Nanny State Neocons

The NH Senate has been debating the passage of a law mandating seatbelt use in our state. NH is the last state in the union that does not require seatbelt use in passenger vehicles. The state of the first in the nation primary is familiar with being last – we were the last state to recognize the Martin Luther King Day holiday. We’re among the four remaining states that don’t mandate helmet use for motorcyclists.

The cries of “NANNY STATE” have resounded across our borders. Rabid Republitarians have been weeping copiously in the pages of the Union Leader. Lots of sobbing about how our personal freedoms are under attack. To listen to these folks, the right to ride without a seatbelt and smoke in restaurants are the very proof of truth, justice, and the American Way. Take those away from us and we may as well surrender to our fate – emulating those darned European socialists.

For the record, I should state that I don’t much care, one way or the other. A seatbelt saved my life when I hit a moose with my car in 2003. New Jersey Governor John Corzine disobeyed the laws of his state – by not wearing a seatbelt, and not adhering to the speed limit. He’s lucky he lived through his recent accident. I look at not having seatbelt or helmet laws as making a strong contribution to the law of natural selection, which may be the best argument for defeating the proposed legislation.

The freedom to wear or not wear a seatbelt does not come close to being at the top of personal freedoms I would fight to protect. The nanny state crowd will wail about their right to smoke in restaurants – but they are silent on the subject of my right to remain free of illegal government wiretapping. They don’t care about Jose Padilla’s rights as a US citizen, imprisoned for years without a trial. The wailing about personal freedoms goes right out the window when it comes to abortion, civil union, or marriage equality. They’re perfectly happy to let the government make those decisions for individuals. Some of the same nanny state neocons who decry the money the federal government would give NH (for instituting a seatbelt law) as a bribe were gnashing their teeth over the potential loss of the paltry $3 million NH would get for complying with REAL ID. Yep, the nanny state crowd didn’t have much of a problem with REAL ID –even though it would give us a national ID card, with all of our personal information in a national database. Apparently we need to surrender those freedoms “in the name of national security,” but they’ll fight to the death to smoke in a restaurant.

It’s worth noting that under the Bush administration, the non-military workforce has expanded by over 700,000 employees. Non-military federal spending has jumped by $222 billion – though to be fair, there were 9/11, Katrina, and other weather related disasters. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Bush admin has almost doubled the rate of federal spending we saw during the Clinton administration. The Patriot Act has removed many of our individual freedoms, but since it didn’t force us to wear seatbelts, our NH Republitarians were okay with it.

The same nanny state neocons who moan about the welfare state seem to have no objection to corporate welfare or pork projects. They don’t want a poor family getting food stamps – but taxpayer subsidies (aka corporate welfare) to Big Oil? Not a problem, folks – we HAVE to subsidize them or they won’t keep exploring for more oil. Right. Welfare payments to Big Pharma? Hell yeah!! We’ll keep slinging taxpayer money at them, so they can turn around and charge us more for prescription drugs than any other country in the world pays. That’s just common sense, according to the nanny state whinniers. They give similar arguments for subsidizing factory farms, and shoveling money at very wealthy faith based charities – but confront them with a potential seatbelt or a smoking law, and you’ll hear an outcry from sea to shining sea.

By the time you read this, Governor Lynch will have signed the NH Civil Union bill into law. A poll done by the NH Union Leader showed that 53% of their readers were against civil unions. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given the target audience. The same people who voted in this poll are undoubtedly wailing about the seatbelt law, completely oblivious to their own hypocrisy. The Civil Union bill gives our gay residents some legal protections, and a measure of equality. It is not enough, not by a long shot – but it’s better than nothing. The signing of this bill strikes a blow against government interference in our personal affairs, and lets adults make their own decisions. This is cause for celebration.

“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” Adlai Stevenson

Deal or No Deal

Rural northern New England is a dead end on the information super highway. The development of fiber optic systems has been begun in southern NH – while northern NH waits. If we’re lucky, we have DSL. In the northern reaches of our state, many are condemned to dial up internet access – where it might take an hour to download a big file or picture that some unthinking jerk sent you.

Access to the internet is an essential part of doing business for companies, for elected officials (some of them, anyhow), for students, newspapers, doctors, hospitals, libraries, artists, writers, news and political junkies, and for the rest of us. This isn’t a passing fad –the internet is increasingly the tool of choice for a great deal of our communication. Some area towns have bulletin boards or list serves that inform the townspeople of upcoming meetings or events. The web can be a time sucking morass – where one can spend hours looking at weird websites for people with all manner of interests – from Russian tortoises to collecting Barbie Dolls – but it’s also become the way many of us get our news and information. With the internet we can communicate with people from all over the world. For many of us, it is an essential component of doing business.

When the topic of jobs and the economy in the northern part of the state comes up, mention of the need for the infrastructure for high speed internet access will soon follow. All of us agree that northern NH should be allowed to join the 21st century. The problem seems to be determining exactly how that will happen. Verizon has promised us for years that they were going to make it happen. They haven’t. Not only have they failed to make good on their promises of development in the north country, they’re hoping to unload the unprofitable north all together, by selling their landline business in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to a small telecommunications provider from North Carolina, called FairPoint. It’s billed as a merger of Verizon and FairPoint, though essentially it allows Verizon to focus on developing FIOS systems to cities and affluent suburbs, while farming the low rent rural customers out to FairPoint.

Why would Verizon do this? Why would they sell rural northern New England customers out to a small company already deeply in debt, knowing that FairPoint can’t possibly make the kind of investment in northern telecommunications infrastructure that Verizon themselves didn’t make? The answer is money, of course. There is an obscure IRS loophole known as a Reverse Morris Trust. Using this loophole will result in $600 million in tax savings for Verizon, if approved by the PUC. According to union consultant Randy Barber, “a parent corporation can spin off a subsidiary into an unrelated company, tax free, if the shareholders of the parent end up controlling more than 50 percent of the voting rights and economic value of the merged company. The Verizon-FairPoint deal has been designed this way. The bad news for rural consumers is that this tax dodge is only possible if parts of the old copper wire network are sold to a “tiny partner” rather than a larger, more financially secure buyer. (See: www.stop-the-sale.org)

In September 2006, FairPoint had $890 million in assets and $610 million in long term debt. This merger will result in $1.7 billion in new debt for FairPoint. The company has promised to continue paying high dividends to shareholders. Given the already significant level of debt the company carries, one wonders how they’ll manage to invest the kind of capital required to improve existing service and expand DSL. One really shouldn’t wonder. One should be quite sure that they will increase rates, reduce expenditures, reduce labor, and cut service quality.

This deal means job insecurity for some 2,800 union employees. FairPoint has made no firm commitment to keep them beyond current contracts. Once those contracts expire, the debt level alone will surely cause management to outsource as much work as possible to non-union employees, while slashing benefits and pensions.

The Public Utilities Commission has to approve this deal. Hearings are currently being held around the state, and the next closest one will begin at 7 pm, at Littleton High School, on May 24. Everyone who is concerned about telecommunications in the north country should attend. I’ve spoken to people so unhappy with Verizon that they say, “anything is better.” I don’t believe that the sale of NH landlines to a small company who won’t be able to make the investments in infrastructure because of debt and shareholder dividends is going to make anything better. It is entirely possible that in just a few years, the failures of Verizon may look awfully good to us in comparison to exorbitant rate hikes and lousy service.

NH needs to create a solid plan for stimulating investment in high speed internet, and then develop state policy from this plan. We must also consider passing legislation that would protect us by establishing strict guidelines for sales and mergers of this type. The future economic development of the northern part of our state depends on telecommunications. We can’t afford to let this sale go forward.


“We are not going to let Verizon turn the information super highway into a dirt road in New England.” Glenn Brackett, IBEW Local 2320 business manager.

NH State Employees

This past Tuesday, May 2, the NH State Employees Union (SEIU) had a demonstration in front of the NH State House. About 700 people came out to listen to the Makem Brothers sing union songs, and hear speeches, and messages of support. The sun was out, and it was a pleasant place to be – hanging out with the purple clad state workers in Concord. What’s the problem? Their contract negotiations have reached a standstill. Governor Lynch wants state workers to pay 7.5 percent of their health care premium costs, and double their co-pays. The wage increases they are being offered would not offset the costs of the health care concessions.

You may have heard that state workers have “the Cadillac” of health care plans. You may have even heard that said quite disparagingly. I, for one, believe that our state workers should have a great health care plan. I think everyone in the United States should have the “Cadillac plan.” Why wouldn’t we want the people who keep our state running to be healthy and well paid? Contrary to what many believe – rank and file state employees are not particularly well paid. Some are eligible for food stamps, which should be a source of embarrassment to us. The 2006 NH Basic Needs and Livable Wage Study found that for a family of four, both parents needed to be earning $11.69 per hour, to be able to cover the basic necessities: food, rent, utilities, basic telephone service, clothing, transportation, child care, health care, household expenses, and a small allowance for personal expenses. Note that there is no provision for saving, or for emergency needs. A number of our state employees are not making enough to meet the needs as defined in this study.

