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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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."

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!' *

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:

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 --

Had enough? Then take back our elections. Who put Bush in the White House? The American voters? No. Does this government represent YOU? If it doesn't, there's a reason for that. Representational democracy only works when the elections work. Until then, we all have this blood on our hands. It won't wash off easy.

SOURCE: BradBlog.com

Constitutional Attorney Jonathon Turley Tells MSNBC Congress Refuses To Investigate Because They 'Do Not Want to Deal With That Fact' Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Jonathan Turley: It really is amazing because Congress, including the Democrats, have avoided any typed of investigation into torture because they do not want to deal with the fact that the President ordered war crimes. But evidence keeps on coming out - the only thing we don’t have is a group picture with a detainee attached to electrical wires. I mean every time we see more evidence we have more and more high ranking people at the scene of this crime. And what you get from this is that this was a premeditated and carefully orchestrated torture program. Not torture, but a torture program.

Do you vote in NH? Do you know that 84% of NH votes are counted in secret by Diebold corporation? Do you think that's okay? If you are willing to give away - give away - your democratic elections to private corporations and then pay them - pay them - to count your votes in secret, well, what do you expect to get back? Secret vote counting is not exactly the hallmark of democracy. It is the hallmark of something else altogether. Something that looks like this:

SOURCE: Harpers.org

By Scott Horton

I am distressed to see U.S. foreign policy on legal issues formulated with the sort of thinking we associate with mafia dons. If one word were to be picked to describe it, it would be “disgraceful.” The torture policy of the Bush Administration is a policy of, by and for torturers. It marks a radical departure from prior U.S. policies of honorable compliance with the Convention. We have every right to expect it to end on January 20, 2009.

The Torture Team

SOURCE: MSNBC.com

Dan Abrams talks to Artur Davis and Scott Horton about the release of Don Siegelman from prison tonight, and recaps some of his coverage on the story. Now will justice be served to Karl Rove for his role in this? I hope so but I'm not holding my breath. Sadly as long as George Bush has a pardon pen in his hand there's no use in trying to convict him now anyway since Dubya will let him walk if he's found guilty.

Editorials - Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008
Guest Editorial

The New Hampshire Highway Department has had to pare back its highway construction plans severely and hope no bridges will collapse in the meantime.

Gov. John Lynch has told legislators not to ask for a penny to fund any new programs this year.

In the last month or so, the state Senate has passed a bill and a constitutional amendment designed to reduce the amount of state aid going to schoolchildren and property-tax relief.

In most areas of human endeavor, the government of New Hampshire is strapped for cash.

But there's one exception, one spot where the state coffers appear to be wide open. Two years ago, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte received $420,000 to begin the work of prosecuting the two death penalty cases she has brought so far.

New Hampshire hasn't had an execution since it hanged a man in 1939, but Ayotte and the governor are looking forward to bringing back the practice – if not the noose, then the hot shot – even though the state has a perfectly good life-without-the-possibility-of-parole statute that costs the state a good deal less than killings would.

SOURCE: http://www.BrasscheckTV.com

http://www.BrasscheckTV.com

Most people have the sense that there was something bizarre and surreal about the sudden coordinated FBI and US news media attack on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

After all, unproven allegations about how he may have chosen to spend his own money on his own time hardly seems a worthy subject of front page news for a week

For Immediate Release

Federal Government Agrees to Postpone Imposing Real ID Requirements on NH Citizens

View letter from Dept. of Homeland Fascism to NH Governor Lynch
CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch today received a letter from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Stewart Baker stating the federal government has agreed to postpone imposing Real ID requirements on New Hampshire citizens.

Gov. Lynch sent a letter to Homeland Security officials last month requesting that the Department not impose Real ID requirements on the citizens of New Hampshire.

"I am pleased that the federal government has recognized that the citizens of New Hampshire should not be singled out, and that it will not impose Real ID requirements here beginning in May," Gov. Lynch said. "We have a law that prohibits New Hampshire from taking part in this burdensome system. New Hampshire, along with many other states has raised legitimate questions about the costs and privacy issues associated with Real ID. Congress must listen to the very real concerns of states and citizens, and re-think the entire Real ID program."

Review testimony from NH citizens at the NH House hearing on HR 24 the Resolution to Impeach. NH citizens from all political stripes, all adhering the the US Constitution, speak out on the need to get to the truth about the Bush administration.

View all of the youtubes here

Click the video below to hear Representative Betty Hall's testimony

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — A letter from Manchester mayor and likely gubernatorial candidate Frank Guinta shocked political observers after being reported in today's Union-Leader. In the letter, Guinta asked State Rep. David Scannell (D-Manchester) to resign from his position as spokesman for the Manchester school district after voting in the 193-141 majority for HB 1623, a bill reducing the penalty for possession of one-quarter ounce of marijuana to a violation punishable by a $200 fine.

According to the Union-Leader, Guinta said it was inappropriate for Scannell to support the bill because "he interacts with kids on a daily basis." This logic caused many to wonder if Guinta realizes that most of the 193 legislators who voted for the bill have children of their own, and if he thinks these individuals are now unfit to interact with their own children.

"I'm pretty sure none of these 193 representatives considered their vote to be a vote in favor of marijuana use," explained Matt Simon, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy. "And in fact, 40 of these 193 representatives were Republicans, three of whom represent Manchester — did Mayor Guinta take time to ask any of these individuals what prompted them to support the measure?"

SOURCE: Concord Monitor, Article published Mar 19, 2008, By SARAH LIEBOWITZ

Photo, KEN WILLIAMS / Monitor staff
Rep. Betty Hall, a Democrat from Brookline, (right) talks with Majority Leader Mary Jane Wallner at the State House yesterday.

The first time Rep. Betty Hall had the opportunity to vote in support of a presidential impeachment, she declined.

It was 1973 and Hall, only two years into what would become a lengthy legislative career, found herself surrounded by New Hampshire lawmakers debating a resolution urging the impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon. Opposition was overwhelming: The proposal garnered 11 votes, Hall said.