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State Department’s security budget. Public Policy Polling reports that 41 percent of Republicans believe Benghazi is the “biggest scandal in U.S. history” — even though 39 percent of them don’t know where Benghazi is. The Cincinnati Blues Meanwhile, a terrible miscarriage of justice has occurred in Cincinnati — having nothing to do with the IRS. There has, of course, been a big kerfuffle about that agency’s jackbooted thugs persecuting upstanding Americans. Apparently persecution is a pretty easy lift these days. Let’s say two applications come into the IRS office, both saying, “because we’re working to enhance the social welfare of this great nation, we deserve to siphon off some of the money that would otherwise go to funding the federal government — by which we mean mostly the Defense Department.”
One is from the National Bund of Tea Party Patriots Opposed to the Jackbooted Confiscation of Our Personal Income. The other is from the Anna Louise Inn, a residence providing affordable, single-room accommodations for women in downtown Cincinnati. Republicans are appalled that the former group’s application would receive more scrutiny than the latter’s. If they had been running the triage tents at the Boston Marathon, traumatic amputees would have waited in line because somebody needing a band-aid was ahead of them in line. Meanwhile, back in Cincinnati, the Anna Louise Inn is being forced to relocate by the Western & Southern Insurance Group, a Fortune 500 company which coveted the parcel of land where the Inn has stood for 100 years. Welcome to America, where the ship of state is crewed by schizophrenics.
fer the thoughts of General William Tecumseh Sherman: “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” The Peace Treaty of 1713 Some weeks ago we were treated to an impromptu sidewalk briefing about one of the most pivotal and least known events in local and regional history: the signing of a Peace Treaty, here in Portsmouth, on July 11th, 1713, between English settlers and the area’s indigenous peoples. Our informant was Charles B. Doleac, chairman of the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth Tricentennial Committee, and an organizer of the
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Centennial in 2005, which commemorated the negotiations at the Shipyard which ended the RussoJapanese War of 1904-05. As Doleac reminded us (we’re reconstructing this from memory and other resources; any errors are our own) the first fifty years were deceptively peaceful for early settlers in the Piscataqua area. Thanks to unfamiliar diseases introduced by European fishermen, the Abenaki population — and their potential resistance — had been radically reduced before they arrived. Another critical factor was a Wampanoag sachem in the Massachusetts Bay area named Massasoit. By negotiating treaties
Vol. CCLVII, No. 18
The Fortnightly Rant
The Inquisition We Expected “[R]oughly one-third of House committees are engaged in investigating some aspect of the Obama administration,” Politico reported on May 13th. That was weeks ago; it may be two-thirds by now — it’s not easy keeping up with Republicans when they’re searching for Democratic skulduggery. Whatever the actual fraction may be, it’s safe to say that the Obama administration is fully engulfed in “scandal.” It’s safe because this is America, where filling a spray can with a gooey orange exudate and marketing it as cheese is not only legal, but profitable. Fishing around in a sewer full of lies is a nasty job, but the Republicans are happy to do it. They truly believe they might come up with an excuse to impeach the President. And it’s not as if it’s keeping them from doing anything important — they’re opposed to governing on principle anyway. The Benghazi Brouhaha Republicans have been trying to use the Benghazi attack to bring down President Obama since the day it happened last fall. Lest we forget, there was a Presidential campaign under way at the time. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s standard bearer, immediately claimed that the President had “sympathized with those who waged the attacks.” Romney had mistaken a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for a statement by the President. Expressing sympathy for Egyptian lives lost in a Cairo riot, it was issued before the Benghazi incident even happened. The Double Standard Back Flip Romney tried to convert the Benghazi tragedy into campaign
fodder, but no one remembers that now. Obama didn’t betray the Benghazi mission, but Republicans believe he did. It’s further proof — which wasn’t really needed — that Mark Twain was right: a lie can go around the world while the truth is pulling its boots on. How bad was Benghazi? According to Rep. Steve King (RIA), “If you link Watergate and Iran-Contra together and multiply it maybe by 10 or so, you’re going to get in the zone where Benghazi is.” A well-known political observer meticulously broke down King’s assessment into its component parts: Benghazi was as bad as an earlier incident in which, “by order of the President of the United States, people broke into the Democratic Headquarters to bug it, to gain strategic advantage in a Presidential election, and then covered that up by trying to use the power of the Presidency to squash the Justice Department, and then added that to the Reagan Administration’s secret deal to illegally sell arms to Iran, in exchange for hostages and money that could then be funneled to Right Wing Central American death squads … times ten.” This analysis, composed only of relevant facts and containing no punch lines, was taken from an online video clip featuring Jon Stewart, of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Do Republicans ever notice that when they accuse Democrats of doing something truly heinous, they usually refer to criminal conspiracies that were committed by Republicans? Of course not — they’re Republicans: born with a genetic defect that causes irony
deficiency. Strange, too, that Republicans now hold up Richard Nixon as a super-villain. Until this business came up, they were treating him as an innocent martyr who was hounded from office by rabidly partisan Democrats. Perhaps the Republicans are just mad because they’re jealous, thinking that the Democrats have had better luck covering up their crimes. If so, they’re wrong again. There have now been nine Congressional hearings on Benghazi alone. During George W. Bush’s presidency 13 Americans were killed in 54 separate embassy attacks — but only three Congressional hearings were held altogether. Now that’s a cover-up. The most successful Benghazi cover-up was committed by Republicans: their public display of hyperventilation over the non-issue of talking points has successfully distracted the public from the drastic cuts they made in the
News Briefs
Why We Fight … And Fight … And Fight … Its patriotic fervor apparently stirred by Memorial Day’s imminence, the Award-Winning Local Daily devoted part of its May 19th issue to an article headlined, “Military Leaders in City to Support Local Vets.” The article quoted retired Army Lt. Col. Danny McKnight, appearing at a local Veterans Count event, “slamming” the handling of the Benghazi incident. “It was ridiculous,” the Herald quoted him saying. “They needed backup and they didn’t get any.” During his career as an Army Ranger, McKnight served most notably in Somalia in 1993. Readers may recall seeing Tom Sizemore play him in the movie Black Hawk Down, commanding a column of HumVees attempting to rescue fellow soldiers from
two helicopters shot down in the heart of Mogadishu. McKnight’s service has unquestionably earned him the thanks and admiration of his fellow citizens — but it did not make him always right. His personal website suggests that his view of the relationship between the military and our democracy is a little bit lopsided. It features a familiar bit of doggerel on the front page that begins: “It’s the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. “It’s the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech….” And so on, ad nauseam. The trouble with paeans to military force is they encourage its use. The authorship of this example
