Fellow Strimling supporters out there in the first district should head over to PolitickerME, and vote in their latest web poll.

We're less than a month from the June 10th Democratic Primary here in Maine and the race heating up with campaign signs sprouting faster than the crocuses. It's time to start reading-up on these candidates if you haven't already.

For those interested in watching web style democracy in action, click off a vote for Ethan Strimling in the PolitickerME poll. Go ahead. You know you want to.

Labels: 2008 Election, Ethan Strimling, maine

I arrived at Portland High School at 1:30 in the afternoon today. As the snow began to fall and the chanters began, I took my place in the swelling crowd. I was cold and soaked through when I actually got into the school at 2:30, but I had it good. Others were still in line outside as late as 6:30.

I knew what to expect: Long lines, overworked volunteers, and crazy people who were apparently my neighbors. Good times. What I didn't expect was the hate.

I found myself in line with a small gang of grandmothers. They were complaining about the crowd, and tsking the fact that the party hadn't held the caucus in the Civic Center. Typical gripes really, and nothing I hadn't heard from others in the crush of would-be voters, but then it got nasty. It started with a sneering jibe at the folks – mostly young Obama supporters – waiting in an opposing line to register to vote. "If you were so enthusiastic to vote, why didn't you register before today," one of them muttered to her coven. This was meet with general approval before she turned to me and noticed my "Obama for ME" sign.

She was a grandmother in a red hat complete with tell tale purple accessories. "You're on the wrong side," she said, her Hillary sticker proudly displayed. I welcomed the recognition, and readied myself for her pitch, it was a caucus after all, but I wasn't expecting the curve. "He's a Muslim you know."

I'm not sure if my eyes actually popped or not, but she backtracked quickly with a: "That's what I hear." Even after six years, I'm still not used to the racism/xenophobia I encounter here in Maine. It's a quiet racism. Insidious. But I dropped into posture quickly and shot back. "Actually he's a Christian. Not that it would matter to me even if he was a Muslim." Now it was her turn to be shocked...and she was...for about a nanosecond. Then she asked what I knew about this guy anyway, and exactly where did he get his money from?

I in turn asked about Hillary's stock trading record with Tyson Foods and Walmart, but this only pushed her Bill Oreilly buttons and caused her to breathlessly demand that I answer her question. Who is this Obama guy? Where did he come from? Was he a Republicans plant?

I tried to take the wheel of this train to crazy-town and explained that I support Barack Obama because of his platform. Specifically his pledge to open government, and his science and technology policies as endorsed by the EFF. Attempting to explain the EFF to a red-hat wearing racist crone is a good time. I highly recommend it if you have the means. At any rate, she promised me that the good folks up in Aroostook County would never vote for a black man, and that Obama didn't have a chance in Maine. That's where the line ended and we parted ways.

By 8:30 tonight, our votes where cast and counted. In my precinct I'm happy to report that the final tally was 374 for Obama and 104 for Clinton.

Barack Obama carried the great state of Maine.

Labels: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, maine

An un-scheduled press conference (and in the Rose Garden no less)? This is odd in and of itself in the weird world that is the White House press corps, but I don't think anyone knew how strange it would actually turn out.

The President held the conference accompanied by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The reporters present assumed the conference perhaps had something to do with the equally odd surprise announcement of an "emergency summit" which will occur Sunday in the Azores. Yeah, this is when I start calling people to make sure I haven't finally lost touch with reality. Well, it seems I'm still sane - I wish I could say the same for our government.

So about this press conference: I was listening to Maine Public Radio and the host of the program breaks in to inform listeners that they would be switching over to National Public Radio momentarily to cover a press conference during which the President and the Secretary of State were expected to make some remarks.

NPR takes over. The conference begins. The President makes a short 2 or 3 minute speech about Israel and Palestine living in peace with one another, and then he turns and leaves! Colin Powell turned on his heel to follow the President as the press corps began shouting questions about the summit. The reaction from the NPR host in the studio and reporters on the scene was more or less similar to mine: WTF?

Yeah, this whole thing is getting a little out of hand at this point. Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong for the administration's plan to wage indiscriminant war in the Middle East. I'm laughing at their superior intellect.

Here's the break down: Bush had planned to visit Blair - those plans were scrubbed this week as it appeared increasingly unlikely that the UN Security Council would bend to US pressure on the Second Resolution. Blair of course is suffering continued attacks at home over his pro-war stance, and is being condemned by his own party as Bush's lap dog. Naturally something had to give eventually. Remember, this was a strange pairing to begin with; Blair is essentially Briton's Bill Clinton.

So what happens? A press conference in which Bush tries to turn down the heat he's taking from ignoring the war going on right now between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and also to introduce an interesting turn of phrase to the current geo-political lexicon: "step-by-step." Could it be that the US is ready to pursue the British compromise plan for dealing with Iraq? Will it float in the Security Council?

It's a hell of a gamble. This is after all a pissing contest in the end, and Bush has suffered some major set-backs already. First he wanted to act without UN support, but was convinced by Powell and Blair to form a real international coalition before unilaterally deposing the government of one of the wealthiest sovereign nations on Earth. Then there was the tussle over the first resolution, 1441. Bush took it in stride and waited. He was sure that by the time he had his troops in place the UN would be ready to play ball. What he didn't count on was Russia. Sure, France had given the US a hard time with the first resolution, but the administration had figured Russia would play along. They figured wrong. With Russia on its side, France was able to form a voting block. Hell, even China started to toy with the idea of opposing the US. So the Second Resolution is dead in the water. What's next?

