Buying NH

Lobbyists at the NH State House wear orange badges that identify them as lobbyists. In 2007, there were 252 registered lobbyists. I was surprised at the last hearing I attended to see how many of them were in the room. It was a hearing on water issues, and there were as many lobbyists present as there were citizens. It wasn’t always this way – one might see a lobbyist in a hearing. Now they are everywhere.  

Lobbying is big business in NH these days. According to Nashua Telegraph writer Kevin Landrigan, lobbyists in NH earned $9.6 million in fees last year – a substantial increase over 2006, wherein they netted only $5.4 million. This information isn’t easy to come by. Lobbyists find the NH laws on reporting cumbersome. The extent of disclosure is weak, and NH does poorly on gathering data. We are one of 10 states that do not report which industries spend the most on lobbying. To get information, one must dig through the vast number of monthly reports filed at the Secretary of State’s office.

Big legislative battles last year undoubtedly account for the heavy increase in lobbying fees. There was legislation requiring health care coverage for dependants up to age 26, and covering divorced spouses for a period of time. That brought the health care lobbyists out in full force, with over $1.3 million spent on lobbying. Legislation aimed at limiting the amount of interest charged by payday loan companies brought out the sharks. NH currently has no limits on the amount of interest these companies can charge, and the average seems to be somewhere around 500 percent interest.

A bill to actually weaken NH lobbying laws has already passed the House, and is currently in the Senate. HB 91 would eliminate the requirement currently in place that lobbyists must disclose campaign contributions. Based on how much lobbying money goes into senate campaigns, it seems likely to pass.

NH State Senator Bob Clegg, who is running for Congress in CD 2, is the lobbyist’s best friend. He received over $5000 from lobbyists. Lou D’Allesandro and Betsy DeVries weren’t far behind. Our local senators didn’t rake in the same kind of big dollars, though it’s interesting to peruse those reports and find out where their money does come from. The Secretary of State’s office has this information online. It is fascinating. Senator Joe Kenney received $1,250 in easily identified lobbying contributions – and by that I mean the big lobbying firms in NH. Sheehan, Phinney Capital Group, Dupont Group, Orr and Reno, Devine, Millimet, and Branch, and The Demers Group are names that came up for either or both Senator Gallus and Senator Kenney.

Even more fascinating are the PACs and other special interests. RJ Reynolds, and Glaxo Smith Kline made donations to both Gallus and Kenney. Gallus also received a $200 contribution from New England Payday Loans in 2006. Phillip Morris is supporting Senator Gallus with a $500 contribution in 2007. The lobbyists are already starting to write checks to Gallus in 2007. Senator Kenney’s reporting isn’t as clear – he had no 2006 reports filed under his name. The Friends of Joe Kenney PAC took in a lot of mostly PAC and other special interest money – about $25,000 for the campaign season, and spent it all. In 2007 there are no reports filed for Senator Kenney. Senator Gallus’s reports are clearer. He received many small individual contributions, and he also received a lot of special interest money. Merck, Verizon, Wal-Mart, Pfizer, PhRMA (the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest PAC), and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad of Quebec are some of the special interest donors. Senator Gallus received almost $34,000 in contributions in 2006. He didn’t spend much of it, as $26, 515.87 was brought forward from the 2006 campaign and rolled over for 2008. In 2008 he already has over $33,000 for his campaign.

One could spend hours looking into this, and we all should. The lobbyists claim that it’s just “good business,” “it’s about being able to be heard.” Most of us can’t afford to purchase those kinds of hearing aids. Our votes still count, and we all still have the right to call our legislators and do our own personal lobbying on our own concerns. We’re all aware of the influence of money on politics on the national level – and now we’re seeing the same sort of trickle down economics at work, in the NH legislature.

Weakening the current lobbying laws so that lobbyists don’t have to report campaign contributions will just make it harder to track those contributions. Those who wish to track will have to go to the reports of each and every legislator. Without lobbying reports to keep them honest an unscrupulous legislator may see this as an opportunity for their own personal corn roast. Having both lobbyists and legislators disclose these contributions is a system of checks and balances that are in the best interests of the voters of our state. The reporting system should be going toward creating greater transparency, not creating more secrecy.

The only way we will ever get away from the pervasive money influence is to initiate public funding of campaigns. When money is taken out of the equation, then we’ll be closer to government for the people and not for the special interests.

I urge folks to call their Senators, and tell them you’re opposed to HB 91. Tell them you think lobbyists should have to disclose all campaign contributions, and for that matter, so should senators.

“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting the corporate power against democracy.” Alex Carey

NH Gets a D+

The Pew Research Center released a report last week, grading states on the efficiency of their governments. NH scored a D+ - the lowest grade in the nation. The report found that NH is particularly weak with regards to our infrastructure, and long range planning. At this point, the 10-year transportation plan will take approximately 22 years to complete. The state has no capital plan. There is no plan for communication infrastructure. For hundreds of years we’ve been told that cheap equals efficient. Apparently that just isn’t so.

Our state government is structured in such a way as to restrict government growth. It’s a good thought – and one that worked okay a century or two ago. The governor serves a two-year term. Agency heads serve four-year terms. Every governor is forced to deal with agency heads that may be completely hostile. A governor has little chance of enacting any reforms. The two-year election cycles apply to all state legislators as well. That two-year cycle does not lend itself to long term planning. The fact that those legislators are paid $100 a year ensures that that many of them are retired, and some quite elderly. I once testified before a committee, my testimony punctuated by the snores of one distinguished fellow, who awoke to educate me about the cost of a Model T Ford in 1940. I appreciate his dedication and service to the people of our state, but I don’t want him on the panel develops a plan for our communication infrastructure needs. We know that some legislators are befuddled by computers and email. Will NH develop a plan for communication infrastructure, or will it be ignored, and put off – like education funding or infrastructure funding?

The state is funded by a variety of narrow based taxes, the heaviest burden being comprised of property taxes. This regressive form of taxation ensures that NH is always in a financial crisis. As long as the state is in perpetual crisis mode, there can be no planning for the future, because monies must be aimed at paying the latest pound of cure for the most recent disaster. Our regressive tax system ensures that the state will never have enough money to deal with important issues like infrastructure. Remember all the talk last year about the sorry state of dams around the state? Think they’ve been repaired in the last year? How will this year’s spring thaw affect those dams?

I’ve just committed NH heresy by criticizing our tax structure. For decades we’ve been told that the only way to have effective state government is to tighten our belts, and make budget cuts. Any criticism of this makes one a “tax and spend librul.” Any criticism of “the pledge” makes one a candidate for burning at the stake. The terms have been defined by the NH GOP – and those terms ensure that there is no honest discussion of how our state government is funded. The pledge is a form of censorship. The pledge ensures that we can’t even talk about it, because if you want to discuss it, either you’re in favor of the underfunded crisis mode state government, or you’re a heretic who wants to RAISE TAXES. It’s been my experience that in order to solve a problem, one has to be able to discuss all of the options for solving it. That seems to work everywhere but NH.

One of the big problems in NH is that we hate change, and we want to do things the way we’ve always done them. This is why we have some duplication in state government. The Dept. of Fish and Game is sinking – hunting and fishing license sales have plummeted. The culture is changing – and shifting away from hunting and toward other forms of outdoor recreation. Occasionally there’s a great outpouring of concern as to how we will continue to fund the Dept. of Fish and Game. No one ever seems to wonder why we should. If Fish and Game isn’t financially feasible any longer, why not downsize it and merge Fish and Game with the Dept. of Resources and Economic Development? The Dept. of Resources and Economic Development already includes Parks and Recreation, Forests and Lands, and Travel and Tourism – so why not Fish and Game, too? This, too, is heresy. To suggest that NH change is just – wrong. There must be ways to honor the past while moving into the future. It’s a pity we aren’t interested in being creative enough to find those solutions, instead of being mired in the way it’s always been.

Former Governor Craig Benson was hailed as a successful businessman who would run our state like a business. We all remember his kitchen table analogy, about living within our means. No one ever dared point out the flaw in his thinking. Envision a business facing steadily rising overhead costs. Will they keep the price of their product the same? Or will the price of their product be increased, in order to stay in business? In NH, the answer to rising overhead is to eliminate revenue sources, while cutting spending – and this is presented to us as a sane way to run a state. It’s the D+ way.

“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” Richard J. Cushing

Peddling Fear and Lies

Last week the American Research Group, Inc released the results of their most recent poll on the US economy. Their polling research found that President Bush’s approval ratings are at the all time low of 19 percent. With ten months still to go, and the US economy in dire straits, there’s plenty of time for him to dip into the single digits, and possibly into negative numbers. The politics of fear and divisiveness don’t seem to be working so well any more.

Most Republicans know this, and do everything they can to distance themselves from the president. The group Americans United for Change personally delivered buttons to all GOP members of the House and Senate a week before the State of the Union Address. The buttons read: “I Am A Bush Republican.” The group urged the legislators to wear them proudly, in support of the president and policies they’ve been voting for. I didn’t see any of them being worn during that giddy event, which seemed to have been preceded by a lengthy open bar. How else would one explain all the standing ovations?

