A Little Comment(ary)...

Economics as if humans mattered
Transforming U.S. capitalism might be tough, but it could benefit workers and employers.
By JOHN BUELL

In 1848, Karl Marx predicted capitalism’s demise. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama assured his readers that liberal democratic capitalism represented the end of history. In 2007, there may be reasons to suspect capitalism will evolve in ways we can, at best only, partially imagine.

In 1960, most politically savvy Americans could hardly have foreseen George W. Bush. Even many Republicans accepted a “mixed economy,” which included a safety net and called for fine-tuning deficit and monetary policy to assure equity and stable growth.

Liberals and conservatives have different takes on the fate of this dream.

Conservatives argue that market manipulations undermine automatic and beneficent market balances, and that safety nets encourage moral sloth and thereby exacerbate social problems. Ronald Reagan saved U.S. capitalism by cutting taxes and deregulating the economy, they believe.

Liberals reply that Reagan tax cuts and deregulation led to growing economic inequality.

Both sides can make plausible arguments. Inequality did increase, but even working-class Americans reaped modest gains in disposable income.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=138873&ac=Insight

Newsroom gets head start on 2008 coverage
By JEANNINE GUTTMAN

Our newsroom has elections on its mind.

In less than three weeks, we’ll be covering the Nov. 6 elections, which will consist primarily of municipal races but will also include five statewide referendums. Numerous reporters and editors are working now to complete election advance stories and candidate profiles.

Today, on Page 1, we begin a five-part series that looks at the statewide issues on that ballot. Our State House reporter, Paul Carrier, delves into the question that would allow the Passamaquoddy Tribe to build a racetrack with slot machines in Washington County. His story also compares this year’s campaign with previous efforts in Maine to legalize gambling.

The series continues through Thursday, examining proposals by the state to borrow millions of dollars for economic development, education and land preservation. There’s also a question that would amend Maine’s term limits law for legislators from four to six terms.

As soon as this campaign season ends, our editors will begin work on coverage plans for the Nov. 4, 2008, election. While that date is more than a year away, our journalists are already thinking about how best to cover that important election.

The 2008 election cycle represents a major news event for the state. In addition to the presidential race, Maine voters will decide a pivotal U.S. Senate contest, two U.S. House seats – including an open one – and all legislative offices. There may also be key referendum items on the ballot.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=141729&ac=Insight

Editorial: Laptops pass writing test
By BDN Staff
Bangor Daily News

It turns out that Angus King and the few longtime proponents of the state’s laptop initiative were right. Or make that "write."

A study completed by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine confirmed what educators have already observed for some time — the laptop program, which put computers in the hands of seventh- and eighth-grade students throughout the state beginning in 2002, is helping make them better writers.

The Maine Education Assessment showed that 49 percent of seventh- and eighth-graders were proficient in writing in 2005, up from 29 percent in 2000. That’s enough of a jump to indicate something substantial changed in schools, and that something, according to David Silvernail, director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, is giving middle school students laptops.

http://bangornews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=155850&zoneid=34

Iraqis find peace, but it's in Maine
By BILL NEMITZ

AUBURN — Meet Warius. I'd give you his full name, but doing so might get someone killed.

"Who knows? There might even be some people who are inside the states now," Warius said Friday as his 2-year-old son nestled against his knee. "Al-Qaida has got connections everywhere."

He has good reason to be wary. Before arriving here a month ago with his wife and four children from the Iraq city of Kut, Warius, 35, served for four years as a translator in Iraq -- first for the United Nations, then for the U.S. military.

Now, along with a dozen others like him who obtained precious "special immigration visas" from the State Department, he's here in Maine, marveling at the way life should be.

"America is a safe haven," Warius said, pronouncing the last word like "heaven."

The 13 translators, four of whom brought their families, are here for two reasons.

First, the longer they stayed in their $1,000-per-month jobs helping the U.S. and Iraqi militaries communicate, the more endangered they became.

"It's unbearable," Warius said. "Only recently, we lost five of our friends who worked with us. They were starting to leave Iraq and (insurgents) killed them right in front of their houses."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=143431&ac=PHnws

Dad to honor fallen soldier, politics aside
Sgt. Chris Gelineau's father won't let the unveiling of a plaque for him become "a photo op for politicians."
By BILL NEMITZ

Yes, he will be there Saturday when the Maine Army National Guard unveils a plaque honoring his fallen son. And yes, John Gelineau will take a deep breath and somehow summon the strength to say a word or two.

But he has one condition.

"No politicians," Gelineau said Thursday morning in the quiet of his living room in Buxton. "I told them if I'm going to do this, it's not going to be a photo op for politicians."

