All of the above
I have recently semiretired from the oil and gas industry from the environmental remediation side and was glad to hear that Angus King is an “all of the above” strategic energy thinker.
For the first time in decades, we can consider independence close at hand as a result of American technologies being able to extract, create and utilize new energy sources previously out of reach. This is only true if we utilize all our energy options over the long haul.
The “play of the day” is called “fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing of deep sedimentary layers, allowing both oil and natural gas to be recovered economically. Our proven reserves, with more to come, are huge and could allow us to control our energy destiny, now and in the future.
Now we have the “runway” needed to get other clean and safe energy technologies off the ground in the near future, and many are close. We need a regional and national distribution system and to get natural gas into Maine. We need solar, biomass power, tidal, wind and geothermal energy technologies to step up, too.
Every politician needs to fully understand that in the new world competition for energy resources; we need: all of the above.
We need independent pragmatism and thinking, not politicians locked into party orthodoxy that has gotten us nowhere, despite our energy riches.
I have heard King’s thoughts on the subject, and as our independent senator he could bridge the gap between parties on a pragmatic nonpartisan basis, and I am satisfied he truly “gets it.”
Elliott Moorhead
Brunswick
Head Start works
Why did our Maine Republicans, no matter how nice or committed to children they seem in their speeches and in their resumes, vote to cut Head Start? More than any other program, it has been proven to help our children become successful adults.
The military says we need it — Mission Readiness: Invest in Kids, www.missionreadiness.org. Our business community says we need it — America’s Edge: Strengthening Businesses Through Proven Investments in Kids, www.americasedge.org. Our police say we need it — Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, www.fightcrime.org. Who says we don’t need it? Our Maine Republicans.
If the Republicans maintain control of our state Legislature and gain control of the Congress, how will we become competitive as a state or remain competitive as a nation in the years ahead? Republicans invoke Reagan strategies: tax cuts, deregulation and increases in the military budget. Those are yesterday’s.
Anyone trying to get a job or who has children and/or grandchildren trying to get a job, knows this isn’t Reagan’s world. We can’t live on our laurels any longer if we want to be competitive. Comparing scores of the top 34 countries, we rank 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
We need all our people’s talents and skills to create a healthy and prosperous 21st century. Head Start is a proven winner. We need representatives at the state and national level who look to the future rather than hearken to the past.
Joyce Schelling
Orland
Support Schneck
I am writing to support the candidacy of John Schneck for the Maine House of Representatives District 16. I have known Schneck for many years and consider him a valued friend of the people.
Anyone who has made a habit of listening to the news on the radio probably already knows Schneck. As a journalist, Schneck was always fair but probing and delivered plenty of good information about important events to the people of the Bangor area. Now he is prepared to take that same inquisitive nature and put it to work for the people of Bangor and the state of Maine.
Voters in District 16 should embrace the opportunity to send the strongest possible voice for them to Augusta this Nov. 6.
Matt Dunlap
Former State Representative
Old Town
Romney vs. 47 percent
In more than 50 years of watching electoral politics, I’ve never seen a presidential candidate who simply wrote off half of the American public.
Mitt Romney’s apologists argue that he was just (with good cause, evidently) giving up on winning the votes of those who don’t work and don’t pay taxes. Romney’s actual words belie that interpretation. Romney said, in that Florida mansion to his millionaire benefactors: “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” To my mind, he is simply confessing that his administration will not care about or work for half of the American public.
Romney’s will be an administration of the millionaires, by the millionaires and for the millionaires. All of his positions, from health care to tax cuts for the rich, to energy and the environment support that interpretation.
If you’re going to go out on a political limb, Romney, you should at least get your facts straight. As many have pointed out, Romney’s insinuation that 47 percent of the American public is lazy freeloaders is totally wrong. Most of the 47 percent who don’t pay income taxes do work and do pay payroll taxes. Only 18.1 percent of Americans paid neither federal taxes, nor payroll taxes in 2011, and most of them were elderly or earned less than $20,000 a year.
I work and pay plenty of taxes, Romney, but President Barack Obama has been and is now more than ever my candidate.
Sharon Tisher
Orono
Nonconsumer diagnostic headache
At this time, I would like to address the automotive world.
They make nonstick fry pans but they can’t seem to address a coating as good as the fry pans for frames that rust, bodies that rust and bumpers that even rust.
Repairs are not consumer-related any more. Fuel injection is great, but it is a nonconsumer diagnostic headache, the autos are all designed to bring jobs back into the dealer’s workshop.