The GOP needs a new marketing strategy. In a year where one presidential candidate is engaging people by talking about hope, they’re still selling fear. President Bush is claiming that we are at risk, because the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reform legislation, known as the Protect America Act, expired on February 16. The president has refused any efforts to extend or change the expired legislation, unless it contains immunity for telecommunications companies. He threatened to veto a short extension of the FISA reforms. If he believes the Protect America Act to be crucial to our national security – why would he risk it by a veto?

This is really all about shifting more power to the executive branch. The revisions in the Protect America Act would shift wiretapping approval from the judiciary to the attorney general and the director of national intelligence. This is also all about protecting the executive branch. There are over 40 pending civil lawsuits against the telecom companies. If the companies get immunity, the public will lose the ability to learn more about the warrantless spying, and how it has been conducted. That’s the bottom line. The Bush administration is attempting to protect itself, by peddling fear to the voters.

Former NH Congressman Jeb Bradley had an editorial in the Union Leader last week, accusing the US House of Representatives of “playing Russian Roulette with federal wiretap powers.” He cited the heartbreaking story of a young soldier who died because the government couldn’t spy on the kidnappers without establishing probable cause. The old FISA law allows the administration to apply for a warrant, in an emergency, AFTER the surveillance has taken place, a fact Bradley neglected to mention, in his attempt to use the death of this soldier to take a shot at current Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. Poor Jeb didn’t learn anything from his defeat in 2006. He supported the Bush plan to privatize Social Security. He proudly touted his support for the REAL ID Act. He has consistently supported an administration that has played fast and loose with the US Constitution. The voters of NH found that Bradley was out of step with their values, so they sent him home. Bradley seems to think that beating the same losing drum will help him get elected again, in November.

Nationally, the GOP has targeted a handful of freshman Democrats they wish to oust, and they’ve found a group to run ads in 13 Congressional districts. One of them is NH CD1, where an ad has been running, telling us that our intelligence agencies are powerless to conduct surveillance against terrorists since February 16, when the FISA reform lapsed. The ad is false – propaganda designed to show that Congresswoman Shea-Porter is weak on terrorism. In fact, Shea-Porter voted to extend the law for 21 days so that Congress could work out the problems with the bill, but Bush was against temporarily extending his own legislation.

NH’s junior Senator, John E. Sununu, Jr., a Bush acolyte (voting with him 90% of the time) didn’t wear his “I’m a Bush Republican” to the State of the Union Address. Senator Sununu has shown that he, too, is out of touch with the interests of NH voters. Last year, when speaking to a group of NH businessmen, he told them to stop worrying about health care costs, since there is nothing they can do about them. That’s mighty reassuring, isn’t it? Sununu recently voted against the original economic stimulus package, claiming too many additions to the bill. When the unemployment extensions, and low income heating assistance were taken out, he voted for the bill. The poor, the elderly, and the unemployed are all mighty thankful for Sununu’s vigilance on spending. They know that Sununu, who wants to privatize Social Security and make tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, has their best interests at heart.

Apparently the GOP inability to learn from mistakes trickles down. Former State Representative Henry Mock had a little tantrum in the newspaper about activists exercising their First Amendment rights in staging an hour-long protest against Sununu last week. Far from being a traffic nuisance, the activists (including myself) were careful to stay on the shoulder, and not block the driveway to the restaurant where the Carroll County GOP were having their annual Lincoln Day Dinner. Despite Mock’s claims to the contrary, there was plenty of room in the parking lot, since the event was far from sold out. Mock came out and took pictures, in what he seemed to think was an attempt to intimidate the group. Far from being intimidated, people seemed willing to pose for his pictures and speak with him, but he quickly headed back for the warmth and safety of the cocktail lounge. Mock was quoted in this paper as saying that Republicans would never participate in such a protest. He’s absolutely right. They’d never stand outside in freezing temperatures to stand up for what they believe in.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.” Representative Silvestre Reyes, in a letter to President Bush.

Torture - the GOP Litmus Test

From Wikipedia: “Water boarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning in a controlled environment and is made to believe that death is imminent.”

Water boarding came into vogue during the Spanish Inquisition, where it was used to uncover and punish heretics. The Europeans brought it to the new world, where it was used to ferret out witches and punish “scolds” (uppity women who didn’t take orders well from men). Women who were accused of sorcery were immersed in water, and held under, repeatedly, until they confessed or drowned. If they confessed, they were hanged or burned.

In 1947, after WWII, the United States charged a Japanese military officer with war crimes. Yukio Asano was found guilty of water boarding a US civilian, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. In 1968, the Washington Post published a picture on the front page, of a US soldier engaged in questioning a captured North Vietnamese soldier. He was being held down as water was poured on his face, and a cloth covered his mouth and nose. The caption under the photograph said the technique induced a sense of drowning and suffocation, intended to make him talk. The US soldier was court-martialed within a month of the photos appearing in the paper. In 1901, a US Army major was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for water boarding a prisoner in the Philippines, during the Spanish-American War.

Most members of the military are against torture. The results of such torture are meaningless, they tell us – since the person being tortured will confess to anything to make it stop. Some of us watched the confirmation hearings of Attorney General Michael Mukasey in amazement. Mukasey indicated that even if Congress were to ban water boarding, the president might be able to order it anyway, given his authority as president and commander-in-chief. The President seems to be under the impression that nothing is illegal if it is done in secret, so we have the practice of extraordinary rendition (where we outsource our torture work to Uzbekistan) and Guantanamo Bay, where we are now talking about trying and executing some of the prisoners who have been languishing there for years. One of them is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is considered the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. Mohammed is often cited as a water boarding success story. In 2006, President Bush informed us of a foiled terrorist attack that was supposed to occur in Los Angeles – but the plot was thwarted. The presumption is that they water boarded the information out of him, and saved the day. The problem is, the plot had already been derailed (in 2002) before Mohammed was captured in 2003.

Retired Rear Admiral John Hutson is the Dean of the Franklin Pierce Law School, in Concord, NH. He is regarded internationally as an expert on military law, as a former JAG. We saw Admiral Hutson at the Mukasey hearings. In 2005, Hutson spoke at the Carnegie Council forum: Ending Torture and Secret Detention in America’s Name. He said, “The great strength of the United States is that for generations our mission has been human rights and the rule of law which embodies everything else that we stand for. In losing our bearings with regard to human rights, with regard to support of the rule of law, we have undermined the fundamental strength of the United States, and we therefore risk losing the war.”

The United States used to consider water boarding a form of torture. It has become a litmus test for the GOP. If you don’t support torture, you can’t be a good Republican. That makes a certain ironic sense, given how they’ve tortured all of us since the 1980’s. In fact, if you don’t support torture, you can’t be president, as John McCain has learned. McCain, a former POW, has been outspoken in his opposition to water boarding and torture. In November of 2007, I sat in a TV station in Londonderry, listening, as Arnie Arneson interviewed McCain. I don’t agree with Senator McCain about much of anything politically, but I was impressed with how he spoke out against the US using torture. He spoke about the history of water boarding, and related the story of how it was considered a war crime by the US after WWII. His principled stance against torture impressed me, and impressed me even more, knowing that he is a member of the pro-torture political party.
That was in November, before he was the presumptive GOP nominee for president. This week, the Senate voted on the Intelligence Authorization Bill, which would require the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as the Army Field Manual, and bans water boarding. Senator McCain has been in favor of implementing the Army Field Manual standards. But that was before he became the likely GOP presidential nominee. When push came to shove this week, McCain voted against the bill, which passed. President Bush has said he will veto the bill. After he does, McCain will have to choose whether or not to stand with the president, or take a stand against torture. His vote on this bill seems to be an indication. The Straight Talk Express just crashed and burned.

“Other than perhaps the rack and thumbscrews, water boarding is the most iconic example of torture in history. It has been repudiated for centuries. It’s a little disconcerting to hear now that we’re not quite sure where water boarding fits in the scheme of things.” Dean John Hutson, in the panel following Muckaey’s testimony at his confirmation hearings.

Putting the Goober in Gubernatorial

Over the last week, we’ve been treated to some very purple prose in the Conway Daily Sun, on the topic of the death penalty. After wading through hyperbole and run on sentences, the bottom line is this: Joe Kenney, State Senator from District 3, is running for governor. No one knows who he is. Filing a bill to expand the death penalty gives him headlines, and name recognition. Filing a bill to expand the death penalty - with NO plan for how to pay for it, in order to achieve name recognition can be called political grandstanding at best. At worst, one might say he is using the families of victims for his own gain. Either way, it ain’t pretty.

NH has a death penalty statute. The last time we executed a citizen was in 1939. Polling data in recent years shows that most NH residents are opposed to the death penalty. In 2000, both the NH House and Senate passed a bill abolishing the death penalty, but Governor Shaheen vetoed it. It is a deeply emotional issue. The families of victims are divided, with some wanting that “eye for an eye” solution, and some wanting justice - justice and an end to the killing. Murdering a murderer doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t bring back the dead, and it doesn’t stop anyone else from killing. It satisfies a very primitive need - the need for vengeance.

