(In case you missed it - promoted by William Tucker)
Today in political news:
1. Enough House Republicans voted with D's to amend the redistricting plan to conform to the NH constitution; O'Brien recessed to call a GOP caucus, twisted arms, called back into session, would not turn cameras or mikes on for public viewing. This is the same guy who excused clearing gallery by saying live streaming satisfied constitutional requirements.
2. I agreed with Steve Vaillancourt on something (that tax policy should not be enshrined in the state constitution).
3. The Lobby publishes story that O'Brien was tipped off to O'Keefe voter fraud
4. WaPo publishes story that Mitt Romney benfitted from off shore accounts set up in Cayman Islands (hey, the guy bankrolled all these GOP rep elections, so it counts as a NH story)
Did state House Speaker Bill O'Brien have advance knowledge that James O'Keefe would be sending his associates to obtain New Hampshire primary ballots using the names of deceased voters? Did he get a sneak preview of the video before it was made public? Writing in The Lobby, the anonymous "Mr. Snitch" suggests he did.
Bully's sure been busy now that the session is in full swing. So busy, in fact, you'd think he wouldn't have the time to act as a production consultant with James O'Keefe, conservative activist, pretend journalist and Mama's Boy (what else do you call a 27-year-old male son who still lives at home, nicely ensconced in Mom-and-Pop's North Jersey manse, Snitcherinos?)
Turns out Jimmy the Jerk, a convicted felon BTW, gave Bully a heads up on his little voter fraud skit. Explains why Bully was all set with his righteous indignation sound bites for Channel 9 after the video magically appeared.
We have not talked a lot about PIPA/SOPA here on Blue Hampshire but we are going to join as we can in protesting these dangerous bills that could lead to internet censorship, security issues, and/or present a very risky operating proposition for sites with user generated content such as Blue Hampshire.
The blacklist bills are dangerous: if made into law, they would hamper innovation, kill jobs, wreak havoc on Internet security, and undermine the free speech principles upon which our country was founded. But deep-pocketed lobbyists are trying to ram this legislation through as quickly as possible, hoping elected officials will turn a blind eye to the widespread opposition to these bills. We can't let that happen.
According to ProPublica Sens Shaheen and Ayotte are supporting PIPA (the Senate version of the bill) and Rep. Guinta is No/Maybe on SOPA (The House version of the bill). Rep. Bass is listed as unknown.
If you feel strongly about the issue you could give them a jingle
What do we think of when we imagine a Republican office holder from New Hampshire? We think of someone who is rational, sober, fiscally conservative, and opposed to high taxes. We think of someone who wants small, thrifty, and efficient government, right? Wrong! Ever so wrong! Perhaps, there was a time when Republican office holders answered to that description, but no more.
Today, Republicans in the New Hampshire legislature are a witch's brew of Free Staters, Tea Party members, and extreme libertarians who have concocted weird legislative potions that are making our state the laughingstock of the nation.
Rachel Maddow held New Hampshire Republican office holders up to ridicule on her nationally-televised program (1/5/12). Maddow notes, "When Republicans won up and down the ballot all across the country in the 2010 mid-terms, there were few places where their victories were as big as they were in New Hampshire. (Before the election) Democrats controlled the New Hampshire House by a margin of 216-173. . . . Republicans flipped the New Hampshire House and they flipped it by a huge margin. They gained 124 seats."
"That was basically the same story in the State Senate. Republicans went from being a minority in the senate to having their biggest majority there in nearly half a century."
"So what have New Hampshire Republicans done with their big new majorities? They have taken a state with a national reputation for being sort of sane and within the mainstream among the Republican Party and they have decided to let their freak flag fly."
John Nichols traces the origins of right-to-work legislation to the Jim Crow era, when Southern states acted to prevent unions from fighting against segregation.
When the Congress of Industrial Organizations launched “Operation Dixie” in the aftermath of World War II, with the goal not just of organizing unions in the states of the old Confederacy but of ending Jim Crow discrimination, Southern segregationists moved immediately to establish deceptively named “right-to-work” laws.
These measures were designed to make it dramatically harder for workers to organize unions and for labor organizations to advocate for workers on the job site or for social change in their communities and states.
