I recently returned from three weeks in Iraq, where I traveled from Mosul to Baghdad to Nasiriyah to Fallujah. It’s hard to reconcile what I saw with the pep talk from the White House.I think a decent Iraq result can still be salvaged, but only if the Bush team starts being honest with the U.S. […]

Confined to a wheelchair, a local woman could not leave her own home without assistance. For five years, the only times she went outside was when she was taken to the doctor. A donation of $10 a week to the United Way paid for the supplies to build a ramp onto her house.The United Way […]

Karl Rove entered the Oval Office and the president looked up.“Close the door,” Bush said, signing some papers. “I’ll be with you in a sec.”Rove shut the door and took a seat on the sofa. The president joined him on the sofa opposite. He lit up in a smile.“Well, Karl, I gotta hand it to […]

The made-for-TV Senate talkathon last week was a sorry show of power when the government has plenty of significant issues to address.Pitched as a protest against Democratic senators who are blocking three of President Bush’s judicial nominees, the display was a farce.The Senate has confirmed 168 of 172 of President Bush’s judicial nominees. That’s a […]

I have no problem with what Howard Dean was trying to say. It’s what he actually said that troubles me.Specifically, the Democratic presidential candidate told an Iowa reporter that he wants to be “the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.”It was an inarticulate way of saying an important thing: that Dean […]

Bangor Daily News, Nov. 12 There’s a saying that if no one is happy with a hard-fought decision then it must be a good one. In the case of last week’s New England Fishery Management Council rules for rebuilding groundfish stocks, the widespread unhappiness indicates something else. No one likes the rules, which the council […]

The Saudi royal family can only be thinking, “What good is protection money if it doesn’t protect you?”The al-Qaida attack recently in Riyadh is the latest sign that the kingdom’s corrupt deal with Islamic extremists has broken down. The Saudis have been the foremost funders of extremism and terrorism abroad, with the implicit understanding that […]

On Nov. 19, the plan to end Lewiston’s operation of Bates Mill Enterprise Complex will be made public – there’s a verbal agreement in place and most of the details will be worked out by then.That’s great.Here you go, John Q. “Taxpaying” Public. Here are the details of a multimillion dollar deal. Don’t sweat the […]

WICHITA, Kan. – From my fourth-floor hotel window here, I can see a freight train – pregnant with meaning – rolling through the edge of downtown. What an ordinary thing. But how often we miss the meanings and possibilities of ordinary things because we forget that, in fact, almost everything is pregnant with meaning.This train […]

Maine has joined a growing list of states that have eliminated their presidential primary.For Democrats, that means it’s going to be more difficult to make their preference of presidential nominee known next year.Municipal caucuses will replace the primary. Democrats made the decision to abandon the primary after a lengthy evaluation, and ratified the switch during […]