Democracy for New Hampshire - Civil rights

Net neutrality--Protecting the last refuge of free speech from the corporate global takeover

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:57:48 -0400

Will Antitrust Law Save Net Neutrality?

Congressman wants to use old regulations to prevent Internet discrimination

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

May 12, 2008

The ongoing struggle to protect "net neutrality," the right of consumers to access content on the Internet equally, took a new turn as members of Congress introduced legislation that would treat interference or content-blocking as violations of antitrust law.

The "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008," introduced by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and co-sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to interact with each other on a "reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis," and would require network operators to ensure that all content, applications, and services are treated the same and not favored over others when consumers access them.

Collins: Polite Fascism Contracts The Right To Vote

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:10:05 -0400

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00179.htm

Polite Fascism Contracts The Right To Vote - Tuesday, 13 May 2008, 8:45 pm Column: Michael Collins

Another Supreme Outrage

Justices Stevens, Kennedy, and Roberts combined with Scalia, Alito, and
Thomas to take voting rights back to1898. Image (left), Image (right)

William Crawford, et al, Petitioners 07-21 v.
Marion County Elections Board et al.

Indiana Democratic Party, et al., Petitioners 07-25 v. Todd Rokita,
Indiana Secretary of State, et al.
U. S. ____ (2008) Opinion of STEVENS, J.

Bush, McCain, the Supremes, and totalitarianism

Tue, 13 May 2008 09:16:12 -0400

SOURCE: consortiumnews.com

McCain and the 'Unitary Executive'

By Robert Parry
May 13, 2008

If John McCain wins the presidency – and gets to appoint one or more U.S. Supreme Court justices – America’s 220-year experiment as a democratic Republic living under the principle that “no man is above the law” may come to an end.

To put the matter differently, if a President McCain replaces one of the moderate justices with another Samuel Alito – as McCain has vowed to do – then Justice Department lawyer John Yoo’s extreme vision of an all-powerful Executive could well become the new law of the land.

On May 6 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, during a speech aimed at appeasing conservatives, McCain promised to appoint justices in the mold of George W. Bush’s selections, Justice Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, expanding the court’s right-wing faction that also includes Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

New Hampshire Democratic State Convention

Sun, 11 May 2008 08:14:21 -0400

Speakers/Schedule

Gov. John Lynch

Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter

Congressman Paul Hodes

Senate President Sylvia Larsen

House Speaker Terie Norelli

Schedule:

Exact times TBA

Speakers:

Breakfast and Lunch served

Breakouts

Greening Up: How can we go green in our daily lives?
NH's Green Policy: Leading New England Towards Sustainability
New Media & Social Change: Growing the Digital Grassroots
Beyond the Green Zone: The Way Forward in Iraq
Achieving Educational Excellence in NH
Check-up on Healthcare in NH
Working Families and the NH Economy: How we will maintain our
standard of living

http://www.nhdemconvention.org/

McCain promises extension of right wing legacy

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:47:40 -0400

SOURCE: cbsnews.com

McCain Promises Judges Like Roberts, Alito
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., May 6, 2008

(AP) Republican John McCain criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as U.S. chief justice, reaching out to the Christian right on one of their chief concerns: the proper role of judges in government.

Conservatives contend that federal judges have upset the constitutional balance of power among the courts, the Congress and the presidency by making far-reaching decisions, such as one in 2005 that let cities seize people's homes to make way for shopping malls.

"My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power," McCain said Tuesday in a speech at Wake Forest University.

McCain, the eventual GOP nominee, promised to appoint judges in the mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, saything they would interpret the law strictly to curb the scope of their rulings. While McCain didn't mention abortion, the far right understands that such nominees would be likely to limit or perhaps overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Shea-Porter Pushes for the Cyber Command

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:40:22 -0400

SOURCE:Boston Globe

Pressing to develop Navy land in Maine
Congresswoman courts Air Force Cyber Command
May 4, 2008
KITTERY, Maine - As the Navy explores private development of the former Portsmouth Naval Shipyard prison, US Representative Carol Shea-Porter is pushing to bring the US Air Force's Cyber Command to the long-neglected castle-like structure.

Valley News: NH legislature "hijacking" public information

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:43:17 -0400

Valley News editorial published 4/27/08:

Self-Service In Concord
Restricting the Voter List

Democrats and Republicans in the New Hampshire Legislature don't agree on much, but the spirit of bipartisanship is alive and well when it comes to securing privileges for themselves at the expense of the public.Witness the hijacking of the statewide voter list that unfolded recently in Concord, where everyone seems to agree that political parties, committees and candidates are entitled to information that is denied to ordinary citizens. This is self-service, if not public service, at its finest.

The House and Senate have now agreed on legislation that seeks to remedy the defects in an earlier attempt to expropriate this data for partisan purposes. That earlier version provided access to the centralized voter registration database only to major political parties -- that is, Republicans and Democrats. Libertarians took exception, and in November a Merrimack County Superior Court judge agreed that it was unconstitutional, although not before the state Democratic Party had resold the list to presidential candidates for $65,000 each.

