Lookout, Obama! The Peace Train Goes Sailing Around Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineuard is abuzz over a presidential visit for which locals are even sporting caps featuring an image of the presidential pooch.

But according to The Times of London, the presidential vacation comes at a time when Obama is also catching "a cold wave of unrest".

Three of the top five titles on the New York Times nonfiction hard-back bestseller list are currently anti-Obama screeds ...

and of course they are all attacking Obama from the right:

Currently topping the bestseller list is Culture of Corruption, the latest right-wing outpouring from Michelle Malkin, a popular conservative columnist who recently declared of her book: “What I have done is to help shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington by scouring every inch of this administration, and showing how in a very short span of six months they have betrayed every principle and every promise that they have made.”

That's from Michelle Malkin? Am I the only one who thinks that's funny?

Also selling well is Dick Morris’s new book, Catastrophe, which is summarised as: “Stopping President Obama before he transforms America into a socialist state and destroys the health care system.” Third on the list is Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, yet another conservative manifesto taking aim at “Barack Nobama”.

Out of the discussion, as always, are much more reality-based criticisms coming from the left, which in my cold opinion are far fewer in number than they ought to be.

I do not expect the corporate media news to mention anti-war protests in conjunction with the presidential family's vacation -- or in any other fashion, for that matter. Nonetheless:

Cindy Sheehan is inviting other proponents of peace to join her for a sail!

It's to be a "shipboard peace summit" and if you read anything about it at all, it'll probably be at some low-traffic blog or another.

Excerpts from Cindy Sheehan:

"I am calling in the Peace Movement to encircle our country with our united demand for an immediate return of all U.S. forces around the globe. Bring every one of our troops home NOW! We need them in our families and towns. We need our troops back to help us fix our broken country. Our ships of state must make their voyage home, with our countrymen out of harm's way."

NOW! Imagine that!!

"This is our time to finally draw an end to America's wars. We must abide by the saying of ancient scriptures: Let peace and peace and peace be everywhere. I declare this to be our new national defense policy."

If only our national defense policy could be so declared.

Want to join Cindy Sheehan aboard a sailing ship of peace?

Sheehan will co-captain daily excursions ... aboard the grand sailing vessel dubbed the SS Camp Casey ... [and invites] peace movement leaders, international news 'anchors' and pro-peace members of the public to sail around Martha's Vineyard [with her] as she holds this seaside peace summit. ...

For information, contact:
Laurie Dobson
lauriegdobson@yahoo.com
207-604-8988

or Bruce Marshall
brmas@yahoo.com
802-767-6079

The full details are here.

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No Kidding: Candidates For PEACE!!

One of the most vexing questions on the American political landscape, now and as far back as I can remember, is: "Can we ever hope to change the system from within?"

Some people believe it is possible to do so while others do not; I encourage open discussion and I'm not about to discourage any legitimate point of view.

Personally, I would love to see it happen although I do not know whether it's possible. On the other hand, just like anything else, it's definitely not possible unless somebody tries to do it -- not that it hasn't been tried, if you get my drift.

For this reason I have supported some apparently hopeless causes, such as the presidential aspirations of Mike Gravel. I never believed he could be president, or even the donkey candidate for president, but I appreciated his voice and much of what he was saying.

At this point it doesn't look like Gravel's going to be the donkey nominee, and the way in which he has been closed out of the national discussion has been most instructive; but that hasn't stopped some other people -- such as Maine's Laurie Dobson -- from trying to bring the same issues to the national scene in the old-fashioned way: by standing up to be seen, speaking up to be heard, asking fellow citizens for their votes, and hoping that those votes would be correctly counted.

It's quite a stretch for some, but not so for others; and it's definitely worth doing, in my opinion, even if only to enhance the debate.

Who's game?

How would you like a nine-month job for $160,000 a year?

No experience required, and no prerequisites! Do you think you can handle it?

If you're semi-literate or better; if you're able to speak whole sentences (or at least convincing fragments) when cameras and microphones are around; if you look half-decent in a suit (or a dress*); if you're willing to say "NO" every time the warmongers want more money: you're one of the people I'm talking to.

We want you in Congress! (* dresses for women and Rudy Giuliani impersonators only, please!)

If you're brave enough to stand up and be seen, speak up and be heard, run for office and be counted, then Peace Candidates dot Com will support you.

And if you're willing to support your fellow citizens who are brave enough to stand up, speak up, and run for office in the cause of peace, then you should visit, join and/or support Peace Candidates dot Com.

I have started a blog there which I hope will help the effort eventually; I wish the Peace Candidates all the best and I hope to be able to spend more time there in the future.

I've been otherwise detained; I'll get back there soon. But you can go there now!

Laurie Dobson: 'We Must Not Shirk Our Responsibility'

[Updated below]

There is no other place or time ...It is in us and it is we who must do this and the time is now.

