The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 256, No. 19, June 15, 2012

Vol. CCLVI, No. 19 June 15, 2012

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The Fortnightly Rant

To the Purchaser Goeth the Spoils

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won a great victory on June 5th: the beleaguered Republican incumbent defeated his Democratic challenger Tom Barrett by 53 to 46 percent in a recall election initiated by a public referendum. And he achieved his victory the old-fashioned way — he paid for it fair and square.

Barrett, who had already lost to Walker once in the regularly scheduled election of 2010, tried to overturn that result with a measly expenditure of just $3.44 per vote received. Walker, boldly demonstrating his superior faith in The American Way,©™ outspent his rival by a factor of 6.66 — a generous $23 per vote.

Walker’s national electoral conglomerate, made up of his own local crew and a national network of deep-pocketed outside agitators, ponied up a generous total of $30.5 million for the election.

By comparison, Barrett’s pitiful mom-and-pop outfit barely managed to scrape up $4 million — a veritable insult to the body politic.

And these figures understate the amount actually spent on the campaign. No one knows how much though; because some groups, like the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, are 501(c)(4) non-profits and thus exempt from disclosure.

Thanks to this massive fiscal overkill, Walker prevailed over his opponent by an underwhelming margin of less than seven percent.

The inescapable conclusion in the wake of Wisconsin is this: the argument is over. Never mind running government like a business — government is a business.

And woe betide the piker who is undercapitalized.

Whence cometh this blizzard of cash? Why, from the poor and downtrodden, of course!

$$$-Rated Video No, seriously, $500,000 came in a single check from Diane Hendricks, who with a net worth of $2.8 billion is the richest woman in Wisconsin. Some eyebrows were raised in May when a videotape of Walker and Hendricks was released. It was not a Paris Hilton-type tape; it contained a different sort of obscenity.

The tape showed Hendricks asking Walker, “Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state? And work on these unions?

And become a right-to-work [state]? What can we do to help you?” Walker replied, “We’re going to start in a couple of weeks with our budget adjustment bill, but first step is, we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.”

One check for $250,000 came from Newt Gingrich’s ex-sugar daddy, the casino tycoon and habitual union-buster Sheldon Adelson.

Another $250,000 came from Richard “Dick” DeVos, Jr. whose father helped founded Amway and is worth about $4.2 billion.

Young “Dick” is no stranger to expensive campaigns — he spent $41 million in 2006 but lost the Michigan gubernatorial race to Jennifer Granholm. He is also a major funder of campaigns to eviscerate privatize public schools.

Bob “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” Perry, of Houston, TX also threw in $250,000 as did Jere Fabick and David Humphreys, two lesser-known mid-western industrialists. Koch Industries, AT&T, Wal-Mart, John Deere, Miller/ Coors, and SC Johnson & Sons also contributed handsomely to the quest to make America safe for those dainty people, the corporations. Seventy-four percent of Walker’s contributions came

from out-of-state according to The Nation’s John Nichols.

With Friends Like These Rightly or wrongly, after Walker’s assault on public sector unions, organized labor and progressives in Wisconsin made a conscious choice to take on Scott Walker and his plutocrat pals. Their presumptive friends in the Democratic party also made a choice — to stand back and watch.

Walker, on the other hand, had the full attention and sympathy of the Republican National Committee. Chairman Reince (rhymes with Prince) Priebus was the Wisconsin Party Chair from 2007 through 2010 and has been close to Walker for at least a decade. Four other top GOP staffers hail from the Badger State, as well.

Hedging Their Bets Last year Republicans slipped a subtle provision into the state law raising the residency require-

ment from 10 to 28 days. That effectively blocked unknown thousands of students now home on vacation from voting in the recall because they registered at school last fall and have been home less than 28 days.

“Conservatives” seem oddly eager these days to throw timetested traditions overboard. In the Wisconsin recall, though, they honored a well-worn political chestnut: the misleading robocall.

“If you signed the recall petition,” an anonymous male voice said to Wisconsin voters, “your job is done and you don’t need to vote on Tuesday.” Those Wisconsin voters should be grateful — at least they got a carefully-crafted lie. Ten years ago, during the Sununu/Shaheen Senate race, New Hampshire voters attempting to call Democratic Headquarters for a ride to the polls just got a busy signal, thanks to the Republican Party’s Executive Director.

One Faint Glimmer Speaking of felonious Republicans, there is one faint glimmer of hope on the Wisconsin front.

Among the few journalists paying any attention is NationalMemo. com’s Joe Conason. Two excerpts: “On May 5, 2010,” Conason wrote on June 7th, “an assistant district attorney filed a court petition asking to initiate a secret probe into the disappearance of thousands of dollars in donations to ‘Operation Freedom,’ an annual event for local veterans partially underwritten by county officials.”

“Indeed, nearly all of Walker’s highest-ranking aides and associates from his years as county executive appear to be either facing prosecution or cutting immunity deals to save themselves.”

Scott Walker recently shifted $160,000 of his campaign money into a legal defense fund, and told reporters it would not be used to defend his aides.

We now learn that he did so while illicitly wearing the uniform of a Michigan State Trooper. Apparently it had been given to him by his father, the Governor. On one occasion, memorable for the unwitting participants, he pulled over a car and pretended to arrest two young males who were in on the joke, thus leaving two young women stranded by the side of the road. Hilarity no doubt ensued but, as is so often the case, it was not evenly distributed.

Considering that the GOP tends to respect and reward thuggish behavior, it seems in retrospect that Mr. Romney was probably the party’s inevitable candidate all along.

Suck It Up, Slackers Billions of people worldwide are still holding their breath more than four years into the Great Recession, hoping that whoever is running the global economy can somehow figure out a way to keep it from falling apart completely.

Well, now we can all relax. Robert Benmosche has figured it out.

“Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” he told Bloomberg.com during an interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the amenities of which include a vinyard.

Benmosche was hired in 2009 to run American International Group, or AIG. At the time, the company was propped up by $85

billion in credit from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury.

During his first meeting with employees he referred to members of Congress as “crazies,” and said that if asked to testify before them he would tell them, “stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

AIG’s line of credit has been bumped up to $182 billion since Benmosche took over. Last year the insurance giant paid Benmosche — who had threatened to quit if the government restricted his compensation — $7 million.

In other economic news, Verizon has announced that a) it is laying off 1,700 workers, and b) it is paying its CEO $22.5 million for one year’s work.

Banker Grilled Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday. It was all quite civil.

Dimon refrained from calling any of the committee members crazy, and he made no improbable suggestions about what they might do with their questions.

Dimon’s testimony was occasioned by Chase’s unanticipated loss of $2 billion — or $3 or $4 billion, accounts vary — by a trader nicknamed “The London Whale,” whose job it was to reduce the risk of loss.

© 2012 by Dan Woodman

News Briefs

Mr. Inevitable

There are, no doubt, more important things to obsess about these days than the decades-old shenanigans of a teenage rich kid.

