Laconia Democrats

A Brief Update

2010-12-05T21:09:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything to the blog, and with the disastrous election results in November, it's been especially difficult to become motivated.

However, to keep up with what's going on, I suggest visiting the Laconia Democrats Facebook page.

I'll try to post more frequently as the legislative session begins and Republicans try to reverse the progress made over the past four years.

Local Democrats Have Big Plans for Weekend

2010-09-13T13:46:00.002-04:00

LACONIA – With primary season now officially behind us with today’s vote, the Laconia Democratic Party is gearing up its Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts for November’s elections.

“Unlike the Republicans, we didn’t have a lot of contested primary races,” observed Laconia Democratic Party Chair Beth Arsenault. “That’s afforded us an opportunity to begin early our strategy for turning out the vote in November.”

This Saturday local Democrats will be conducting their first door-to-door canvass, with volunteers gathering at Arsenault’s house on Cottonwood Avenue. “We’re planning on two waves of canvassers, one hitting the streets at 11 a.m. followed by another group at 2 p.m.,” Arsenault indicated. “We’re excited that NH House Speaker Teri Norelli will be participating – going door to door with other volunteers.”

Following the afternoon of face-to-face meetings with voters, volunteers and other party activists will join together for a Harvest Cookoff at the Leavitt Park clubhouse beginning at 5 p.m.

“We’re inviting people who can’t participate in the canvass to share with volunteers their favorite fall dishes,” Arsenault explained. “This is the time of year when the aroma of fresh applesauce and apple pie, great stews and soups, and of course countless pumpkin recipes fill New Hampshire kitchens, and we expect many to be shared and sampled.”

For those volunteers participating in the canvass, Arsenault has promised to bake fresh apple pies for the ones who knocked on the most doors and collected from residents the most pledges to vote. “We’re confident that when people look at the issues and where the two parties stand, the majority will vote Democratic,” Arsenault said. “In the four short years that Democrats have had control of state government they’ve tackled the education funding crisis, they’ve balanced the budget during extraordinarily tough economic times, and they’ve managed to preserve the safety net for the most needy while at the same time creating opportunities for businesses to flourish.”

The local Democratic Party has endorsed five candidates for the NH House, including incumbents Arsenault and Richard Stuart, as well as Ed Allard, David Stamps and Maureen Baxley.

“We’re really fortunate to have so many well qualified, dedicated individuals willing to represent Laconia,” Arsneault said. “As voters get to know them better over the next couple of months, I expect they’ll be as enamored of the group as I am.”

The local party will also be heavily engaged in turning out the vote for NH Senate candidate Andrew Hosmer, the re-election of Governor John Lynch, the re-election of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter and the election of Paul Hodes as the next U.S. Senator.

Anyone wishing to volunteer or to participate in the Canvassing should contact Beth Arsenault at 528-1727. For those interested in contributing to the Harvest Cookoff, contact Judie Reever at 525-2644 or Jane Wood at 528-2119.

“The more people we have, the merrier,” Arsenault insisted.

The President Speaks on Health Care in Portsmouth

2009-08-11T14:29:00.002-04:00

President Barack Obama addressed a crowd in Portsmouth, NH today, focusing on his proposal for health care reform.

Let’s talk about health care reform

2009-08-11T04:21:00.003-04:00

We all know that health care costs are climbing at an alarming rate, consuming a share of our Gross Domestic Product that simply cannot be sustained. Businesses are struggling to afford the cost of employee health insurance, the number of personal bankruptcies attributable to medical expenses is at record levels and mounting, and virtually every branch of government is trying to come to terms with employee benefit costs that are breaking their budgets.

Add to that the rising number of Americans who have no health insurance and instead have to forego treatment or avail themselves of hospital emergency rooms for even the most routine care, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Obama is correct in demanding that our nation reform its health care system. It’s become an enormous black hole, sucking in every available resource. And yet despite this overwhelming spending, the success at treating patients in this country lags far behind other nations that spend a mere fraction of what we do.

A real key to successful health care reform is making certain that everyone is covered. Yes, even those who believe they don’t need health insurance.

I realize that there are many who object to any laws that would force people to have health insurance. Yet virtually every state, including New Hampshire, has laws that require drivers to carry liability insurance. Admittedly, New Hampshire is a rarity, in that it doesn’t mandate that all drivers carry liability insurance. It limits the requirement to certain classes of drivers, including those who’ve been convicted of D.U.I.’s or other significant moving violations. The vast majority of states, however, insist that all drivers be insured and offer proof of insurance whenever stopped by a law enforcement official.

Moreover, every bank and/or lender requires collision insurance on any vehicle being financed. And in case you haven’t noticed, every mortgage lender requires homeowner insurance as well. From worker’s compensation insurance, to product liability insurance and even malpractice insurance, there are all sorts of insurance mandates with which individuals and businesses already comply.

Another key to successfully reforming our health care system is introducing competition. In New Hampshire there are essentially three insurance providers that cover over 90-percent of employer-based benefits. WellPoint (Anthem-Blue Cross) alone has 51 percent of the market, with Cigna and Harvard Pilgrim capturing the rest. The same scenario exists throughout the country, with only a handful of companies dominating the field.

Obama wants to offer a public option that would strengthen the competitive field and subsequently bring down costs. Naturally, the insurance companies are fighting competition. None of them are anxious to end the gravy train they’ve been enjoying.

Now, many fear government involvement in health insurance. Yet nearly all of our seniors are enrolled in Medicare, which is a government sponsored health insurance program that produces exceptional results. And many of our poor and disabled are enrolled in the government supported Medicaid program, though because of funding issues its success has been more marginal.

Add to that the Veteran’s Hospitals, the military’s health care system, and SCHIP, which covers children, and you’ve already got major government involvement in providing health insurance and health care services. It isn’t as if the government hasn’t produced a viable track record in providing health care for its citizens.

Ironically, many people express concern that health care reform will require dealing with government bureaucrats who will come between them and their doctors. Has anyone not dealt with insurance company bureaucrats? Talk about a staff trained to look for loopholes to deny coverage!

Another concern frequently heard is that government will ration health care, leaving the aged and infirm to die. Come on, people. The whole point of Medicare and Medicaid is to prevent that from occurring.

But yes, some constraints will be placed on spending, just as is true with private insurance companies which always cap the benefits they offer. Unnecessary tests that serve only to inflate the bottom line of providers will be eliminated, as will the prescription of some patented medications for which generic brands offer the same benefits at a much lower cost.

Call it rationing if you must, but from my perspective it’s good financial management. We should not be providing Cadillac coverage as part of a public program when a Chevrolet plan will achieve the same objectives, albeit without the same level of luxury. If people want a more luxurious plan, they can pay for it out of pocket.

That’s precisely what occurs now in our private health care plans. WellPoint offers several different levels of coverage, with premiums that reflect the costs of the benefits. And several insurers offer supplemental coverage above and beyond what Medicare covers. Nothing in Obama’s proposals seeks to curtail those options.

What Obama’s plan is attempting to achieve is ensuring that all Americans have access to basic coverage at a cost that doesn’t break the bank. A public option, that affords more competition in the marketplace, is a key to its success.

My advice is to learn the details of the various plans working their way through Congress, and to the president’s vision for the future of the health care industry. Oh, and don’t be motivated by fear, nor unduly influenced by those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

We know the current system is seriously flawed. Now is the time to change it while we still have a chance.

How Foster's Daily Democrat Got It Wrong

2009-07-26T09:57:00.007-04:00

Parroting GOP talking points, Foster's Daily Democrat whined in an editorial published on Saturday, July 18, 2008 that N.H shifts the burden onto local governments.

The newspaper, which is contemptible simply by virtue of its disingenuous name, having never espoused a Democratic principle in its lifetime, continues to trumpet the nonsense that NH taxpayers are being burdened by a downshifting in costs from the state level to county and municipal governments.

NH Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan fired back with a response that eviscerates Foster's propaganda.

More aid to cities and towns than ever before

by Senator Maggie Hassan (Democrat-Exeter)

States across the country are slashing budgets to cope with the worst national recession since the Great Depression. New Hampshire, like many other states, made difficult choices to adopt a responsible and balanced budget in these difficult economic times.

But one area where we continued to invest, rather than cut, was in state aid to cities, towns and schools.

The budget we passed makes cuts and changes to just about every area of state government. It reduces the state's workforce by at least 5 percent, closes district courts and the Laconia State Prison. It manages to fund essential services for our most vulnerable citizens through creative reorganization but puts off funding for other worthy programs until better times.

And let's be clear. We did not shortchange our local communities. In fact, in the aggregate, cities, towns and schools receive more direct state aid in this budget than in the last one. Overall, state general fund spending is down about 1 percent. State aid to communities, however, increases 1.7 percent in this budget.

More specifically, at a time when other states have decimated direct aid to local education, New Hampshire has lived up to its commitment to local school districts by substantially increasing education funding. In the next two years, we will send an additional $123 million in education aid to cities and towns — for a total of nearly $2 billion.

It's therefore grossly inaccurate for this editorial page or anyone else to say that the state has failed to live up to its commitment to local governments, or has shifted "the cost of state government onto the backs of local taxpayers" as Sunday's editorial in Fosters did. It is also an especially disappointing example of how difficult it can be to create new approaches to addressing our common needs and obligations in a time of crisis.

Overall aid to cities and towns has increased 1.7 percent. It is true that the state has suspended an arbitrary and outdated revenue sharing system, and reduced its contributions to the retirement costs of local employees. But the state has more than made up for these changes with an overall increase in local aid, including the $123 million in education aid.

The state revenue-sharing formula was devised before the state began spending a billion dollars a year on education. In fact, the revenue sharing concept was devised in part because the state was not contributing significantly to education. As it now stands, the revenue-sharing formula is not based on need and has been frozen for decades even as our population and demographics have shifted dramatically.

This budget also reduces the amount the state contributes to the retirement system for municipal employees. These are municipal, not state, employees, hired by the cities and towns with contracts and benefits negotiated by the cities and towns. The state has subsidized payments to the retirement system for these municipal employees for years. But at a time when we have made tough choices — and asked for sacrifice and creativity from every sector — it is also appropriate and necessary to ask local governments to do more to care for their own in this particular area.

Finally, local communities should recognize that their financial well being depends not only on the amount of direct state aid that they receive, but also on the continuation of many critical state functions preserved in this budget. Local families who receive state welfare payments (matched by the federal government) would have to turn to local property taxpayers for help if the state failed to fund the Aid to Needy Families program. Community hospitals will shut their doors without at least minimal provider payments from the state to help them care for the needy.

Difficult times call for difficult decisions and for all of us to learn how to function — constructively and together — to meet unprecedented challenges. This budget doesn't do things the way they've always been done — it can't and it shouldn't. But it does honor our commitments to keep our state safe and healthy, to educate our young people, to provide a modern infrastructure, and to protect our most vulnerable.

Reflections on Education Legislation

2009-07-22T18:02:00.001-04:00

By Judith Reever

When Governor John Lynch signed Senate Bill 180 into law on July 14, it marked the extraordinary completion of an almost 20-year struggle to meet the Supreme Court’s ruling that the State of New Hampshire provide an adequate education for all students.

Senate Bill 180 was the last piece required to meet the state’s obligation to the funding of education. The Court ruled that the legislature define an adequate education, cost it, fund it and put in place measures to ensure we are providing the opportunity for an adequate education.

As I watched Gov. Lynch sign this final piece of legislation, I found myself reflecting on the 21 years I spent on the Laconia School Board and the frustration I felt with the lack of state financial support for education. Even when the legislature passed the Augenblick Formula in the 1980s, the state never fully funded it. Beginning in 1986, I served 11 years on the New Hampshire School Board Associations’ board of directors. School funding was always a part of our yearly resolutions.

In 1997, I left the school board but continued to watch, with incredible interest, the struggle to move the legislature to adopt a funding formula that was fair and constitutional. In 2001, I was appointed to the State Board of Education and then served as chair. It gave me another perspective on how the state financed education.
I left the State Board in 2004, 13 years after the Claremont I decision. I had given up hope. It seemed the state was trying to find a way around the actual funding of adequacy.

In 2006, I was elected as a state representative. The most frequently asked question of me was, “Are you going to solve the education funding mess?” My answer was, “I’d like to be a part of the discussion.”

I was assigned to the Education Committee, where I became a member of the education subcommittee working to define adequacy.

The final definition, which included kindergarten, passed both the House and the Senate and step one of the process was behind us.

When I was asked to serve on the Costing Committee, step two, I was thrilled. I said to my husband, “How cool is this!” When this bill passed, we were half way there.
In the summer and fall of ’08, I served on the Funding Committee and lastly the Accountability Committee. Both of those bills passed in this session.

I am honored to have been at each of those tables and to have been part of the discussion. I would like to list all of the truly amazing legislators involved but I fear missing someone. They know education; they care deeply, work hard and research each piece of legislation that comes before us. I am awed by their dedication.

I am very proud that this work was completed on our watch and that education is at last, fully funded in this budget!

(Judith Reever represents Belknap County District 4 in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. She serves as Vice Chair of the House Education Committee.)

Time To Pay Up!

2009-06-11T00:41:00.004-04:00

(This column was first published in the Laconia Daily Sun on June 3, 2009)

Two times over the past three years I’ve been admitted as an inpatient at Lakes Region General Hospital. The care I received during those stays was extraordinary, as was the subsequent outpatient care extended. The dedicated professionals, from the nurses and physicians, to the technicians, surgeons, pharmacy workers, and orderlies, as well as the administrative staff and the incredibly devoted volunteers, have earned my gratitude and esteem.

