THE SAME-DAY VOTER REGISTRATION BALLOT INITIATIVE and other reasons why the Maine Democratic Party lacks common sense

The decision of Maine Democrats to launch a ballot initiative to restore same-day voter registration shows why the Party has lost its relevance. While Maine residents endure unemployment, under-employment, a collapsing housing market, reductions to education spending etc., Democrats are consumed with restoring the right to register and vote on the same day.

Speaking from my own experience, as a lifelong registered Democrat and as someone who has moved from state to state at least a half dozen times, and from towns within states many more times than that, I can’t understand why it’s so hard to register to vote 2 days ahead of an election. It isn’t as though registration is required every election or even every year. Once you have registered to vote, until you move, you don’t have to go through the process again.

I started to wonder what was going on with the Maine Democratic Party when it was discovered that two Super Delegates to the 2008 National Democratic Convention were no longer residents of the State: former Governor Kenneth Curtis and former Senator George Mitchell.  Didn’t anyone at the State Party know that Curtis moved to Florida - probably to avoid Maine income tax - and that Mitchell was living elsewhere?

Another alarm went off when the State Party chose to engage in a reputation-slurring, racist campaign against gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler in the fall of 2010.  Does anyone remember the mass-mailed fortune cookie flyers? Cutler’s time in China was portrayed as anti-union and his sin was to perform work for a company that conducted business in China. 

An email to the Maine Democratic Party headquarters in an attempt to find out who was responsible for the offensive mailing produced no answers. Someone did send me a lengthy diatribe about Cutler’s character in case the fortune-cookie flyer was too subtle.  Rather than an explanation taking responsibility for the flyer, I got a lecture.  This is understandable as the Party seems incapable of anything but preaching to the converted.

There were also numerous Kamikaze-like emails and phone calls during the final weeks before the election directing union members - state employees and teachers mostly - to vote for Libby Mitchell rather than Cutler even as Mitchell was tanking in the polls while Cutler began to surge. The Democrats deserve much credit for handing the election to Paul LePage.  Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

My final beef has to do with Maine being a caucus state.  This may not be the Party’s fault but while I’m at it, I’m going to lay the blame on them.

The caucus system is a charade of a true election. It’s something I experienced while living in Iowa and it’s a combination of much ado about nothing and a joke. If you can’t be there, you don’t get to vote.  Attempts have been made to eliminate the caucus in favor of the more democratic secret ballot system which would permit absentee voting but there’s no reason to change things when a few in leadership control the process.

The last Maine State Democratic caucus, at which Barack Obama was named the victor, was disorganized and lasted well beyond its scheduled length, forcing some attendees to leave before actually casting their votes.  That’s democracy in action! Whoever was in charge should be ashamed.

In Maine today there are many voters who are not registered as Republicans or Democrats. People are abandoning party affiliation and identifying themselves as Independents or members of the Green Party.  Since these folks don’t vote in primaries (unless they temporarily register as Republican or Democrat prior to the primary) both parties end up nominating people to run on their ticket who come from an extreme position. 

Which brings me to the last peeve about Maine Democrats: too many folks come to the party at primary time. There’s no better way to surprise voters than to run 6 to 8 candidates in a primary. Understandably, no one controls such things and it is anyone’s right to run. But isn’t there a way to ask some to check their egos and hold back for another time rather than encourage a baseball team’s worth of candidates?

It’s great to rant about these things but the sad truth is nothing will change. The only option left is to move on to another party or become one of the “unenrolled”.  That title has a desperate quality to it.  Sounds like my kind of group to affiliate with.

BLEAK HOUSE ON THE BEACH

It is a gross oversimplification to describe “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens as a story about a legal dispute coming to a conclusion only when the opposing parties run out of money. In Dickens’ novel, the heirs find at the end of a lengthy probate process that there is no inheritance to be claimed: the financial legacy was exhausted on legal fees.

It isn’t too much of a stretch to see similarities between “Bleak House” and the litigation that parties are engaged in over the ownership and control of Goose Rocks Beach. 

