Who Decides?

John Edwards served one term as a US Senator from North Carolina. He was chosen as John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. He ran for president in the 2008 election, but failed to win the nomination. At this point in time, he is not a candidate, and he is not holding any public office. He is, however, being excoriated all over the media for having been caught cheating on his wife.

Edwards was an absolute idiot – visiting his ex-mistress and her baby of uncertain paternity, in a hotel in Beverly Hills, was the height of stupidity. As my little old lady friend Fran pointed out, “He should have gone to Omaha.” We can all agree that his conduct was reprehensible. Cheating on one’s spouse is never a good thing. When one’s wife is America’s sweetheart, Elizabeth Edwards, who has terminal cancer, it’s even worse. The thing is – since Edwards is not a candidate or an elected official, this story is being blown way out of proportion. If Willard “Mitt” Romney was caught cheating – would talking heads on CNN be saying that Romney “owes us” an explanation? And when did CNN become a Fox News clone, anyhow?

The media is so busy exploiting the Edwards family, it’s a wonder that there’s been time to cover the Olympics. It may explain why the conduct of President Bush at the Olympics hasn’t received so much coverage. Google up “Bush drunk at the Olympics” and take a look at the pictures, especially the pictures of five Secret Service agents “helping” Bush out of the stands. Shouldn’t we the people be made aware if the president is so frail that he needs five guys to help him out of the stands? Should we be informed if our president is so drunk in another country that he can’t stand up in public? Is the conduct of a sitting president more or less important that the conduct of a former presidential candidate? Who decides? How much do we have a “right” to know?

Predictably, right wing hate radio has had a field day with all of this. Rush Limbaugh was caught on video squirming in his seat like a ten year old boy getting ready to launch a spitball, as he chortled gleefully that perhaps the real problem was that Elizabeth Edwards talks too much. He didn’t stop there. He went on to say that if she’d spent more time doing something with her mouth other than talking, perhaps John wouldn’t have strayed. A tasteful commentary from a thrice divorced man, who was caught with someone else’s Viagra in his suitcase on his way back from Thailand, where child prostitution is quite common.

The hypocrisy of the right finally made the biggest patsy on Fox News finally grow a spine. Alan Colmes has long been the liberal foil to blustering, right-wing bully Sean Hannity on the Fox News show “Hannity and Colmes.” Hannity was blabbering on and on, and on about how cheating on his spouse would make Edwards unfit to lead, and the normally mild mannered Colmes pointed out that John McCain was an adulterer – which sent Hannity into a tizzy of epic proportions. From Hannity’s response, I gather that cheating on your wife after spending time as a POW is justifiable. Or more to the point – it’s okay when Republicans do it. Holmes didn’t back down as he customarily does – he pushed Hannity into loudly spouting his hypocrisy for all of us to hear.

For too long the dishonesty of right wing hate radio and TV has been unquestioned. Those days seem to be coming to an end. Hannity’s endless condemnation of Edwards was bound to lead into a discussion of John McCain’s adultery. Hannity just wasn’t smart enough to realize it. John McCain’s wife was injured in a car accident while he was in the POW camp. When he came back, she was on crutches, having lost 4 inches in height and having gained some weight. She wasn’t the model he married. So, he went out and played around, finally meeting his current spouse, the heiress whose money launched his political career. He dumped the wife who faithfully waited for him, and married the heiress. We don’t hear much about that, just as we don’t hear much about the Keating Five, or the unsavory ties McCain has to so many lobbyists. We also don’t hear much about the newer Mrs. McCain’s illegal (yet unprosecuted) conduct when she was stealing drugs from her non-profit.

How much do we need to know about a candidate’s life? Who decides? Who decides that we need to roast a former candidate and his wife over an open pit, while giving a pass to a current candidate who seems to have some serious problems in his history? We can all say that we don’t care what people do in the privacy of their own homes and relationships, but that doesn’t seem to be true. Somewhere out there, clearly many, many people care – because rather than discussing the ethically challenged current candidate, we’re far more concerned with the salacious conduct of a man who will never be a candidate again.

“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.” Oscar Wilde

Hannity Loses His Mind

Rush Limbaugh is a scum sucking misogynist

Hiroshima

2008 Peace Declaration

Another August 6, and the horrors of 63 years ago arise undiminished in the minds of our hibakusha, whose average age now exceeds 75. "Water, please!" "Help me!""Mommy!" ― On this day, we, too, etch in our hearts the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell no hibakusha can ever forget, renewing our determination that VNo one else should ever suffer as we did."

Because the effects of that atomic bomb, still eating away at the minds and bodies of the hibakusha, have for decades been so underestimated, a complete picture of the damage has yet to emerge. Most severely neglected have been the emotional injuries. Therefore, the city of Hiroshima is initiating a two-year scientific exploration of the psychological impact of the A-bomb experience.

This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that "the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished."

This truth received strong support from a report compiled last November by the city of Hiroshima. Scientists and other nuclear-related experts exploring the damage from a postulated nuclear attack found once again that only way to protect citizens from such an attack is the total abolition of nuclear weapons. This is precisely why the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Court of Justice advisory opinion state clearly that all nations are obligated to engage in good-faith negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament. Furthermore, even leaders previously central to creating and implementing US nuclear policy are now repeatedly demanding a world without nuclear weapons.

We who seek the abolition of nuclear weapons are the majority. United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of the Earth''s population, has endorsed the Mayors for Peace campaign. One hundred ninety states have ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One hundred thirteen countries and regions have signed nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties. Last year, 170 countries voted in favor of Japan's UN resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Only three countries, the US among them, opposed this resolution. We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival.

To achieve the will of the majority by 2020, Mayors for Peace, now with 2,368 city members worldwide, proposed in April of this year a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to supplement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This Protocol calls for an immediate halt to all efforts, including by nuclear-weapon states, to obtain or deploy nuclear weapons, with a legal ban on all acquisition or use to follow by 2015. Thus, it draws a concrete road map to a nuclear-weapon-free world. Now, with our destination and the map to that destination clear, all we need is the strong will and capacity to act to guard the future for our children.

World citizens and like-minded nations have achieved treaties banning anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions. Meanwhile, the most effective measures against global warming are coming from cities. Citizens cooperating at the city level can solve the problems of the human family because cities are home to the majority of the world’s population, cities do not have militaries, and cities have built genuine partnerships around the world based on mutual understanding and trust.