Like the thousands of others who have come to rely upon LRGH and its ancillary operations and practices, I realize just how fortunate we are to have this resource available in our community. Yet, its very survival is at risk due to inadequate funding, a perennial problem that is being exacerbated by the state’s fiscal crisis.

Over the past few years I’ve written extensively about the challenges facing LRGHealthcare, which serves an aging population, a marketplace where fewer employers are able to afford to provide health insurance coverage, and rising costs that simply are not being offset by increases in revenue. At issue is our willingness to pay for the costs of services being delivered.

Currently, our local health care providers are struggling to accommodate an alarming expansion in the number of patients dependent upon Medicaid and Medicare, the two primary government insurance programs designed to ensure that the poor and the elderly receive basic health care services. It’s alarming because neither Medicare nor Medicaid come close to reimbursing the hospital nor doctors for their costs of treating insured patients.

Instead, costs are shifted to private insurers and to those few who pay cash out of their own pockets. It’s that cost shifting that has helped fuel the rise in private insurance premiums.

Tragically, with the state facing a budget meltdown, the stage is set for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates to be lowered even further. According to Henry Lipman, LRGHealthcare Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the proposed cuts will trim over $3-million annually from the non-profit’s revenues.

Add to those losses the increased demand for charitable care as more and more people lose their jobs along with their health insurance, and it’s abundantly clear that LRGHealthcare and its providers are facing an economic tsunami.

State budget writers are taking the heat for the proposed cuts in state health care spending, accused of being irresponsible at best, and heartless at worst. But the fact remains that the legislature can only appropriate expenditures that can be covered by revenue, and New Hampshire is looking at what may be a $500-million shortfall in revenue over the next two years.

What I find so troubling about this is our tendency to blame lawmakers for the problem. It isn’t those we’ve elected to represent us who should be affixed with the blame. It is all of us.

As a state, we’ve come to expect something for nothing. We demand that government serve our needs, yet we balk when we’re presented with the bill. Admittedly, all of us cringe a bit when our PSNH bill arrives in the mail each month, and you can count me among those who deride the cable company for its predictable annual increases. Yet I’ve not once suggested that I shouldn’t pay the bill, realizing that the failure to do so would result in a prompt termination of services.

When government sends out its bill for the services it provides to its constituents, however, the complaints are deafening in their intensity, drowning out any reasonable discussion. People have come to embrace the notion that “government is bad”, forgetting that in a representative democracy, they are the government.

As much as we hate to admit it, our state and local governments run fairly efficient and cost effective operations in delivering the services demanded by the public. No, they’re not perfect. But then, I know few individuals who don’t waste a portion of their income, and government workers are individuals.

The fiscal problems facing New Hampshire have most assuredly been exacerbated by the overall economic decline. But there is undeniably a systemic problem that has plagued the Granite State for years that is rooted in the refusal by the state’s residents to pay for the services they demand. The New Hampshire way is to try to get others to pay the bill for them, whether it be local governments targeting Concord, the state targeting Washington, and everyone trying to entice folks from Massachusetts into paying our bills.

Grow up, and pay up New Hampshire. Otherwise, you’re going to find that government, just like PSNH and Metrocast, is going to terminate service. And that will likely mean that LRGHealthcare will be unable to respond with appropriate quality care when your life depends upon it.

(Ron Tunning is a former newspaper editor and is currently chair of the Laconia Democratic Committee.)

David Souter To Retire From Supreme Court

2009-04-30T22:12:00.004-04:00

National Public Radio is reporting that Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire at the end of the court's term this year.

The former NH Attorney General and NH Supreme Court Justice was nominated to serve on the nation's highest court in 1990 by then President George H.W. Bush at the urging of former NH Governor John Sununu, Bush's Chief of Staff, and former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH).

Souter has disappointed conservatives since his appointment to the court, frequently aligning himself with the court's few moderate members. He's made it clear over the years that he doesn't enjoy being in Washington, nor serving on the court, so the announced retirement comes as no surprise.

Souter's departure will provide President Barack Obama with his first opportunity to make an appointment to the nation's highest court. It isn't likely, however, to much alter the court's dominance by conservatives.

We Need More Courageous Leadership From Reynolds

2009-04-27T17:48:00.001-04:00

After demonstrating a courageous commitment to defending heterosexuals’ marriages from impending doom, a number of voters will undoubtedly turn to Senator Deb Reynolds for a similar reassurance that she be equally vigilant in protecting New Hampshire against the swine flu.

Although President Obama acknowledged on Monday that the threat of spreading swine flu infections is a matter of concern, but “not cause of alarm,” one can trust that Senator Reynolds will not fall prey to the soothing words of a president who doesn’t know her constituents, nor respect their fears.

First, Senator Reynolds must insist that all pork be removed from the shelves and meat cases in New Hampshire’s grocery stores. Second, the Ashland Democrat should lead by introducing legislation that would enforce Biblical dietary restrictions.

Make no mistake. The Bible is even more clear about the wrongness of eating pork than it is about gays getting married. Indeed, the Bible says nary a word about two people of the same gender getting married, yet in Leviticus 11:7-8, Deuteronomy 14:7-8 and Isaiah 65:2-4, God is unequivocal in his proscription against consuming the meat of a pig.

And let’s be honest. If we didn’t have pigs, we wouldn’t have the swine flu. It’s as simple as that. Kill the pigs, eliminate the danger.

Now, it’s true that not everyone subscribes to the notion that eating pork is a grave sin. And eliminating ham, bacon, and pork chops from New Hampshire’s diets may cause some hardship for pig farmers, meat packers, and restaurants which cater to the breakfast whims of heathens from Massachusetts.

Moreover, the fact that literally billions of people throughout the world daily consume the flesh of swine could be cited as a reason for restraint. Yet, let us not be fooled. Given the over 5,000 years of Biblical warnings of the apocalyptic consequences of ingesting what “marketeers” have been fiercely trying to re-label as “the other white meat”, (See www.theotherwhitemeat.com) we cannot allow ourselves to be misguided.

For despite such efforts to purify their reputation, it’s going to take more than slickly produced ads and scientific evidence to alter the indelible impression of pigs as evil creatures. Readers of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” are quite aware of the wicked and conniving proclivities of one of the world’s most common barnyard animals. So, too, are the world’s 1.1 billion Muslims, who are forbidden to eat pork.

One realizes, of course, that it will require incredible fortitude for Senator Reynolds to stand up against those who would ignore simple, Biblical truths. Thankfully, she’s established a clear record of voting “consistent with what my constituents wanted me to do.“ What hasn’t been made clear, however, is precisely who those constituents are, and what she considers other voters who live in her district who don’t agree with her positions. But that’s another issue altogether.

What’s important is that Senator Reynolds’ response to this latest crisis be consistent with her reaction to the threat of gay marriage. Supermarket shelves should be preserved for beef, chicken, and other deserving products. The evidence is unambiguous. For every pound of pork consumed, 16 ounces of some other protein source will be denied its right to shelf space.

Allow a slab of spare ribs to be sold, and chances are that a cattle rancher will be deprived of the sale of his short ribs. And do we really want to encourage diners to choose bacon and eggs over steak and eggs?

I’m confident that if Senator Reynolds were to poll her constituents, she’d find many who believe that New Hampshire isn’t quite ready to allow a spiral ham to replace a frozen turkey as the main course for Christmas dinner, much less as a substitute for Zeroa at a Passover Seder. And to permit some ill-informed Baptist to include a rasher of bacon as a part of a Sunday brunch would clearly be a violation of the religious rights of Jews, Muslims, and others who believe in the literal translation of the Bible or the Koran.

Perhaps there will come a time when tolerance for an array of dietary habits can be considered, but now is not the time. We’re facing a potential crisis that demands absolute focus. Pigs and pork must be eliminated! Otherwise, we could all die of swine flu!

Senator Reynolds was forthright in her defense of having opposed gay marriage. "There will be another time, a better time, to focus on this issue," she said.

One can only hope that she views tolerance for the consumption of pork in a similar fashion.

Kudos To The NH House

2009-04-02T13:13:00.002-04:00

What an incredible week! Concord was rockin’ as the winds of change blew through the capitol.

No matter which side of the political aisle you call home, or if your place of comfort is to straddle the aisle, this most recent session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives - the people’s legislature - should have left you exhilarated.

Granted, no one is totally satisfied with the legislation passed. Count me as displeased with several outcomes. But I can live with that. And so can you.

What was most remarkable about this legislative session was the priority placed upon matters of historic proportion. Representatives didn’t content themselves with merely arguing over whether or not speed limits should be placed on boats racing around the lakes, or whether or not large numbers of helium filled balloons should be released into the atmosphere.

Instead, lawmakers dared to provide national leadership on issues from capital punishment to same sex marriages and the medicinal use of marijuana. And the debate wasn’t confined to committee rooms, it was waged on the floor of the House.

Now the focus shifts to the NH Senate where despite the 14 to 9 advantage among Democrats, there’s no assurance that a majority of senators will support any of these three bills passed by the House. After all, 25 House Democrats opposed the “gay marriage” bill, which won approval only because 15 Republicans voted for it.

And 46 Democratic House Reps. voted against repealing capital punishment. Had 32 Republicans not joined the majority, the bill would not have passed.

The vote on legalizing medicinal marijuana was so overwhelmingly bipartisan, that the 234-138 vote included 45 Republicans among the majority.

So as the bills move to the Senate, it’s time to begin contacting your state senators to let them know your position. And it wouldn’t hurt to let the Governor know as well how you stand on the issues.

We know that he’s promised to veto the bill repealing capital punishment, and given that 46 Democratic House Reps. opposed it as well, he has a legitimate argument even aside from his personal beliefs.

But I believe he can be persuaded on the “gay marriage” and “medical marijuana” legislation given the bipartisan support both bills earned.

Who's Really To Blame?

2009-03-08T15:26:00.003-04:00

Sadly, liberals continue to be in denial regarding our current economic troubles, conveniently ignoring the lessons of the past.

Most of us recall vividly that during the 1980s the fundamental problem with the economy was all of those "welfare queens" driving Cadillacs, encouraging an ostentatious lifestyle that clearly could not be sustained. Tens of thousands could be tracked cruising the drive-through windows at Popeye’s or dashing in and out of mall parking lots, conspicuous consumption and carefree living all too apparent.

Adding fuel to the excess were cultural icons such as Natalie Cole extolling the comfort and luxury of owning a "Pink Cadillac", and Michael Jordan, whose "Air Jordans" propelled Nike and its sportswear to designer status among urban youth.

It wasn’t long before middle and upper income Americans jumped on the bandwagon, with Pink Cadillacs handed out by the hundreds by cosmetic maven Mary Kay Ash, and high-priced basketball shoes de rigueur even among the most non-athletic computer nerds. The ghetto was driving GDP.

Ronald Reagan, who won the presidency in 1980, had long warned the nation of the danger of welfare queens, but the liberal Democrats refused to heed his warnings and the profligate spending continued. The day of reckoning, however, could not be postponed forever, as Americans learned when OPEC reluctantly was forced to raise its oil prices to meet the demand for oil caused by all of those Cadillacs.

The sudden spike in oil prices propelled corporate America into action, determined as it was to protect American consumers. Billions of dollars were devoted to exploring for shale oil deposits and developing technology to convert shale oil into gasoline. Throughout Texas and Colorado, tens of thousands of new jobs were created and hundreds of new office buildings constructed to accommodate the anticipated, continued growth in employment. New subdivisions began sprouting along the fringes of the cities, and scores of new trailer parks were developed in mountainous areas of Colorado and Wyoming, all financed by the hard-earned savings of the American people which had been wisely entrusted to the nation’s Savings and Loan institutions led by such exemplary corporate titans as Charles Keating.

But even corporate America’s best efforts and Reagan’s heroic vigilance couldn’t forestall disaster. Bent on destruction, liberal Democrats forced into law stringent, new C.A.F.E. standards, requiring automobile manufacturers to achieve greater fuel efficiency, with a targeted average of 27.5 miles per gallon.

Suddenly, Cadillacs, Lincolns and even Chevrolets began to shrink in size and fuel consumption dropped dramatically. This caused oil prices to plummet, forcing oil companies to abandon their shale oil projects, laying off hundreds of thousands of workers and emptying millions of square feet of office space. The stock market crashed, homes were abandoned, trailer parks vacated, and hundreds of billions of dollars in loans went into default, ultimately requiring the government to intervene by taking over the Savings and Loan industry at taxpayer expense.

Finally, in 1994, Republicans wrested control of Congress and immediately embarked upon welfare reform to ensure that poor people would no longer be in a position to drive the economy over the edge. By limiting the period of time anyone could remain on welfare to less than the normal schedule of amortization of home and car loans, the nation was put back on a track to prosperity.

Throughout the 1990s, with these constraints in place, the economy flourished and millions of new jobs were created and the government actually reported a surplus. But flush with cash and with a Democrat in the White House, the stage was set for a new disaster, which is only now beginning to unfold.

It all began, of course, with another noble attempt to encourage the poor in their quest to be a part of the ownership society. Soon, welfare families were purchasing million dollar McMansions and scarfing up vacation retreats in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California, defrauding the banks and mortgage lenders by taking advantage of the lenders' altruistic desire to extend a helping hand.

Sadly, the lenders had been bolstered in their confidence by abstinence programs, the anti-abortion movement, and the war on contraceptives, which seemed to ensure that those welfare families would continue to have lots of children, each one providing a gigantic boost in monthly welfare payments. Loan officers merely anticipated that if a welfare family found it difficult to meet the rising monthly payment as its adjustable interest rate rose, it would simply have another baby in order to tide it over until the eligibility for welfare expired and the recipient could responsibly enter the workforce, achieving even greater prosperity.