For example, whether the dysfunctional state of politics today will prevent mankind from taking effective action to forestall anthropogenic climate change, and thus condemn us all to a premature, unnecessary, and horrid fate: starvation on an uninhabitable planet.

Nevertheless, we are riveted by the recent revelation of further details regarding young Mitt Romney’s penchant for cruising around Michigan in a white Rambler with a red light on the roof.

News Briefs to page two

Page 2 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, June 15, 2012

News Briefs from page one Democrats on the committee treated Dimon with considerable deference, considering that their party is ostensibly trying to tighten the regulation of banks; and he is doing what he can to loosen them.

Republicans simply followed their natural instincts and treated Dimon like visiting royalty, inviting him, for instance, to throw some mud on the Dodd-Frank Act supposedly regulating banks.

Since the committee is made up of 22 honorable men (and one honorable woman), there is no reason to be concerned about six of them having received $17.76 million in campaign contributions from what’s vaguely referred to as “the financial sector.”

The love fest did not extend to a small, motley group of citizens claiming to represent Americans thrown out of their homes as a result of the “financial sector” meltdown of 2007-2008 — they were evicted.

The Late, Great Economy Simon Johnson, the former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, wrote in The Atlantic:

“[W]e face at least two major, interrelated problems … a desperately ill banking sector that threatens to choke off any incipient recovery that the fiscal stimulus might generate [and] a political balance of power that gives the financial sector a veto over public policy … we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of the old elite. Let us hope it is not then too late.” … and that was three years ago.

On June 1, the Labor Department reported a dismal 69,000 jobs were added to the economy in May, and unemployment had ticked up one-tenth of a percent.

So, to give credit where it’s due: congratulations to the Republican Party for successfully keeping a lid on the economy.

Whose Ox? Of course, a falling tide does not lower all boats. Corporate profits and CEO pay are now much higher than they were before the financial sector feasted on the Golden Goose.

It used to be workers who went on strike for higher pay. These days it’s the owners. Many people find this confusing, but it can be explained: giving rich people money encourages them to work harder, but giving poor people

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The Man Behind the Curtain David Wessell, an editor for the Wall Street Journal, explained on NPR recently one reason why so many Americans are having trouble getting a job.

Nowadays resumés are scanned by computers before any human ever sees them. And the computers are programmed to reject any resumé that does not meet perfectly all criteria. He estimated that this has resulted in five million Americans becoming, in effect, unemployable.

In a related development, we have learned whose arm is connected to the famous Invisible Hand of the Marketplace, first hypothesized by Adam Smith: Milo Minderbinder’s.* Class Warfare & Election Theft For reasons we’ve never quite fathomed, it is logically impossible for the haves to conduct class * Minderbinder, a character in Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, is an Army Air Corps mess officer who goes from trading eggs on the black market to bombing his own men under a contract with the Germans.

warfare against the have-nots — class warfare can occur only when the have-nots start claiming that their not-having is related somehow to the haves having all that there is to be had.

And so it is with election theft — it’s a one-way street. According to some edict we have yet to locate, elections cannot be stolen wholesale. The only way an elections can be stolen is through retail methods: i.e., voter fraud, which is a terrible threat to democracy, although nobody has been able to point to a specific example in living memory.† Judging from recent news reports, zombie attacks actually occur in Florida more often than † The 1960 Presidential election result in Cook County, Illinois, home of Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago machine, is the most often cited example of an important election stolen through voter fraud. But, as David Greenberg reported for Slate.com in 2000, the national Republican Party failed to make a case. “[The Illinois] State Board of Elections, which was composed of four Republicans, including the governor, and one Democrat … unanimously rejected” the Party’s call for a complete recount, “citing the GOP’s failure to provide even a single affidavit on its behalf.”

voter fraud. But, as with so many arguments involving the GOP, voter fraud is a matter of faith, not fact.

Case in point: last year Florida Governor Rick Scott met with Kurt Browning, who was then the Secretary of State. Browning recommended a purge of the voters’ rolls, according to the SunshineStateNews.com, based on his alleged “Spidey sense tingling.”

With evidence as irrefutible as that, Scott had little choice but to order a massive purge of suspected zombies young people old people Democrats non-citizens from the voters’ rolls — by comparing them with 182,000 names culled from 12 year-old data held by the Florida DMV. Two counties decided Scott’s data was so unreliable that they quickly cancelled their purge, but the Governor was undaunted.

The Justice Department then sent a letter to Florida’s Secretary of State, saying what it was doing was not in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Scott said the Department was mistaken.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 3

Among those wrongfully thrown off the rolls so far: Bill Internicola and Archibald Bowyer. Both men are 91 and are veterans of WW II. Internicola was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” device for fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Bowyer was a Navy Corpsman.

Irrelevant? You Decide Though it is not technically an example of voter fraud, our “Spidey sense” tells us this item belongs here.

Thaddeus George “Thad” McCotter won a seat in the Michigan State Senate in 1998. In that capacity he participated in the state’s redistricting following the 2000 Census.™ Then in 2002 he was elected to the 11th Congressional District, northwest of Detroit, which he had just helped draw.

Last summer, during his fifth Congressional term, McCotter took a two-month fling at the Republican nomination for President. He got exactly nowhere, then announced he’d run for reelection to the 11th District. But, others had filed — he had to submit 2,000 petition signatures to

qualify for a primary election.

The Detroit News inspected McCotter’s submission and found “full copies of a sheet of signatures that were photocopied once and in some cases two times and mixed in with the 136-page stack of signatures. In some cases, a different petition circulator’s name was signed to the duplicate copy.”

The state’s Director of Elections could only find 1,830 signatures, and of that number only 244 were valid. The Attorney General is reportedly looking into the matter.

The Goldberg Variation When it comes to raw chutzpah, though, nobody’s plan for stealing elections holds a candle to that of Jonah Goldberg, editorat-large for the neoconservative National Review Online website.

“I am not personally enamored with ‘the youth,’ ” he said in an interview with TheDailyCaller.com.

“Personally I think the voting age should be much higher, not lower.

I think it was a mistake to lower it to 18, to be brutally honest.

“My view is, they’re going to run the country one day, so we should really explain why they’re so frickin’ stupid…. The fact that

A pair of counterweight-balancing chains (see arrows) form catenary curves as they hang from the top-center of the south tower of the New Memorial Bridge in this drawing supplied by McFarland Johnson. See story, right.

young people think socialism is better than capitalism — that’s proof of what social scientists call ‘their stupidity and their ignorance,’ and it’s something that the conservatives have to work harder to beat out of them, either literally or figuratively, as far as I’m concerned.”

The interview was conducted by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is on TheDailyCaller.com’s staff.

The site claims it will be giving away one 9-mm pistol per week until Election Day. And no, we are not making any of this up.

