Fosteringattitude ofdisrespectOne week ago, members of the Jay Education Association issued a no-confidence vote to the district’s superintendent and School Committee.The no-confidence vote holds no legal weight, but it is telling of the atmosphere in Jay schools. The district, teachers say, “has shown a significant decline and deterioration in staff morale over the last three […]

With terms like “coward,” “traitor” and even the hoary fascisticism “defeatist” flying about, one hardly knows whether dissenting from the Bush party line is worth it.Vietnam veteran John Kerry, the Democrat senator from Massachusetts, just found that out.Cracking wise about our American Caesar, the 2004 presidential contender said, “What we need now is not just […]

Land ofthe free?The debate over who will be responsible for propping up a post-war Iraq began in earnest last weekend when it was clear Saddam’s regime would fall. Now that it has fallen and citizens of Baghdad appear to welcome coalition forces, a new government must be established before the Iraqi people grow tired and […]

Ethics are not for saleSupporters of Democracy Now! are trying to push its decidedly antiwar program onto an unwilling Maine Public Radio.MPR is right to resist.In a highly organized campaign, supporters have printed notecards, written sample letters to the editor and asked thousands of people to strongly encourage MPR to add the programming, even suggesting […]

I’ve been looking for a suitable quote to anchor this column about truth, lies and the Information Ministry of Iraq.Problem is, I’ve got so many to choose from. Like California Gov. Hiram Johnson’s famous admonition that, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Or Winston Churchill’s observation that, “In wartime, truth is so precious […]

A recent article in the New York Times opened thusly:“The Justice Department is demanding that the nation’s biggest cigarette makers be ordered to forfeit $289 billion in profits derived from a half-century of ‘fraudulent’ and dangerous marketing practices.”This is only Washington’s most recent salvo at the tobacco industry. For years, the feds and the states […]

The lakeside town of Norway is like a lot of towns in Maine. The rising cost of educating its young people is tugging at its municipal budget, reducing the town’s ability to provide services and boost economic development.This year, Norway will be billed a 7.71 percent increase for its share of SAD 17 funding. At […]

Young Americans in camouflage evoke feelings: pride in some, anguish in others.The trick is to sustain those feelings as war images and information assault the psyche.This war is in our faces, day and night. It dominates the headlines. The front pages of newspapers show terrified children, wounded women, soldiers poised to kill.With journalists filing live […]

“Welcome to the Snitzer report. I’m Lamb Snitzer, coming to you live today from the I-95 in Florida, ground zero in America’s war against highway fatalities. It’s a war, we now know, that is not going as planned. Later we’ll speak with one of the families paying the ultimate price in a battle that many […]

Charter schools offer choice for parents, students and teachers, and may save some money in Maine. On Monday, the Legislature’s Education Committee will hold a public hearing on L.D. 1391, “An Act to Approve Public Charter Schools in Maine.” If passed, Maine would join 39 other states in permitting these independently managed public schools to […]