is claimed by Charles M. Province, whose biography on Amazon.com says he “joined the U.S. Army and learned to wire and operate the ancient IBM Punch Card Machines — the precursors to today’s computers.” His photo suggests he might be old enough to have served in Korea; he’s certainly old enough to have been in Vietnam. Since he mentions neither, he almost surely did not. Province is also “the sole and single Founder and President of The George S. Patton, Jr. Historical Society” — though hagiographer might have been a more accurate job description. More appropriate on Memorial Day than mawkish doggerel striving to exalt soldiers before all others — thus sounding more Spartan than American — we of-
News Briefs to page two
Page 2 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, May 31, 2013
News Briefs from page one allowing whites to occupy certain territories and otherwise acting as an intermediary, he reduced the friction netween natives and settlers. That relative tranquility ended abruptly in June of 1675 after Plymouth Colony officials hanged three Wampanoags for a murder. One of the hanged men had been an advisor to Metacomet, Massasoit’s son and successor, called “King Philip” by the English. During King Philip’s War the Abenaki in the Piscataqua region, and north along the Maine coast, allied themselves with the Wampanoags. Half the towns in New England were attacked and twelve of them were utterly destroyed. By the time it was over in 1678, approximately 600 settlers had been killed — the equivalent of losing 77,000 New Englanders today. Ten years later hostilities resumed at full boil, largely due to
the ham-handedness of Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of the Dominion of New England. A number of notable local slaughters followed, including at Dover in 1689, Salmon Falls in 1690, South Berwick in 1691, York in 1692, and Portsmouth in 1694, 95, and 96. After a brief interlude, Queen Anne’s War again made English life precarious along the Maine coast. In 1704, Wabanaki warriors and their French allies even struck as far south as Deerfield, in Massachusetts, where 56 were killed and more than 100 captured. Hostilities eventually resumed after the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth — the English failed to uphold their part of the bargain. The Treaty did play a key role in the evolution of this area from a beleaguered frontier to a thriving colony. Two special exhibits, “First Nations Diplomacy Opens the Portsmouth Door,” which opened on May 1 at the Portsmouth Historical Society’s John Paul Jones House Museum, and another at
A week’s worth of leaky gray skies finally surrendered on Monday. The sun shone once again on the Memorial Day Parade, and all the requisite rituals were flawlessly observed.
Strawbery Banke Museum, tell its story. For more information, including a list of events, steer your web browser to 1713TreatyofPortsmouth.com. Downward Into the Past There may be no better way to gain an appreciation of how life was three centuries ago than to participate in this summer’s Old Fields Archaeological Field School in South Berwick, where Wabanakis attacked in 1691. “Participants … will focus on uncovering a stone structure unearthed last year and try to confirm its association with the late home, tavern, and garrison of early settlers Humphrey and Mary Spencer, who lived here 300 years ago,” said Dr. Neill De Paoli, who is directing excavations. “Residents of old Berwick established a number of these refuges throughout the town during the Anglo-Indian wars that raged throughout much of Maine and New Hampshire from 1675 to the late 1720s,” De Paoli explained. “The dig’s primary objective is to determine whether the property was the site of the ‘garrisons’ of William Spencer and his nephew
Humphrey Spencer from c. 1690 until c. 1713.” The Old Fields Archaeological Field School begins June 17. Participants may sign up for one or more of the five 1-week sessions running from June 17 to July 5 and July 15 to July 26. A single week costs $175; multiple sessions are discounted. Registration has been extended to Saturday, June 15. The program will be held Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Participants must be at least 16.
The Fortnight in Religion Shortly after the recent tornado in Moore, OK, several websites posted a video clip which they said showed Pat Robertson blamTOM D’EVELYN writing tutor & editor Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. – Oscar Wilde tomdevelynblog.com
ing the Oklahomans for their own suffering. “If enough people were praying He would’ve intervened,” Roberston says in the clip. “You could pray. Jesus stilled the storm. You can still storms.” But the websites’ charges were not true. Robertson was not blaming Oklahomans for the May 20th disaster that killed 24 people. In the year-old clip, the founder of the highly profitable Christian Broadcasting Network was actually blaming Alabamians, Indianans, Kentuckians, and Ohioans for a cluster of seventy tornadoes that hit the Ohio Valley region on March 2 and 3, 2012, killing 43. Inexplicably New Hampshire, which ranks next to last among all the states for its level of religious observance — only Vermont is more godless than us — averages just 1.5 tornadoes per year. Oklahoma, on the other hand — the 9th most religious state in the union — averages one tornado every 33 hours during the month of May. First the Bees, Then the Birds, or, Neonicotinoids, Part Trois Four weeks ago, prompted by a dispatch from Don Green, Emer-
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Friday, May 31, 2013 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 3
itus Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UNH, we ran an item about the threat that neonicotinoid pesticides pose to domesticated bees and, by extension, the crops they pollinate. Our food, in other words. A fortnight later we published a follow-up about a new study of wild bees and other non-domesticated pollinators. It turns out they’re far more important than anyone knew — and they’re also susceptible to neonicotinoids. In what we hope will be the final installment of this horrible saga, we have an excerpt from the synopsis of a study by the American Bird Conservatory (ABC), “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds.” “The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible
mode of action in invertebrates raise environmental concerns that go well beyond bees…. “[N]eonicotinoids are lethal to birds as well as to the aquatic systems on which they depend…. “[N]eonicotinoid contamination levels in surface and groundwater in the U.S. and around the world are strikingly high, already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates. EPA risk assessments have greatly underestimated this risk, using scientifically unsound, outdated methodology that has more to do with a game of chance than with a rigorous scientific process. “Major risk concerns raised by scientists both inside and outside the agency appear to have gone unheeded in agency registration decisions. The older insecticides that the neonicotinoids largely replaced … were highly damaging to people and wildlife. What is so disturbing is that in their
On Thursday, May 23rd, workers for contractor Archer-Western installed this huge cable-handling sheave atop the south tower of the new Memorial Bridge. By the following Tuesday the remaining three sheaves were in their places. The main event in this multi-year drama will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, June 10th. Starting then, according to a river-closing agreement with the Coast Guard, the contractor will have exactly five days in which to float in the lift span, position it, connect the lifting cables, and complete all the necessary electrical connections so that the span may be lifted and allow ships to pass. They will have until 9:00 a.m. Saturday, June 15th.