The Japanese Constitution is an appropriate point of departure for a "paradigm shift" toward modeling the world on intercity relationships. I hereby call on the Japanese government to fiercely defend our Constitution, press all governments to adopt the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, and play a leading role in the effort to abolish nuclear weapons. I further request greater generosity in designating A-bomb illnesses and in relief measures appropriate to the current situations of our aging hibakusha, including those exposed in “black rain areas” and those living overseas.

Next month the G8 Speakers' Meeting will, for the first time, take place in Japan. I fervently hope that Hiroshima's hosting of this meeting will help our "hibakusha philosophy" spread throughout the world.

Now, on the occasion of this 63rd anniversary Peace Memorial Ceremony, we offer our heartfelt lamentations for the souls of the atomic bomb victims and, in concert with the city of Nagasaki and with citizens around the world, pledge to do everything in our power to accomplish the total eradication of nuclear weapons.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima

For a demonstration of the current US nuclear arsenal:

McCain pimps wife to bikers

CNN

Indeed, McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

“I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to cheers. “I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.”

What a classy guy! Offering his wife up to a bunch of drunken bikers!
Combine that with his "jokes" about women:
Chelsea Clinton joke

woman raped joke

How do we beat the bitch?

and you could get the idea that he's a dyed in the wool misogynist. How gentlemanly of him to suggest that Cindy participate in a topless biker beauty contest. Since she's the one with the money it's hard to imagine why she's keeping the neanderthal around.

Jeb in Jackson

This morning former NH CD1 Congressman Jeb Bradley visited the J-Town Deli in Jackson, at 8:30 am. Bradley was greeted by a small group of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. Did I say small? There were six of us.

During Bradley's last term, Congress was working a 3 day week. When the Democrats took over, they pledged a 5 day work week, which Jeb says is a promise they haven't honored. When asked about the policy that prevented solar and wind power generation on public lands, Bradley responded by attempting to compare that with Cape Wind - the windmills proposed for off Nantucket that have been bitterly fought against by the wealthy residents of the island, including Senator Edward Kennedy. I pointed out that the two were hardly comparable, but Jeb was unwilling to acknowledge that. Bradley and his staff of 3 left for other unspecified destinations in the area.

In today's Conway Daily Sun is a letter from a Bradley supporter in Wolfeboro who mentions Bradley's stance on immigration. Most folks I talk to in Carroll County are worried about heating their homes this winter. As usual, Bradley and his supporters are out of touch with the concerns of average voters.

Domestic Terrorism

On Sunday, July 27, 200 people were attending the Sunday worship service at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. Twenty-five children were performing “Annie, Jr.” for the congregation. A man named Jim Adkinsson, who was carrying a guitar case walked in to the church. Once inside he opened the case, pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun and started shooting. The first person he shot was Greg McKendry, a big guy who members of the congregation say stood in front of the gunman to protect them. He killed McKendry, and wounded seven more parishioners. Members of the congregation tackled Adkinsson, and subdued him until the police arrived. Later, Linda Krager, who had been critically injured, died at the hospital.

Churches are sanctuaries - places of peace and worship. Churches are often meeting places for communities, and traditionally places where good works are done for the less fortunate. Stories of violence in churches are made even more horrifying because no matter how we feel about religion, we think of churches as safe places.

As the story from Knoxville unfolded, we learned that Jim Adkinsson is 58 years old, unemployed and having a hard time finding work. He had planned this in advance, and intended it to be a suicide mission. He wanted to be killed by the police responding to the shooting at the church. We also learned that he had written a 4-page letter, explaining that he hated liberals, and blamed them for his failure to find work. According to one of the investigators, Adkinsson targeted the UU church because of “its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country.”

Jim Adkinsson was out of work for a long time. He was about to lose his food stamps. He’d had two DUI’s in the past, and in 2000, his wife took out a restraining order against him. Apparently their marriage ended because of his drinking, and the fact that he put a loaded gun to her head and threatened to kill her. His ex-wife was once a member of the TVUU congregation, but hadn’t attended the church in years.

Adkinsson left his house unlocked, so that the police would be able to enter without difficulty. That may seem odd, but remember, he wanted to be killed by the police. In addition to the 4-page letter, the police also found a stack of books. The books were: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder by Michael Savage, The O’Reilly Factor by Bill O’Reilly, and Let Freedom Ring by Sean Hannity. His reading list certainly is likely to have shored up his prejudices against liberals – may even have created them.

In 1987 the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. In 1988 Rush Limbaugh began his national radio show. That show was the beginning of the tide of hatred that is constantly spewed on our airwaves by conservative talk radio hosts. The decades of bile spewing and casual talk of killing liberals has taken a toll on the nation. The divisiveness of our political and social discourse can be traced back to its beginnings in the Reagan era.

Today, Savage, Hannity, and O’Reilly are three of the most popular voices of the right. Both Hannity and O’Reilly are part of the Fox News network, which claims to be fair and balanced. I’ve had occasion to watch a lot of Fox lately, and I can attest that they are neither. O’Reilly and Hannity both present a very narrow viewpoint, and are not concerned with anything as gauche as the truth. O’Reilly has stated repeatedly that Vermont is a haven for sex offenders who are moving there in droves. There is no factual basis for his claims. Hannity, during his constant anti-Obama tirades on energy, says over and over that Obama is anti-nuke. That’s a lie. Obama is in favor of nuclear power. I heard him say so, last summer in Conway. It’s also easily documented. In the ongoing quest of the right to keep the faithful angry and engaged, the truth is a liability.

Some quotes from the people Jim Adkinsson was influenced by:

“I’ll tell you who should be tortured and killed at Guantanamo: every filthy Democrat in the U.S. Congress.” - Sean Hannity

“I was so angry and appalled, and the far left has made this guy into a hero, this Glick guy. And, it was just revolting. And if I could have whacked him, I would have.” - Bill O’Reilly (Jeremy Glick’s father died at the World Trade Center on 9/11)

“If I ran this country, I’d hang the lawyer. I would try her for aiding and abetting terrorism — I’d hang her and I’d hang every lawyer who went down to Guantánamo to defend those murderers.” - Michael Savage

The shootings in Knoxville were discussed at length at the far right website freerepublic.com. A participant identifying as “antiunion person” said,” My best guess is the shooter was probably a diaper wearing Islamic fanatic.” Another forum participant identifying as CharlesWayneCT said, “Its a little surprising to find a UU church had anyone attending who would stand up to a gunman.” He followed that up with disparaging comments about UU theology. There was also a long discussion about how the liberal Knoxville sheriff was probably covering the fact that the shooter was actually a liberal disguised as a conservative to give conservatives a bad name. In other places around the Internet, folks were offering up sympathy and prayers for the UU’s of Knoxville.

