KUCINICH VISITS MAINE

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) visited Maine this past Friday and I was invited to appear with him on a local cable access TV show in Portland that was filmed live, with over 80 people in the studio audience. Kucinich and I were asked primarily to comment on the U.S. occupation of Iraq and we both particularly focused on the important issue of calling on Congress to cut the funding for the war.

Kucinich was quite passionate in saying that any Congressperson who says they are against the war, but continues to vote for the funding, is misleading the public. Kucinich said that you can't oppose the war and keep enabling Bush by giving him hundreds of billions more dollars.

I was also able to talk about Kucinich's past efforts to introduce legislation to ban the U.S. from putting weapons into space. In addition I also talked about the need to convert the military industrial complex - that we'd never end war as long as weapons production was the # 1 industrial export product of the nation as it is today. (Click on the link in the headline above to see a short animated cartoon about what conversion might look like.) After the show Kucinich asked me to send him more of my thoughts on the conversion issue and I was quite happy when he said he'd like to integrate that message into his overall campaign as his presidential effort grows.

Lu Bauer, one of Kucinich's key campaign volunteers here in Maine, later told us that he will be coming to Maine frequently in the coming months as he focuses on Maine and New Hampshire. He did well in the Maine caucus in 2004 and figures that he can build on that for the 2008 campaign.

While I am no longer registered as a Democrat, I do think that Kucinich has been good on most of our issues and deserves support by the peace community. His presence in the race for the Democratic Party nomination does ensure that the anti-war message will get more coverage than it otherwise would.