Chain, Chain, Chain …

Drawings and architectural renderings of what we shall call the New Memorial Bridge have been circulating for a few months now showing a feature that has not yet, to our knowledge, been discussed in the media: counterweight-balancing chains. They are indicated in the drawing at left by a pair of black arrows.

Jennifer Zorn, Public Outreach

Coordinator for bridge contractor McFarland Johnson, explained to us that the chains “were on progress drawings as early as 2008, and they are required by code, and the bridge engineer, Ted Zoli, is currently working on a slightly different layout or positioning of the chains, based on public input, to see if they can be a little less visually-obtrusive on the towers.”

Zorn said the chains have not previously appeared on drawings released to the public because “the project is design-build, so it’s sequenced: 30 percent, 60 percent, 90 percent. The counterweightbalancing chains were a 60 percent item, so that’s why they are shown now: because they’re past 60 percent in the design.” For a more detailed explanation of why the chains are necessary, Zorn referred us to New Hampshire Department of Transportation engineer Keith Cota.

Cota said the chains compensate for the shifting weight of the lifting cables as the bridge is raised and lowered, allow the use of a more efficient motor with less

horsepower, and are mandated by federal bridge codes.

Calling King Canute NashuaTelegraph.com’s Granite Geek blog discussed culverts June 4th — underground tubes that carry water under roadways. This sounds mundane — to anyone who hasn’t seen what a washedout culvert does to a dirt road.

They are engineered to meet the largest predictable demand for a given location but no more.

Thanks to climate change, they now wash out more often.

In North Carolina, though, they have a solution: a recent bill prohibits scientists from using sea level data collected before 1900, or extrapolating any future rise in sea level beyond a linear projection. “[S]cenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise” need not apply. Climate change? Verboten.

King Canute, some say, commanded the tide not to advance — not because he was a fool, but to demonstrate to his courtiers who were fools that some things are beyond even the powers of kings.

Page 4 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, June 15, 2012

U.S.S. Honduras To the Editor: It is known as the U.S.S. Honduras, our unsinkable carrier. Its army is said to breathe through the noses of its American advisers.

Two enormous companies operate there: Dole and Chiquita. In 1983, the CIA issued its Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual (based on its KUBARK, a 1965 torture manual). CIA trainers went down to indocrtrinate death squad Battalion 3-16.

It is the very paradigm of a banana republic.

June 29th will mark the third anniversary of a little-known (in the United States) coup d’etat. In the middle of the night, the democratically-elected president, Jose Manuel Zelaya, awoke to find his house invaded by hooded men.

He was rushed out in his pajamas to a car. His housekeeper of ten years was dragged out by her hair.

His daughter hid under a bed and escaped. Zelaya was put on a plane, and after an unexplained stop at Palmerola, an airbase from which the U.S. operates (the Honduran Air Force is also based there). The field served as transfer point for the illegal shipment of arms to the Contras in Nicaragua and support for the death squads in El Salvador — arms down, and drugs back up to the States. Zelaya wound up in Costa Rica.

Palmerola is an airfield which Zelaya wanted in order to replace the very inadequate national airport. He intended that the necessary routes to the airport and any

other improvements would be paid for with a loan from Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela (a coup victim himself, who was returned to the presidency by his people).

In August of 2008, Zelaya led Honduras to join ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, whose members include Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, (a veritable rogues’ gallery to the U.S. Government). ALBA is Chavez’s dream of a Latin America free of domination by foreign governments. At the signing, Chavez highlighted the courage of Zelaya. Prescient!

Wikipedia states that,”Under his (Zelaya’s) government, free education for all children was introduced, subsidies to small farmers were provided, bank interest rates were reduced, the minimum wage was increased by 80 percent, school meals were guaranteed for more than 1.6 million children from poor families, domestic poverty was reduced by almost 10 percent during two years of government, and direct state help was provided for 200,000 families in extreme poverty, with free electricity supplied to those Hondurans most in need.

A coup candidate if ever there was one!

The results: a rigged election in November of 2009 of a rightist (the election was recognized only by the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, the same groups that gained fame in Egypt and were present at Venezuela’s coup, the Haiti coup of 2004, and the failed Bolivian coup of 2008.

They were recently kicked out of the United Arab Emirates just before Hillary arrived for a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting.

Both IRI and NDI are funded by the U.S. government.)

Other results of the Honduran coup: murders of journalists, campesinos, and activists. Honduras is now a project of Human Rights

Watch, and our Center for Constitutional Rights group wants an independent investigation of the coup. The U.S. government is treating Honduras normally — there has been no suspension of aid. We just sent down our Afghanistan narco poppy failures to stem the flow of cocaine, though the Afghan failure has cost us more than $6 billion.

Today, Honduras is the corrupt, drug-funneling, murder capital of the world. But as President Obama said at the Summit of the Americas meeting in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17, 2009, two-and-a-half months before the coup, “There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values.”

Lester LeViness Nyack, NY Lester: Thank you for this concise summation of our most recent depradations in Central America — we should have been reporting this ourselves.

It’s so hard to keep up …

You will no doubt be interested in Rich Cohen’s just-published The Fish That Ate the Whale, a biography of Samuel Zemurray. “Sam the Banana Man” engineered not one, but two coups in Honduras, one around 1912, and another in the early 1950s.

The Editor § Fairness? Pfui!

To the Editor: No matter how we define “fairness,” Congressman Frank Guinta’s notion is out-of-step with that of most Americans, unless you happen to be a billionaire or a giant corporation or a national lobbyist for the former.

I’ve been listening to Mr. Guinta on the subject of fairness for the last year, and I think most Granite Staters would find his position offensive. A year ago (5/18/11), I attended a Guinta town meeting in Conway. A man objected to giving

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Mash Notes, Hate Mail,

taxpayer-financed oil subsidies to companies making obscene profits: “I’m not saying they shouldn’t make a profit, I’m just saying I believe they shouldn’t make a profit on our backs, that is, on the public dole…. I’m appealing to you as my Rep. to put an end to this.” To which Guinta replied: “if you’re going to get rid of that tax benefit to those five [oil] companies, let’s also eliminate the lease payments and make it fair….” Hooting erupted, and people called that idea “ridiculous,” a “giveaway,” and a “crock.” Listen here (start at 9:13): http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kGdctx1na5A. In August 2011, I heard Guinta repeat that free-lease-in-returnfor-giving-up-oil-subsidies nonsense in Dover. No one liked it there either.

At a Barrington “District Discussion” in March, a woman said it didn’t seem fair that richer people should be taxed at a lower rate than poorer people (no doubt thinking of wealthy Mitt Romney and his low 13.9 percent rate).

Guinta answered, “Who determines fairness?” Nope, no fairness for us middle-class folks.

I get it now, Mr. Guinta. “Fairness” exists only for the wealthy and the corporate (not so coincidentally, your campaign contributors). They’re the only persons you recognize. Your message to the rest of us — “Get lost.” Voters will remember and send you packing!

