Miscellany Blue - New Hampshire Politics

Organized labor’s catastrophic decline has paralleled … an equally dramatic rise in economic inequality. In 1980, the best-off tenth of American families collected about a third of the nation’s income. Now they’re getting close to half. The top one per cent is getting a full fifth, double what it got in 1980. The super-rich—the top one-tenth of the top one per cent, which is to say the top one-thousandth—have been the biggest winners of all.

If a Republican Party that has lately become rigidly, fanatically “conservative” can succeed in reducing public-sector unions to the parlous condition of their private-sector brethren, then organized labor—which, for all its failings, all its shortsightedness, all its “special interest” selfishness, remains the only truly formidable counterweight to the ever-growing political power of that top one-thousandth—will no longer be anything close to a match for organized money.

— Hendrik Hertzberg

Mark Zandi, Chief Economist for Moody’s Analytics and former economic adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign, warns the spending cuts proposed by House Republicans will cost 700,000 jobs by the end of 2012.

If fully adopted, the cuts would shave almost half a percentage point from real GDP growth in 2011 and another 0.2 percentage point in 2012. There would be almost 400,000 fewer U.S. jobs by the end of 2011 than without the cuts and some 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.

This comes on the heels of a Goldman Sachs report estimating that the House proposal would cut economic growth by about two percent of GDP.

Every four years, prospective presidential candidates head to Iowa and fight it out to see who can be the most vociferous supporter of ethanol subsidies. If Cornerstone’s Kevin Smith has his way, the Granite State version will involve opposition to same-sex marriage.  

Cornerstone will ask each Republican presidential candidate to sign a pledge agreeing marriage should be between one man and one woman.

“Why not try to leverage the influence of the candidates to get them to declare their support for traditional marriage?” Smith said. “If you have a candidate saying they’re not willing to oppose same-sex marriage, I think they’ll have a problem. … We have a wide membership list. We’ll certainly let them know.”

There’s just one potential problem with Smith’s plan. Politicians, even those of the GOP variety, may take a look at the New Hampshire electorate — not to mention national trends — and try to change the subject.

A WMUR Granite State Poll conducted earlier this month indicated Granite State voters oppose repeal of New Hampshire’s same-sex marriage law by a whopping 62% - 29% margin. And while Republican-registered voters support repeal by a 46% - 38% margin, the all-important undeclared voters (who will be eligible to cast GOP ballots in the presidential primary) mirror the mood of the general population and oppose repeal by 65% - 25% margin.

Maybe the risk-adverse GOP candidates will all line up for their photo-op with Smith and sign Cornerstone’s homophobic pledge. But maybe, just maybe, there’s a candidate out there looking to separate himself from the pack who might just tell Smith what to do with his pledge.

“We’re going to be Cambodia.’’

— Anonymous New Hampshire state senator on how Senate Republicans are prepared to become the killing fields for wackadoodle bills passed by the House.

“Progressive redneck” Rep. Raymond Gagnon (D-Sullivan) has published his always entertaining, always informative, weekly review of the New Hampshire legislature. Here’s a typical excerpt:

NO PROPERTY TAX BREAK FOR REGULAR PEOPLE

Rather than assist people to find basic housing at an affordable cost and encourage small business which is the backbone of our economy – the NH House of Representatives said NO (255/91) to a property tax break for NH families. The bill would have provided an exemption of $100,000 from the State Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT), which would have resulted in a reduction in taxes for small businesses and residents owning property assessed at less than $625,000, and a minor increase for those residents and businesses assessed at more than 625k. The argument being bantered around was that this was “class warfare” – of course the fact that wages for average NH families have not increased, since 1984, didn’t matter nor that costs are being shifted down to the cities and towns.

Each week, Gagnon documents the votes and other absurdities taking place in Concord you might have missed. Read the whole thing, bookmark his blog, and follow him on Twitter.

Hundreds of union supporters gathered in Portsmouth’s Market Square this morning to express solidarity with workers in Wisconsin and opposition to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public unions.

Wisconsin teacher Glee Brechler:

“Without collective bargaining, unions become powerless and broken. My voice, my freedom, and the prospect of progressing labor negotiations in America will become a historical notion, something of the past, a horrific step backwards.”

Wisconsin firefighter Jerry Biggalt:

“We’re public employees, we’re not public enemies. … Wisconsin is ground zero, but there is a tsunami going across this country.”

Yesterday, the New Hampshire House opened debate on HB 176, a bill that would prohibit college students from voting in their college towns.

Rep. Gregory Sorg (R-Easton): 

[S]tudents [are] “transient inmates … with a dearth of experience and a plethora of the easy self-confidence that only ignorance and inexperience can produce.”

Rep. David Pierce (D-Etna):

“In America, in New Hampshire, the voters pick the government. The government doesn’t pick the voters.”

Rep. Frank Guinta didn’t put up much of a defense when he was confronted over his vote to slash funding for community health centers.

The House spending bill would cut $1.3 billion in federal funding for community health centers. It would erase leftover stimulus funds that Exeter Hospital is counting on.

In a conference room at Exeter, chief executive Kevin Callahan told Guinta that the House bill would undercut one of the pillars of local health care: a community health center that treats low-income residents. If the center didn’t exist, patients would go to the emergency room for basic services, at many times the cost.

“There are things that I prefer not be in there,” [Guinta] said, including the health center cuts.

Mark McKenzie, head of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, on efforts by the state Republican party to destroy organized labor:

“I don’t think it’s taking a whack at labor. I think it is trying to dismantle labor. It would be so much easier to run roughshod over workers if we aren’t there.”

“I think there is a checklist on the wall of this Republican leadership to try to undo everything that has been done.”