Senator Kenney wants to expend the NH death penalty to include murders with multiple victims. He was quoted in this paper as saying, “There is no way that someone should walk into a store in this state and kill three people and get away with it.” Michael Woodbury was sentenced to life in prison without parole. One would be hard pressed to call that “getting away with it.” One could even make the case that life without parole is the worst punishment possible. Waking up each day to face the mind numbing boredom, the daily violence - knowing that you are behind the bars and walls forever, for years and years and years - now that’s cruel. Executing him puts an end to that.

Expanding the death penalty would mean more potential capital cases. Senator Kenney left out the part about how NH will pay for these cases. Right now, the state is looking at a budget deficit that could be $50 million by June, and as much as $150 million by 2009. Where will the money come from to expand and update NH’s death row? Where will the money come from to pay for the prosecution of death penalty cases, and pay for the endless rounds of appeals?

How much will the death penalty cost us? New York reinstated the death penalty in 1995. As of 2003, NY officials estimated that it would cost approximately $23 million for each death row inmate. New Jersey has spent a quarter of a billion dollars in the last 23 years on a capital punishment system that has executed no one, a 2005 report showed. Since 1982 there have been 197 capital trials in New Jersey, that resulted in 60 death sentences. Fifty of those sentences were reversed. There are currently 10 men on death row, at a cost of $11 million a year. A report done by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury found that death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than trials seeking life imprisonment. The state of Kansas found that capital cases are 70% more expensive than trials seeking life in prison. A 2001 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that capital cases are a burden to county budgets, and most counties manage these costs by decreasing funding for highways and police, and increasing taxes. A study by Indiana’s Criminal Law Study Commission found that death penalty cases cost 38% more than life without parole cases. North Carolina spends $2.16 million more per execution than a life imprisonment case. The Palm Beach Post found that Florida would save $51 million a year by sentencing all first degree murderers to life in prison without parole. California spends $90 million a year on capital cases. According to a 2005 LA Times story, the death penalty system costs California taxpayers more than $114 million a year.

The figure of $23-24 million per capital case came up in several states. The argument is often made that it will cost more to imprison a murderer for life without parole, but that isn’t true. The cost of housing an inmate in NH was $31,140 in 2006. (from the Dept. of Corrections website.) Do the math. Keeping a murderer in orange jumpsuits for 50 years will not cost $23 million dollars.

Where will this money come from in NH? Surely even our state isn’t gauche enough to try to fund executions by lotteries, gaming, or gambling, as appealing at the idea of “bowling for hangings” may be. That leaves one option, folks - the property tax. I hope you’ll all tell ole Granstanding Joe how you feel about a dramatic increase in your property taxes to fund executions. Then be sure to tell him how you feel about him preying on the emotions of victim’s families in order to create statewide name recognition for his gubernatorial campaign. Helpful adjectives may include: despicable, loathsome, and abhorrent.

“If we let murderers turn us to murder, we give them too much power. They succeed in bringing us to their way of thinking and acting, and we become what we say we abhor.” Renny Cushing, Executive Director of Murder Victim’s Families for Human Rights, and former NH state legislator. His father was murdered in 1988.


The Death Penalty Information Center is an excellent resource. I used it for some of my research. http://deathpenaltyinfo.org

From Water to Kool-Aid

The recent water wars between Florida and Georgia have caused even some of the staunchest “no such thing as climate change” people to sit up and take notice that water is indeed a finite resource. The water war continues locally, with the Nestle Corporation donning the benevolent local disguise of Poland Spring, attempting to suck our local aquifers dry, so that they can sell our water to the highest bidder.

Some of our local legislators are getting involved. Last week in Concord, I was present for a hearing on HB 1353, An act relative to local control of water resources. This is bi-partisan legislation, sponsored locally by Representative Tom Buco. One of the other sponsors is Rep. Neal Kurk. As I signed in, in support of the bill, I noticed that Rep. Gene Chandler’s name was at the top of the page - against the bill. Being on the same side as Neal Kurk was shocking enough. If Gene Chandler and I were in agreement, surely a plague of locusts would be unleashed upon the Mt. Washington Valley.

The State of New Hampshire is the steward of NH’s water resources. The Department of Environmental Services (DES) makes the decisions about large groundwater withdrawals. They seem to come down (as everything in NH does) on the side of business, so it was no surprise to hear them testify that they wish to continue to maintain their control. There were lobbyists on hand to echo the same sentiments. The lobbyist for Ski NH does NOT want the townspeople involved in the decision making process. Those silly townspeople might eventually rebel at the need for a ski area to suck up millions of gallons of water to make snow in October or November. They could buy into the global warming conspiracy and decide to protect their water supply - and heaven knows, we can’t have that.

Gary Abbot, the lobbyist for the Association of General Contractors supports the perpetuation of DES as the deciding body. He is concerned about who would be making technical decisions - certainly a valid concern. Steve DelDeo, lobbyist for the NH Water Works Association, said that the bill would exacerbate water issues already in place. It’s safe to say, bill or no bill, water issues will continue to exacerbate.

During the course of his testimony, Rep. Kurk said that there must be public input into public policy regarding finite resources. This bill as it is written has some flaws. As it stands, the bill requires an affirmative vote of municipal legislative bodies prior to any large groundwater withdrawal. If 10 towns surrounded an aquifer, or if an aquifer involved one or two states, this could be a real problem. Reps. Harry Merrow and Howard Cunningham both testified that they support the intent, but not the bill as it is currently written.

Willie Farnum was sent to the hearing by the Tamworth Board of Selectmen. He echoed the concerns of Merrow and Cunningham. Farnum also brought up the fact that if towns are not in control of the decision making process, they can incur greater expenses (as did the town of Moultonborough with Castle Springs) which can have profound impact on a community. Farnum said that each community should have the right to say no to a bottling plant. Crow Dickinson of Conway supports the bill, finding it a step in the right direction. He agreed with the others who feel that the bill needs fine tuning. There were about 30 people present for the hearing, including half a dozen folks from Carroll County. Those Carroll County legislators who aren’t paying attention to water better listen up. The control of our water supplies is among the most important issues we face. Water is essential to life - which means that those who prefer to pander to business better think twice. Business may line pockets, but constituents vote you in and they can just as easily vote you out.

The bill was heard by the Resources, Recreation, and Development Committee. This was my first experience with this particular committee, and I was impressed by their willingness to work on this bill in subcommittee, in order to make it workable. This spirit of cooperation guarantees not only better legislation, but better feelings about the process.


Two weeks ago, I wrote an editorial about the “dark side” of GOP presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul. I wrote: “Heaven help the hapless writer who actually uses critical thinking skills in a story on Paul. Legions of Paul’s cultish supporters show up to tell the writer how wrong he is for trying to hold Paul accountable for his own statements.” That proved to be most prescient. Within 15 minutes of the column being published on my blog, I began to get anonymous emails. By morning I was getting anonymous hate emails, with threats. I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen enough “Paullowers” on the internet to know what was coming.

Jennifer Call wasn’t so lucky. Ms. Call is the town clerk of Sutton, NH. There was an error in the paperwork that was turned in to the state, after the primary. It seems Paul had 31 votes in Sutton, but somehow that number hadn’t been transcribed on to the return sheet. As anyone who has ever participated in the ballot counting process is aware, it can be noisy - and at the end of a long day, mistakes can be made. The error was easily cleared up in the morning, the proper numbers faxed to the Secretary of State - and then the phone began to ring. The Paullowers had decided that Ms. Call was the ringleader in the plot to defraud Ron Paul of his 31 votes. Callers accused her of fraud, of treason, and at least one said she ought to be shot. They pretended to be media, in order to trick her into speaking with them. Most of them were from out of state. They harassed her at home. Ms. Call had to request an unlisted phone number.

The zombies have moved on, undoubtedly off to harass other people in other states. I’ve been wary of judging a candidate by his supporters (as a Kucinich staffer you can understand why) but in this case, I’ve lost all reluctance. This is not an ordinary campaign, this is a cult. Some campaigns become cults - the LaRoucheites, for example. LaRoucheites are extremely annoying, but not menacing. The Paullowers are so righteous in their brainwashed anger that they will threaten anyone who dares to disagree with their leader - and anyone unlucky enough to make a mistake.

“So, I guess when you mix Kool-Aid with bongwater… you get a Ron Paul supporter.” V the K, commenting on the Flopping Aces blog.

The First Civil Union in NH

A friend who is a justice of the peace and owns an inn was performing a civil union at midnight and suggested I drive up to be part of this historic event.

Hart's Location is about 20 minutes away. The inn is on the side of a mountain - and there is no light pollution - nothing but a few scattered homes for miles around. The inn is beautifully lit. I walk toward it, hearing the river to my right, through the stark white birches and the pines. The stars are so bright. It is perfect, so still, and so beautiful.

