“Hope I die before I get old.”The quote, of course, is from Pete Townshend of The Who. It’s a lyric from “My Generation,” a song that came out in 1965, the year Townshend turned 20. He was, at that age, a long-haired rock star famous for windmilling his arm and smashing his guitars.Nearly 40 years […]

MANCHESTER, N.H. – John Kerry has surged into first place here, proving his oft-repeated contention that he is a “good closer.” Kerry has long said that he is a great fighter. If he completes his miraculous comeback to win the Democratic nomination, he will indeed have the fight of his life on his hands – […]

People depend on the law.For some, the law is letting them down.Almost three years ago, the Maine Legislature passed a law that allowed some government employees to retire early, draw their pensions and return to work. The law, however, doesn’t jibe with Internal Revenue Service policy, and it puts individuals and the Maine State Retirement […]

You expect a salesman to emphasize the positive attributes of whatever he’s peddling and to downplay the downside. But even by extreme standards of political salesmanship, the rhetoric-reality gap on display in President Bush’s State of the Union shows the White House has taken cynicism to impressive new levels.Indeed, it’s hard to pick the single […]

Technology is getting ahead of common sense with changes in the way this country conducts elections.The Pentagon has plans to test Internet voting for some soldiers overseas, perhaps as early as the South Carolina primary but definitely by the general election in November. But a study by four computer scientists brought in to examine the […]

Gov. John Baldacci’s State of the State address was filled with talk of fiscal discipline, tough choices and limited government programs.After customary salutations, some of his first words were about maintaining a strong bond rating. Not exactly the stuff of inspiration, but important nonetheless.Many of the governor’s themes, if not details, echoed those of the […]

Bangor Daily News, Jan. 21Land conservation deals have been struck, millions of dollars spent and new regulations adopted, but still the number of wild Atlantic salmon returning to Maine’s rivers remains abysmally low. … Now, the National Academy of Sciences, asked to study the problem by Maine’s congressional delegation, has come up with an action […]

Black people get crappy health care.If this comes as news to you, it’s probably because you haven’t been paying attention. Numerous studies have documented the fact that, regardless of income levels and across a wide range of illnesses, blacks and other minorities have less access to medical treatment and the treatment they do receive is […]

Old news has a way of being recycled. With a new appropriation for operations in Iraq looming, it’s a good time to look back at the terrible way the last one was handled.Back in the fall, the U.S. Senate, with a prearranged voice vote, passed an $87 billion emergency spending bill to fund reconstruction efforts […]

Sen. Ted Kennedy last week launched a blistering attack on the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. He charged that the Iraq War was driven by domestic political considerations, as White House operative Karl Rove and other administration officials dragged the country to war to improve the president’s political standing. In this view, the war wasn’t – […]