<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Underdog Tom Allen attempts to unseat GOP incumbent Sen. Susan Collins]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by cneal http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:51:22 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/1 "pocketbook issues trump environment"?

I'm a Portland constituent of both Collins and Allen. I am proud of Susan's record, but I'll probably vote for Allen, to do all that I can to break the Republican deadlock in the Senate.

Still, I'm disappointed that Tom Allen still can't seem to understand the intimate connections between Mainers' pocketbook issues and our failures in energy and environmental policy. We're a state that's going bankrupt over addiction to oil - thanks to long commutes and long winters.

Yet when I wrote to Allen earlier this year to ask for his co-sponsorship support for a transit investment bill, he declined, claiming that we lived in a rural state and transit can't help us.

Maine's transit services are pathetic (largely thanks to conventional wisdom of this sort) but ridership is at all-time highs. People are desperate for solutions, not compartmentalized thinking. Get on the bus, Tom!

vigorousnorth.blogspot.com A field guide to the wilderness areas of American inner cities.

]]> "pocketbook issues trump environment"?

I'm a Portland constituent of both Collins and Allen. I am proud of Susan's record, but I'll probably vote for Allen, to do all that I can to break the Republican deadlock in the Senate.

Still, I'm disappointed that Tom Allen still can't seem to understand the intimate connections between Mainers' pocketbook issues and our failures in energy and environmental policy. We're a state that's going bankrupt over addiction to oil - thanks to long commutes and long winters.

Yet when I wrote to Allen earlier this year to ask for his co-sponsorship support for a transit investment bill, he declined, claiming that we lived in a rural state and transit can't help us.

Maine's transit services are pathetic (largely thanks to conventional wisdom of this sort) but ridership is at all-time highs. People are desperate for solutions, not compartmentalized thinking. Get on the bus, Tom!

vigorousnorth.blogspot.com A field guide to the wilderness areas of American inner cities.

]]> Comment #2 by John former Marine http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:49:48 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/2 Alternate for Palin?

Being a Mainer-in-Exile, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe were the elected representatives that I grew up with.  They both have fairly good environmental records and are moderate, non-Bible thumping Republicans.  Now why...why...why...could McCain not have chosen Collins or Snowe if he needed a female running mate to take some of Hillary's votes?  Because this whole campaign is about the Bible.  It's about putting Creationism back in schools and forcing women to bear children.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

]]> Alternate for Palin?

Being a Mainer-in-Exile, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe were the elected representatives that I grew up with.  They both have fairly good environmental records and are moderate, non-Bible thumping Republicans.  Now why...why...why...could McCain not have chosen Collins or Snowe if he needed a female running mate to take some of Hillary's votes?  Because this whole campaign is about the Bible.  It's about putting Creationism back in schools and forcing women to bear children.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

]]> Comment #3 by caniscandida http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:33:24 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/the-maine-attraction/3 "Bible-thumping"

Right, John fM.  I have great admiration for Collins and Snowe, who are among my favorite Republicans.  Too bad, though, that they continue with their allegiance to a party whose Southern and Western members, the Bible-thumping types and their fellow travelers, consider them to be unworthy or deficient.  To us outside observers, it seems strange that these otherwise intelligent people let themselves be used/abused by their party, and do not become Independents or Democrats.  And now, Collins must sadly be targeted by the DSCC, in order to increase the Democratic majority in the Senate.  Of course, I too want what the DSCC wants; but this is a regrettable way to go about getting it.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

]]> "Bible-thumping"

Right, John fM.  I have great admiration for Collins and Snowe, who are among my favorite Republicans.  Too bad, though, that they continue with their allegiance to a party whose Southern and Western members, the Bible-thumping types and their fellow travelers, consider them to be unworthy or deficient.  To us outside observers, it seems strange that these otherwise intelligent people let themselves be used/abused by their party, and do not become Independents or Democrats.  And now, Collins must sadly be targeted by the DSCC, in order to increase the Democratic majority in the Senate.  Of course, I too want what the DSCC wants; but this is a regrettable way to go about getting it.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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