The filing period for 2010 elections is not for six more months, but the Sierra Club will endorse a U.S. Senate candidate on Sunday. Surprise! It’s the Democrat.
The Sierra Club will endorse Paul Hodes at a 12:30 press conference in Rye at the home of Don and Lee Perrault.
If this [...]
Good analysis of TARP from Sen. Gregg at ABC News’ Web site today.
[...]The N.H. Democratic Party expects to net about $250,000 from last night’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner featuring Bill Clinton. That would be the largest amount raised at a single even in the state Democratic Party’s history, and it comes in the worst economy in generations.
I’ve got no criticism of that. [...]
If you’ve been following the story of Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of murdering four Lakewood, Wash., police officers, you know that he was granted clemency in 2000 by then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Clemmons was one of 1,033 criminals to whom Huckabee, acting as a preacher instead of governor, granted [...]
A Wall Street Journal writer remembers a 1940 Dartmouth football game in which good sportsmanship changed the outcome.
How to get into the Manchester Republican Committee’s Christmas Dinner, featuring Frank Guinta and Kelly Ayotte.
How to attend the Londonderry Democrats’ Holiday Homecoming Brunch.
The Border Patrol increases security along [...]
The Division of Parks and Recreation today released a new draft state parks plan.
I haven’t had time to read it yet, but here’s the bullet-point spending list from the press release:
The plan calls for eliminating a carry-forward loss created by the annual deficit, projected as $1.8 million for [...]
NH Senate Republicans have released the following list of legislative priorities for the upcoming session. All quotes are attributable to Sen. Peter Bragdon. (Study guide: try to find any mention of spending cuts):
Economic Development and Job Creation
Reduce taxes for the smallest of companies, as well as those who hire new [...]
Manchester Mayor-elect Ted Gatsas has talked to aldermen and school board members about making some changes that might generate better cooperation between the boards. He wants to invite school board members to aldermanic meetings and vice versa. He also wants to change the school board’s fiscal committee from five members [...]
Good Rich Lowry column on media attempts to link Hasan to PTSD.
FairPoint can’t even get its phone books right. Old Verizon ones are more accurate. Sheesh.
Concord has $40,000 to spend on subsidizing storefront facades on Main Street.
Stephen Stark: Obama peaked on Election Day
In this New York Times story on Muslims serving in the U.S. military, The Times presents Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor, who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for throwing himself on a grenade to save his team members in 2006, as a Muslim. The Times quotes a Muslim Army [...]
More teens were picked up in Nashua for vandalizing property with spray paint and permanent markers. It’s a problem in Nashua and Manchester, but also in small towns. What to do?
I don’t like the idea of jailing kids whose only crime is graffiti vandalism. There must be better alternatives [...]
Billy Flynn is president of his prison chapter of the NAACP. Now I’ve seen everything.
[...]NH Senate Republicans actually sent out a press release today announcing that the Senate GOP is on Twitter and Facebook:
Concord, NH – Today, New Hampshire Senate Republicans launched new social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
“New social media are important communication tools to keep people informed of our actions [...]
From the Manchester mayor’s office this afternoon:
The State of New Hampshire Liquor Commission – Bureau of Alcohol Enforcement announced that an emergency hearing has been scheduled regarding Three Cousins Pizza and Lounge. The hearing will determine whether to revoke the restaurant’s liquor license. The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. [...]
This Washington Post story sums it up nicely.
[...]Mike Castaldo, who is challenging Frank Guinta and Bob Bestani for the GOP nomination for Congress in the 1st District, has a fun take on the campaign fundraiser. For $10, you can “sponsor a day on the campaign trail AND eat unlimited wings. How great is that?”
The [...]
Per our Sunday editorial on Keep Manchester Moving, I have seen it alleged that the chairman of KMM, Josiette White, claimed to be a Concord resident last year when she opposed that city’s spending cap. As far as I could find, that is not true. The allegation stems from [...]