Inside, there's a fire in the fireplace, and the inn is decorated for the holidays. A reporter from NH Public Television is there - as surprised to see me as I am to see him. He didn't know that I live in the area, or that the owners of the inn are my friends. I didn't know he'd be taping the ceremony. We laugh.

I meet Neil and Jeff, the happy couple - and they are happy. There are no jitters - they are ready for this. We chat for a few minutes, and Neil tells me I look familiar - then he remembers, and asks, "weren't you at that hearing of the marriage commission in Littleton? Didn't you testify? You said you were the kind of heterosexual who gives marriage a bad name?" I hung my head and admitted that was me - and he threw his arms around me and said "We love you - that was so great!"

We all gather in the small living room, by the Christmas tree. Richard (from NHPTV) has the cameras set up. Neil and Jeff have a niece and a friend with them, and a few of the inn's guests trickle in to observe. Everyone is poised - and we begin the countdown to midnight. The new civil union law takes effect on January 1. I'm the timekeeper. As I coundown to midnight, everyone joins me - and after a quick cheer of "Happy New Year, " Ed begins the ceremony.

It is moving, and a little awkward - this is uncharted linguistic territory. There's a brief stumble over pronouns. It doesn't matter - we chuckle and move on. Jeff and Neil are radiantly happy. I forget that Richard is there with a camera. It's a very sweet, warm, and funny service. Ed pronounces them legally joined. They kiss. We all applaud - and we all hug one another.

There is champagne, and toasts, and cake - all of the things one would expect at a wedding. This isn't legally a wedding - but that doesn't change the way it feels. This feels like a wedding - only more joyous.

Civil unions are brand new (2 hrs and 15 minutes old as I write this) in NH. We don't know yet what this will mean for our state. Will this derail marriage equality? What are the legal differences between civil union and marrriage in NH? Will this have an impact on other states?

It's too soon to tell. What I know tonight is this - two people who love each other made a serious commitment to one another in front of friends, family, a handful of strangers, and two Bernese Mountain dogs. That it was two men didn't feel strange at all.

Note: I wrote this in the hours after the ceremony. This has not been published as an editorial in the Conway Daily Sun.

The Dark Side of Dr. Paul

One of my favorite candidates for president this year is Vermin Supreme, who recently donated some of his campaign props to the NH Political Library. He was wearing sparkly silver underwear over his pants as he made the donation. When asked by the Concord Monitor what he stands for he answered, “I stand for all that is good.” Mr. Supreme also touted his mandatory tooth brushing campaign, his work to promote time travel research, and zombie preparedness. In any election year the real long shot candidates like Vermin Supreme or Lobsterman are more interesting than any of the so-called front runners. Many of us remember (with affection) Pat Paulson’s ongoing candidacy for the White House. Another one of my favorites was Louis Abolafia, who ran for President in 1968 representing the Cosmic Love Party. His campaign literature featured a picture of him naked, asking, “What have I got to hide?” Fortunately none of the current crop of candidates are likely to emulate Abolafia. Some of us are still recovering from the 2003 pictures of Wesley Clark in a Speedo.

That was the year that Howard Dean dominated the internet, and used it to shake loose millions of dollars in contributions. This time, Republican candidate Ron Paul is the internet king. His supporters are everywhere on the internet. Heaven help the hapless writer who actually uses critical thinking skills in a story on Paul. Legions of Paul’s cultish supporters show up to tell the writer how wrong he is for trying to hold Paul accountable for his own statements. His supporters show up at Meet-Ups wearing pseudo Revolutionary War garb. They have some things in common – most of them are men, and most of them are white. A cursory look into Paul’s campaign finances reveals that 81% of his individual donors are men.

They are often alienated white men who have been hearing all their lives that “gummint bad,” thanks to Ronald Reagan, who used to delight in telling us how bad government was, while he was working diligently to join it. Ron Paul does the same thing. He loves to talk about term limits, though he doesn’t believe in them for himself. Paul loves to portray himself as being different from the Washington insider types. Paul first ran for Congress in 1974. He lost, but was elected that same year in a special election to finish Robert R. Casey’s term. He was not re-elected in ’76, but he was elected again in 1979, and stayed for a couple of terms. In 1984 he ran for US Senate, and lost. In 1988 he ran for president as the libertarian candidate. By 1997, he’d gone back to being a Republican and was sent back to Congress. For a guy who hates the government, he sure has worked hard to get into it. If he’s not an insider, it’s because nobody likes him.

A number of liberals have jumped on the Paul bandwagon, because Paul has been outspoken in opposition to the war in Iraq. He favors a non-interventionist foreign policy, and he’d like to close down some of our military bases in other countries, he’d get rid of the Patriot Act and protect our civil liberties, and he’d like to cut defense spending. If one stops there, he’s a good candidate. No one should stop there.

One reason Paul may not enjoy so much female support is his stance on abortion. He’s an OB-GYN who loves to tell us how many babies he’s delivered, as he touts his pro-life beliefs. He has stated that he would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He also thinks that abortion should be a state issue, not a federal one. Depending on what state a woman lived in, she could be forced to serve as an incubator. It is civil liberties he wants to protect. Civil rights are an entirely different story. Paul takes Libertarianism cafeteria style. When it comes to the rights of those who make him uncomfortable (women, homosexuals) he prefers to shunt them off to the states to decide. We might still have slavery, were it up to him.

The dark side of Dr. Paul goes largely unreported. He has ties to neo-Nazis and white nationalists. He’s the only Congressman with a 100% rating from the John Birch Society. Paul received the coveted David Duke endorsement. Who wouldn’t want to be endorsed by a former Grand Wizard of the KKK? One of his biggest internet organizers from Tennessee is a neo-Nazi. Will Williams (aka “White Will”) was the southern coordinator for the biggest neo-Nazi party in the US, the National Alliance Party. Don Black, founder of StormFront.org, a white nationalist website (which features links to the Ron Paul official campaign donation page) made a $500 campaign contribution to Paul. When asked if the campaign would return this contribution, a spokesperson said no. StormFront’s motto is “White Pride Worldwide.” Dr. Paul’s columns are featured in the American Free Press, a publication that focuses on the role of Zionism in US politics. Willis Carto, a Holocaust denier is a regular contributor.

Since 1985, Ron Paul has published a newsletter. It was initially called the Ron Paul Report, and was later renamed the Ron Paul Survival Report. His name is on the newsletter. In 1992, the newsletter published some really offensive statements such as, "Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the `criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.” Paul now denies that he wrote those statements, though he didn’t deny it at the time, he didn’t deny it when asked in 1996 – but he denies it now and blames a staffer.

The Paul cultists would have us believe that he has no control over who supports him, (true) that this is some sort of coincidence. I’d be mighty alarmed, myself; if suddenly neo-Nazis were flocking to me. I believe I’d take some action – like refusing to take their money, and making it clear, loudly and often, that I didn’t support white nationalists, anti-Semites, or bigots. Dr. Paul hasn’t done any of those things.

Perhaps his supporters can turn a blind eye to his racist ties, because he wants to eliminate the income tax. Perhaps their loathing of the income tax can blind them to the fact that Ron Paul, man of science, doesn’t believe in evolution…”it’s a theory, and I don’t accept it, um….as a theory.” They thought he whupped Tim Russert on a recent “Meet the Press” appearance. I was embarrassed for him. He didn’t seem to have any facts at his disposal, wasn’t embarrassed by his ignorance, and became increasingly shrill as the interview wore on. Only dogs could hear the last few answers.

Talk show host Michael Medved posted an open letter to Paul, asking him if he would publicly disassociate himself from these fringe groups. To date, there has been no response.

Under Surveillance

Some high schools have a specific academic focus aimed at preparing students for solid job prospects. In August of 2007, Joppatowne High School in Maryland became the first high school dedicated to the future of homeland security. The Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Programs are being funded by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as some defense contractors. The military industrial complex is booming in Maryland, with defense contractors and weapons manufacturers aplenty. The students will choose a track: information and communication technology, criminal justice and law enforcement, or “homeland security science.” Some of the 75 students in this program will receive limited security clearances at the nearby Army chemical warfare lab. Naturally, not all Joppatowne grads will join the intelligence community. Some will certainly end up as hired guns to the “contractors” aka mercenaries currently involved in the US occupation of Iraq. Jonathan Zimmerman, a NY history of education professor said, “the devil lies in whether this is going to be a school for education or indoctrination.”

In recent months, I’ve traveled extensively around the state. I’ve had the opportunity to visit a number of high schools. One school was a fortress. It was unclear where one even entered the building – which didn’t matter so much, since all of the doors were locked. I had to be guided in by a person wearing a lanyard with ID, who brought me to the office, where I was signed in and scrutinized. I was assigned an escort, who had a walkie-talkie. I was the advance person for a presidential candidate visiting the school. I asked to have a small group of students wait outside with signs, so the candidate would know where to enter the building. My request was denied. The students would not be allowed to be outside, “for safety’s sake.” This particular school is not downtown, or in a densely populated area – it’s out on a huge, remote parcel of land. Teachers all seemed to carry walkie talkies, and some were engaged in tracking down some students who didn’t appear to be doing anything other than being students, late for class. I asked one of the teachers about all of the security measures – had they ever had an incident? She said no, they hadn’t, but "this is the way things are since Columbine."