There will be those who write in crying that I’m blaming conservatives and advocating censorship. Sadly, there is nothing I can do for those who either can’t comprehend what they read, or are determined not to. I do think that decades of hateful conservative speech, speech that sometimes condones violence against liberals is having an affect on our country. I think that an already unbalanced individual like Jim Adkinsson could be influenced by that kind of violent speech. It’s a conversation that we all should be having, with the folks we usually talk to – and then we should try branching out to talk to the folks we don’t agree with. Don’t let the professional haters continue to divide us.

“A tragedy such as this makes us acutely conscious of the beauty and fragility of our lives and those of our loved ones. I am especially saddened by this intrusion of violence into a worship service involving children and youth.I know that many people, both in Knoxville and around the country, are struggling with shock and grief right now. I pray that those so affected will find strength and comfort.” Reverend William Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association


messages of support for TVUU

Knoxville Relief Fund

NH gas prices

I paid $3.91 per gallon in Meredith on Sunday. On the same day, in Conway, gas was $4.13.

We routinely pay higher gas prices than anywhere else in the state.

No Good News

The price of gas has tripled during the last eight years. Oil companies have posted record profits, and their CEO’s are enjoying unbelievably high bonuses. We the people are now reaping the rewards of having oilmen in the White House, record high gas prices, and record high food prices. If it weren’t so painful, I’d be amused listening to the complaints of those who seem surprised by what’s happened. After all, we can’t say we weren’t warned.

We’ve been here before. The OPEC embargo of 1973-74 caused a shortage of oil and gas in the US. President Nixon ordered thermostats turned down to 68, reduced highway speed limits, and air travel Carpooling and public transportation increased as gas stations closed or limited sales.

Our much-reviled former President Jimmy Carter developed a comprehensive energy plan in 1977. The oil embargo was still fresh in his mind, and he saw a chance for us to take control and diversify our energy sources with the future firmly in mind. If we’d listened to him, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now. Instead, he was ridiculed for putting on a sweater and asking us to turn down the thermostat. Carter had solar panels put on the roof of the White House, and ensured that tax credits were offered to those who chose to purchase solar energy systems. Say what you will about Carter, he showed real leadership on the issue of energy. When Reagan took office, he had the solar panels ripped off and eliminated the tax credit. That’s pretty typical of the GOP energy plan: Oil, Oil, Oil, (subsidized by taxpayers) and nuclear power (subsidized by taxpayers.)

So, now we find ourselves being pinched at the pump, worrying about heating our homes, and paying for food – because of our glutinous addiction to oil, war, and of course, our consumer driven economy. When jobs disappear, paychecks remain static, and the cost of living skyrockets, it seems likely that we’ll be buying less cheap crap from China. Since we don’t manufacture much of anything any more, it will be interesting to see what happens with the economy that George Bush described this week at a press conference as “basically sound,” despite troubled financial institutions. When asked why he wasn’t asking Americans to conserve energy, he said that people were “smart enough to figure out whether or not they were going to drive less” and that “the marketplace works.” The unemployment rate in the US has hit a 2-year high, and long-term unemployment has climbed 37 percent in the last year. All of those folks are surely feeling the invisible hand of the market – flipping them the bird. There will be no leadership on the nation’s energy needs coming from the limping duck in the White House.

This week, we were treated to the comedic stylings of McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm. Gramm was quoted as saying we’ve become “a nation of whiners” and the country is only in a “mental recession.” Gramm, who is employed by Swiss Bank USB, is now a hot contender for the centerfold of the GOP compassionate conservative calendar. Presidential candidate John McCain has said that drilling offshore would provide a “psychological” boost for the country. We wouldn’t see any benefit from drilling for 10-20 years, but apparently we’ll feel better if we imagine that we’re seeing lower prices. If we can imagine hard enough, maybe we can imagine that recession away. Click your ruby slippers, folks!

The cost of gas and oil is going to have a profound effect on the economy of our area. We can’t blithely march forward into the future thinking that the steady stream of SUV’s will continue to park at our hotels, outlet stores, and chain restaurants. Some friends in Conway had to move heaven and earth to put up a windmill on their property. It’s time to rethink outmoded zoning regulations. It’s time to rethink our local energy needs, and the future of our local economy. It’s also time to rethink the bypass. It’s a waste of money. The state would be wise to invest that money in fixing bridges and dams around the state. We’d also be wise to think about reinstituting rail travel to the area, and investing in public transportation.

This week, 21 New England lawmakers sent a joint letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for a $9 billion boost in federal heating aid. They also asked for an increase of $1 billion for weatherization programs that would help homeowners conserve energy and save money. They’ve asked that these funds be included in new economic stimulus bills. Our Congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter was one of those who signed the letter, and spoke at a group press conference, as was CD 2 Congressman Paul Hodes. Our NH Congresspersons understand that the winter ahead is going to be very difficult for many NH residents.

The NH Food Bank, which supplies food to shelters, food banks, and soup kitchens around the state, reported this week that their supplies are lower than they’ve ever been. As gas and food prices increase, so will the need. Local food pantries are also feeling the pinch. All who can afford to donate food or money to local food pantries will find a printable list for Carroll County here: http://www.bm-cap.org/pdf/EFAP%20Food%20Pantries%202005%20Directory.pdf
Please be as generous as you can.

“Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it’s often painful.” Paul Krugman

McCain is NOT pro-choice

It has come to my attention that a lot of people think the former maverick is, in fact, in favor of a woman's right to make her own reproductive decisions. He may have said that, back in the old days, before he repudiated everything he's ever stood for - but McShame is dying to overturn Roe v. Wade.

McCain on the issues

Awaken Your Inner Elephant

">


Stop whining, and let Phil Gramm teach you how to imagine a good economy!

Crimes and Cover-ups

In July of 2005, a US Army Private named LaVena Johnson was found dead in a contractor’s tent. She had been raped, beaten, shot, and set on fire. LaVena Johnson was found with a broken nose, a black eye, loose teeth, and lye had been poured in her vagina. There was a blood trail leading away from the tent, and she had been set on fire. The Army determined that Private Johnson’s death was a suicide.

