Maine Owl

Here is Rice during the Iraq War run-up:

RICE: "I think he [then Secretary of State Colin Powell] has proved that Iraq has these weapons and is hiding them, and I don't think many informed people doubted that." (NPR, Feb. 6, 2003)

RICE: "We need to be ready for the possibility that the attack against the U.S. could come in some form against the homeland, not necessarily on the battlefield against our forces. And I think there, too, is an area where the American people need to be better prepared by our leadership. ... It's clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It's clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully, and that's the path we're on. I think the question becomes whether we can keep the diplomatic balls in the air and not drop any, even as we move forward, as we must, on the military side." (NPR, Dec. 20, 2002)

RICE: "I think the United States government has been clear since the first Bush administration about the threat that Iraq and Saddam Hussein poses. The United States policy has been regime change for many, many years, going well back into the Clinton administration. So it's a question of timing and tactics...We do not necessarily need a further Council resolution before we can enforce this and previous resolutions." (NPR, Nov. 11, 2002)

(H/T to the excellent A Tiny Revolution for those quotes.)

Of course they belong to Susan Rice, President-elect Obama's choice for the key foreign policy post of U.N. Ambassador. News fluff suggests, "Rice has spent her career studying how to prevent violence by alleviating poverty, curing disease and addressing climate change."

Fair enough, except the liberal hawk part is left out.

I also learn from the news today that Ms. Rice has roots and a summer home here.

New government for Canada?


Canada is held in high esteem in our household


Awesome site during our travels in New Brunswick, Canada

Looks like the Bush-friendly Harper government is about to leave in the wake of the economic meltdown.

The only reason the Conservative Party led by Harper was ever able to gain power as a minority is because the opposition to it was divided. In the wake of Liberal Party arrogance and scandal (see "Sponsorship scandal" HERE), it's standing sank, creating an opening for the Conservatives to slip in with only 36% of the vote in early 2006.

In recent elections, the Conservatives seemed to maintain the minority government. But the economic crisis has overtaken Canada too. Conservative reluctance to pass economic stimulus appears to have driven former enemy opposition parties--Liberal, New Democratic, and Bloc Québécois--into coalition to put an end to Harper's regime.

Monster slaying

Krugman calls the monsters of the last eight years by their names: Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney.

For now, "they’ve been banished to the wilderness."

The Angry Arab wrote THIS yesterday, after text mocking some Obama supporters:

Those who supported Obama: you will be disappointed and you will remember my caution. Remember me when Obama will endorse an Israeli war on a refugee camp and on a Lebanese village, and he will call that justified self-defense. Remember me when Obama will mourn the deaths of Israelis and will celebrate the deaths of Arabs and Muslims. Remember me when he orders his first bombing campaign on some remote area of Pakistan. Remember me when he betrays the poor in favor of Wall Street. Remember me when he will betray the aspirations of black people in favor of the white middle class that is now the headline of the Democratic Party. Remember me when Obama will not fight for his health reform plan, and will he not deliver on many of his promises. Remember me when Obama will stick to his campaign promise of opposing gay marriage. Remember me when when Obama will continue to blame the failure of the American occupation of Iraq on the Iraqi people themselves. On Angry Arab: the Obama bashing has just begun and will continue unabated.

I suppose it's possible to say that the Angry Arab is, you know, angry. But doesn't the offer to Rahm Emanuel of White House Chief of Staff signal the Obama Administration will be extremely hard-line pro-Israel? Ali Abunimah wrote yesterday,

In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes more so than President Bush. In June 2003, for example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. "We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror," Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders "was clearly justified as an application of Israel's right to self-defense."

I'm afraid I must take seriously cautions from the Angry Arab that it is not so clear Obama would end Bush's aggressive policies.

Ick.

The tone setting represented by Obama considering for a top job this abrasive, unsympathetic, blindly pro-Israel and pro-war operative really stops my optimism in its tracks. How far will Obama have to go in providing "salve to Jewish voters"?

It is good to win.












Now it's up to us.

I will now walk over to my town office and spend five minutes voting. This will be a pleasant walk in splendidly warm & dry November weather. I think I even see the sun peeking out. I feel the horror that would be McCain/Palin riding off on a cloud.

John McCain supports Obama-like tax concepts in response to anti-tax student:


c. 2000

That totally speaks for itself.

Someone with wingnut tendencies sent this to me with a big "HA! HA!" in the subject line. (Click to reach the larger original.)


