An underhanded trick
Members of the Maine GOP must think the people of Maine are not smart enough to figure out their game plan. They can tell the people that they voted down the budget submitted by Gov. LePage; therefore, they did not hurt the most poor and most needy of Maine people.
However, they are not willing to stand up and defend their vote against the budget. The refuse to take the steps necessary to override the governor’s veto. It was a really smart reelection tactic. I sincerely hope the people of Maine remember this clever move when it comes to the election. Their vote was simply an underhanded trick to get your vote. Is their word worth your vote?
If those up for reelection really wanted us to trust them, they would be willing to return to Augusta to override the governor.
Catherine P. Richard
Bangor
Candidate omitted from poll
The Bangor Daily News ran a news article entitled “Five Republicans join Senate race; Michaud, Raye stick to House race”; included was a poll: “Who do you think will be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate race.” Here is the link to both: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/03/02/politics/with-michaud-and-raye-out-of-running-for-senate-races-start-to-take-shape/, which I found very interesting.
A Republican was already in the race prior to Sen. Olympia Snowe’s decision to bow out. That person has actually been active for two years, priming for a run. Isn’t it fascinating this same person was originally omitted from the poll? Who was this person? Scott D’Amboise.
Several people called the BDN, insisting he be added to the poll. Eventually, they did. How couldn’t they — he was named in the article’s first paragraph.
I am also sure it was a huge surprise that he actually won, garnering 40 percent of the vote. Charlie Summers was the nearest competitor with 32 percent. It was only a poll, but an 8 percent win is no small potatoes. Further, the next nearest competitor finished 31 percent behind D’Amboise.
Scott D’Amboise will not only take the oath to support and defend — yes, defend the U.S. Constitution, but also be guided by it. He will fight out of control spending. No more of the status quo, because that’s exactly what got our nation into the mess it finds itself. In these times, I believe that is exactly what our nation needs.
Gregory Paquet
Smithfield
Why an I-395-Route 9 connector?
In 2000 we learned about an I-395-Route 9 connector, born from concerns of increased truck traffic on Routes 46 and 1-A. The preferred “Ring Route” was chosen; a clear answer to the concerns of Routes 9, 46 and 1-A, meeting the needs of the study with an east of Route 46 connection point. Many years went by and residents were not informed of anything until recently. None of the three alternatives today meet the original study needs.
The Maine Better Transportation Association is holding a contest: “Which road in Maine is the worst?” If the state doesn’t have the money to fix the roads we have, why would we want to build more?
The privately funded east-west highway makes sense. The feasibility study will be completed Jan. 15, 2013. Sen. Thomas supports this route running north of Old Town, across the state from Calais to Coburn Gore. Existing roads will be used as the foundation. “Such a route would remove nearly all of the existing traffic off of Route 9, as well as cut projected future traffic on Route 1-A by roughly 2,300 vehicles per day below current levels.” (1999 MDOT E/W Study)
Why are we even considering the I-395-Route 9 connector? We asked MDOT at the Brewer Auditorium “open house” and were told that the private highway and connector are two separate unlinked projects.
Should taxpayers spend millions more to further the I-395-Route 9 connector when we will have the answer to the problems with the east-west highway?
Vinal and Carol Smith
Brewer
Health insurance rejection
I have had Lupus for two years now. In February I almost died after I had an operation. I was flown by LifeFlight to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor from Down East Community Hospital in Machias. I am thankful to be alive. Yesterday in the mail I received notice that I will no longer be able to receive MaineCare. I am beside myself. Without health insurance I will not be able to receive the medication and the health care I need. I also have been unable to work due to the lupus flare-ups.The people who really need MaineCare are the ones they are taking it away from.
Paulette Bryant
Trescott
Difference is good
Any conversation about cultural diversity and competence is an invitation to grow, develop and mature in our understandings about people. The mere mentioning of conversation carries with it the idea of intentional meetings of the minds, sharing concepts and beliefs and looking for common grounds. Why is it easier to accept that people are one gene removed from chimpanzees than accept we are connected with all other people living on this planet?