You may have heard that according to a report released last year by the National Conference of State Legislatures on state employee benefits, that NH has the costliest health care premiums in the nation. That’s where the story began and ended. What you didn’t hear is that the NH system is self insured. The state does not pay premiums, in the way an employer would. The state sets its own rates. The premium in NH has included an overcharge, to build up a reserve account. That reserve account is at nearly $48 million. The premium has also included charges for private consultants and administrators. The state employees have no control over determining the cost of the premiums they are being asked to pay. It seems possible; even likely, that the way the plan is being administered may be the cause for these high costs. A responsible course of action would be to look at how the plan is administered, and how the costs could be lowered. Asking people (some of whom make less than $10.00 an hour) to double their out of pocket expenses, should be the course of last resort.

State employees are all around us. We probably all interact with at least one every day. State employees give you change at tollbooths – and NH toll workers are friendly and polite, which is not necessarily the case in other states. State employees run the big plows on the highways in the winter. They answer the phones at the Department of Motor Vehicles – sometimes. They are nurses in our state hospitals; they are corrections officers in our state prisons. They are working at the Veteran’s home, Fish and Game, the Division of Employment Security, the Lottery, the DWI Multiple Offender program, and the Community Technical Colleges - just to name a few. These are the people who keep our state running smoothly and efficiently. Some state agencies are perpetually understaffed (like the DMV) in the name of keeping the budget under control. It’s easier to do without employees, than it is for the state to accept that it needs more revenue in the coffers.

I talked to a lot of folks at the SEIU rally. These were not wild eyed radicals. I didn’t see any limos parked around the perimeter of the State House. The “designer” clothes on view were purple SEIU tee shirts. These are folks who are proud to work for the state of NH. What they want – a decent wage and good health care benefits does not seem like too much to ask for. As it stands, the negotiations on wages and health care are at an impasse. Governor Lynch just signed the minimum wage bill, which will increase the minimum wage for some 26,500 NH residents. As he signed, he mentioned that the cost of rent, childcare, and groceries has increased significantly. Perhaps he can transfer that level of concern over to the issue of negotiating with the state employees.

New Hampshire state law prohibits state employees from going out on strike. Try to imagine what would happen if there were no state employees on the job for a day. If you’re having trouble with that image – try this one. Imagine if the state liquor store employees stayed home for a day. Serious chaos.


‘Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” Abraham Lincoln

Hot Air Vipers

Unless you’ve been living in a wilderness cave, you’ve heard that radio and television personality Don Imus, recently lost his job for making racist and sexist comments about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team. There has been something of a national discussion going on ever since. Some folks think that Imus made a “mistake” and his apology should be enough. Imus certainly did make a mistake in calling those young women “nappy headed ho’s” – but it wasn’t a one time event. Don Imus has been polluting the airwaves with sexist and racist commentary for the last 30 years. He just happened to go too far this time.

Imus once referred to respected African American journalist Gwen Ifill as “a cleaning lady,” when she worked at the NY Times. He called the paper’s sports writer, William C. Rodhen a “quota hire.” He once called tennis player Amelie Mauresmo “a big old lesbo.” The people who appeared regularly on his show were not immune. He called Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz a “boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jew boy,” and frequently accused NBC chief White House correspondent David Gregory of being “drunk or queer.”

A mere apology was unlikely to teach Mr. Imus a lesson. In 2001, Imus fired sportscaster Sy Rosenberg from his show for calling tennis star Venus Williams “an animal” and saying that she and her sister Serena had a better chance of posing nude for National Geographic than Playboy. At the time, Imus called Rosenberg a “moron” and a degenerate.” After Rosenberg apologized, Imus rehired him. Apparently there was no lasting lesson learned from that incident – because 6 years later Imus was the one making moronic comments.

What happened? Why the outrage? Why, after 30 years of insult, did the public suddenly care? I believe there are two parts to that answer. Imus insulted the wealthy, the famous, and the powerful – and he was allowed to get away with it. Many people who ought to know better were guests on his show. It was like a high school clique – where everyone wants to be friends with the popular kid, even though he/she is mean, because in spite of the mean, they’re the cool kids. When Imus tried using the white version of homeboy slang on a women’s basketball team – young women who aren’t rich and powerful, just fine athletes, and smart, dignified women – he went too far. Abusing the powerless from his lofty corporate media pulpit proved one racist/sexist statement too many for Imus.

The second part has been building for a long time. Most of the people in this country are sick to death of the nasty, divisive crap spewed on the airwaves. We are sick of the ugliness of our national discourse – whether it’s radio, television, or politics. I heard that repeatedly during the 2006 elections from folks all over the state. It may be that we the people have reached a near saturation point after years of Imus, Limbaugh, Coulter, Beck, Savage, O’Reilly, Boortz, and the rest of the hot air vipers. This could be a window of opportunity – the first step in bringing back some civility. Make no mistake - Imus is hardly the only offender. The African American community needs to take the young misogynist rappers in hand, and impart to them the error of their ways. That, however, is a different discussion and one for a different day.

Sexism and racism are staples of conservative talk radio. In 2005, radio personality Glen Beck called the Katrina survivors who didn’t evacuate from New Orleans, “scumbags.” On May 17 that same year, he also announced he was thinking about killing Michael Moore. On March 31, 2006, Neal Boortz said that US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s “new hair-do” made her look “like a ghetto slut,” “an explosion at a Brillo-Pad factory,” and “like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence.” On October 21, 2005, Boortz suggested that a Katrina survivor living in an Atlanta hotel turn to prostitution. “It beats the hell out of sucking off of the taxpayers,” he said.

On March 2 of this year, hot air balloon Rush Limbaugh discussed Senator Barak Obama on his nationally syndicated show. He said, “Since Obama has – on his mother’s side – forbears of his mother had slaves, could we not say that if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and then wins the presidency he will own Al Sharpton?” On March 1, 2005, Limbaugh opined, “women live longer than men because their lives are easier.” In April 2005, he announced, “women actually wish for sexual harassment.” I think that might be a case of transference, Mr. Limbaugh.

On April 6, on his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O’Reilly said that Virginia Beach mayor Meyera Oberndorf “should be baking pies, not running a major city.” On June 11, 2004, he told his then co-host Lis Wiehl that she was on his show “because you’re good looking, so I got somebody to look over” while on the air.

There are endless quotes showing the contempt that these men have for women, and people of color. Now, before the defenders of free speech get all bunched up and head to the keyboards, I’m not suggesting that these idiots don’t have the right to free speech. They absolutely do. But we the people who “own” the public airwaves also have rights. We have the right to insist on a higher level of discourse.

There is one more way to look at this situation – one that many of you should agree with. Don Imus was a product. The market forces (i.e. the public) determined that they were no longer interested in this product. The advertisers learned that the product was no longer viable in the marketplace, so the product was removed from the shelves. In short, a veritable triumph of capitalism, and the free market system.

“Live by the shock – die by the shock.” Bob Edwards, speaking of Don Imus

Stonings, Beheadings, Executions - Oh My!

It’s springtime, when many a not-so-young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of execution, here in NH. Last week the legislature voted down a proposal to repeal the state’s death penalty. Despite the fact that NH hasn’t executed anyone since 1939, apparently our legislators want to keep the option open, so that state sponsored murder will be available in the future.

The shooting death last year of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs brought this issue back to the table. Attorney General Kelly Ayotte told legislators that repealing the death penalty so soon after Brigg’s death would be “an insult to law enforcement officers.” Governor John Lynch said he’d veto the repeal if it passed. The state is pursuing the death penalty in the case of Michael Addison, who is accused of killing Officer Briggs. It’s the first capital case in NH in over a decade.

We can all agree that the shooting of Officer Michael Briggs was a terrible crime. By all reports he was a good cop, and a nice young man with a family. He isn’t the only person who was murdered in NH during the last 10 years. In 2004, thirteen NH women were murdered in domestic violence cases. A little over a month ago, Brenda Hewey-Barnum was murdered by the father of her child. Jacob Smith entered the home of some friends, shot and killed Hewey-Barnum, wounded one friend, and shot and stabbed his own son, Matthew Smith, before turning the gun on himself. Jacob Smith saved the state the expense of a trial. Still, if we look at history, Smith wouldn’t have faced the death penalty, since no one has for a decade – a decade that includes the murders of 13 women in 2004. The message seems clear – that some lives are worth more than others, which means that the State of NH will pursue the death penalty accordingly. If NH is going to murder its murderers, shouldn’t justice be equally applied?


This year in Colorado, the House Judiciary Committee voted to abolish the death penalty. They voted to use the savings to help solve 1200 unsolved murders in the state. During the last 3 decades, Colorado spent $40 million on the death penalty. During that time they carried out one execution. There are 2 people currently on death row in Colorado. That’s a pretty hefty price tag for just one execution. The state of New York estimates a cost of $23 million for each person sentenced to death. One murder case in Georgia has bankrupted the public defender system, which has already spent $1.4 million on the case. A 2005 report found that the state of New Jersey had spent $253 million in a 23 year period on death penalty cases – while executing no one.