© 2013 by Dan Woodman
rush to register alternatives, regulators have approved more and more neonicotinoid products for an ever-growing number of uses without regard to the red flags raised by their experts concerning this persistent, cumulative, irreversibly-acting new class of pesticides. “Neonicotinoids are currently under registration review by EPA. The Agency’s decision to approve, restrict, suspend, or cancel these powerful insecticides will have profound environmental and economic impact. We have a small window of opportunity in which to act; EPA’s next review of this class of pesticides will not occur for at least 15 years, and the damage done in those intervening years will be irreversible.” The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its partners in the National Pesticide Reform Coalition are urging the EPA to take the following actions: • Suspend all applications of neonicotinoids pending independent review of these products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and
aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife. • Expand its re-registration review of neonicotinoids beyond bees to include birds, aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife. • Ban the use of neonicotinoids as seed treatments. • Require that registrants of acutely toxic pesticides develop the tools necessary to diagnose poisoned birds and other wildlife. As a correspondent of Don’s wrote, “after we kill off the primary pollinators, we’ll finish killing off one our primary pest control agents.” This being the Gazette, our readers will expect, if not bloody corporate handprints, at least a circumstantial case of federal nonfeasance. And here it is, in a paragraph from the ABC’s Executive Summary: “There is evidence the neonicotinoids got a very ‘soft ride’through registration. Based on the existing record, registration decisions concerning the neonicotinoid insecticides were overwhelmingly positive despite a consistent record of
cautionary warnings from the scientists involved in the assessment process. Increased concerns in the scientific and popular literature over imidacloprid, clothianidin and other neonicotinoid insecticides did not deter pesticide manufacturers, who appeared to be in a race to register as many uses as possible. It looks as if the U.S. EPA and other regulatory agencies consistently approved registrations despite their own scientists’ repeated and ever-growing concerns. It is relevant to ask why we conduct scientific evaluations of products if those evaluations have little or no bearing on the registration decisions that are made, and when staff scientists warning of ‘major risk concerns’ appear to be ignored.” The ABC, composed as it is of polite and upstanding folks, won’t say it, so we will: the pesticide manufacturers have captured their regulators. The birds and the bees and we ourselves may all die as a result — but the stockholders will die filthy rich, trying to take it with them.
Page 4 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, May 31, 2013
Sen. Stiles Flips, Flops To the Editor Once again, State Sen. Nancy Stiles has flip-flopped on two issues of importance to the public. Before the 2012 election, Stiles voted against the use of public tax money to support private school vouchers and for the repeal of the Stand Your Ground law. After winning the 2012 election, Stiles let down those who had supported her by changing her vote on both issues, first on school vouchers and very recently on the Stand Your Ground law. Technically, Stiles and the State Senate voted to table repeal of Stand Your Ground, but the practical effect is to kill it. For 34 years prior to the adoption of Stand Your Ground in 2011, New Hampshire operated without problems under the Castle Doctrine. The Castle Doctrine allowed homeowners to defend their homes and property with deadly force. Outside the home, citizens were allowed to use deadly force if they had exhausted every reasonable means to avoid a perilous situation and had shot only as a last resort. The Stand Your Ground law was introduced to solve a problem that did not exist. The Castle Doctrine was functioning in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Stand Your Ground does not improve public safety, it actually makes life more dangerous. This law virtually legalizes murder. Suppose two people argue, and one shoots and kills the other. If there are no
witnesses, the shooter can be acquitted simply by claiming that he felt threatened. The dead man is in no position to contradict that claim. In addition, according to the Stand Your Ground law, if the gunman accidentally shoots a bystander, the victim cannot sue the shooter if he survives. If the victim doesn’t survive, the remaining family members cannot sue either. Mark Hoekstra, an economist with Texas A&M University, studied the effect of Stand Your Ground laws in the various states. According to National Public Radio ( January 2, 2013), Hoekstra said, “Our study finds that homicides go up by 7 to 9 percent in states that pass the laws, relative to states that didn’t pass the laws over the same time period …. We find that there are 500 to 700 more homicides per year across the 23 states as a result of the laws.” As to whether Stand Your Ground laws reduce crime by creating a deterrent for criminals, Hoekstra says, “we find no evidence of any deterrent effect over the same time period.” By changing her vote on the Stand Your Ground law, Stiles not only misled voters who supported her, but contributed to a growing culture of violence in the United States. Gary Patton, Hampton, NH § Atheist Likes New Pope Francis To the Editor: As an Atheist I have to say thank you to the new Catholic Pope Francis when he said, according to Vatican Radio, “the Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics.” Everyone! “Father, the atheists?” “Even the atheists. Everyone!” Francis went on to say that “we all have a duty to do good.” Of course we Atheists don’t believe in Heaven or Hell, but that
doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the spirit of the statement. Up until now the official position of the Catholic Church was that we Atheists were subhuman, evil, and that we deserved death and eternal damnation. And of course we in the reality-based community didn’t like that; and who would? But now a paradigm has been established. The new message is that everyone who does good goes to Heaven regardless of what they believe and that we all have a duty to do good. I too believe we all have a duty to do good. Now Realists and Catholics have more in common. I have always thought that Christians were cheating the system with judgment being based on what you believe rather than what you do, and that they claimed divine forgiveness for merely confessing very bad behavior. I always thought, “Really, you think God is that stupid?” Now I think that God is smarter than he used to be and I have more respect for the story. I see this as a significant step forward for both Catholics and Realists, and with the Dalai Lama also moving towards an all-inclusive world view, I see new respect happening between Realists, Catholics, and Buddhists. Now, if we can get the Protestants and Muslims on board maybe we can all work together as one world and make this reality a better place to exist in. Marc Perkel Gilroy, CA § Protest Shaheen, Not The IRS To the Editor: Groups in New Hampshire who may have been targeted by the IRS should know that despite her expression of disapproval this was done at the request of some U.S. Senators, including their own Jeanne Shaheen in both 2010 and 2012. This is not the first time Shaheen has shown herself to be a hypocrite.
Mash Notes, Hate Mail,
Shaheen’s Manchester and Hampstead offices are where the 2007 New Hampshire Tea Party movement was involved in protests after the Affordable Healthcare Act was introduced with the election of Obama in 2008. Shaheen was being called out for her refusal to hold any Obamacare town halls. After 80 of us showed up at her Hampstead office, she lied about our efforts by putting out a completely false and misleading press release blaming us for blocking her “constituents” from getting help. Imagine, if you will, that she contended we were not her New Hampshire constituents when we were, and when it was really our group that was being blocked? No one from out of state, paid for by “Washington insiders, insurance companies, or well-financed special interests,” as she claimed we were, would ever have been allowed to be part of our group. However, there were exactly three supporters of Obamacare who stood outside. They wore purple shirts and admitted to us that they were paid to be there by SEIU of Massachusetts, including an illegal alien. We will remember come election time. Jane Aitken Bedford, NH Jane: Don’t be so sensitive. Sen. Shaheen was clearly referring to professionally-staffed, billionaire-funded, tax-dodging propaganda outfits, not you personally. The Editor § Tax Crank Seizes Opportunity To the Editor: Americans For Fair Taxation (AFFT), outraged by the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) continued political abuse and intimidation of citizens and organizations, is calling on Congress to imme-
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diately enact HR25/S122, the FairTax Act of 2013, and phase out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). “No person or group is safe from IRS targeting; everyone is a bull’s eye,” said AFFT spokesperson Cynthia T. Canevaro. She added, “The agency, with over 90,000 employees and an annual budget in excess of $12 billion, has historically been the ultimate tool of extreme political manipulation by politicians of both major parties. That’s exactly what our Founding Fathers feared.” “These types of abuses are nothing new,” said Dan Mastromarco, tax attorney and co-author of HR25/S122. He added, “In 1819 former Chief Justice John Marshall warned in McCulloch v. Maryland that, ‘An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.’ The FairTax Act is the only way in which Congress can once and for all eliminate the harassment, political exploitation and selective enforcement against perceived dissidents. It levels the playing field and redistributes power to the citizens who pay the taxes.” The FairTax Plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with a national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment which authorized the creation of the income tax. “Congress has enabled IRS activities with more than 5,000 code changes in just 11 years and even expanded their scope to include enforcement of major provisions of Obamacare,” said Canevaro. Congress created this problem.
