Four years ago, this column predicted this result for the 2000 election: George W. Bush, 271 electoral votes; Al Gore, 267.Really.All the more reason to weigh carefully our annual look ahead to the new year: January President Bush, on a secret New Year’s Day trip to Korea, announces a pact with North Korea to make […]

It’s a short session in Augusta, but there’s plenty on the agenda.Tax reform tops the list of must-dos for the governor and the Legislature. Facing a June up-or-down referendum vote on a plan by the Maine Municipal Association and Maine Education Association to drastically increase state funding for education, there is great pressure to reach […]

“To the workers the means of production,” goes the old Marxist rallying cry. To which any good capitalist these days can only say, “Amen – and the sooner the better.” During the past two decades, America has undergone a revolution, as ordinary workers have become the owners of “the means of production” through mass stock […]

The year 2003 reminds me of the movie serials I used to watch as a kid at Saturday matinees, where you waited eagerly for the final installment that would tell you how it all came out.In the last 12 months, we’ve viewed several episodes of “Iraq: The U.S. War to Remake the World.” But the […]

A coalition is forming with members from around the state to support a new bond to fund The Land for Maine’s Future program.Legislation will be considered this year to place a bond of $100 million or more on the ballot.There’s no doubt that the Land for Maine’s Future has had major successes. With funding from […]

It’s one thing for rival Democrats to slam Howard Dean’s domestic agenda as some “left-wing abandonment” of President Clinton’s centrist triumphs; after all, a little demagoguery in the service of winning is what primary politics are about.But in reality, the notion that Dean is somehow radically left on domestic policy, or has “dissed” Bill Clinton, […]

AVCOG needs to pay up.The Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments owes the city of Auburn $25,358 in property taxes.The city did not tax the quasi-governmental organization for six years in the 1990s. The organization was then granted yearly waivers by the city from 1997 through 2002. Earlier this year, Auburn Councilor Bob Mennealy questioned the […]

The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo., Dec. 26As debate continues over the government’s proposed border-crossing program, one aspect of the current policy deserves closer scrutiny different treatment of our neighbors, depending on whether they come from north or south of U.S. borders.Under the current system, guests from Canada with proof of Canadian citizenship are allowed to […]

The other Democratic candidates for president are beginning to challenge front-runner Howard Dean daily, asking questions about his positions and fitness for office. Here are the questions that they’re not asking Dean, but should:• The U.N. Security Council in November 2002 unanimously passed Resolution 1441, giving Saddam Hussein “a final opportunity to comply.” How do […]

Attorney General John Ashcroft made a good, but overdue, decision Tuesday by recusing himself from a politically charged investigation.For three months, the Justice Department has been investigating whether someone in the White House or another part of the government illegally identified CIA operative Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak as part of a political […]