Bernard Michaud
Presque Isle
Shot in the foot
Seems the Republican Party has shot itself in the foot once again. I had intended to vote straight Republican, but seeing just how ignorant they are they will not get a single vote from me.
I am not a President Barack Obama fan, but he is the lesser of two evils.
I have been a registered independent for 50 years but have always voted for who I thought was the best candidate. Hello, independent U.S. Senate candidate Angus King.
Mary Ellen Daigle
Brewer
Head Start does not teach children about serving God, or about the salvation of their souls. In the end, salvation is the only measure of success that matters.
There are plenty of teachers around the world that are more than willing to teach children their version of god or gods. The trail of blood spilt should lead you to them.
You can’t publicly teach kids the truth about God in this country, unless you want to lose your job. My wife and I have homeschooled ours. 4 of them are adults, and the last one will be an adult soon. They all believe in living according to 100% of the teachings of the Catholic Church, the teachings which are the surest path to salvation. If all our kids die believing the same way they do now, my wife and I will have had 100% success as parents. We may have to spill our blood someday, though, as the leftists are doing all they can to stamp out the truth of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church which he founded.
Your world is one familiar to those of us who have read your earlier comments like this one. Like the Taliban, you cannot concede or imagine that your faith is only one of many and that other good people around the world are not conservative Catholics. No, like the Taliban, for you there is no possible alternative path to salvation save through conservative Catholicism. I bet you, like saintly Rick Santorum, would prefer an America with only one faith. As for the “leftists” you hate, what about the many right-wing devout Catholics in Latin America who have murdered peasants–and, yes, priests–who do not share their authoritarian values? Or are they, like the pedophile priests you exonerated before as not being genuine Catholics, likewise without blame here too? I respect other faiths and wonder how you are so sure yours is the only true faith for salvation.
I don’t hate leftists. I wish that they all will gain the salvation of their souls when they die. The way that I’m sure that the Catholic faith is the true faith is that it is the only Christian religion founded by God himself (he also founded Judaism, but he supplanted that with Catholicism). All other religions were founded by men or women who felt that their own way was better than God’s way. You cannot conceive of that, because you do not have the Catholic faith. You will realize the truth of what I am speaking shortly after you die, though, if you have not yet believed by the time of your death. I’m not saying this to be a bigshot or anything like that. It’s just that I am 110% certain of the truth of the Catholic faith. I have experienced God in physical, tangible ways that most people cannot conceive of. I have tried to express a couple of them on these pages, but everyone has considered me to be nuts. I also personally know 4 people to whom Jesus Christ has appeared. One woman I know, he appeared to twice. One of the 4 people is my brother. My brother spoke with Jesus briefly, and they shook hands with each other. All 4 of the people I know who have seen Jesus are Catholic. Wherever Jesus Christ is, the Catholic Church is there also, and vice-versa. I know that in this “scientific” day and age, people don’t want to believe that, but it’s the absolute truth. And by rejecting the teachings of the Catholic Church, people are rejecting the solution to all the world’s problems. But don’t mind my saying that, I’m just the nutso guy who posts here every so often.
No doubt these people did see Jesus. But only in their dreams.
It is a tiresome argument that others don’t understand Christianity because they don’t “believe.”
So what is left for Jews? To embrace Catholicism? To be denied salvation if they don’t? What an original thought! The Inquisition had a similar notion of religious ‘freedom.” To Jews, of course, Jesus was just a man too. Guess they couldn’t “see the light.” Nice that you and yours have personally met Jesus. So have thousands over the centuries, they have all claimed.
I don’t think he’s supporting the Inquisition. Like most people of strong faith, he believes his faith is correct and “those other people” are wrong. I couldn’t disagree with him more, but that’s *my* faith.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but God didn’t create any religion. All religions are man-based. Christ is the Cornerstone of Christianity and the Savior of all that are willing to accept Him as Savior and Lord. We have a direct line to God through Christ, and we don’t need a church, a religion, a priest, pastor or rabbi, to make that connection.
Except we don’t like what he says about taking care of the poor, or if you are rich you will not get into Heaven. There is a lot that Christians ignore. Have you seen the giant mega churches? Why are you Christians not railing against that? Do you honeslty Believe that Jesus would approve? Christians, yourself included think that the poor do not pay enough in taxes. Really? Very Christian of you.
EJ, you and I actually do have some areas of agreement.
I agree with you that God didn’t create any particular religion. I agree that we can have a personal relationship with God. I agree that we don’t have to have a church, a religion, a priest, pastor or rabbi.