Of course, those darned liberal policies that insist upon giving women a choice and encourage the use of contraceptives screwed up everything. Poor women avoided having more babies, which made it far more difficult for them to fulfill their mortgage responsibilities. Moreover, it reduced their ability to be active consumers, driving down demand for everything from plasma TVs and $300 sneakers to Pontiacs, Chrysler 300s, Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators.

That, as one could easily have predicted, resulted in hundreds of thousands of layoffs in the manufacturing and retail sectors, accelerating the downward spiral in the economy. Furthermore, it made it impossible for those whose welfare eligibility expired to find a job.

So once again, just like with the Savings & Loan bailout in the 1980s, the government is now forced to step in to bailout the beleaguered financial institutions because poor people have failed to live up to their responsibilities. Hopefully, this time we’ve learned the lesson that it makes much more sense to cut out the middle man (in this case the irresponsible welfare families) and just directly hand over our cash to the banking institutions which have proven to be wise stewards of our financial capital.

Time For McDonald's To Hear From You

2009-02-23T16:52:00.005-05:00

Once again we're reminded of how foolish corporations can be in dealing with the well-being of their employees. From my perspective, McDonald's is making a tremendous error in maintaining its position that it isn't liable for payment of medical expenses incurred by an employee, Nigel Haskett, who was shot by a customer following an altercation between the shooter and another customer during which Haskett intervened in the altercation.

Watch the video news report below and if you agree that McDonald's should change its position, contact the corporate offices.

An Example of How Senate Republicans Are Mucking Things Up

2009-02-08T14:46:00.003-05:00

Once again we can count on Senate Republicans to turn a plum piece of legislation into a prune.

Almost every credible economist acknowledges that we're in dire need of an economic stimulus package that focuses on creating jobs, the more the merrier. With 600,000 jobs lost in January alone, following two previous months of 500,000 job losses, consumer demand is plummeting, mortgage foreclosures rising, defaults on consumer and corporate debt escalating, state and local governments scrambling to control deficits, and the downward spiral accelerating at a frightening pace.

It's very much like a plane that has lost power in all of its engines and is plunging toward a catastrophic collision with the ground. Unless at least one of its engines can be ignited, there's no hope.

The purpose of the stimulus plan is to ignite multiple sectors of the economy, utilizing a variety of techniques, all designed to spur economic activity which in turn will restore both the consumers' capacity and confidence to spend.

Republicans, however, see the stimulus package as an opportunity to extend their failed policies that have led us to this dangerous precipice. Their focus is on expanding tax cuts, bailing out businesses, and providing financial incentives targeted largely to the most affluent members of our society.

A good example of their remedy for the current predicament is their support of a $15,000 tax credit to be extended to anyone purchasing a home as a primary residence. Not only will this help to extend the housing bubble, it will cost the treasury an estimated $35 billion.

Calculated Risk, a premier economic blog, offers a lucid assessment of the proposal in an entry titled simply "The Homebuyer Tax Credit". I highly recommend reading it.

Young Republicans Keepin' It Hip

2009-02-03T01:28:00.001-05:00

The Bailout Rap

2009-02-01T06:54:00.002-05:00

Not everyone's happy with the federal bailout of the financial services industry!

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

2009-01-20T19:33:00.004-05:00

Today we witnessed history being made as Barack Hussein Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States of America.

After taking the oath of office, he addressed the nation:

This Is Your Land

2009-01-18T22:23:00.005-05:00

A revival of the American Spirit was evident on The Mall in Washington, D.C. today as tens of thousands gathered for a concert celebrating the upcoming inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger led the crowd in a spirited rendition of "This Is Your Land".

California Leads The Way

2009-01-18T14:05:00.004-05:00

The Golden State of California is proving once again to be a trendsetter, which we've long come to expect from the nation's most populous state which also features what's usually touted as the world's fifth-largest economy.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Cash Drying Up, California Is About To Delay Tax Refunds, Slash Aid To The Needy

By Mike Zapler
Mercury News

SACRAMENTO — California's budget meltdown is about to hit home for millions of taxpayers awaiting their refunds and people who depend on the social safety net to survive, a top state finance official warned Friday.

Controller John Chiang, who is responsible for managing the state's cash flow, plans to delay $3.7 billion in payments starting next month in response to lawmakers' failure to fix a projected $40 billion deficit through mid-2010.

Among those who won't get paid on time: taxpayers who file their returns early and are awaiting refunds; families who depend on welfare and aid for the aged, blind and disabled; and programs that serve developmentally disabled and mentally ill patients.

"Delaying payments will hurt real families, many of whom are just hanging on in these very, very tight and difficult times," Chiang said. "Taxpayers who expected to use their refunds to purchase a car, to make food payments, to pay off their credit card bills, will have to wait. That is something we should not be doing."

Continue Reading

Sadly, the state that gave us Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan also led the way in converting our nation to a culture of deadbeats and thugs. No one wants to pay for anything (Proposition 13), "three strikes and you're out" (Proposition 184), and civil rights are stripped (Proposition 8), are all examples of how California's vaunted liberalism is bogus.

Its public education system is failing, its healthcare system a travesty, its economy favors the wealthy and has long exploited poor immigrants and minorities, and even its law enforcement institutions have long been recognized as brutal.

Celebrating the Bush Legacy

2009-01-16T22:20:00.001-05:00

A Party Of Whiners

2009-01-02T05:00:00.002-05:00

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman does a great job of dissecting the GOP and offering a diagnosis for its recovery in a column that appears in today's Times.

As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.

Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?

Krugman traces the ills of the Republican Party to its "Southern Strategy", which has left it with nothing more than a strong, but limited base in the "Old Confederacy." And he parses no words in identifying the strategy as being race based.

Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.

Serving such a narrow constituency, the Republican Party, Krugman asserts, lacks the power to effectively obstruct the Obama administration's initiatives. He concludes:

Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.

Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.

As We Begin The New Year, Let's Be Joyous

2009-01-01T08:28:00.005-05:00

After eight long years of the Bush administration, marked by failure, incompetence, and corruption, we're finally poised to steer the nation in a new direction.

As we proceed, let us not forget the broken promises and outright lies that defined the two terms Bush served in office.

I Know Why Obama Picked Warren. But Why?!

2008-12-24T14:42:00.003-05:00

The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart tackles the controversy surrounding President-elect Obama's selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at is inaugural by reflecting upon the opinions expressed by his colleagues Richard Cohen and E.J. Dionne, Jr. and engaging in a discussion of the issue on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

From Capehart's blog entry on the Washington Post website:

I have been vexed into paralysis by President-elect Obama's selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to lead the invocation at his inauguration next month. Sure, I understand politically why Obama chose to give such an honor to Warren. A terrific explanation came from E.J. Dionne today.....

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And because symbols matter, I personally found the choice offensive. That's why Richard Cohen's column today was so soothing.

From MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jon Stewart vs. Mike Huckabee on Gay Marriage

2008-12-10T10:50:00.002-05:00

Quite a civil and illuminating conversation between Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Fox News commentator and former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on the topic of gay marriage.

Stewart calmly, but thoroughly shreds Huckabee's arguments justifying a ban on gay marriage, leaving the former governor with nothing more to support his position than the fact that a majority of Americans agree with him.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

A Sign Of What's To Come

2008-12-06T14:07:00.005-05:00

Employees at a Chicago window manufacturer have peacefully occupied a factory shut down due to the plunging demand by the housing industry. Aside from the distress of being laid off just weeks before Christmas, employees are angered by the failure of Republic Windows and Doors to abide by federal and Illinois laws that require advance notice of a business closing.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Idled Workers Occupy Factory In Chicago

By RUPA SHENOY | Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant's operation. On Saturday, about 50 workers could be seen through a window sitting on chairs and pallets on the factory floor. Reporters were asked to stay out of the plant's work area. ...continue reading

From NBC Chicago:

Bleak Employment Numbers Indicate Recession Is Worsening

2008-12-06T01:54:00.004-05:00

With nearly 2 million jobs lost so far this year the prospect for any kind of economic recovery is bleak. Consumer demand for goods and services has plunged, corporate investment has tanked, the housing market is in a shambles, and automakers have been humbled into begging taxpayers for a bailout.

From the New York Times:

Workers Give Up
By David Leonhardt

How bad was today’s jobs report? The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, its highest level since 1993 — and that understated the weakness in the labor market.

According to the Labor Department, the number of unemployed workers rose by 251,000 in November. But the number of people who were outside of the labor force — that is, neither working nor looking for work — rose by much more: 637,000. These people aren’t counted as unemployed in the government’s statistics, because they are not looking for work. Many of them, presumably, have stopped looking for work because they didn’t think they could find a good job. ...continue reading

Significantly, the loss of jobs has affected men, more than women, due largely to the heavy concentration of women in the healthcare field, education, and other social services.

From economist Dr. Mark Perry:

According to today's BLS report, the U.S. economy has lost 2.352 million jobs in the last year (Nov. 2007 to Nov. 2008). Further analysis shows that 82% of the job losses (1.932 million) were jobs held by males, and only 18% of jobs losses (430,000) were jobs held by females (see top chart above). Further, the November unemployment rate for men is 7.2% vs. only 6% for women, and the gap in jobless rates between men and women has been increasing for the last six months (see bottom chart above).

What's going on?

According to this May 2008 BusinessWeek article:

Men have the misfortune of being concentrated in the two sectors that are doing the worst: manufacturing (70% male) and construction (88% male). Women are concentrated in sectors that are still growing, such as education and health care (77% female). ...continue reading

President-elect Obama's desire to provide economic stimulus by investing heavily in infrastructure should provide a boost to employment in the construction and manufacturing sectors. In addition, it's been reported that he wants to provide some relief to states in the form of increased Medicaid funding and education funding, which would likely aid women.

And The Band Plays On

2008-11-29T03:38:00.003-05:00

I learned last evening that Joe, a friend of nearly three decades, finally succumbed to AIDS after waging a valiant battle against the disease for over two decades.

I hadn't been aware that his health was in decline, having not spoken to him since July, but from what I gather, even those closest to him were kept unaware of the seriousness of his deteriorating condition, not at all surprising given Joe's penchant for privacy and stoicism in the face of tragedy.

His sudden death has profoundly impacted me - much more so than I'd have imagined. We haven't been particularly close these past few years, largely because of a geographic separation. After his loss of his life-partner a dozen years ago, he returned to his home state, finding his adopted city of New York oppressive, laden with cursed memories of joy lost.

I don't believe he found returning home to be all that comforting, yet it was recognizable, largely unchanged from his boyhood. He knew what to expect, and found some solace in the predictability of the community - a normalcy, a consistency with which he had learned to cope.

And make no mistake - coping in New York is a challenge in the best of circumstances. For many gay men who flocked to the city during the 1970s and 1980s AIDS made the city unbearable. There really is no way to adjust to the loss of so many friends and associates.

I can recall during the late 1980s and early 1990s attending at least one memorial service per week, a litany of depressing endings so persistent and encompassing that it became dehumanizing. Gratefully, the pace of death over the past decade has slowed considerably due to improved treatment. It's been over a year since the last time I learned of the death of a friend due to AIDS, a respite that has lulled me into a sense of complacency about the seriousness of the epidemic.

Yet, in recent months I've read extensively of a resurgence of infections in the gay community, which some attribute to a sense that the disease is no longer a death sentence, but rather, a treatable illness not unlike diabetes. Joe's passing is a potent reminder of the foolishness of such assumptions, and how important it is that we continue to educate young people about the dangers of the disease and its ultimately lethal consequences.

It's at moments such as these that I wish I possessed the eloquence to offer some profound insight, or at least a modicum of inspiration. Sadly, the talent eludes me, but I welcome contributions from others and offer a reminder:

How did a few failed banks add up to a financial meltdown?

2008-11-29T03:25:00.002-05:00

Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explains how a few failed banks caused an historic financial meltdown at a Zocalo Public Square lecture.

Barbara Walter's Interview of Barack Obama

2008-11-27T09:02:00.001-05:00

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

2008-11-27T06:01:00.004-05:00

Can The Financial Markets Be Saved?

2008-11-25T01:46:00.002-05:00

Saving the financial markets has been at the top of the agenda of the Bush administration for the past couple of months, with literally trillions of dollars in taxpayer guarantees being used to support beleaguered Wall Street. But for millions of Americans, the real problem is the plunge in the value of their homes, which represent their largest asset and have been used to supplement their incomes during years of declining wages.

The crisis facing homeowners is real, and according to McClatchy News:

Housing Is Bad Enough, But Wait - It'll Get Worse

By Kevin G. Hall

WASHINGTON — If you think the housing slump can't get much worse, Martin Feldstein thinks that both home prices and the broader economy can — and very likely will — get a whole lot worse.

The Harvard University professor and former chief economic adviser to Ronald Reagan isn't part of the crowd that continually forecasts doom. For two decades, he's headed the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially determines when U.S. recessions begin and end.

So when he spoke on Monday night at the annual dinner of the National Economists Club, a gathering of like-minded wonks, Feldstein's grim calculations were noteworthy.

"There are now 12 million homes in the United States with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 100 percent. That's one mortgage in four. The aggregate amount of that is some $2 trillion," said Feldstein. "If you look at the median (midpoint) loan-to-value ratio in that 12 million group of underwater mortgages — mortgages with negative equity — the median loan-to-value ratio is 120 percent." ...continue reading

Inside the Transition: Melody Barnes

2008-11-25T01:31:00.001-05:00

An introduction to Melody Barnes, President-elect Obama's Director-designate of the Domestic Policy Council:

Obama and Bush Working to Calm Volatile Market

2008-11-25T01:23:00.002-05:00

From the New York Times:

Obama and Bush Working to Calm Volatile Market

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama sought to seize the reins of the economic crisis Monday as he and his new economic team worked closely with President Bush to inject confidence into the trembling financial markets, which rallied and erased most of last week’s losses.