So much has happened since that horrible day in April of 2004 when Sgt. Chris Gelineau, 23, died after a roadside bomb hit his convoy on the outskirts of Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Eleven months after Chris, a member of the Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion, was laid to rest, his young widow, Lavinia, was murdered by her abusive father, who then killed himself.

The same year, John Gelineau, long divorced, married Iulia, Lavinia's mother. Just over a year ago, they moved from Vermont to West Buxton.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=144686&ac=PHnws

Can you live with yourself, petty thief?
By BILL NEMITZ

WINDHAM — You know who you are.

Late last Saturday night, you drove down the long driveway leading to Riding to the Top, a nonprofit therapeutic riding center that for 10 years has served hundreds of Mainers with physical, emotional or learning disabilities.

You stopped outside the center's sprawling new indoor arena. You got out, walked into the unlocked mechanical room and grabbed every power tool you could carry.

The tenant in the nearby caretakers house saw something going on, but before she could come over and investigate, you were long gone.

Congratulations. You got away with what most of us would file under "petty theft."

Now meet Sarah Bronson.

"It's really the principle of the whole thing that's eating at me," said Bronson, who co-founded Riding to the Top and serves as its program director, as she showed the crime scene.

"RTT has been so much about building community and giving and commitment. It just feels so rotten that somebody would do this -- especially when there are so many good people doing good things here."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=145137&ac=PHnws

Welcome to Maine, which put the 'vy' in Vienna
By RAY ROUTHIER

Like a lot of folks who have adopted Maine as their home, I take great pride in pronouncing place names incorrectly.

When I first moved to Maine and looked at a map, I knew how to pronounce the Washington County town of Calais. It's KAL'-ay, like the French town it's named after, right?

Wrong, I was told by locals. It's KAL'-uhs. Fine. I decided I would memorize the wrong way to say it and keep saying it that way because that's how they say it here, which means the wrong way to say it is really the right way to say it.

That last sentence is awful confusing, I know. But it is a linguistically correct summary of how local place names often gain their accepted pronunciations, according to Wayne Cowart, head of the linguistics department at the University of Southern Maine.

"The spelling usually comes in the form of the first language it was spoken in, then people who don't speak that language encounter it and basically take a stab at pronouncing it," said Cowart.

And the stab usually sticks.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=144541&ac=MaineLife

Law clear as mud on birth control
The issue isn't entirely in the Portland School Committee's hands.
By BILL NEMITZ

A law book can be like a house of mirrors. The more you look for a clear way out, the more you keep bumping into things.

Take, for example, the ongoing flap over the Portland School Committee's decision to allow contraceptive services, without parental permission, for students at King Middle School.

As reported Monday, the conservative American Center for Law & Justice in Washington, D.C., has dispatched Portland attorney Stephen Whiting to this evening's School Committee meeting to demand that the committee rescind or at least overhaul its controversial policy. If it doesn't, the attorney has warned, it will see the ACLJ in court.

"The action would be a constitutional challenge by the parents against the school board," Whiting said Tuesday. "We've got at least one parent who has a kid in the school -- and I'm sure that as time goes on, we'll probably have more."

Meaning, like it or not, the ACLJ can come up with the legal standing to fight this battle -- just as it has fought (and lost) in the past in Maine over domestic partnerships and school choice.

But assuming it goes forward, this case will be about a lot more than a local school policy.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=146135&ac=PHnws

Political circus in the House
Even some opponents of the administration oppose impeachment.
By BILL NEMITZ

Warning: Do not read the following quote without a jump-start from your morning coffee.

"They chose the first motion instead of the second, when they should have voted on the second first," said U.S. Rep. Tom Allen by phone from Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Political doublespeak at its finest, you say?

Guess again. In the wild, wild world of the U.S. House of Representatives, Allen's tongue-twister actually made sense.

It all started Tuesday when U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, leader of the movement to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney, managed to get a resolution before the House calling for Cheney's impeachment.

Not surprisingly, a motion to table the resolution immediately followed.

That's when the fun began.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=146551&ac=PHnws

Aim for responsible peace in Mideast
By Grace Braley

Palestinian rights and a dialogue with respect for both Israelis and Palestinians seemed to me a constructive proposal ("Quest for peace fuels criticism of Israel," Maine Voices, Oct. 9). It also called for recognition of U.S. responsibility.

The column then named actions taken by Israel, which led to more writers in a confrontation over "historic facts" and accusations of bias that don't go toward any kind of respect or peace.

Israel may be outnumbered 5-1. It also has army, weapons, occupational control and U.S. aid and backing.

Israeli peace organizations regularly offer support and assistance to agricultural and other needs of Palestinians, with certain rabbis participating. Palestinian mayors and other leaders insist on commitments to nonviolence, and they build programs to organize youth.

These actions are not about debate over who did what and when.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=146661&ac=PHedi


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