When people begin to talk intentionally, we open the doorway to our minds. The experience itself brings growth; we meet someone from another culture, belief or tradition, which can only add to our knowledge base about ourselves. We develop deeper connections when we communicate with other people not like us; blood and oxygen unites everyone, as does our inner search for meaning and purpose for our lives.
Finally we mature when we experience something requiring new thoughts and different ideas; we let go of the old to embrace the new. Our society has continually been challenged to mature, grow and develop as people require their birthrights of freedom, the pursuit of happiness and liberty for all.
Cultural competence means these opportunities are welcomed in the workplace, as different peoples bring their heritages, traditions and cultural expressions to the fabric that makes our country. Our national identity has room for others; our shared identity is not threatened by dialogue, conversations and experiences with different peoples. Let us continue to expand our experiences with different peoples, by recalling accurately our national heritage has always added others to our identity as Americans.
James Weathersby
Augusta
Why is it easier to accept that people are one gene removed from
chimpanzees than accept we are connected with all other people living on
this planet?
Because sometimes they want to kill you.
Trust but verify.
Chimpanzees want to kill you too. And each other.
Chimpanzees, and all other animals besides humans, do not want to kill us unless they are defending themselves or rarely using us for food.
Only humans kill for fun/sport, all other creatures kill only to protect themselves (they run away if they can though), for food or in some cases to defend their territories from other predators (but they’ll try to scare away competition first thru threath displays).
Not true: Chimps fight and kill chimps in other troops, and appear to be strategic about it:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2005/apr/04/research-finds-chimp-violence-is-organized/
Probably where we got it from…
One of the reasons for killing is defending territory from competition, in the case of Chimpanzees they will kill other chimps from a neighboring troop if they can find them alone. They are not killing for fun or sport though.
Have you ever owned a cat? They often kill for fun. They also like to torture their prey for a while sometimes before killing them or just leaving them to die when they stop moving.
And visa versa.
Catherine P. Richard–I agree that the Maine republican party strongarm tactics regarding the governor’s budget veto are devious and unconstitutional. I am not thrilled with the prospect of too many democrats either but this november we will need to clean house(literally and figuratively) of the party of deception. LePage can continue with his ‘politics before people’ agenda but at least we will have some checks and balances as a democracy should.
Strong arm tactics? Unconstitutional? You obviously haven’t been paying attention. Everything you are claiming was done was legal and in the open – for a change.
But did you by any chance witness the real strong arm tactics and deceptive underhanded fraudulaent and illegal politics of the past 4 decades when Democrats controlled Augusta?
Huh? Legal and open? Declaring that an “anonymous poll” of one party’s members is the “action” required by our constitution is legal and open?
One of us hasn’t been paying attention…….
It was a telephone poll to see if members wanted to come into session. What would you have prefered, a special session to see if members wanted to come into session. Most members said no – because the issue can be taken up at the scheduled session in May. That will save taxpayer dollars. But you don’t care about that. You would rather try and score unfair political points. All part of the Democrat War on Maine.
Olympic caliber conclusion jumping–congratulations. The cost to the taxpayers for a special session of the legislature would be around $15,000 per day and I do care about that. I also care about propriety and accountability in government. We, the voters, have no idea how our elected representatives “voted” or which of the 40 or more flip-flopped due to the sneaky way in which this “vote” was supposedly taken.
While $15,000 a day is important, it pales compared to the need for accountability and transparence in governmental procedure. As for ‘political points’ and ‘Democrat War’…….you’re hallucinating–time to lower your dosage.
Actually, I think he is totally off his medication.
The meds jokes are hysterical.
Jokes and insults are the typical responses from liberals when they can’t understand an issue and can’t make valid points to support their position.
How is “Democrat war on Maine” anything but an unreasoning diatribe deserving of a rebuke? The core issue here is the failure to record a vote and the anonymity of those who voted not to comply with an explicit House rule. Rather than address a simple issue of open and lawful government, you dodged the issue and engaged in rhetorical excess. That glass house is way to fragile for you to throw any stones.