When LaVena’s body came home, her family became suspicious of the Army’s investigation and conclusion of suicide. Her father, Dr. John Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face, and the fact that the Army claimed his daughter had shot herself with her M-16. The exit wound in her head was too small, and appeared to be from a pistol. He wondered why the exit hole was on the left side of her head when she was right handed. White military gloves had been glued on to her hands to hide burns. That did it. Dr. Johnson and his wife began calling for an investigation into what really happened to LaVena. For the next few years they used the Freedom of Information Act and Congressional offices to request information from the Army.
After 2 years, the Johnson’s were able to get a copy of a CD that showed photographs taken of LaVena’s body at the scene, and other pictures of her naked body taken during the investigation. There were bruises, scratches, and bite marks on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back, and her right hand were burned. Her genital area was bruised and lacerated, and lye (a corrosive liquid) had been poured into her vagina, presumably to destroy DNA evidence of rape. It boggles the mind that this could be ruled “suicide.”

According to the Department of Defense, one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. I doubt that statistic is hanging on the wall in recruitment offices, or even mentioned to the young women who bravely volunteer to serve their country. This statistic is double the US national numbers for rape. It is unconscionable.

Private Johnson’s death is not the only suspicious “suicide.” Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, approximately 94 military women have died there. Of those 94 women, the military says that 36 died from non-combat related injuries such as: illnesses, vehicle accidents, natural causes, or suicide. Two female sailors were shot and killed in Bahrain by a male soldier, and remarkably, their deaths were classified as a homicide. Five other deaths (including Private Johnson) were labeled suicide. There are other deaths that are suspicious. Eight women at the Camp Taji base have died of non-combat related injuries. Three were raped before they died. Two military women have died of non-combat related injuries on the Balad base. One was raped before prior to her death.

US Army interrogator Specialist Alyssa Peterson, an Arab linguist, expressed concern about how interrogations were being handled. After two nights of working in “the cage,” she refused to participate in any further interrogations. She died in Sept. 2003 of a gunshot wound to the head, an alleged “suicide.” Members of her unit refuse to discuss the interrogation techniques Peterson objected to, and the military says all records of those techniques have been destroyed. Mighty convenient all around.

The military has never welcomed women, unless they were nurses or secretaries. Women have long been regarded as “spoils of war” by military men, the execrable conduct of military men in Japan being a perfect example. Hundreds of women have been raped around the Okinawa base since 1945, and the military has generally turned a blind eye to the crimes. In April of this year, a Marine was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa. He is serving a 36-month sentence. Sadly, there are many more stories, including that current investigation of another rape of a 14 year old by a member of the US military.

At the Navy’s Tailhook Convention in 1991, dozens of US military women were accosted and sexually molested by their brothers in arms. The Pentagon Inspector General found that the Navy deliberately undermined it’s own investigation to avoid bad publicity, and ignored the participation of senior officers. A number of charges were made, but no one was ever found guilty. The Navy promised change – this incident was supposed to create all kinds of new changes in attitudes toward all women in the military. To be perfectly blunt – it hasn’t.

In 2006, Col. Janis Karpinsky told judges at the Commission for Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, in NY, that several women had died of dehydration in Iraq, because they stopped drinking liquids in the afternoon (during 120 degree days) so that they wouldn’t have to use the latrine after dark. The bathrooms were poorly lit, and place where women were frequently assaulted or raped.

Rather than face any of this head on, the US military has continued to cover up and enable the crimes of military men. They have lied to grieving parents about the way their children died. This is unforgiveable. The military needs to be investigated, and held accountable for the crimes and cover-ups it has perpetuated, and they need to change their long held contempt for women.

“The military wants a system that protects its policies and privileges.” Benazir Bhutto

The photo at the top of the page is Pfc LaVena Johnson.

Please sign this petition asking for justice in the LaVena Johnson case.

Roadblock for FairPoint

FairPoint Communications announced this week that it would need more time to complete the takeover of Verizon’s telephone network in northern New England. The controversial sale of Verizon’s landlines to the small company took place at the end of March, after being approved by the Public Utilities Commissions of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Those who opposed the sale pointed out that FairPoint was too small a company to be able to efficiently take over the much larger Verizon.

The company was scheduled to assume total control of Verizon’s network in September. In order to do this, FairPoint would need to prove “an irrevocable notice of readiness” by July 7. The company admits that this isn’t going to happen. The date for the total takeover, or cutover as it is called in the industry, is November. Meanwhile, FairPoint is paying Verizon approximately $16 million a month in transition fees. This is on top of the $2.4 billion they paid for Verizon.

It has not been a smooth transition. Maine just fined FairPoint $25,000 for disruptions to the 911 system. There was a problem at the Penobscot Regional Communications Center in May that led to 911 calls being transferred to Orono. One woman in Penobscot County called to report her husband wasn’t breathing. She didn’t get an answer, and finally called her local rescue department. The problem seems to have been with the power supply, which has been replaced. In April and May there were problems with the 911dispatch system in Gray and Windham. There was a delay of up to an hour for 911 calls to be routed to a backup system. Apparently neither the personnel nor the equipment have changed since the FairPoint takeover. Naturally, this is of great concern to Maine lawmakers. The state pays FairPoint $6.45 million per year to provide 911 services under a 5-year contract previously negotiated with Verizon.

FairPoint’s transition is being supervised by Liberty Consultants, who point out that a number of Verizon employees did not transfer to FairPoint, and that FairPoint has made progress in hiring new employees, but needs to step up the pace. Based on my limited television watching, I can say that they’ve sure spent a lot on their advertising campaign, which seems intended to make me feel better about the sale. I’d feel better if they were spending less on ad campaigns and more on hiring and providing better service. I’d feel even better if my phone bill hadn’t gone up about $10 in the last two months.
The delay in the cutover means a delay in the rate decrease FairPoint had planned for August. Some $18 million in rate cuts had been negotiated, which would mean an approximate cut of $4.50 per month for residential customers and $6.00 for businesses. I can’t help but wonder how many other customers have already experienced the same rate hike I have, which apparently I’m supposed to forget about when (and if) I receive a rate cut of approximately half of the rate increase I’ve already experienced. The rate cut will be retroactive to whenever the cutover takes place.

We all know that the economy is bad. Unemployment is at record high levels, and people are scrambling for the low wage jobs that seem to be the only ones available. The cost of energy, and everything else is skyrocketing. When the Verizon FairPoint sale was being negotiated, naysayers (like me) warned that a small company taking on huge debt would be raising the rates and providing less service. The handwriting already seems to be on the wall before FairPoint has even taken over. I’m guessing that customers will drop FairPoint like a hot rock, and then what? As they lose customers in a shaky economy, our whole telecommunications system in NH will be in jeopardy.

