiating table. This added to the fact that the Governor and our negotiator wants a bill passed, any bill will probably do, makes me fear the outcome of these negotiations.

In closing I must ask - why the rush to cement our status as second class citizens in New Mexico? Its quite possible that this bill will be worse than no bill at all. Time is on our side - sometimes the best thing to do is wait.

Vote now! Mary should go!

Heath Haussamen has a poll up at his blog "Heath Hausamen on New Mexico Politics" asking - "Should Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinosa challenge Secretary of State Mary Herrera in next year's Democratic primary?"

Duhhhhhhhhhh! Please go there and vote Yes now. How can she be any worse than Mary "the hair" Herrera?

One question we should all be asking is why hasn't Mary certified more than one voting machine company? Expiring minds want to know.

The war within

Nearing the end of the 2009 Legislative session its time to pull out the crystal ball and make some predictions re: the State of the Democratic Party. The main prediction is obvious to anybody that has been to any Progressive gathering - it is divided and things are moving from bad to worse. Its really easy to sense the absolute rage that Progressives are feeling toward the establishment Democrats in the Senate. The main topic of discussion is how to transform these feelings into actions. The fact that its getting easier to hear and see what happening during Legislative sessions only makes matters worse. From votes on Domestic Partnership to TIDDS, Ethics and Health Care Reform the incredible corruption, homophobia and outright stupidity of members of Democratic Party is horrifying.

What Progressives will do isn't clear today. As a start expect more work to Primary sitting members of the House and Senate and some direct actions against them to shine light on their actions.

Hispanos Unidos - run for cover the Mexicans are comming!

Just saw this ad and its really, really bad - it totally misrepresents what that law would do -

The ad suggests that bus loads of folks, no doubt evil Mexicans, will be showing up at the polls to vote for the nasty Anti-American Democrats.

The truth is that while you can show up and vote you will cast a provisional ballot that won't be counted until you are legally registered as a voter. Now the ad doesn't say this but truth is not the issue here. This ad is meant to scare folks not inform them.

Since there are existing laws that deal with voting illegally anybody that cast a fraudulent ballot would be facing prosecution and jail time for their efforts.

Of course the ad doesn't tell you this but again truth isn't the issue here.

The ad is just an extension of the usual Republican refrain that there is massive voter fraud in New Mexico and all the Democrats want to do is make things worse. It would help the Republican's cause if they could point out a bunch of cases where illegal voting actually had occurred over the last few years but since they can't they just keep the drum beat going.

So what is Hispanos Unidos up to? And frankly who are they? From their web site the Organization's Mission Statement says it exist to:

"To educate citizens about the perils of big government and to support candidates whose platforms include minimization of government interference in the daily lives of Americans."

Below that it goes on to say:

Welcome to Hispanos Unidos, a non-partisian Political Action Committee dedicated to the belief that better government means less government.

I really love the "Non-Partisian" part! Wanna make a bet!

Martin Heinrich does as AIPAC tells him -

Sadly, one of Martin Heinrich's first acts in Congress was to support Israel's war on the Palestinian People by voting for Rep. Howard Berman's (D-Calif.) resolution expressing unequivocal support for the Israeli attack on Gaza. The resolution makes it very, very, very clear that without question and without doubt all the blame for the war and all responsibility to end it rests with Hamas. Ultimately, it encourages Israel to keep up the good work! To Martin it seems that Israel is incapable of doing wrong.

While the real reason for the Israeli attack on Gaza was to continue the Iron Wall Policy in effect since the 40's (essentially a long-term policy to subjugate the Palestinian People to Israeli will, for more on this see Another War, Another Defeat by John J. Mearsheimer) the supposed cause of this round of genocide was the 6,000 or so rockets that Hamas has fired at Israel over the last several years. These rockets resulted in the deaths of approximately 10 Israelis. Since the Gaza carnage began Israel's military has to date killed more than 1,300 Palestinians. No doubt Martin would approve the kill ratio for this excursion - a bit over 100 to 1. One wonders how Martin feels about Israel's habit of killing defenseless Palestinians - the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) seem to especially enjoy culling young Palestinian schoolchildren as an especially effective means of ethnic cleansing.

Ultimately, Martin looks to be yet another mindless tool of AIPAC. Certainly he is not alone - see Glen Greenwald's article Unanimous Consent in the Jan. 26th, 2009 issue of The American Conservative. It appears that AIPAC owns both parties and both houses of Congress which now supports the consensus view that the Palestinians are just another sub-human race best left to the tender mercies of Israel's Government. Sadly, on this point, I doubt Martin will stray too far from the fold in the future.

Certainly, one thing is for sure - it didn't take Martin long to get blood on his hands.