Heistheone is convinced that the Roman Catholic Church is Christ’s one true church, and all other understandings of Christianity are false. There is no salvation outside the Church.
If I understand you correctly, you believe that we must have faith (by which you mean belief) in the saving power of Christ’s sacrifice — and that we may have direct, personal, communion with God.
I’m, in some ways, closer to your understanding.
Yet I follow a third way. You’ve sometimes asked me to state my beliefs.
My understanding of faith is not “belief,” but “trust.”
I trust in God’s promises. I trust that God does not give us any challenge that we cannot overcome. I trust in the path that Jesus set before us.
I trust that a loving God would not create a torture chamber called “Hell,” and then create us so flawed that we had to be sent there.
Christians are not called to “believe” in impossible things, but we are called to trust God, and follow Jesus — to be disciples. Christianity, as I understand it, is about discipleship, not “belief.”
The heart of the Gospel is in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke. There’s nothing in there about belief — it’s all about how we should live.
I also trust in the value of religious community — it’s easy to be “spiritual but not religious” all by yourself. Being privately spiritual without being religious in community doesn’t really interest me.
So, while it’s true that we don’t have to have a church, I think it helps to have one.
It’s more challenging to be a Christian in community, where someone might call you on your stuff or even disagree with you. Life with God gets a lot deeper and more provocative when you participate in a tradition you didn’t invent all by yourself.
And so it is my understanding that our challenge is to walk together in the paths of goodness and truth, to the best extent that we understand them now or may learn them in days to come, so that we and our children may be fulfilled, and that we may speak to the world in words and deeds of peace and goodwill.
“Live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” — Micah 6:8
That’s a quick synopsis of my faith.
Peace to you, my brother.
Perhaps you should place your faith in the teachings of the Beloved Dali Lama. Now there is both a smart and peaceful guy.
Jesus did not found the Catholic Church. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew.
And the first christians were communists in the truest sense of the word – they shared everything.
Since you were there, was it called “The Peoples Republic of Christendom”?
Acts 2:44-45
“And all who believed were together, and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
Acts 4:32
“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.”
Personally, I think that, outside of some religious communities such as the Hutterites and the Shakers, socialism doesn’t really work very well. I’m a Democrat, not a Socialist.
Nonetheless, the Acts of the Apostles says that socialism is what the first Christians practiced.
My point was that modern day Communists have nothing in common with wandering preachers from 2000 years ago.
I expect that you and I would actually agree that state socialism (government ownership of the means of production) doesn’t work very well. This is why China has embraced capitalism, even while the Chinese “Communist” Party still retains one-party control.
Joke: “What happens when socialism comes to the desert? For a long while, nothing. But eventually there is a shortage of sand.”
The Hutterites and the Shakers have had some success with socialism, and many co-ops have been successful. But socialism is generally a failure in most settings.
But then, I support the Democratic Party (and some independents, and an occasional Republican) not the Socialist Party.
Yes, it’s a fact that most modern well-educated Westerners, whatever their politics, don’t have much in common with Aramaic-speaking (and possibly illiterate) Jewish preachers of 2,000 years ago.
Jesus was born the Son of God and died on a cross for our sins. 3 days later He rose from the grave and is alive and well in Heaven.
Odinn hung from the World Tree for 9 days and 9 nights, he sacrificed himself to give mankind writing (runes).
At the Well of Mimir Odinn sacrificed his left eye to drink from the knowledge of the well.
He is alive and well in Valhalla, where the valaiant may join him after death.
Norse Eddas.
Well, Odin promised no more Ice Giants, God promise end of all wicked people. I don’t see any Ice Giants running around.
Jesus was a big Socialist. You are nothing like Jesus. Heck you pretty much go against everything he stood for. Calling your self a a man of God doesn’t not mean anything. Have you read the Bible?
Yep. Read it cover to cover several times. Studied it for years. I’ve written about it through poetry, devotionals, and dramas for years. I walk and talk daily with Christ, and I listen for His instructions. And no matter how much you denigrate or disrespect Him, that’s your right. So, go ahead and call Him a Socialist and put me down all you want. You really don’t have a clue.
Calling Jesus a socialist isn’t an insult.
Did the Shakers think it wasn an insult to be called socialists? No. They were Christian socialists, they chose to be socialists, and didn’t mind being called what they chose to be.
We know from the Gospels that Jesus and his disciples shared a common purse. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that the first Christians shared all goods in common.
To call socialism “socialism” isn’t an insult, it’s simply a fact.