Saturday, June 18, 2011, marked the second time some Kennebunkport voters attended Town Meeting to vote to spend a significant sum of money to litigate this dispute. A total of $700,000, more or less, has been spent or appropriated by the taxpayers. One can only wonder the financial cost to the private property owners.

The beach case, expected to cost the Town at least $1 million, and which will probably cost the property owners/Plaintiffs the same, will be a drain on many other worthy causes which won’t be funded by the Town.  Consider the public projects which might be funded if the Town set aside a quarter of a million dollars annually for 4 years: expansion of sidewalks, free summer recreation access for all children, purchase of waterfront land for a public boat launch or a massive tree planting effort, just to name a few. Think of the money not being donated to non-profit organizations because of the private money tied up in the litigation.

One wonders what might have been if Selectmen recognized the private beach ownership and concentrated their negotiations on finding an acceptable amount of money or other compensation (property tax reductions, for example) so that the townspeople could be offered a long term recreation lease on the private beach areas.

Instead, we are all paying for this complex litigation to wind its way inevitably to the Maine Supreme Court. Who wins, besides the lawyers? There’s already so much bad feeling within the community about the litigation that it may take a complete turnover in property ownership to clear the air. By that time Goose Rocks will be overrun by more people than the delicate beach can handle.

Most appalling of all, the Town’s acting Police Chief  has recently announced in the newspaper that there will be a change in policy for the 2011 summer season: police officers will not enforce “no trespassing” signs at Goose Rocks Beach.  

If you own land in Kennebunkport and someone trespasses on your property, you call 911 - unless your land happens to be on Goose Rocks Beach.

Considering how high emotions are running, it’s inconceivable that law enforcement or Selectmen would permit a festering of arguments over the use of private land.  No good will come of this.

Potential trespassers now know that the police will not come to ask anyone to move along to the public beach. The homeowner is helpless to stop someone from erecting a tent or leaving lawn chairs permanently on his or her land.

This is very bad public policy. It should send a chill through anyone who thinks our home is our castle. In Kennebunkport, castles are indeed made of sand.

SUMMER READING LIST: on the trail of European detectives by book

One offshoot of the popular Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series is the surge in interest in Scandinavian detective mysteries. Though Larsson is not my favorite author, readers have an appetite for something more because only three of his books have been published. A dispute over his estate and the ownership of his unpublished material may take years to resolve.

What follows are, in my opinion, some of the best contemporary and some older but not dated European – not all Scandinavian - detective mysteries.

HENNING MANKELL, the Kurt Wallander series. Mankell is still alive and writing but just published the last book in this series, The Troubled Man. Mankell locates these books in an actual small town in a rural area of southeastern Sweden. He is skilled at writing about the changes being brought to his country by both immigration and growth and the inevitable backlash from hate groups in what is considered a tolerant, open society. Wallander is cast as an anti-hero, deeply flawed in the conduct of his personal life, charmingly aware of his failings, and consumed by his work at which he is highly successful. Also recommended are the 6 episodes of the Public Television/WGBH-produced “Mystery” series starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Because the novels are complex, they were simplified for television. Read some of the books before watching the series which is available on DVD.

MAJ SJOWALL and PER WAHLOO. Their Martin Beck series was written in the 1960’s yet there is little to date these Scandinavian books. Considered by some to be among the best detective novels ever penned. The website www.Scandinavianbooks.com recommends reading these books in sequence, beginning with Roseanna.

OLEN STEINHAUER. His first series - there are five books - is set in the eastern bloc beginning post-World War II and continuing into the 1980’s. Beginning with The Bridge of Sighs these novels contain frightening sequences. His police officers experience bleak and dangerous situations. Sometimes the greatest danger comes from their colleagues who may be agents working on behalf of the repressive political regime. Steinhauer lived in Romania under a Fulbright Scholarship and knows his subject very well.

