Democrats to decide presidential candidate at Gaŗezers

Andris Straumanis | 

April! April! Hats off to cikaga.com, the Web site for Chicago-area Latvians, for breaking the story that the Democratic Party’s super delegates have chosen Gaŗezers as the site for a critical showdown in the upcoming U.S. elections. At stake: who will be the party’s presidential candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In an “exclusive” story, Democratic Super Delegates to Meet in Gaŗezers, the Web site reports April 1 that super delegates will meet July 1 on the volleyball court at the Latvian center, located near Three Rivers in south central Michigan. The best of five games will determine the winner, the site reports, unless Clinton is behind.

For those who have not been following the news, or for those who just don’t care, the so-called “super delegates” are party officials and others in the Democratic Party who hold special status. While Clinton is trailing in the overall delegate count, much is being made by both candidates of the role the super delegates might play in the party convention, scheduled Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo. However, some in the party are pushing Clinton to drop out of the race, which would make Obama the presumed Democratic nominee. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the presumed nominee and is expected to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate during the convention scheduled Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.

Documentary ties Soviet Union to Holocaust

Andris Straumanis | 

A documentary film by a Latvian director that claims “the Soviet Union helped Nazi Germany instigate the Holocaust” will see its premiere April 9 at the European Parliament in Belgium.

The documentary, The Soviet Story, is directed by Edvīns Šnore, who spent 10 years gathering information and two years filming in several countries, according to the film’s Web site, sovietstory.com.

The English-language documentary runs 85 minutes. It is produced by Rīga-based SIA Labvakar.

Among those interviewed in the film are Western and Russian historians, as well as survivors of the Soviet Gulag.

The chief sponsor of the production is the conservative alliance Union for Europe of the Nations, whose members include four members of the European Parliament from Latvia, all members of For Fatherland and Freedom (Tēvzemei un Brīvībai / LNNK). Also supporting the film are the Rīga City Council and the magazine Tēvijas Sargs.

The premiere is scheduled at 18:00 hours April 9 in Room 5B001 in the PHS Building of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Andris Straumanis is a special correspondent for and a co-founder of Latvians Online. From 2000–2012 he was editor of the website.