Of course Jesus wasn’t a “state socialist.” Government ownership of the means of production almost never works very well. That’s why the Communist Party in China promotes capitalism.
But many co-ops do work very well, and the Christian socialist Hutterites seem to be doing quite well.
To say that the Apostles did something that they actually did is not to insult them. And to say that they got the idea from Jesus is not to insult him, either.
You need to read again, because the stuff you write on these post would make Jesus ashamed.
Unnecessary insults.
Amen.
We most certainly can teach children about Jesus. We cannot teach YOUR version of Jesus because your version is based on a personally held belief which may or may not be true. We can certainly teach about a historical figure named Jesus that many people believe to be the son of god. If we taught your version, we would be ‘preaching’, not ‘teaching’.
I meant the above to be a reply to heistheone
Thank you. I was rather confused for a moment!
That’s the reason one can’t publicly teach kids religion. Because your God (your concept of God) is different from other Christians concepts. Keep it up and see how fastyou’ll loose your other conservative Christian allies.
You’ll be 100% successful as parents? Beware of someone who has all the answers (or thinks they do).
You’re being persecuted by “leftists”? Hardly. I worry more about your implied theocracy.
I’ve taught Comparative Religions in a private school. I believe the same course could easily be offered in a public school.
The topic of religion isn’t taboo — but teaching doctrine in a public school would certainly be a problem because of a little thing called the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Of course, the Roman Catholics have many of their own schools where they are free to teach as much doctrine as they wish.
That is because that mythology belongs in the PRIVATE houses of mythology that you right wingers, who think people and dinosaurs lived together six thousand years ago, like to frequent on Sunday. Kindly keep your mythological religion in your house and in your church which is are the only two places it belongs.
And well they should not !
How about those kids who have no obvious help from God or anyone else? Like the old Charlie Brown cartoon where he’s flat on his back and his friends say, “Be of good cheer” and don’t help him up. Some Samaritan you’d be.
I am very happy my taxes don’t go to pay for that.
Well they do in a way. Churches etc. get a 100% free ride in the US and taxpayers subsidize them indirectly w public services. This is only partially true for non-religious nonprofit organizations because they are required to pay payroll taxes. The clergy is included in Romney’s 47%.
The churches also pay payroll taxes (that is, church employees pay payroll taxes like everyone else, and the money gets deducted from their paycheck like everyone else).
Churches, like schools and colleges, don’t pay property tax.
Religious organizations do not pay Federal or state unemployment tax, which means their employees are not eligible for unemployment insurance.
You are simply wrong.
Let me qualify that by saying they are not required to pay FUTA and state unemployment tax. Some may elect to do so. Believe me I know. I spent five years fighting for unemployment benefits (and won) because of this.
You can’t include payroll taxes, if you did the republican talking point of half the country not paying taxes goes down the crap shoot. SO SHUSH! you are ruining it for them.
Wow! Head Start observes the First Ammendment. Now there’s a reason to be against them.
Joyce Schelling, while I agree that the earlier we start teaching our children the better, I also wish that we could do more to insure that parents are taking responsibility for their duty as parents.
I agree but a lot of parents need a lot of help with that.
Currently it seems that society has been the enablers. By enablers, I mean like family and friends that turn a blind eye to their addictions or even supply the users with the means to continue their addiction.
This society is teaching young kids that their parents aren’t really responsible in the feeding, clothing, and all the other little mundane things that parents used to be held accountable for. These children are growing up thinking that society owes them. They will soon be old enough to have children of their own, with none of the parenting skills.
We need to make some fundamental changes.
100%
And this attitude comes from your generation ;)
Yours also.
I’m so ashamed.
Oh puhlease…. :-)
:)
Pretty soon parents will expect the government to take care of their kids straight from the womb .
More hyperbolic nonsense. HeadStart works, but TeaPublicans would rather give our money to millionaires and billionaires than help children get a better early education so that they CAN pick themselves up by those bootstraps you love to talk about so much. You right wingers talk so much about how you just lllllllllove God and Jesus and how much you love all these poor underprivileged kids while they are in the womb, but the moment they are born, you all hate them as “dependent riffraff” while you smooch the toenails of your corporate masters. Then, of course, you are the first to have a love affair with YOUR government spending (military, oil companies, Halliburton, wars, …), and a love affair with YOUR Social Security and Medicare and schools and football teams and roads … You right wingers are as BIG GOVERNMENT as anyone else. And you know it. So enough of the hypocrisy for once. Jesus would be disgusted with it.