In contrast, another public school, one located in a more downtown area had students waiting outside for the advance team, and later for the candidate. The campus was more open and a lot friendlier. The students at Lockdown High were disinterested, and reluctantly asked very standard questions. The students at Friendly High were fully engaged, and asked better questions than any you’ve heard in any debate so far. Is there a correlation between the level of security and the level of curiosity and education? Sure seems like it.

It has been disturbing to read the reactions to the recent Big Impressive Random Search at Kennett High School. The prevailing attitude seems to be that all kids are presumed guilty, and therefore should not object to being searched to prove otherwise. The Bush administration has done a fine job of programming the populace to be fearful. We are told “if you aren’t guilty, you have nothing to hide” as a means of justifying illegal searches and wiretaps. Now our students are being programmed in the same way. In the name of achieving some sort of nebulous “safety” the student’s lockers and cars are being searched. Were the belongings and cars of teachers, staff, and administrators searched, or are only students “unsafe?”

In the years since 9/11, many of us are subjected to indignities that are supposed to keep us safe. Bored airport security people sometimes look in the trunk of my car. They don’t paw through the contents of the trunk, just open and look. We must take off our shoes, our coats, empty our computer bags, send our belongings through machines at airports – where we must throw out our chapstick if it doesn’t have a baggie to travel in. This isn’t protecting us from anything – it’s merely theater developed to provide the illusion that we are being protected. I am on an airport watch list. Every time I fly, I am taken out of line to be wanded, felt up, and X-rayed, along with all of my belongings, both carryon and checked luggage. I am not a terrorist. I’ve never spoken with a terrorist – at least not that I’m aware of. I don’t make many overseas phone calls, and the ones I do are to the UK. Somewhere, somehow I was put on a list, probably because of my political beliefs, or maybe it was the purchasing of Near East Rice Pilaf. That handy discount card you use at the supermarket gathers information about you, and that information can be accessed by Big Brother (and was, after 9/11), in the name of “national security.” I’ll never know – and I’ll probably never get off the list. Average citizens are not allowed to find out anything about these watch lists, which are protected from those who would question, in the name of “national security.”

We are a nation under surveillance. Many of the folks who responded to last week’s TeleTalk question in the Sun do not even question the need for all of this security any more. By teaching our kids that they have no rights, that their property can be searched at any time, we are indoctrinating them into the future, where they do not question domestic wiretapping and warrantless searches. They will parrot the mantra, “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to fear.” They will learn that they have no rights, and that they are always being watched. They will be perfectly groomed to take their place in our brave new world of the unending “war on terra.” There is no need to teach critical thinking skills to the cannon fodder of the future.

“There is no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the homeland.” George W. Bush

Stop the Sale!

The last paper mill in Groveton is closing at the end of this month, leaving 300 people without jobs. The North Country has lost nearly all of its manufacturing jobs – good paying jobs that are being replaced with low wage service jobs. I recently spoke with a woman in Groveton whose husband and other family members worked at the mill. She’s currently working 2 jobs to help put her kids through college. She told me that they’d probably have to move somewhere out of state in order to find decent paying jobs. Property in Groveton, she said, is slowly being sold to out of state folks who want to build second homes. Another community destroyed by our trade policies.

There is little chance of relief for our neighbors to the north. The pending Verizon Fairpoint deal will insure that the northern part of the state will remain in the technological dark ages for decades to come. Verizon wants to sell its northern New England land lines to Fairpoint for $2.7 billion. If the sale goes through, Verizon will abandon its “low value” customers – primarily rural- and keep the profitable customers (Big Business) and wireless. Verizon would qualify for a $700 million tax break, and would still control 60% of Fairpoint. It’s a great deal for Verizon. Fairpoint is a small company that is already carrying a heavy debt load, and will need to borrow $1.7 billion to finance the sale. Fairpoint would also pay Verizon $100 million to continue its billing for the first four months until they are ready to run a network that is about 6 times of what it currently owns. If Fairpoint isn’t ready in 4 months, the meter will continue to run.

You’ve probably seen the Fairpoint TV commercials where a farmer in Fryeburg, Maine speaks about how great their service is in a rural area. Compared to say…Colombia, NH, Fryeburg is the big city. One wonders at how a big, expensive ad campaign is supposed to reassure us that a company already far in debt is going to expand northern NH’s infrastructure needs. What infrastructure there is has been poorly maintained by Verizon, and will require serious investment if we are to move forward in the global market economy. A company that seems to be biting off more than it can chew isn’t going to help us move forward.

It’s interesting to read about the support for this deal. Executive Councilor Ray Burton, who lives in Bath (an area living in the technological dark ages) is in favor of it. So is State Representative Gene Chandler, who isn’t exactly Mr. Tech Savvy, as we all learned last year. It will be worth following the campaign money trail to learn why these two men are acting against the best interests of their constituents.

State Senators Deborah Reynolds, Jackie Cilley, and Robert Letourneau are seeing it a little differently. They collaborated on an editorial that was recently printed around the state. This bi-partisan triumvirate expressed a great deal of concern for the future of economic development and job creation in our state.

According to an analysis done by Jobs With Justice, nearly nine out of ten letters filed with the NH Public Utilities Commission (PUC) oppose the sale. Of comments from elected officials, 97% opposed the sale. Only two were in favor of it. Fairpoint and Verizon are both calling the report flawed. Fairpoint Chairman Gene Johnson has dismissed the letters as the result of “a tremendous political campaign by the unions.” He claimed that hundreds of people spoke up on behalf of Fairpoint at the public hearings. Now, I didn’t go to all of the hearings, but at the one I attended, there were fewer than five people who stood up in support of Fairpoint. Sure the union folks are worried about losing their jobs and pensions, why wouldn’t they be? Fairpoint has a very small percentage of union jobs in its current holdings. Given the load of debt they’ll be staggering under, they’re going to have to drive down wages and benefits, else they’ll be in trouble with shareholder dividends.

Many of us are already dissatisfied with the kind of “service” we experience from Verizon. Fairpoint will almost certainly continue to provide us with marginal service, while charging us more for it. How this will translate into upgrading internet service to rural customers is fairly predictable. It won’t translate. The rural customer will be left dangling, while Verizon laughs all the way to the bank. At least in the southern parts of the state, customers have options other than Verizon. We in the north are beholden to the Verizon monopoly. If we are lucky we have DSL, which is already outdated, and being presented by Fairpoint as an improvement. No fear of FIOS in the north, folks. As the manufacturing jobs continue to be exported overseas, there is no chance that we’ll be competitive in the global marketplace. Northern NH will continue to try to exist on a tourist economy, despite global climate change, and continue to provide all the low paying service jobs one could ask for. And on top of that – our phone bills will be going up.

There is still time to contact your elected officials and the PUC and tell them you oppose this sale. Maine will be deciding on December 13, and Vermont and New Hampshire will decide in January.

“They own 300,000 miles of lines in six states. They’re taking over 1.5 million miles. It’s like Joe’s Paving taking on I-93.” Mike McLaughlin, attorney for the AFL-CIO.

Baby Talk

I loathe baby talk. I didn’t talk to my baby that way, I don’t talk to animals that way, and I certainly never talked to a spouse or a lover that way. Anyone who used baby talk on me was automatically disqualified from having the chance of another date. I don’t use baby talk on any babies, something which can be alarming to parents, but babies don’t seem to mind when I speak to them about global water shortages or whatever else I may be thinking about. Given that we want our kids to speak like adults, one wonders why we start with baby talk.

While working with people who have profound physical disabilities and/or mental retardation, I saw baby talk in action on a regular basis. For some reason, the disabled, the elderly, and the infirm are all on the receiving end of baby talk, often employed at a slightly louder decibel level than regular speech. Not only do we perceive people who have disabilities as lacking the intelligence to decipher common English, apparently we also perceive them as hard of hearing. I once saw a man who has Down ’s syndrome respond to a woman who was loudly baby-talking him by bellowing and drooling. As she scurried off, he wiped his chin and laughed.

In nursing homes, this odious linguistic phenomenon is known as “elderspeak.” You will never hear older adults using it to converse with one another, but young caregivers frequently use it to speak to their patients. Studies show that it can diminish the confidence of a senior in their own abilities. It’s a very non-subtle form of ageism, and it’s incredibly patronizing. If you wouldn’t talk to your best friend that way, you probably shouldn’t use baby talk on anyone.

It is no secret that my husband has cancer. One day after he went through some tests, the nurse came out and told me “he did so good!” as if he were a mildly retarded five year old. “He’s sick, not stupid,” I wanted to shout. I’ve been uncharacteristically meek, because I don’t want to make things harder for him. Thankfully most nurses are smart, funny people, who can size up a patient the way a good server sizes up a customer, and they instinctively know just how to talk to the person in front of them. It’s the small percentage of baby talkers that are likely to cause some form of combustion on my part.