Susan Mayer Lee NH § An Existential Question To the Editor: Last month a Rockland, ME Free Press column began by saying that Palestinians call the imposing of a State of Israel in Palestine “Nakba,” or catastrophe. The column continued by telling well documented facts about Israeli acts ever since they invaded and

subjugated Palestine in 1948.

Israel’s lust for more and more land has been shown from its beginning, as has its urge to kill those who oppose it. This year a New York Times Magazine cover story, “Israel vs. Iran,” gave sickening details of the murders of Iranian scientists by Israeli assassins.

It’s a disgrace when the United States backs Israeli barbarity in Palestine, even worse when it grovels to a foreign country that wants to drag it into war against Iran. The longer Israel exists, the more it’s exposed as a rogue state that deserves to be tossed into the file of Bad Ideas.

Marjorie Gallace Camden, ME Marjorie: Are you suggesting that Israel should not be allowed to exist? If Israel should not exist because of what it has done to the Palestinians, what about the U.S. vis-a-vis the Native Americans, the Filipinos, the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, just to name a few?

The Editor § She’s Hoping To The Editor: It is my hope that some moderate Republicans, some Independents and some Democrats will read this compilation of what has been happening in the New Hampshire Legislation via very conservative Republicans during 2011 and 2012.

There was the bill that would expand a person’s right to use deadly force in self-defense without first attempting to retreat.

Governor Lynch vetoed the bill and the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police and the New Hampshire Sheriff ’s Assocation came out against the bill as a threat to public safety. The New Hampshire Representatives wanted to do away with licensing guns and to be able to carry them

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Friday, June 15, 2012 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 5

And Other Correspondence in the Statehouse, courts, schools and public meetings.

House Bill 429, to lower the high school drop out age from 18 to 16 years, passed the New Hampshire House.

The House budget cut $30 to each vehicle registration fee which meant a $90 million reduction in highway funds. This means losses to highway maintenance and repair, a declining infrastructure and more job losses.

We hear there may be cuts to Medicaid which means that the most vulnerable would suffer.

These same legislators put forward an amendment to the State Constitution that would give school funding authority to their legislators. Later this expanded into giving businesses a tax credit for donating to scholarship organizations created to send students to private schools, religious schools or for home schooling.

This passed the House and the Senate and will mean that tax payers will pay more because schools will have less state aid.

There is more to come. Please stay alert to what is going on in New Hampshire.

Sue Kaplan Exeter, NH § Guinta Does Not Care To the Editor: It is now clear that, despite what he says, Representative Frank Guinta does not care about the environment. He had a hearing this week to talk about our Great Bay. He said he just wants to help local communities manage the issues and cost, but still claimed that he really does care about the environment.

That is just not true. He tried to close the Environmental Protection Agency. He also tried to keep them from regulating the discharge of pesticides into rivers, lakes and streams. Anyone who

opposes regulation of pesticides in our water does not care about the environment. Actions speak louder than words.

Beth Olshansky Durham, NH § Regional Planning a Threat To the Editor: There has been a push for New Hampshire towns to accept money from EPA/HUD/DOT to adopt “sustainable development” programs under the auspices of one of nine “regional” planning commissions. The programs are called “Granite State Future” or “Vibrant Villages” among other things but are more than just about ordinary planning of streets. The Governor has also created a Water Sustainability Commission by Executive Order.

You can check this website to see if your town is already involved or thinking of becoming involved: nharpc.org.

It is imperative that every person in New Hampshire who values his or her property, farming, transportation, and water rights, and would like to see Americans maintain their current standard of living, get off the couch and attend these public discussions on whether to accept HUD funds to adopt one or more of these “social justice” programs. If meetings are held in secret, demand they be made public. Those who have attended Water Commission meetings have told us they were shocked to hear the idea that you don’t own your water in your own well, under your own property.

To prepare yourself for these meetings, make the trip to one of these venues to hear Rosa Koire speak on why regionalism/communitarianism is the death of individual rights. Learn how these “friendly and good-for-the-community” programs will actually do irrevocable harm to New Hamp-

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Jane Aitken Bedford, NH Jane: Thanks — we haven’t seen anything like this since we drove past the old wooden horse in Epsom warning passersby against the evils of the United Nations.

The Editor § Of the People, By the People, For the Corporations To the Editor: Well, it’s official: as of May 30 Wal-Mart became the latest corporation to pull the plug on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Other groups that have dropped their financial support of ALEC, include CocaCola, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The impetus for the corporate defections was the publicity surrounding the killing of Trayvon Martin under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” legislation, legislation that ALEC promoted. In fact, ALEC is the originator of New Hampshire’s “Stand Your Ground” law.

ALEC is a bill mill. It provides cookie-cutter legislation to radical right wing activists around the country, like those who run the New Hampshire Legislature. Literally hundreds of bills have been introduced in the New Hampshire legislature that came directly from ALEC. These are not laws that fit New Hampshire or benefit its citizens. Rather, this Murph’s Fortnightly Quote “Be careful who you hate; it might affect someone you love.”

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is legislation crafted outside New Hampshire to serve special interests and a rigid ideology pushed by the current Republican state leadership.

Ninety-eight percent of ALEC’s funding comes from large corporations. The laws ALEC (and the legislators they control) promotes are to benefit those corporations, not New Hampshire citizens.

In effect, under the present New Hampshire Legislature, the corporations that fund ALEC have more control over laws in New Hampshire than its citizens do!

New Hampshire voters need to pry ALEC’s tentacles off our state and legislature. We do not need a legislature that takes its cue from ALEC’s big money.

This November elect real representatives, not the current crop of parrots.

Michael Frandzel Portsmouth, NH Michael: Amen to all that. Your suggested header reminds us of the best summary we ever heard of American politics. Ron Dellums called it “government of the people, by the powerful, for the rich.”

The Editor § Driving Down the Vote To the Editor: You have no driver’s license because you have nothing to drive, no passport because you’ve never been abroad and no other photo More Hate Mail, &c. to page six

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Page 6 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, June 15, 2012

Northcountry Chronicle

Waffling Time

by William Marvel

W

hile I did vote for President Obama, and had high hopes for his administration, I have not been ecstatic about his performance. Certainly it surpassed that of his predecessor by far, but while his failures have been relatively few they have been troubling. Health care would have been a great and overdue triumph, and I might even have acquiesced to mandatory participation had it included a public option, but when he sacrificed that element the momentum of his initiative died. His Cairo speech promised much from his foreign policy, but then he began mimicking the Israeli tactic of state murder, and engaging in regime change with all the fervent recklessness of George Bush the Lesser.

He also seemed eager to help racial activists distort the shooting of Trayvon Martin into a crime perpetrated by our privileged

white society. Like those journalists who dishonestly described the decidedly non-Caucasian killer as a “white Hispanic,” Obama’s remarks seemed more than a little like pandering, and from his powerful bully pulpit it was equivalent to inciting a riot. None of that has endeared me to him, and the most consistently admirable aspect of his administration may be his First Lady.