I will take a shot of what you are drinking, it would be nice to blank out reality once in a while
In that regard you need no help.
Wow ,all I was trying to say is that parents need to try parenting .How that is a right wing statement I don’t know.And honestly I don’t care what anybody else does it’s none of my biznez.
Republicans sure don’t, especially for those kids they ignore in bad situations from birth.
huh
Pretty soon the Republicans will force women to have babies they do not want!
Joyce, Matt, Sharon, and Ellen, you are all SPOT ON. The GOP was once a moderately conservative reasonable second national party. Now they are the Extremist TeaPublican Party and they must go. They are shameful.
Democrat the Extremist party. The democratic socialist party must go before the deficit goes to new heights. Nothing conservative about the Democratic party whatsoever.
I agree with the last sentence but vehemently disagree with the 1st two.
It is not much different than saying the Democratic Party have become a Party of Extreme Liberalism.
Saying does not make it so.
True though.
The Democratic Party has remained pretty much where it has been all during my lifetime — although Barak Obama’s Affordable Care Act (Obama Cares) is considerably more conservative than what Truman, Lyndon Johnson, the Kennedy brothers, and other Democrats had been proposing.
Truman and Ted Kennedy wanted a single-payer system. Obama’s Republican-inspired plan sends everyone to (capitalist) insurance companies — and so I don’t understand why the Republicans are calling Romneycare-Obamacare “socialism” now, when they previously said that it was the free-enterprise alternative to the Democratic plan.
So the Democrats remain a bit left of center, where they’ve been all of my adult life.
But the Republicans have moved farther and farther to the right. Look at Mitt Romney — he once favored some gun control, favored abortion rights, favored Romneycare, favored gay rights, opposed the Grover Norquist pledge.
Now he goes wherever the far right is leading. Yet the Republicans still just barely trust him.
Today’s Republicans are heirs to the John Birch Society of the 1950s and ’60s, the folks who said that President Eisenhower, a Republican, was a Communist.
Not true at all. I can remember pro-defense Scoop Jackson, a tax cutting JFK, A pro-Vietnam war LBJ, a welfare cutting Bill Clinton. I can think of no Democrats that hold a similar position on similar issues of the day. I think those rose colored glasses of yours are a heavier shade of red than Democrats of the past.
And I remember a tax-cutting Barak Obama who got bin Laden and other top terrorists, and moved to Clinton’s right on health care.
Welfare-cutting budget-balancing Bill Clinton is supporting the tough-guy-on-foreign-policy, moves-to-the-right on health care, tax-cutting Obama.
It’s true, however, that George W. Bush didn’t learn a darn thing from Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam War blunder.
Maybe you’ve gone so far right that the center now looks like the left from where you stand.
I think its likely the other way around. Don’t fall off the edge my friend.
Sacre bleu!
Seeing is believing.
As there is no word “extemist” in my English dictionary, I presume you have invented a word which means “most esteemed.” You are right, the Democratic Party is the most esteemed party in the nation, given the low national regard for the reactionary, retrograde and recalcitrant Republican Party. Ronald Reagan could not be nominated for dog-catcher by today’s Republican Party, given his support for tax increases and the earned income tax credit.
As English must not be your native language, given your spelling difficulties, I presume you don’t know the meaning of the word “socialist” or that the three principal causes of the current deficit are the Bush tax cuts, Bush’s unfunded war in Afghanistan, and the Bush Recession.
Sometimes double vistion glasses can equate to mistakes.Though I think the Republican Party tends to be more responsive, than the Democrats. They are not as obstinate as you suggest.
Websters dictionary, 1
: the quality or state of being extreme
2: advocacy of extreme measures or views : radicalism
Thanks to Obama we have the hightest deficit ever, although I am sure you will blame it on Bush, the fact is it happened under Obama’s administration. Do not forget them draggin an American Ambassador through the streets. He was suppose to bring our troops home, is that why more troops have died in Afghanistand than before. How about gas prices, oh I know you will say it is not the Presidents fault, though people blamed Bush when they were high. I am not as naive as you would suggest with your Democratic, high above everyone else language.
You have corrected your earlier post. Pray tell, what does “obstinant” in your current post mean?
I can admit to my mistakes, unlike the Democratic Administration or Democrats in general. Obstnant, corrected obstinate reflects on your comment “recalcitrant”. Interesting that you have not corrected the spelling on the Liberal side of the comments. I guess that could mean one sided.
Yeah, you really sound like you’re admitting to your mistakes when you preface with your admission with finger pointing.