Rick McKee/augustachronicle.com

I actually take a point from this for which I give Obama a demerit. He broke the public presidential campaign finance system. In fact the wealth of presidential campaigns should evenly be shared! Even expenditure was the case for eight campaigns until Obama ended it.

Beyond that, I have a big problem with the projection of deep ego attachment to wealth that McCain has peddled in his anti-share campaign. It's not in fact the American way of government.

There was a time in this country when everyone agreed that for the good of "country first" as McCain likes to say, everyone has SHARED responsibility, like financing campaigns, or seeing to it that old people are taken care of (thanks to the sharing spirit of this country, my own mother was able to make up the nearly $100,000 she was short for her final illness out of her originally quite substantially-sized pocket), or that babies get nutrition, or that or that we have National Wildlife Refuges, or bomber pilots, or walled-in places we call prisons where those of us who are socially dangerously out-of-sync may be kept.

Therefore, the basis of the Republican campaign is in large part bullshit. McCain/Palin does not even resemble what McCain used to be. The Republican's are just egging on an emotional reaction, with no reference to real American values.

Ben Cohen: a demonstration of bloat


U.S. military budget is the cookie-eating elephant in the room (from TrueMajority.org)

The podcast for the peacecast.us/WERU Weekend Voices election special featuring the University of Maine panel presentation, "What are the Key Issues in the Nov. 4th Election?", is now up at peacecast.us.

This radio special/podcast was recorded at the University of Maine on Thursday October 30, 2008 and broadcast on WERU Weekend Voices for November 1. Panelists include U Maine faculty and Bangor/Orono area community organizers. They are

• Professor Amy Fried, Political Science
• Professor Michael Howard, Philosophy
• Ilze Petersons, Program Coordinator, Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine
• Professor Doug Allen, Philosophy

The event was part of the Fall 2008 Socialist & Marxist Studies Thursday Controversy series.

The program explores some big ideas that ought to be part of our national discussion--if we think we have a democratic society--even if they seem to be missing or distorted in major party campaigns.

Among the most distorted ideas now running wild in the campaign is that of socialism. While this term is almost universally batted around as a pejorative, our panel make a powerful case in favor of democratic socialism--for the weakened forms we already have, for the stronger forms found in other developed countries, and for comprehensive democratic socialism that would be of great benefit to the American people.

Included too is discussion of militarism and the bloated U.S. military budget. I'm not sanguine about either McCain or Obama acting in any meaningful way to reduce U.S. war activities. But I'll defer to subsequent posts further discussion. Meanwhile, please visit peacecast.us to play/download and enjoy the program.

Mythology busted

Just about everyone across the spectrum when speaking about John McCain will genuflect about his status as a "war hero" largely due to his five-year stint as a POW in North Vietnam. This myth deserves a look it will never get from craven Democrats and media.

But HERE is a piece that bares everything.

John McCain's 14th Amendment Problem
Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy
By DOUGLAS VALENTINE

It is also a fact that, in 1967, Lieutenant Commander John McCain was shot out of the sky while dropping bombs on North Vietnamese civilians. McCain's plane crashed in a lake, and he suffered some broken bones and was slapped around after he was rescued. And all of that hurt, but none of it reached the Rumsfeld-Bush-Cheney standard for torture. Yet after a mere four days, McCain cracked like a robin's egg. He told his captors, "I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

In his autobiography McCain elaborated, saying, "I gave them my ship's name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant."

It is alleged that McCain gave the numbers of aircraft in his flight formation, information about location of rescue ships, and the order of which his attack was supposed to take place. According to retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper, McCain divulged classified information North Vietnam used to hone their air defense system, including "the package routes, which were routes used to bomb North Vietnam. He gave in detail the altitude they were flying, the direction, if they made a turn … he gave them what primary targets the United States was interested in." As result, Hopper claims, the U.S. lost 60 per cent more aircraft, and in 1968 "called off the bombing of North Vietnam, because of the information McCain had given to them." ...

No Republican hack is ever going to mention that a guilty conscience is the true source of McCain's "irrational behavior," or that, on June 2, 1969, McCain earned a reputation as the "POW Songbird." On that day, McCain featured on a radio broadcast from Hanoi, aimed at U.S. servicemen in South Vietnam, praising his captors for their excellent medical treatment ("which allowed me to walk again") and admitting he committed "crimes against the Vietnamese country and people. I bombed their cities, towns and villages and caused more injury and death for the Vietnamese people."