I still don’t understand why this sale was allowed to happen. I attended several hearings. There was little testimony in favor of the sale. There was great opposition to it. Many state legislators opposed the sale. The consumer advocates opposed the sale, at least in the beginning. Still, apparently FairPoint/Verizon were able to grease enough palms to make it happen, despite all of the evidence that pretty much guaranteed that NH would become a dead end on the information superhighway. Without the investment in communications infrastructure, NH will fall behind the rest of the country. Without a national commitment to invest infrastructure, the US will continue to fall behind the rest of the world.

“I hate to be the one who told you this, but I told you so.” Larry Birkhead

picture from NHIndymedia

We've Come a Long Way, Baby

On June 4, 1919, Congress approved the 19th Amendment, (also known as the women's suffrage amendment) and sent it out to the states to ratify.

Women fought for over 70 years to gain the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony devoted her life to the movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton began working for suffrage, and later moved into all areas of women's rights - while raising 7 children, at a time when there were no washing machines, computers, or telephones. She wrote at least 6 books, and innumerable pamphlets, periodicals, and other statements. These women were partners in the suffrage struggle, yet neither lived to see women get the vote.

Alice Paul was a leader in the last push toward the vote, heading the National Women's Party. Other suffrage groups at the time were focused on lobbying for individual states to give women voting rights. The NWP chose to lobby for a constitutional amendment. These young firebrands were not beloved by the women who had dominated the suffrage movement for decades. The women of the NWP had a huge suffrage parade on the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, hoping to take advantage of the expanded media presence in Washington. The parade was disrupted at several points by angry mobs. The police turned a blind eye to the violence of the mob. It is interesting to note that most men thought that women should stay home and be cherished little darlings, yet had no compunctions about beating them up in the streets.


In January of 1917, frustrated at Wilson’s unwillingness to promote (or even discuss) a constitutional amendment the women of the NWP began a silent demonstration in front of the White House. The daily picketing continued for two months, regardless of the weather. On March 4, over 1,000 women marched around the White House, on the eve of Wilson’s second inauguration. In April of 1917, the US entered WWI. By summer, the picketers began to encounter resistance. Demonstrating during wartime was considered an outrage, (my, how history repeats) and so the women began to be beaten, harassed, and arrested. Once again, the police ignored the violence against the women. Guantanamo Bay was not an option at that time, so the women were sent to a prison in Virginia. They demanded to be treated as political prisoners, and when their demands were ignored they went on a hunger strike. Alice Paul was put in a psychiatric unit (in an attempt to discredit her) and force fed three times a day. Word of the torture these women were undergoing did get out to the media, and traveled around the world, tarnishing the US reputation in other countries. Again, history repeats. After enough stories of torture and ill treatment were leaked the public pressure became strong enough that the women were released, and Wilson decided to support the suffrage amendment. (This a very condensed version of the story.)

We’ve seen two historic presidential campaigns over the last 16 months. Barack Obama is not the first African American to run for president, but he is the first to become the nominee of one of the two major US political parties. Senator Hillary Clinton is not the first woman to run for president, but she is the first to be viewed as a serious contender, the first to nearly win her party’s nomination. Considering that a little over a century ago women were the property of men, this is a huge leap forward toward equality.

Senator Clinton was often the subject of media sexism. There were endless comments about her appearance, her laugh, her tears, and her voice. The party who had the shrillest candidate of all – Ron Paul - dared to call her “Shrillary”. There were the Hillary “nutcrackers” for sale. The fear created by a powerful, ambitious woman is astonishing. On the other hand, sometimes gender worked in her favor. Clinton was not subjected to endless lapel scrutiny or ruthless questioning about her ongoing lack of a flag pin. Her church affiliations were ignored completely by the right wing corporate media – a media that seemingly embraced and supported her candidacy.

Now, we’re being told that angry Clinton supporters, feeling their candidate didn’t get a fair shake because of her gender, plan to vote for McCain. The mind boggles. We’re supposed to believe that angry feminists will cast a vote for a right wing Republican who has a terrible voting record on women’s issues and will most assuredly nominate more fascist activist judges to the Supreme Court to ensure his stated goal of overturning Roe v. Wade? I have a hard time believing that is even an option – that women would cut off their noses to spite their wombs. Any woman who is considering that should get out her copy of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and re-read it.

I was often badgered about my failure to support Senator Clinton’s candidacy, and told on more than one occasion that it was my duty to vote for her, because she is a woman. I responded by pointing out that women my age worked hard for equal rights for women, and that by rejecting Senator Clinton as just another candidate I could not support, I was giving her the compliment of treating her as an equal. That said, I hope I live long enough to see a woman elected president, and I’m sorry I was unable to support Senator Clinton. I was unable to support ANY primary candidate who voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq. I was unable to support a candidate who voted for the Patriot Act. My ovaries go into the voting booth with me, but they don’t hold the pencil.

I’m grateful to Senator Clinton for her candidacy, and paving the way for the next woman to run. We’ve come a long way, baby.


“I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black.” Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman and presidential candidate.

For a detailed chronology of the National Women’s Party: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/detchron.pdf

Drowning in Failed Policies

We are all feeling the pinch of the failed Bush economic policies of the last seven years. Unemployment is on the rise, and so are food and energy costs. The sub-prime loan crisis is causing record numbers of foreclosures. Working families are in desperate need of relief. This administration has been on a borrow and spend war spree that is destroying our nation’s financial stability, and plunging us so deeply into debt that it will take generations to dig our way out.

It is disheartening to see the NH GOP ready to repeat the same mistakes that have gotten us to this point. Congressional candidate John Stephen recently brought Grover Norquist, of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) to NH, so that he could sign Norquist’s pledge against raising taxes. This was a staged tableaux, since Stephen actually signed the pledge in November of 2007, according to the ATR website. Former Congressman Jeb Bradley signed the Norquist pledge in February 2008. Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu, Jr. have also signed the pledge.

Grover Norquist is most famous for saying, “ My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” This is code for cutting spending on just about everything except defense. We’ve seen the results of that shrinkage - in the failure of the levees around Lake Ponchartrain, in the aftermath of Katrina, where residents did not require a bathtub in order to drown. We saw the results in the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota, which came about because repairs were put off - to save money. The repairs and rebuilding will cost more than the upkeep ever would have. When we choose to pay the pound of cure, it’s a sign that our spending priorities are out of alignment. Federal spending on domestic programs has been shrinking, even as federal spending on defense has skyrocketed. As we borrow billions to fund the war in Iraq, we neglect our own national infrastructure. In addition to risking American lives, this jeopardizes our economic future.