MICHAEL DIBDIN, the Aurelio Zen series. These will delight you, scare you, make you laugh and appall you. The Italian bureaucracy is completely exposed with a mix of charm and contempt. Zen is a detective who is assigned to a number of the outer provinces, away from his Venice home base. Dibdin writes intelligently but with sparseness. Zen is witty and smart. He sometimes knowingly plays the boob in order to beguile those around him but he is skillful at verbal zingers. Start at the beginning with Ratking. The books will make you want to travel to every location in Italy memorialized in his books. Dibdin’s death leaves his appreciative readers with only a fixed number of books. They are easily read more than once.

ALAN FURST, The Foreign Correspondent. This book was recommended to me by my sister-in-law who is very knowledgeable about the genre and could probably write a blog of her own on this subject. It is not his only book but as I have read others, it seems to be his best. It is set in Paris in World War II during the time of the Nazi occupation. Another good one is titled Spies of the Balkans.

OVERHEARD AT THE POST OFFICE April 18, 2011 - "Tourism Training 101"

CARIBOU – Training sessions aimed at providing front line workers with the tools they need to properly prepare and welcome tourists to Aroostook County are being offered at three locations this month.
Anyone who provides services to the general public would benefit from the class, including gas station attendants, taxi drivers, front desk workers at lodging establishments, retail store clerks, convenience store clerks, waiter-waitress-host, bartender and grocery store employees.
The services are offered courtesy of the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative and are supported by funds from USDA Rural Development.

Bangor Daily News, April 14, 2011, page B3


AL: Hey, Jesse, glad I ran into you. I may be out of town for a little while.

JESSE: What’s up?

AL: My sister who lives in Aroostook County has invited me up there to enroll in Tourism Training.

JESSE: How are you going to train tourists to do anything?

AL: No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I am going to be trained about how to welcome tourists.

JESSE: Oh? What’s wrong with the way tourists are treated right now?

AL: I will have to find out specifics when the classes start. But apparently the federal government believes that tourists are not well treated in Aroostook County.

JESSE: Are there any tourists up there?

AL: Actually, I don’t know.

JESSE: Who is paying for this training?

AL: The money is coming from some U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program.

JESSE: You mean our taxes are paying for this?

AL: Looks like it.

JESSE: Well of all the pork barrel, confounded wastes of money, this sure takes the cake. Wait a minute: is this part of the stimulus money?

AL: Could be. You know how long it takes trends to reach Aroostook County.

JESSE: If it didn’t break my frugal heart so much I could get a real laugh out of this tourism training idea.

AL: It’s more than just the USDA. Have you heard of something called the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative?

JESSE: No, no, stop, I can’t take this anymore. Help me, I just filed my tax return.

AL: Relax, Jesse. What with gas prices going up, there won’t be many people who can afford to drive to Aroostook County this summa. But if the people from away do get there, the local folks will know how to welcome them. We are learning from the experts. Who else but the government would know how to train people to take someone else’s money?

FINDING WORK IN WASHINGTON

There are reasons to respectfully disagree with the focus of the Portland Press Herald’s dismissive editorial concerning the hiring of former Governor John Baldacci to a previously-non-existent position with the Department of Defense (“Our View: Rep. Wilson grandstands on Baldacci position”, March 18, 2011).

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, is criticizing the hiring of Governor Baldacci, who was term-limited out of office. The Press Herald’s editorial was all about condemning Rep. Wilson - he’s the hothead who cried out “You lie” during President Obama’s State of the Union Address. He may be an idiot as the editorial took pains to point out. But there was no mention of the substance of the issue which is the job itself.

A question that might be asked is whether this job is the tip of the iceberg. Is it common practice to hire elected officials rotating out of public service – Republicans or Democrats - in temporary federal jobs?

Was the position advertised and were other candidates interviewed?

Was former Governor Baldacci the best candidate for the position and was he uniquely qualified to carry out the job?

Maine’s two Republican Senators support his hiring. Did they provide job references?

Baldacci’s immediate boss and the man who hired him for one year, Clifford L. Stanley, called the former-Governor’s assignment a “deep dive review” of how the military runs its health care and wellness programs. A troubling reality is that a person who works for Secretary Stanley, Jonathan Woodson, is an assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Could it not be inferred that Woodson should know something about how the military runs its health programs since the word “health” is found in his job title?