"The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird," Jack McLamb says. "That’s his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know." According to McLamb, "McCain made 32 propaganda videos for the communist North Vietnamese in which he denounced America for what they were doing in Vietnam."

Shocking, isn't it? As Sarah Palin would put it if she knew these facts, McCain "is not a man who sees America as you and I do -- as the greatest force for good in the world."

peacecast.us program Saturday afternoon

Amy Browne at WERU Community Radio sent out an email with special election coverage details. I have a special interest in the first item (for Saturday November 1, 3-4pm) because I produced it. Let's here what in the election campaign and other current events has to do with real socialism!

WERU Special Elections Coverage
From the alternative INDEPENDENT media!! 89.9 FM Blue Hill (and now expanded coverage in Bangor) and streaming at www.weru.org.

Saturday 11/01/08 on Weekend Voices (3-4pm)
A panel of local activists discussing what is at stake in this election. From the Socialist and Marxist Studies Lecture Series at the University of Maine

Special Election Season SoapBox call-ins
planned for Monday evening at 6, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 5, and Tuesday morning at 10.

Election Day (Tuesday)
SoapBox call-in shows at 10a.m. and 5pm, headlines from Free Speech Radio News at the top of every hour, starting at noon. Voices, at 4p.m,. will feature a report on how to effectively communicate with elected officials. Free Speech Radio News election coverage at 4:30, and special Democracy Now election coverage from 7p.m. until midnight. In addition, WERU volunteer reporters will be calling in from the community, and the Maine Civil Liberties Union will issue updates on any reports of voting problems.

Expanded, live Democracy Now coverage of the election results
Wednesday morning from 8-10a.m.

To participate in a call-in show: 1-866-625-9378

If the American people elect Barack Obama, Obama will have won a victory against the American people.

Birds of a feather


Shouldn't this be an major topic for local media?

Contrapositive asks key questions about support Senator Susan Collins has given the corrupt and now convicted Alaska Republican institution, Senator Ted Stevens.

Collins Watch has since yesterday when this item originally posted has starting HERE an incredible and disturbing series of posts on how a "gang of nine" GOP senators--including Collins--have rushed to circle the wagons around Stevens.

Note: This item, first posted yesterday, temporarily was lost due to a server issue.

Update: It just keeps coming. New Collins Watch information today for now starts HERE.

I actually saw THIS over the weekend when I picked up the current issue of the Portland Phoenix at the Falmouth House of Pizza. Jeff Inglis mentioned my comment about "the conspicuous absence of Maine's other leading Republican, Susan Collins" at the October 16 Palin rally. Inglis added the interesting tidbit that teevee news in Portland (in particular WGME) did not note this obvious fact.

I forgot to tell Gerald, who just posted THIS after someone else told him. For some reason Inglis decided to mock an off-hand comment Gerald made suggesting Palin's familiarity with Maine extended only to the airport hanger where she gave her speech. I don't know, I thought Gerald had a fair point.

Thanks Jeff Inglis. It's good to see blogger contributions recognized in the print media.

Servant to the Masters of War



Susan Collins on March 23, 2006 delivers Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy Lecture, discussing "Sen. Smith's legacy as it relates to ethics in modern politics," but not without protest from those who remember the dead of the war Senator Collins helped start.

Senator Susan Collins, October 9, 2002: The reports demonstrating Iraq's violation of U.N. resolutions are numerous, compelling, and indisputable. They are based on the findings of U.N. weapons inspectors, credible reports from Iraqi defectors, sophisticated surveillance equipment, and other strong evidence.

Statements like this have over the years infuriated me concerning Senator Susan Collins. She is so slippery, she weaves so easily through the waters of war making and promotion of jingoist consensus. HERE is why I think a quote in a New York Times piece on Collins over the weekend was absolutely wrong: "'She is very popular,' [president of Critical Insights Mary Ellen] FitzGerald said. 'She draws from Democrats as well as Republicans. She really is bipartisan. I can't ever remember anybody saying anything disparaging about her.'"

Well, Ms. Fitzgerald has missed the above and a great deal of blog activity critical of our senator.

Hat tip to Gerald for the NYT story and to Collins Watch for describing "How to swing an election."

What I am leaving unwritten for the moment is an analysis of why 1st District Congressman Tom Allen seems to be losing this election so badly. The Times piece and certainly the CW post do offer some insights.

But briefly my own take: Tom Allen has run a lousy campaign seemingly devoid of any of the things he would have had to do a long time ago if he had wanted to win. More on this later... but you are welcome to comment below.