Americans For Tax Reform is a lobbying group that is funded by lavish contributions from special interest groups and conservative foundations. The ATR served as a conduit for funds that Jack Abramoff’s clients donated in order to secretly fund grassroots lobbying campaigns. Norquist’s goal is to eliminate taxes on the wealthy. The Bush tax cuts were a move in that direction. Most of us understand that with taxes we pay for things like roads, bridges, fire and police protection, and education. These are some of the benefits we reap in a civilized society, but they aren’t free. Most of us are willing to pay our fair share, and we think that everyone should, including those who happen to be financially fortunate. Norquist and the GOP leadership are not interested in fairness or equal taxation. They don’t care if the middle class has to pick up the tab - they just want to ensure that the rich don’t see the bill. Warren Rudman, himself no liberal, had this to say about Norquist: "Americans for Tax Reform is a wonderful-sounding name. As far as I'm concerned, it's a front organization for Grover Norquist' lobbying activities."


There’s a distinct lack of solutions coming from GOP leadership. They continue to advocate the same economic policies that failed the last three Republican presidents. Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” What we need are some new ideas and solutions, and a collective return to sanity. Instead, we have John Stephen embracing Grover Norquist, who said when he was in NH, “We consistently don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.” This is the same mantra used by the NH GOP for generations - the mantra that left us with dams about to burst, and bridges about to collapse. The NH GOP loves to invoke the image of families sitting around kitchen tables going over their budgets. They fail to point out, however, that when there isn’t enough money to meet basic needs, someone’s going to have to take a second job to bring in more money.

Stephen also invokes the name of Meldrim Thomson at every opportunity, which seems a curious choice. Thomson was a “colorful” conservative governor, who wanted to arm the NH State Police with tactical nuclear weapons after the first big anti-nuclear protest at Seabrook. Given that all protestors had to go through non-violence training in order to participate, this seemed somewhat extreme. Thomson dressed in military fatigues and flew by helicopter to the site of the Seabrook nuke in order to personally order the arrests of 1400 demonstrators in 1977. Thomson flew NH flags at half mast whenever he felt the urge. NH officially mourned the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty and the official US recognition of Communist China. Thomson used NH State troopers as his personal drivers, and often ordered them to pull over and arrest drivers who were speeding on 93. Looking back at Mel Thomson, it’s clear that he transcended the category of mere eccentric, and was actually pretty crazy. Thomson is an interesting choice for a politician seeking to create his own political image to ally himself with.

Thomson won election in the 1970’s on the same platform Stephen is trying to win on “no new taxes.” That’s a real problem for Republicans. Recycling the same old tired slogans for decades is not new, innovative, or interesting. Jeb Bradley is running is first attack ad against incumbent Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. In the ad he says that in 2006, NH voters wanted change, but this (Shea-Porter) “isn’t what WE had in mind.” I don’t remember Bradley being interested in change in 2006. In fact, he was very pleased with the Bush status quo. The only change he was in favor of was privatizing Social Security, which put him squarely at odds with most of his constituents. The same old GOP tired mantras about guns, abortion, gays, and taxes are meaningless at a time when NH families are facing frightening financial insecurity. We need solutions, not recycled versions of the failed policies that have brought us to this point.


“We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.” Grover Norquist

(Picture from campusprogressive.org)

Out of State Interests

Late last month, NH’s junior Senator, John E. Sununu, Jr. published an editorial in the Union Leader, NH’s own Republican newspaper. Sununu waxed poetically about NH’s admirable record for protecting our water, air, and land. Luckily he didn’t pat his own back too, far, since his own environmental record is less than stellar. His reason for writing, however, is that he’s miffed at the Sierra Club, of whom he says, “I don’t endorse its Washington-based approach of lawsuits and partisanship.” Apparently the Sierra Club is trying to stop some timber harvesting in the White Mountains. One wouldn’t know that from reading Sununu’s editorial, however. He states that the Sierra Club is trying to stop timber harvesting, a calculated move to ensure that the average UL reader reads ALL timber harvesting, without him actually saying so.


Senator Sununu is running for re-election in 2008. He is running against former Governor Jeanne Shaheen. We last saw this same election matchup in 2002, the year of the infamous GOP phone jamming incident. Governor Shaheen was endorsed recently by the Sierra Club, which has the GOP in a tizzy. I don’t remember the Sierra Club’s endorsement of Charlie Bass in 2006 as generating any GOP commentary. Our very own local state Representative Gene Chandler had a letter to the editor in the Conway Sun this week, and that same letter was sent out to (the erroneously named) Foster’s Daily Democrat. Chandler went on at great length about out-of-state interests making decisions for NH, the subtext, of course, being that Shaheen is the tool of the aforementioned out-of-state interests. The implication is of course that conversely Senator Sununu is not a tool of out-of-state interests.

That, of course, would be incorrect. Take a trip to opensecrets.org and find out where Sununu’s campaign funds are coming from. HINT: not NH. Over 75% of Sununu’s contributions come from out of state. They come from places like Washington (that place of lawsuits and partisanship), New York, Houston, Maryland, and Virginia. His top contributor is the Club for Growth PAC. The Club for Growth is so firmly entrenched in reality that there’s a commentary on their website saying George Bush may turn out to be a top economic forecaster. Other contributors include FMR Corp, an investment and wealth management company, Citigroup, Goldman-Sachs, AT&T, and Verizon. The top four industries who have contributed to Sununu’s campaign thus far are: Securities and Investment, Insurance, Leadership PACs and Lobbyists.

Senator Sununu has said that he wants to see more research on climate change before he joins the rest of the world in recognizing that there is such a thing. Thousands of scientists around the world have issued reports saying they believe humans are contributing to climate change. Sununu isn’t buying that. He says we need to put more money into research to understand how different greenhouse gasses affect long-term global temperature. Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms was quoted in 2007 as saying, “At this point there are only about three people on the planet who are denying that humans are heating our planet. Two of them are in the White House, and the other one is Senator Sununu.”

Senator Judd Gregg has acknowledged he seriousness of climate change, pointing out that overwhelming scientific evidence cannot be ignored. Sununu has said that he supports making all cars and light trucks meet fuel-efficiency standards - yet he’s consistently voted against increasing CAFE standards both as a Senator and a Congressman. In 2003 he voted against the Climate Stewardship Act, which would have created a cap-and-trade program. Gregg voted for it.