Journalists who are “covering” this story – they more accurately seem to be reacting to it – and editorial writers who are opining about it, too, are missing the point: this isn’t about Governor Baldacci’s acceptance of a job or Rep. Wilson’s criticism. Governor Baldacci is a public servant whose reputation is above reproach. Wilson has lost credibility because of his offensive violation of House decorum and other comments. Can’t reporters rise above these givens and get to the real story? Don’t hold your breath.

Life by Keith Richards

Keith Richards, iconic guitarist for the Rolling Stones, has written a very good book called Life and I recommend that you read it. An indication of the interest in the book is that it has remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 15 weeks.

The book starts off with a description of Richards’ arrest in Arkansas in 1975 for what he believed would turn into drug possession charges. The car he was driving erratically was packed with drugs hidden inside the door panels. Due to some legal maneuvering, the vehicle was never searched. Richards pleaded guilty to reckless driving and paid a fine of $162. Before Richards left the courtroom, the judge and prosecuting attorney asked for a photograph with the famous guitarist which he gladly provided. He’s that kind of guy.

The book reads very easily. It was put together by a writer who sat through long interviews in which Richards talked about his life. You are reading a transcript of him telling his life story in his own descriptive English words. He is fearless about revealing his feelings and some dramatic events in his life including the loss of a child. This is not some egotist rewriting a legacy with a sanitized version of events.

A charming aspect of the narrative is that the author frequently invites other people to write their recollection of a particular event or incident.

Richards was born in 1943 and raised in a suburb of London called Dartford. The early part of the book includes stories about how he overcame being bullied as a child, how he was exposed to music both listening and playing, his reasons for dropping out of art school and his days hanging about with peers who liked the same music. The language he uses is very entertaining. There isn’t a lot of dirty talk substituted for real words either. This man is self-educated and well read. He knows how to tell a good story.

Mick Jagger comes into his life because they briefly attended the same school and because he often had the 45 records that Richards and others wanted to listen to, American delta blues and rock and roll. Elvis Presley, Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry performed the music they craved to hear. The early Stones borrowed the music of their heroes in their early club performances and relied on their own take on other people’s songs until they got into the rhythm of writing their own tunes and lyrics. I still like the early mono albums.

Rolling Stone Magazine considers Richards the 10th best guitarist of all time. Some of the musicians who rank ahead of him on that list are his musical heroes including Berry and Robert Johnson.

It isn’t easy to take credit for creativity while sounding humble but Richard manages to do this as he explains the collaborative nature of the song development he birthed with Jagger. He confesses to waking up one morning and finding the tune to the song “Satisfaction” on the tape recorder he kept by his bedside.

Richards is the genius who wrote most of the music. Jagger took the tunes and wrote the lyrics. They did work together on both words and music at times. They fed off each other’s creative energy for years. These two who needed each other to reach their best ended up disliking each other personally after working, traveling and living closely together for too long.

Keith Richards conquered his 10-year drug addiction to cocaine and heroin in 1979 after going cold turkey 6 to 8 times during that decade. He lost a few close friends to drugs. His face shows the harsh treatment he put his body through. He still smokes. But he is usually photographed with a smile on his face. He has been married for 27 years and has 4 children and a couple of grand kids.

The album which to me epitomizes the high point of the band’s musical genius is Sticky Fingers, partially recorded at Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1969, just before the group went off to play the free concert in Altamont, California. In case you don’t know or have forgotten, the Hells Angels were hired to maintain the peace at this concert and ended up stabbing a concert-goer while the band performed.

Pianist Jim Dickenson writes in the book that many musicians claim that they were there in Muscle Shoals but that it was Dickenson on piano, Ian Stewart (the sixth Rolling Stone) and the 5 Stones in the recording booth for “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses”.