It only took a few days in Ohio this spring to vastly improve my image of the president. I try to keep my radio tuned to public radio stations when I travel, but over the past few years I’ve noticed that the same frequency ranges that carry public broadcasting are thickly sprinkled with fundamentalist Christian stations.

In eastern and central Ohio those stations dominated the dial, and one featured a talk show host named Bryan Fischer (as I later learned to spell it), whom I quickly wrote off as a maniac. Rick Santorum had not yet bailed out

of the Republican primary, and Fischer was denouncing Mormonism as a phony religion. Most Christian and pseudo-Christian sects seem about as worthy as Scientology or astrology, to me, so I didn’t mind that: it was Fischer’s habit of slamming Obama with every other breath — almost literally — that marked him as a political character assassin. Between diatribes about the president’s efforts to dismantle and destroy the United States, Fischer would remind people to pray and go to church.

The gist of the message is that Obama, who took office in 2009, caused the crash of 2008, and has done his best since then to prevent any recovery. Somehow he is responsible for the Republican obstructionism that holds up most legislation. He has put more people on food stamps than ever before, but that isn’t because he wanted to help them struggle through hard times: it’s because

he wants them to be dependent on the government.

Other Christian programs, like “Focus on the Family” and “Road to Reality,” similarly mixed fundamentalist religious babble with right-wing political propaganda.

Obama is waging a war on families, they claimed; he’s a traitor, or the devil incarnate. The frightening thing is that there are people out there who suck that crap up, and plenty of them: it isn’t just the occasional wacko with a letter to the editor, who thinks he’s being original. In a rest area on I-70 one fellow had a homemade camper on the back of his pickup that he had plastered with antiObama slogans and a list of his evil deeds that echoed the accusations of Bryan Fischer. Between this surrealistic idiocy and Mitt Romney’s latest maunderings (which tend to be only slightly less unreasonable), I came home applauding Obama for his much better credibility.

Then what happened? Suddenly Obama “evolved” on the subject of gay marriage — a choice of phrase that ought to send the Bible bangers over the edge. How convenient that his evolution coincided with the season in which nonpartisan voters are making their choices for president, even if only subconsciously. It was doubly punctual in the quadrennial sense, for polls showed that a majority of Americans opposed gay marriage in 2008, when Obama insisted that he was a one-man-onewoman guy, but this year a majority are said to support it. If you’re worried about reelection you let your principles follow the perceived public whim, and support only majority positions. His decision will no doubt yield plenty of fruits in November, but a gullible public bought his philosophical evolution so readily this time that we can expect to hear much of it hereafter. It’s a perfect excuse for breaking campaign promises.

MoreMash Notes, Hate Mail, And Other Correspondence, from Page Five ID because you’ve no bank account. It’s life lived on the margins by many. Take Donna Jean Suggs, delivered by a midwife in 1949 in rural South Carolina, her birth certificate not filed. Try as she might, Ms. Suggs couldn’t get a birth certificate. That meant she couldn’t get a driver’s license, or register to vote (AARP Bulletin, Jan-Feb 2012).

Over 21 million people (11 percent of adult citizens) lack a valid, government-issued photo ID, including 25 percent of African American adults! A year ago only Georgia and Indiana required a photo ID card to vote. Since then 38 Republican-controlled states have introduced voter ID laws

and five have enacted them.

This is the first time in years that we’re seeing a reversal in a steady expansion of voting rights in America. Particularly impacted are older people, the poor, African Americans and students. Nearly one in five citizens over 65 lack current government-issued photo ID (Brennan Center For Justice study).

Additionally, Right wingers are curtailing voting hours, imposing tough restricting and fines on civic groups conducting voter registration and blocking voter lines.

Older Americans may recall the struggles to abolish the poll tax and the literacy test. Democrats read this coordinated lav-

The New Hampshire Gazette

ishly funded push as an effort to steal another election.

Corporations are people, says Romney. Evidently the poor and minority are not. So long, democracy.

Michael Kulla Pleasant Valley, NY § Guinta Tops the [Bad] Charts To the Editor: Congressman Frank Guinta keeps right on hitting the top of lists no one in their right mind would want to be on.

We’ve all noticed his endless stream of colorful, large campaign-style mailings. Well, turns out Mr. Guinta is #1 out of all 435 U.S. House members for

spending on these taxpayer-paid mailers (according the the U.S. House Schedule of Disbursements). That’s our money, people!

That is five times the average and seven times the median for individual spending on House mailings last year.

This is particularly hypocritical since in 2010, candidate Guinta attacked Congresswoman SheaPorter’s use of such mailers; hers were small, infrequent, and much, much cheaper. He said, “There must be a more efficient, and most importantly, less costly way to distribute these papers…. How is this supposed to help our deficit?”

Indeed, Mr. Guinta. You might

apply that observation to yourself.

Eva Powers Portsmouth, NH § Nostalgic for Super Heroes To the Editor: Super heroes of the comic book era of the 50’s and 60’s. Captain America, Superman, Cat Woman, Captain Marvel, &c. These characters were symbols of what America represented. Truth, justice, strength and morality. They represented a can do attitude and no obstacle was too large to overcome. They were fictitious but the image they projected was not. The real life heroes were with us too and within the memory of most

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Friday, June 15, 2012 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 7

Egalitarian Mormonism vs. Mitt's Plutocratic Narcissism

by Jim Hightower nd, lo, Samuel the Lamanite decried the greedy habits of the inhabitants of Zarahemla and proclaimed them doomed: “You are cursed because of your riches,” declared the prophet.

Though a cautionary tale from Biblical times, Zarahemla would seem familiar to us today with its exaltation of wealth, extreme class division, crass money corrup-

tion of politics, and government’s disregard for the poor and needy.

Only, the fate of Zarahemla is not a Bible story — it’s from the Book of Mormon.

With lifelong Mormon leader Mitt Romney running for president, the national media’s focus on the religion has mostly dealt with fundamentalist Christian Republicans who insist that Mormonism is an unholy sect. But little attention has been paid to

the remarkably-progressive egalitarianism at the center of the Church’s doctrinal founding — an ethos 180-degrees opposite of Romney’s unabashed celebration of avaricious wealth accumulators like … well, like him. Those who criticize Wall Street greed and government policies that favor rich, Romney says, are simply guilty of envy and class war.

However, Salt Lake City writer Troy Williams points out in a re-

cent Salon article that Mormonism’s founders, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, preached and practiced a social order based on communalism. Not communism, in the Marxist sense, but a form of communal living and shared resources. “There shall be no private ownership of [streams and timber],” Young decreed. “These belong to the people; all the people.”

The frontier prophet also said, “We have plenty here,” and, under

communalism, “No person [will] suffer if there is an equal distribution of the necessaries of life.”