Frank Guinta’s campaign for Congress just announced that he has raised $125,755 in the third quarter, an increase over his disappointing 2nd quarter haul of $90,115. The campaign reports 399 donors (364 from NH) in the third quarter. The money total is about $25k less than rumored expectations, from what [...]
Here is the text of a letter Rep. Carol Shea-Porter has written to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer urging the extension of home buyer tax credits:
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:
I write to urge that the House of Representatives take quick action to extend the tax credit for first-time [...]
E-ZPass might save your baby’s life? I’m skeptical of the grand claims in this study, but it’s interesting.
State employees explain why they voted against the contract.
Elected officials in the I-93 corridor in southern NH ask for an eight-lane I-93.
Charles Krauthammer: National decline is a choice.
I was [...]
I’m out of town all week. Check back Monday.
[...]White House advisor David Axelrod blamed “politics” for Obama’s failure to bring the 2016 Olympic games to Chicago.
“I don’t view this as a repudiation of the president or the first lady,” he said. “I think there are politics everywhere, and there were politics inside that room.”
That’s inexcusable. The [...]
Repost from Jim Geraghty at NRO:
Someone Should Introduce Hillary to the 82nd Airborne
Hillary Clinton, defending Obama’s Afghanistan policy this weekend:
Now, the decision that was made to add troops in the spring has not even been fully implemented yet. You know, you don’t get up and just deploy the [...]
Ben Smith at Politico.com has a fascinating story about former John Edwards staffer Andrew Young. I bet there are some good stories from NH Edwards supporters waiting to be told.
[...]Jake Tapper at ABC News has found that President Obama has exaggerated two anecdotes of health insurer abuses when making his pitch for reform.
In one, Obama claimed that a woman had her coverage dropped “because she forgot to declare a case of acne.” Not true, Tapper has discovered. [...]
Kennebunk, Maine, officials want to spend $50,000 in mostly federal money to build two wind turbines to help power the police station. The turbines, paid for with federal stimulus funds, would save an estimated $754 a year each, or $1,508 a year total for the town. So, it’ll take [...]
A good column on TV watching by Jeff Jacoby. “If television came in a bottle, it would be illegal to sell it to children. ”
In California, bottle “deposits” are revealed as what they really are: taxes.
Will the state GOP really be able to make inroads with state [...]
An unidentified, tattooed man was found shot to death in a wooded area in Sharon. That’s extraordinary. I’m guessing it’s a drug-related murder, for a few reasons.
Sharon is only 20 miles from Fitchburg, Mass., the source of a great deal of the illegal drugs run into the southwestern part [...]
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza writes today that Sen. Judd Gregg’s seat is the most likely of all to switch parties next year:
New Hampshire (R): The Republican field in the Granite State continues to grow more crowded with Republican National Committeeman Sean Mahoney and businessman Ovide Lamontagne expected to [...]
Sen. Judd Gregg will be on ABC News’ “Top Line” at noon today. TheWebcast is aired on the ABC News home page. Twitter users can submit questions to @thenote.
[...]Mike Castaldo of Dover, a cook and ONE Campaign volunteer best known in New Hampshire as “ONE’s Marine,” is exploring a run for Congress in the 1st District as a Republican.
I asked him about getting this campaign going, and he quoted the Blues Brothers, saying, “I’ve got a [...]
Perhaps the greatest living expert on revolutionary-era America, Gordon S. Wood, will speak at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics next Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. His topic will be “The Origins of American Constitutionalism.”
Wood won a Pulitzer for his amazing work, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” [...]
The state held its first moose hunting permit auction in August. Run by the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the auction raised $32,000 for conservation and education efforts, the state announced.
The bill to authorize this auction was approved on July 16. The bill stated that it would take effect 60 [...]
On Sept. 22, Kelly Ayotte will have a fundraiser at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D.C. Go ahead, click the link. You can smell the elegance through your monitor.