The coordination between Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush was taking place among aides, as well as in direct talks about the rescue plan for Citigroup and unresolved details of the overall Treasury bailout plan. The president said his successor would be informed of every “big decision” that was made, adding, “It’s important for the American people to know that there is close cooperation.”

To calm anxious markets, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury plan to announce a major lending program on Tuesday to jump-start frozen loan markets, administration officials said. The Treasury had signaled earlier this month that it was considering such an action for consumer loans, but the action to be announced will broaden the program to include business debt. ....continue reading

Proposition 8 Exposing Dissent Within Mormon Church

2008-11-25T00:53:00.003-05:00

Not all Mormons are opposed to same-gender marriages, nor all they all homophobic. As this article in the Boston Globe illuminates, there is considerable dissent within the church over its public support for Proposition 8, which changed California's Constitution in order to prohibit same-gender marriages.

Gay-Marriage Debate Roils, Unites Mormons

This has been a stormy year for Mormons in the United States. First, there was the candidacy of Mitt Romney for president, which brought to the surface a deep strain of anti-Mormonism in American culture. Then, there was the raid on a group of schismatic polygamists in Texas, which reminded America of Mormonism's uncomfortable history. And now, there is a wave of protest, rolling across the country from west to east, in which some gay rights advocates have targeted Mormons because of their church's support for a successful California referendum to overturn same-sex marriage.

Ironically, the protests appear to be helping repair a rift within Mormonism caused by the election. The church's outspoken support for Proposition 8 exposed an unusual level of disagreement in the ordinarily harmonious Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Internet facilitated grass-roots organizing by the minority of Mormons who support same-sex marriage. But a smattering of anti-Mormon acts since Election Day - the burning of a Book of Mormon, a mailing of packets of white powder to Mormon sites, and some anti-Mormon invective expressed on signs and in sloganeering - has helped rally a denomination with a long history of persecution.

...continue reading

One group of Mormons, "Hotter Than Saints", while not openly taking a position on Proposition 8, has nevertheless earned the reprobation of church leaders for its homo-erotic calendar, "Men On A Mission", which features 12 shirtless young men offered as "12 Reasons To Believe In God". A video promoting the calendar is below.

The Mother Of All Bailouts!

2008-11-24T05:07:00.004-05:00

Federal regulators have agreed to bailout Citigroup, one of the world's largest banking companies by infusing it with $20 billion in new capital and assuming the liability for $300 billion in risky loans, largely extended in the form of residential and commercial mortgages.

From the New York Times:

U.S. Approves Plan To Help Citigroup Weather Losses

By ERIC DASH

Federal regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank, the government announced late Sunday night.

The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.

Citigroup executives presented a plan to federal officials on Friday evening after a weeklong plunge in the company’s share price threatened to engulf other big banks. In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear that the crisis of confidence had to be defused now or the financial markets could plunge further.

Whether this latest rescue plan will help calm the markets is uncertain, given the stress in the financial system caused by losses at Citigroup and other banks. Each previous government effort initially seemed to reassure investors, leading to optimism that the banking system had steadied. But those hopes faded as the economic outlook worsened, raising worries that more bank loans were turning sour. ...continue reading

Details of the plan can be found here.

Should Detroit Automakers Be Allowed To Fail?

2008-11-24T02:46:00.008-05:00

There are many arguments in favor of allowing Detroit's "Big Three" automakers to fail, forcing them either into Chapter 11 (reorganiation) or Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. No one can deny that GM, Ford and Chrysler have been environmentally irresponsible, promoting gas guzzling SUVs instead of investing in new, fuel efficient technologies so desired in today's market place driven by high gasoline prices.

Yet Detroit cannot be blamed for feeding America's fuel gluttony, anymore than McDonald's or Burger King can be held totally accountable for Americans' insatiable appetite for ever larger portions of unhealthy food. An American truism is that "bigger is better", whether it be cars, meals, homes, television screens, or the size of the local supermarket.

Nor can the United Auto Workers be held entirely to blame for the automakers' current financial straits. While it's true that union employee health benefits add an estimated $1,700 to the cost of each vehicle manufactured by the "Big Three", that's a cost imposed by our society's refusal to provide government funded, universal health care, a benefit enjoyed by workers in most other industrialized countries. Relieved of the cost of health care benefits, Detroits' automakers would earn roughly $900 per vehicle manufactured, as opposed to its current per vehicle loss of $800.

Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham makes a good case for saving Detroit in a column in today's New York Times:

For Detroit, Chapter 11 Would Be The Final Chapter

MANY commentators and members of Congress have declared that the best hope for the Big Three auto companies is to declare bankruptcy. Airlines have gone through bankruptcy and adjusted, after all, so why can’t carmakers?

This comparison is appealing, but flawed. Almost every carmaker that has ever gone bankrupt has disappeared for good. And there is no reason to believe the Big Three would not do the same. Chapter 11 filing would almost surely lead to liquidation.

Just as financial institutions depend on the confidence of those with whom they do business (as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers discovered), automakers depend on the confidence of car buyers. To purchase a car is to make a multiyear commitment: the buyer must have confidence that the manufacturer will survive to provide parts and service under warranty. With a declaration of bankruptcy, that confidence evaporates. Eighty percent of consumers would not even consider buying a car or truck from a bankrupt manufacturer, one recent survey indicates. So once a bankruptcy proceeding got started, the company’s revenue would plummet, leading it to hemorrhage cash to cover its high fixed costs. ...continue reading

Detroit makes its own case in the following video:

Wal-Mart proves its patriotism

2008-11-12T08:18:00.004-05:00

From the Boston Globe, via Arnie Arnesen, comes this incredibly reassuring story:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signed on to an Army Reserve program in which the company and the Army will work together to recruit and train people interested in serving in the military and working for the giant retailer. continue reading

This presents so many opportunities! With its vaunted purchasing power, Wal-Mart could save the Department of Defense billions by equipping and arming those reservists. Wal-Mart could contract with Chinese and Indian manufacturers for uniforms, weapons, ordinance, field equipment, and even GPS units and computers and other electronic devices which could then be dispensed to troops as they're called to duty. The cost savings would be phenomenal, not just because the goods would carry a much lower price than what the DOD normally pays through its "competitive" bidding process, but also because thousands of acres of storage facilities could be eliminated and the military would be on a more competitive, "JIT - Just In Time" procurement track.

Not only that, but Wal-Mart could serve as the nation's military recruitment centers, administering tests, physicals, and background checks to ensure that no one of questionable moral or political character somehow found their way into the ranks of the military or in the aisles of their stores. It would reinforce America's confidence in Wal-Mart's commitment to "America".

Imagine, too, how safe Americans will feel shopping in Wal-Mart when its employees are all heavily armed and properly vetted, and know how to respond in case of a Chemical, Biological or Radiological Attack! Terrorists wouldn't dare venture anywhere near a Wal-Mart store, assuring Americans that they can fulfill their patriotic duty to shop.

So many possibilities, so little time to consider them all. I really must put my "snark" device on overdrive.

The Socialists Are Coming -- And They Are Us

2008-11-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

WARNING! WARNING! THE SOCIALISTS ARE COMING! BARACK OBAMA WANTS TO SPREAD THE WEALTH!

Of all the scare tactics employed in this election season, this latest gambit by the McCain-Palin ticket is among the most ludicrous, and would be amusing if it were not for the seriousness with which some people are fearing Armageddon.

Come on, people. Sharing the wealth has always been an American tradition. Sometimes it’s achieved through the largesse of individuals. On other occasions religious and charitable organizations undertake the task of distributing generous donations collected from individuals and businesses. And frequently, we rely upon government to assist us in spreading around the wealth.

Nor is our socialization limited to sharing the wealth. We’re also a nation given to sharing risk and to collectively carrying the burden of catastrophe or disaster. That’s a major part of what defines us as a civilization.

In a little over a month our community will unite behind one of the most incredible annual acts of generosity in which each of us takes pride - the Annual WLNH Children’s Auction. Literally hundreds of local residents volunteer their time, energy and money to this charitable endeavor, and hundreds more anxiously await the opportunity to bid on items they don’t necessarily want or need, frequently donating them back for resale, or providing them for use by other charitable organizations and groups.

This year each of us will be asked once again to pay a share of our income to support the County Nursing home, committed to ensuring our elderly a safe, secure and healthy life no matter their economic or familial circumstances. I’ve not met anyone who believes we should turn these people out on the streets to fend for themselves.

Each month thousands of seniors in the Lakes Region rely upon a check arriving in the mail from Social Security. Get the name? Social Security? It’s socialism, my friends. We’re all asked to contribute a portion of our income to ascertain that seniors and the disabled are not abandoned to poverty. All of us contribute during our working years to support those generations that came before us, and we expect that ensuing generations will continue that tradition.

And what is Medicare but socialized medicine? Again, we all contribute to the pot because we don’t believe being old should mean being denied health care services that are beyond one’s ability to pay.

Let’s look at insurance. All insurance. The purpose of insurance is to share the risk and the costs. It’s a socialization of risk. I’ve driven an automobile for over forty years, dutifully paying my insurance premiums which have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. Yet the only claim I’ve ever filed cost the carrier $450 and that was in 1970. Nevertheless, I still regard insurance as an important expenditure.

Rarely does a day pass when I don’t traverse at least a segment of our streets and roadways, crossing bridges, passing beneath viaducts, all on a complex network built by shared contributions.

When I awaken in the morning the first thing I do is flip on the kitchen light and brew a pot of coffee, trusting that electricity will flow into my home unless some dastardly storm or errant vehicle has somehow interrupted the transmission system. Like you, I share in the cost of supporting the nation’s electrical grid, aware that it’s highly unlikely that I’d be able to generate my individual energy needs without incurring monumental expenses.

Within minutes of pouring my first cup of coffee I’m greeted by the outdoor sounds of children heading off to school, another collective cost that we share. Yes, our schools are expensive, consuming a large slice of our local tax dollars, yet few of us fail to recognize that public education is a necessary and valuable investment, providing lifetime rewards.

Over the past five years New Hampshire has sacrificed 23 lives in Iraq and another five in Afghanistan. Laconia residents have contributed in excess of $30 million to the costs of the wars. It’s a collective burden, borne most heavily by those families who’ve lost loved ones, yet apportioned to all of us.

Barack Obama has come to the conclusion that too much of the shared burden has fallen upon the middle class, and that for eight years the Bush administration has shifted much of the onus onto future generations, compiling nearly $5 trillion in debt that will be a millstone around the necks of our children and grandchildren. That kind of irresponsibility must stop.

We face serious and expensive problems, from two wars to crumbling infrastructure, and from energy dependence to a financial meltdown. Fixing these problems is going to be costly and necessary. And it can’t be done by bankrupting the middle class.

So yes, the wealthiest among us are going to have to pay a bit more. That’s the American way. We’re all in this together, sharing the same ship of state. It’s time to set aside the petty bickering and senseless name calling and recognize that each of us has a responsibility for our nation’s future. And if John McCain is so opposed to sharing burdens perhaps he should give up his government funded health insurance and disability pension. After all, he and his wife are worth an estimated $150 million.

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

2008-10-29T15:48:00.001-04:00

Ron Howard's Call to Action

2008-10-24T11:24:00.000-04:00

Teacher suspended for racist comments about Obama

2008-10-24T11:22:00.000-04:00

The Amazingly Deceitful Jeb Bradley

2008-10-11T04:06:00.001-04:00

By Susan Bruce

By far and away, the most amazing deceit in yesterday’s AARP debate (And Jeb gave us plenty to choose from) was his "stance" on Social Security. First, he told us that he opposed Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. Then in a follow-up question, asked very clearly to learn if he was sincere, he was asked if he supported “carve out” measures. Carve out means diverting some Social Security funds to private accounts. To that, Jeb said that all options had to be on the table, and we needed a bipartisan get together to figure it out. So - within a ten-minute span, he was against privatizing...and then it was an option on the table. I was stunned - and I've heard Jeb Bradley speak more times than I can remember.

During the debate, Jeb said numerous times that Carol had cast the deciding vote on taking the August vacation. Carol pointed out early on that those ads were run in the district of every freshman Congressman - so in other states, a different person cast the deciding vote. Carol finally asked him if he knew that those ads were run in other states with other names, and he weaseled out of it by saying "well you voted for it, so you were part of the deciding."

It was clear from the beginning of the debate that Carol had voted twice against the bailout bill, yet Jeb continued to claim all the way to the end that Carol voted with her party 100% of the time. She listed votes (including FISA) when she went against the leadership, but he continued repeating it. The Republicans sitting in front of me were snickering at his obvious lies toward the end of the debate.

On Medicare Part D, Jeb said he is proud that he voted for it, and spoke about what a great thing it was for seniors. He failed to mention the donut hole, and how great that is. Carol said that seniors certainly needed a prescription drug benefit, but she didn't favor giving the drug companies a bigger benefit than seniors. She pointed out that the bill specifically forbid negotiating for lower prices, the way the VA is able to, which has led to huge increases in some drug prices.

Carol emphasized that the 2006 Congress was stuck trying to clean up the mess Jeb and the previous Congresses left behind. Jeb tried to blame rising unemployment, energy costs, the financial problems etc. on Carol and the last 2 years. I don't think that people bought that. Folks are smart enough to know that we didn't get here in less than 2 years.