Wouldn’t it be fun to hear Mitt reconcile this moral imperative of Mormon egalitarianism with his present espousal of plutocratic narcissism? § Copyright 2012 by Jim Hightower & Associates. Contact Laura Ehrlich (laura@jimhightower.com) for more information.

of us. Heroes like General Eisenhower, Jimmy Doolittle, Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, General MacArthur, Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain, Eleanor Roosevelt and the countless others in our history who relied on their own individual initiative to achieve great and lasting accomplishments. Where are our Captains America and Supermen today? Have we become sloppy and lazy or are we shackled with so many laws and regulations and rules and taxes that nobody with inherent energy and drive can even consider taking it to the market place in America.

Do they conclude they need to go overseas in order to compete in the world markets where other countries welcome the spirit that made America great and want it for themselves? I think they do and our own government has become so obnoxious and huge and overbearing that it drives our innovators to go elsewhere to realize their potential. Sad. John Sangenario Hampton, NH John: Thanks for this nostalgic paean to a non-existent Golden Age. We’re currently reading a history of the astonishing corruption of the U.S. Military Government in postwar Germany, showing that even the alleged “Greatest Generation” was shot

through with great criminals. If you want a Super Hero, be one.

The Editor § Attacks on Education To the Editor: The Republican attack on public education in New Hampshire continues unabated. The GOP proposed and supported SB 372 and its companion piece HB 1607 in an attempt to circumvent the prohibition in the New Hampshire Constitution against the use of public tax funds to support religious institutions. To do this, something like a baseball double-play was used.

New Hampshire businessmen toss donations to “scholarship organizations” which throw the money to private school students.

Oh, and a hidden ball trick is used, too. Eighty-five percent of the money given by the businessmen winds up back in their pockets via tax deductions. Baseball plays result in outs. Who’s out? Taxpayers are out the public tax money given to private schools.

This bill will increase your local property taxes to make up for the state money lost to private schools. Second, we will not even know if our tax money benefits the education of students in private institutions. They have no public accountability. Oh, and not only will private schools receive

public tax money, home schoolers will, too.

According to a WMUR Granite State Poll of all voters, respondents oppose the use of public tax funds for private schools by more than a 2 to 1 margin (55 to 23 percent). Who would support such a scheme? Republican legislators, who apparently don’t care what the public thinks.

The votes on SB 372/HB 1607 cast by Seacoast legislators on 5/16/12 appear below. D stands for Democrat; R for Republican.

Yes is a vote for SB 372/HB 1607.

No is a vote against. NV stands for not voting.

Hampton: Nevins (R), Rice (R), Sheffert (R) - all yes. Waddell (R) - no. Sullivan (R) - NV. New Castle/Rye: Murphy (R) NV. Smith (R) - yes.

Portsmouth/Newington: CaliPitts (D), DiPentima (D), Norelli (D), Pantelakos (D), Read (D), Serlin (D) - all no.

Republicans also backed a constitutional amendment (CACR12) designed to give the legislature “the full power and authority” to determine the amount of state funding for education.

This amendment virtually eliminates the role of the judiciary in determining educational funding, reducing the traditional three balanced branches of government in a democracy to two. The legisla-

ture can lower the amount of state funding by any amount, theoretically to zero. Any resulting deficit would have to be made up by an increase in local property taxes.

With CACR12 in place, school districts would have limited ability to plan ahead, instead being forced to mount a lobbying effort each budget session to protect their allocations against power grabs by larger and more influential districts.

Which Seacoast legislators voted on 6/6/12 for misguided CACR12?

Hampton: Nevins (R), Rice (R), Sheffert (R), Sullivan (R),

Waddell (R) - all yes.

Rye/New Castle: Murphy (R), Smith (R) - both yes.

Portsmouth/Newington: CaliPitts (D), DiPentima (D), Norelli (D), Pantelakos (D), Read (D), Serlin (D) - all no.

State Senate: Stiles (R) - yes.

Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 and is both the first public school and the oldest existing school in the United States. Progress in our country went hand-in-hand with the public school system. It deserves to be preserved, not destroyed.

Gary Patton Hampton, NH

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Page 8 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, June 15, 2012

Admiral Fowle’s Piscataqua River Tidal Guide (Not for Navigational Purposes) Portsmouth, arguably the first town in this country not founded by religious extremists, is bounded on the north and east by the Piscataqua River, the second, third, or fourth fastest-flowing navigable river in the country, depending on

who you choose to believe.

The Piscataqua’s ferocious current is caused by the tide, which, in turn, is caused by the moon. The other player is a vast sunken valley — Great Bay — about ten miles upriver. Twice a day, the moon

drags about seventeen billion gallons of seawater — enough to fill 2,125,000 tanker trucks — up the river and into Great Bay. This creates a roving hydraulic conflict, as incoming sea and the outgoing river collide. The skirmish line

moves from the mouth of the river, up past New Castle, around the bend by the old Naval Prison, under Memorial Bridge, past the tugboats, and on into Great Bay. This can best be seen when the tide is rising.

Twice a day, too, the moon lets all that water go. All the seawater that just fought its way upstream goes back home to the ocean. This is when the Piscataqua earns its title for xth fastest current. Look for the red buoy, at the upstream

end of Badger’s Island, bobbing around in the current. It weighs several tons, and it bobs and bounces in the current like a cork.

The river also has its placid moments, around high and low tides.

When the river rests, its tugboats

and bridges work their hardest.

Ships coming in laden with coal, oil, and salt do so at high tide, for more clearance under their keels.

They leave empty, riding high in the water, at low tide, to squeeze under Memorial Bridge.

Sunday, June 17

Monday, June 18

Tuesday, June 19

Wednesday, June 20

Thursday, June 21

Friday, June 22

Saturday, June 23

2005—Dennis Koslowski is convicted of looting NH-based Tyco.

1982—“God’s banker” Roberto Calvi is found hanging under a London bridge.

1972—Nixon goons hit Democratic HQ at the Watergate, but a black Vietnam vet discovers them.

1971—Nixon’s War on Drugs starts.

1958—NH’s Sherman Adams, Ike’s Chief of Staff, admits he accepted a vicuña coat from Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfine.

1948—A false fire alarm prompts a DC-6 flight crew to activate a fire extinguisher, but they leave a relief valve open. CO2 knocks out the flight crew; 43 die as the plane crashes in eastern PA. 1939—In Paris, Eugene Weidmann becomes the last public victim of France’s guillotine. Watching from a nearby window is future horror movie star Christopher Lee. 1933—Four G-men and one hood die in the Kansas City Massacre, three of shotgun wounds; lawmen carried the only shotguns present.

1932—Thousands of disgruntled WW I vets mass in front of the U.S. Capitol as the Senate votes not to pay their bonuses.

1775—The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought on Breed’s Hill with New Hampshire men under Gen. John Stark using powder pilfered from Portsmouth’s Fort William and Mary.

1989—RIP I.F. Stone, who said “Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.”

1967—On stage at Monterey, CA, Jimi Hendrix sets his guitar on fire.