Our NH courts are already dangerously under-funded, and have backlogs of civil cases. It’s hard to imagine where, in revenue starved NH, the money will come from for a death penalty case. The only certainty is that some other program will be robbed so that the state can engage in macho vengeance. A far more sensible course of action (and a better tribute to the slain officer) would be to generate some money to hire more police officers, and ensure that our courts are running properly. The average stay on death row is about 13 years. Does anyone really believe that an execution in the distant future will act as a deterrent to a potential murderer? When your dog pees on the rug, do you wait thirteen years to rub his nose in it?

According to Amnesty International, 94 percent of all known executions in the year 2005 took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Whoo-hoo – we’re keeping company with the human rights violators of the world – there’s a real feather in our national cap. Since 2000, executions performed by these club members have been carried out by: beheading, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, electrocution, stabbing, and stoning. Here in the civilized USA, we opt for electrocution or lethal injection. Does anyone really think that conducting an execution in a pseudo-medical backdrop (lethal injection) somehow puts us on a more moral high ground than the beheadings in Saudi Arabia, or the stonings in Iran?

NH is always looking for new revenue sources, and perhaps our newfound interest in execution could be a money maker. Beheadings could be a prime revenue source – far more vengeance than a sissy faux-medical execution. They could also be available on pay-per-view, just to up the ante. Stonings could also be exclusive, ticketed events, with the added bonus of a lottery to choose a few lucky folks to cast those stones. Firing squads would undoubtedly be very popular given the gun culture we have here in the live free or die state. Hangings – well, hangings might be a little too understated to generate much extra funding. Hangings would probably become the option for the low wage execution fans in our state. If we do it right, we could use the proceeds to fund all the executions, and maybe have a little left over for the General Fund.

Do we really want to join the ranks of Texas and Louisiana? Is this who we want to be as a state? Do we want to teach our children that some killing is okay? Is an “eye for an eye” the kind of new motto we want to adopt for our state? This is worth thinking long and hard about – both the intended and the possible unintended consequences.


“For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check, yet crime persists.” Albert Camus

In the interest of full disclosure - I have recently taken a job with the Kucinich for President Campaign. The views expressed here are not neccessarily those of the candidate. My writing gig is separate from my campaign job.

Peace

This past Monday marked the 4th anniversary of the war in Iraq. The weapons of mass destruction did not exist. The oft-touted “mushroom cloud” was never possible. Iraq had no nuclear capability. The yellowcake from Niger proved to be a myth from a forged document. We were told we would be greeted as liberators. The welcome wagon still hasn’t been rolled out, 4 years later. Iraqis, who don’t agree on much of anything these days, are united in their wish that we get the heck out of there. We were told the war would pay for itself, with all that Iraqi oil. Instead, the US treasury is shoveling more than $1 billion a week at a war we aren’t winning. Many Iraqis still don’t have electricity or running water. The road from Baghdad to the airport is still not safe. The cost in lives is immeasurable.

As I write this, the US military death count is 3, 228. We don’t count the numbers of dead Iraqi civilians. We hear a lot of phony concern about the Iraqis, from our war president. Remember the purple fingers, and all of the talk about making life better for Iraqi women? It’s hard to believe that we really sincerely care about the Iraqi people, if we don’t respect them enough to count their dead. The Bush administration knows that if we the people had the full count of the dead, that our opposition to the war would be too strong to ignore. I can’t begin to fathom that kind of cynicism, combined with that kind of censorship.

This past Monday, a small peace vigil, planned at the last minute, was held in Conway, at the intersection of 16 and 153. I held a sign that read simply,“PEACE.”
During the last four years, I’ve participated in numerous peace marches, demonstrations, and vigils. I’ve watched public opinion, as expressed by motorists, change. Four years ago the one fingered peace salute was very common, as were all manner of crude epithets. Four years later, the motoring public has changed its tune. Support for ending the war is overwhelming. On Monday, the traditional peace sign was much in evidence, as were honking horns, and thumbs up gestures.

There were gestures of disapproval. A few angry young men burned rubber going around corners in the intersection. There were a few one finger gestures. Most puzzling of all to me, as I stood holding a sign reading “Peace” were the thumbs down gestures.
I’ve been thinking about them all week, trying to interpret what message they could be sending. Were they war supporters? Maybe. Were they just reacting to what they no doubt perceived as a bunch of “hippies” standing around with signs? Maybe. The most frightening possibility is that they believe peace is a bad idea, under any circumstances.

Much has been written about the ideological polarization that has taken place in this country. It’s been carefully created, and nurtured, in fact. “You’re either with us or against us” was a bit of propaganda that insured a deep division between those who believed the facts being presented before the invasion of Iraq, and those who did not. Many, who believed what they were told at the time, have come to understand that the US invasion of Iraq was based entirely on lies and manufactured evidence. That still leaves a population of folks who are so bound to their ideology that they can’t admit that the war is a disaster. They’re the ones who use terms like “cut and run” – another propaganda sound bite. Apparently “stay and die” is preferable to these folks.

Our president once said that he was “a uniter, not a divider.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Right after 9/11, when we needed a national focus, he advised us to go shopping. We had a window of opportunity to heal some of the polarization that’s taken place. The Uniter chose to continue that divide, pitting us against one another with his rhetoric. The division keeps us from working together, to move forward, and work to rectify the mistakes of the last 6 years of this administration. That divide causes people to defend and justify criminal conduct, because they can’t admit the people on their side are wrong. That divide creates anger, hate, and violence. That divide is hurting our nation, our state, and our communities.

A neighbor in Jackson recently commented that in the old days, people would get together at town meeting and hash things out – sometimes fighting tooth and nail, but at the end of the meeting, everyone walked out and went back to being friends and neighbors. It’s different, now, she told me. People simmer and resentments fester. Those simmering resentments mean that it’s difficult for folks in the community to join forces and do what’s right for the town… as well as the state, and the country.

How do we end this polarization? How do we become more united, in these United States? How do we begin to work together, for the common good? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but one thing I am certain of is this: we must start with peace.

“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

HB 791

On March 14, the NH House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on HB 791, a bill that would grant civil marriage to NH's gay couples.

This is my testimony:

My name is Susan Bruce. I’m from Jackson, NH. I am here today as a woman, a wife, a mother, a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and an advocate for social justice.

We all agree that families strengthen our communities, our state, and our country. You will hear a great deal of testimony today that invokes terms like “protecting marriage.” I’m not sure what we are trying to protect marriage from. No one here is suggesting we do away with the institution of marriage; in fact, I’m here to urge you to broaden our definition of marriage, to include same gender couples. Families that have already been created will be protected under the laws of our state. More people will be able to marry, more families will be created, and our communities and our state will be stronger as a result. Why wouldn’t we want to encourage and protect the families of our state?

I belong to a religious denomination that embraces diversity, and would gladly marry gay couples, but I understand that this is not the case for all religions. HB 791 grants civil marriage, thereby eliminating religion altogether, which means that no church will be forced to perform a ceremony it isn’t comfortable with. This is both sensitive and sensible public policy.

In the history of our country, laws that discriminated against groups of people have been changed, as we have become more enlightened. Slavery was abolished. Black men were given the right to vote. Women were finally given the right to vote. Interracial couples were given the right to marry. Segregation was abolished – in schools and in our communities. None of us look back and long for the good old days of segregation. The New Hampshire legislature has the opportunity to make the same kind of choice – to change a law that is currently discriminatory. In the decades to come, we will not look back and long for the good old days of marriage discrimination. We will be too busy accepting the congratulations of our children and grandchildren for righting a wrong, and making history.

The Sin Eater

Anna Nicole Smith has finally been laid to rest in the Bahamas. For weeks the media has been breathlessly following the story of her death, the subsequent wrangling over her body, and the question of her infant’s paternity – one would think that this woman did something incredibly important to merit this kind of media attention. One would be wrong. Ms. Smith was yet another cartoon blonde with big fake breasts, willing to live her tacky life on the pages of tabloids. The media created her, and are now wringing every last dollar out of her corpse.

Anna Nicole Smith didn’t interest me. I didn’t, and still don’t care what happens to her. I don’t care who the daddy is – but I can’t escape the obsessive media coverage of her unremarkable life. I don’t want to know about Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or Paris Hilton either, but we are all fed a relentless diet of gossip about these silly, self-indulgent women, on the televised news, in the print media, and on the internet. The Associated Press recently engaged in an experiment – they imposed upon themselves a seven day ban on stories about Paris Hilton. No one complained. In fact, many people contacted them to thank them – said they wanted more serious news, more world news, and less celebrity twaddle.