Jeb continued to try to blame Carol for nebulous tax increases that he seemed to be inventing as he spoke. For all of Jeb's talk about the need to work together in a bi-partisan way, he certainly wasn't leading by example.
Jeb closed by saying that supporting the middle class doesn't mean supporting a government run health care system. He also said, "I'm glad we could have a friendly debate. You all know me, and you know what I've done - like keeping the Shipyard open." At that point, a group in the back of the room laughed at him.

Jeb has learned nothing in 2 years. He didn't even have a handful of people doing visibility when I got there. He got stuck in talking points, just like 2006, where people in the audience snickered at him. The only difference between 2006 and 2008 is that Jeb has adopted the kind of meanness that John McCain has brought to the Republican Party. He was snide, he told obvious lies, and he was visibly mean spirited. It wasn't pretty. I'm embarrassed for Jeb, who at least came across as a decent guy in 2006. Carol has it right; he said he'd do anything to win. Sadly he's begun to prove it.

McCain's supporters reveal the dark underside of humanity

2008-10-10T11:05:00.003-04:00

Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin are dangerous. They've moved beyond being mere liars and crooks to stoking violence and fascism.

In viewing this video I was immediately reminded of film clips I've seen of Hitler's Brown Shirts. McCain is intentionally appealing to peoples' most base fears and prejudices, inciting hatred and creating an incendiary atmosphere that borders on treasonous.

One can only hope that wiser heads in the Republican Party exert pressure on McCain to halt his destructive campaign before it erupts into tragedy. Otherwise, all Republicans will be held responsible for the acts and behavior of these frightened people fueled by the inflammatory rhetoric of the leaders of their party.

Send a link to this to your family, friends and neighbors, whether they be Democrats, Republicans or Independents. We must stop McCain's and Palin's assault on civility and the rule of law and encouragement of a mob mentality.

The American Insult

2008-10-08T20:54:00.002-04:00

By Lynn Lagasse

While the focus of attention, debate and criticism continues to center primarily around Sarah Palin, the real issue remains obscure and less tangible to many voters, that being John McCain’s selection of a Vice-Presidential running mate. His motivations stridently defended are a thinly veiled disguise for political grandstanding intended to bolster up a floundering campaign.

Palin’s nomination while pandering to the base, targeted disaffected Hillary supporters yearning for a woman on the ticket and a means to defuse the groundswell of criticism and suspicions of elitism over the discovery of McCain’s eleven or so houses. (Really, after the first five or six does it really matter how many he has?) In this ill advised, unprepared and inappropriate choice, John McCain has dealt the American electorate the ultimate insult and in doing so has revealed his true colors. Motivated whole-heartedly by self-promotion and personal aspirations, John McCain chose marketing over substance, selling out his party, his constituents, his supporters and the American people, not to mention Sarah Palin herself, who is in way over her head but too afraid to blink.

As a campaign strategy, Sarah Palin’s obvious appeal is her astounding success story juxstaposed on a backdrop of “everyman” credentials complete with small town upbringing, beauty queen good looks, working-class lifestyle and family values. When this well woven storyline began unraveling over a daughter’s teen pregnancy and a quarter million dollar annual income the campaign managed to diffuse attention from these facts, by shifting greater focus to Ms. Palin’s maverick credentials, feisty attitude and tomboyish appeal as an avid hunter and outdoors enthusiast. While her well documented hunting exploits are especially appealing to sportsmen, I do not personally know a single hunter whose experience includes hunting from an airplane, helicopter or any other aerial device short of a tree stand, which most real hunters find far too exotic and elitist.

Sarah Palin’s role is more spokes-model for the McCain campaign, providing the perfect vehicle for connecting with average folks by delivering up a brand of plain speak and homespun zingers that John McCain could not possibly pull off. As a matter of fact, Sarah Palin barely gets away with it but she seems to combine all the right qualities of base appeal, gutsy feminism and “uncut gem in the rough” to turn out crowds of so-called supporters but I wonder how many are really supporters or just curiosity seekers.

Hell, I’d be tempted to attend a rally if she came to town just for the sheer novelty of seeing her in person. Chances are I probably wouldn’t find the marketing of Sarah Palin as deeply offending if there were a substantive, informed, prepared Vice-Presidential nominee behind the façade or if she were not so “in your face” with the sassy, girl-next-door, plain speak which I am positive has been coached to grating perfection on the Straight Talk Express.

The last time I heard the expression “Golly-gee,” was on a rerun of the Andy Griffith Show or Gomer Pyle and I can honestly say, I’ve never heard those words used in real life until they came out of Sarah Palin’s mouth. The gosh darnit, geewiz, down-home, back-slappin’, “gettin’ folksy with ya’ll” routine was already wearing thin on me when the final blow was delivered.

An apparent attempt to connect with us common folk down here on Main street, at the kitchen table or wherever else we ordinary people are storied to be found, the McCain campaign has come up with catchy nicknames for the American electorate which Sarah Palin used in addressing us during last week’s debate when she said, “for all you Hockey-Moms and Joe Six-Packs”. My blood immediately began to boil not because of the words used per-se, but because their meaning disclosed the darkest of truths about the McCain campaign. In those words a revelation of how John McCain and the Republican Party view the average American citizen became crystal clear.

These one-dimensional, unsophisticated, over-simplified characterizations describe who the McCain campaign thinks they are speaking to when they ask for your vote. To anyone who remains undecided I say, John McCain does not deserve your respect for his politics, your consideration for his candidacy and least of all your vote for our country’s highest office.

As a registered Independent for 30 years, I voted for John McCain in the 2000 primaries, considering him a man of principles, representing higher ideals in government and non-partisan politics. Admittedly a liberal leaning voter, I enthusiastically became a registered Democrat two years ago and now have absolutely no regrets, remorse or second thoughts about not supporting John McCain. How could anyone support a candidate who would trade our future, our security and our country’s best interests for personal gain, ego and self-promotion? John McCain is an insult to the intelligence of a nation and the dignity of its people.

My support and my vote goes to the candidate that respects the American voter and respects us enough to be honest, clear and straight forward about our circumstances and the difficult choices and sacrifices we will all have to make in the days ahead. The “Dumbing Down” of America encouraged and exploited by the current administration tells us that “The world is a scary place, we should fear evil doers and terrorists who would harm us - but not to worry, go about our business, live our normal lives, don’t be concerned with the war, the economy – they’ll take care of everything”.

Great leaders instead are straight with people, inspire people, ask people to participate in the solution, enabling everyone to be part of the process. I believe that Barack Obama is one of those great leaders who possess the qualities that inspire, unite and build up. In that, there is only one choice for us to make at a time where change in leadership is so desperately needed and only one candidate that can deliver on that tall order – our Democratic Presidential Nominee, Barack Obama.

The fundamentals of our economy are strong

2008-09-30T11:03:00.002-04:00

Making A Choice

2008-09-29T16:03:00.002-04:00

I’ve heard from many people commenting on how nasty and negative the Shaheen-Sununu race has become, and I concur that it's really despicable. You'd think both of these candidates are evil incarnate. Allow me to offer my opinion.

John Sununu is a decent man who simply is on the wrong side of the issues. He favors big business, has a long record of opposing corporate and financial regulation, and has consistently voted against legislation that would benefit working families, from an increase in minimum wage to an expansion of health care coverage. He's been unwavering in his support of George Bush, including Bush's horrific foreign policy and his devastating fiscal irresponsibility that has buried us in an oppressive $10 trillion debt. John simply does not reflect New Hampshire's values.

Jeanne Shaheen performed admirably as governor for three terms, working with Democrats and Republicans alike. She's a moderate voice in a nation and a state where too often the extremists are most vocal. I disagree with Jeanne on capital punishment, and I believe she missed an opportunity to change New Hampshire's unfair system of taxation that places an extreme burden on working families. But I also know that she embraces New Hampshire's values, from protecting the environment to expanding access to affordable healthcare, and from improving our children's educational opportunities to strengthening the Granite State's economy. She brings an incredible amount of common sense to the table, and offers a breadth of experience that will prove invaluable to New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that all of our major candidates are decent people and do not deserve the abuse being heaped upon them. This even includes John McCain, for whom I’ve lost nearly all respect since he launched his campaign of lies and distortions, and abandoned all principles of integrity. While today he is but a hollow shell of the John McCain who earned the admiration of millions, one cannot discount his past contributions to his country, nor question his patriotism no matter how misguided he may be today.

I truly hope that voters will not be swayed by the extreme messages with which they’re incessantly being bombarded and will instead choose a candidate based upon his or her positions on the issues.

We are today confronted by serious challenges, from a crumbling financial system and a plunging economy, to global terrorism and two mismanaged wars. We’re being held hostage by our reliance upon foreign oil, and we’re despoiling our environment by neglecting the need for serious investment in alternative sources of energy.

Our infrastructure is crumbling, our health care system is in crisis, and our system of public education is in peril. Gratefully, New Hampshire and the nation are equipped to confront these challenges, possessing the resiliency and the creativity needed as we move forward.

What is clear is that we cannot afford to continue along the course we’ve been following for the past eight years. We cannot endure another decade of war and neglect or of allowing unbridled greed to sap the underlying strength of our economy and put at risk our savings, investments, pensions, and even the value of our homes.

Our state and our nation are at a precipice. How we vote this year will determine whether we plunge into an abyss of despair or leap to new heights of achievement. A vote for Republicans is a vote to “stay the course” - to continue on the path we’ve been following.

By contrast, a vote for Democrats will ensure a change of course. That doesn’t mean it will be an easy ride, nor that every trail embarked upon will lead to success. But what it does mean is that we’ll be free to explore new avenues, to navigate the future with confidence in our potential rather than retreating into the paralysis of fear.

When choosing a candidate this year the first question you should ask yourself is that posed by Ronald Reagan in 1980 - “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The second question you should ask is “Is the country better off than it was eight years ago?”

If you can answer yes to both of those questions, you should vote Republican. Otherwise, the decision is clear.

Media Announces Bailout Of McCain Campaign

2008-09-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, DC -- Acting to avert a possible crisis in the U.S. presidential election, the media today announced a bailout of Sen John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign. Cable news commentators scrambled to prop up the Senator's sagging poll numbers Friday as the fast-disappearing dream of a nail-biting horse-race threatened to bring down America's entire punditry system.

A senior CNN political analyst speaking on condition of anonymity said that the collapse of McCain's campaign could prove disastrous to the pundit industry. "A horse-race is vital to our bottom line," he said. "Without neck-and-neck poll numbers we can't maintain an air of suspense right up to election day, and our ratings will suffer. I could be out of a job by this time next week."

....continue reading

Do We Want An Actual, Ordinary American In The White House?

2008-09-09T06:59:00.001-04:00

By Joanne Rosenfeld

Last Friday, Senator McCain picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in the presidential election. Though I like to avoid voicing political or even moderately serious thoughts of mine, I simply can't help but react to this latest McCain blunder. About a month ago, Palin said she wasn't ready to discuss being VP because she didn't know what the VP did; moreover, she wanted to stay in her more "busy" and "active" job as Governor of Alaska. It's certainly saying something that she thinks being second in line to become Commander in Chief is a smaller, less-productive role than being governor of less than 700,000 constituents.

Governor Sarah Palin's resume includes two terms on City Council and two terms as Mayor of Wasilla, a town with a population of 8,500. This means that anyone who's been president of a mid-sized university for that length of time has as much experience as she does. She's currently only two years into her first term as Governor of Alaska, which by the way has a population of 670,000, or just over half the population of that sprawling land mass, Rhode Island. But thanks to the erudite leadership of John McCain, a person who's never been voted for by more than 120,000 people and has never worked in national politics, is now a potential leader of the free world.

Governor Palin is married to her high school sweetheart, who happens to be a competitive snowmobiler. I don't know what that is, but apparently it is in line with the activities of "ordinary" Americans. She has five children, the youngest of which is named Trig, like trigger, as in gun (!!). Sarah is applauded for having had Trig even though she and her husband were well aware he had Down Syndrome a few months into the pregnancy. That is not only a sacred and personal decision, it is one that takes both courage and resilience as a parent, and I do applaud her conviction in her beliefs. You see, when you have the freedom to choose, you get to display conviction to your own beliefs, not just the ones McCain/Palin would like to legislate.

A small part of me rejoices in this, the latest in a series of misguided campaign decisions, because now, I am certain, McCain will not be elected. No one can say in seriousness that Sarah Palin is ready to lead a nation (some are saying it out of a habit of making hypocritical statements, but that's a whole 'nother issue). Despite a strengthened belief in an Obama/Biden victory this November, however, I am still plagued by the worry of what-if.

What if McCain wins? Sure the idea of a woman in the White House is exciting on face value alone, but this particular woman will likely prove to be an incapable vice president for a number of reasons, chief among which is her startling lack of experience. When she does so, which she will, she risks hurting the cause of so many other aspiring female candidates in the years to come. If Kennedy hadn't been such a salient and capable president, no one would point to him as a shining example of religious difference in the Oval Office, thus encouraging the political careers of the many well-qualified Catholic, Jewish, etc. men and women who followed his groundbreaking presidency. And if Sarah Palin flops as she surely will do, she will become an all-too-visible and simply unrepresentative example of the kind of bumbling misdirection a woman will bring to the White House. I can just hear it now: "Don't bring any more in. Remember that Sarah Palin chick? What a mistake that was."

Considering the average life expectancy of an American male is 77 years old, it would simply be imprudent to ignore the possibility that 72-year-old will not make it thorough 4 years in the White House. What then? One would think McCain would make an extra effort to assuage such fears and concerns related to his age and health with his VP pick. I certainly assumed he would choose a person with a resume that rivals his own; someone whose years of experience on the national and even international level could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he/she was ready to lead the second "VP" turned to "P". Instead, he picked Sarah Palin. We want a president who is in touch with ordinary Americans, sure, but do we really want an actual, ordinary American in the White House? We seriously, seriously do not.

