Editorials

Published
August 11, 2011

Our View: Congress should not rush back to Washington

Dysfunction in the capital has already caused enough damage. Now is the time to listen.
Published
August 11, 2011

Our View: Portland should promotenew chief from within

Portland's new city manager, Mark Rees, has a lot to do as he starts work this summer, but there's one item he can knock off his list right away. A national search is not needed to find the right person to run the Police Department.
Published
August 10, 2011

Our View: All our leaders failedto meet S&P downgrade challenge

Chalk it up as another opportunity not taken, another moment not seized, another chance for leadership allowed to slip away. Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the United States' credit rating last Friday was unnecessary and unjustified but certainly not unexpected. America's leaders could have been and should have been ready for it, prepared to respond in a way that would have reassured the nation and the world, calmed the financial markets and refuted S&P's fatuous suggestion that the greatest country on earth is so dysfunctional it can't be trusted to pay its debts. The country's political system is dysfunctional, without a doubt – so dysfunctional that long-serving and devoted practitioners of the system, like U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, have declared it broken. Snowe said last week that "the art of governing and legislating has been virtually lost."
Published
August 9, 2011

Our View: Does your cellphone tell cops where you are? It can if they want it to

If you carry a phone, you're never hard to find, even if you have a right to be.
Published
August 9, 2011

Our View: S&P bond rating panicbased on fear, not facts

If you believed some of the commentary taking place over Standard & Poor's decision to reduce the U.S. bond rating from AAA to AA+, you would think that astronomers had just detected a killer asteroid that would destroy all life on Earth. In truth, the decision by one rating agency (which the two other major rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch, have declined to join) has changed nothing about the nation's underlying ability to pay its debts on time. That ability remains as strong as ever. Even assuming a worst-case scenario, in which Congress failed to come up with a proposal last week to raise the debt limit, federal revenues remain sufficient to pay all the interest on our debt as well as fully fund programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

Published
August 8, 2011

Our View: While cannabis is illegal, dispensaries will struggle

The tension between state and federal law prevents Maine from fulfilling its vision.
Published
August 7, 2011

Another View: Ralph Carmona a ‘serious’ candidate for Portland mayor

A columnist over-rated how Ethan Strimling's entry changed the dynamics of the race.
Published
August 7, 2011

Our View: Investor confidence hurt by dysfunction in D.C.

Watching Congress almost fail to solve a problem it created produces a feeling of unease.
Published
August 6, 2011

Our View: Food safety program cuts mindless, shortsighted

Reducing inspectors' ability to prevent food-borne epidemics is the wrong way to save money.
Published
August 5, 2011

Another View: Changing registration laws would disenfranchise voters

A columnist who claims otherwise doesn't understand what universal suffrage means.

Sign In:

Editorials