What does and does not make the news is unpredictable. Last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, GOP pin-up girl Ann Coulter said something quite offensive about presidential candidate John Edwards. She said that she had wanted to comment about him, but, “it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word f*gg*t, so I’m kind of at an impasse.” There were hundreds of journalists and political operatives present, and it was all caught on television cameras, but oddly, it attracted almost no initial media coverage. It wasn’t until bloggers and Democrats began slamming Anthrax Annie that it became a news story.

Coulter is a guest at this event every year. In 2006 she distinguished herself by making comments about “rag heads.” There was a minor dust up about that, but not nearly the same as she managed to create this time. Coulter is trying to weasel out of her statement by saying she didn’t mean it as an anti-gay slur – which might hold some water if she didn’t use it so often. She has referred to Al Gore as a “total f*g” and even went as far as to suggest that Bill Clinton was probably gay. Bear in mind that Coulter is in her forties, and has never managed to get married. It’s curious that she chooses to sling these slurs at Gore and Edwards, both devoted family men.

It’s even more curious that the Republican Party continues to use her as a mouthpiece. Oh, they say that Annthrax is just an “entertainer” and shouldn’t be taken seriously. In fact, they blame those of us who despise her bile spewings for giving her some kind of credence. The fact is, however, that they buy her books in bulk, so that her poorly written diatribes make the best seller lists. And they invite her to events like CPAC, knowing full well that she’ll make offensive comments. The right loves Ann Coulter, and not just because she makes a better pin up than Barbara Bush Senior. They love her because she is their sin eater. She can say all of the really offensive things that they would love to say, but don’t dare to. The GOP can sit back and laugh, while she gives voice to their prejudices, and they don’t have to take any responsibility for it. Coulter will do and say anything to get publicity for herself – so it’s a win-win situation for all of them. The losers are the rest of us, the folks who are weary of this kind of nasty politicking.

Republicans in NH are still whining that Democrats won big in November because of President Bush’s unpopularity, and the unpopularity of the war in Iraq. Both the president and the war are exceedingly unpopular, but that’s not the only reason the Democrats one so big. One reason that isn’t picked up at all in the rather right leaning media of our state is that people are fed up with attack politics. The Union Leader’s story of the two GOP warmongers who whined because Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter returned their phone calls is an example of that kind of attack. A search into the seamy underbelly of NH political blogging will reveal a lot of really disgusting discussion taking place, where the Congresswoman is routinely referred to as a “moonbat” and much, much worse in some places. In 2002, Jeb Bradley ran a TV ad that made fun of Martha Fuller Clark for being a slightly jiggly middle aged woman. Bradley is trumpeting his intention to run against Shea-Porter again, so we can expect to see him engage in that kind of nasty sexist attack again. The Republicans don’t just hate our new Representative because she’s a Democrat.

It’s also interesting to note what news isn’t covered. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been spending a lot of time in NH, with little media attention. He isn’t calling anyone names, he isn’t attacking anyone – he just quietly takes principled stands and sticks to them. He’s not afraid to take a position, he’s not a waffler, and he’s not mean spirited. I’ve had the opportunity to hear him speak 3 times in the last few weeks. He’s far more confident and more relaxed than he was in 2004, and he’s still speaking about peace, free trade, health care, and education. He is the only presidential candidate that I’m aware of who is in favor of marriage equality. Despite all that he has going for him, the media pointedly ignores him, and most people don’t take his candidacy seriously. It’s a shame, because he has a lot of great ideas. Those ideas should at least be brought to the national table for all of us to discuss.

Maybe Kucinich should claim to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. Imagine the publicity.

“Journalism consists largely of saying, “Lord James is dead” to people who never knew Lord James was alive.” Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Partisan Press

In this interest of full disclosure, there’s something I need to confess before I begin this editorial. If you’ve been watching television at all this week, you’re certainly up to date on the most pressing issue facing our nation right now – and before any accusations fly, I must tell you that I am NOT the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. Whew- I feel so much better, and now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can proceed to other manufactured news.

A big manufactured news story in NH this week came from the Sunday Union Leader. The headline read, “Critics rap Shea-Porter over calls.” It seems our new district one Congresswoman has actually been returning calls to her constituents. Allison Scammon of Stratham (daughter–in-law of the GOP Scammons, who hosted Bush at their home in 2004) had called Congresswoman Shea-Porter twice a day. She was annoyed at the story about Shea-Porter’s staff serving cider to anti-war protestors in front of their office. She is annoyed about Shea-Porter’s stance on the war. Mrs. Scammon and the other woman in the story, Gail Giarrusso (a member of the Stratham town GOP committee) serve as greeters at Pease, greeting service members flying to or back from Iraq. Both had called Shea-Porter’s office. Rep. Shea-Porter actually returned those calls, despite the fact that these women obviously didn’t vote for her, or share her feelings about the war. This led to a big story in the UL, where Scammon complained that Shea-Porter was “trying to intimidate me, to stop my freedom of speech.” Poor, poor Mrs. Scammon. Where I come from, we consider returning a phone call “good manners.”

The Union Leader, a GOP mouthpiece, leaped all over the story, as one would expect. It was sad to see other papers just pick up the UL’s story and run it as if it were gospel. There is no investigative journalism going on in any mainstream NH publications. What is and is not reported in this state is done on a very selective basis. It was “news” when Shea-Porter’s staff served cider to anti-war protestors who were in front of her office. Somehow, it was not news on any number of occasions when protestors stood in front of former Congressman Jeb Bradley’s office, calling on him to take a stand to protect Social Security or to change the privatized Part D drug plan to actually be a real benefit to seniors. It was not news when a Social Security birthday cake was delivered to Bradley’s office last August, celebrating 71 years of protecting seniors from poverty. It was not news when a large group of protestors stood out on a very cold day in December, to protest the priorities in the president’s budget in 2005. Bradley’s staff made coffee and served it to those protestors. Oddly enough, the media was invited to every single one of those events – but somehow those weren’t deemed newsworthy. I know, because I wrote the press releases, and I was there for every single event. Apparently it is an outrage when a Democrat extends courtesy to the people standing in front of her office, but it’s not even news when a Republican does the same.

As regular readers know, I had plenty of criticism for former Congressman Bradley over the years. I made calls, I sent emails, I sent letters. I stood in front of his office. I asked him questions at the countless town hall meetings I attended. He never called me to discuss any one of the issues I was concerned about. As you may recall, he had his people write letters to the editor a few times in what could be regarded as an attempt to intimidate me and stop my freedom of speech. I mentioned the last letter in my October 5, 2006 editorial. Oddly enough, the UL was not interested in a Congressman working so hard to discredit a small town writer. But, a Congresswoman returning a phone call – now that’s real news – in the land of the partisan press, anyhow.

It’s pretty hard not to be offended, when that is your goal. Mrs. Scammon and Ms. Giarrusso had every intention of being offended by Rep. Shea-Porter. They were offended that she ran against Jeb Bradley, and even more offended when she won. They wanted to be offended, and they wanted everyone to know about it, so they called the Union Leader, a paper they knew would be only too happy to spread the news of their outrage, far and wide. They are very fortunate to have a partisan press to call. Those of us who aren’t Republicans don’t have a statewide paper (or any other paper) to call.

I can tell you with certainty that Congresswoman Shea-Porter was polite and respectful to those women. I’ve had the good fortune to know CSP for a couple of years now, and I’ve never seen her be rude to anyone. We met while attending Bradley’s town hall meetings, and she was unfailingly polite and friendly to Bradley – even though he was often reluctant to answer her questions. She’s a social worker – so she knows how to listen, and she knows how to talk to people – all kinds of people. We should be thanking our lucky stars every day that we actually have a congresscritter who is willing to listen to all of us – not just campaign donors and partisan pals.

By winning the election, Rep. Shea-Porter put a target on her back – that’s no surprise. Jeb Bradley plans to run again, and we’ve seen how nasty he can be in the past. Most of you will remember those nasty, sexist TV ads he ran against Martha Fuller Clark in 2002. We can expect to see more of the same – and worse as we lead up to the 2008 elections.
Most of the NH media will not challenge our critical thinking skills. It’s easy to find a media outlet that will tell us exactly what we want to hear. The real challenge is to try to filter through everything we read and hear, and discern the truth as best we can. We can also be aware that everything we read is not really news, that some of it is just manufactured partisan blather, or celebrity splooge. By November 2008, we’ll know a lot more about our new Congresswoman. We may even know who the father of Anna Nicole’s baby is.

“Not every bit of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.” Joseph Paul Goebbels

NH Senators Fight to Perpetuate Poverty

The 110th Congress got off to a busy start, with the new House laying out an ambitious 100 hour agenda of bills they wanted to pass. At the top of the list was increasing the federal minimum wage. The pundits want you to believe that the reason the Democrats won so big in November was because of the war in Iraq. The war was a part of the Republican rout, but domestic issues played an important part, too, especially here in NH. The minimum wage was one of those issues that was important not only in the federal campaigns but in state campaigns as well.