The greatest problem that I have with McCain's VP pick is that, once again, his decision has proven how misguided and illogical he is as a leader. Every move he has made in this campaign has been motivated by a follower's mentality: What do the voters want to hear? How do I get them to like me? What will make them like me more? A true leader works to change minds, inspire others, and move forward with an agenda he or she believes in and remains loyal to. Instead, McCain has become almost cartoonishly desperate for approval and support, lowering his standards, which should be presidential to the level of TMZ and perezhilton.com. This time, instead of carefully selecting a viable vice presidential candidate, he jumped a bandwagon that wasn't wound up with a soccer mom.

No one doubts this was a political decision; this is, after all, politics. But if McCain is after the women's vote, or more particularly, the vote of hardheaded Clinton supporters, he would have done better to align himself with someone who is not her ideological opposite. Women are not going to go after anything with boobs that moves like a drunk in a dive bar, and it is frankly both disturbing and insulting that McCain thinks otherwise.

We Deserve A George W. Bush Holiday

2008-09-06T14:03:00.001-04:00

By Steven Borne

I propose creating a George W. Bush Day — a national holiday, the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend to be the new national election day, instead of the first Tuesday in November.

This day will become a day of remembrance — a chance to avoid repeating the historic national mistakes of the past eight years. Our past generations have enabled our great nation to be divided, the balance of governmental power distorted, our national identity betrayed and our economy crushed by debt and irrational economic policies. We are now obligated to right our nation and help make America, America again.

The economy can certainly absorb the influx of holiday shopping and more people will be home to vote or know sufficiently in advance to request absentee ballots. Holiday-focused shows, events, classroom content, sales promotions, etc., can all help drive educated participation and motivate the population to be more informed of the candidates and positions. We can build a national message that leverages our past mistakes (from both parties) to enforce the importance of education, participation and the role of the populace to mandate responsible, effective government.

This new holiday will encourage our schools and media to educate and emphasize the responsibilities of the electorate to maintain the health of our democracy. With all due respect to exceptional educators, the national evidence of the past eight years proves that our educational and media system has failed our democracy. There is no better learning example of what can go wrong than the George W. Bush administration and how we failed to prevent its actions. As we re-educate our nation, imagine the potential quiz questions.

n Of these six acts by the Bush administration, which one is actually permissible under the Constitution?

n True or false, Vice President Dick Cheney controlled and determined more executive and policy decisions than President Bush?

n What is the estimated level of global competitiveness America forfeited that is directly attributed to the No Child Left Behind program?

n Extra credit essay: Defend either statement using at least five reference points — "In presenting the justification for invading Iraq, the Bush administration was a) incompetent or b) intentionally lied to the nation?

We face a long, hard uphill climb. Only by acknowledging our collective failure and recognizing how national apathy enables single-minded individuals to manipulate a nation, can we begin to heal our nation and to rebuild our economic and national strength. George W. Bush Day, will stress the patriotic duty of every American to fight through the propaganda, misinformation, irrational logic, bias news sources and then to question everything by participating in the debate and discussion required for a healthy and evolving democracy.

Communism taught in school shows how intelligent and educated people accepted the misguided logic and rational of a communist government and how most chose to follow, rather than question or fight back. We learned how the mass majority in these countries were driven into a rut by the ruling powers and were incapable of climbing out. We had always assumed that America was immune to this type of behavior. Well, America has proven that we too, can be led into a national rut. America needs to acknowledge and constantly remind ourselves what happened during the George W. Bush administration. The many manipulative acts of this administration must never be forgotten. We can never ignore how the conservative faction took a large lever labeled "faith" and drove it deep into the nation where it touched enough of the populace so too many of us aligned behind the calculated power grab. Then the national outrage from the 9/11 attacks was leveraged to accelerate our democratic demise as more citizens were driven into a deeper national rut, executive power expanded, and the conservative agenda enacted.

Sarah Palin's Leadership Promise

2008-09-02T12:50:00.002-04:00

Not enough attention has been paid to John McCain's rationale behind the choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate. Clearly he envisions an important leadership role for the athletic young frontierswoman whose vivacious energy adds spark and vigor to his lethargic leadership.

American Democracy Is In Danger

2008-08-29T13:45:00.001-04:00

To the Editor:

This is a response to a letter written by Mr. Jack Stephenson of Gilford on 8/18/08.

Mr. Stephenson, your use of the word "negro" denotes that you still see color when you look into the heart of a man. We differ. In Barack Obama, I see light, hope, and inspiration. I see a man who has devoted his life to working for the middle class, a bright Constitutional attorney, a fellow American determined to remedy the sorry condition of our country. I admire him. The future of our country as a peaceful, respected, and prosperous nation rests with him, as does the job, health, financial and old-age security of the vast majority of Americans.

You make reference to a desire for a fair election. I welcome fair elections. I suspect all Americans demand fair elections, because, as we all know, legitimate, open, honest elections go to the heart of democracy, and democracy is the gateway to everything else.

But America has a disgusting history of unfair elections ... rigged elections in 2000 and 2004, which changed the course of world history. Election fraud '08 is already in progress. Yes, the shameful scheming used in Florida in 2000 to purge legitimate voters, mostly blacks, and mostly Democrats, has now spread to the swing states: Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and, once again ... Florida. 19.4 percent of Colorado voters have been purged; 600,000 voters in Ohio purged.

Voters in thirty (30) states this November will vote on electronic voting machines bearing no paper receipt or ballot; thus, no recount is possible. Including New Hampshire's optical-scan machines, more than 85 percent of the total votes cast in November will be cast on electronic voting machines, all of which are programmed in complete secret by corporate vendors. No one is allowed to know how these machines are programmed - not you, not me, not the Secretary of State, and this secrecy is protected by state and federal law. Would it alarm you to know that our privatized elections system could soon be controlled by Allied Technologies, the 7th largest military defense contractor? If you share my concerns for fair elections, here's where you need to start: www.gregpalast.com

It's never been more important for all Americans to unite, to think independently of 30-second attack ads, to reject the hate and fear mongering which has so divided our nation, and to demand from our elected officials meaningful election reform. The great experiment in representative democracy is squarely in harm's way.

Bob Perry, State Representative, Dist. 3
Committee of Election Law
Vice-Chair, Electronic Voting Machine Subcommittee

Don't Know Much

2008-08-25T11:19:00.004-04:00

This is another great ad from the Obama campaign set to the music of the legendary Sam Cooke. What I find especially powerful is the use for a full five seconds of the photo of McCain hugging Bush. It's awesome!

Watch, Digg it, make it viral!

For A Vet, McCain's Record Sorely Lacking

2008-08-25T05:22:00.004-04:00

By Seth Lovell

On July 7, at a town hall meeting in Denver, a Vietnam veteran confronted John McCain about his support of veterans' issues.

"I have a perfect voting record from organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and all the other veterans service organizations," responded McCain.

Although this sounds good, it is inaccurate and misleading. The VFW and American Legion do not compile congressional voting records, and other veterans' organizations that do compile records aren't favorable.

Disabled American Veterans is an organization that was founded following World War I, and today has 1.4 million members.

It not only tracks this legislation, but tracks how politicians vote. John McCain is documented as having voted with DAV-supported legislation 34 percent of the time. Barack Obama has voted with the DAV 89 percent of the time.

Another organization that tracks legislation important to veterans is Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the first and largest organization dedicated to those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IAVA is only concerned with bettering the lives of returning veterans, and advocating for their rights. Its records show McCain voting with IAVA 58 percent of the time, and receiving a "D" rating. Obama voted with IAVA 89 percent of the time, receiving a "B-plus" rating.

If the overall records do not speak for themselves the specific examples will. In April 2003 McCain urged Senate members to table a vote that would appropriate more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve Equipment in Iraq. In October of 2003 once again McCain voted to table a bill that called for an additional $322 million for safety equipment for United States forces in Iraq.

On issues relating to veterans' health care McCain's record is even worse. Since 2004 McCain has voted twice against closing corporate tax loopholes to help fund healthcare for veterans. In March 2004 Senator McCain voted against an amendment that would have created a $1.8 billion reserve fund to increase Veteran's medical care.

Again in March 2006 McCain voted against an amendment to close corporate tax loopholes in order to increase veterans' medical services funding by $1.5 billion. In April 2006 McCain joined only 13 other senators in voting against an amendment to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs for outpatient care and treatment of veterans. This amendment provided a paltry $430 million compared to the billions of dollars being spent each week in Iraq, yet McCain opted to vote against it.

His neglect of veterans goes on and on. Most recently in May of 2008 McCain spoke out against the updated GI Bill being sponsored by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

On the day of the vote McCain was not present, a convenient way to avoid criticism over his promised oppositional vote. The biggest injustice to those who worked so hard to make this bill a reality came when President Bush praised McCain for his work on this legislation.

Every American should appreciate and honor the service that Sen. McCain gave to our country during Vietnam. There is no doubt John McCain supports the war in Iraq.

It doesn't mean he supports the veterans who served.

Seth Lovell is a veteran of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is pursuing his master at James Madison University. E-mail him at stlovell@comcast.net.

(Note: This column was first published on August 24, 2008 by The News Leader of Staunton, Virginia)

He May Be Skinny, But He's Tough!

2008-08-21T12:17:00.004-04:00

For weeks many Democrats have been lamenting the fact that Obama has not been forceful enough in attacking McCain - that his commitment to running on issues rather than stooping to personal attacks was going to cost him the election.

Those critics might want to rethink their position.

Today he launched a new ad that goes to the heart of why McCain is out of touch with the needs and desires of average Americans. View it below:

Throughout the campaign I've heard Barack say "I might be skinny, but I'm tough." Anyone who doubts it is in for a shock. This latest ad is but one of many produced by the campaign over the past week that slam McCain for his positions on issues.

Another of my favorites points to McCain's history of being associated with some of the most corrupt political operatives in Washington.

As we head toward the Convention and beyond, I feel confident that Barack Obama will successfully control the message and turn attention to the real needs of America's workers and families.

Try Harder Next Time Jack, You Don't Write Like A Democrat

2008-08-21T01:44:00.000-04:00

To the Editor,

I read Jack Stephenson's recent letter with great interest, but I confess, I'm having a hard time understanding why he's pretending to be a Democrat.

If he really were a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, he'd be supporting Senator Obama, since that's what she asked her supporters to do.

It seems far more likely that Mr. Stephenson is trying, not too cleverly, to create division and dissent within the ranks of Democrats.

Mr. Stephenson, I think you're confused about some of the issues you mentioned. I've seen Senator Obama speak in public, with nary a "cue card" in sight. He wasn't using the 21st century version of the cue card, the Teleprompter, either. It's actually Senator McCain who relies on notes and Teleprompters.

When McCain spoke in front of the great wall of cheese last month, he needed to look at his notes in order to find out the price of a gallon of milk! I guess we can't expect a guy who has a private jet, 8 homes, $100 million, and wears $500 loafers to remember silly things like the cost of milk. After all, it's not as if he ever has to shop, like the rest of us do.

As for energy, Senator Obama is, regrettably, in favor of nuclear power. Fox News keeps saying he is anti-nuke, which is probably why you're so woefully uninformed. Nuclear power is NOT a cheap, or a clean energy source, which explains why no nuclear plants are being built. Uranium (a finite resource) mining requires huge outputs of energy and water. The radioactive tailings left behind are quite dangerous, and seldom cleaned up. Most uranium mining in the US takes place on Indian reservations, where mining companies destroy the land and water, and leave the mess behind.

Given your rather racist commentary about "negros", I'm suspecting you don't care too much about the polluting of Indian lands. I'm not sure who the "successful USA negros" you mention are, but one thing is certain, I bet they'd appreciate it if you at least spelled the plural term for negro correctly. It's Negroes, Mr. Stephenson, a term that hasn't seen popular usage since 1962. You need to update your vocabulary.

I am shocked to hear that you're concerned about having a "Hollywood style" president, since I'd bet my life's savings that you voted for Ronald Reagan.

Try harder next time, Jack. You don't write like a Democrat.

Susan Bruce
Jackson

People With Common Sense Will See Stephenson's Letter For What It Is

2008-08-21T01:41:00.001-04:00

To the editor,

This is in response to a recent letter concerning Barack Obama, that states "some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negros,"

1. Do you realize computers have spell check and the word "negros" is misspelled. The proper spelling is Negroes. This is a term long in disuse, by the way, and that statement also shows how bigoted you are. To state that "anyone" is the same as "all" black people, white people, Asian people, is denying that anyone can be an individual or different than all in their ethnic group. You cannot clump everyone into one group.

2. You also misrepresent his position on the issues we are all concerned with. Do you believe all the ads you see on TV against him?

3. You insinuate that Obama has stolen the title of "world's best liar" from Clinton. I assume you mean Bill Clinton for you go on to say everyone should try to elect Hillary Clinton in order to have a fair election.

I firmly believe that people who read the letters to the editor and read the newspapers have enough knowledge and common sense to see that letter for what it was/is.

Elaine Seibel
Hill

Living Under A Rock

2008-08-20T01:53:00.000-04:00

To the editor,

Clearly, Mr Stephenson has been living under a rock for years. I suggest he crawl back under it and keep his racist, small minded, uninformed views to himself. He is spreading hate and he is spreading lies.