In my opinion, the best song on the Sticky Fingers album - and it wasn’t recorded at Muscle Shoals - is “Can’t you hear me knocking?” The recording displays Richards’ talent and ease at collaborating with other musicians. Rolling Stone Magazine calls it the 25th greatest guitar song of all time. It’s a blues-jazzy wall of sound provided by the saxophone of Bobby Keys and the lead guitar playing of Mick Taylor. But you can hear Richards steadily through the 7 minutes and 14 seconds of this song.

As for Mick Jagger, he’s there for about 2 minutes and 40 seconds singing the lyrics. After that, you hear nothing less than a great bunch of musicians hitting a creative high, handing the music off to each other.

There is much information in the book about notable people of these times including musicians, artists, politicians and ordinary people. This is a man who wants you to know what his life was like, nothing held back, presented with humor, grace and a great deal of self- awareness. Read this book.

OVERHEARD AT THE POST OFFICE FEBRUARY 16, 2011 - Beach Club

Al: Long time no see, Jesse. What’s up?

Jesse: Well, have you seen the centerfold of the new Chamber of Commerce brochure?

Al: Centerfold! Has the Chamber resorted to naked women to market the Kennebunks?

Jesse: No, no, you idiot. The centerfold is a desirable space for advertising because people naturally turn to it. The current brochure’s centerfold features resorts owned by the same group here in Kennebunkport.

Al: Tell me more.

Jesse: Well, you see, there has been a lot of buying and selling of hotels this past winter. One of the newly purchased places is the Tides Inn at Goose Rocks. It’s now called The Tides Beach Club. It is being advertised with a private beach.

Al: Private Beach! That sounds suspiciously as though the owners believe they own some part of that beach. Wait ‘til the Town and the SOB’s find out. It won’t be private for very long. I can’t wait to hear what the Judge says about that!

Jesse: The Tides Beach Club is advertising beachside services.

Al: What are beachside services? Does this mean a person can get a drink or something to eat down there on the private beach?

Jesse: That isn’t clear.

Al: Where is this private beach exactly?

Jesse: The lot is directly in front of the hotel at Goose Rocks.

Al: Does this mean if I want to go down to the beach, I can’t sit there anymore?

Jesse: You will have to take that up with the owners. Maybe you can get permission. If I were you, I’d change out of the striped shorts and plaid flannel shirt before asking. Or at least tuck in your shirt. Oh, and lose the Red Sox hat or turn it around so the bill points forward.

Al: Well isn’t the Town going to stand up for me and the other residents and stop this beach club from saying they own the beach, just as the Town is arguing with other private beach front owners?

Jesse: We will have to wait and see.

Al: Wait and see! Why would this beach club be treated different than some other beachfront owner? Are they SOB’s?

Jesse: Well, the owners of the Beach Club now own a great deal of land and property in Kennebunkport. They pay a lot of taxes to the Town. The Town doesn’t want to make the owners mad or anything. They might go somewhere else.

Al: Where are the business people going to go and find a beach like the one at Goose Rocks? And where will they find a Town to treat them so special?

Jesse: You have a point there, Al.

Al: If the Town won’t stand up for my rights then there’s only one thing for me to do. I’m going to go down to Goose Rocks right now and fill out a membership form to join that Beach Club.

Jesse: It’s not that kind of Club, Al. You see, the people who go there don’t live here.

Al: You can’t be serious. You mean, to belong to that Club you cannot live in Kennebunkport?

Jesse: You need to spend the night at one of the rented rooms to be a member of that club. You can also use the private beach if you stay at Hidden Pond Cottages.

Al: Hidden Pond? Where is that? Is it stocked?

Jesse: Hidden Pond is owned by the same business people. It’s a group of cottages up near the Clock Farm, off Fishing Pole Lane.

Al: People who like to fish can be secretive about their spots so maybe that’s why they want the pond hidden and the beach private.

But if the only people who can join that Beach Club are tourists I won’t have anything to do with them. I’ll just keep on toting my cooler and portable radio down to the public beach right next to them. It won’t bother me a bit if they want listen to the country music on my radio. On the other hand, if they like to fish, they can’t be all bad.