There is no House rule that says anything about a recorded vote being necessary.
The Democrat War on Maine is not a joke. Anyone who looks at our econoomy, our taxes, our cost of health care, our cost of doing business, our extremem regulatory environment, etc., etc. understands how serious your war is and how successful you have been at waging it over the past 3 decades. And it is not just a war on Maine poeple and the state as a whole, it is a war on Maine values of independence, hard work and liberty. No joke about it.
As a businessman who has to meet a payroll, I can’t be bothered with responding to your ipse dixits. Understand that the Maine people will vote again this fall and have a decidedly different opinion about the current Republican rule.
You might be right, Mr. businessman. There are many Maine people who have been taken by yours, your party’s and this newspapers lies. So be it. Tell me this – do you believe Maine people are stupid or lazy? It can’t be our oppressive government…
They are incredibly hard-working and don’t waste their days blogging on this site. Ciao!
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Catherine Richard, Paulette Bryant, James Weathersby: good letters.
Paulette: my sympathies along with condemnation of the Draconian policy.
Catherine, I too know what the GOP is up to, and I like it a lot. They are trying hard to reestablish self-sufficiency to a very large number of Mainers that have grown accustomed to being propped up by the government “entitlement” programs. It is hard but folks can break away from government welfare and become benefits to society again.
Bonny you have stooped to a new low. Do you honestly believe that the mentally ill seek their disease or condition?
I saw nothing in Bonny’s that mentioned the mentally ill, unless you believe that everyone on welfare is mentally ill.
I know that many on welfare are physically handicapped too. It aalso makes sense that some on welfare do not deserve it.
Bonny thinks the veto’s were just great. Have you not been paying attention Larry? One of the items was to cut more funding for the psychiatric hospitals in Maine. Have you seen anyone come through the state that has waved a magic wand and suddenly the mentally ill have been cured?
And you apparently you can not read, at least you did not read my post.
Did the budget say that the State would no longer fund psychiatric hospitals, or zero out that funding? NO, the thing that was done was to lower the increase in the funding.
I realize that to many on the “left” it is the same thing, but it is not.
And there are many rich all over the nation who don’t need any more WEALTHFARE tax loopholes, tax subsidies, tax giveaways, tax shelters, no-bid contracts, and on and on and on. The wealth in this nation has been systematically taken from the middle class and given away to the rich and your right wing corporate masters. You must be so proud. Then you right wingers stand there and bash workers and the poor and the sick, all the while talking about how much you love Jesus. It is just disgusting.
So because one side of a “debate” disembulates it is OK for the other side to do too? That is the lameist argument I have ever heard, even though it is used all the time.
If I grant you that there are inequities in the tax laws of this countries, will you grant me that there are some on welfare rolls that shouldn’t be. I truly doubt it.
The only thing that can be done is to vote out EVERY incumbent with more than two terms in office. Are you willing to work to accomplish that? Again I doubt it. You will protect ANY politician that pretends to give a dam what you want. I would far rather have HONEST office holders than office holders that tell me what I want them to and then do the opposite the next minute.
I HAVE NEVER VOICED MY OPINION ON RELIGION OR MY LOVE OR HATRED FOR GOD, ALLAH, JESUS, BUDDA, SHIVA or any other deity, so get off your high horse before you fall off.
Some of us have seen you worshiping that statute of Shiva in your back yard. It is really quite splendidly sculpted.
You fool that is not shiva it is Hermes.
I can tell the difference between the destroyer of evil and a messenger god. Don’t be afraid of sharing your Hindu pantheism.
Lord Shiva like most gods is misunderstood, Shiva is not the destroyer of evil but ego.
“The Hindu god Shiva (Shiv) is the destroyer of the ego and ultimately of the universe”, http://www.sanatansociety.org
Is this posted with a sense of ego?
“Some on welfare do not ‘deserve’ it”? Recipients are evaluated — income, employment status, citizenship — and have been deemed eligible or “deserving”. No, we don’t weed out applicants larryincamden doesn’t like!