How we speak to one another is important. If we grow up watching Dad yell at Mom, we learn that this is how men speak to women. If Mom always screams at the kids, they learn that screaming is how to communicate. If parents don’t pay enough attention to children, the children act out in public. People who don’t feel safe and secure are often angry in their communications. Communication is a necessary skill for world leaders. We’ve all spent the last seven years watching an extraordinarily inarticulate man represent us to the rest of the world. We’ve all laughed about his many gaffes and garbled phrases, but, his inability to speak his own native tongue has diminished our country in the eyes of the world, and lowered our own expectations of what leadership should look like. This may be an intentional strategy – after all, we expect less from a buffoon.

Talk radio is beginning to sneak on to the airwaves of northern NH. Driving home at night I’ve picked up some rabid right wing talk programs. I learned recently that feminists are responsible for ADHD. Yep, the feminists invented ADHD, then caused a generation of young men to be drugged, in order to prevent these young men from asserting themselves as chest beating, testosterone driven, violent savages, thereby ensuring that more women would go to college than men. This bit of wisdom was imparted by Michael Savage, a talk radio host whose real name is Michael Weiner. His show is called “Savage Nation,” which undoubtedly has more rabid right wing appeal than a show called “Weiner Nation” would possess. I’ve also been catching up on my Sean Hannity listening. Sean Hannity calls himself a great American. Apparently the qualifications for that title are rudeness and intolerance. He shows a marked inability to let anyone ask an uninterrupted question – and an inability to answer any question asked. Like many right wing chickenhawks, he has plenty to say about veterans like John Murtha and John Kerry. There are many things wrong with our national communication skills, and talk radio is one of the symptoms of our disease. Perhaps forcing these evil-spewers to use nothing BUT baby-talk would be one solution.

Across the nation, and certainly around this state, people are tired of the constant drone of divisiveness and insult. They crave a more substantial dialogue, which is understandable. We’ve been fed a lot of empty calories and air for years now, while newspapers print less world news, and celebrity gossip is foisted upon as actually being of some importance.

We deserve better. It’s up to us to speak out when we don’t like the way we are being spoken to.

“By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.” George Carlin

The Other Half of the Equation

Two weeks ago, officials in Portland, ME decided to allow a middle school health center to provide birth control pills to girls as young as 11. There were seven pregnancies reported in Portland’s middle schools in the last few years. At the King Middle School, five girls told the school nurse that they have been sexually active. This has caused national hysteria, of course, fueled by the right wing media. The pious prognostications about the end of civilization have reverberated from sea to shining sea, mouthed by Rush Limbaugh and others of his kind. We’ve even seen them on the pages of the Conway Daily Sun, where another columnist bizarrely attempted to blame teen pregnancies on Hillary Clinton. I feel confident in saying that whatever Senator Clinton may be guilty of, impregnating teenaged girls isn’t on the list.

There’s plenty of blame being circulated. The right wants to blame Democrats (whom they incorrectly call “the left.”) The Christians want to blame godless heathens. The Republicans want to blame what they call “government” schools; linking public education to the government in the hopes of killing public education. There are those who blame our permissive society, and insist that giving access to birth control is condoning adolescent sex. These are often parents who don’t think their kids are old enough to be taught sex education. My very informal survey of teens and young adults reveals that most kids don’t get sex ed at home. Some blame the parents, some blame the kids – there’s enough blame to go around.

I’ve read many of the news stories published about this decision. Some stories feature fairly objective coverage, others are quite slanted toward a religious right wing view. Some make very subtle and revealing comments about how providing birth control will enable these kids to “avoid the consequences.” Apparently that particular writer feels that a 12 year old pregnant girl deserves to suffer the consequences for the rest of her life. One newspaper story had room for reader comments. One man stated that any girl who gets pregnant at age 11 deserves it. Apparently these little Jezebels should have to endure a lifetime of poverty, because they flaunted themselves and got what they deserved.

There is a piece missing from every single story I’ve read about this and every online discussion I’ve seen. The fathers. There is absolutely no mention of the fathers, no speculation as to whom is impregnating these middle school girls. It’s hard to imagine that half the equation could be completely ignored – but it has been.

The most cursory research reveals some interesting data about girls 15 and under and their sexual experiences. A study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 29 percent of teens reported feeling pressure to have sex. Another 33% of them reported being in a relationship where they felt things were moving too fast, and 24% reported that they had done something sexual they didn’t want to. Another study showed that 60% of teen mothers claimed that their pregnancy was preceded by unwanted sex. This is RAPE. Coercing or forcing teenaged girls to have sex is RAPE. Yet, somehow, in all of the uproar – no one is talking about rape or coercion.

The Guttmacher Institute found that 60% of girls who had sex before age 15 were coerced by males who on average were at least 6 years older. Adult men, in other words. That is the missing piece. The National Center for Health Statistics finds that two-thirds of teen births are fathered by adult men. No one is talking about this. The pious-finger wavers are ignoring this. The well intentioned folks at the school aren’t talking about this. Adult men are preying on post-pubescent girls. Isn’t it about time we stopped blaming the girls, and started addressing MALE behavior?

I would rather not see young girls taking the Pill. There are a lot of health risks, and without a condom as backup, they’re still at risk for HIV/AIDs and STD’s – in fact, having adult male partners puts them at great risk for disease. At the same time, I know how a teen pregnancy can impact a girl’s life. The fastest route to poverty for a girl or a woman is motherhood. A teenaged girl should not be a parent – nor should she be the victim of an adult lothario.

This story has been accompanied by plenty of hand-wringing about the decay of our society, our morals, etc. Well, society – what are we going to do about it? Are we going to only deal with half of the equation – the girls? Rape is endemic in this country – yet there is still an undercurrent of blaming the victim. Most rapes are committed by acquaintances, and most go unreported. Still, nothing much is done about it. There is no male movement to end violence against women. Men could have an enormous impact in stopping sexual harassment and violence, if they decided to open their mouths when they hear harassing statements, or worse. Instead, most turn a blind eye. They maintain the male version of omerta.

Two-thirds of teen births are fathered by adult men. Clearly adult men feel a certain entitlement to molest barely pubescent girls. What are we going to do about this? Will we, as a society dare to tackle this problem? Or will we continue to blame the girls themselves, Hollywood, blue states, Democrats, and possibly even Hillary Clinton?

“‘Just say no’ prevents teenaged pregnancy the way ‘have a nice day’ cures chronic depression.” Anonymous

Clog Dancing With the GOP

By now, everyone has seen the latest Mitt Romney ad on television. You can’t miss it – it runs every 10 minutes. Mitt with his chiseled jaw and greased down hair (complete with comb tracks) telling us that “when Republicans act like Democrats, America loses.” He focuses on spending, immigration, and ethics in the ad. Romney wisely avoids any mention of family values. After all of the sex scandals this past year, who would trust their family with a Republican?

In July, State Representative Bob Allen of Florida was arrested in a men’s room. It seems Allen offered to pay an undercover officer to allow Allen to perform a sexual act upon the officer. Allen later claimed that he only made the offer because the officer was black and he “didn’t want to become a statistic.” Is offering to pay for the privilege of performing oral sex a common reaction when one is afraid? I’ve never experienced that kind of fear myself. What is clear is that in the GOP it’s better to admit to being a racist than a homosexual.

Last week in Wisconsin, Brown County GOP Chair Donald Fleischman was arrested for enticement and fondling an underage boy. The boy was a runaway who was staying at Fleischman’s house, where he allegedly plied the lad with beer and marijuana, and then fondled him. Mr. Fleischman has resigned from his post.

St. Bernard Parish Councilman Joey DiFatta, who was a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate, withdrew from the race, after reports came to light that he’d been picked up for lewd conduct in men’s rooms on two occasions. In 1996, he was arrested for peeping in a men’s room stall, while a man was using the bathroom. The second time involved foot tapping and hand signals recently made famous by Idaho Senator Larry Craig. DiFatta claims he was withdrawing from the race before the reports were made public, for health reasons. He’s been having chest pains. Apparently it gets hard to breathe in the closet.

Larry Craig, Mark Foley – the list goes on and on. It’s tempting to make snide political hay with all of this, and I confess to succumbing to that impulse from time to time. The sad reality, however, is that the GOP has a real problem – one that needs to be tackled honestly. Since the Republican Party was high jacked by right wing religious ideologues in the 90’s, they’ve gone out of their way to piously claim to be the party of family values. It’s easy to cite thousands of cases that prove otherwise. From Newt Gingrich to Larry Craig – we know better, now. The GOP has based their claims of family values on a 1950’s clean scrubbed nuclear family image, the kind of family that seldom, if ever, really existed.

That mean spirited ideology pushed a lot of Republicans into hiding, into a degree of sexual repression that may have caused some of the aberrant behavior we’ve seen in the last year. If Republicans were free to be openly gay, would they be caught trying to solicit sex in men’s rooms? Would they disavow their own gay children – like Alan Keyes did? Many Republicans have gay children – and these same staunch fellows legislate against the rights of their own family. How can we believe them when they tell us they support family values? Look what they do to their own kids.

