President Bush's Mercury Rule Is A Gift

Incivility Is A Symptom, Not The Disease. We've Always Had Partisan Conflict In Congress, And We Always Will. Yet When I Worked For A Year (1970-71) On The Staff Of Sen. Ed Muskie Of Maine, This Was A Different Place, More Collegial, More Sensitive To Data, More Concerned About All Of The American People. I Think Because The For-profit Media Prizes Conflict Above Cooperation And Sound Bites Above Analysis, Politicians Have Learned To Adapt To Those Tendencies. Consequently, Our Public Debates Are Dumbed Down As Our Problems Grow More Complex.

Energy Conservation Is The Foundation Of Energy Independence.

Family Farms And Small Businesses Are The Backbone Of Our Communities.

The Argument On The Other Side Of Special Rights Is Completely Bogus. It's Bogus Because You Could Make Exactly The Same Claim About Racial Or Ethnic Or Religious Minorities.

But Like The Rest Of The Country, Maine Has Reached An Impasse, For Most Of The Mercury That Fouls Our Skies, Waters And Land Comes From Outside Our Borders.