News from Detroit

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:02:11 -0400

Four Amendments & a Funeral -- A month inside the house of horrors that is Congress

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:49:51 -0400

SOURCE: Rolling Stone

Four Amendments & a Funeral -- A month inside the house of horrors that is Congress BY MATT TAIBBI

Posted Aug 10, 2005 12:00 AM

It was a fairy-tale political season for George W. Bush, and it seemed like no one in the world noticed. Amid bombs in London, bloodshed in Iraq, a missing blonde in Aruba and a scandal curling up on the doorstep of Karl Rove, Bush's Republican Party quietly celebrated a massacre on Capitol Hill. Two of the most long-awaited legislative wet dreams of the Washington Insiders Club -- an energy bill and a much-delayed highway bill -- breezed into law. One mildly nervous evening was all it took to pass through the House the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), for years now a primary strategic focus of the battle-in-Seattle activist scene. And accompanied by scarcely a whimper from the Democratic opposition, a second version of the notorious USA Patriot Act passed triumphantly through both houses of Congress, with most of the law being made permanent this time.

Certifiably insane: Zubaydah, Bush and the Bureaucracy of Torture

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:55:03 -0400

SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00239.htm

Zubaydah, Bush and the Bureaucracy of Torture, Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 1:18 pm, BY Michael Collins

"certifiable, insane"

"The United States does not torture." - Pres. Bush, Sept. 6, 2006

The devastating attack of 9/11 conferred unprecedented popularity on the Bush administration. This was more a reflection of the strong desire for national unity in the wake of a tragedy than an endorsement of Bush policies.

After the attack, there was a frantic effort inside the administration to show a major success in their newly proclaimed war on terror. The administration knew what the public didn't: Far from being surprised by airplanes used as weapons, they'd had a series of warnings from intelligence sources that commercial airplanes were indeed the next weapon of choice by terrorists. Once that information became public, the Bush administration would need something more to boost its image.

Concord Monitor - 200 flock to rally for impeachment

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:16:42 -0400

SOURCE: Concord Monitor
State representatives to vote on resolution

By LAUREN R. DORGAN, Monitor staff, April 15, 2008

Calling President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "domestic enemies," Pentagon Papers icon Daniel Ellsberg headlined a rally in Concord last night calling for their impeachment.

The rally, which drew more than 200 people to the Capitol Center for the Arts, was aimed at the New Hampshire House, which is considering a resolution that would call on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. The resolution may come to a vote on the House floor tomorrow.

A pre-rally reception for the House members who will vote on the resolution drew a couple of dozen, among them a few who said they were on the fence about the resolution. Rep. Betty Hall, the 87-year-old Brookline Democrat who is the measure's lone sponsor, was bullish, pumping her arms at a press conference and saying: "I think it's gonna pass."

Getting It On in Concord--Impeachment, that is

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:11:07 -0400

SOURCE: Nancy White reports

April 15, 2008

CONCORD, NH. Thank YOU all for coming to this amazing event.....YOU were a witness to history tonight.....and we thank you for being there, for assisting, for talking, for showing up! There are abundant reasons that NH citizens find to speak their minds.....and we will remember this enough to say to our grandchildren, 'In those times....I was there-I saw what this grandmother began in the state of NH!' *

Scoop News interviews NH Rep Betty Hall on HR24: Impeachment Resolution

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:54:16 -0400

SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00172.htm

NH Impeachment Resolution: Betty Hall Interview, Saturday, 12 April 2008, 3:12 pm, Column: Rosalea Barker

Stateside With Rosalea Barker

The ship of state is drifting and it’s getting hard to steer
It’s a complicated issue but the direction’s pretty clear
And each of us is who we need to get to there from here
In these times
Noel Paul Stookey, “In These Times”

As someone who once helped a group of people push a stranded scow back out into the Pacific Ocean, I know personally what people can achieve when the tide is right. In this brief email interview with Betty Hall, she says:

This is how America looks as a result of our illegal elections: Top Bush Advisors approved torture

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:48:55 -0400

Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'

Detailed Discussions Were Held About Techniques to Use on al
Qaeda Suspects

By JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG, HOWARD L. ROSENBERG and
ARIANE de VOGUE

SOURCE: April 9, 2008, ABC News

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White
House, the most senior Bush administration officials
discussed and approved specific details of how high- value al
Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central
Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings
also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques
-- using different techniques during interrogations, instead
of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who
proved difficult to break, sources said.

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed
off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects --

Concert and Rally for Impeachment featuring Daniel Ellsberg and more

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:44:41 -0400

Daniel Ellsberg to Headline Historic Impeachment Event in Concord
PRESS RELEASE: Betty Hall

April 3, 2008

Brookline, NH - NH State Representative Betty Hall is hosting Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, Vietnam War critic, for a special event at the Capitol Center for the Arts Monday April 14 at 7pm. It was Ellsberg who released the Pentagon papers which helped end the Vietnam War. Ellsberg will be headlining a group of supporters for Betty Hall's HR24, which, if passed in the NH House would ask the US House to begin an investigation to verify if there is sufficient cause to hold our government leaders responsible, as provided in Jefferson's Manual, Section 603.

Hall's petition specifically cites President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. The historic vote will come to the NH House on Wednesday, April 16.

If passed, it will represent the first time that a state legislature would have invoked the special privilege to ask the US House for investigations to begin with a President and Vice-President. It does not need to be passed through the NH Senate, nor obtain the signature of NH Governor Lynch.