1961—Eddie Gaedel, only dwarf to get a base on balls in major league play, dies at 36 of a heart attack after a mugging.

1959—Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, though committed to a mental hospital, continues to govern.

1954—Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai names Ngo Dinh Diem Prime Minister.

1954—In Alabama, Albert Fuller murders Alfred Patterson. Patterson, Democratic candidate for State Attorney, had vowed to rid Phoenix City of vice, apparently alarming Fuller, a former sheriff.

1916—In Australia, 6,000 rally against conscription.

1898—The New York Times critic says George Bernard Shaw’s career has no promise.

1880—Mrs. Shakuneala Devi multiplies two 13-digit numbers in her head in 28 seconds.

1869—Henry J. Raymond, founder of The New York Times, expires at 49 after suffering a stroke while entertaining his mistress.

1746—Samuel Johnson agrees to produce an English dictionary for a group of London booksellers. His fee: £1,575.

2002—Sen. Richard Shelby (RAL) leaks classified NSA intercepts to Fox News’s Carl Cameron and CNN’s Dana Bash.

1969—The dying town of Tobar, NV—named for a sign pointing to a saloon—is dealt a death blow by an exploding railroad car full of bombs en route to Vietnam.

1967—Muhammad Ali is convicted of refusing induction into the U.S. Army.

1954—Warned by Sen. Styles Bridges (R-NH) that his son’s homosexuality would be exposed if he did not resign, Sen. Lester C. Hunt (D-WY) shoots himself dead in his Senate office.

1953—Julius and Ethel Rosenberg become the first native-born Americans executed for espionage.

1898—The U.S.S. Charleston shells Guam. The island’s Spanish governor, unaware that he’s at war, apologizes for having insufficient powder to return the salute.

1879—Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, at the Michigan Military Academy, tells his audience, “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”

1864—The Portsmouth-built Kearsarge sinks the Confederate raider Alabama off Cherbourg, France.

1865—Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Texas are freed. The day is now observed as “Juneteenth.”

2005—Veep Dick “Dick” Cheney tells Larry King the insurgency in Iraq is “in the last throes.”

1973—An American F-14 Tomcat shoots itself down with a Sparrow air-to-air missile.

1972—“Sinister forces” erase 18.5 min. of Oval Office tape.

1965—Navy Lts. Clinton B. Johnson and Charles Hartman, flying prop-driven Douglas A-1 Skyraiders, down a MiG 17 jet fighter over Vietnam.

1963—A “Hot Line” is established between the White House and the Kremlin.

1962—For the second time in about two weeks, a Thor rocket malfunctions and drops an Abomb into the South Pacific.

1953—A U.S. military mission arrives in Saigon.

1943—KKK and pals attack striking African-American auto workers in Detroit; 34 die, 1,300 are arrested.

1942—Four prisoners wearing Nazi uniforms drive out the main gate of Auschwitz in a stolen car belonging to the commandant.

1941—The recently refurbished sub U.S.S. 0-9 sinks east of the Isles of Shoals with 33 aboard.

1923—Pancho Villa dies, saying, “Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”

1893—Lizzie Borden beats a double-murder rap.

2006—Fox News, citing Sen. Rock Santorum (R-PA), reports that “We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

2005—Edgar Ray Killen, 80, is found guilty of manslaughter in the case of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney (see 1964).

2004—Mike Melvill becomes the world’s first non-governmental astronaut by piloting SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 100 kilometers.

1994—As Jose Martin and his wife are driving near Madrid, a three pound meteorite crashes through their windshield, bends the steering wheel, and lands in the back seat. She is unscathed, he gets a broken finger.

1989—The U.S. Supreme Court rules flag-burning is legal.

1964—Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are murdered by the KKK in Mississippi.

1942—The Japanese sub I-25 fires seventeen 140-millimeter shells at Fort Stevens, OR, damaging a phone cable.

1877—The Molly Maguires, fourteen coal miners arrested by a private detective agency and prosecuted by private attorneys for the coal companies, are hanged

by Pennsylvania officials, private executioners apparently being unavailable. Pardons for two arrive minutes too late.

2009—A spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford says South Carolina’s missing Chief Executive is hiking the Appalachian Trail.

2004—Veep Dick “Dick” Cheney, questioned on the floor of the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy about his ties to Halliburton, answers “Go f__k yourself.”

2002—Enron execs admit they hid $1.5 billion in illegal profits gouged from California ratepayers.

1977—John Mitchell, once the U.S.’s No. l lawman, begins serving 19 months in an Alabama prison.

1970—The 24th Amendment gives 18 year olds the vote.

1969—In Ohio, the Cuyahoga River burns for 20 minutes.

1964—The U.S. Supreme Court rules the Post Office can’t ban Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer.

1959—The U.S. launches its tenth Vanguard missile. It is the eighth failure for the rocket.

1950—A paranoid fabric importer, aided by retired FBI agents, publishes Red Channels, a pamphlet alleging the radio and television racket is full of Commies.

1942—Congress adopts the Flag Code,® replacing the embarrassingly Nazi-like “Flag Salute” with FDR’s hand-on-heart gesture.

1922—During a coal-miner’s strike in Herrin, Illinois, 36 workers are killed.

1898—Marines land in Cuba.

2008—NASA’s James Hansen nags Congress about the threat of global warming — again.

2005—Roller coaster safety expert Richard H. Brown, 64, dies of injuries received in a fall in his own driveway.

1995—During a soundcheck, Dan Rather joins R.E.M. in “What’s the Frequency, Ken?” 1988—NASA’s James Hansen warns Congress of the seriousness of the threat of global warming.

1976—Edwin Walker, former Army General and Lee Harvey Oswald target, is arrested for fondling an undercover cop in a Dallas mens room.

1972—Nixon’s own tape recorder catches him telling H.R. Haldeman to order the CIA to block an FBI investigation of Watergate.

1950—A Douglas DC-4 and all 58 aboard disappear without a trace over Lake Michigan.

1947—The Senate overrides Truman’s veto of the anti-labor TaftHartley Act. 1937—Having been shot in the jaw and seen the Communists suppress anarchists, George Orwell and his wife flee Spain.

1917—After Babe Ruth is thrown out for punching an umpire, Ernie Shore takes his place and shuts out 26 batters.

1888—Frederick Douglass is nominated for President.

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1994—Air Force Lt. Col Arthur Holland, hot-dogging during airshow practice maneuvers, crashes a B-52 at Fairchild AFB in Washington State.

1982—On a British Airways 747 en route from Malaysia to Australia, all four engines fail after flying through a cloud of volcanic ash.

After fourteen minutes of gliding, pilots are able to re-start the engines and land successfully.

1971—Nixon’s Special Counsel Charles Colson circulates the first White House “Enemies List.”

1970—The Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1970—Staging fails on the Kittery side of the Piscataqua River Bridge project. Four men fall 75 feet to their deaths, seven others are injured.