“My sense is we are not there yet, but I have got to believe when you look at the cast of characters roaming around New Hampshire there is an appetite for eliminating collective bargaining.”

Let me tell you… When the dead rise up from their graves, and are clawing at your door, you are going to wish to hell that you voted for arming a well regulated state wide anti-zombie militia.

— Vermin Supreme, 2008 GOP Presidential candidate, testifying before the New Hampshire House of Representatives on HB 343, a bill to establish a permanent state defense force.

The gathering will feature a teacher and firefighter from Wisconsin describing their fight over Gov. Walker’s attempt to end collective bargaining rights for public unions. Local speakers will address the New Hampshire legislature’s extreme right-wing agenda.

“There are some very dangerous things happening in the legislature and people, I think, feel really distressed,” said [Judy] Stadtman, who has a local history of political activism. “We have the opportunity to make a statement and are feeling more confident in the ability to push back.”

The meet-up is Saturday, February 26 at 11:00 am. The group will gather at Me & Ollie’s at 10 Pleasant Street, near Market Square, in Portsmouth. A sign-up form is available to ensure attendees receive late-breaking details. For more information, contact Seacoast for Change.

A New Hampshire Senate committee failed to follow the lead of the House in ordering the Attorney General to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care legislation.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill stating the Attorney General “should,” rather than “shall,” join the lawsuit. The bill, which is co-sponsored by 17 Republican senators, is considered a shoo-in for passage by the full Senate. 

Attorney General Delaney, who has said he would challenge the House version in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it violates separation of powers, said the Senate version satisfies his constitutional concerns. 

“We don’t want to manufacture trouble in New Hampshire with the attorney general, to force a constitutional showdown in the state,” [Sen. Raymond] White said.

The House expressed no such reluctance. If the House and Senate bills pass as currently written, a committee of conference will hammer out the final version.

Paul Krugman:

What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side.

In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker).

Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.

You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy.

Monday, a Blue Hampshire diary by editor Susan Bruce excoriated the Republican sponsors of a New Hampshire House bill that would require random drug testing of food stamp recipients. Writing under the pen name susanthe, she pointed out the the cruelty of withholding financial assistance from children living in poverty and described the sponsors as “affluent, arrogant pissants.”

Provocative, colorful postings from the blogosphere are not news. The coordinated attack from the GOP that followed was.

Read More →

The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay hate group based in Topeka, Kansas, has announced it will picket a teen production of “The Laramie Project” presented by the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth.

The church, which has gained notoriety for picketing funerals of fallen American soldiers, is led by Fred Phelps and consists mostly of members of his large family. The group announced on its web site that it will picket the February 23 performance:

WBC will picket those attending “The Laramie Project” at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre where they encourage their neighbor to sin. New Hampshire has distinguished itself as a filthy place where fags and dykes can get “married”. It’s not surprising then that they would try to palm off this piece of lying fag propaganda as art. The only goal of this production is to advance the agenda of the militant sodomites who will not rest until every person bows down and kisses their backsides.

A peaceful counter-protest is planned.

Planned Parenthood is running radio ads targeting Rep. Frank Guinta for his vote in favor of an amendment to the stopgap spending bill that cuts Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Mike Pence, passed Friday in a 245-180 vote.

The ad begins with a familiar flushing sound…

Hear that?

It’s the sound of Congressman Frank Guinta wasting your money. He just voted against one of the best investments ever: making sure that women and families can get affordable birth control and preventive health care.

Guinta’s vote doesn’t create a single job, doesn’t reduce the deficit, and doesn’t save you a penny. What his vote WOULD do is bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding to do its vital work — by denying millions of women preventive care, including birth control, annual exams, and lifesaving cancer screenings.

And Guinta’s vote is sure to increase the number of unintended pregnancies and undetected cancers. In the long run, that’s going to cost all of us plenty. Representative Guinta promised to focus on jobs, but instead he’s joined a costly war on women’s health care.

Shira Schoenberg documents the anti-Semitic rantings of Andy Martin, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who will be the guest speaker at Monday’s Contoocook Valley Republican Committee monthly meeting.

Martin, also known as Anthony Martin-Trigona, has filed hundreds, if not thousands, of lawsuits marked by an “ugly strand of personal animus and unjustifiable vituperation.” In a 1983 lawsuit accusing a conspiracy of Jewish judges and lawyers of trying to steal his land, Martin wrote:

“Whatever they may say publicly, in private Jews hate Christians, and have paranoid delusions about themselves and Christians. Jews think of themselves as a master race, or ‘chosen people,’ and hate Christians for worshiping a man whom Jews assassinated and regard as a poseur.”

“I can see now that anti-Semitism has a real root in the ageless manipulation, chicanery and murder by the Jews.”

“I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did.”

Martin, the self-professed “King of the Birthers,” will be the guest speaker at the Contoocook Valley Republican Committee monthly meeting, February 21. The meeting will be held at The Deering Town Hall. Martin will be introduced by Brian “Bulldog” Tilton of WTPL 107.7FM, “The Pulse.”

Over and over again in the testimony of those against repeal I heard courage. There were many stories shared, about sacrifice, about pain, about discrimination. Told of themselves, of their mothers, their children, their brothers, their friends. Stories about celebration and hope, too. In them you felt the collective struggle of the often difficult movement from second class citizen status to true equality.

While the testimony of those in support of marriage often moved me to tears, Rep. Bates’ opening remarks sent a chill down my spine, especially when he, after questioning from a member of the Judiciary Committee, calmly and confidently declared that the majority rules even in matters of the rights of minorities. I fear any man or woman with the level of supreme surety and apparent absence of self-reflection I witnessed today in him. History is littered with the wreckage of that kind of mindset.

— Dean Barker, on today’s State House marriage equality hearing