This regressive viewpoint puts him squarely at odds with most of his NH constituents. In 2003, 2004, and 2005 he voted against bipartisan proposals to reduce greenhouse emissions. In 2006 he opposed cutting carbon emissions, saying the environmental impact would be minimal but the costs to business would be substantial. After Hurricane Katrina, he voted against a bill that would have made gas-price gouging a federal crime.

Senator Sununu voted with George Bush 90% of the time. In early December 2007, he voted against a modest increase in LIHEAP funds, which would have eased the burden of heating costs for some NH families over the course of this long NH winter. He chose to side with out-of-state interests, rather than represent the in-state interests he’s supposed to be concerning himself with.

At the Carroll County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, a thank you letter (and bumper sticker) signed by Henry Mock, was handed out, thanking Sununu for voting against “higher energy taxes.” The vote mentioned was not about higher energy taxes, it was about removing $13 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the oil and gas companies. The money would have been used to create renewable energy incentives and 3 million green jobs. It was a part of the tax package on the Energy Security and Independence Act. Sununu cast the deciding vote against it. He’s received over $210,000 from the oil and gas lobby, including a contribution from Chevron the day of the vote.

Governor Shaheen is currently ahead of Senator Sununu in the polls. Senator Sununu is in danger of losing his job. He’s supported an extremely unpopular president (22% approval ratings) 90% of the time. He’s been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq. He’s told businessmen in Concord to stop complaining about the high costs of health care, because nothing can be done about it. At every opportunity, John Sununu shows us just how out of touch he is with the voters of NH. He’s doing real well, though, with those out of state interests.


"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."  Hubert Humphrey, on lobbyists

The ad pictured at the top was done by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

more on FLDS breeding and indoctrination camp

Half of Sect's Teen Girls Have Been or Are Pregnant

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- More than half the teenage girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state officials said Monday.
A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. He didn't specify how many are pregnant.

"It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive," he said.

and later in the same article:

Of those 463 children, 250 are girls and 213 are boys. Children 13 and younger are about evenly split -- 197 girls and 196 boys -- but there are only 17 boys aged 14 to 17 compared with the 53 girls in that age range.

So - teen girls are being raped and impregnated by old men who tell them if they don't submit, they'll burn in hell. And, in order to ensure the old bulls don't have any competition, they're systematically thinning the boy herd after puberty. These boys are kicked out - taken to cities and dumped there - told they don't have families any more. They have no money, no education, and no life skills. They've never been out in the secular world. Over 400 Boys Excommunicated

Still, I keep reading that we must respect their religious freedom. I just don't seem able believe that rape is a mandate from God.

"It's like having the Taliban right up the road from Vegas, and no one pays any notice." ~ Jon Krakauer author of Under the Banner of Heaven

A short film by Thomas Elliot of Fresh Produce Media: Damned to Heaven

Subsidizing Polygamy

The reason given for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We all remember the oft-invoked image of the “mushroom cloud.” After a few months it became quite obvious that there were no WMDs to be found. That’s when the story started to change. One of the later justifications for the invasion was “liberating the women of Iraq.” There were a few speeches where George and Laura got all choked up talking about what those poor burka clad women had endured, and how wonderful the US was to liberate them. We all felt warm and fuzzy, bringing democracy to these women from a culture that was alien to us.


A pity we’ve never had the same concern for women in our own country. For over 7 decades we’ve turned a blind eye to the polygamist sects that flourish in the western part of the US. Polygamy is against the law, but the law is seldom enforced. The revelations of sexual abuse by clergy within the Catholic Church shocked the nation. When this came out into the light, suddenly we began to have a national dialogue about pedophiles. This paved the way for some small concern to develop for the children of polygamy. It’s been slow to build, and given that the victims are only women and children, it may be short lived.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints officially renounced polygamy in 1890. Prior to that, plural marriage had been sanctioned, and begun, by Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who married at least 33 women. The joys of plural marriage were saved as a reward for especially saintly men within the church. The practice continued after Joseph Smith was killed. Brigham Young had 55 wives. Plural marriage became an accepted practice, in fact, it was neccessary, the Mormons said, to gain entrance to heaven. In 1890, when faced with the possibility of being kicked out of Utah, the Mormons decided polygamy might not have been a mandate from God, after all.

This change in doctrine was not accepted by everyone within the LDS. Some groups of polygamists splintered off to continue the practice. They were excommunicated by the LDS - and became what we now call the FLDS, the fundamentalist offshoot of the LDS. These are the folks who were living on the compound that was recently raided, in Eldorado, Texas. Their prophet, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for his role in arranging marriages between his adult male followers and teenaged girls. Teen girls are married to men old enough to be their fathers. They are raped by the old men, and begin their new lives as incubators and drudges in a home of many wives and children, all of this done in the name of God. Heaven forfend we should interfere with the religious freedoms of rapists and abusers.

Not only have we ignored polygamy - we’ve subsidized it. The US taxpayers are helping to keep those giant families afloat. Since polygamy is against the law, the men of the FLDS marry one woman legally, and the subsequent “spiritual” wives can apply for welfare benefits and food stamps. The 3 major outposts for this particular FLDS sect are the YFZ compound in Texas, and the towns of Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. In Colorado City, approximately 33% of the residents are on food stamps. Only 6.7% of the population uses food stamps in the rest of Arizona. They may also receive state child care provider benefits, so that one wife can be paid for taking care of another’s children. This is the FLDS strategy known as “bleeding the beast,” a Norquistian way of saying they will take advantage of the government and taxpayers whom they despise. This is a very wealthy sect, and one that wields considerable power. Don’t let the sobbing women in the granny dresses fool you - they are kept deliberately uneducated about the real world, but the men of the FLDS are building a huge financial empire, and with that comes clout. Federal pork visits the polygamist communities (where few non FLDS members live). Colorado City was the beneficiary of $2.8 million for an airport that serves only FLDS members.

The leaders of this FLDS sect have been paid at least $1.5 million in defense contracts by the Pentagon. The polygamists own three companies that make airplane parts, and other components for the military. The money earned through these business dealings was used to help build the compound in Texas. It is unknown if Warren Jeffs’ name was on any of these contracts. The Pentagon says it does not consider religious affiliation when selecting vendors. This is code for “we don’t research who we do business with.”

