THIRD OFFICE SIT-IN PLANNED IN PORTLAND

In order to protest on-going funding for the U.S. occupation in Iraq, a third Congressional office sit-in is planned on Tuesday, April 17 at 2:00 pm in the Portland office of Rep. Tom Allen.

Rep. Allen maintains that he opposes the war in Iraq but has now voted eight straight times to support George W. Bush by giving him all the money that he has requested for the occupation. (Similar office sit-ins have also recently been held in the office of Sen. Susan Collins in Bangor.)

I will be one of those who will enter Tom Allen's office to sit-in. I will likely be arrested and intend to take my arrest to trial before a jury.

Rep. Allen, who is planning to announce that he will run against Maine's current Sen. Susan Collins (Republican), will be going around the state saying that he is against the war and that Sen. Collins must be taken out of office because she is in favor of the war and keeps giving Bush a blank check.

Rep. Allen's public posturing on this has been quite remarkable. I don't know how the man can sleep at night.

Here is what Tom Allen said in Congress when he voted for the 8th time to fund Bush's war. "Maine people expect us to say where we stand on the War in Iraq. By supporting the Iraq Accountability Act, I am voting to use the long-neglected powers of Congress to bring U.S. involvement in the Iraqi civil war to an end.”

Democratic party operatives are now setting up front group efforts in Maine who are posing as active peace people and who will be attacking Collins repeatedly on her support for the war. These operatives will be cynically saying that Tom Allen has always been against the war and if elected to the Senate he will help end the war.

The public is quite confused by all this posturing. While I strongly disagree with Sen. Collins on her war position at the very least she is somewhat honest in admitting that she supports Bush and the war.

Tom Allen though is doing something I cannot abide by. He is using anti-war rhetoric but at the same time enabling Bush. He and his party have no scruples when it comes to trying to achieve power. In many respects the Democrats have learned to model the deceptive character of the Bush administration.

It is my hope that there will be an Independent candidate to run against Collins and Allen in the 2008 Maine U.S. Senate race. The public needs and deserves to have an authentic anti-war voice in the race, someone who can cut through the bullshit and clearly articulate the need to cut the funding for the occupation of Iraq, using the $8.5 billion a month now being wasted there on programs here at home like national health care, education, public transit and the like.