Actually, you blamed your misspelling on your glasses, not yourself.
As the President has told supporters that he was not at his best in last week’s debate, it is curious that you would say his administration can’t admit to a mistake. It is Romney whose campaign book is entitled “No Apologies” and Romney who stood by his 47% comments for about a month. Sadly, for conservatives, the bulk of the spelling and grammar mistakes on this site are from their side of the ideological divide. I have corrected liberal spelling mistakes, but there is much less room for correction. Did you know that as education level rises so, too, does the likelihood of one’s voting Democratic?
Did you also notice the smugness increases in proportion to how liberal a Democrat they are? I can also blame misspelling on other areas, but you would just say they are an excuse.
Please don’t use an apostrophe to create a plural form. The word is “areas,” not “area’s.”
I am somewhat surprised that you are only correcting spelling and not grammar. Though the word somewhat is not necessary in the above sentence. I also do not have to put myself up on a pedestal, if I wanted to do that I would use spell check. lol
Your first post today is an assault on the rules of grammar. It contains two sentence fragments out of its attempted three sentences!
Were your ideas more cogent and less a screed, I would criticize them.
They have been enough for you to comment on, though if you enjoy going on a diatribe with my spelling and grammar that is ok. The fact still remain the deficit is enourmous thanks to Obama and his administration.’s that is ok
Now you are meeking mistaulks on porporse.
Sacre bleu!
Correct, and the unnecessary apostrophe is one of my pet peeves.
But we all make spelling mistakes and typos.
I recall none from you, penzance. I take the time to proofread, as I suspect you do as well.
I really don’t think that Ronald Reagan would be advocating the EITC and tax increases were he alive today. Economies are moving targets and policies that worked in one economy may not, and probably would not, work in another.
LOL! Consider the Gipper’s words: “The Earned Income Tax Credit is the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” This doesn’t sound like qualified support to me.
Consider that since he spoke those words the real value of the minimum wage has declined, AFDC has been replaced with TANF subject to a five year limit, and the unemployment rate for those with a high school degree or less has increased.
He raised taxes shortly after the last time we had unemployment above 10% and did it a total of eleven times.
The times may not be different, but the Republican Party surely is. It is a party dedicated to tax cuts ad infinitum and foolish wars with the target Muslim country of the moment.
ROFLMAO. Yes he said that and it was right for the time. I really don’t think that he expected that such a large percentage of the population would ever be eligible with its expansion.
“Economies are moving targets and policies that worked in one economy may not, and probably would not, work in another. ”
well actually they are the center on a lot of issues, Republicans want to ban Gay marriage, the oppiste would be to only allow gay marriage, the middle ground is to allow any two people to marry. Republicans want to ban abortion, the oppiste would be everyone gets an abortion. The middle ground is to allow the person to choose.
Middle ground is not to allow murder. Gay marriage has already been voted on by the State of Maine how many times.
actually, no you are wrong. Middle ground would be to allow the people to kill who they choose, The two opposites are murder everyone, or not allow murder. It has been voted on 1 time. That was a peoples veto.
Some place and people want to murder on both ends. If you get the chance watch the movie Logan’s Run.
well we are not talking about just murder then. We are talking about reasons to kill. Those can be very different.
You’ve been corrected how many times and yet you still push the same misinformation. We’ve voted on gay marriage once before and that’s it. One time.
Still it has been voted on
Yeah, once. Not multiple times like you’ve suggested. So you were wrong. Have some personal responsibility and apologize.
Once.
When freedoms are denied, how often should we vote to expand freedom?
Spot on, Ms. Tisher. Sadly, Romney was born on third base and is convinced he hit a triple. He has no concept of how many lives he ruined in his outsourcing, down-sizing days at Bain, and how many lives he could still ruin, should we be foolish enough to elect him, with his plans for voucherizing Medicare, down-sizing and outsourcing Medicaid to the states, and means-testing Social Security. We built this country and he wants to take it away from us.
Still hating the successful white male, huh. How many lives has the Teleprompter in Chief destroyed by his policies of maintaining a war in Afghanistan. Whose “we”?
As a huge believer in Warren Buffett and other successful white males, I find your comment perplexing. Buffett, unlike Romney, doesn’t wish to lift the ladder up once he has climbed it but recognizes his obligation to continue to fund the education and infrastructure of this country.
By we I mean everyone who has contributed to this country’s success, from the slaves who built the buildings of 19th Century Washington, D.C., to the labor unions who brought us the minimum wage and the forty hour work week, to the workers and soldiers who helped win WW II, to the inventors who have fired our technological progress.