The next day, the GOP’s other known Senate hopeful, Ovide Lamontagne, is holding a “birthday celebration” at the Alpine Club in [...]
Jennifer Horn is ending her Nashua talk show this Friday to concentrate on exploring a run for Congress, she announced this morning:
“It has been my great pleasure to be a part of the Absolute Broadcasting family both this year and in the past,” said Horn. “I am grateful to Tom [...]
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter has been accused of having Carl Tomanelli tossed out of her Manchester town hall meeting last Saturday. Ed Morrissey blogged at HotAir that Shea-Porter “asks for police intervention” to remove Tomanelli. FOX News reported, “she had a guy ejected, that man right there ejected, apparently [...]
Well, that didn’t take long. There’s already a Draft Curt for the U.S. Senate movement. Wouldn’t that be a fun race?
[...]Politico.com puts Rep. Carol Shea-Porter on its list of members of Congress harmed by their own behavior during the August recess. It lists Paul Hodes as an “honorable mention” on the list. Both made the list by avoiding large town hall meetings, and Hodes for calling opponents the “flat-earth [...]
I attended Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s health care “town hall” meeting in the Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester on Saturday, and the most salient point from the event was that I didn’t learn anything about health care or the reform bill Shea-Porter supports, and I don’t think anyone else did, [...]
Banks that were “too big to fail” are now even bigger, The Washington Post reports.
After big banks gobbled up failing ones, the remaining institutions are much larger. J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America each hold one-tenth of all deposits in the country. That means $2 of every [...]
The Democratic National Committee is trying to pack Carol Shea-Porter’s town hall meetings with Democrats.
Here is the text of an e-mail sent out today from the DNC’s Organizing for America campaign:
I wanted to send you an urgent invitation to two important health care town halls with Rep. Carol Shea-Porter [...]
As expected, my column on Ted Kennedy’s real legacy is getting an entirely negative response from readers at The American Spectator. I was never a Kennedy fan, but I think a fair assessment of his life would give him credit for his greatest accomplishment, which was overcoming his own [...]
I’m out of the office for the week. See you Monday.
[...]Congrats to two folks who knew that the last time Carol Shea-Porter was in the room with a sitting U.S. President in Portsmouth was in 2005. Then, she turned her back on President Bush, revealing a shirt that said “Turn your back on Bush” and was escorted out of the [...]
The Palace Theater will show my favorite film, “Casablanca,” this Sunday. It’s free and open to the public. If you haven’t seen “Casablanca” on the big screen, you’ve missed a real treat. The show starts at 6 p.m.
[...]Thinking of protesters and presidents in Portsmouth, does anyone remember what happened the last time Carol Shea-Porter attended an event with a sitting President of the United States in Portsmouth? If you do, let me know in the comments or by e-mail. I’ll give you a book for your good [...]
The Club For Growth’s new “Repork Card” for Congress is out. Go and see who scored a big, fat zero.
[...]A friend asked this afternoon if Obama’s town hall meeting was successful. After some thought, I had to conclude that it wasn’t. Obama spent almost the entire meeting on the defensive. He is at his best when giving speeches of soaring rhetoric. He should have done that. He could have [...]
Obama defends Obamacare by citing Medicare, saying “if we can get something right like Medicare…”
Didn’t he just warn minutes ago that Medicare was about to go bankrupt?
[...]Obama criticizes companies he says are blocking reform because they are profiting from the status quo. Then he mentioned the drug companies that support reform. Yeah. Big PHARMA supports “reform” because drug company profits will dramatically rise under these so-called reforms. Government guarantees millions more customers for drug companies by [...]
Wow, just days after the CBO concluded that requiring preventive coverage would increase costs, not lower them, Obama says it will lower cost. This guy lies better than anyone I’ve ever seen.
[...]The President says, “Insurance companies would be prohibited from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history. Period.”
Well, therefore, millions of Americans would lose the coverage they have now. You cannot change existing insurance formulas and claim that everyone will get to keep the same plan they have now. It’s [...]
