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, Ted Kennedy's real record, More 
- Critics say bill co-sponsored by Langevin and Kennedy heightens tensions
Rhode Island peace activists say a resolution co-sponsored by US Representatives James Langevin and Patrick Kennedy could lead to war with Iran.
- Robert McNamara, RIP
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.
- 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.
- Africans suffer while the world stands by
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.
- What democracy wrought
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.”
- Chinese democracy
With Beijing 2008 finally at hand, China’s Tibetan occupation remains Hollywood’s cause célèbre .
- Know nukes
I’ll never shake the sense memory of that numbed shiver.
- Joke's on whom?
Harvey Silverglate’s article is the sort of thing that should be saved for occasions when people who may be offended by humor need to be advised to calm down.
- Playing craps with Iran
In Iran, we'll have to make choices from a host of lesser evils
- It’s global class war
Written by a former Mainer, The Global Class War barely mentions Maine, but it explains what is happening economically in our state — as well as in the world.
- Trading barbs
I expect more skepticism from my newspapers.
- Less
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This Just In
, Barack Obama, Elections and Voting, Politics, More
, Barack Obama, Elections and Voting, Politics, U.S. Politics, U.S. Presidential Election, Political Parties, U.S. Democratic Party Politics, Political Policy, NAACP, International Relations, Less