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Friday, May 31, 2013 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 5
And Other Correspondence They now have an opportunity to correct it by enacting the FairTax Plan and asking the President to join them in signing the measure into law. AFFT was formed in 1995. It is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) nonpartisan, grassroots organization solely dedicated to providing education on the FairTax Plan (HR25/S122) to all members of the public, elected and appointed public officials and candidates for elected office — regardless of party affiliation. AFFT does not advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for public office and does not favor any candidate over another. Cynthia T. Canevaro Americans for Fair Taxation Houston, TX Cynthia: Come on, now, ’fes up: you were outraged about the Income Tax long before that office in Cincinnati was exposed for trying to enforce the rules for a change. We Googled Mr. Mastromarco, whom you credit with co-authoring HR25/S122. Call us conservative, but we like the old way better, when elected Members of Congress and their staffs were supposed to write our legislation, not lobbyists. Speaking of lobbyists, there is one thing we like about this business: the way certain political operatives have managed to ride the gravy train for fourteen years by pushing this crackpot scheme, despite its never having gotten out of committee. The Editor § Odd Diplomacy in Benghazi To the Editor: Anyone that has ever visited an overseas U.S. Embassy or Consulate would surely recall being greeted at the entrance by sharply uniformed U.S. Marines. Marine Security Guards, not CIA paramilitary personnel, are responsible for providing security
at U.S. embassies and consulates. Elite MSG members are trained “to react to terrorist acts as well as a variety of emergencies such as fires, riots, demonstrations and evacuations.” My skepticism surrounding the actual identity, mission and circumstances of the “U.S. Consulate in Libya (Benghazi)” was further fueled by a foreign policy speech delivered by Mrs. Paula Broadwell at the University of Denver in October. Mrs. Broadwell was the official biographer and reportedly the closest confidante of retired Army General and former CIA Head, David Petraeus, who abruptly resigned his post not long following her speech. Broadwell exclaimed: “Now, I don’t know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back….” She asserted: “The challenging thing for General Petraeus is that in his new position, he’s not allowed to communicate with the press. So he’s known all of this — they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya. Within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening.” Interestingly, President Obama issued an Executive Order in 2009 to end extraordinary rendition, requiring the closure of “black sites” and banning torture. Hence, it should be no surprise that the President was likely not briefed on the CIA Benghazi operation and why the administration was provided talking points (delivered by Ambassador Rice) on Benghazi from the CIA and not the State Department. The Right Wing media and Republican Senators and Representatives like Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte and U.S.
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Congressman Darrell Issa want us stupid people to believe that their Benghazi thumping isn’t politically motivated but all about delivering the truth to Americans. The latter goal will unfortunately require making General Petraeus and Mrs. Broadwell raise their right hands at a fully public Congressional Hearing on Benghazi. Senators John McCain (RAZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte (R) all insist that their relentless pursuit of the Obama Administration’s handling of matters concerning the U.S. “Consulate” in Benghazi, Libya is not about discrediting the President or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but all about uncovering the unadulterated truth for the American people. The right wing media and GOP establishment’s “search for the truth” has reminded me of the famous scene from, “A Few Good Men,” where Navy JAG Lt (j.g.) Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) confronts Marine Col. Nathan R. Jessup ( Jack Nicholson) in a military court regarding Jessup’s “Code Red” cover up. The scene went: Jessup: I’ll answer the question. You want answers? Kaffee: I think I’m entitled! Jessup: You want answers? Kaffee: I want the truth! Jessup: You can’t handle the truth! Prior to a closed door hearing with former CIA Head David Petraeus, Senator Graham asserted, “I don’t see how in the world you can find out what happened in Benghazi before, during, and after the attack if General Petraeus doesn’t testify.” I couldn’t agree more since Benghazi was apparently not your typical embassy/ consulate operation! Neither Graham nor his friends had braced themselves for the General’s private testimony which exonerated the administration’s use of declassified talking
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points, produced by the CIA. A clearly agitated McCain stated, “General Petraeus’ briefing was comprehensive. I think it was important; it added to our ability to make judgments about what was clearly a failure of intelligence, and described his actions and that of his agency and their interactions with other agencies.” If our Senators are as serious about the truth as they claim, they will not deny America the opportunity to witness public testimony by Petraeus and his biographer/ confidante, Mrs. Paula Broadwell. One may recall that Broadwell had already spoken publicly (October 26, 2012), presumably parroting General Petraeus, about events in Benghazi that went well beyond what the public had been privy to. Not only can we handle the truth, we should be demanding it from McCain, Graham and Ayotte, who are deliberately concealing vital, inconvenient facts for political motives. Wayne H. Merritt Dover, NH § Wage Reduction vs. Changing the Tax System To the Editor: Jobs have been lost in this country for over 30 years due to our lack of competitiveness. It’s cheaper to go out of the country for most manufacturers than to make products here. People who haven’t lost their jobs are squeezed to do more with less. Sound familiar? How do we fix this? There are a few ways, but two of them are: 1) cut 75 percent out of our wages and benefits (a $20/ hr job is reduced to $5/hr) or; 2) change our income tax system. A no-brainer. There is a bill in Congress, HR25 the Fair Tax bill, that guts the current federal tax on income and replaces it with a tax on consumption of new goods and services. The economy thrives, as good paying jobs return. Without taxes on income, 14 trillion dollars that sits offshore can return
to be invested in America. More than 95 percent of the IRS is no longer needed and the 400 billion dollars that is spent annually to comply with our current tax system can be invested in more productive things. Today’s system penalizes productivity, hard work, investments, savings, and other things Americans and good old common sense tells us to do. Call your Congressman today and tell him to support the Fair Tax Bill. Anthony Gasbarro Fairhope, AL Anthony: You begin by asserting that a 75 percent cut in wages and benefits would have the same effect on our national competitiveness as your pet Fair Tax scheme. We’ll see your straw man argument, and raise you: elves and dwarves could more easily defeat orcs if they wore tinfoil helmets inscribed with images taken from crop circles. If the orcs were defeated, the IRS would no longer be a problem. QED. The Editor § Hey, Tito! To the Editor: As someone who is part Native American and also a former healthcare professional in the Indian Health Service, I was appalled to see Terry Francona return to Fenway Park on May 23rd wearing the disgusting Cleveland More Hate Mail, &c. to page six