Betsey Phillips
Franconia

Stop Playing at Being Outraged

2008-08-19T19:59:00.002-04:00

To the editor,

I am responding to a letter-to-the-editor by Mr. Jack Stephenson (below).I am not sure where Mr. Stephenson is getting his information about Barack Obama and his position on various issues. The Obama Energy plan, for example, includes:

1. more renewable (solar, wind, and geothermal) research and use
2. crackdown on oil speculation
3. energy rebate to American families
4. increase automobile fuel economy standards
5. use-or-loose it for existing oil & gas exploration leases
6. develop & deploy clean coal technology
7. create millions of clean & green jobs
8. reduce greenhouse gas emissions with an industry-wide cap-and-trade program

A full summary of the Obama plan can be found at Barack Obama.com.

Senator Obama has been consistently against the illegal, immoral, and unnecessary war in Iraq throughout his public career. He has not vacillated on this issue. He, as well as, Mr. McCain have adjusted their stance on many issues, as facts change. After all, it was not long ago that McCain was categorically against off-shore oil drilling. I could go on refuting each of Mr. Stepehnson's fallacious assertions about Barack Obama, but we there would not be enough room to print them.

What might the real reason be for Mr. Stephenson's tirade against Senator Obama? I believe Mr. Stephenson is really a conservative McCain supporter playing at being an outraged Hillary fan. We all see through your shannigans, Mr. Stephenson. We know Barack Obama is an educated 'African-American' and the best candidate running. He will be our next President.

Ray Iannuzzelli
Amherst

Mr. Stephenson Hasn't Been Listening

2008-08-19T15:24:00.001-04:00

To the editors,

I really must respond to Jack Stephenson's letter of August 19th. First, Obama has proved, by standing tow-to-tow with Hillary through 20 some debates how well he thinks on his feet. She was great - a good person, a good policy wonk and a good candidate - but the "new kid" stayed with the experienced pro in every way.

Second, readers should get their information on Obama's policy positions from Obama, not Mr. Stephenson or the McCain talking points. Obama does not oppose nuclear, but is cautious, and is out front in his support for wind and solar. And forget that tired tax increase rhetoric unless you're talking about the top 1% who got all the benefit from the Bush tax cuts.

But when Mr. Stephenson goes on about "USA negros" and "WAR" his letter just gets too mixed up and flailing to even try to follow. If Mr. Stephenson thinks Barack Obama lacks substance and his positions lack logic, he just hasn't been listening. Go to his website and catch up.

Anyone still talking about nominating Hillary is actually working for John McCain, the only guy reading from note cards.

Bill Duncan

New Castle

Thank You Mr. Stephenson For Reminding Me of How Lucky I Am To Be An American

2008-08-19T15:21:00.002-04:00

To the editors,

I know that most read Mr. Stephenson's letter of the other day and dismissed him as an oddball or was offended by his inappropriate language.

For me, I want to thank him for it. It gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on why I chose to be in public life. There is nothing about my life story that is special but it does remind me how alive the American Dream is today.

When I was three, because my Dad was looking for work, my young parents and I packed up and left New Hampshire for Detroit, Michigan We happened to find an apartment in an area where my school, my church and my neighborhood were all integrated. Skin color meant nothing to me in nursery school, kindegarten, first grade, the playground or in Sunday school.

We returned the summer of 1966 and in second grade I learned of Abe Lincoln, slavery and the Civil War. I was stunned and horrified to learn that my former friends' great grandparents were slaves. Lincoln's childhood of poverty, commitment to justice and willingness to put his values into action inspired me to find a way to make a difference too. In the next election, just months after the assassination of Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy, I organized my friends to help with Democratic candidates and I haven't stopped since.

This week I, just a kid from a poor family without any ties to power or wealth, will travel to Denver, Colorado to lead New Hampshire's delegation to the 2008 Democratic National Convention where, forty five years to the exact date of Dr. King's "I have a Dream" speech, Senator Barack Obama will be nominated to be the next president of the United States.

Forty five years ago when Dr. King said "let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire" little did he know that a little boy of a Kansan mother and Kenyan dad would grow up and mark his historic anniversary with such a significant history making occurrence. Nor did he know of the young poor kid from NH who would grow up to join 80,000 other proud Americans to witness the event or the estimated billion across the planet witness his dream come true.

When Dr. King dreamed of a day where people were judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. He was dreaming of 2008 America. Dr. King's Dream is truly the American Dream. A dream for all Americans and for all members of the human race.

I am sure Mr. Stephenson wanted to inspire animosity and divide but for me, he reminded me of how lucky, and how proud I am to be an American. Let freedom ring indeed.

Sincerely,
Raymond Buckley, State Chair
NH Democratic Party

Beyond Hope, Deserving Pity

2008-08-19T12:18:00.002-04:00

To the Editor,

Jack Stephenson of Gilford has tragically revealed himself to be beyond hope. One would have thought that his 75 years of living would have taught him something about decency and civility. Clearly it has not.

Stephenson wrote a letter to the editor that was published Monday in both the Laconia Citizen and the Laconia Daily Sun that was offensive and provokes pity. In it he said, referring to Barack Obama, “Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negroes, but he is not, and he has become a total insult to our great successful negroes in the USA.”

Left to the reader’s imagination is how Stephenson defines most “USA negroes“, or “great successful negroes in the USA”. One can only assume that the aging curmudgeon believes such a definition would be superfluous given that clearly his views must be conventional. Perhaps they were five or six decades ago, but the world has moved beyond such uncomfortable and unsavory stereotypes.

Sadly, Jack hasn’t. Somehow he’s avoided any evolutionary thought.

That doesn’t come as a surprise. Having read his letters over the years, a number of which I refused to publish when I was an editor at the Daily Sun, I’ve always been struck by how miserable Mr. Stephenson is. Seventy-five years of life and all he does is complain.

That’s tragic, and deserves pity. If after 75 years one hasn’t found at least a modicum of happiness and good cheer one’s life must seem a complete waste.

Ron Tunning
Laconia

'Negro' History 101

2008-08-19T11:35:00.000-04:00

To The Editor,

Jack Stephenson's letter of 8/18 ("For it and against it") about Obama smacks of antiquated and current racism as well as ignorance of ethnic history. He claims that Obama needs "cue cards" to speak, cue cards being a semi-antiquated term (the other being Negro — fully antiquated) he uses in his letter.

On the contrary Obama has proven to be the most extemporaneous (and exceptional on his feet) candidate speaker in 2008, unwavering and beyond eloquent without a teleprompter most of the time. I have yet to see him use "cue cards" on any political issue, important to Americans. (When thanking local advocates he uses cards to remember hundreds of names in hundreds of towns). But that's about it!

Beyond belief, however, is Stephenson's use of the term "Negro" twice in his letter, in the year 2008 as a term for an African-American, (albeit he's one-half by DNA). One would think Stephenson's last book he read was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee in 1960 instead of "The Name Negro — Its Origin and Evil Use" by Richard B. Moore of the same year (1960). Since Senator Obama's mother was white (S. Ann Durham) and from the flatlands of Kansas, Stephenson might be expected to have used the outdated term "mulatto" since Mr. Obama's father was Kenyan making Obama biracial. He is only half-black (or half-white) so why would Stephenson call him a "Negro."

The term "Negro" in 2008 is generally used today for black Spanish olives, not African Blacks, and the oppression of black slaves and their culture has resulted in an evolution of more modern terms of respect for a substantial portion of our nation's citizenry and voting public. The root of the word, Negro, means "black" in all European and African cultures. Admittedly in previous letters to the editor, Stephenson has acknowledged his age as in the mid-70s. He must surely realize by now that the term, Negro is obsolete.

Disparaging terms had their evolution from the 1830s to the mid-1890s when Blacks were called "colored" or even "Colored-American." At the beginning of the 20th century and by 1920, the term Negro was born. From the 1930s on, to the 1960s with the Black Power movement, there was dissatisfaction in general with the Negro term. There was a cultural movement of more respect for Blacks and their heritage/ culture, which was designed to remove "a host of other slurs" that will not be mentioned here. During this cultural nationalism, terms evolved; with "Black" or "African-American" the latter moniker predominating since the 1980s until now. The term, African-American highlights both "historical lineage and ethnogeographic origins" and not skin color, as in the older terms.

Stephenson shows his implied bigotry and ignorance when he says (in referencing Cbama), "Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA Negros, but he is NOT and he has become an insult to our great successful Negros in the USA." Is Stephenson thinking MLK, Jr here? Might Stephenson be thinking MLK was the "Numero Uno Negro?" Mea culpa, mea culpa!

Obama is no "insult" to intelligent life on this earth, Mr. Stevenson, and he does speak "for all people" and is far from "Hollywood" in style. One last point. The New York Times began capitalizing the word, Negro (as in African-American history) in 1930, should you wish to use the quasi-racist term again for relevant historical purposes. You didn't capitalize it as a former ethnicity in your last letter and yet "spell check," alerts you. Typewriters don't however.

Jack Polidoro

Laconia

For Some People There Is No Hope

2008-08-19T10:58:00.002-04:00

This letter to the editor was published in both the Laconia Citizen and the Laconia Daily Sun on Monday, August 18. It was submitted by Jack Stephenson of Gilford and has prompted outrage throughout the community.

Many have vowed to write letters in response for publication in the two newspapers. As I receive them, I'll be posting them on the blog.

Meanwhile, feel free to leave your comments. I realize that it requires a good deal of restraint to remain civil in light of these kinds of attacks, and I'm hardly one to lecture people about responding with anger. As many of you remember, I was quite forceful in my rebuke of local talk show host Niel Young a couple of years ago while I was still an editor at the Daily Sun.

Nevertheless, I ask that you avoid profanity and consider the source. His message sucks, but not nearly so much as he does.

The Letter

To The Editor,

It is clear that IF we all had the knowledge about Obama which we have heard since he got the "nomination" (not confirmed until their convention), Hillary would be the Democrat candidate. But back then we didn't know that brilliant Obama could not speak intelligently without his staff prepared cue cards. Back then we didn't know that he opposed any increase in safe, clean, cheap energy sources (long proven nuclear, wind, solar and clean coal). Back then we didn't know that he would propose the biggest tax increase ever in the US! Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negros, but he is NOT, and he has become a total insult to our great successful negros in the USA. Back then we didn't know that he was both against the Iraq war and for it, both against battles in Afganistan and for it, and wants to greatly increase number of our troops in Afganistan (the most dangerous place on earth). He is totally for WAR and totally against war, totally for outrageous taxes and totally against taxes, totally for 100% control of all medical care, and totally oppossed to government control of health care.

It is absolutely clear that Obama is totally for and totally against every issue which Americans are concerned with. IE, he is the ultimate politician, as his Church Pastor long ago told us!

Honesty, practicallity, need, usefulness, has nothing to do with Obama. Clearly, Obama is trying to steal from Clinton the title of the world's best LIAR! Hillary tried that, but Obama beat her out for that title.

We must encourage Hillary to take the nomination away from misleading Obama, and give the nation a chance for a fair election. It can happen, and if it doesn't, we are in for a "Hollywood style" president!

Jack Stephenson

Gilford

Food, Heat or Medicine?

2008-08-14T21:16:00.002-04:00

By Senator Kathy Sgambati

Food, heat or medicine? By all indications, we have a growing number of families and elderly people who will be asking themselves this question as winter approaches.

Several of us in the state Senate have held meetings with our local welfare officers and social service agencies to get a sense of the scope of the crisis we face this winter. As state leaders, we are doing everything we can to prepare and to find ways for aid to be efficiently and effectively delivered to those in need.

But no one expects the energy crisis to evaporate or for oil costs to fall back to the levels of prior years -- which makes energy efficiency and alternative energy that much more critical to our future.

Two major pieces of legislation passed in the last two years have the potential to provide homeowners with some relief over the long term when it comes to energy costs. We are seeking to stimulate the development of alternative energy and to provide much-needed funds to reduce our overall energy use. These initiatives are now more important than ever.

New England has an older housing stock, and drafty old houses waste energy. Improving insulation and other weatherization efforts become essential to make our heating dollars go farther. Few low income people have the resources to invest in making their homes more energy efficient but we waste both charitable contributions and our tax dollars when we fail to address those needs.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, passed this year, limits the emissions that contribute to global warming. But the program also will raise millions of dollars for conservation and energy efficiency in New Hampshire. Homeowners and businesses will be able to tap into this fund for projects that reduce their costs for heat and electricity by improving efficiency or drawing on cheaper renewable sources.

The Renewable Energy Act, passed last year, requires utilities to seek out renewable energy to provide a growing portion of New Hampshire’s electricity. If utilities fail to hit the mark, they pay into a fund that also will be available to certain residential customers who find ways to generate their own energy, for example by installing solar panels. The goal is to provide for a $3 per watt payment reduction for customers under certain circumstances.

Neither of these programs is fully in place as of today. The state Public Utilities Commission must establish rules and application procedures so we know the money is going to appropriate and worthwhile projects. It will likely be well into 2009 before these programs are ready to launch and can begin to show results.

So state leaders and our congressional delegation are right to fight for additional federal heating aid for this winter. We’re right to fight for more federal weatherization money so we can reduce home heating costs. But we’ve taken some smart steps to prepare for the future as well.

Not only did this Legislature make funds available in the near future for more homeowners and businesses to reduce their energy use, we’re stimulating New Hampshire’s economy by creating incentives for developing renewable energy. We’re encouraging new jobs in energy conservation and alternative fuels. These jobs will make it possible for more New Hampshire citizens to afford to heat their homes, feed their families and pay for their medical needs.

This winter, however, many people face troubled times. The number of eligible families receiving food stamps has swelled even as food stamp allotments fail to keep pace with rising prices. Food banks around the state are struggling to stay stocked.