In NH in 2006, the GOP lost control of the entire state of NH. One reason for that loss was the complacent attitude of the NH Republican Party. They believed that rattling the spectre of an income tax was enough to keep the GOP in power. After all, it had worked for over 100 years. They weren’t smart enough to realize that the world is changing, and so is our state. No longer can they run on yesterday’s platform. No longer can they run by whipping the faithful into a frenzy over yesterday’s fears.

VT has had civil unions for a few years now. The sky did not fall. Vermont did not suffer a plague of locusts. The heterosexual couples have not raced to divorce court. In Massachusetts, gay couples can marry. The state did not spontaneously combust. No floods, famines, or pestilence have struck our neighbors to the south. In both cases, nothing much changed, except that some couples who love each other could make a legal commitment to one another. They have legal standing they weren’t able to experience before. New families have come into being. Contrast that with the 10,000 soldiers who have been kicked out of the military for being gay, since the odious “don’t ask, don’t tell” was initiated.

If the GOP wants to survive, they’re going to have to rethink their position on homosexuality. If the GOP wants to survive, they’re going to have to develop a message that goes beyond lip service to an outdated notion of family, and focuses on more than hate and taxes. In our corner of NH, we know that climate change is real. We see it. This country faces real problems that require real solutions. Mouthing the platitudes of the past isn’t enough any more. It’s time for the GOP to move into the present, and acknowledge the fact that they’ve overplayed the hatred, and it’s turning on them. The party hierarchy should also consider the very real possibility that the men’s rooms at the next GOP convention could be mistaken for a clog dancing demonstration, if they aren’t careful. It’s time for the GOP to widen its narrow stance on homosexuality.

“You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” Barry Goldwater

Wooden Nickels

On September 26, there was a presidential debate in the town of Hanover, NH. Unlike the relatively subdued event at St. Anselms College in June, this was a full fledged circus. Dartmouth College is right in the middle of downtown Hanover, and everyone was there, including me. The reporting of the debate was just about what one might expect it to be. There were other stories to report on, however, and sadly they received almost no attention.

A group of young African American Dartmouth students held banners in front of the auditorium where the debate was to take place, calling on the media to pay more attention to the events in Jena, Louisiana. They stood quietly, watching Chris Matthews across the street, as he interviewed Joe Biden, and ignored them completely. They told me that of all the media outlets present, only NBC had spoken with them.

Also ignored was the rally/protest held by SEIU in solidarity with the tipped employees of the Hanover Inn. In 2004 the workers at the Hanover Inn voted to gain collective bargaining rights. The staff is represented by SEIU Local 560.The Hanover Inn is one of the only union hotels in the state. One aspect of the 2005 contract that is still under negotiation is compensation for tipped employees while on vacation time, sick days, personal days, and retirement. The wait staff at the Hanover Inn are paid $3.50 an hour for their vacation days, and that’s also how their pensions are configured – at a rate below minimum wage. In other words, a loyal employee who stays for years and reaches retirement gets a stick in the eye when it comes to their pension.

Wait staff have long been on the short end of the financial stick. Whenever talk turns to increasing the minimum wage, the restaurant industry lobbyists come out of the woodwork to fight any suggestion that tipped employees should receive an increase in their already below minimum hourly wage. Historically, the tipped worker minimum wage was half of whatever the national minimum wage was. In 1996, tipped workers minimum wage was permanently frozen at $2.13. Next time you pick up that pitiable paycheck, be sure to thank the Republican controlled legislature of 1996. Housing costs, medical costs, and transportation costs have continued to increase – but not the wages of tipped workers. This forces them to rely almost completely on tips to make ends meet. As anyone who has ever been a tipped employee knows – there ain’t no guarantees. There are never any guarantees about tips. One can spend hours giving perfect service, only to get stiffed by a patron. On a slow night, a waitperson might be sent home. Some customers are offended by the idea of tipping, and choose to take their frustration with the system out on the wait people. Bureau of Labor statistics show that the average waiter/waitress in the US makes just over $17,000 a year, including tips. That is not enough to support a family on, never mind save for retirement.

The US has a very provincial attitude about waiters – and let me point out that I am using the term waiter as a generic term to cover men and women. We don’t call female teachers teacheresses or teacherettes, we don’t call female police officers copettes, so we needn’t use the sexist diminutive waitress, either. In many European countries the job of waiter is an honorable one, a job that may be handed down from within a family. In the US, there are some widely held beliefs about waiters – mostly that they are dumb. If they were smart, they’d get better paying jobs. Waiting on tables requires memory, discretion, mind reading, and good organizational skills – hardly a job for the stupid. There are people waiting on tables in this area who have advanced degrees – and no place to use them. A waiter job can be a real gift to a single mother, who can manage to arrange a schedule that is flexible and workable so that she has time with her kids. That doesn’t mean that she should be paid substandard wages, or receive substandard retirement. People from other countries are horrified by our tipped employee system. I’d love to see a national discussion on changing it – but the restaurant lobby will have screaming hysterics at the mere thought of it. I’d also love to see more restaurants and hotels unionize. Our once proud manufacturing economy has been allowed to flee overseas, leaving us with increasing numbers of low paying service jobs. The service sector should be organizing, organizing to make sure they don’t continue to get the proverbial wooden nickel.

Thirty-one states have established a minimum wage for tipped employees that his higher than $2.13 an hour. Seven states require tipped employees to be paid full minimum wage. None of these states have found that paying a fair wage has hurt their business. The Hanover Inn pays more than the $2.13, which is certainly a good start – but sick leave and retirement should be calculated in a way that helps workers. Having a stable staff is an asset to any hotel or restaurant. Our working families deserve better than this.

“A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.” Dave Barry

Bring It On

Former NH Governor Jeanne Shaheen has just announced that she will be running for the US Senate seat currently held by John Sununu, Jr. In 2002, Shaheen and Sununu both ran for that same seat, in a hotly contested race that resulted in a controversial victory. We all remember the phone jamming scandal, where the Republican Party paid a consulting group to hire an Idaho telemarketing firm to jam lines that were being used by the Manchester Democrats to make get out the vote calls, and arrange transportation to the polls. We can only speculate as to how much the jamming of phones in NH’s largest city contributed to the Sununu victory. It was an ugly incident in our nation’s political history, and made uglier by the attempts at a cover-up. The investigation into the phone jamming was conducted at the slowest speed possible, rivaled only by the slowness with which the 2001 anthrax investigation is still being conducted.

Back in 2002, the GOP was determined to hang on to the Senate seat that Bob Smith was vacating. Jeanne Shaheen was a popular governor, and a real threat to the GOP entitlement to that Senate seat. Chuck McGee, who was then the Executive Director of the NH Republican State Committee spoke with James Tobin, who was then the New England Regional Director of the Republican National Committee and the Northeast political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McGee told Tobin he wanted to hire a telephone service to jam Democratic phone banks on the day of the election.

The job was outsourced to GOP Marketplace, who in turn outsourced the job to Mylo Enterprises, an Idaho telemarketing firm, for $15,6000, which was paid by the NH GOP. After the story broke in 2003, Allen Raymond of GOP Marketplace and Chuck McGee both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in interstate telephone communications with the intent to annoy or harass. James Tobin was convicted as well. You’d think the GOP would want to distance themselves from such a villain – but that has not been the case. In fact, they’ve paid Tobin’s legal fees, to the tune of over $3 million. Tobin appealed his conviction, and was granted a new trial. He’s now moving for a judgement of acquittal.

There are still many unanswered questions in this case. At the top of the list:
• 22 phone calls were made exchanged between the NH GOP and the White House Office of Political Affairs during the period that the phone jamming took place.
• The Republican National Committee paid over $3 million in legal fees. Why?
• John Durkin, (attorney for the GOP defendents) was told by a Department of Justice prosecutor that all decisions in the phone jamming case had to be approved by the Attorney General himself. This ensured that the case went nowhere until after the 2004 election.

Congressman Paul Hodes has recently called upon the House Oversight Committee to investigate whether the White House was illegally involved in the phone jamming, and whether the Department of Justice intentionally mishandled the investigation. Given all that we’ve learned about the Department of Justice in recent months, this is hardly an outrageous suggestion. One might think that we would all want to know if this scandal goes all the way to the White House. One might think that we would all want to know if the Dept. of Justice deliberately stonewalled the investigation. As is so often the case here in NH, one would be wrong.

The reaction from Republicans around the state has been hilariously predictable. There are the screams of outrage about “wasting the taxpayers dollars” on this investigation. I don’t seem to remember that kind of screaming when Kenneth Starr spent $70 million on his bag of nothing investigation. Best of all are the cries of “this happened 6 years ago – it’s ancient history!!” Please remember that the next time a Republican dredges up Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, Gerry Studds, or Bill Clinton for that matter. Apparently the statute of limitations on GOP crimes and misdemeanors is much shorter than the one applied to the rest of us. The bottom line is pretty simple. The GOP does not want this investigation – and not because they have concerns about taxpayer dollars. They have no qualms about spending a billion dollars a day in Iraq. There is only one reason they fear this investigation – they don’t want us to know how far up the ladder the corruption actually reaches.