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Page 6 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, May 31, 2013
Northcountry Chronicle
The Public-Safety Sham by William Marvel
W
e spent much of last weekend around Durham, attending the 2013 honors convocation at UNH and helping our graduating senior find her first car. One of her primary criteria, and one of ours, was good gas mileage, but in the end we all compromised slightly on mileage in favor of safety. The most economical and environmentally sound cars — like my Honda — are potential death traps in headon collisions. Experienced drivers have some chance of avoiding accidents, but novices like her are sitting ducks for the new national pastime of wandering into the oncoming lanes of our highways. As I drove to Manchester last month, three drivers came far enough over the yellow line on Routes 16, 25, and 104 that I had to lay on my horn to wake them up, and I had to veer onto the shoulder to avoid one of them. Two of them had cell phones plastered to their heads, and the
other was looking down at something: I think most people would share my suspicion that it was a text message. Three years ago Reuters reported that motorists texting or talking on cell phones had killed an estimated 16,000 people in the United States between 2001 and 2007, and that annual “harvest” escalated sharply as cell phones proliferated. By official count, distracted drivers killed 3092 Americans in 2010, and 3331 in 2011, besides injuring 387,000. Last month the Center for Disease Control calculated that at least nine people are killed and 1060 seriously injured every day in the U.S. as a result of drivers’ visual, manual, or cognitive distraction— all three of which are involved in the use of cell phones. The real statistics are probably much higher. The CDC announcement was almost immediately followed by news stories focusing on the under-reporting of cell-phone use or texting in serious accidents. Unless survi-
vors can and will testify that a death-car driver was engaged in such reckless behavior, police usually do not investigate cell phones as a contributing factor in major accidents. Mortality estimates run as high as 6000 from that cause per year, with half a million injuries. In 2010 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration prohibited all cell phone use by the operators of commercial vehicles. A year later the National Transportation Safety Board recommended an outright ban on the use of cell phones by all motorists, but laws governing private vehicle operation are determined by individual states. Like many state legislatures, ours is timid about outlawing such a popular activity, however deadly it may be. That puts the lie to all those theatrical claims of concern about public safety. Liberal legislators in particular find it easier and safer to ride the wave of public hysteria over guns, although cell phones are far worse killers. Accurately or
not, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript claimed last March that 1457 people died on New Hampshire highways between 2001 and 2009 — a hefty percentage of them killed by distracted drivers. In that same period, the Ledger admitted, firearms killed only 83 people in this state, aside from deliberate suicides. Those 83 deaths — barely nine per year — included accidents and justifiable homicides, whether by citizens or police. The New Hampshire General Court finally banned texting while driving, but that law is virtually unenforceable because it still allows phone use by drivers. I can’t remember seeing the prosecution of a single texting violation in our voluminous police reports, although it is unusual to sit at a stoplight without spotting people staring at their cell phones. Other than this toothless texting ban, even our liberal legislature of 2009-10 refused to address the issue, although that Democrat-dominated body did try to
impose mandatory seatbelt use on the unconvincing pretext of concern for public safety. If those inconsistent ideologues greeted the gun debate with identical logic, they would repeal all existing regulations on firearms and instead pass a law forcing every citizen to wear bulletproof vests. That hypocrisy lends bitter irony to the mawkish exploitation of relatively rare shooting incidents. Nationwide, preoccupied predators wielding cell phones rack up the body count of another Newtown massacre at least every 72 hours. Meanwhile, sensationalist media and cowardly, pandering politicians reserve their righteous indignation for “special” victims, like children — and preferably only when they are butchered by the roomful. Thousands of common citizens routinely killed by unintentional negligence are no less dead and no less innocent than those murdered in spectacular crimes by armed lunatics, but somehow they seem less deserving of protection.
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substantial reductions in temperatures relative to the coal-based system will depend on some mix of conservation, solar, wind, nuclear and possibly carbon capture and storage. Economic efficiency points to the urgent need to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, now rather than later. Waiting is not only economically costly, but will also make the transition more expensive when it eventually takes place. Current research studies suggest that the most efficient and effective policy is to raise the cost of CO2 emissions substantially, either through
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ages, and mascots in 1999. Terry Francona should stand tall and refuse to wear the Chief Wahoo mascot on his baseball uniform. It would send a strong message that hopefully will result in the team finally shelving Chief Wahoo forever. John Meinhold Portsmouth, NH § Sun, Wind, & Tide To the Editor: “We should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind and tide… I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!” —
m
Cleveland’s American Indian Education Center and a Chiricahua Apache tribal member said, “If you stand here long enough, you’ll see that racism is alive and well in Cleveland.” Native Americans continue to be the most ostracized ethnic group in our country. They tragically lead our nation in rates of unemployment, poverty, suicide, diabetes and alcoholism. Why do the Cleveland Indians wish to give them another “black eye” by using Chief Wahoo as their mascot? The NAACP passed a resolution calling for the end of the use of Native American names, im-
Su
Indians “Chief Wahoo” mascot (a red-faced, buck-toothed Indian) on his hat and shirt. Native Americans have been protesting the Cleveland Indians organization for some 30 years to stop using the Chief Wahoo mascot. The Native American protesters are told Chief Wahoo is a historical symbol for the team. Is the Cleveland Indians team proud they endorse historical racism? Native Americans who protest at the Cleveland Indians stadium are met with slurs and heckles from fans. During a protest last year, CNN reported that Robert Roche, executive director of
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Friday, May 31, 2013 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Page 7
Corporate Kleptocrats Are The Real Radicals “Outside radical groups,” squawked Rep. Scott Garrett at a recent Republican inquisition into a citizens’ petition that’s been submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Garrett is foaming at the mouth on behalf of corporate chieftains who’re pouring unlimited (and untold) amounts of their shareholders’ money into our elections.
