Tom Allen

Despite the increase in world attention toward Sudan in the past months, the genocide in Darfur has continued without any serious attempt by the Sudanese government to do what governments primarily exist to do, protect their citizens.

They don't have special rights because we have civil rights laws that protect them. The laws work both ways.

Yet, much of what lies beneath the ocean's surface remains a mystery, and our nation continues to rely on a confused, antiquated system of ocean governance.

What our Republican friends are doing, if we look at what they do and not what they say, they have decided that the most important thing in this country is to increase payments for interest on the national debt.

These kids understood what is not immediately obvious; that they were going to pay the bills for tax cuts that had been passed today or in the last 4 years, and for the war in Iraq, because essentially we are borrowing money to do those things.

The mercury rule writers also ignored mercury's special qualities.

The offshore ocean area under U.S. jurisdiction is larger than our land mass, and teems with plant and animal life, mineral resources, commerce, trade, and energy sources.

President Bush's mercury rule is a gift to the big energy companies that helped put him in office.

Stem cell research holds out the promise of finding cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases.

If the parties get too close together they lose their identities, if they get too far apart you're not going to get a whole lot done because you almost always need to have some folks on the other side of the aisle to accomplish anything.

I do not believe that Congress or the Administration should prohibit the medical community from pursuing a promising avenue of research that may improve the lives of millions of Americans.

Family farms and small businesses are the backbone of our communities.