• Our new spiffy lawn signs have finally arrived. So far, we've gotten stacks of signs out to half the county Democratic committee chairs and/or campaign offices (Cumberland, Hancock, Kennebec/State Party office, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, York, Waldo) for you to pick up and post in your front yard. And the other counties will be getting theirs shortly.
  
  
• We now have four designs for bumper stickers. County chairs/campaign offices have some of each design, and we're taking them to all our events. So pick your favorite and spruce up that spot on your vehicle's bumper.
  
  
• We've reordered buttons, and the lapel stickers are on their way.
  
  
• We've reprinted the brochure and calling cards for the canvassing, and the parades and fairs still to come. If you're in charge of any of those activities, let us know what you need from us.

The Connecticut primary results proved what those of us in the trenches have known all along.

IT'S TIME TO ELECT CANDIDATES WHO WILL GET US OUT OF IRAQ.

Jean Hay Bright, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, has been campaigning on a pro-peace, anti-war platform for more than a year, but has been ignored by the media and Washington Beltway Democrats because she's opposing Olympia Snowe, who despite being one of the most pro-war, hawkish senators in Washington has been able to FOOL the media and the public by claiming she's a moderate.

But if Republican Olympia Snowe were really a moderate, she would not have voted with the Bush administration during its first four years in office 82 PERCENT OF THE TIME (Source: CQ.com).

In truth, Olympia Snowe is a Bush-enabler who fully supports the Iraq war, the PATRIOT Act, anti-choice federal judges who would dismantle Roe v. Wade, tax cuts for the rich, elimination of the estate tax, and reduction of benefits to returning veterans, including protection from bankruptcy for the families of veterans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Olympia Snowe opposes universal health care and opposes making the minimum wage a living wage. He campaign is funded by contributions from defense contractors, oil companies, credit card companies, HMOs and drug companies. Her campaign, her votes and the philosophy behind them is one of destroying the average working family while working to widen the income gap in America.

Democrat Jean Hay Bright (http://www.jeanhaybright.us) is a true grass-roots progressive. She wants to get U.S. troops and corporations out of Iraq, institute national health care, make the United States sustainably energy independent, rebuild American infrastructure and manufacturing capacity, and restore fiscal responsibility in Washington.

Maine is a small state, a blue state that supported Clinton, Gore and Kerry. Jean can win this election with 350,000 votes and only $1 million. Her campaign has already brought unenrolled, disenfranchised Democrats back into the party. She has strong support from Democrats within the state. But the cupboard is bare, and she needs your help.

As Snowe's first women opponent, and with Snowe having voted for Alito, thousands of Democratic women who have voted for Snowe in the past will this year vote for Jean. As a commercial organic farmer, Jean has strong support in the agriculture community, and with the Maine Green Party, which is not running a U.S. Senate candidate in this race.

Recent surveys show 75 percent of Maine voters don't think the Iraq war is worth the cost and casualties it has produced. Jean's anti-war credentials are as good as those of Kucinich, Feingold, Conyers, or Lamont. She also has the support of many veterans and veterans groups, who know she will fight for veteran's rights and health care.

There is a perfect storm brewing this year, forging a movement to oust the Republican ideology that is destroying the fabric of our nation. People are beginning to understand that for many reasons, from national security to individual freedom, this country needs to replace six sitting Republicans senators with six Democrats.

Jean Hay Bright can be one of those Democrats.

YOU can help make that happen. Get the word out and the money will follow. Check out Jean's web page (http://www.jeanhaybright.us), then

go to http://www.swingstateproject.com/2006/08/netroots_candid.php
go to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/14/133945/402
go to http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/suggest-a-candidate/index.html
and urge them to add Jean Hay Bright to the next round of netroots and endorsed candidates.

This race is WINNABLE, but only if the progressive community gets behind her. Please support Jean TODAY.
Thank you.

... In Maine, there is a parallel to that Connecticut outcome that bodes well for my campaign. It's clear from the surveys of Maine voters that the anti-Iraq War sentiment is strong. By a 3-1 margin, Mainers in a July poll said the Iraq War was not worth the casualties and costs. ...We here all know that Olympia Snowe is a war hawk. She has done everything to support the Iraq war, voting for it, voting funding for it, voting to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees, voting this summer against bringing the troops home within the year.

On the flip side, as our veteran contacts point out to us, she has done little to support the veterans after they've come home from the fighting - in health care benefits, in the reduction in college benefits, even in the bankruptcy bill that she voted for that doesn't give exceptions for troops whose personal and family finances have been thrown into chaos as a result of their service.

But apparently the people of Maine don't know that. In the same Strategic Marketing Services poll conducted in mid-July (July 14-21), where three out of four people said the Iraq War was not worth the casualties and costs, 68% of those same 401 likely Maine voters said they would be voting for or leaning toward voting for Olympia Snowe in November.

That is a serious disconnect there that I need your help in correcting.

I need your help in convincing people that Olympia Snowe is a Bush-enabler.

... Read Jean's entire speech

"But to the extent that our laws do handicap us in fighting terrorism, it is one more sign that we do not take the threat of terrorism seriously enough to be willing to reexamine a commitment to a rather extravagant conception of civil liberties that was formed in a different and safer era."

"It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion. ". . . There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution."

It is imperative that the immediate step we take is to stop the blaming, the charges and countercharges, and enter into a ceasefire, so that we may bring humanitarian aid to all the victims of violence. It is important that all parties engage in this ceasefire with good will.

We must also engage in education and negotiation to provide all citizens and peoples of the region security, economic growth and livelihood. We must approach each other with respect and accept the challenge of understanding the varied perspectives in which we are engaged.

We will not find the answers overnight, but we can start by asking the questions and listening to all the answers.

Thu. Aug. 24, 11am - Sample Radio with Stephanie Sample
Thu. Aug. 24, 3pm - Land of the Lost with Jim Rand
Fri. Aug. 25, 8am - Something or Other with Rock Bergeron
Fri. Aug. 25, 3pm - Aching Spirals of Black Vinyl with Win Phillips

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