Obama says that under his reform plan, “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines.”
That’s a complete and total lie. I’ll say it again: It’s a [...]
Obama says “we can’t go back” to “an economy of bubbles and busts.”
So government is going to outlaw economic cycles? How is it possible to have an economy without having bubbles and busts?
[...]President Obama said it was “wrong” for insurers to deny people coverage because they are sick or to charge them high premiums. So, apparently, it’s wrong for insurers to actually provide insurance. What he wants is for them to provide benefits, but exclude no one and charge those who use [...]
President Obama is insisting that health insurers should not be allowed to deny a person coverage because of a pre-existing condtion. This sounds really wonderful. But what if other types of insurance worked that way, too?
Say we passed a law that said car insurers couldn’t deny people coverage based on [...]
President Obama will be introduced in Portsmouth today by Lori Hitchcock, whom the White House will present as a supporter of Democratic health care reforms because a pre-existing condition (hepatitis C) has left her uninsured for the past two years. But I suspect she supported government-provided care before that.
Unless there’s [...]
The Portsmouth Herald reports: “Police said Monday that the largest group expected to arrive in the city for the president’s visit is comprised of members from the national Democratic party.” So, the President will soon denounce the Democratic Party’s AstroTurf campaign, just as the White House denounced what [...]
Washington Post columnist Euegene Robinson, a supporter of national health care, gets the anger over health care reform. Robinson is a liberal and says he’ll support any version of reform that provides universal coverage. But he writes today that the anger expressed at town hall meetings is justified because the [...]
Sad NY Times interview with former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He’s still landing jobs because of his connections and ethnicity rather than his abilities, and he’s evidently been abandoned by his old buddy Bush while his “substantial” legal bills rise.
[...]The Congressional Budget Office has shot down another Obama-promoted myth about health care reform: that increasing money spent on preventive care will lower health care costs. Obama argues that focusing the health care system on preventive care will dramatically lower what we spend on health care. Here he is [...]
I have an essay on John Hughes and American individualism at American Spectator today.
[...]Cash for Clunkers is resulting in the destruction of perfectly good automobiles, including a 5.0 liter red Mustang convertible down in Boston.
Hundreds of thousands of working cars, trucks and vans will be destroyed as a result of this program. Why? Because they get fewer miles per gallon than the [...]
Ben Stein, who played the teacher who uttered the lines, “Bueller? Bueller?”, writes a short tribute to his friend John Hughes.
[...]Jeanne Shaheen is holding a conference call with constituents tonight, a tele town hall meeting, starting at 6:10. But she might have to vote on the cash for clunkers bill because a lot of proposed amendments (including one from Sen. Judd Gregg) have pushed back debate on the bill. So [...]
Someone at NBC in L.A. calls bikers “trash” in an online post (listed on the Web site as “news”) criticizing Meghan McCain for saying she’s looking for a guy at the Sturgis biker rally. For his sake, I hope this guy never comes to New Hampshire. I’ve got some [...]
Sen. Judd Gregg plans to introduce an amendment to the Cash for Clunkers bill this afternoon. The amendment would forbid the government from using deficit spending to replace the $2 billion in stimulus money that is being redirected to Cash for Clunkers.
[...]The federal debt has grown by $1 trillion since President Obama took office. Even CBS News is pointing out that Obama can’t blame this on Bush. Yet he’s still trying. And he’s still falsely claiming that the debt can’t be controlled until Congress passes health care reform, which the [...]
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said two Fridays ago that if Republicans can stop President Obama’s health care reform, “it will be his Waterloo.” That analogy is apt, though not quite in the way DeMint intended.
A defeat on health care reform would be the high water mark of Obama’s presidency, DeMint [...]
STEWARD of Prosperity founder Fred Tausch said this morning that he will not seek public office right now, which means he won’t be a contender for Judd Gregg’s U.S. Senate seat.
That leaves the GOP field open for Kelly Ayotte, Ovid Lamontagne, and other as yet unnamed aspirants. I don’t [...]
President Obama’s approval ratings are falling across the board. The latest WaPo-ABC News poll has him below 60 percent overall for the first time and below 50 percent on health care.
Similarly, Gov. John Lynch’s ratings have taken a beating since March. He’s down to 51 percent approval rating, [...]
Salman Rushdie will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Humanities Council’s 20th Annual Dinner on Tuesday, October 13 at the Radisson Center of New Hampshire in Manchester.
What are the odds on whether he’ll get into a bar brawl downtown after the event?
[...]Sonia Sotomayor said at her confirmation hearing today that her mother always taught her that “the key to success in America is a good education.”
Unless your name is Frank Ricci.
[...]NH Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, after criticizing Sen. Ted Gatsas, R-Manchester, for not resigning his Senate seat to run for mayor of Manchester, issues a press release blasting Attorney General Kelly Ayotte for resigning to run for U.S. Senate.
So, one week, Buckley says public servants should resign to [...]
Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is resigning to run for U.S. Senate.
Here is the press release:
Today, I have submitted my letter of resignation to Governor Lynch effective Friday July 17, 2009. I want to thank the Governor for appointing me as Attorney General. I have had the honor of serving two [...]
Supporters of this past legislative session’s transgender rights bill said it just wasn’t fair that critics labeled it the “bathroom bill.” That name came about because it appears that the bill would have allowed, among other things, men to enter women’s restrooms as long as they “expressed” a female gender [...]
At 3:40 this afternoon, the state Division of Parks and Recreation issued a press release in which DRED Commissioner George Bald announced that he was recalling the draft 10-year strategic plan for Parks and Rec. The release quoted Bald:
“Based on substantial public feedback, I have decided to withdraw the [...]
This video shows university students in Iran chasing President Ahmadinejad off campus with shouts of “death to the dictator!” He has to hop on top of his truck to escape unharmed. Truly amazing. Had Michael Jackson not died, this would probably have been much bigger news.
[...]The Wall Street Journal does a video on the Wolfman at Clark’s Trading Post.
[...]According to a book proposal by former John Edwards aide Andrew Young, Edwards begged young to claim the baby and promised in exchange to take care of him for life. Young also says he found a sex tape Edwards made with Hunter.
[...]
Multiple audio and video versions of Ellington’s “Take the A Train” are online at the National Museum of American History. Nice uptick to a dreary day.
[...]
The city library’s summer reading program begins today.
[...]Last week, NH author Jodi Picoult was profiled in The New York Times. This week, her books and why women love them is the subject of a story in The Washington Post.
Picoult, responding to a query about the emotionally wrenching stories she writes, says, “Sometimes I wonder, [...]
Former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member and deputy prime minister tells NPR that Ahmadinejad orchestrated a military coup on the night of the election to stay in power.
If this is true, what does it mean for Obama and the United States? How can the USA not take the side of [...]
I don’t buy any of these Michael Jackson stories. Michael Jackson was killed in 1987 by Weird Al Yankovic. Why does no one remember that?
[...]
I snapped this in a NH sugar shack on Maple Weekend. It’s an original poster, put up when new, the owners told me. Been there ever since. Fawcett died today at age 62.
[...]The day after President Obama finally condemned the Iranian regime’s violence against its own people, Khamenei says the government must obey the rule of law.
“Everyone should respect the law. Once lawlessness becomes a norm, things will be complicated and interest of people will be undermined,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. [...]
Ed McMahon, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brien all grew up within roughly 30 miles of each other’s homes in Massachusetts. Three generations of the Tonight Show from one small spot in the Bay State.
[...]If the House and Senate refuse to agree on the budget, we’ll have to start over. The governor has said he won’t accept gambling this year. The Senate Finance Committee chairman won’t accept the new taxes the House wants. No one is willing to further cut spending. What’s left? I [...]