1968—Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, tells a Long Island audience, “The enemy has lost whatever chance he had of taking South Vietnam by military force.”

1968—The National Guard is called out to defend the nation’s capitol from the people.

1947—Private pilot Kenneth Arnold reports “flying saucers” over Washington state.

1902—Deadline looming, Joseph Conrad upsets an oil lamp and accidentally burns the second installment of The End of the Tether.

2003—Lester G. Maddox, highschool dropout, bigot, proprietor of the Pickrick Cafeteria, and Democratic Governor of Georgia (1967-1971) succumbs to his own inherent loathsomeness.

1996—A bomb kills 19 U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia.

1973—John Dean spills the Watergate beans to the Senate.

1962—Supreme Court ends prayer in schools.

1950—The Korean War begins.

1940—France surrenders to Germany.

1906—At Madison Square Garden, designed by Architect Stanford White, White is shot dead

by Harry Thaw, with whose wife White had been taking liberties.

1899—Four Denver dailies run a hoax cooked up by idle reporters: Chinese authorities were taking bids from American companies to demolish the Great Wall and build a road in its place. The story is reprinted as fact by papers as far off as Europe.

1876—Lakota, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne warriors wipe out General George Armstrong Custer, his brothers Thomas and Boston, and the rest of the Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn.

1798—Congress passes the second of the Alien and Sedition Acts, authorizing deportation of potentially dangerous aliens.

2006—Customs officials in Palm Beach, FL confiscate Viagra from Rush Limbaugh’s luggage, since the prescription was not in his name. He was returning from the Dominican Republic, a popular sex tourism destination.

2002—A federal appeals court in San Francisco declares the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words “under God.” 1995—In Golf Manor, MI, EPA workers dismantle a homemade nuclear reactor in the suburban backyard of David Hahn.

1987—Denying R. Reagan is senile, Sen. Alan Simpson says, “I even saw him do a cowboy doodle the other day. He used to do that when he was in his prime.”

1985—At Jack Russell stadium in Clearwater, FL, organist Wilbur Snapp plays “Three Blind Mice” after a dubious call by ump Keith O’Connor. O’Connor ejects Snapp.

1954—Emperor Bao Dai appoints Ngo Dinh Diem premier of South Vietnam.

1947—Mayor James Michael Curley starts running Boston from a federal prison cell after his conviction for mail fraud.

1918—In Canton, OH, Eugene V. Debs is arrested for making an anti-war speech.

1917—A miners’ strike begins in Bisbee, AZ.

2006—Gutless pinko bastards in the Senate block a Flag Protection Amendment® by one vote.

2003—On the first day they can, more than 735,000 people sign up for the “Do Not Call” list.

2000—“Until I’m the president,” says George W. Bush, “it’s going to be hard for me to verify that I think I’ll be more effective.”

1989—A federal appeals court reverses Reagan crony Lyn Nofziger’s conviction for illegal lobbying on the grounds that, in this case, ignorance of the law was an excuse.

1986—The International Court of Justice rules the U.S. was out of line in funding the Contras.

1971—Col. David Hackworth, the war’s most decorated soldier, wrecks his career by saying on TV that the U.S. can’t win in Vietnam.

1954—CIA-sponsored rebels in Guatemala overthrow the elected government.

1925—Emma Goldman marries James Colton, an elderly anarchist, on her 56th birthday to obtain a British passport.

1919—Emma Goldman turns 50 in prison.

1918—Emma Goldman turns 49 in prison.

1905—On the Black Sea, sailors on the Russian battleship Potemkin mutiny.

1905—The International Workers of the World forms in Chicago.

2005—Carroll County Sheriff ’s deputies pull a fragrant Gary Moody, 45, from beneath a women’s outhouse on the Kancamagas Highway in Albany, NH and charge him with criminal trespass.

2004—The U.S. grants “limited sovereignty” to the Iraqi “government,” assuring a rapid return to normalcy. U.S. death toll so far: 971.

1994—The U.S. Department of Energy admits that hundreds of U.S. citizens were unwittingly used for radiation experiments during the Cold War. 1975—Rod Serling enters another dimension.

1972—Richard Nixon cleverly announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam, further eroding the anti-war movement, already weakened by the lottery.

1971—The Supreme Court overturns Muhammad Ali’s conviction for draft evasion.

1969—At about 1:20 a.m., in NYC, gays and lesbians violently begin resisting a police raid at the Stonewall Inn. 1968—Lyndon Johnson enhances his party animal credentials by signing a law converting Memorial and Veterans days into three-day weekends.

1957—New York Ciy’s last known opium den, at 295 Broome St., is busted.

2006—”It was not always certain,” says George W. Bush, “that the U.S. and America would have a close relationship.”

2002—George W. Bush invokes the 25th Amendment, making Dick “Dick” Cheney President while Bush’s colon is inspected.

1989—The Washington Times reports that high officials in the Reagan & Bush I administrations are under investigation for involvement in a homosexual prostitution ring. The story quickly and conveniently evaporates.

1987—“We don’t care,” declares Reagan administration Attorney General Ed “Meese is a Pig” Meese, “about the political or ideological allegiances of a prospective judge.”

His audience bursts out laughing.

1966—U.S. starts bombing major oil facilities in Hanoi and Haiphong harbor.

1956—The U.S. Federal Highway Act OK’s construction of 42,500 miles of highway so the Pentagon can move stuff around in case the Cold War turns hot.

1940—The Smith Act, requiring aliens in the U.S. to register with the government, is enacted.

1897—The Chicago Cubs score a record 36 runs in one game against Louisville.

1620—Tobacco growing is banned in England, giving the Virginia Company a monopoly.

2003—The Army Times reports that the Bush administration wants to roll back combat and familyseparation pay for troops in combat zones.

2001—Surgeons find a small, hard, black object in Dick Cheney’s chest and attach a pacemaker and defibrillator to it.

1980—Jimmy Carter signs a bill creating a U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation, charged with reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

1973—The last man drafted in the U.S. enters the Army.

1971—Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon orders a break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.

1956—Two airliners collide, then crash into the Grand Canyon, killing all 128 on board.

1916—Battle of the Somme begins: 19,240 British soldiers die, 35,493 are missing.

1908—A mysterious 40 megaton explosion flattens a huge area around Tunguska, Siberia.

1882—After reading a poem beginning, “I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,” Charles Guiteau is hanged for the assassination of President Garfield.

1864—Sec. of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase (born in Cornish) resigns, charging that speculators were plotting to prolong the Civil War for monetary gain.

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The Zen of Salt

Therapeutic Massage, Aromatherapy & Bodywork 150 Congress Street Portsmouth, NH 603-766-FISH

Jill Vranicar• Kate Leigh

16 Market Square, Portsmouth, NH

(603) 436-6006

Next to City Hall in Downtown Dover, NH 3 Hale Street j (603) 742-1737

Since 2011

7 Commercial Alley ~ 766-1616 www.portsmouthsaltcellar.com