We have a candidate in Romney who talks of Social Security and Medicare as undeserved “entitlements.” Our tax dollars have funded those programs and I’ll not let Romney voucherize and privatize those programs. We, as a people, paid for those benefits already.
Unglued, 9/11 was launched from Afghanistan. Unlike the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War is not based on a tissue of lies. Unlike Bush and Romney, who couldn’t (Bush) and wouldn’t (Romney) bring bin Laden to justice, President Obama did.
Apparently you grieve for bin Laden, as Obama has surely destroyed his life.
The Afghanistan war was launched by a Republican, President Bush the younger.
Obama inherited Bush’s two wars, 1) a war in Afghanistan that made sense — but was neglected and bungled by Bush. And 2) a war in Iraq that never made a lick of sense, and was also bungled for a long time by Bush.
Obama ended Bush’s unnecessary war in Iraq.
Bush’s Afghanistan war has been more complicated, because we can’t just let the Taliban come back in. They harbored and protected the al Quaeda terrorists who launched the 9/11 attacks. So, unless you want another 9/11, you might want Obama to remain thoughtful and careful about how and when we get out of Bush’s Afghanistan War.
Sharon, I have never heard a presidential candidate talk about the 57 states in the USA before but somehow you Obummer supporters managed to overlook that one. The first debate Romney made Obama look like the true baffoon he truly is. It was the first time he had ever been put on the spot to answer things for himself and it showed how reliant he is on the teleprompter
Same old, same old.
you are correct, and we cant handle another 4 years of the same old. same old
I have never heard a presidential candidate throw almost half the population of the USA under the bus before either.
Obama has thrown the whole country under the bus, with the exception of all of the votes he has been buying with his free phone and handout programs. He has done more damage to this country and the economy than most people even realize.He has done nothing but campaign for the last two years and solved nothing. Print more money increase the debt, and de value the dollar. The country can not survive another 4 years of his “hopeless change”
“even though some beneficiaries may credit President Obama for providing the phones, Lifeline is an extension of a program that has existed since 1985. Still, critics including Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., note the program has swelled from $772 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion.”Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/28/viral-video-touting-obama-phone-puts-spotlight-on-16-billion-federal-program/#ixzz28obZ7Yrj
Who was the President in 1985? If you intend to spread a lie at least make it hard for people to find out the difference. Now go back to watching Fox and listening to Rush Limbaugh.
really? Do you remember 2008? You are going to sit there and say we are worst then we were in 2008? Really? Do you remember that whole big economic mess? No?
we borrowed and printed money to make it look better on the surface but are only further in debt because of the lack of spending cutbacks open your eyes and mind for a moment
If you think we are doing worst now, then we were 4 years ago…. Spending cutbacks are not going to get us out of this. Romney wants to cut PBS, but increase military spending? Cutting PBS is like deleting text files to free up room on your 500 gig hard drive. You hatred for Obama is shining through. The market lost 40% of its value between 2008 and 2009. Corps are making record profits. The markets are up. We are doing a lot better. It doesn’t feel like it however because employment has not gone back up. Which is not surprising since companies are becoming MORE productive with less people. We need to let the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone. Yes we need to cut spending, first place to start would be the one that takes most of the money and raise taxes.
Better do more homework. If you took all pof the money your so called rich have it wouldnt put a dent in our debt.PBS was just a small example of where cuts will be made. Maybe you think we should be borrowing money from China to give to PBS.Obama has been playing that card since the debate because he doesnt know what else to do looks like you are doing the same
I never mentioned the rich, I said raise taxes on everyone. Cutting PBS is nothing but republican feel good story. It will do nothing to change our deficit problem. The issue is we are not making cuts were we are spending the most money. That is what we need to do. Cut military spending with is 1/4 of our total budget followed by healthcare spending. Why these are not first on the cutting list is baffling. We got into this problem together we can get out of it together, but republicans just want the government to fix it. They don’t seem to care as long as they do not have to pay a dime more.
WOW are you brainwashed!! The democrats want big government and want government to pay for everything including Obama care. The government has no money until they take it from someone. If they took all of the money we have it wouldnt pay off the debt, dont you understand that??? Flat tax and cut spending would solve our problems, but when you have our borders overflowing and illegals getting everything for free, which they have contributed nothing to then how do you get spending under control.Stop the handouts, stop the spending also may be a good idea to stop paying people to show up at Romney rallys waving the Obama phones in the air also WOW are you getting desperate!!!!!