Meeting in the Azores is interesting symbolically. Neither Bush nor Blair is visiting the other's nation and twisting arms. No, they're both traveling half-way to meet one another. They are committed to war as a final option, and to make every diplomatic attempt to solve this situation in the meantime. That's the message they're trying to send anyway. The result will either be a new push for the British step-by-step plan (which France has already balked at), or a claim that everything that could be done was, and that unilateral action is now permissible by international law. (There's also the wild outside chance that Saddam will touch off a conflict himself before either the UN or the US makes a move. I believe the world would be highly suspicious of US covert action in this case however given the number of special forces troops already on the ground in Iraq).

Either way, war in Iraq will happen. But it's still nice to see Bush have to jump through these hoops. I only wish there were some way to convince him to just bring the troops home, and re-think his global strategy. Clearly, Bush has been a gambling man throughout these several months of diplomacy, and he hasn't won a single hand yet. Can there be any more indication that his administration's policies are simply unsound?

What happens when the President bets the farm?

Labels: Colin Powell, George W. Bush, iraq, maine, resolution 1441, tony blair, UN

I actually believe the protests this weekend made an impact. That's pleasantly surprising to me, really. I don't know about you, but I grew up with the impression that the antiwar protests of the 60's had a monumental effect on US pop-culture, but never came close to actually effecting US foreign policy. So, in that sense, these protests made a "difference." Whatever your opinion might be about the nature of that difference - whether its good or bad for America and the state of Humanity – it’s still a historic moment.

It’s historic for another reason too. The BBC collecting digital pictures from around the world – that was just the tip of the iceberg. I’m a news and information junkie. I’ve been collecting, collating, and analyzing “news,” blog postings, and discussion board conversations for years, and I’ve never seen an issue with as much resonance online as the possibility of this war. These protests were not organized; They were networked.

Everything buzzed and clicked on Saturday. It was amazing.

What made it most impressive though was that these protesters – not just here in Portland, but globally – were not all stoned-out anarchists and fringe communists. For once those people were in a severe minority of the protestors. Take a look at the pictures and you’ll see that most of the people out there were normal, well-informed people who have just had enough.

There are dangers in the world, we all realize that, but there are also ideals. The question is this: Do we abandon our ideals to confront the dangers? Or, conversely, do we ignore the dangers to pursue the ideals? Isn't there a middle ground here, and if so what is it?

America is in a difficult place right now. How can we believe in ideals? Hell, we don’t even have a dream anymore. The “American Dream” is a punchline. I don’t believe it has to be that way, and I don’t believe a war or even a skyrocketing stock market is going to fix it.

I know that this sounds naive and optimistic but what’s our alternative? Does anyone really and truly believe that taking control of Iraq is going to stop someone from harming the US if they're willing to die to do so? Does anyone believe that war is a GOOD idea for stability in the region and around the globe? Those in our government who support war don’t just support a war in Iraq. Iraq is just the first on a list. A list of wars. When did this happen to us? Remember when the United States was a symbol of democracy, freedom, and peace?

Remember peace? It’s not just a word. For a long time before the 1960’s, peace was an ideology (Some might say for a very long time before the 60’s. Some might also say it was much more than just an ideology). Regardless of it’s origin, peace was approached not as an impossible dream but as a goal yet to be achieved.

People used to talk about the last war. Can you even imagine that? Once upon a time, the last war was one that had already been fought. Not anymore. Now we’re lucky if we can even envision such a thing.

I won’t delve into the histories of the League of Nations and Wilson’s 14 points, they should be common knowledge. But I will say this: The United Nations exists for a reason. Too few recall what that reason is. To feed the hungry, to clothe and house the poor, to promote democracy and free thought around the world. Yes all of those, but they came later. First and foremost UN exists to end the scourge of war.

War, like peace, is not just a word. International coalitions. Regime change. Transitional governments. Military occupation. Do these euphemisms make anyone believe that a generation of human beings will not be permanently scarred by war? An entire global generation will learn the lesson: “War is evil, but sometimes it’s justified.” That’s not the only lesson they’ll learn. They’ll also learn to hate. The children of the victors will learn to hate the children of the defeated. And the children of the defeated will learn to hate the children of the victors. Will these children act on these lessons? Are we giving them an alternative?

History has taught us that war and isolation breeds tyrants. How long can we sanction and punish a nation before its people vow to destroy us and all that we claim to stand for? We’ve seen this before. We could have stopped it before, but we didn’t. And the peace was lost. Now some people are trying to get it back. I still have hope that they can.

Lastly, I have something to say about patriotism. I am a patriot. I love this damn country, warts and all. I was willing to die for the Constitution when I served in the military, and I’m still willing to die for it. More than that, I’m willing to see my neighbors die for it; My family too (I know that they love America as much as I do). That is what it means to be a patriot. We will die – not kill – to protect the freedom of others. Even if those others are different from us.

Given the choice of living in an America that believes that some are more deserving of freedom than others, or living in an America where my life, or the life of someone I love is at risk of being lost because of a random terrorist attack, I’ll take the latter. People die everyday, we can’t stop that no matter what laws we pass or how many bombs we drop.

Freedom – and all the risks that come with it – is our heritage. This is America, and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave. After all, it's a free country.

Labels: activism, iraq, maine, portland