The federal minimum wage has not been increased for ten years. Those of us who aren’t CEO’s or US Senators are aware that during the last decade, the cost of living has increased dramatically. The Carsey Institute recently found that there are at least 4000 minimum wage workers in NH. Some are young folks working at their first jobs, but many are not. According to the National Women’s Law Center, nearly two thirds of all minimum wage workers are women. Three quarters of those women are over the age of 20, and 35 percent of them work full time. It’s an estimated 15 million Americans working for the minimum wage, across the country – the same nation oft-touted as the wealthiest country in the world.

A person working full time at the current minimum wage will earn $10, 3000 a year. That’s below the federal poverty guidelines. According to the 2006 NH Basic Needs and Livable Wage Study, a single person in NH needs to be making $10.42 an hour to get by. A single parent with 2 children needs to be earning $19.50 an hour, and in a two parent family with two children and both parents working, both parents need to be earning $11.69 each. This isn’t living high on the hog, folks. No exotic vacations, no imported champagne. This is what folks need to be able to afford child care, food, health care, clothing, rent, utilities, transportation, and minimal personal expenses. There isn’t any potential for savings in those wages.

The NH Livable Wage study also found that the costs of basic needs are increasing in our state. Child care costs have increased by 88 percent in the last five years. The cost of health insurance has risen 103 percent in the last seven years (more in the north country), rent and utilities have increased by 35 percent in the last six years. The average costs of child care and health insurance have increased faster than the NH median family income. For many working families, health care consumes 23 percent of their budget.

The House passed a stand-alone increase in the federal minimum wage, one that would bump it up from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over a two year period. This bill ran into trouble in the Senate, however. The GOP minority unveiled their new strategy for working for we the people in the next two years; death by amendment, and threatening filibuster. Yes, the filibuster is back! It was bad two years ago, when the Democratic minority was threatening to use it against appointing Attila the Hun to the federal bench, but now, in the hands of those same Republicans who cried out against it, it’s good again.

The Senate was outraged at increasing the minimum wage. These same Senators who pass a tax cut for the wealthiest one percent without blinking an eye, are horrified at the very thought of increasing the minimum wage to somewhere above the federal poverty line. These same Senators have received a pay increase of $30,000 during the last decade, while the minimum wage stagnated. During the debate on the minimum wage, one of the amendments proposed would eliminate the federal minimum wage altogether! If this passed, the minimum wage would revert to the state mandated minimum. In Kansas, that would be $2.62 an hour. Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana have no minimum wage laws. Many states have no minimum dollar amount specified; just automatically use the federal minimum wage. NH is one of those states. There were 28 Senators who voted for this nasty bit of business – and our very own NH Senators Gregg and Sununu were two of them. Not only do these men want to keep low wage workers earning below federal poverty lines, they’d happily allow states to pay workers even less!

Judd Gregg has consistently been one of the loudest voices against increasing the minimum wage. In 2006 he said, “If you start losing jobs because you raise minimum wage too quickly, too fast that small employers can’t afford it, that’s going to have an effect on people’s opportunity to work.” Hmmm. Given that he also votes for cuts to the same social programs that minimum wage workers are eligible for, one wonders what he expects people to do? Apparently there’s still plenty of room under NH bridges for low wage workers to go live under.

Senator Gregg, on the other hand, won’t be going to live under a bridge any time soon. He is a millionaire many times over. You may recall that he even won the Powerball lottery in 2005, for $830,000. With his salary (increased automatically every year) and assets, he could be earning $1,000 an hour or more. It’s no wonder that he’s so clueless about the lives of low wage workers. He’s never been one and certainly has no empathy for them – after all, he made his money the old fashioned way – via lucky spermatozoa.

The Senate did finally pass a version of the minimum wage increase, one that calls for $8 billion in tax breaks for businesses. Their idea seems to be to cut the funds going into the federal coffers thereby ensuring those minimum wage workers don’t game the system by applying for food stamps. In the wealthiest nation in the world, we wouldn’t want to make sure that everyone has a roof over their head and food in their belly – not when we have countries to invade, wars to start, and weapons to build.

“One thing the Reagan years have accomplished is to take away the sting and shock of seeing homeless people in a land of plenty. The juxtaposition of extreme poverty and extreme wealth no longer seems obscene because it’s so familiar.” The late, great Molly Ivins

The Return of the Hydra

Bad legislation takes on a hydra-like quality here in NH. A bad bill may be slain in one session, but it will come back again in the next, and often again, in the next…and so on. A heavily funded group from out of state has been pushing so-called “right to work” legislation here every two years, despite the fact that it is defeated every time. Last session, an amendment banning same gender marriage was proposed. Even though the arm was chopped off, it has grown back. Our legislature will once again be dealing with the issue of whether or not to make discrimination a part of our state’s constitution. Representative Daniel Itse of Fremont was one of the original sponsors, and he is again, sponsoring this particular hydra.

Representative Itse is a busy fellow. He also sponsored HB 69, which had a hearing this week in the House Judiciary Committee. HB 69 called for permitting officiants of any denomination to be able to perform marriages, “provided that such marriages did not conflict with existing state law prohibiting marriage between persons of the same sex.”
This was befuddling to everyone who was present at the hearing, including the sponsor, it seemed. Representative Itse, who was late for the hearing, couldn’t clearly articulate the need for this proposed law. One committee member pointed out that same gender marriage is illegal in this state, and asked why this bill was necessary. Rep. Itse could not provide a coherent answer. He claimed the bill was intended to keep the state out of regulating religious ceremonies, and that there should be a clear distinction between civil and religious marriage.

Many ministers and rabbis perform same gender marriages, commitment ceremonies, and civil unions. This bill was intended to prevent them from doing so. Despite Itse’s protestations, he was absolutely intent on interfering with religious freedom. There were no penalties specified, so we don’t know if the passage of this bill would mean that police would invade such ceremonies and drag out the ministers in handcuffs. We don’t know if clergy who refused to obey the law would be incarcerated. We may never know. Representative Itse gave his testimony at the hearing, and bolted from the room before any other testimony was heard. Elizabeth Janeway suggested to the committee in her testimony that a law be passed requiring sponsors of the bill to listen to all of the testimony. Perhaps Representative Itse needed to race home to protect his marriage from the constant onslaught of homosexuals, desperate to break up his happy home.

Reverend Mary Edes, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Eastern Slopes in Tamworth stated in her testimony that our lawmakers had more pressing matters to attend to, such as education, health care, and our state’s economy. In my own testimony, I pointed out that we already have a law against same gender marriage, and asked how many more laws were needed to shore up existing law, before the gay-haters feel secure. As Reverend Edes said, “I believe the introduction of House Bill 69 to be motivated by homophobia, and, quite frankly, a waste of our precious time.” Apparently the committee agreed, at least about the waste, as they voted to kill it.

CACR 1, the proposed amendment to the NH Constitution will be heard before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, February 1, at 1:00 pm, in Representatives Hall, inside the State House. No matter how you feel about marriage equality, I urge you to contact your state representatives to urge them to vote against this bill. We should not write discrimination into our state constitution, nor should we use it as a weapon to hurt people with. Civil rights are an important issue. Don’t allow that issue to be perverted by those who would jump on this to create a lot of hoopla – and tie up valuable time that should be used to solve problems (can you say education funding) that are of paramount importance. At the Legislature’s website: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ie/ you can look up your legislators, and how to contact them, and look up the names of the Judiciary Committee members, and how to contact them. I also encourage you to go to Concord, to attend the hearing. You can hand in your testimony, if you don’t wish to speak aloud. Have copies for everyone on the committee, which in this case means 20. Polite and concise are the watchwords when writing testimony.

I truly don’t understand what motivates those who state angrily the need to protect the sanctity of marriage. From what? Is love in such short supply that it must be rationed, and somehow we think heterosexuals need it more? Or is it that heterosexuals have done such a great job of avoiding divorce, scandal, and infidelity that we just don’t want to break their perfect record? We seldom hear the lawmakers of the far right call for stricter divorce laws, and sternly sticking to one man, one woman – for life. Pundits are already joking that amongst the current GOP presidential front runners only the Mormon has had one wife. Maybe the heterosexuals do need to corner the market on love – some of them aren’t able to muster up any for their fellow humans.

I suggest that instead of spending all this time and energy trying to legislate love and marriage, we bring that zeal to tackling the issues of ending the “war on terra,” health care, our crumbling national infrastructure, US jobs, and alternative energy. (to name but a few.) Imagine what might actually be accomplished, and how positive that would be. Instead, we remain in a pitched battle to legislate love and sex, which is a huge negative drain on our society.


“No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.” Rita Mae Brown, 1982

Lives are Ruined

Remember Richard Jewell? He was working as a private security guard at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, in 1996, when a bomb went off. He helped many of the spectators to safety. He was called a hero, briefly. He went from hero to suspect quickly. Suddenly, the Atlanta Journal Constitution printed a story saying that the FBI regarded Jewell, the “hero guard” as a suspect. This began a media firestorm, where Jewell was portrayed as a person who decided that this was going to be his 15 minutes of fame – so he would bomb the park, then claim to be a hero. Jewell was put on surveillance by the FBI, who conducted a public search of his apartment. All of this was brought right into our living rooms, on a daily basis.

