Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch paper
Democracy for NH
Granite State Progress
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Pickup Patriots
Re-BlueNH
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
New Hampshire Labor News
Chaz Proulx: Right Wing Watch
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Landrigan
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Campaigns, Et Alia.
NH-Gov
- Maggie Hassan
NH-01
- Andrew Hosmer
- Carol Shea-Porter
- Joanne Dowdell
NH-02
- Ann McLane Kuster
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
(Promoted to get this into our twitter feed. Amateur hour. - promoted by Mike Hoefer)
The National Organization for Marriage is using pictures taken at Obama rallies and using them in anti-marriage equality ads. They are doctored to look like thousands of people attended anti-gay rallies in New Hampshire when these people were really cheering on the President.
On Friday, October 28th, New Hampshire will see two gatherings to support to very different agendas.
In one corner, Cornerstone will be holding it's annual fundraising dinner - presumably to raise money in order to advocate the "traditional values" they support, like sending out political mailings with John Lynch's picture in a lineup of convicted sex offenders. Their keynote speaker? Gov Rick Perry (Frmr. Cornerstone head Kevin Smith recently said he was "surprised and disappointed" with Perry's debate performances. Talk about awkward!.)
Regardless, I'm sure Mr. Smith hopes he has not totally lost his shot at some Perry PAC money to fund is presumed run for Governor.
Just across town, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England will be kicking off their 2012 fundraising campaign with an event at Southern New Hampshire University (get tickets here). They are hosting Daily Show Co-Creator, Air America co-founder, and political satirist Lizz Winstead. Tickets available here
Based on the NHGOP's War on Women the choice of which event you should attend should be easy.
In an effort to stop comment spam, users will not be able to comment on diaries older than 14 days. A site like ours with 1000's of diaries is very tempting for blackhat SEO's to use as part of their link building strategy.
Let me know if you think this will impact our community in ways I may not have thought of.
(NHGOP continues their focus creating jobscasting judgment on your spouse - promoted by Mike Hoefer)
Perhaps you've all covered this, although I haven't seen it, but Towleroad is reporting (via AP) a vote tomorrow by the House Judiciary Committee on a bill to repeal marriage equality:
The Judiciary Committee will consider a subcommittee recommendation that the House pass the bill repealing the law that took effect last year legalizing same-sex unions. It also would establish civil unions for any unmarried adults competent to enter into a contract.
Opponents say the bill doesn't replace gay marriage with the civil unions law in effect before gays were allowed to marry. They say it takes the state back to a time before civil unions for gays.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz...
What's the real story, folks? Should I be calling friends and family in my native and now neighboring state to sound the alarm?
New Hampshire's Speaker of the House, Tea Party Republican Bill O'Brien, has a national reputation due to a scandal surrounding a speech he made to a NH 9-12 group last March, where he stated that a Voter ID proposition's restriction of voting by college students was a positive effect. The Speaker explained to the group of fellow Glenn Beck supporters that college students, who have insufficient life experience, foolishly vote their feelings for liberal candidates and as such their right to vote should be questioned. And this culminated in a crusade for a bill which would bar out-of-state college students from voting in their college town, even though their income, economic activity and center of life is in that town.
Here is the text of the constitutional amendment that Governor Lynch is submitting to the legislature:
In fulfillment of its duties with respect to education set forth in part II, article 83, the legislature shall have the authority and responsibility to define reasonable standards for elementary and secondary public education, to establish reasonable standards of accountability, and to mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity. Further, in the exercise thereof, the legislature shall have full discretion to determine the amount of, and methods of raising and distributing, state funding for public education.
The Governor's office tells us that a team of lawyers, including Chuck Douglas and Marty Gross, believes that this will maintain some level of judicial review of education laws.
I don't see how - "full discretion" seems pretty clear- but I am not a lawyer. Andru Volinsky is, and he was one of the lead lawyers in the Claremont case. NHPR reports that he thinks it eliminates any enforceable state commitment to education.
It seems to me that "full discretion to determine the amount of" state funding of education allows the legislature to set that amount to $0.00.
It also seems to me that, in doing so, the legislature would excuse local communities from supporting schools at all.
We live in a state that is under siege by carpetbagging Free State ideologues who reject the very idea of publicly funded schools. I fear - and believe - that Governor Lynch is proposing an amendment that gives them a dangerous new weapon. Town by town, city by city - we are, in my estimation, likely to see efforts to completely eliminate public schools and offer parents (for now) a couple thousand dollars to pay for private school.