The great majority of Americans agree that, at the very least, shareholders have a right to be told how much of their money is being spent on behalf of which candidates. So, more than 500,000 citizens have petitioned the SEC for such a disclosure rule. Who are these scary citizens, considered such a threat to corporate power that a Congress critter is tarring them publicly as outside radicals? They’re professors from
leading law schools, state and national elected officials, pension fund directors, public interest advocates, and corporate shareholders. Not exactly outsiders, much less radicals. And that’s what makes them so dangerous to the autocratic elites who run corporations as their own fiefdoms. Top executives want no accountability for the hundredsof-millions of shareholder dollars they’re spending to elect corpo-
rate lickspittles like Garrett. Don’t question us, they demand, just trust us. Uh … no. Far from earning trust, they’ve already wrecked our economy and betrayed our nation’s egalitarian ideals — while feathering their own plutocratic nests. Now they want free reign to pervert America’s democratic process with clandestine election campaigns secretly financed with other people’s money.
NO! These kleptocrats are the real radicals. It’s time to stop them, not only by disclosing their thievery, but ultimately by outlawing it — and retuning elections to the people. To join the effort, contact Public Citizen: www.citizen.org. § Copyright 2013 by Jim Hightower & Associates. Contact Laura Ehrlich (laura@jimhightower.com) for more information. §
cap-and-trade or carbon taxes, to provide appropriate incentives for businesses and household to move to low-carbon alternatives. Each of us must do our part for the sake of future generations and the survival of our endangered planet. No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson Bangkok, Thailand § Patriots? To the Editor: Funny thing — the extreme right politically likes to call themselves “patriots” and wrap themselves in the American flag. But they also constantly push positions that show a profound disrespect for what our country stands for. The most basic display of this is their effort to stop the government of the United States from functioning because they want “less government.” To them, the government is a self-created enemy of the people not that most basic ideal of our system, the elected representation of all the people. Our country is the United States of America; if you want to honor the flag and be a patriot, you ought to understand that you are talking about the whole country and that the governance of the country requires the members of the Congress of the United States
to act on those things necessary for the proper administration and well-being of the whole country. That means negotiating with people who have different views and coming to some conclusion. And yet what we have is Congress filibustering anything that is not precisely what a stubborn minority wants while also setting records for the fewest bills passed. The representatives of the people are supposed to try to make government work, not work to make government fail. So what do we get: the “Sequester,” which is hurting children in Head Start, hurting seniors dependent on Meals on Wheels, hurting medical research which is designed not only to save lives but also reduce costs of care, and on and on. How can we be proud and patriotic if we do things like that because the Congress finds it easier to let a dumb “solution” like the “Sequester” go forward instead of doing the work to put in place a compromise, intelligent budget? How can we look around the world and see countries with better education results, better health care outcomes, more and better new infrastructure and still take the attitude that not only are we the best in everything but the United States government should not involve itself with helping to insure that we are doing our best
to be the best. Real pride, real patriotism require honest hard work in governing. Bob Wilkinson Portsmouth, NH Bob: It’s a dismal tribute to the volume and vehemence of the blather being spouted by the Right Wing that such common sense views as yours are rarely able to rise above the din. The Editor § Bring Back Cholera! To the Editor: There is a little-known vaccine tax assessment bill, HB 664, an act relative to the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, working its way through the New Hampshire legislature, that will impose a new, limitless tax assessment on every self-insured business and municipality in the state of New Hampshire that would have the effect of imposing an expanded de facto vaccine mandate on all children for all vaccines ever recommended for use, including new, unproven, largely experimental vaccines. This bill should be properly voted down. The bill is now in the Senate and needs your urgent attention and is expected to be voted on by the full Senate on May 23rd. Please contact your State Senator today by phone and email and ask them to please vote
“no” on HB 664. Whether you are a business or taxpayer concerned about the ever-increasing cost of health insurance or a parent concerned about the ever-increasing vaccine mandates, this is a bill you do not want passed. Please know that no harm will come if this bill is not passed, that the vaccine association will continue to operate as it has for 10 years assessing health insurers and through DHHS purchasing all vaccines ever recommended by the CDC. No one will be denied vaccines and there will be no shortage. But voting down HB664 will force the Vaccine Association and DHHS to explain to the public why they are engaged in the most expensive vaccine purchase program in the country, a universal purchase program that has been rejected by 44 other states. It will force this association to provide greater disclosure to the public if they expect the public to pay more and more. Please, it is urgent that you contact your state senator today and ask them to vote NO on HB664. Laura Condon, New Hampshire State Director of Advocacy for NVIC Bedford, NH Laura: You know, a certain amount of self-confidence is a good and necessary thing in this world. People have
to be able to think for themselves if they’re ever going to get anywhere. But when bands of like-minded paranoid conspiracists start getting it into their heads that they know more about the human immune system than laboratory scientists and longestablished medical associations, we start to get a little bit concerned. The Editor
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Will We Be Of Help? To the Editor: I meet an African guy on dating site, he convinced me to come down and live with him pretending to Love me, after coming down from the States with a enough money which I intended investing with and even went to extent of selling my father’s properties (of $4.5million) he is trying to made away with my money. Which I deposited the money shipping company where he took me in a root area. I’m a foreigner here and it is dangerous for me here, this is why I need your gesture assistance. Will you be of help? Sincerely yours, Sharon Lee Location: Unknown Sharon: We’d like to help, but can’t until you pay back the $17 million we fronted you last year as a down payment on your uncle’s diamond mine. The Editor
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Page 8 - The New Hampshire Gazette - Friday, May 31, 2013
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
whom 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.
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2003—The FCC further eases the rules against media monopoly, just to be fair to huge corporations. 2002—The CIA admits to Congress—in a classified document, so citizens won’t be unduly alarmed— that it had been tracking one of the 9/11 hijackers months earlier than it had previously admitted. 1999—The Virginian-Pilot reports that evangelist Pat Robertson has had “extensive dealings” with Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor. 1989—Rolling Stones guitarist Bill Wyman, 52, marries Mandy Smith, 19. 1983—As a result of a toilet fire aboard an Air Canada DC-9, 23 people die in Cincinnati, including singer Stan Rogers. 1964—The Rolling Stones begin their first U.S. tour with a gig in Lynn, MA. On the same bill: Bobby Goldsboro & Bobby Vee. 1943—The U.S. Navy determines that John Lewis “Jack” Kerouac, 21, is too “schizoid” to serve. 1941—RIP Lou Gehrig. 1886—Grover Cleveland, 47, marries Frances Folsom, 21, at the White House. 1855—In Portland, ME, a protest against prohibition by hundreds of people, largely Irish immigrants, devolves into a riot involving thousands. 1835—P.T. Barnum and his circus begin their first tour.