So while I’m optimistic about New Hampshire’s future when it comes to energy, I’ll add my voice to those of others. Many people need help right now and many more will need help this winter. You can help by setting up neighborhood watches to check on your neighbors this winter, especially the elderly. And if you can, please donate to your local food bank

Unfit To Lead

2008-08-14T10:19:00.001-04:00

This video echoes my column "No Regard For Truth Or Integrity".

No Regard For Truth or Integrity

2008-07-31T23:57:00.006-04:00

Last week John McCain ventured into Rochester, N.H. for a Town Hall Meeting and before a crowd estimated at 700 people managed to embarrass himself, his party, and his country by accusing his opponent of being a traitor while pretending that his own unremarkable record qualifies him to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of our military and as the Chief Executive Officer of our government.

Senator McCain has earned the respect of a grateful nation for his having endured 5 ½ years of imprisonment and torture in a Vietnamese prison camp. Aside from that, however, he’s done little to deserve the esteem being heaped upon him by a compliant press, although one cannot fail to appreciate how he’s managed to parlay that life-changing experience into a life-long career on the public payroll.

Not quite as flattering is that his military career included the loss of five naval aircraft – one in combat, three during training exercises, and one in an explosion on the deck of the USS Forrestal; or his having graduated 894th out of 899 mates in his 1958 class at the Naval Academy. Nor especially distinguishable was his retirement at the rank of captain after having served over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, a departure prompted by his dim future prospects for promotion.

Although McCain is among the wealthiest members serving in the U.S. Senate, his accumulation of a vast fortune hasn’t been through the dint of hard work, nor derived from the wise investment of his $58,000+ in annual military disability payments and $161,700 annual salary as a U.S. Senator. Rather, he married a wealthy heiress after dumping his first wife, a one-time beauty queen whose physical allure had waned as a consequence of physical injuries sustained in an automobile crash.

As a U.S. Senator, McCain earned attention early in his tenure as the heir to the Arizona seat long held by Barry Goldwater who retired in 1987. By 1989 McCain was embroiled in the Keating Five corruption controversy and admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for having accepted $112,000 in contributions from Charles Keating, Jr. and his associates. Keating ultimately served five years in prison for his role in the collapse of Lincoln Savings, one of the major institutional failures that led to the $125 billion taxpayer bailout of the Savings and Loan industry, and McCain had twice met with federal regulators to discuss the government’s investigation of Keating and his company.

While McCain today admits an error in judgment in the Keating affair, and earned enmity among fellow Republicans and a reputation as a “maverick” for his support of campaign finance reform, he seems to have learned little from the experience. His presidential campaign is run largely by lobbyists and financed by special interest money. According to the Washington Post, over $1.1 million was contributed to his campaign last month by oil and gas industry executives and employees, a propitious windfall that he claims had nothing to do with his recent high-profile split with environmentalists and reversal of his position on the federal ban on offshore drilling.

In an editorial published on Monday, The Citizen was effusive in its praise for Senator McCain’s leadership and “straight talk”. It lauded the senator for his support for the “surge”, neglecting to mention that the senator supported the blockheaded invasion of Iraq and was unwavering in his endorsement of the Bush administration’s execution of the failed occupation of the country.

The editorial offensively repeated some of McCain’s most insidious remarks, showing neither a regard for truth nor integrity. Its purpose was consistent with that of Sunday’s editorial in Foster’s Daily Democrat which attempted to portray Obama as arrogant and imperial. “Obama's grand tour of Europe and the Middle East was the most presumptuous and pompous act in the modern history of American politics,” it claimed.

What appears to be troubling to The Citizen and its sister publication Foster’s Daily Democrat is that Barack Obama emerged from his week abroad looking presidential, while McCain managed only to look pathetic when left alone on the domestic stage. From cruising around in a golf cart with former President Bush to looking befuddled in a grocery checkout line, McCain’s image was hardly senatorial, much less commanding.

One understands The Citizen’s fear that an Obama administration might actually require an increase in taxes to cover the costs of eight years of Bush’s perfidy. With over a half-trillion dollars added to the nation’s credit card to support the failed Bush war policies, an untoward and unconscionable shift of hundreds of billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth to Middle-Eastern nations who are purveyors of terrorism, a crumbling infrastructure too long neglected, a housing crisis that’s wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of family wealth, and a financial crisis that may end up costing taxpayers a half-trillion dollars, higher taxes do seem inevitable.

The Citizen has no one to blame but itself for having relentlessly supported the Bush administration and the Republican controlled Congress which conspired to create this mess. Now it whines because the Democrats, in their less than two years of having a majority in Congress constrained by the President’s veto pen and Republicans in the U.S. Senate, have not been able to repair the damage.

Contrary to The Citizen’s conclusion, John McCain is not “the kind of leader who can restore the trust and confidence of the American people.” Quite frankly, he’s been a major part of destroying that trust.

Update:

Contrary to what the anonymous commenter asserts, I greatly respect John McCain's service to his country. However, he was not a stellar leader, he did not exhibit even an average intellect, his record suggests that he was reckless with aircraft - each of which cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and nothing in his military record recommends him for promotion to commander-in-chief.

Anonymous is entitled to his opinion regarding Senator McCain. However, he is outside his realm when he attempts to impugn the character or integrity of people about whom he knows nothing.

I've never been one to tout my military experience. Indeed, I was quite happy when it was comfortably behind me. As were my two brothers who served along with me, both of whom suffered serious injuries in Vietnam, and one of whom in spite of being severely wounded twice on the battlefield in Vietnam, returned to the country for two additional tours.

My father and grandfather, along with numerous uncles and cousins were/are veterans, so believe me, I have tremendous regard for those who don the uniform of their country. I don't, however, have much respect for those who attempt to parlay a marginal military record along with sympathy for wounds and indignities suffered into an entitlement for promotion to the highest office in the land.

Most veterans I know, and I know many, served their country proudly and humbly, quite aware of their sacrifice, yet also cognizant of the millions of others who've shared their burden. They really don't talk much about their combat experiences, realizing that their stories are not all that unique. Okay, I admit that I love regaling people with the tale of the woeful indignity I suffered being treated for a piece of shrapnel lodged in my ass. But that only occurs on the rare occasion when someone presses me on my military experience.

Anonymous, for you I'm posting a couple of photos. One is of quite good quality because it's scanned from one of those portrait photos taken during basic training. The other is of poor quality because it's scanned from a well-worn, not well-preserved snapshot.

You may not share my views. But you certainly cannot tell me that I know nothing about serving my country.

Gunstock is the Pride of Belknap County

2008-07-23T20:07:00.006-04:00

I fully understand the reason folks want to look closely at the bonding issue Gunstock is requesting and it should be closely examined to protect the county taxpayers. I urge all who are able to attend the hearing this Thursday 7/24/08 at Gunstock Main Lodge at 7 PM to do so. If I can change my work schedule, I'll be there as well.

I'll want to point out that Gunstock in recent years has, to my understanding, been self sustaining. Most recently, they have achieved parity between ski season and off season revenues. The current management has done a wonderful job. If my facts are not correct, correct me please. I've never looked over the books & my knowledge is from conversations with the folks in the office so I welcome any corrections.

In years past (15-20??) Gunstock was a drag on County finances falling short regularly on bond payments that had to be paid by the county taxpayers. Aggressive management added night skiing, a high speed lift, and greatly improved snow making. Gunstock is now a competitive player in the NH ski industry. Gunstock is not just a ski area. If you have never seen the beautiful campground or gone horseback riding on their trails, you are missing out.

Many families rely on the part time and full time jobs there. The facility is also an attraction that benefits local motels, restaurants etc. Major events are held there almost every summer weekend and last year they wrestled the lucrative Soul Fest away from Loon mountain. I recently booked my daughter's wedding there and finding an open date was a challenge a full 18 months ahead.

The Gunstock facility is what I consider to be the pride of the Belknap County. It was for this reason I pushed so heavily for our Democratic Party fund raiser to be held there last year. It was a huge success partially due to the excellent services provided by the competent Gunstock staff.

Improvements are always necessary in the competitive ski industry. In these days when the skiing is often secondary to real estate development, Gunstock is like a breath of fresh air with its emphasis on family skiing instead of shopping etc. If necessary improvements are not made to stay competitive we probably run a bigger risk of the facility falling short and looking to the county to cover the shortfall. This is what happened for many years under short sighted policies and poor management.

Having sung the praises let me say it still requires a good look at their plan. I would never support a return to the days of red ink at Gunstock, but we need to be sure that they have the financial resources to continue the successes. Arbitrarily denying the bonding could result in just the shortfalls and higher taxes we would be seeking to avoid. I never want to see Gunstock return to the days when it was a second rate ski hill everybody laughed at & tax payers paid for.

Sincerely
Kenny Bourbeau
Avid skiier and county resident.

Arrogance will cost the GOP in November

2008-07-15T09:11:00.001-04:00

It isn’t often that I find myself in agreement with Doug Lambert. Generally his political commentary reflects an adherence to the kind of right-wing demagoguery that I find so damaging to thoughtful political discourse.

Yet his tenacious battle with the Belknap County Convention over the appointment of Craig Wiggin as County Sheriff highlights a serious flaw in the Republican leadership that has guided our county for decades. Indeed, I can think of no clearer illustration of Lord Acton’s maxim that “power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

First, I want to state unequivocally that I have no beef with Craig Wiggin. From everyone I’ve spoken to I’ve heard nothing but positive comments regarding his resume of experience and his qualifications for the position of Sheriff. My impression is that he is, and has been a competent and forceful leader who has earned the respect of the men and women he commands.

A further compliment might be drawn from the fact that he’s currently running unopposed in both September’s primary and November’s general election. None of the initial candidates who contested him for appointment to the position has filed to challenge him in the primary – either as a Republican or as a Democratic candidate. In fact, no one except Craig Wiggin has filed for the office.

The point that seems to be lost by some in the debate over Mr. Wiggin’s appointment is the flawed process followed by the Belknap County Convention in selecting him as the replacement for retiring Sheriff Dan Collis. I suspect that many of Mr. Wiggin’s supporters have leapt to the defense of the Convention more out of a shared distaste for Mr. Lambert than for any real consideration of the issue.

The facts are fairly straight-forward. The Belknap County Convention chose to vet the candidates vying to replace Sheriff Collis behind closed doors, citing concern for the privacy interests of the candidates. Had this been a normal hiring of a county employee, that process would have been appropriate.

However, the position of Sheriff is an elected one, meaning that the public has the right to examine the resumes of the individuals seeking to hold the office. It really is no different than the normal election process which requires that candidates provide information to the public that will enable voters to make a responsible decision.

Mr. Lambert, and his ally former Laconia Mayor Tom Tardif, strong advocates of open government, challenged the Convention in Belknap County Superior Court, claiming that it had violated the public right-to-know by conducting interviews and discussing the appointment behind closed doors. Although they lost initially in Superior Court, on appeal the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the Superior Court’s decision, siding with Lambert and Tardif and declaring the appointment of Craig Wiggin invalid.

Rep. Beth Arsenault (D-Laconia) opposed the initial process followed by the Republican majority, arguing that it should be conducted in public session. Her objections were ignored by the majority.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision the minority Democrats sought to rectify the error when the Convention met again to reconsider the appointment. They argued collectively that the process should begin anew in accordance with the right-to-know statutes – not out of any desire to alter the outcome of Wiggin’s selection, but because of their shared commitment to upholding the law and respecting the public right-to-know.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, their efforts were met with the same disdain and contempt that has come to characterize the Republican majority grown arrogant by its years of unchallenged rule. The Convention followed a similar process in filling a vacancy on the county commission arising from the death of Gordon Bartlett in 2006. Republican Richard Long was selected by the Convention behind closed doors to fill the remainder of Bartlett’s term, provoking harsh public criticism of the secret process.

And we’ve still not heard from the County Convention the reasons for the forced resignation of County Administrator Nancy Cook, nor have the Democratic members of the Convention been apprised of the details that led to the firing.

It’s unfortunate that Craig Wiggin has found himself caught in the vortex of a controversy caused by his party’s refusal to abide by the law. But as uncomfortable as that must be for Mr. Wiggin, even more troublesome is the unbridled arrogance exhibited by a Republican Party too long unchallenged.

That judicial relief has been sought by loyal Republican dissidents says reams about the GOP and its future prospects. Until Republican elected officials learn that they are the servants of the people they serve and behave accordingly, voters are unlikely to reward them at the ballot box.

Those Republicans furious that the controversy has further dimmed their party’s chances this November should be careful to direct their anger not at Lambert and Tardif. Although “shooting the messenger” does seem to be a common enough reaction, they should instead be insisting that their leaders cease behaving disgracefully. That’s the most effective way to silence the critics.

Laconia Democrats Launch New Web Site!

2008-06-20T16:32:00.000-04:00

The Laconia Democratic Party has launched its new website at www.laconiademocrats.org. Make sure you pass this information on to everyone!

Laconia Democrats opening new office

2008-06-11T04:02:00.000-04:00

The Laconia Democrats will be moving into new office space located at 54 Canal Street today, which will be shared through the November elections with the Belknap County Democratic Committee and the NH Democratic Party's coordinated campaign operations.

The office will be open, Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and will initially be staffed by Jeremy Bento as well as volunteers. It's anticipated that a number of other paid staffers will be on board by the end of the summer, including some from the Obama campaign.

Please stop by and check out the new facility, and consider volunteering to help out.

Welcome to the new blog for the Laconia Democratic Party

2008-06-09T20:38:00.001-04:00

Just a brief post here to announce that members of the Laconia Democratic Party and various candidate staffers will be posting information, discussing issues, and inviting comment on a variety of topics of concern to voters in Laconia, Belknap County and all of New Hampshire.