Two well-known Mainers will take a peace petition to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this weekend, aimed specifically at opposing military action, flat-out war, and economic sanctions against Iran.While local NAACP president Rachel Talbot Ross and Portland Democratic state representative Jon Hinck will travel to the Mile High City to deliver the petition, Peace Action Maine will also send copies to Maine’s congressional delegation and to citizens around the state. The petition is based on signs of a slow march to war with Iran, including news reports that naval blockades of that country are in the works.
The main attraction in Denver, one Barack Obama, advocates a diplomatic strategy for dealing with Iran: “Obama believes that we have not exhausted our non-military options in confronting this threat; in many ways, we have yet to try them,” his Web site reads. “Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions.”
Of course, Mainers won’t be the only ones activizing about Iran in Denver. Myriad peace and justice organizations are planning protests and rallies over the weekend (and the local police officials are prepping a place to put them: the detention center already being called "Gitmo on the Platte"). Atlanta-based author, activist, and attorney Melody Moezzi will also be present, hula-hooping for two days as the organizer of Hooping for Peace (hoopingforpeace.com). Hey, everyone’s got their own strategies.
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Critics say bill co-sponsored by Langevin and Kennedy heightens tensions, Robert McNamara, RIP, Open service, More 
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Rhode Island peace activists say a resolution co-sponsored by US Representatives James Langevin and Patrick Kennedy could lead to war with Iran.
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As secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara prosecuted the Vietnam War on a day-to-day basis, just as Donald Rumsfeld orchestrated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for George W. Bush.
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A deal between the Obama administration, congressional Democrats, and the Pentagon that will repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law banning homosexuals from serving openly in the US military was approved last week by the House and the Senate Armed Services Committee, though action by the full Senate may not come for months.
- Ted Kennedy's real record
When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
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Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.
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Raised on a steady diet of “Never Again,” members of Brown University’s Darfur Action Network found it infuriating to watch the international community stand idly by as murder and rape in Darfur continued unabated.
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My favorite movie-advertising phrase is "based on a true story." Translated into English, it means: "more or less, a big fat lie."
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The Democrats won and the Republicans lost. That, in a nutshell, is the bottom line.
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It was an eerie and unsettling reprise of George W. Bush’s embarrassing post–Hurricane Katrina interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer when he infamously declared, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”
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Arizona has declared war on Mexico. SB1070, the incendiary new immigration bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, has set off national boycotts, lawsuits, protests, and denouncements.
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