2002—Hosni Mubarak announces that Egypt warned the U.S., on or about 9/4/01, that al-Qaeda was ready to unleash something against the U.S. 1980—A failed 46 cent computer chip convinces the Pentagon that a Soviet attack on the U.S. is about to begin. 1974—Brown & Williamson Tobacco tests a cigarette blended to smell like pot. 1968—Radical lesbian Valerie Solanas plugs Andy Warhol. 1964—Longtime correspondents Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot finally meet for dinner. 1961—Henry R. Marshall, an Agriculture Department official, is found dead with five slugs in him from a bolt-action rifle. The death is listed as a suicide. 1943—Fifty sailors sneak weapons out of the L.A. armory, escalating the “Zoot Suit Riots.” 1942—Battle of Midway starts. 1851—The New York Knickerbockers introduce the first baseball uniforms: white shirts, long blue trousers, and straw hats. 1793—Charles Pierce establishes the Oracle of the Day, later the Portsmouth Journal. 1761—Birth of Henry Shrapnel, inventor of the shrapnel shell. 1678—In Portsmouth, tything men are appointed “to inspect the neighbor’s families.”
2006—A Ukranian man enters the lion cage at the Kiev zoo, saying “God will save me, if he exists.” A lion kills him. 2004—In Granby, CO, Marvin Heemeyer, in his armored bulldozer, destroys the Town Hall, the mayor’s home, and 11 other buildings because “God … asked [him] to do it.” 2003—To prove they’re not soft on corporate crime, federal prosecutors pick on Martha Stewart. 2003—George W. Bush says he’s “the master of low expectations.” 1989—The Chinese Army kills thousands at Tiananmen Square. 1974—Cleveland forfeits a home game to the Rangers when tencent beer night goes awry. 1966—James Meredith takes a bullet for voter registration. 1962—The first U.S. attempt to test a nuke at high altitude fails when a Thor rocket malfunctions and is blown up minutes after liftoff over the South Pacific. 1944—For the first time a submarine—U505—is captured and boarded on the high seas. 1940—The last of 338,000 Allied troops are evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. 1939—The St. Louis, carrying 963 Jewish refugees, is turned away from Florida. Most of them later die in Hitler’s concentration camps.
2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Oddly, many more do not. 1989—A lone Chinese man temporarily stops a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. 1986—A man in Auburn, WA dies after taking a cyanide-laced Excedrin. 1976—In Idaho, the federal Teton Dam fails, killing 11 and costing nearly $1B. 1968—Robert Kennedy is fatally shot in Los Angeles. The subsequent investigation by the Police Department leaves no doubt among the gullible that Sirhan Sirhan did it. 1967—Israel attacks Egypt and Syria, starting the Six Day War. 1965—The State Department admits that U.S. troops are engaged in combat in Vietnam. 1963—Britain’s Sec. of War John Profumo resigns after it’s revealed he and a Soviet naval officer had, at different times, shared the favors of the same prostitute. 1919—The Palmer Raids begin with the arrests of sixty-seven anarchists. 1917—Draft registration begins in the U.S. 1885—The Know-Nothing Party holds its first convention. 1878—Birth of Doroteo Arango Arámbula, later known as “Pancho Villa.”
2002—Donald Rumsfeld tells the unknowing that unknown unknowns are “things we do not know we don’t know” — he should know. 1989—The manufacture of nuclear weapon components at Rocky Flats, CO ends when FBI and EPA agents raid the joint. 1989—Greenpeace reports there are 50 nuclear weapons and nine reactors on the ocean floor. 1989—California citizens vote to shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant. 1988—At a food irradiation plant in Georgia, “unbreakable” cesium capsules break, nuking ten workers. 1980—Nuke-armed B-52s go on alert for the 2nd time in three days after a computer glitch signals a Soviet attack on the U.S. 1975—Governor Mel Thomson calls for the NH National Guard to be armed with nuclear weapons. 1970—Generals gathered at Charleston Air Force Base to observe the first operational C-5A landing see a wheel fall off after a tire blows out. 1944—GIs experience an unusually long day in Normandy. 1933—The first drive-in movie theatre opens, in Camden, NJ. 1930—William Beebe and Otis Barton go 803 feet below the ocean’s surface in a bathysphere. 1918—Marines’ suffer their bloodiest day in history at Belleau Woods.
1997—Activists are arrested for passing out the Bill of Rights outside the pro-nuclear Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. 1969—In Vietnam, Marine PFC Dan Bullock, 15, becomes the youngest American soldier to die in combat since the First World War. 1960—An A-bomb is incinerated in an anti-aircraft missile fire 20 miles from Trenton, NJ. 1924—George Mallory disappears near the summit of Mt. Everest. 1917—Ten thousand Germans and the town of Messines are destroyed as British engineers detonate 19 huge mines whose explosion can be heard in Dublin. 1915—Alfred Muhler falls 8,000 feet from a damaged Zeppelin, crashes through the roof of a Belgian convent, and lives. 1899—A future Prime Minister of England writes Cornish, NH novelist Winston Churchill that he’ll sign future books with the middle initial S. to avoid confusion. 1862—Disabled Mexican War vet William B. Mumford is hanged in New Orleans for treason, to wit: desecration of the U.S. flag, under orders from Deerfield, NH-born Gen. Benjamin “The Beast” Butler. 1692—Port Royal, Jamaica—“the wickedest city in the world”—is destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Thousands of whores and pirates perish.
2003—Condi Rice admits G.W. Bush’s State of the Union claim that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Niger was wrong. 1998—General Sani Abacha, de facto President of Nigeria, dies in the company of two prostitutes, of a heart attack allegedly caused by an overdose of Viagra. 1971—Being interviewed on tape for “The Dick Cavett Show,” health expert J.I. Rodale says “I never felt better in my life!” Minutes later he’s dead of a heart attack. 1967—Israeli aircraft and boats attack the unarmed spy ship U.S.S. Liberty with rockets, machine guns, and napalm, killing 34 sailors and wounding 171. 1966—At NYU, 270 walk out on Robert Strange McNamara’s commencement speech. 1959—John Penton leaves New York City for Los Angeles on a BMW R69S motorcycle. He arrives there 52 hours later. 1956—Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. becomes the first American serviceman to die in the Vietnam War. He’s murdered by a fellow American airman. 1952—“I would never send troops [to Vietnam],” says Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower. 1944—FDR signs the GI Bill. The president of the U. of Chicago, warns that “colleges would become educational hobo jungles.”
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1989—James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, admits to a House investigating committee that he was paid $400,000 for making a few phone calls on a topic he knew nothing about. 1978—The Mormon Church drops its policy of excluding black men from the priesthood. 1958—British writer Auberon Waugh, aboard an armored car in Cyprus, shakes the barrel of a malfunctioning machine gun, accidentally shooting himself in the chest several times. 1958—Jerry Lee Lewis takes out a full page ad in Billboard to explain his 2nd divorce and 3rd marriage, to his 14 year-old-cousin Myra. 1954—Joseph Welch asks Joseph McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” 1953—In Worcester, MA, a tornado kills 94 and injures 1,306. 1946—Ted Williams hits a ball that lands in the 37th row of Fenway’s bleachers, over 500 feet away. 1946—Mel Ott becomes the first baseball manager to be ejected from both games of a double header. 1909—Alice Huyler Ramsay departs New York for San Francisco in a Maxwell automobile. 1893—As Edwin Booth, John Wilkes’ brother, is being buried in Boston, the floors collapse at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., killing 22 people.