The Shaheen – Sununu rematch means that the phone jamming scandal will be back in the forefront again. What better time to ensure that the voters of NH finally find out the whole truth? If the White House was not involved, if the Dept. of Justice was not involved, there is no reason to fear investigation. Many of us feel that our election processes have been subverted, beginning in the year 2000, when we were given our first court appointed president. We know that electronic voting machines can be rigged. The voting public is more cynical than ever about the integrity of our elections. We need to restore honesty and transparency to our electoral system, and the best way to begin is by exposing the chicanery of the past.

A common Republican mantra around the Patriot Act goes like this: “if you aren’t guilty, you have nothing to fear.” If that’s the case, the folks in the NH GOP should be telling Congressman Hodes to “bring it on.”

“We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.” Aristotle

Jailhouse Jesus

Few amongst us are saintly enough to avoid a chuckle when those who place themselves high above us take a moral tumble. We’ve all seen plenty of coverage of the bathroom antics of Senator Larry Craig. Some readers will remember TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart blubbering on national television, after getting caught with a hooker, or former Arkansas Representative Wilber Mills, who failed to run for re-election after exotic dancer Fannie Fox (the “Argentine Firecracker”) leaped from his car and jumped into the tidal basin in DC, in an attempt to elude the police who had pulled Mills over for speeding. Let’s not forget Pastor Ted Haggard and his meth buying and male hooker massaging. When those who make a point of sticking their morality in our face are caught with their bathroom stance a little too wide – it’s hard to resist the urge to snicker.

On the subject of Senator Craig – one reason this was all so funny was because his story was often juxtaposed with old footage of him calling Bill Clinton “naughty.” Well, there was also his silly story about the “wide stance.” If you’re sitting with your pants down in a confined space, how big can your sitting “stance” be? And why don’t the Republicans grasp the simple concept that if it were okay to be a gay Republican, they wouldn’t have to work so hard to keep the closet door locked?

We’ve certainly had our share of local cases. Who can forget Walter Preble’s miraculous jailhouse conversion to Christianity? Preble was arrested in the 80’s after being convicted of distributing drugs. He was caught with a whole lot of marijuana on a private plane. While incarcerated, he, like so many, found Jesus. Some readers will recall his letters to the editor, praising the Lord and damning the homosexual. Those letters made many of his former customers laugh their way into clean underwear. The letters tapered off, and so, apparently, did Walter’s connection to Jesus, since he was arrested earlier this year. He must have been sampling his own wares, since he stopped at the police station (always the thing to do when one has outstanding warrants) to report a traffic accident. The police found most of what he owned in the car, as well as his passport and a suitcase full of marijuana. Marijuana is proven to cause short term memory loss – and this case would seem to back that up. Preble forgot about Jesus, and forgot about his outstanding warrants. Now that he’s back behind bars, will he turn again to God – or will he try something more original?

The jailhouse conversion isn’t anything new – as long as there have been prisons, there have been people wailing and moaning that they’d seen the light. The latest celebrity conversion is Michael Vick, the NFL player who is facing federal charges of running a dog fighting operation. Vick has stated that he also executed injured dogs. He may be looking at spending some time in the big house, so before he loses the multimillion dollar salary and endorsements, he’s preemptively asked Jesus for forgiveness and turned his life over to him. I’m sure he really means it – that the money and perks mean nothing to him. *cough*

Paris Hilton was seen toting a Bible around before her jail term for violating probation, but during her 23 day stint in jail, she called Barbara Walters to share how debilitating her experience was, and how God was giving her another chance. She told Walters “I am a changed woman.” It seems to be true. Since she rejoined the party circuit of the idle rich, we have seen no pictures of her without panties. We should all give our thanks to God, Allah, Buddha, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster for that.

Manuel Noriega had a portable baptistery set up in a courtroom, and was given the full immersion by security guards, during his prison stay. Is he sincere, or is this opportunistic? Stay tuned – Noriega has more jail time ahead of him. Finding Jesus may have saved Oklahoma bombing conspirator Terry Nichols from the death penalty. Is Nichols for real, or trying to stay alive? We may never know, since he’s unlikely to ever see the outside world again. To be fair, the conversions aren’t always false – Nixon operative Charles Colson came out of prison and began a prison ministry.

Another local favorite was Kevin Deschenes, who had a lunch truck business called “Daily Manna.” He drove that lunch truck like a lunatic – speeding and running people off the road. Jesus must have been telling him to put the pedal to the metal. Jesus also seems to have told him that he needed to supplement his business by selling marijuana. When he was arrested, the police found over $4000 worth of pot, cash, and drug paraphernalia. At one point he tried to tell the cops that the marijuana was for Christmas presents. I guess it’s possible that all of his family and friends have either HIV/AIDs or cancer. Perhaps I’m too cynical – but invoking Jesus in an attempt to save your bacon has been done to death.

It’s awfully hard to take any of these people seriously. It will be interesting to see if Jesus helps Michael Vick beat the rap, or lessen his sentence. Time will tell how serious any of these conversions are, and in the case of Preble - time and letters to the editor. I can’t wait!

“God: The most popular scapegoat for our sins.” Mark Twain

Ruminations on Summer

Summer is coming to an end. In the swamps, the leaves are already turning, and nights have a chilly edge. We’ve survived the indignities of summer in a tourist area – the congestion, the parking, the bad drivers, and the clueless who don’t know how to behave in public. Most of us have met people “from away” who we enjoyed a great deal. Summer in this area is bittersweet – so many of us are working too hard to be able to enjoy it.

Summer makes folks a little frisky, and sometimes a little crazy. In July, a Manchester man was arrested on robbery charges. It seems he was having a cup of coffee one morning at a local lake, and decided to rob a bank. James Coldwell knew that a bank robber needs a disguise, so he got out his handy roll of duct tape and taped tree branches to his head and torso. He seems to have expected the tellers to believe a tree was robbing the bank. The clever tellers were not fooled, however – and neither were the security cameras. The surveillance tapes were shown on WMUR, and he was quickly identified. Police found leaves and duct tape in his car.

Last week, a man was arraigned in Londonderry. It seems he kept going back to the same gas station, and stealing gas – he pumped and drove off at least 8 times. He used the same car every time, but had different (stolen) plates on it each time. He was picked up on the surveillance cameras, and the tape was shown on WMUR. The police received a number of calls, and were able to find the young man and arrest him. Not a criminal mastermind.

We had our own local silly criminal, last week. Brice Chace was out on probation after being convicted of driving the getaway car after a robbery. Young Mr. Chace allegedly posted pictures of himself on the social networking site MySpace, holding his weapons. He also allegedly posted comments about his drinking and drug use. One can only wonder at the thought process being underemployed here. MySpace isn’t exactly a secret society.

Over in Brattleboro, VT, summer has caused a different kind of friskiness. The state of Vermont has no laws against public nudity. Some towns have passed ordinances forbidding nudity in public – but Brattleboro isn’t one of them. Some local teens have been celebrating summer in VT by hanging out – literally – in downtown Brattleboro. Impromptu nudity has become fashionable for a couple of dozen teens, and has spawned group naked bike rides, hula hoop contests, and skateboarding. There have been all manner of reactions – from the bemused to the hysterical. The bemused seemed to be winning – with everyone tacitly letting nature take its course (cold weather) – until an elderly man wearing nothing but a fanny pack walked through the center of town. Apparently youthful nakedness was one thing – but elderly nakedness was the straw that broke the back of Dick DeGray of Brattleboro’s Select Board. He wrote an emergency ban on nudity on the main roads, within 250 feet of a school or place of worship. DeGray was quoted by the AP as saying, “People have a reasonable expectation that when they are going out, they’re not going to run into any nude people.”

The ban was a temporary measure. A public hearing was held this week, and the ordinance was voted down, in a 3-2 vote. Vermont is often criticized for being the liberal haven of latte drinking, Volvo driving, Birkenstock wearing old hippies – but the people of Brattleboro rejected what liberpublicans love to call the nanny state by refusing to legislate morality. As uncomfortable as the good people of Brattleboro may be with public nudity, they’re even more uncomfortable with making nakedness a criminal act. One board member said it wasn’t up to the town to restrict anyone’s right to dress or undress.

There’s always been a sort of rivalry between NH and VT, a rivalry that always highlights the differences between our two states. The events of this summer illustrate the differences pretty clearly. In NH we have people dressing up as trees to rob banks, and in VT we have people dressing down and having hula-hoop contests. The emergency temporary ban on nudity expires next month – and so does summer. The chill in the air will eventually cause even the hardiest naked souls to reconsider.

“I’m often reminded that the wellspring of Vermont liberty flows from Main Street, not State Street.” James H. Douglas