Over 400 children were removed from the compound in Texas. There is controversy over whether children should be separated from their mothers. We’ve seen the tearful women tell TV cameras in monotone voices that they are free to leave any time. Don’t believe it. Women are not allowed to leave, and if they are do, they are frequently chased down and brought back. Former FLDS member Carolyn Jessop tells her life’s story in the book, “Escape.” She was brought up in a polygamist family and at age 18, when she wanted to go to medical school, she was married to a 50 year old man, and became his fourth wife. Jealousy was deliberately fostered within the family, that led to constant jockeying for position among the wives and children. Just before her daughter turned 14 (and met the same fate) Carolyn took her 8 kids and ran away from Colorado City in the middle of the night. The women and children are kept deliberately ignorant of life in the outside world, and told that people on the outside are agents of Satan, who want to hurt them. It’s no wonder the investigators in Texas aren’t getting a lot of cooperation. They are trained from birth to be obedient to the prophet and the men of FLDS. It’s all they know. They don’t regard being married to an old man as a crime - it’s simply the way things are.

The problem of balancing the marital needs of the elders with the population of girls is ongoing. To trim the male herd, and keep the post-pubescent girls for the old men, some teenaged boys are kicked out of the cult. They’ve lived their whole lives in a FLDS town, but they are taken to a city and dumped - with no education, no ability to fend for themselves, and no money. They’re called the “lost boys” of the FLDS.

We condemn the Taliban. We condemn fundamentalist Muslims. We have no problem condemning religious practices we object to in other countries - but we’ve turned our backs on these women and children for over 70 years, while we’ve helped to fund their abuse. I wish I didn’t believe that the authorities will eventually try to sweep this under a rug - but they probably will. This time, perhaps the genie will be too big to stuff back into the bottle.


“We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do.” Brigham Young


Read “Escape” by Carolyn Jessop, and “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer to learn more about the ugly realities of polygamy.

The picture is of Mormon founder Joseph Smith and his family.

Knee Jerk Policy

Drug overdoses killed more people last year in NH than car crashes. NH had 168 overdose deaths, and 129 car related deaths. Of those overdose deaths, 57% were caused by methadone. NH is now tied for 4th place in the nation in methadone related deaths, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This has become a hot topic of discussion recently, since a company known as Community Substance Abuse has been investigating the possibility of opening a methadone clinic in Conway. Methadone is a synthetic opiate often used in the treatment of heroin addiction. The drug reduces withdrawal symptoms, without giving the same kind of high as heroin. Methadone is also used a pain reliever, particularly in managing long term chronic pain. It has a half life in the body of 24 hours, and it’s cheap compared to Oxycontin or Vicodin. A single Oxycontin tablet can cost $5.50, where a Methadone wafer costs about $0.33.

Heroin addiction is extremely difficult to overcome. Some addicts remain on a methadone maintenance for indefinite periods of time. It’s not the perfect cure, but, it does work for some people. A brave local woman recently wrote a letter to the Conway Daily Sun recounting her experience with addiction and methadone treatment. She’s able to be a mother and a productive member of society, thanks to methadone treatment. Two of our local pharmacists have written letters about dearth of treatment options for the addicted in our area. They both advocate suboxone as an alternative to methadone, but it is considerably more expensive than methadone, and since many local residents don’t have health or prescription drug insurance, it’s not within the reach of the average person. The potential methadone clinic has (if nothing else) opened the community wide discussion about addiction and treatment, issues that most people may not be experts in.

A recent Tele-Talk question asked “How prevalent or severe do you think the drug problem is in Carroll County?” Some of the answers were most illuminating. A number of people pointed out that prescription drug abuse is a real problem here. One caller addressed both the drug and the alcohol problems in the area. There were a few predictable comments about addicts being low income losers, and of course the jolly fellow who seems to think drug users dying is the optimum solution to the addiction problem. There were also a number of knee jerk responses to the possibility of a methadone clinic from callers - mirroring the knee jerk responses of the Conway Selectmen.

I didn’t spend endless hours doing research, but I did spend a few. I was unable to find any correlation between increased crime and methadone clinics. Crow Dickinson went on at great length about how a clinic would attract heroin addicts to the area. He seemed to be giving us his opinion. He did not back up that opinion by citing studies or facts. There are clinics in other parts of the state that don’t report any increase in crime. Mr. Dickinson may have a vast body of expertise in many areas, but addiction and treatment does not appear to be one of them. Most people who go on a methadone program do so because they want to end their addiction. They know they aren’t going to get high. Those who are enrolled in a methadone program take their drugs right there on the premises - there are no needles, and they aren’t wandering off with a bunch of drugs to sell on the street, which are some of the misconceptions that have been repeated by letter writers and Tele-Talk callers.

Dr. Wayne Cunningham had a letter in the April 8 issue of the Conway Daily Sun on the topic of substance abuse in the area. He pointed out that alcohol abuse is the most serious drug problem in our area. He also addressed the need for community discussion and involvement in the problems of treatment in Carroll County. The options for substance abusers are few. Dr. Cunningham expressed hope that the conversation about substance abuse and treatment will continue. I share that hope.

Another letter on this topic came from Daniel Bacon from Conway, who is running for state rep. He believes that addicts bring their problems on themselves, and that traveling to a clinic is a “sacrifice” they should have to make. Addiction has long been classified as a chronic disease, and it’s one with a strong genetic component. It’s not a “lifestyle choice,” which seems to be Mr. Bacon’s thesis. Making people drive hours for treatment may be a suitable punishment in Mr. Bacon’s opinion, but it’s not the best strategy for recovery. Drug addiction (I include alcohol in the category of drug) and the accompanying devastation have affected most families - and has a profound impact on our communities. Addicts can recover, and become successful, productive members of the community. Shouldn’t that be our goal? His emphasis on the “wholesome healthy lifestyle” of the area (repeated several times) indicates that Mr. Bacon is living in a fantasy world that isn’t reflective of local realities. I urge voters to pay a visit to Mr. Bacon’s website; www.danielbacon.net, and check out the My Promise section. He makes two promises about health care - he’ll promote providing “for the special needs for our senior citizens.” (His grammar, not mine) and he’ll “promote the best healthcare needs of our children.” (Again, his grammar, not mine.) It seems he’ll also provide an ill-informed, knee-jerk response on some issues.

I’m not for or against the proposed clinic at this time. I’d like more information before I make a decision. I wish local elected officials would take the time to gather information from experts and study it before shooting from the uninformed lip.

“In this country, don't forget, a habit is no damn private hell. There's no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country it's the worst kind of hell for those who love you.” Billie Holiday

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.