It was weeks later that the FBI finally stated that Jewell was not a suspect in the bombing. He did not receive a public apology. The media didn’t cover his vindication with the same kind of zealousness with which they went after him. It was the equivalent of a retraction printed on page 29, in tiny print. Richard Jewell’s life was ruined by false accusations and media hysteria.

In May of 2001, Chandra Levy, an attractive young intern who worked for the Bureau of Prisons, in Washington, DC disappeared. As the weeks passed, we learned that Ms. Levy had a close relationship with US Congressman Gary Condit, from California. The Congressman was married, and it seemed likely that he had an affair with Ms. Levy. That was sufficient fuel to fire a media circus that lasted for the whole summer. The Congressman was found guilty on the pages of tabloids, newspapers, magazines, and in the monologues of late night comedians. He lost his bid for re-election. About a year later, Levy’s remains were found. Her death appears to be a homicide, though the case has never been solved. Her death was much like another death of a young woman that occurred around the same time. Condit was never arrested, but that didn’t matter. His life was ruined by false accusations and media persecution. He has successfully sued several publications, and writer Dominick Dunne for slander.


Canadian Maher Arar was accused of being a terrorist, shipped to Syria by the US, where he was imprisoned and tortured. Arar is perhaps the most visible victim of the US policy of “extraordinary rendition” which is a fancy way of saying sending suspected terrorists to other countries to be tortured without court approval. Arar was on his way home to Canada from Tunisia, when he was detained at Kennedy Airport in New York, in 2002. He was sent to Syria for interrogation by the US, who suspected he was a member of al-Qaeda. He spent nearly a year in Syria, where he claims he was beaten, whipped, and held in an underground cell. For a year, his family did not know where he was, he was simply disappeared. An investigation by Canadian authorities has found that Arar has committed no offense, and is not a threat to Canadian security. His life and the lives of his family were disrupted beyond imagining by a false accusation.

In the era of big media hoopla, where celebrity gossip passes for actual news, where innuendo and accusation can ruin lives in a matter of minutes, we the people have a responsibility. It is our responsibility to hold the media accountable. It is our duty to demand a higher quality of news and information. We can subscribe to publications that provide those higher standards, while letting the purveyors of sensationalism know that we aren’t going to support them. Lives are ruined by accusation – which means we should all proceed with caution.

We’ve seen some ugly accusations about a local man hit the paper recently. We’re seeing the beginnings of a political media circus with the accusations made against Ray Buckley, a well known Democrat from Manchester. For those who will leap to accuse me of partisan defense, understand that Ray Buckley and I are not friends, to put it mildly and politely. Mr. Buckley has been accused of viewing, or possessing child pornography a number of years ago, by the man who was his roommate at the time, State Representative Steve Vallaincourt. Vallaincourt wrote a letter to make the accusations, and delivered it to Governor Lynch, who turned the letter over to the state attorney general. I’ve always thought that when one suspected a crime had been committed, one went to the police, not to the governor. In fact, one wonders why Vallaincourt waited for years to report this alleged activity, and why he never did go to the police. With the new Democratic majority in the NH legislature, Rep. Vallaincourt did not get a committee chairmanship he felt he deserved, which he was quite publicly put out about. Seeing his old nemesis, Buckley, on the verge of becoming the NH Democratic Party chairman may well have pushed this rather unstable individual over the edge. Vallaincourt appears to be enjoying his extended period of fame in that well known outlet of the liberal media, the Union Leader.

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a maxim we pay lip service to, even as we turn on the television set, or go to a blog where character assassination reigns supreme. Lives are ruined by false accusations. Let us at least wait for a guilty verdict and THEN pick up the torches and pitchforks.

“Hysteria trumps evidence.” Carol Tavris

The 2007 Legislative Session Begins

The NH legislature will be back in session on January 3, 2007. The new session begins with the Democrats holding the majority of seats in both the House and Senate. A number of new legislators will be learning the ropes. Committee Chairmanships have been shuffled, office spaces have been reassigned. Presumably the parking space wars go on.
A visit to the General Court will reveal over a thousand new bills being proposed in 2007. Most are just tantalizing snippets, since the full text of the bill is not available until it has been officially introduced. Our local legislators (district 1) have been busy – I saw Tom Buco, Ed Butler, and Gene Chandler listed as sponsors of bills, and Carolyn Brown as the co-sponsor of one bill.

This will be a year for hammering out a state budget, which will be a challenge, as always. NH will be losing $19 million in federal funds. In a state averse to collecting revenue, this always means a challenge. This year some of the suggestions include a tax on soda and candy, increasing certain fish and game non-resident license or permit fees, establishing a state owned casino to provide funds for public education, a hike in wild turkey hunting permit fees, a tax on bottled water, a tax on cigarette manufacturers, a user charge for excessive consumption of police services, and my favorite – a bill establishing a study committee on implementing a “bedroom tax” on residential dwellings. At the same time, there are bills that would eliminate the “view” tax from the property tax, and others that would exclude seniors and veterans from the property tax, and another that would exempt retirement funds from the interest and dividends tax. Two bills propose a cut in the business profits and business enterprise taxes. As always – some legislators trying to provide revenue while others try hard to eliminate it. It’s the continual paradox of NH.

As always, there are a number of bills attempting to deal with the rising costs of health care. Apparently our NH legislators didn’t heed Senator Sununu’s recent warning not to worry about it. One bill would “establish a NH health access corporation, continually appropriating a special fund, and allowing the healthy kids corporation to cover adults.”
Another would establish a commission to study a single payer system for NH. There is also a bill requiring interpretation services (upon request) for people seeking medical treatment, and a bill that would allow for medical use of marijuana.

There are even more than the usual number of bills proposing changes in the voter laws. Naturally, there is the usual GOP effort to make voting even more difficult, by attempting to mandate photo ID’s must be shown to obtain a ballot, several bills relating to the order of names on ballots, and a bill that would eliminate same day voter registration. The same sponsors that want photo ID at the polls also want all forms of ID to indicate citizenship. For decades the Democrats tried to eliminate straight ticket voting, but the GOP resisted, since it was one of their many tools to ensure one party rule. This year it backfired, and bit them in the behind, with numerous straight ticket votes being cast for Democrats. Suddenly, straight ticket voting is a bad thing, according to some Republicans. Keeping their promise, there are at least 2 bills (sponsored by Democrats) that would eliminate straight ticket voting.

There are also a number of bills around civil union and marriage. One proposed bill calls for NH to recognize marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is already state law, and therefore, more than a little redundant. It was proposed by a divorced legislator. A pity these same legislators aren’t more concerned with the failure of heterosexual marriage. Another bill calls for medical coverage for domestic partners, which is sound policy. As for civil union – separate but equal is not equal.

On the surface, some proposed bills make a lot of sense. Establishing a housing commission seems a good idea, as does raising the minimum wage. Permitting adoption by two unmarried adults in a familial relationship seems sensible, as well. Creating an environmental policy for NH seems so sensible, that I despair that it hasn’t been done before now. A bill prohibiting NH from participating in a national ID card system is back again, this year. You may recall that a similar bill passed the House last year, but was killed in the wimpy Senate. Another bill would give the governor and state senators a four year term. I’m in agreement about the governor’s seat. The two year term makes for endless campaigning and fundraising. The governor should be freed up to devote more time to the people’s business.

Some bills seem just kind of bizarre. One calls for repealing the incorporation of the NH Bar Association. Another would require that court ordered courses for DWI offenses be available online. What a great idea – one could take the course in the privacy of one’s own home, just sitting down and relaxing over a beer or two. One bill would revoke the driver’s license of students who drop out of school. Another brilliant idea – make sure the kid can’t get to work. That won’t cause any problems or expenses for communities. Without the full text, some of these bills are cryptic indeed. “Relative to the oaths required of public officers.” We can only wonder at what that might entail, or why it is important. Another that mildly concerns me is “relative to access to toilet facilities in public places.” Hopefully the sponsor is in favor of toilet facilities in public places.

The NH General Court website: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ie/ is a useful tool, and one that everyone should bookmark. As these bills are introduced, the full text will be there for us to examine. There’s even an option for streaming audio when the House/Senate are in session, so that you can listen in. There are also guided historical tours of the NH State House, and there’s room in the gallery to sit and watch the action unfold. I realize not everyone can take a mid-week day off to go hang out in Concord, but if you can – I heartily recommend it. We the people should be watching what happens in our house. See you in Concord!

“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” Samuel Butler

What, Me Worry?