Lots of right wing bashing today. Must be getting close to Election Day. Of course, we all know who’s side the BDN is on. The wrong side, as usual.
So the BDN is on the side of the letters they publish? Maybe you believe in censorship but a lot of us don’t. I was going to say, welcome back to the forums but now I’m not so sure.
Censorship? I was talking about bias. And you know you missed me.
I don’t know — could it be that more liberals bother to read newspapers? Just a thought….
You pretending to be victimized, as usual.
And you’re wrong, as usual.
Oh please, you don’t have a real response to the letters that were written, so you just whine about some made up bias. It shows a lack of substance on your part and desperation.
Can you come up with another phrase when you disagree with someone than “Oh please”?
Can you come up with a more substantive response than nitpicking my word choice? You hate the nanny state because you want to be the nanny yourself? lol
Oh Please!!
How about “Gee Wiz!” ?
I would go with that, for a while, but even then the same ministration for every point of disagreement would grow boring and repetitive. Mix it up and don’t be so predictable I say.
The French say “sacre bleu!” or “holy blue!” whatever that means.
:)
It’s a substitution for “sacre dieu” which avoids taking the deity’s name in vain.
E. Moorhead, J. Schelling, S. Tisher: good letters.
M. E. Daigle: glad to hear that Republicans will not be getting your votes.
Sharon Tisher- Mitt Romney was born with a silver foot in his mouth. Do you suppose he knows why the 47% don’t pay any taxes? Maybe it is because they do not earn enough? Big Lots is opening a new store in Farmington and advertising to hire 55 part time jobs that pay “public assistance” wages. Add them to Romney’s 47%. We can also add them to the welfare rolls here in Maine. They will need food stamps, LLIHEAP, and MaineCare to get by with a part time, minimum wage job. Just a guess, but I’ll bet the owner’s of Big Lots are huge Romney supporters. Even though Mitt is lamenting that their employees do not pay taxes. How is that for irony? lol. At least the good people of Farmington will now have another option when it comes to where to get their cheap Chinese crap.
Why don’t these applicants have better job skills so they can go else where? Did they not have an opportunity to get a free education, job training etc? or did they make bad choices?
How do we know whether any of these applicants have degrees or not? There isn’t much for work in rural Maine these days. I know people who are working at similar jobs who have degrees, there just isn’t any openings in their field and they are doing what they have to to survive. My point, one that has yet to be responded to directly, is that these type of jobs hurt our economy, not help. They pay “public assistance” wages, only offer part time employment, kill small businesses, and over load our social services. No one can survive on $7.50 an hour, part time in 2012 America without a lot of government cheese to make up the difference. Government cheese that you and I pay for. When you work for minimum wage, you are eligible for every assistance program available, as well you should be. I for one resent my tax dollars being used to support these big corporation’s employees so they do not have to. How do you feel about that?
“Free” education? There’s no such thing. Another conservative misstatement?
King is not a strategic energy thinker. Anyone who researches wind will discover it is a scam that makes people like King wealthy while taking advantage of less fortunate Mainers with gag agreements and short tern bribes while jeopardizing the most important commodity Maine has- its natural beauty and wildlife. Fox news just unearthed this scam- wind will NOT get us off foreign oil, does NOT reduce CO2 emissions..is destructive, intermittent and makes people ill with Wind Turbine Syndrome. It is not free- it is VERY expensive and does not work, King has sold us lies just as all wind promoting companies have. It sounds good but if you do the research there is nothing good about it.
I just drove through Camden , Angus signs everywhere funny I didnt notice any wind power on top of Ragged mountain when I drove by. Wind power is a money pit that tax payers pay for and those like Angus get rich off
Moreover, King’s wind partner Yale University, hiding behind the shell company name “Bayroot”, is a huge liquidation harvester in Maine. Meanwhile, Yale’s school of Forestry & Environmental studies boasts as to being one of the great protectors of the planet.
While I can appreciate the motivation Ms Schelling your comment about Head Start helping our children become effective adults simply isn’t true.
By the time a child reaches second grade the differences between a child with Head Start experiences and others is negligible.
From a DHHS report:
Though the program had a “positive impact” on children’s experiences
through the preschool years, “advantages children gained during their
Head Start and age 4 years yielded only a few statistically significant
differences in outcomes at the end of 1st grade for the sample as a
whole. Impacts at the end of kindergarten were scattered…”
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/research/project/head-start-impact-study-and-follow-up-2000-2012