O'Brien and some others believe that Lynch's proposal does allow for judicial review. (They also appear to be in a snit, which may take precedence over their legal analysis.)
As I understand it, New Hampshire allows the legislature to ask the state Supreme Court just what this means:
[Art.] 74. [Judges to Give Opinions, When.] Each branch of the legislature as well as the governor and council shall have authority to require the opinions of the justices of the supreme court upon important questions of law and upon solemn occasions.
You'd think a bill that would expand the death penalty so prosecutors could seek a death sentence in any premeditated homicide would be pretty sober stuff. Not at the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
..."We have no way of executing someone, other than hanging,'' (Rep. David Welch) said. "I'd buy the rope, but we have no place to do it, and we'd have to find a hangman,'' Welch said. Some committee members giggled.
"You buy the rope, you hang 'em,'' Rep. Dennis Fields joked, repeating to be sure everyone heard.
Well: he didn't advocate sending them to Siberia. So there's that.
As a reminder, these are the men and women who have veto power over Governor Lynch. Who have the power to pass laws that affect every one of us in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire residents should not be required to obtain a permit to carry a loaded, concealed firearm. So says the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, which voted to recommend passage of a bill making a "license to carry" voluntary.
HB 536 would allow anyone, except convicted felons and the mentally ill, to carry a concealed weapon without a license. It would also ease restrictions on the buying and selling of firearms.
It's a sign of the times that this was a "compromise" version. The original version of the bill also legalized blackjacks, brass knuckles and slingshots, and ended the ban on guns in courtrooms. It made it a crime for the police to "interfere" with the right to carry.
“We believe the Constitution is an individual license to carry,” said James Wheeler, treasurer of the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition. “Citizens shouldn’t be required to ask for permission from the government before they exercise their constitutional rights.”
Sunapee Police Chief David Cahill said the bill eliminates the careful balance that current law strikes on concealed weapons permits.
“To think that government is taking away one of your Second Amendment rights through permitting, I think is ridiculous,” said Cahill, who just ended a term as president of the N.H. Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Going without a permit to carry just opens the door for all those people who wouldn’t have been able to get one,” he said.
President Barack Obama has announced that almost all of the currently 39,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq will be home for the holidays.
A promise made, and a promise kept. A bit too late for too many, but at long-last the Bush/Cheney War is coming to an end. About 4,500 American troops have been killed in the 9 year war, 250 of them since President Obama took office, but it's ending.
Now, if we can just get out of Afghanistan without more killings. War is seldom an answer.
Unfortunately, just this week the President announced that we're sending about 100 "military advisers" into Uganda. Hopefully they all come back, sooner than later.
(Thank you for sharing this, part moved below the fold - promoted by William Tucker)
Back in January, I wrote an article on the philosophical divisions inherent in the NH Republican Party, as evidenced by an unpublished Presidential Preference straw poll I had obtained of GOP State Convention delegates (Sadly, they largely favored some of the more extreme candidates, such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum). I didn't think much about that post after I published it, and went on with other issues as the spring and summer rolled on, responding to occasional comments as warranted...and, once again, moving on.
That is, until I was contacted via email by someone who had read that blogpost on the New Hampshire GOP. She was intrigued by it, and wanted to discuss its implications a bit further. She included her telephone and asked me to call her.
She signed her name, "Arnie Arnesen."
To be honest, I had never met Arnie, and only knew the most cursory political facts about her, having only moved to New Hampshire in 1998. I called her house and enjoyed a lengthy conversation with her husband, but was never able to connect with Arnie... until last night.
Early this morning, the Senate killed an amendment offered by Sen. Kelly Ayotte that would have prohibited the United States from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects in civilian courts. Sen. Patrick Leahy spoke against the amendment, saying it would "tie the hands of our national security and law enforcement officers in their efforts to secure our national security."
I find it deeply troubling that the Senate would prohibit the administration from trying terrorists in our Federal courts. While there may be a place for military commissions in our overall approach to dealing with terrorism suspects, they remain mostly an unproven tool. The federal courts have dramatically more experience with handling these types of cases and have a proven track record of success.
This amendment would deprive Federal law enforcement of a critical tool in bringing terrorists to justice. It usurps the Attorney General’s constitutional responsibilities. This is not the path forward.