1990—British Airways Capt. Tim Lancaster is sucked half-way out of Flight 5390 when his windshield blows out over Oxfordshire. The plane lands safely. Lancaster recovers and later resumes flying. 1988—A bicycle messenger is denied entrance to the Justice Department because he’s wearing a T-shirt that says, “Experts agree: Meese is a pig.” 1975—Rockefeller Commission says the CIA’s Operation CHAOS spied on 300,000 Americans and infiltrated political movements. 1964—The U.S. Senate votes to end the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1958—A House subcommittee hears that Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfine gave Ike’s Chief of Staff (and ex-NH Governor) Sherman Adams a vicuña coat in exchange for favors from the SEC. 1944—Pitching in the ninth for the Cincinnati Reds, Joe Nuxhall gives up five runs. He’s 15. 1940—Black nationalist Marcus Garvey dies of a stroke after reading a mistaken obituary of himself in the Chicago Defender. 1871—U.S. Marines avenge the loss of the U.S.S. General Sherman five years earlier by taking three Korean forts. Three months later they withdraw. 1772—Rhode Islanders burn the British revenue cutter Gaspé.
1995—In Claremont, NH, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich shake hands and pledge to reform lobbying and campaign financing. 1991—Mount Pinatubo erupts, becoming the first act of nature to close a U.S. military base. 1984—The Supreme Court says illegally obtained evidence is OK if prosecutors can prove that it would have been discovered legally. 1981—Major League Baseball™ players go on strike. 1981—Issei Sagawa, a Japanese student at the Sorbonne, kills fellow student Renée Hartevelt and eats parts of her body. Found too insane for trial by French authorities, he is deported to Japan for institutionalization. Fifteen months later he is allowed to go free. 1971—Nineteen-month Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island ends. 1963—Thich Quang Duc immolates himself in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. 1963—George Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door to prevent desegregation in Alabama. 1962—Frank Morris, John Anglin, and John’s brother Clarence escape from Alcatraz, but are presumed drowned. 1854—The First San Francisco Vigilance Committee tries, convicts, and hangs John Jenks; elapsed time, four hours.
2010—In his first Major League at-bat, Daniel Nava hits a grand slam home run for the Red Sox. 2003—George W. Bush finds a way to fall off a Segway. 2000—The Energy Department admits that two hard drives holding top-secret data on disarming and dismantling nuclear weapons have been missing for over a month. 1999—George W. Bush announces. 1972—Radical labor organizer Saul Alinsky dies in California. 1970—Pittsburgh Pirate Dock Ellis, tripping, pitches a no-hitter. 1967—Interracial marriage becomes legal in the U.S., thanks to the Supreme Court. 1963—Medgar Evers is shot and killed in Mississippi; his murderer is convicted 31 years later. 1961—U.S. Army Major Gen. Edwin Walker is disciplined for indoctrinating his troops with John Birch Society propaganda. 1957—“We have exactly 342 men,” says General Samuel T. Williams, head of the U.S. MAAG, Vietnam, “the number allowed by the Geneva Armistice Conference. It would be a breeze if we had more.” 1920—Serge Voronoff performs the first transplant of simian testicular tissue into a human. 1920—Kirke Simpson of the Associated Press becomes the first to use the phrase “smoke-filled room” in a news story about politics.
2003—“His [ Joe Wilson’s] wife is in the [CIA] and is a WMD analyst,” Dep. Sec. of State Richard Armitage tells Bob Woodward. “How about that s__t?” 1989—President George Herbert [Hoover] Walker Bush vetoes a raise in the minimum wage. 1985—Thomas L. Slade and son William are among passengers hijacked on a flight from Beirut, their second such experience in three days. 1983—Pioneer 10 leaves the solar system. 1971—Pentagon Papers published. 1968—In a misunderstanding, a U.S. helicopter crew blasts a Vietnamese command post, killing Saigon’s Police Chief. 1966—The Supreme Court issues its Miranda decision. 1960—As SDS meets in Port Huron and the civil rights movement heats up, Newsweek reports that students are “apathetic.” 1944—News reports say Rep. Francis E. Walter (D-PA) gave FDR a letter-opener made from the arm bone of a dead Japanese soldier. 1944—German V-1 “buzz-bomb” attacks on England start. 1942—The German sub U-202 lands eight Nazi saboteurs at Amagansett on Long Island. 1920—The U.S. Post Office rules children may no longer be shipped by Parcel Post.
2001—Dennis Koslowski throws his missus Karen a 40th birthday party on Sardinia, to the tune of $2.1 million — half of it covered by Tyco International. 1996—The FBI reveals that the Clinton White House has obtained files on 408 people without proper justification. 1982—Argentina surrenders the Falklands to Britain. 1954—D. Eisenhower signs a bill adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. 1951—Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Bourbon) accuses Pres. Eisenhower and Gen. George Marshall of always serving the policies of the Kremlin. 1951—UNIVAC, the first commercial computer, is unveiled. 1943—The Supreme Court rules that children cannot be forced to salute the flag if it offends their religious beliefs. 1942—The bazooka goes into production in Bridgeport, CT. 1928—Ernesto “Che” Guevara is born in Argentina. 1924—In San Pedro, CA, the IWW labor hall is raided; children are scalded and the hall demolished. 1919—Alcock and Brown leave Newfoundland for the first successful flight across the Atlantic. 1905—Russian sailors aboard the battleship Potemkin mutiny.
2006—The Supreme Court rules that evidence seized by cops violating “no knock” rules can be used as evidence. Souter says “No.” 2002—Accounting firm Arthur Anderson is convicted of obstructing justice by impeding an investigation into G.W. Bush’s top financial contributor, Enron. 1992—Vice President Dan Quayle ensures his rightful place in history by advising a spelling bee contestant to add a superfluous ‘e’ to ‘potato.’ 1967—Gov. Reagan (R-CA) signs a bill liberalizing abortion laws. 1940—France surrenders to Germany. 1920—Three black men are lynched in Duluth, MN. 1917—Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman are charged with conspiring to “induce persons not to register” for the draft. 1913—At Bud Bagsak in the Philippines, gun designer John Browning tests his new .45 caliber pistol on Moro rebels. 1904—The side-wheeler General Slocum burns to the waterline during an excursion on New York City’s East River. Of the 1,300 aboard, more than 1,000 die. 1859—Near Vancouver, American Lyman Cutlar shoots a pig belonging to Charlies Griffin, an Irishman, causing a U.S./British military standoff lasting 12 years.
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“Salt is what makes things taste bad when it isn’t in them.” - unknown
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
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