Some time ago, we used the analogy of a superhero to describe the government’s stemming of the economic crisis. The image of red-caped bureaucrats using taxpayer money to rescue companies in distress about sums it up.This image is changing. While superheroes have great powers and feel duty-bound to use them for good purposes, the government’s […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Jeers to political signs that remain by our roadsides. (Where are the thieving vandals now? They’re needed.)Win or lose, the right thing for campaigns or candidates to do is to fetch their regalia and restore the scenery. Before the election, the signs were political messages deserving of the […]

In modern language, the phrase “activist judge” has become a slur. A popular stereotype is a black-robed liberal trying to legislate an agenda from the safety of the bench.The image works well on talk radio.The reality, though, is that judges are activists. They are picked for their understanding of law and their judgment in enforcing […]

Some city councilors in Lewiston and Auburn have removed their executioner’s hoods and given joint services a reprieve. It’s taken deal-making and mind-changing among its proponents, though, so the issue remains troubled.But, at least, not doomed. That’s a start.In recent months, exasperation over the pace and potential for joint services has amplified into public questioning […]

Admit it. You miss it.The drama. The gaffes. The ludicrous attacks and counterattacks. Ordinary plumbers plucked from Midwestern obscurity and dumped unceremoniously upon the national stage.Wasn’t that a party!Sadly, a presidential transition is a lot less interesting than a political campaign. For more than two years, many of us have been addicted to the longest […]

Enough platitudes already. Veterans need faster, better access to health care.We trumpet the very real fact that members of our military fight for this country so we might live. So that we might continue to enjoy our many freedoms, and we pat ourselves on the collective back for acknowledging their sacrifices. And then when they […]

A 25-year high in unemployment benefits nationally? A surreal 54 percent increase in unemployment claims in Maine over the past year? Automakers pleading for rescue? A stock market stuck in perpetual free-fall?Congress must do more than consider an “economic stimulus” package in an upcoming lame-duck session. It should consider what works as a long-term solution […]

Decades from now, when the next generation of presidential historians reflects and dissects Nov. 4, 2008, will the true impact of Sen. Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the American presidency truly become known?The common expectations of what Americans expect, fear, support and desire in a president were swept away by the rising blue tide across cable […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news: • Jeers to Randall Hofland, the disturbed desperado with a deranged desire for derring-do.He pulled a pistol on a patrolman then ran into the Waldo County woods until emerging to hold a roomful of fifth-graders in Stockton Springs at gunpoint on Oct. 31. He was apprehended without incident, […]

The two-thirds replacement of the Androscoggin County Commission, which too often put politics over public service, on Election Day was a mandate from voters to clean up the county’s act.No more trench warfare over the weakest of issues. No more assertions of political power over public sentiments. And, most important, no more legislating without accountability.Two […]