An open letter to the people of Maine from Laurie Dobson, independent candidate for the U.S. Senate:

Dear People of Maine:

Margaret Chase Smith would have a lot to say if she returned to Maine and saw what was going on today. She was a person who saw what had to be done and said what had to be said. She spoke forthrightly about the pressing needs of her day. She made her Declaration of Conscience, which transcended the time she was in and spoke to history and those in the future about what they must do if they saw trouble and felt called to address it.

I am acting on her behalf and in her name and with the courage I believe she would invoke to decry the the perilous actions of those who say they are our leaders but who are not leading. She would call to the consciences of all who can step forward to speak to the true interests of the State she loved and to act on its behalf.

Especially since the leaders of our Senate from Maine are now women, I am calling to them and calling upon their consciences, for I do not believe they are doing what they must to change the political situation.

Senator Smith put Maine on the map and forever gave us the charge to act upon our consciences. It is her actions that have emboldened me in my efforts to also call upon Mainers to support my efforts to run for Senate on their behalf -- to offer them a campaign that gives us a living reminder of her past actions to bring conscience to the floor of the US Senate.

Why is this so necessary now? Isn't the fact that we have our two senators as women a reminder enough of her fine calling and her noble undertaking? I wish it were enough but being a woman is not enough. It is necessary to be a person of conscience and character. How can you tell that a person is a person such as that? You must look at their actions and their willingness to take a stand on principle, not just on passion or political expedience.

In ordinary times, perhaps Senator Collins, against whom I am running for Senate, would be a sufficient leader, but these are not ordinary times. Collins has not shown that she will stand alone amongst Republicans to oppose the Bush war policy. Her record is mainly of compliance with the Bush war machine and its financial priorities, which have hurt our economic well-being, not to mention our standing in the world.

I have taken such stands in the past, when I ran a race for State Rep. in 2002 to oppose the war, before it was deemed acceptable to make a call against my party. I had to stand alone then, because the Democrats didn't want to oppose Bush.

Lately, in 2006 to 2007, I had to stand alone, even in my own town, in Kennebunkport against selectmen who wanted me to be quiet and not to draw attention to what I saw happening with planning for the town's future and its character. There were those who wanted nothing to stand in the way of 'development' even if it was not in the town's best interests. I stood alone then and was acknowledged as an upstanding Democrat. I was told later by the Attorney General that he admired my taking this 'unpopular' stand.

I am taking the biggest stand of my life now. For, in addition to standing up to a deadly disease, with my husband's severe illness with a brain tumor, I am standing against the Bush Administration. In its efforts to bring us to the cracks of doom, they are calling forth, with the murderous powers which they possess, for a third world war, for a nuclear devastation.

I believe that, if left unchecked, before the next election, they will provoke the start of World War III. It cannot be assumed that they will not act upon this threat since they have delivered on all their other threats. I stand against this, alone if I must, together with Mainers if I can, to say "NO! THIS SHALL NOT BE!"

I pledge to my fellow citizens of the State of Maine that I will do everything I can to bring home the necessity of actions taken now and in the future to bring us back to sanity in our politics. I am telling everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike that they must join in my campaign declared for conscience.

Who am I to speak for conscience? Just a woman who is tired of the insanity and disgusted with the depravity and the cowardice of our leaders. I cannot abide the corruption and I am calling out to any who can hear and join me in the call for a return to honor. We must not shirk our responsibility at this time to bring our state our country and our world back to a hopeful place. We must be able to wake up to a world that is not gone mad. We must be the ones that bring the people back from a world of ruin to a world of hope. We cannot look elsewhere. It is in us and it is we who must do this and the time is now. There is no other place or time or people to make this change. We can and we must be the ones who act.

Please join me, on behalf of Maine, on behalf of a world that has gone mad, that needs heroic action now to save our civilization. The fight is clear and I am ready. My family is ready, come what may. Please ready yourselves and join in this fight to keep our country's conscience clear and to bring back the clarity of conscience into the lives of our fellow citizens and our fellow man, in Maine and in the world.

Laurie Dobson
Old Cape Road
Kennebunkport, Maine
December 12, 2007

[UPDATE: In the previous version of this post I neglected to mention Laurie Dobson's platform, which is based on:

* an immediate end to the war and the policy of perpetual warfare ... Changing the policy of perpetual war, changing the perception that America's rightful place in the world is to be at war...

* a legislative program to ensure the full restoration of the Rule of Law as guaranteed under the Constitution...

* free medical coverage for all those in service to their country, and their families. When we stop spending a trillion dollars a year for perpetual war with the rest of the world, we will have the means to pay for universal health care, and doing this is my pledge.

My apologies. I should have mentioned all this before.

Original post resumes]

In my opinion, we need more people like Laurie Dobson, in Maine and in other states too, and we need them to stand up and speak the truth in clear and simple terms -- and to run for office!

In my opinion, we also need people in Maine and elsewhere to support Laurie Dobson -- and any other candidates who dare to stand for truth and justice and sanity and humanity, and against both parties.

If you are one of those people, please do what you can to help.

And if you need a few more encouraging words, you can find them at her blogs, What We Choose Matters and What We Choose Or Say Or Do Matters Cosmically.