The November elections brought many changes, and for many of us, brought hope for a new national conversation about health care. Most working folks understand that we have a national health care crisis – that our cobbled together privatized system leaves out approximately 47 million Americans. Most people, even some politicians think this is wrong – but not all, apparently. Recently our very own NH Senator leaped into the fray, telling business leaders, “There is no solution.” This astounding quote appeared in the December 3, Concord Sunday Monitor, in the “Capital Beat” section. In it, the Monitor reports that Senator John Sununu had met with economic development leaders and told them not to waste time worrying about the cost of health care. He told them they’d be better off putting their energy elsewhere. Indeed, why should he worry? As a federal employee he has a fine health insurance plan. He’s been in office long enough so he won’t ever have to worry about it. Worry is for the common folks! One can only assume that this blithe disregard for a serious issue will come back to bite him right in the assume when he runs for re-election in 2008.

When Senator Sununu runs for re-election, you may wonder, who will be funding his campaign? Any time spent searching at www.opensecrets.org is always quality time. At opensecrets you can find out who gets money from what organizations, PACS, zip codes, and so on. You can see copies of candidate financial disclosure forms. It’s a very helpful place, filled with all kinds of interesting facts for your perusal. A look through Senator Sununu’s section at opensecrets reveals that his top business donor since he entered Congress in 1996 is securities and investment. In second place for business contributions is the insurance industry. It’s no wonder he’s so sure the solution to our health care problems lies in the open market – the open market funds his campaign – even in non-election years. So far, this year, the insurance industry has given Senator Sununu $322,500. He’s not even running for office till 2008. In contrast, the pharmaceutical industry are cheap buggers, they’ve only given him $92,999 so far this year. Maybe that’s the payback he gets for not voting for the Medicare Modernization Act, which gave us Medicare Part D.

I was interested to learn that the Senator’s top metro area contributions come from New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Houston, and Lowell. He receives generous contributions from the Bedford and Rochester areas, but his top dollars are mostly coming from out of state. What does all of this mean? Well, one thing I’m sure of is that he gets a boatload of money from the insurance industry. Does all of that hard cash have an impact on his positions and his voting? I’m betting that if I donated $300,000 to his campaign that I’d have his full attention, and plenty of it, just about any time I wanted it.

There has never been a better time to consider how we fund elections. It’s time for us to change the money market, so that we don’t wind up with an endless succession of Sununus – privileged scions of wealthy families, who have never had to live in the real world, where health insurance is enormously expensive, and housing costs are the 7th highest in the nation. I urge you to check out the website at www.just6dollars.org . Just $6 is the project of Americans for Campaign Reform, and their honorary chairpersons are: Bill Bradley, Warren Rudman, Bob Kerrey, and Alan Simpson. For only $6 each, we could publicly fund all federal elections, and eliminate the big money contributions from special interests. This project was born right here in NH, and rumor has it that it will be going national in the next year or so. Please check out their website, and add your support to the growing move to take the big money (and influence) out of our democratic process.


Senator Sununu isn’t a terrible guy. He did vote against the terrible Medicare Modernization Act. He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. He voted against extending the Patriot Act. These were all good votes, and prove that he can break party ranks on occasion. Still, I find myself astounded that he would willingly become the Alfred E. Neuman of NH – what me, worry?

If the open market had a solution, we’d know about it. There’s a reason why so many other countries have universal health care plans. There’s a reason why pharmaceuticals are cheaper in those countries. We’re getting fleeced, told we have the finest health care system in the world, and getting fleeced some more. Who benefits? Insurance companies are recording record profits. Their CEO’s are raking in the big bucks, too. UnitedHealth Group CEO William McGuire enjoyed a salary of $135. 47 million. (Poor guy had to resign over a stock option timing problem.) Poor John Rowe of Aetna only made $57.49 million, and at a paltry $42.13 million, Edward Hanway of Cigna must be ready to apply for food stamps.

This much is certain – you and I are not benefiting from this – not even a little. As long as we don’t worry about it – nothing will change, and that, friends, is what the insurance industry and Senator Sununu are counting on.

“In the future, we’ll all have 15 minutes of fame, and 15 minutes of health care.” Nicole Hollander

The Annual War on Christmas

We’re into the Christmas retail season – and the annual accusations of a “war against Christmas” have begun. A cynical person might find all of this “war on Christmas” hype to be a sure-fire fundraiser for some right wing Christian groups. A cynical person might find this to be a way for Bill O’Reilly and Faux News to get their names up in lights, and liven up the ratings. Cynical or not, the “war on Christmas” like many wars (war on terror, war on drugs) is a manipulation. Follow it through to a logical conclusion – if he evil anti-Christmas forces win, what happens? No more Christmas? HA! The retailers of the world would never stand for it!

In NH we see no signs of this alleged war. The world’s ugliest nativity scene, featuring the world’s whitest baby Jesus will still go up in front of the State House in Concord. Last week Berlin’s annual Christmas parade featured a float with potential gifts and their costs on the front , and a nativity scene bearing the sign “priceless” in the rear of the float; clearly a take-off on the popular credit card ad. The parade’s theme was “Christmas, through the eyes of a child.” It was not “holidays through the eyes of a child.” Apparently they haven’t heard about the “war” on Christmas up in Berlin.
In fact, “Merry Christmas” is the most common greeting one hears from store clerks. It doesn’t seem to be offending anyone – heck, most of us are happy to be greeted politely in a retail setting!

In an effort to continue to fuel the phony war, Bill O’Reilly recently had a good rant on his show about Crate and Barrel stores, where he quoted a spokesperson for the chain, who allegedly said, “We would definitely not say Merry Christmas.” He claimed to have confirmed the quote, and went into lather about how chanting Muslims wouldn’t get handcuffed in Crate and Barrel. In the real world, where oxygen is flowing to the brain, the Crate and Barrel spokesperson was actually saying that C&B has no policy either encouraging or discouraging employees from saying, “Merry Christmas.” Nice job of confirmation, there, Bill. So – what is in it for O’Reilly – why is he perpetuating this nonsense? A simple visit to his website will show you what he holds dear to his heart – HIS WALLET. The Christmas Store section of his site features a number of products for sale, including hats, tee shirts, coffee mugs, doormats, outerwear, and golf balls with the logo “Culture Warrior.” For a mere $54.95, you, too, can purchase one of these sweatshirts. The “Culture Warrior” varsity jacket is a steal at only $159. 95. Gee whiz, a cynical person might get to thinking that he’s perpetuating this nonsense because it lines his pockets. O’Reilly – a crass opportunist? Oh, say it ain’t so.

The site mymerrychristmas.com is all about the joys of Christmas, with religion and commerce represented interchangeably. The American Family Association (a right wing Christian group) asked Wal-Mart not to ban the use of “Christmas” in their advertising and promotions. Apparently Sam’s Club (a Wal-Mart subsidiary) wasn’t using the word Christmas often enough to suit the AFA in their advertising. Wal-Mart apparently ignored the letter. Despite this misbehavior on Wal-Mart’s part, I am assured by shoppers that Wal-Mart is crammed with Christmas materials, including plenty of baby Jesus.

This is enough to cause some head scratching, when one gets to seriously pondering. Why are the evangelicals so intent on linking a religious holiday to retail and commerce? One might think they’d want to distance themselves, and their religious celebration from crass commercialism. Shouldn’t the birth of the Christ child be a matter for celebrating in one’s house of worship? Why would they want to link it to whipping out a credit card? Instead, it seems that these evangelicals are trying to blur the lines between religion and retail; a line that most of us realize was crossed some decades ago. They just don’t want to admit it. The use of the inclusive term “holiday” is really all about cleaning out the wallets of practitioners of all religions.

The only evidence I’ve found of a real war, is a story from Colorado . A homeowners association is threatening to fine a woman who has a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace sign on her house. Some of the residents in this subdivision complained about the wreath, calling it a symbol of Satan. Lisa Jensen, of Pagosa Springs, CO, has refused to remove the wreath, saying that she will not be bullied. Apparently the residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq. These people seem to be playing right into the war on Christmas – after all, isn’t Christmas supposed to be about the birth of Christ? Isn’t he often referred to as “the prince of peace”? If that is the case, how then, can a peace wreath be a symbol of Satan?

I wish you joy and common sense in this holiday season.


“Next to a circus, there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.” Kin Hubbard

Our "Network" Moment

The elections are over and the spin has begun. The recently deposed party and their media mouthpieces would have us believe that the reason for their grievous loss is the war in Iraq and that dissatisfaction with the war trickled all the way down to NH state legislators. It’s a disingenuous spin that allows the GOP to blame the president without taking any responsibility for their own conduct – or the way they ran their own races. It’s also creating a lot of whining, that in the interest of full disclosure, I confess to be enjoying.

It seems a very long time ago since we saw President Bush emerge from a plane in a manly flight suit with the banner “Mission Accomplished” displayed behind him. Since that premature announcement of victory, thousands of US and untold numbers of Iraqi lives have been lost. At least $380 billion dollars have been sent over there, resulting in no measurable improvement. The war goes on, the spending goes on, and so does the dying. Months ago, the President told a writer that he would stay the course in Iraq, even if the only people who agreed with him were his wife and his dog. A couple of weeks before the election, in an attempt to save his party, he told us that “stay the course” had never been their philosophy. With utter arrogance and stupidity, it never occurred to them they’d lose control of the House and Senate, so a little over a week after Bush told us that Rumsfeld was doing a fantastic job, he got the Brownie treatment, and was pushed on to his sword the day after the election. Too little, too late.