The resurgence of attacks on collective bargaining rights, says Nichols, is an affront to the memory of Dr. King.
King’s last march was with African-American public employees in Memphis, who were oppressed not just by segregation but by right-to-work laws that were written with the purpose of keeping workers divided and powerless. We honor King today by opposing the new push for right-to-work laws in Northern states and by campaigning to overturn the right-to-work laws passed decades ago by the Jim Crow legislatures of Southern states that were determined to prevent the arc of history from bending toward justice.
Opponents of federal health care reform have seized upon a novel end-run around the law, an interstate Health Care Compact that would replace all federal health care programs — including Medicare and Medicaid — with block grants to the states.
The history of compacts goes back to the colonial period, and more than 200 are currently in force. Many coordinate activities between contiguous states, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Others, such as the Driver License Compact and the Wildlife Violators Compact, offer reciprocal recognition of laws and licenses in member states.
The Health Care Compact, however, is the first one that attempts to shield states from a whole area of federal law. It is four pages long and would replace the current federal health-care system with block grants to the states. ...
If a significant number of states pass the compact, supporters plan to submit it to Congress for approval in the same way that the body approves interstate compacts regulating commerce, transportation, and resource conservation and development.
And just like that, billions of dollars will be turned over to the states without any strings attached? Unlikely. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said "we will put a person on Neptune" before Congress approves the compact.
HB 1560 is crafted verbatim from the ALEC model legislation. Its intent is clear. The preamble promises to give New Hampshire the "authority to enact state laws that supersede any and all federal laws regarding health care" within the state. The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire describes it as "the vehicle that we must use to nullify Obamacare in New Hampshire!"
HB 1560 is sponsored by House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt and has been referred to the Constitutional Review and Statutory Recodification committee. The first public hearing is scheduled for January 24 at 10:00 a.m. in LOB 206.
Robert William Beaulieu is 23-years-old, lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, and is a registered Democrat. He's also very much not dead.
But you wouldn't have known that if you watched the lastest undercover sting video from James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, which featured a man with an Irish accent attempting to obtain a ballot on behalf of a Robert Beaulieu who lives on Cassandra Lane.
Presumably the O'Keefe goon screwed up his attempt to impersonate a different, recently deceased Beaulieu.
The crime victim's reaction:
"Yeah, he butchered our name," Robert W. Beaulieu told TPM, adding that the fact that someone using his name was able to obtain a ballot doesn't change his opposition to a photo ID law.
"I've heard Republicans try to spin it their way, but I don't see [voter impersonation fraud] as a big problem at all," Beaulieu told TPM, but said that the poll watcher in the video shouldn't have helped the individual impersonating him out with his address.
James O'Keefe and his band of Project Moranitans spent $50,000 disenfranchising this young Granite Stater.
I'd very much like to know when they'll be arrested.
Blues musician T.J. Wheeler is a New Hampshire treasure. A quick Google search will tell anyone who doesn't know about him why. He's always on the cutting edge of important causes to bring people together.
T.J. has written a beautiful and heart-felt commentary about Martin Luther King, Jr., as yet another day of appreciation for this great man comes. With his permission, it is included in this posting. It is a great read as to why Martin Luther King, Jr. was so important to our nation and our world, and why our yearly commemoration is an important time to celebrate his life and learn from his words and deeds.
New Hampshire is one of the first states to adopt marriage equality, and the first to do it legislatively without a court order or threats of law suits. But in the race to adopt MLK, Jr. Day, we were the last. There were several reasons for that, but chief among them was the then-power of a statewide newspaper and a reactionary resistance among some of those in power in government. Sound familiar?
I was in the heart of that fight for quite some time, so I saw it up close. I sponsored the first MLK, Jr. Day bill when I was in the State Senate in 1979, at a time when only a handful of states had the day, and the federal government was still years from creating it.
We had presidential candidates running for office who made an issue out of their own opposition. That sounds familiar too, doesn't it. Then-Governor Hugh Gallen told me he was ready to sign that bill in 1979, a courageous position with politics being what it was in those days, but the bill lost and didn't make it out of the Senate.
