Articles by Pat LaMarche
CONTRIBUTORS
A grateful farewell
About 225 weeks ago I wrote my first column for the Bangor Daily News — with leap years and all, I’ve lost exact count. Molly Ivins used to occupy this Wednesday space and it was an indescribable honor to write 700 words every week that might humbly stand in the ...
PAT LAMARCHE
U.S. Constitution allows for national debt, not national religion
This week I’ve narrowed down the important issues to two seemingly unrelated topics. I wrote “seemingly unrelated” because the discussion of one may well be the subterfuge used to distract us from the other. Either way, both issues have a political intent that departs completely from the founding of this ...
PAT LAMARCHE
The faces of those Obama is betraying
President Barack Obama lost a vote the hard way this past week. My Uncle Paul died. It might not have been Obama’s vote to lose if my uncle had just lived a few days longer — long enough to see Obama turn his back on Social Security. I have to ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Tyrants have no friends
Astrologically speaking, the United States of America is a Cancer. Well, come on, you didn’t need me to tell you that; you just celebrated her birthday on Monday. And if you couldn’t figure out the country’s sign, visualize Nancy Reagan, I’m sure she knows. Remember May 16, 1988, when Time ...
PAT LaMARCHE
We’ll have a gay old time
I wish I’d been in New York this past weekend. I often feel that way, but in light of Friday’s midnight signing by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of the bill to legalize same-sex marriage, that gay pride parade in Manhattan on Sunday must’ve been a blast. Now I know a lot ...
PAT LaMARCHE
McCain scapegoating
By blaming the Arizona wildfires on undocumented workers, Sen. John McCain has cashed in his last credibility chip on the political crapshoot he has played ever since he ran for president in 2008. And honestly — as a huge fan of our honorable fighting men and women in this country ...
PAT LAMARCHE
Nancy Pelosi, not Weiner, should quit
New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is in treatment and the media’s abuzz about whether or not sex addiction is real. I say, who cares? Not about Weiner — it’s painfully obvious everyone cares about that story. Even me. I’m taking a break from the nut clusters running Augusta to comment ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Maybe the kids can work creating electricity
I’m glad to see that Maine’s finally getting her priorities straight when it comes to business and the work place. Aren’t you just sick and tired of seeing all those senior citizens working the checkout at grocery stores and in fast food joints? Now that the governor has signed the ...
PAT LaMARCHE
A waltz with tyranny
Belated good wishes for a happy Memorial Day. I trust you took a moment to think of the men and women, who throughout the centuries, have fought and died for your freedom. Personally, I’m one of those who believe there was way more fighting and dying than necessary but that ...
PAT LA MARCHE
The governor’s new truth is socialist
Let’s discuss a hypothetical situation. If you owned a business — let’s say it’s a retail salvage operation and you had locations throughout the state — and I was going to sell you advertising space, would you prefer that advertising be on some newly developed Web page or would you ...
PAT LA MARCHE
Stuck in Augusta’s spider web
This past Wednesday, I went to Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor and a number of people — some I knew and some I’d never met — joined me while we showed off three new mural panels to replace some of the ones taken down by Gov. Paul LePage ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Instant runoff voting works for Academy Awards, why not Blaine House?
Maine Representative Diane Russell is a legislator from the 120th House District. She’s a champion for Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) and consequently the sponsor of LD1126. Almost everyone’s heard of a runoff election. That’s an age-old system where a field of many candidates gets winnowed down to the top two ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Terrorists aren’t the only ones with a price on our heads
The banner headline in Tuesday’s Washington Post declared, “Obama: ‘The world is safer … because of the death of Osama bin Laden.’” Safer for whom? Not safer for the millions of Americans who live without access to health care. Let’s face it, if revenge is salve for the wounds of ...
PAT LaMARCHE
The bully-in-chief’s required reading
How is the state of Maine like a school yard? Politically, it would be more time efficient to say how the state of Maine isn’t like a school yard. But let’s start with folks using put downs instead of intelligent discussion. Now I’ve been called a lot of names in ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Deepwater Horizon parallels Chernobyl
Today is the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But that’s not all. What happened in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago is merely the mushroom cloud over the meltdown of what that event actually means for our future; especially when you put it ...
PAT LaMARCHE
Remembering Japan after the cherry blossoms have faded
This past Saturday, my family and I wandered down Pennsylvania Avenue and along other streets that had been shut down to celebrate the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival. It’s part of the cherry blossom frenzy that grips Washington, D.C., every year. You can read a history of D.C.’s cherry blossoms ...
CONTRIBUTOR
LePage and regrets
I wish I could get over this Gov. Paul LePage business and think about important things. But for the love of lobster it just won’t go away. LePage wanted to take down a labor mural because of the message it sent, but instead he’s taking himself down for the message he’s ...
CONTRIBUTOR
Hand-out happy tax evaders get their day
I’ve seen everything now. On Tuesday, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce put on an event at the State House hosted – in part – by welfare recipients and tax evaders. And in one case the welfare recipients and tax evaders were the same folks. The event was called – ironically ...
PAT LaMARCHE
No shortage of hypocrisy in Washington and Augusta
I was having trouble deciding what to write about this week. I was torn between the military action in Libya and the shear political ineptitude of Gov. Paul LePage’s retirement double standard. I was leaning toward Libya. I mean, really, what more can be said about an executive who — according to ...
PAT LaMARCHE
It’s all in the — scientific — numbers
From Pythagoras and the ancient Hebrews right up until today there have been folks who believe that numbers have sacred meanings. Sometimes they bode tragedy, sometimes great joy. The minute I saw the magnitude of the Japanese quake last week — 8.9 — I was struck motionless in my seat. That number ...
Orono man enters not guilty pleas in Cable kidnapping, murder
LePage speaks frankly to Dirigo Girls State delegates
Maine House fails to override Medicaid expansion veto
A vote against the budget is a vote for a state shutdown
Susan Collins: Why Congress should reform federal court
LePage fails to surprise on Medicaid expansion
The cost of requiring more renewable power
Maine Sports Hall of Fame revokes Dana Wilson’s 2012 induction
American Lung Association retires number of cyclist killed in Trek Across Maine
Retiring Hermon High School athletic administrator Soucy maintains love of sports
Report: Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez not ruled out as homicide suspect
Midcoast multibajillionaire knows what her husband is doing before he does it
‘Sopranos’ star James Gandolfini dead at 51
The Esther II: A father’s boat, a son’s heart