The war was certainly a factor in the humiliating rout the GOP endured last week, but it’s not the only reason for those losses. To blame the war is to ignore the widespread lobbying corruption that has led to arrests and investigations – as well as to bad legislation like Medicare Part D. To blame the war is to ignore the sex scandals – and the fact that House Speaker Hastert ignored Rep. Mark Foley preying on pages. To blame the war is to ignore the dissatisfaction with the booming economy we hear about, but aren’t experiencing ourselves unless we are among the wealthiest one percent. To blame the war is to ignore the dissatisfaction with the divisive public discourse of the last six years. Above all, to blame the war is to ignore how angry voters are at the disastrous fiscal policies of the Bush administration – policy that has tripled our deficit, burdening future generations with debt. The 109th Congress didn’t do anything and the people know it. November 7 was our “Network” moment – the national equivalent of throwing our windows open and shouting, “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it any more!”

As the nation went, so went the state of New Hampshire. For years many of us have longed for the time when NH would became a two party state – never expecting that it would happen overnight. The GOP has had control of the NH House since the Civil War. That long reign has at last come to an end. The Democrats now have the majority in the House and Senate, as well as the Executive Council – and all of this under a Democratic Governor. Both of our incumbent US Congressmen were voted out. The NH spinmeisters and pollsters are rocking and rolling – notably Andy Smith of UNH, who despite an abysmal job of pre-election polling and predicting, is still lauded as some sort of expert. The spinners only seem to talk to political insiders, which tends to limit their perspective. On a post-election NH Outlook segment, the most unbiased viewpoint came from Tom Fahey of the NH Union Leader.

Smith and the other spinners seem to think that Governor Lynch had the longest coattails in history, and that combined with anger against the war is what caused the complete upheaval in our state. This is such a glib, skim-the-surface look at what happened that all who spew it should be embarrassed and possibly unemployed.
For decades, the GOP has run on the same platform in NH. “No New Taxes/Cut Spending.” That old tired mantra was bound to run out of gas – and this was the year. Gubernatorial candidate Jim Coburn’s entire embarrassing campaign consisted of bellowing that the Democrats want an income tax – despite John Lynch’s vow to vote against one. For the last 6 years, we’ve had professional fear-mongers on the national level giving us color coded alerts. The “tax and spend librul” saber rattling pales in comparison.

NH GOP incumbents feel entitled to their seats. For a very long time, all one had to do to be elected was be a Republican, and do convincing public imitation of sanity. They didn’t bother to campaign – they didn’t have to. I read a newspaper story a few elections back where a then-incumbent from my district spoke of how he just put up a handful of signs and that was his campaign. How many Republicans knocked on your door and asked for your vote? The incumbents were lazy. They marched in party lockstep. They weren’t paying attention to how things in our state are changing.

Did the war sweep ‘em out? I don’t think so. Across the nation people were fed up with the GOP – and that includes NH. This was a vote for change. People are tired of sending the same people to Concord, where nothing changes. NH has the 7th highest housing costs in the nation, high energy costs, high health care costs, and low wages. The issue of school funding has dragged on for decades. All the GOP had to offer was “no taxes, cut spending.” That simply isn’t enough any more.

My favorite complaint has been about straight ticket voting. For years, the Democrats have introduced legislation to eliminate straight ticket voting. For years, the Republicans have fought to keep it, because it helped keep them in power. This year it worked against them, and suddenly the straight ticket has become an outrage!! The last vote on straight ticket voting was in January of 2006. You can look it up on the NH General Court website, under roll call votes – and find out who voted for it. A yea vote is a vote to ITL or kill the bill eliminating straight ticket voting. Be sure to note how many of the losing incumbents voted to kill the bill.

This election was a cry for change. Let us hope that change ushers in a spirit of cooperation and a willingness to work together for the best possible future.


“People voted for change, they voted for an agenda – and you can hear it, but they also voted for civility.” NH’s newly elected Congresswoman – Carol Shea Porter

Time to clean House

The mid term elections are only days away. The ballots show more candidates, and provide more choices than I can ever remember since moving here 22 years ago. We’ve had three forums for state candidates. We’ve even hosted a Congressional debate. It’s been busier, crazier, and far more interesting than elections in the past that were pro forma events ensuring that the same incumbents would continue to do the same things in Concord.

State and local Democrats have benefited from the national level of dissatisfaction with the Republican Party. To paraphrase Lord Acton – absolute power corrupts, absolutely. The Democrats had their time as the party of corruption. The Republicans have managed to dig themselves in even deeper, in a much shorter period of time. We’ve seen Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Bob Ney brought down by ego and greed. Mark Foley resigned in disgrace, while the GOP tries desperately to cover up Denny Hastert’s indifference to Foley’s conduct. When all of that is added to the mounting disgust with the war in Iraq and the phenomenal deficit brought on by the borrow-and-spend conservatives, it creates a stew of discontent, a desire for change. One need only look at the bumper crop of lawn signs for Democrats this year in Carroll County to know change is coming.

This past Wednesday night, the Conway Education Association hosted a debate between Congressional candidates Jeb Bradley and Carol Shea-Porter, at Conway Elementary School. It is likely that Bradley agreed to Conway because he thought there would be small turnout, and little media interest. When I pulled in, the area in front of Kennett was covered with people waving Shea-Porter signs on both sides of Rt. 16. I parked next to a group of 4 Bradley supporters, struggling to arrange a stack of sign totems. They never did make it out to the road. That was indicative of how the rest of the evening would proceed. Congressman Bradley – self proclaimed champion of the environment - pulled in to the debate in a gigantic campaign motor home – the kind that might get 5 mpg if the wind was blowing the right way. Ms. Shea Porter arrived in a modest compact car. The differences between the two candidates did not end there.

The debate was riveting. Moderator George Epstein did a fine job of keeping the occasionally rowdy crowd under control. He asked all of the candidates in the audience to stand up to be applauded, and with wry good humor, congratulated Henry Mock for standing, even though he hadn’t been informed in advance that he’d be asked to stand.

Congressman Bradley is not a gifted public speaker. He has figured out that the longer he takes to answer a question, the fewer questions he has to take, and he’s mastered the art of the filibuster reply. From the very first question asked, Bradley displayed his inability to face a question head on. A man in the audience yelled, “You didn’t answer the question!” The crowd laughed – and Carol told him he needn’t have worried, that she was on it – and went on to point out to Bradley that he hadn’t answered the question, as she proceeded to answer it herself. That was how the evening progressed. Carol Shea-Porter demonstrated her strong speaking skills, as well as her ability to think on her feet. Congressman Bradley demonstrated his ability to repeat the same talking points over and over, as if repetition would somehow make them meaningful. At least three times he said, “We must keep Iraq from becoming a launching pad for terrorism.” He also said that we must prevent Iraq from civil war. Most of the people in the room were aware that it’s too late on both counts, yet despite the obvious mocking from the crowd, he continued to repeat those mantras. Last summer I saw him do the same thing in Hart’s Location at a town hall meeting. When questioned about marriage equality, he kept repeating that he believed marriage is between a man and a woman. He couldn’t say WHY he believed that, he could only say it over and over again.

The debate was taped by Valley Vision. If you live in a town that is served by the station, do yourself a favor and watch it. As one man commented to me on his way out the door, “I hope Bradley’s on his way to the hospital for a blood transfusion.” Carol was definitely the winner of that debate – and we will all be the winners if she’s elected to represent us in Washington.

We can also change who represents us in Concord, and we should. The forum held by the Economic Council was revealing. The GOP contingent was angry that they weren’t prepped in advance to discuss topics that anyone in the room would have been prepared to discuss – the same issues that NH has been coping with for decades. This was a sorry display, made sorrier when combined with the revelation of their combined technological ineptitude. Crow Dickinson has been in the NH House for 30 odd years. That’s too long. Gene Chandler should have been expelled from the House for his ethics violations. We can expel him, now. Carolyn Brown is in over her head. She can speak knowledgeably and passionately about her volunteer work in the community. She can’t speak that way about the legislature. She admitted that she voted for SB110, even though she didn’t understand it – the bill that caused north country health insurance premiums to skyrocket. At the debate it was apparent that she votes the way Chandler tells her to. She’s never sponsored a piece of legislation. Carolyn’s niche is working in the community. We can help her do the kind of work that is clearly more fulfilling and comfortable for her. Henry Mock left the House with the “Friends of Gene Chandler” cloud hanging over his head, and now wants to return. Mock is an angry man, given to shouting out bizarre pronouncements. He’s firmly rooted in the good old boy ways of the past. NH needs to move forward in a positive direction. Time to clean House. See you at the polls!

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt