New Hampshire News

News

Lynch, others working on railway future
Funding for train service from Boston to Concord unknown

By Joseph G. Cote
Nashua Telegraph
Monday, July 21, 2008

CONCORD – Three key figures met in Concord last week and walked away committed to bringing a passenger rail service along the Capital Corridor. Gov. John Lynch, state Department of Transportation Commissioner George Campbell and Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, the chairman of the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority, met Thursday to talk about the authority's efforts to establish rail service from Boston to Concord...
 

N.H., Mass. passenger rail service would be an 'economic engine'

By Tom Long
Boston Globe
July 20, 2008

Proponents of commuter rail service from Concord, N.H., to Boston have taken a new tack. "We want people to view passenger rail service as a spark for economic development," said Mark Richardson of Bedford, N.H., a member of the New Hampshire Revitalization Association. Richardson was among the speakers at "Rail As the Economic Engine for NH: A Time for Action," a forum held at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., last week. The keynote speaker was former Massachusetts governor and onetime presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis...
 

Legislators want to get tough with drug manufacturers

By Terry Date
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
July 21, 2008

Seventeen state representatives wrote New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte in May, asking her to seek financial compensation from pharmaceutical companies that have improperly marketed or not fully disclosed side effects of antipsychotic drugs. The petitioners didn't know it at the time, but the attorney general's office had been investigating one of those companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, since 2004...
 

Sex Offender Registries Facing New Rules

By Kim Wilmath
Valley News
July 20, 2008

Vermont, New Hampshire and other states will have no choice but to provide more information about sex offenders online, under a new federal law set to take effect next year. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act will require all states to update their public registry Web sites to include the names, offenses, employers' addresses, photographs, physical descriptions, home addresses, school addresses and vehicle license plate numbers and descriptions of people convicted of sex crimes against children, said Evan Peterson, a spokesman for the Department of Justice. They must do so by July 2009...
 

State to accept Chavez oil
N.H. is last in Northeast to accept heating help

By Norma Love
Associated Press
Saturday, July 19, 2008

CONCORD – Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil. With the state's blessing, New Hampshire residents will be receiving some of the fuel this winter. New Hampshire becomes the last state in the Northeast to embrace the offer...
 

Homeowners Adjust to Changes in Shoreland Protection Act

By Amy Quinton
New Hampshire Public Radio
Friday, July 18, 2008.

Shorefront developers and homeowners are now operating under new laws to protect water quality in New Hampshire’s lakes, rivers, and streams. Changes to the state’s Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act went into effect this month. Some homeowners and builders say the tougher regulations are confusing and could make building anything more difficult and expensive. But others say the changes should have happened decades ago. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports on how people are adapting to the new laws...
 

NH couple peddle 55 miles for bike bill

Associated Press
July 20, 2008

LEBANON, N.H. --To celebrate Gov. John Lynch's signing of a new bicycle safety bill -- and to get about 55 miles worth of exercise -- Gene and Judy Andersen hopped on their red Raleigh tandem bike and pedaled from their Lebanon home to the Statehouse...As of Jan. 1, 2009, New Hampshire law HB 1203 will require motorists to allow bicyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing, with an additional foot required for every 10 mph increment above 30 mph. The law will also allow bicyclists to pass stationary cars and trucks on the right side when safe and enable bicyclists to use designated traffic turn lanes. To aid motorists, bicyclists traveling at night will be required to wear at least one item of reflective clothing...
 

Report: Health plans doing well in N.H.

By Jason G. Howe
Foster's Daily Democrat
Sunday, July 20, 2008

CONCORD — Most Granite Staters are getting good health care and are satisfied with their insurance plans, a recent Department of Health and Human Services report concludes. "This report provides a window into the overall quality of private health plans in the state," DHHS Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas said, adding that other New England residents also generally are "getting good care that they're satisfied with"...
 

Prolonged court fight could cost jobs in NH

By Denis Paiste
New Hampshire Union Leader
Sunday, July 20, 2008

MANCHESTER – Four-and-half years after winning an anti-dumping case against a Japanese competitor, Robert A. Brown, chief executive officer of Goss International Corp., is still fighting for justice. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court handed Goss a setback, declining to take up the complicated trade case that has been pursued through federal courts and the U.S. Commerce Department and resulted in retaliatory legislation in Japan...
 

Officials say local banks are safe

By Leslie Modica
Foster's Daily Democrat
Sunday, July 20, 2008

DOVER — Throughout the day Monday, Federal Savings Bank Marketing Director Kelly Glennon's phone lit up with calls from concerned customers. The burst of calls, mostly posing questions about the federal insurance that protects $100,000 of a customer's funds should a bank fail, was a reflection of the fear that has rippled through consumers nationwide since the announcement of the government's takeover of the California-based IndyMac bank on July 11. But even amid television images of thousands of customers lined up outside the bank — and police wearing in riot gear — experts say consumers in New Hampshire and Maine have remained largely insulated from the banking industry's most recent woes...
 

GOP hopeful slams Lynch

By Ben Bulkeley
Claremont Eagle Times
Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:27 PM

CLAREMONT -- State Sen. Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, made a trip to the Upper Valley on Thursday, touting his record as a fiscal conservative, leader and veteran. Kenney, the Republican candidate for Governor, will face incumbent John Lynch this November. Kenney said he will focus on transportation, health care, and veterans' issues as he moves forward with his campaign. He also sees the need for a fiscal conservative in Concord...
 

SUNUNU
 

Sununu's health care gambit
Plan turns to market forces as spark plug

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Concord Monitor
July 20, 2008

A national health care reform proposal co-sponsored by Sen. John Sununu resuscitates a number of ideas that have long been popular among Republican lawmakers. Elements of the plan, designed to provide tax credits to individuals and allow the formation of interstate purchasing groups, have been debated in Congress several times in recent years...
 

Route 16 project goes to U.S. Senate

New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, July 19, 2008

TAMWORTH – A dangerous stretch of Route 16 that runs through Chocorua Village is on the road to becoming a little safer. This week the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $500,000 in federal funding for the safety project. The money is included in the next Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which is now heads for a vote by the full Senate, according to U.S. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H...
 

GREGG
 

Gregg's heating-assistance bill questioned

By John DiStaso
New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, July 19, 2008

The state's two Democratic U.S. House members said yesterday that Republican Sen. Judd Gregg's effort to double funding for a home heating program for low-income families would not provide enough financial help to enough Granite Staters this winter. "Any attempt to expand LIHEAP at this point is a good attempt," Rep. Paul Hodes said. "The President wanted to cut it 22 percent." But he said Gregg's bill "falls far short of what is really needed." Rep. Carol Shea-Porter said doubling funding "is insufficient because we know the cost of heating oil is 74 percent higher than the level we were at last year"...
 

BOSSE
 

Bosse says bariatric surgery bill example of ‘Bob Clegg’s Nanny State’

By Brian Lawson
Poiliticker NH
July 18, 2008

Grant Bosse (R-Hillsboro) is taking aim at state Sen. Bob Clegg's (R-Hudson) support for a bill that would require insurance companies to cover bariatric surgery, also known as gastric bypass...
 

STATE SENATE
 

Kruse forms finance committee, hires campaign manager

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
July 18, 2008

State Senate candidate Doug Kruse (R-Manchester) has begun laying the cornerstones of his campaign. Kruse has announced members of his finance committee and has hired Kristy Roney to manage his campaign. Roney was Mitt Romney's field director during the New Hampshire primary...
 

Senate hopeful McLeod gets key endorsement on campaign swing through Berlin

By Barbara Tetreault
Conway Daily Sun
July 20, 2008

BERLIN—Rep. Martha McLeod first ran for the legislature because she believed the North Country needed a stronger voice in the legislature. That same belief has lead her to set her sights on the District I Senate seat...Running unopposed in the Democratic primary, McLeod will face Republican John Gallus who is running for a third term. The race for the Senate seat will be a battle between two North Country natives. McLeod lives in the house she grew up in Franconia at the foot of Cannon Mountain. McLeod was in Berlin Tuesday where she picked up a key endorsement from Berlin businessman Steve Griffin. Griffin, a Republican, was campaigning along Main Street with McLeod...
 

STATE HOUSE
 

Portsmouth and Newington Democrats to choose 7 of 8 House candidates

By Adam Leech
Portsmouth Herald
July 18, 2008 11:12 AM

PORTSMOUTH — For the first time in six years, there will be a meaningful primary in which Democrats from Portsmouth and Newington will have to choose seven of the eight candidates to run for the state House of Representatives. The state primary has been pretty uneventful in District 16 since 2002 when there were 10 Democratic candidates. On Sept. 9 voters will have to choose seven Democratic candidates they most want to see in Concord...
 

CAMPAIGN TRACKERS
 

Campaign trackers: boot, block or befriend?
Foes tape state political events

By Lauren R. Dorgan
Concord Monitor
July 21, 2008

On the video, they're labeled "Jeanne Shaheen's meat shield": Big shoulders stand directly in front of the camera, one body overlapping the other. That is, until Shaheen, a Senate candidate, calls three Democratic staffers to the front of the room to introduce them to the crowd at a recent event in Deering. It's one of dozens of videos, many of them grainy or shaky, available online depicting New Hampshire candidates in awkward, controversial or mundane moments on the campaign trail this year. They reflect a fully emerged reality facing all state candidates now running for major office: They will be tracked...
 

WOODLAND/RUSSELL
 

Radio personality 'Woody' Woodland to be replaced by George Russell

By Patrick Meighan
Nashua Telegraph
S aturday, July 19, 2008

NASHUA – Longtime local radio personality Robert "Woody" Woodland announced on the air Friday morning that he was leaving his morning show on WSNM 1590 AM. "It wasn't my decision. It was theirs," Woodland said. Woodland termed his dismissal a "firing," but added that it was the nicest firing he had ever experienced. "This goes on all the time in radio," Woodland said...
 

Woodland out at WSMN

By Tony Schinella
Politizine
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Woody Woodland, one of the best broadcasters in the state of New Hampshire, has been let go by WSMN in Nashua. The story is here: ["Radio personality 'Woody' Woodland to be replaced by George Russell"]. It doesn't surprise me that Woodland would get replaced by someone who could potentially get out there and hustle for spots. These days, you really have to figure out ways to make it work financially and that means you have to do a bit of selling in some way, shape, or form. The last time I saw Russell, about three weeks ago, he was working at Guitar Center in Nashua and helped me get my acoustic out of storage after the repair guy looked at it. What a weird friggin' world.
 

State House Dome: Mind your P's and Q's on voting day

By Tom Fahey
New Hampshire Union Leader
July 21, 2008

WHEN YOU RUN for President, you pretty much expect to head up your party's ticket. That may not happen for Bob Barr, the national Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. Barr is causing John McCain supporters to lose some sleep, out of fear that he may play the same spoiler role for McCain in 2008 that Ralph Nader played for Al Gore in 2000. But New Hampshire's Libertarian Party has filed candidacy papers for George Phillies of Worcester, Mass., as the party's nominee here, Secretary of State Bill Gardner said last week. Both Phillies and Barr have filed all the paperwork they need to be on the ballot this fall...

POPSICLE STICKS: If the alphabet system sounds involved, wait till we start picking popsicle sticks. "That comes later," Gardner said last week...

NUCLEAR CONCERNS: You can understand folks in Hinsdale and their state senator, Molly Kelly, being a little nervous about the Vermont Yankee plant in nearby Vernon, Vt. A cooling tower collapsed last summer, and water started leaking in another tower two weeks ago. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission won't discuss an event it investigated two months ago...

FIGHTING EVICTIONS: One of the sleeper bills this past legislative session was HB 1333, a bill that allowed those who buy buildings at foreclosure to evict tenants before taking title to the building. Lynch vetoed it on July 11. But how did a Democratic-led Legislature get it to his desk in the first place?...

WHAT TO CUT: Republican congressional candidate Grant Bosse plans to start going through a list of 50 federal spending cuts tomorrow at a press conference. Yep, 50 -- one for each day until the primary elections, he said...

THIS CLOWN'S SERIOUS: The clown on Main Street in Concord Friday was serious underneath the greasepaint. During Market Days, Zandra Rice Hawkins of the Granite State Progress group donned her clown suit and collected signatures on a mock pledge to increase potholes, cut library hours and reduce other local spending. The anti-pledge pledge was aimed at the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition's drive to limit state and local spending to inflation rates...
 

Turns out, Sununu's loaded
Also: a new approach to the death penalty

By Lauren R. Dorgan
Concord Monitor
July 20, 2008

John Sununu, you've convinced us. We weren't quite sure about this whole "powder dry" theory on your non-campaign, that you're stockpiling cash and awaiting the time to pounce. But we're believers now. Here's why: Sununu, the Republican incumbent senator, now has more money sitting in the bank than he spent to win the seat in 2002. He raised and spent about $3.7 million back six years ago. Right now, Sununu has $5.1 million on ice. Democratic opponent Jeanne Shaheen is following a different textbook...

MORE CASH: The other stand-out numbers from this cycle are 1st District Rep. Carol Shea-Porter's. She's had her best fundraising quarter so far: She reeled in more than a quarter million and wound up with about $750,000 on hand...

MUSICAL CHAIRS: Former Shaheen campaign manager Bill Hyers quietly departed the state this month, making way for a new head honcho, Robby Mook...

2ND CD: Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes brought in $250,000 in the second quarter and wound up the half-year with just shy of a million in the bank - $972,670.81. Among Republicans, the story of the 2nd Congressional District appeared to be self-fund, save or bust...

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Who's calling Larry Elliott a flip-flopper? Oh. Larry Elliott...

MCCAIN'S COMING: Republican John McCain is coming to Rochester on Tuesday for a town hall meeting at the Opera House. Doors open at 10:30.

OR...: Or if you're looking for different kind of candidate: Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr is also coming to the state Tuesday - his first visit of the campaign. He'll be visiting the Murphy's Taproom in Manchester, a favorite hangout for Free-Staters. The event is at 8 p.m. at 494 Elm St...

WE'LL HEAR FROM THEM: Evan Carlson has signed on as the press secretary for Gov. John Lynch's reelection campaign. During the presidential primary, Carlson handled press for Joe Biden's New Hampshire campaign, and he recently began working for the New Hampshire Young Democrats...

CLOWNS WITH CLIPBOARDS: They wore oversized shoes and red noses, and they spoke in falsettos, but their mission was serious.  In a bit of street theater, anti-tax-cap activists from Granite State Progress sent in the clowns to Concord's Market Days last week to spread the word about the badness of a cap...

TODAY'S TALKERS...
 

Despite cuts, intrepid few heading to the Big Easy

By Kevin Landrigan
Nashua Telegraph
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Gov. John Lynch slapped a freeze on nonemergency, out-of-state travel in January, but the annual Legislative Summit of the largest legislative group in New Orleans next week has a healthy complement of New Hampshire lawmakers. There are no state senators or staff making the trip to the National Conference of State Legislatures event.  The N.H. contingent includes 16 House members, along with House Clerk Karen Wadsworth, herself a former legislator who's very active in the national organization of legislative staffers...

MYSTERY NOMINEE: Even veteran Democrats are asking, "Where did Lynch find his nominee for the State Liquor Commission, Richard E. Simard, of Bedford?"...

GO-TO GUY: It's becoming clearer why right out of the blue a week ago Friday, Democratic Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen bounced one campaign manager, Bill Hyers, and brought on another, former Hillary Clinton campaign aide Robby Mook...

LYNCH'S REPUBLICANS: Lynch continues to take care of Republicans who've taken good care of him...

SUNUNU'S HEATING CRISIS: U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu is anxious to get out in front of the effort for New Hampshire to get at least double the federal home heating assistance for low-income families that it got last year. How anxious?...

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: You can spin all you want, but there's no good financial news this week for Shaheen, who, as the challenger, is holding a campaign bank account that's half the size of Sununu's $5 million war chest four months before the election...

GATSAS ROAD TRIP: Senate Republican Leader Ted Gatsas has invited all GOP candidates to a strategy luncheon Wednesday at the Chen Yang Li Restaurant in Bow...

FATTENING THE BANK: How far has Shea-Porter come as a fundraiser? She won the seat in 2006 after raising $360,380...

HUTSON SPEAKS OUT: Barack Obama's campaign trotted out their former Republican who's endorsing his candidacy to rebut longtime Democratic activists Jim McConaha and Valery Mitchell of Concord who are with Sen. John McCain...

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:...
 

Winners & Losers

By Wally Edge
Politicker NH
July 18, 2008

Winners: Hodes...Shea-Porter...Vanderbeek...

Losers: Horn...Dodds...Bradley...
 

City Hall: Manchester's war on graffiti continues on several fronts

By Scott Brooks
Sunday, July 20, 2008

The war on graffiti continues. City officials are now targeting some of the most extensively vandalized walls and bridges in all of Manchester. They'd have done it before, but there was a problem. They weren't allowed to...
 

2008 Gubernatorial Ratings

By Stuart Rothenberg
Rothenberg Political Report
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Here are our latest gubernatorial ratings. Democrats currently hold 28 governorships compared to 22 for the Republicans...

CURRENTLY SAFE (3 R, 4 D)
* Lynch (D-NH)...
 

Political Chowder - 20 July 2008

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Arnie's guests today were Rep. David Hess, Sen. Maggie Hassan, Jim Walsh, and Kathryn Kolbert.
 

NH Polls
 

Editorial: Convicted sex offender challenges a Dover ordinance

Keene Sentinel
Sunday, July 20, 2008

When New Hampshire residents are convicted of sexual crimes, they assume a set of lifetime responsibilities. These may involve going to prison (and if they don’t appear to be rehabilitated perhaps remaining locked up longer than their sentences stipulated). Sex offenders are also prohibited for life from working with children. And if and when they are released from prison, they will probably find their names on the public sex offenders list and have to register their addresses with the communities in which they live. This is an excruciatingly difficult area of the law...
 

Editorial: Campaign finance fix: The committee is stacked

New Hampshire Union Leader
Sunday, July 20, 2008

IN MAY, Gov. John Lynch signed House Bill 794 "establishing a commission to study the feasibility of public funding of state election campaigns." That explanation of the bill is deliberately misleading. The bill's language implies that its commission will take an objective look at public campaign financing and produce an impartial report on its feasibility. The commission will do no such thing, nor was it intended to. Rather, the commission will advocate for public financing and try desperately to justify this undemocratic scheme. How do we know? Because commission members were finally appointed last week, and every single one of them is an outspoken supporter of public campaign financing. Even the commission's two token Republicans are advocates of public financing...
 

Editorial: Our need for energy — now and in the future

Foster's Daily Democrat
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Two years ago, New Hampshire rejected the offer of free oil from Venezuela. A lot has changed in two years. We are starved for affordable fuels, and Venezuelan oil soon will be flowing into the Granite State to help the needy stay warm this coming winter...
 

Editorial: Train station would add to retail project

Nashua Telegraph
Sunday, July 20, 2008

In the old days, we might have called it an outdoor mall. These days, they’re called “lifestyle centers.” Whatever you call it, the development proposed for the former site of the Hampshire Chemical Corp. plant along the Nashua River will add to the region’s reputation as a shopping mecca. Nashua Landing, as its been named, also would be a great location for a new commuter rail station...
 

Editorial: Not fair trade: U.S. has done little to aid Goss

New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, July 19, 2008

A Japanese manufacturing firm was caught red-handed trying to destroy its only U.S. competitor, and our government has done little to help the American firm, while the Japanese government has come to the aid of its company by passing legislation to effectively nullify the American firm's hard-won financial award...
 

Public officials must preserve e-mail records

By William L. Chapman
Concord Monitor
July 19, 2008

Earlier this week, the Concord Monitor carried an article by the Associated Press reporting on a 50-state survey it had conducted on the retention of government e-mail. The survey found that "most of the states with e-mail laws allow officials to choose which ones to turn over in Freedom of Information requests and to decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted." Public officials in New Hampshire have no such discretion. They must retain all their government e-mail and make it available to the public for the same period as governmental records in paper form. To the extent there might have been any question about the retention and public availability of government e-mail, it has been answered by House Bill 1408, which Gov. John Lynch signed into law earlier this month...
 

Employers blocking efforts to unionize
Free Choice Act will level the playing field

By Mark S. MacKenzie
Concord Monitor
July 19, 2008

While the few at the top of the economic ladder are pocketing record profits, New Hampshire's working families have been left behind. America's once-powerful middle class is shrinking rapidly as wages fall, health-care costs rise and retirement security has all but disappeared. One of the primary reasons working people are getting left behind is that they've lost the ability to bargain with their employer for better wages and benefits through unions. The laws covering how workers form unions are broken - gamed by corporations and not updated in 70 years. That's bad, because people who have a union earn on average 30 percent more than workers who don't have a union, according to government statistics, and they are much more likely to have health care and pensions...
 

In Sunapee region, a voice is silenced
Death of a newspaper leaves a hole hard to fill

By Mike Pride
Concord Monitor
July 20, 2008

When a newspaper dies, a community loses its voice. It loses the mirror in which it examined its best features and its worst. It loses the bulletin board for news of a neighbor's death or a schoolgirl's scholarship. It loses its watchdog, the reporters who kept tabs on town hall, the school board, local elections. When a newspaper dies, a community becomes less of a community. It suffers a blow from which it is difficult to recover. Last week, when the Argus-Champion announced that it was going under, I felt that blow as both a journalist and a member of the community. This is the 11th summer that I have lived in a pond-side camp in Goshen, which is about 10 miles from Newport, the Argus's original base. I have relied on the paper for many things, though not as many as full-time residents have...
 

Teh Math

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Sunday, July 20, 2008

If John Sununu, as his voting record claims, votes with President Bush 90% of the time, but if he also votes with New Hampshire 100% of the time, as he himself claims, then wouldn't George Bush's approval rating in New Hampshire have to be 90% instead of 26%? The "only engineer in the Senate" is only off by a mere 64%.
 

Some Bradley/Stephen observations

By Bill Duncan
Blue Hampshire
Saturday, July 19, 2008

We've got to take the challenge the Republican party is mounting to win back Carol Shea-Porter's VERY seriously.  Nothing I say here is a caveat to that.  However, when I looked up close at her competition the other night in their New Castle forum, I was struck by how weak a hand the Republican party has to play. Over 100 people attended the forum.  Stephen had the front row filled with his wife, family and supporters and got the most audience support throughout the evening.  Bradley looked as if he'd come down alone from Wolfeboro.  (A third candidate, Geoff Michael was there too.)...
 

GraniteGrok Q & A Series: Peter Bearse

By Skip
GraniteGrok
July 18, 2008

Peter Bearse is the independent candidate in NH's First Congressional District seeking to unseat Democrat incumbent, Carol Shea-Porter.  Although coming to the attention to the 'Grok later than the others, Peter was gracious in supplying his take on the 'Grok's Congressional Questionaire. Peter's website is here...
 

Advantage for whom?

By Mike Hoefer
Blue Hampshire
Saturday, July 19, 2008

I did some searching the other day to try to find out where NH stands vs other states in terms of taxation policy. I found a nice report (.pdf 2.5mb) (NH only) at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They review all 50 states regarding their taxation policies. It is going on 5 years old now, but I don't imagine much has changed. Here are a few of the High Lowlights from NH...
 

The (Not-Exactly) New Hampshire Advantage Coalition

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Where is the NH Advantage Coalition getting all its money from? This has been brought up a few times in the comments and diaries about NHAC, and I think it's a question worth exploring separately here. DiStaso gave longe-time Republican activist and NHAC Chairman Mike Biundo some space on Granite Status a few weeks ago. What came out was pretty surprising:...
 

"Safe" risky behavior? What's maddening is that I'm among the enablers. So are you.

By Doug
GraniteGrok
July 18, 2008

More thoughts on the “Teen Family Planning” poster found pinned to the bulletin board in the Gilford, NH Post Office. That would be the one enticing teens to seek various “services” that cater to continued sexual carelessness and promiscuity:...
 

Primary News

NEW HAMPSHIRE
 

Editorial: Obama orgy

By Joseph W. McQuaid
New Hampshire Union Leader
July 21, 2008

The blatant bias of the major national news media toward Barack Obama is now so overwhelming that it would not be worth noting, except that the election of a President of the United States is involved. It is a propaganda blitz that would make the Kremlin blush. By election day, we fully expect John McCain to be vilified as a Vietnam-era war criminal and worse. But that is only if the networks and other major media can tear themselves away from their Obama orgy. A recent report found that since June the nightly newscasts of NBC, CBS, and ABC combined have spent 114 minutes covering Obama. McCain got 48 minutes. But that was before this week...
 

Editorial: Obama's distraction: Hey! Look at that cartoon!

New Hampshire Union Leader
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama is fond of scolding Americans and the media for paying too much attention to what he calls "distractions" from the real issues. His close associations with a radical, hate-America pastor, an unrepentant domestic terrorist and a swindling developer? Distractions. His lapel pin? A distraction. His wife's lack of pride in her country? A distraction. So when last week's New Yorker magazine featured on its cover a cartoon mocking the image of Obama and his wife suggested by these "distractions," Obama ignored it and continued to focus on the "real issues," right? Nope...
 

OTHER NEWS AND VIEWS
 

Obama Arrives in Baghdad to Discuss Iraq Strategy

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post
Monday, July 21, 2008; 7:08 AM

BAGHDAD, July 21 --- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq Monday morning on a fact-finding mission to discuss U.S.-Iraq strategy and American troop levels, issues that have become a cornerstone of debate in the presidential campaign. Obama landed first in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where the Iraqi army, with support from British and U.S. troops, has recently wrested control from extremist militias. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee did not venture into the city proper, where about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers patrol the streets to keep insurgents at bay. Instead, he remained at the British military base outside town, near the airport, and met with top British, Iraqi and U.S. officials from the region...
 

Iraqi Leader Stirs up US Campaign

Der Spiegel
By Bernard Zand and Gregor Peter Schmitz
July 20, 2008

Obama is pleased, but McCain certainly is not. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki expressed support for Obama's troop withdrawal plans. Despite a half-hearted retraction, the comments have stirred up the US presidential campaign. SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation. Comments made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with SPIEGEL (more...) published on Saturday have stirred up the campaign teams of both Barack Obama and John McCain this weekend. And late on Saturday, Maliki tried to distance himself from the statements, saying his comments were misunderstood...
 

Comment Stings Iraqi Leader on Eve of Obama Visit

By Sabrina Tavernise and Jeff Zeleny
New York Times
July 21, 2008

BAGHDAD — On the eve of Senator Barack Obama’s visit to Iraq, its prime minister tried to step back Sunday from comments in an interview in which he appeared to support Mr. Obama’s plan for troop withdrawal. The interview with the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, was published Saturday in the online version of Der Spiegel, a German magazine. It was widely picked up by American newspapers because it appeared to give an unexpected boost to Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who has called for an expedited withdrawal...
 

New Details Emerge

By Josh Marshall
Talking Points Memo
July 20, 2008

In the unfolding Maliki/Obama story, here are two new articles you should read. The first is in Monday's New York Times. Though the headline is misleading ("Iraqi Premier Steps Back on U.S. Troops Comment"), the article itself is quite good. And it contains two key details...
 

Obama's paid staff dwarfing McCain's
Democrat targets 50 states as rival focuses on tossups

By Brian C. Mooney
Boston Globe
July 20, 2008

Behind the headlines about the unprecedented success of Democrat Barack Obama's fund-raising machine lies a more prosaic truth - his campaign will need every penny of its $300 million goal to bankroll an unprecedented 50-state general election campaign with a massive army on the ground. His campaign already has by far the largest full-time paid staff in presidential campaign history, and unlike Republican rival John McCain's, continues to grow by the day...
 

Obama, saving resources, cut back on campaign spending in June

Associated Press
July 21, 2008

Barack Obama cut back on his spending in June after securing the Democratic presidential nomination, building up his cash on hand as Republican rival John McCain outspent him with a heavy dose of television advertising. Unlike McCain, who spent more than he raised in June, Obama accumulated cash during the month, holding back on a ramped-up television campaign until July. Obama is now matching McCain's and the Republican Party's spending on advertising...
 

For Obama, beyond civil rights
The candidate downplays the possibilities, but an election victory would change the shape of a movement.

By Gregory Rodriguez
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2008

A Barack Obama presidency could end the Iraq war, transform our national energy policy, revive America's standing in the world -- but please don't expect the first black man in the Oval Office to move us above and beyond the civil rights era. At least that's what Obama himself suggested last Monday in his speech to the NAACP. In a campaign fueled by high expectations, Obama seemed to be trying to lower his audience's hopes that the election of the first black president would be anything more than a symbolic milestone. "Just electing me president doesn't mean our work is over," he told civil rights activists...
 

Sobriety, Herr Obama

By Roger Cohen
New York Times
July 21, 2008

Paris - Barack Obama has already won the U.S. election by a landslide. In Europe, that is. Polls show the French putting the first African-American in the White House with 86 percent backing. Obamania is about as intense in Germany and Britain, the two other European countries the Senator will visit this week. So you might ask why Obama’s bothering. He’s got this constituency sewn up. You might also ask why the passion of these European societies for a black man stands in such flagrant contrast to their reluctance to vote minorities into their own legislatures. Freud might have something to say...
 

In Iraq, and Under the Spotlight

By Robert D. Novak
Washington Post
Monday, July 21, 2008; A15

I asked one of the Republican Party's smartest, most candid heavy hitters last week whether John McCain really has a chance to defeat Barack Obama in this season of Republican discontent. "No, if the campaign is about McCain," he replied. "Yes, if it's about Obama." That underlines the importance of Obama's visit to Iraq, beginning weeks of scrutiny for the Democratic presidential candidate under a GOP spotlight. Four years ago nearly to the day, I asked the same question of the same Republican leader about George W. Bush and John Kerry, and he gave the same answer. He proved prophetic in that Bush's campaign made Kerry the issue, and the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate flunked the test...
 

The audacity of ego

By Joan Vennochi
Boston Globe
July 20, 2008

JUST LIKE the Obama girl, Obama has a crush on Obama. Barack Obama always was a larger-than-life candidate with a healthy ego. Now he's turning into the A-Rod of politics. It's all about him. He's giving his opponent something other than issues to attack him on: narcissism...
 

No Substitute for Victory

By William Kristol
New York Times
July 21, 2008

I’ll go out on a limb and say that Barack Obama will be well received when he speaks in Berlin on July 24. O.K., it’s not exactly a limb. A recent poll shows that the German public prefers Obama to John McCain by 67 percent to 6 percent. But there is angst in Germany...
 

Ich Bin Ein Jet-Setter

By Maureen Dowd
New York Times
July 20, 2008

I have a girlfriend in New York who puts her boyfriends through Feats of Strength. Whenever she gets serious about somebody, she brings them home to Wisconsin, ostensibly for a relaxing vacation with her family. Then she leads them through their outdoorsy paces — biking, hiking, golfing, shooting hoops, swimming — to see if they can pass muster with her athletic clan. It starts to dawn on these young men in the middle of their romantic triathlon that they are on a perilous quest and that if they falter, another lad might touch down in Kenosha several months hence. Now Barack Obama is about to embark on his own Feats of Strength...
 

CLINTON
 

Clinton Lends Her Campaign More Money as Its Debt Proves Stubborn

By Michael Luo
New York Times
July 21, 2008

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lent her campaign an additional $1 million at the end of June, underscoring the difficulty she is having staying ahead of creditors and retiring a mountain of campaign debt, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Even though the fight for the Democratic nomination came to a close in early June, with Senator Barack Obama emerging as the presumed nominee, Mrs. Clinton’s debts to vendors increased to $12 million at the end of the month from $10.4 million at the end of May. In addition, after her latest loan on June 30, Mrs. Clinton has now lent her campaign a total of $13.2 million...
 

NEW HAMPSRIRE
 

N.H. sluggish job growth used to criticize McCain
Hodes says Republican's economic plans mirror those of President Bush

By Kevin Landrigan
Nashua Telegraph
Saturday, July 19, 2008

CONCORD – The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee-to-be Sen. Barack Obama seized on sluggish, New Hampshire job growth Friday to attack the economic plans of Republican John McCain in advance of McCain's imminent return to the state. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported unemployment in the state last month was 4 percent, its highest level since 2004 and up from 3.5 percent last January...
 

Hodes says McCain does not care about middle class

By John DiStaso
New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., charged yesterday that Republican presidential nominee-to-be John McCain would reward the wealthy with his tax cut plan and let middle-income Americans "fend for themselves." McCain is scheduled to return to New Hampshire on Tuesday. It will be his third visit to the state since he won the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 8. Hodes said that through tax cuts, Democrat Barack Obama will put about $1,000 in the pockets of those making up to $250,000-a-year while asking "more" of the wealthy...
 

McCain can't kick the town hall habit
Campaign format can sometimes backfire

By Charles Babington
Associated Press
July 20, 2008

John McCain will return to New Hampshire on Tuesday for a gathering in Rochester that will follow a format he has long favored: the town hall meeting. McCain was in this favorite campaign setting recently in Denver when he spotted a promising target. "I'd love to recognize you first, sir," the Republican presidential candidate said to a man in a Vietnam War veteran's hat. Instead of a softball opening question from a fellow vet, however, McCain got a lengthy harangue, as the man insisted the senator had opposed better medical benefits for veterans...
 

McCain begins airing ‘Troop Funding’ ad

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
July 18, 2008

U.S. Sen. John McCain's campaign has begun airing an ad critical of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's stance on the Iraq war. The thirty-second ad, entitled "Troop Funding," began airing today on WMUR and is airing in ten other battleground states...
 

The McCain Effect, Part 3

By Dante Scala
Politicker NH
July 18, 2008

To round out our week of examining the "McCain mystique," let's compare his poll standing in New Hampshire to his polling numbers in other battleground states. According to Pollster.com, McCain sits at 43 percent in national polls. In four battleground states, his numbers are better than his standing in national polls. In Florida, for instance...
 

John McCain comes full circle
In N.H. again, war's still knocking on his door

By Michael McCord
Portsmouth Herald
July 20, 2008

Last September, John McCain returned to New Hampshire a determined candidate who had been written off as mostly old and irrelevant news (he trailed badly in the polls behind the formidable trio of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and, gulp, Fred Thompson). But the campaign that was running largely on fumes (his "Straight Talk Express" bus for this trip was rented and adorned with pasted-on signs) had a cause named "No Surrender," and it reflected both his candidacy and his decision to wrap himself tighter to the war in Iraq...
 

John McCain, New Hampshire, and 2008

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Friday, July 18, 2008

There have been two insightful pieces recently published about John McCain and his relationship to the state of New Hampshire as it currently stands in 2008. In short: the year makes all the difference. The first is an LTE to the Monitor from John Hutson, President of Franklin Pierce Law, former judge advocate general, and former Republican for Obama.  Out of the vast clouds of spin-storms regarding McCain and this, his special state, Hutson cuts to the heart of the matter - this 'aint the McCain you admired back in 2000:...
 

OTHER NEWS AND VIEWS
 

McCain in a race to raise and spend money by Labor Day
He lags behind Obama, but is cooperating with party fundraisers to raise more than individual limits allow.

By Dan Morain
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2008

Wall Street, gambling and energy interests have contributed generously to presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain and the GOP as they amass money for the fall campaign, according to newly filed campaign finance reports. McCain trails his Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, in the total amount each has raised, $144 million to $339 million. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, McCain reported he raised $22.2 million in June, up from the $21 million raised in May. Obama raised $52 million last month, his aides said...
 

After 2000, McCain Learned to Work Levers of Power

By David D. Kirkpatrick
New York Times
July 21, 2008

Senator John McCain was all but a sworn enemy of Senator Trent Lott, the former Republican leader. Mr. Lott had quashed Mr. McCain’s most cherished legislative goals. And, worse, Mr. McCain believed that in the 2000 Republican primaries, Mr. Lott had spread rumors about his colleague’s mental stability on behalf of his rival for the nomination, George W. Bush. But when Mr. Bush turned on Mr. Lott in 2002, helping to push him out of the leadership over a racially insensitive remark, Mr. McCain saw a shared grievance and found an opportunity. He leapt to Mr. Lott’s defense, urging Republicans to stick by him...
 

Gramm quits McCain campaign

Boston Globe
July 19, 2008

Former senator Phil Gramm announced last night that he has stepped down as cochairman of John McCain's presidential campaign to end the "distraction" caused by his remarks the nation was filled with "whiners" who complain about the economy...
 

James Dobson might endorse John McCain
Barack Obama's 'radical positions on life, marriage and national security force me to reevaluate the candidacy of our only other choice,' the conservative Christian leader says.

Associated Press
July 21, 2008

Conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson has softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator. "I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air today. " . . . While I am not endorsing Sen. John McCain, the possibility is there that I might." Dobson and other evangelical leaders increasingly are taking a lesser-of-two-evils approach to the 2008 race...
 

It’s the Economic Stupidity, Stupid

By Frank Rich
New York Times
July 20, 2008

THE best thing to happen to John McCain was for the three network anchors to leave him in the dust this week while they chase Barack Obama on his global Lollapalooza tour. Were voters forced to actually focus on Mr. McCain’s response to our spiraling economic crisis at home, the prospect of his ascension to the Oval Office could set off a panic that would make the IndyMac Bank bust in Pasadena look as merry as the Rose Bowl...
 

VEEP
 

The Buzz About a McCain-Romney Ticket

By Michael Cooper and Michael Luo
New York Times
July 19, 2008

It was not so long ago that the idea that Senator John McCain would even entertain tapping Mitt Romney, his bitterest primary rival, as his running mate would have seemed preposterous, rating at least 7.0 on the strange-bedfellows scale...
 

John McCain's veepstakes

By Jonah Goldberg
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2008

John McCain must envy Barack Obama. The Illinois senator needs a running mate who does just three things: Appeal to centrists and moderates, bolster his foreign-policy weak spot and not turn off the base. Plenty of potential VPs can do that. McCain, meanwhile, needs a running mate who can do roughly a dozen things: reassure skittish evangelicals, deliver a key state, shore up his weakness on economics, appeal to swing voters, attract women, be an acceptable conservative standard-bearer, add energy to the ticket, and on and on. ... Yet no potential veep can do all of these things, and only a few can do most of them...
 

A Deputy Dilemma For McCain

By David S. Broder
Washington Post
Sunday, July 20, 2008; B07

On Wednesday morning, The Post published a poll of registered voters giving Barack Obama an eight-point lead -- largely because the voters said they trusted him more than John McCain on handling their No. 1 issue, the economy, by an astounding 19 percentage points. That noon, I had lunch with two veteran Republican operatives not working in the McCain campaign and asked them what they would recommend for the Arizona senator. "Get Alan Greenspan to run with you," said the first. "Or Warren Buffett," the second offered...
 

GOP Is Losing Ground
Republicans no longer have a realistic chance of holding their own in this year's Senate contests.

By Charlie Cook
National Journal
Saturday July 19, 2008

One of the less pleasant aspects of writing a political column when one party is having a particularly grim year is that the story gets so repetitive. Some years, the Democrats are in the political toilet. This year, the Republicans are in that unenviable position. In the presidential race, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is behind but still very competitive. For the GOP, that is the bright spot on the horizon. In the House and Senate contests, the debate is about how many seats the Republicans will lose; they no longer have a realistic chance of holding their own...
 

Is she the next veep?
Both Obama and McCain would benefit by picking a woman

By Susan Casey
Concord Monitor
July 20, 2008

Even if I weren't a girl, I'd be recommending to both parties' presidential candidates that the smartest choice for running mate is a woman. Barack Obama, in particular, has some very good choices, women who would provide a huge political boost during the general election campaign, contribute immensely in governing after the election and be prepared to govern should, God forbid, that ever be necessary. Here are my top three picks...
 

National News

War/Terror/Security

A battle over 'the next war'
Many military officers are pushing back against Defense Secretary Gates' focus on preparing for more 'asymmetric' fighting rather than for a large, conventional conflict.

By Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2008

WASHINGTON — Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. is not a fighter pilot, wing commander or war planner. But he is waging what many officers consider a crucial battle: ensuring that the U.S. military is ready for a major war. Dunlap, like many officers across the military, believes the armed forces must prepare for a large-scale war against technologically sophisticated, well-equipped adversaries, rather than long-term ground conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan. First, however, they face an adversary much closer to home -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates...
 

Contrasting goals in Iraq

By Lawrence J. Korb
Boston Globe
July 20, 2008

WITH FRIDAY'S announcement by the White House that the United States and Iraq have agreed to set a "general time horizon" for a US troop withdrawal, it is increasingly obvious that Iraqi political leaders are calling the shots when it comes to a future role for the United States, and that President Bush has not learned anything about Iraq in the last five years...