Your contention is that there is no fraud, abuse or governmental error in the welfare system?
Such a claim is proven to be rong every day, both federally and within this State.
I “contend” nothing of the sort. I “contend” that fraud, abuse and error are NOT to be tolerated. I “contend” that welfare is demeaning to people, and living wages would be preferable. I contend that your proposed “solution” to any flaws; social Darwinism (my apologies to Charles Darwin for the perversion of his work) is (spelled) WRONG!!!
You seem to have understood that I meant Wrong, even with the dropped “w”, social darwinism? what the heck does that mean? nonsense.
I certainly have never said that people should starve, but people have to have some respect for themselves, and telling anyone that you are not capable of taking care of yourself so I will do it for you is what is demeaning. Once self respect is lost so is the interest in taking care of your self.
This is why some people on welfare feel that society owes them a living. Note that I did not say everyone on welfare.
People do not starve due to lack of self-respect. Demanding an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work is the epitome of self-respect; respect for human dignity. Too much of our welfare subsidizes the low wages of our richest companies, and no, society does not “owe” corporations anything of the sort. Democracy can demand they pay their own freight, and may yet…. Taxpayer savings AND a boost to the economy.
As for the unemployed? (Speaking of a state in which it is difficult to maintain self-respect.) I say we channel FDR who said that if the private sector could not or would not employ people, the government would, in order to fill the many unmet public service/infrastructure needs we have neglected for so long. Taxpayers would be getting services for money they are paying the unemployed instead of paying them to search fruitlessly in the heavily-subsidized/coddled, and, yes, “entitled” “private sector” .
Republicans today don’t have sense enough to fear mass destitution — they see it only as more exploitable labor resources. All of the “business-friendly” rhetoric? Society “owes” everyone at least the same consideration.
People like Pauline Bryant?
First, the phony Republicans in Augusta voted FOR the budget then ran and hid like the COWARDS they are by refusing to stand behind their first vote and and would not even show up to vote down LeBUFFOON’s veto. In the cowardly House they even used an anonymous poll of their members so they wouldn’t have to go on the record. What COWARDS. On “welfare,” then I hope you will lobby hard to end the insane corporate Republican endless tax loopholes for the rich and big corporations which is a transfer of wealth, otherwise known as WEALTHFARE, from the middle class to your corporate masters. Along with that, lobby to end the billions in tax subsidies to oil corporations and others, and to end big contracts, and to end spending endless billions on the militiary industrial complex. All right wing WEALTHFARE for the rich and the big corporations at the expense of everyone else, including yourself. So keep swallowing the FOX NEWS NONSENSE, and get ready for November because we are going to throw out the right wingers in a big way.
“Entitlement”, by definition, means that one is “entitled” to something; Republicans use the term to describe services to which they believe citizens are NOT “entitled”.
The poor often work hard, and their productivity numbers prove it. Rather than wages, that productivity has ALL gone to their bosses while we subsidize poverty wages. Actually, we spend more, per-capita, on the well-heeled than we do the poor in many ways.Corporations are not “entitled” to being “propped up” by the huge tax refunds they claim while paying no taxes at all. (Yes, the working poor DO pay taxes, just not the Federal Income tax.)Middle-class (well, people who think they are in the middle class) homeowners are not “entitled” to being “propped up” by the mortgage interest tax credit.Wal-Mart is not “entitled” to the wages they can leverage via their market power; to being “propped up” on the backs of their workers with wages that are unlivable, and must be subsidized by taxpayers — $500,000 per store per year. Neither is it “entitled” to the billions in taxpayer “incentives”….When that working poor mother, exhausted from taking care of perhaps your elderly family member, swipes an EBT card on her way home to poverty…. I’ll just bet you feel pretty smug as you sneer/look down your nose.