Amnesty International was more direct in condemning the proposal.
If this amendment passes, it would be an unmitigated national security disaster, removing a keystone — federal trials — which serve to keep this country safe.
The definition of character is to do the hard right, not the easy wrong. It’s a great punch line to say you are tough on terror and that we should just lock them all up and throw away the key. But if you can’t prosecute terror suspects then you can only hold them for the duration of the conflict — and then they get to walk free.
Last night, Manchester police enforced the curfew in Veterans Park and "Phase One" of Occupy New Hampshire ended peacefully.
At 11 p.m., Manchester Police Captain Robert Cunha ordered the movement's participants to leave the park, where they had camped since Monday afternoon. The 20 or so protesters who refused to leave were issued citations, a minor offense equivalent to a traffic ticket. Five refused to leave after receiving the citation and were arrested.
Arnie Alpert, NH Program Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, reported from the park:
Captain Cunha made his first appearance at 9 PM, while a General Assembly was being held on the sidewalk near Elm Street. Welcomed to address the group, he explained the police would evict the occupiers from the park that evening. ...
Backed by a small group of officers, Captain Cunha returned right on schedule at 11 PM and issued an order to vacate the park. In a gesture of cooperation, protesters agreed to move toward the park edge to make processing easier (and to make themselves more visible to the cameras held by observers.)
By 12:30 PM, police had finished issuing tickets and had hauled off the five who were arrested, and the remaining crowd began to disperse.
Shortly after lunch break, [House Speaker Bill O'Brien] held a voice vote on HB 653. Even though the voices were even on the "aye/nay," O'Brien announced "passed with two-thirds of the votes," which was obviously not true.
A roll call would have been necessary to determine the results. The reaction of loud moans from the audience were more than noticeable.
On the next vote, a representative called for a roll call. As people stood to support the roll call, speaker O'Brien ignored them and quickly proceeded to a voice vote and said "passed."
Won't someone in power do something about this documented voter fraud, the evidence for which is clear as day by going here, selecting "October 12, 2011 afternoon video" and skipping to 1:15:00?
Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan, the New Hampshire National Guard soldier who recently returned from deployment in Kuwait, will be bringing her same-sex partner of 11 years to a yellow ribbon family reintegration event in North Conway this weekend.
Federal military regulations had previously banned same-sex spouses of National Guard Members from participating in official National Guard family events. The rules were based on an interpretation of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the extension of military benefits to same sex couples. Tuesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urging the Department of Defense "in the strongest terms" to end the discriminatory policy.
“We made the decision as a nation that it was time to allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly in our military,” Shaheen said. “It makes no sense to ask them for the same sacrifice we ask of straight soldiers while denying them the same benefits. We are better than this.”
Yesterday, the Department of Defense ruled that Chief Morgan may take advantage of a regulation that allows service members to designate any one person, regardless of relationship, to join her at a yellow ribbon event.
“This is terrific news for Charlie Morgan and her family,” said Shaheen. “But this is just one small part of a much larger problem. We have a fundamental inequity in our policy, which has created two classes of soldiers. It isn’t fair and it has to end.”
“Ultimately, this conflict in our military policy is not sustainable,” Shaheen said. “We cannot ask the members of our military to live under different standards depending on whether they are gay or straight. I urge the military to do all it can under the law to promote equality in their regulations, and I urge Congress to join me in the fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.”
Here is a warning to Nevada Republicans: Talk of New Hampshire setting our First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary in December isn't a bluff, and it has some advantages.
Having been involved in the issue about the setting of our presidential primary since the early 1970s, I am aware of the impact on politics and our nation's history that our voters have. I have also seen, dating back to my first participation in 1960, the seriousness and intensity that our citizens have taken in their responsibility.
Among other attributes and reasons for New Hampshire being first and foremost in the presidential selection process every four years is our record voter turnout -- second to none. In other words, our residents really care about who will become president, and they're anxious to go to the polls and make their choice known.
Another reason, and really the most important for maintaining our lead-off status is that here, in our small state, we give candidates of all philosophies and ideologies of any political party an opportunity to make their case. We listen. We ask questions. We look them in the eye. We feel the firmness of their handshake. We watch carefully for their evasion of our questions or their fuzzy answers. We want to learn about who they are as human beings, not just what their consultants and years of image-making want to project.