...at least this way we don't have to pretend that this effort has anything to do with "voter fraud" or some of the other flimsy rationales thrown out in support of suppressing the youth vote.
It's obvious this has partisan politics at its root - young people allegedly vote more liberally. Therefore, reduce the number of liberal voters. Election advantage: Republicans.
But take a look again at those two statements from O'Brien and Sorg. The upshot is that the votes young people cast are of lesser value than their own because young people of voting age, in their eyes, are ignorant, inexperienced, and guided only by feelings.
That is what prejudice looks like.
No one would tolerate such an open admission from public servants had it been made about women, for example. Or people of color.
With luck, James O'Keefe and his lackeys will go to jail for what they did to the good people of New Hampshire.
But that will still be a gross miscarriage of justice if we in New Hampshire allow him to falsely direct the conversation on our voting laws.
In a tweet today, Republican House majority leader DJ Bettencourt embraced Fibitas and criticized those of us calling for strict enforcement of our voter fraud laws:
- https://twitter.com/#!/DJBette... " Fascinating some want to prosecute individuals who had guts to prove our election system had huge hole in it. Didn't actually illegally vote "
Guts? These Fibitastas used the names of recently deceased NH residents (showing an incredible lack of empathy for their families) and led election officials to believe that they were entitled to vote. In at least one case, the
Fibitasta actively engaged in impersonation, contrary to Fibitas's assertion that they were careful not to say they were the dead voters.
The thugs impersonated other people who were on the checklists in order to get ballots; or
The thugs just asked whether a particular person was on the checklist.
If the first thing happened, the gang committed voter fraud, whether they took ballots or not:
RSA 659:34, I(c):
659:34 Wrongful Voting; Penalties for Voter Fraud. -
I. A person is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 if such person:
...(c) Applies for a ballot in a name other than his or her own;
The fact that they were caught - not by accident, but by the deliberate process of staffing local precincts with neighbors - demonstrates that our current checks and balances can work. (Showing that they DO work requires throwing the book at these scum.)
If the second thing happened - they just innocently asked if a name was on the checklist - then they still showed that the checks and balances work. State law (properly) makes checklists a matter of public record: you are entitled to know who is registered to vote. Their defense lawyers may claim that is all they were doing - it would be up to the judge and/or jury to decide whether standing in a voting line, rather than going to City Hall, to pose the question suggests something more sinister.
As part of the handing out ballots process, the poll worker must read the putative voter's name and address out loudly, so that other people nearby (maybe including campaign volunteers) can hear it. (That doesn't happen if the person in line asks, "When do polls close?" or "I'm not Fred, but is he registered?") That's where another four or five people provide an additional check: "He's not Fred Johnson - Fred is my uncle!" If the thugs aborted their impersonation before that step, they didn't demonstrate anything at all. If they go to that step, that's stronger evidence of fraud.
Last night, during the Huntsman "Ticket to Ride" speech:
Today, reality, as it sometimes does, outdid sarcasm:
If you're not familiar with Americans Elect, you should be. They're an (anti-NH Primary) organization funded by anonymous hedge fund millions, and seem to want to get around that pesky democracy and elections thing by pretending they're into democracy and elections.
The New Hampshire primary is the latest target of James O’Keefe, the infamous right-wing videographer whose video stings include staged encounters with ACORN, Planned Parenthood and NPR.
The actors in O'Keefe's latest escapade requested -- and received -- ballots yesterday using the names of registered voters who died in the last three months.
In one case, the plan was foiled by a Manchester Ward 9 voting supervisor who knew the man had recently died (but not that she was the victim of an elaborate hoax).
When the pretend voter noted he almost got away with fraud, Pilotte told him: “That would be on your conscience, not mine.”
O'Keefe — who was arrested in 2010 for attempting to tamper with phones in the New Orleans office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu — claimed, apparently with a straight face, "We used no misrepresentation and no false pretenses."
Romney isn't likely to catch a break on his 'I like to be able to fire people' gaffe just yet. At an event in New Hampshire Tuesday, as Romney held a baby, someone in the audience yelled, "Are you going to fire the baby?"