Think about it when you stop and fill up your gas tank with what the government subsidizes more than anything, with our blood and treasure — the oil industry. Ponder as you drive home on public roadways, to a home financed by FHA helped by mortgage interest credits…
The wealthy used to fear widespread poverty — today’s GOP strives for it. What sort of living standard ARE hardworking Americans “entitled” to?
Nice Paullette. A lot nicer than I would be, but take heart – for we shall ask : Paulette, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkEU3JjNARs
James Weathersby, you are correct. Too bad that so many of us run screaming away from the opportunity of discourse with people from different cultures than ours.
You got that from that letter?
After reading that letter five times I could not figure out what the point of the letter was.
Paulette Bryant, you are an example of what I believe will be the norm in the Republican/MHPC/ALEC/Tea Partys vision of the new order in Maine. They will gladly see you suffer because they are unable to differentiate the difference of the truly needy and those who were raised to manipulate the system.
Those raised to manipulate the system would include Republican House Speaker Nutting, who defrauded MaineCare through his pharmacy, and Treasurer Poliquin, who has violated the state Constitution’s prohibition on a Treasurer engaging in private business interests and scammed his home town by claiming lower taxes because his land was allegedly in tree growth.
Don’t you get tired of the baseless nitpicking?
Speaking of baseless …
Gregory Paquet, I find it quite interesting that you have an ordinary guy, a family man, willing to do the right thing by Maine and has worked hard at this for 2 years and gets no recognition at all. On one hand you have these “experienced” politicians who claim that you need to be an “experienced” politician to be a politician Vis a vie Charlie Summer “Mr. Breck” There was a time when you or I could run for office and the voters would listen to what you or I had to say.
Now the media hand picks the candidates based on “30 second sound bites”, good looks, party affiliation, political correctness, winners and losers. Not picked on who is going to do what is right for Maine, for you, for me or for America. I believe it is high time for the voters in this great state to wake up and stop voting for the same players who keep playing the same game, re-running the same political movie. You have sent Pingree, Collins, Snowe, Michaud back to Washington over and over for what result? What is the approval rating of Congress? 10%
Why? Everyone believes there Congressman or woman is the best. Maybe for their district, but the question is are they good for America? Is what they do for their district of benefit for all Americans equally or are they robbing other Americans to benefit their district? Does your representative get the federal government involved in your local affairs? Don’t vote for them if they do.
My heart goes out to Paulette.
Who gets care and who goes without is a decision above all of our “pay grades”. We must decide once and for all that everyone has a right to medical care — then we can argue over how to pay for it.
Paulette – If you are truly needy you will not be losing your MaineCare benefits.
I would say that it is you who is truly needy.
You might be right.
You’re guaranteeing that? Can we hold you to that?
Do you really believe there are 360,000 “truly needy” people in Maine? If so, why is that?
Paulette’s letter illustrates a truly pathetic situation.
I believe it. Just look at the income numbers.
It’s true – the Democrat War on Maine has taken its toll.
Supply-side economics; the liquidation and offshoring of middle class, family-wage jobs…. have taken their toll.
Higher, Eisenhower-level tax rates, actually, encouraged companies to re-invest in their businesses, as those investments are deducted — profit-taking is more painful under higher tax rates as capital flight is more expensive. …more money for public works, infrastructure and services, upon which businesses depend. Higher wages? More consumer demand for these companies’ goods/services.
If our style of capitalism depends on the sort of sub-poverty wages, inhuman working conditions and liquidation of environmental capital that we reject in this country…. It’s wrong.
“If our style of capitalism depends on the sort of sub-poverty wages, inhuman working conditions and liquidation of environmental capital that we reject in this country…. It’s wrong.”
It doesn’t depend on those things and you know it. But I understand how you need to perpetuate this kind of misinformation. Your party, the poverty industry, the environmental lobby and most importantly the labor unions depend on it.
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We’re the greatest country in the world in part because of our diversty.
Gregory Paquet: The reason for leaving Scott D’Amboise out of the poll is obvious–the Maine Republican Committee did not recognize him as a candidate for two years, so did not think it necessary to give him any credence after Olympia dropped out. Scott is too conservative for those who run the party.