Impeachment Defends our Constitution - There in lies our hope, Ninety-five strong.

Late in the afternoon of April 16, 2008 the Constitution of the United States and the citizens of NH were struck a serious blow. An 87 year old grandmother from Brookline, who's eyes sparkle with the fire of life, brought to the floor of the NH House a bill, H. R. 24, which would restore the dignity and blessings of the Constitution to it's rightful place as the law of the land.

Rep. Betty Hall along with ninety-four other brave Citizen-Representative members of the House stood up to defend the Constitution and the citizens of NH and voted for further debate on HR 24. The remaining members of the House, some 300 strong dropped their weapons to defend the Constitution and headed for the doors.

HR 24 is not about the request for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The crux of the Resolution/Petition is to force Congress to weigh the damage inflicted on the Constitution by the totalitarian regime in Washington.

Hello,
I am currntly working on a series of articles for www.newhampshireprimary.blogspot.com, as well as a possible short book on the upcoming 2008 New Hampshire Presidential Primary. Anyone interested may contribute comments or thoughts by emailing me at dwa@unh.edu or comment here. The piece/pieces will focus on the views of New Hampshire voters and their preferences in terms of the candidates. Namely, I'd like to know what issues New Hampshire voters care about the most, and the candidates they feel best represent their interests. One may also want to comment on past elections, campaign experiences, etc...
Thanks!
David Anderson
Graduate Student/Writer/Activist
University of New Hampshire

It does nottake a genius to have a paper trail for voting,think about it carefully.
All you do is have at each polling station a secure sealed certified computer, that A; prints out a ballot sheet which has a serial number allocated against it (done in sequence). B; The voter then goes to a metal template and with a permanent marker blocks out the squares for there candidates choice. C; Then this ballot sheet is scanned into the computer and the printer also prints out a hard copy (this goes into the ballot box). D; The voter then takes there original with them.Now you have an original and a copy in the ballot box plus the computer scanned version (the voting program can at each station calculate each candidates votes and place on a secure hard drive).E;The whole computer system and ballot boxes then go to a central station for auditing plus the voter has there original...any recount can request each voter to return for a check of there origianl ballot...how simple! Virtually foolpro

Do you have something to say about the state of American society? We’d love to hear your opinion on current political issues! Go to www-personal.umich.edu/~rachanne/survey.htm to complete a five-minute survey from the University of Michigan. We’d really appreciate your help!

Anyone in the Northwood and surrounding communities area interested in forming a DFNH group? Please e-mail me at lcedwards@metrocast.net if you would like to talk about it.

A great day awaits us tomorrow. I believe John Kerry will become our next President, John Lynch our next Governor in New Hampshire, and the other 12 DFNH candidates will succeed in their campaigns in the Granite State.

But win, lose, or draw, something dramatic has happened. And not just in New Hampshire, but throughout this extraordinary country. Tomorrow, we take back our country. Tomorrow, we take back our state. And, most importantly, tomorrow we take back our future.

Two years ago, on Election Day 2002, it wasn't clear we had such a future. Democrats and even moderate Republicans throughout the country were crushed in a Bush mid-term landslide. It was the first election in recent memory in which Republicans claimed not only the executive branch, but also both legislative houses and a majority on the Supreme Court. We were marching toward Iraq, destructive legislation such No Child Left Behind was the law, and the Bush tax cuts were rolling their way to the wealthy and powerful. To whom would we turn for leadership? Where would moderates and progressives find hope again?

Read more

Howard Dean noted at DemocracyFest 2004 that we need to gather together with a DemocracyFest every year – and invite other Progressive groups that share our values to join with us in building the movement. Thanks to Howard – and the overwhelmingly positive response from those that attended DF2004, we are working with other groups toward having DemocracyFest 2005 – DF2.

We have changed the process so other DFA activists groups can take the lead this year. We had sent out an email detailing the process for proposals. The entry period ended September 20th – and we have three proposals - one from California, one from Texas, and another from Virginia. All three of these look like great proposals.

REVIEW THE DF2 PROPOSALS AT:
http://myvoteismyvoice.com/html/deanfest_2005.html

The next step in the process is to VOTE! We are using an instant runoff type process that asks you to vote for two venues. If no single venue gets 50% of the vote for “first choice”, the winner will be the venue that gets the largest portion of the first AND second choices. The idea is to get the venue most likely to be attended by the most people. We know some folks will not read this email due to the large amount of campaign mail they are getting through the election. With this in mind, voting will continue through November 10th – and more emails will be sent out as the last day of voting approaches.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Last night I listened to John Kerry and George Bush debate the future of our country. During the debate Mr. Bush frequently returned to the sad events of September 11th to justify the dangerous path he has chosen, a path which sends good men and women to die and kill in a country that has not, and could not attack us. During Mr. Bush’s four years in office I have watched fear spread like insecticide seeping into every corner of our lives, words like evil, terror, and war dominating the news. Mr. Bush has asked us to let him stand on his record. I do let him stand on his record.

Immediately after September 11th, the people of this great nation, stood proudly and bravely together, determined to defend ourselves from whatever unseen enemy might wish to harm us. The world stood beside us in our grief and offered the open hand of friendship. Today, the world no longer stands beside us. Although Mr. Bush frequently speaks of his coalition, it is no surprise that even the British are drawing down troops in Iraq. While Mr. Bush speaks of progress, the insurgency in Iraq has grown from an estimated 5,000 resistance fighters to as many as 40,000 - 50,000 according to the Deputy Commander of Coalition forces, British Major General Andrew Graham. Iraq, which had few al Queda terrorists before our invasion, now has an estimated 4,000. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must be for the soldiers in Iraq right now . If they dare speak out about what is happening they run the risk of being imprisoned by their own country. If they should die, a family member can be arrested for asking, “Why did my son die in Iraq?” I do let Mr. Bush stand on his record.

NH needs to do better in getting an educated and dedicated youth voter turnout in general elections as well as the FIRST IN THE WORLD PRIMARIES. We allegedly take much pride in the role that we play in the election of the single most powerful leader in the free world, YET, our youth voter turnout is just a dismal as found most other states. I attended {with my protest sign in hand} a Kerry event at UNH this spring and was stunned by the disconnect with democracy displayed by the wandering UNH students. {with the exception of the wonderful young campus activists}

I am aware that California had tinkered with the idea of allowing 14-17 year olds to vote with their votes equalling only one half of a full vote. Although most "first reactions" are unsupportive of this concept, when thinking this through, I find great merit in its concept and the potential and eventual positive affect upon the voting responsibilities needed for our democracy, and for fullfilling citizen responsibility.

Jeb Bradley is holding a Town Hall meeting in Newton on Saturday June 26 at 9:00. Show up, ask him tough questions on his record in Congress, let him know how you feel.

Alex and Herb recommend that we set aside 30 minutes Saturday to review the proposed Democratic Party Platform. Modifications to it are due no later than Monday at 5PM. (Alex gives a Mea Culpa for saying there was no agenda. Both of us are navigationally challenged when it comes to this site) :)

Charlie Friou brought up the issues of member privacy and consent on the dfanh-org mailing list. This goes to the heart of something I've been thinking about for several days: What privacy guarantees should we make to DfNH members, and what permissions should we ask for when they sign up?

Here's an outline of the privacy policy and permissions I propose.

I'd like to propose we talk about "What is Success in 30 Days, 60 Days, and 90 Days for DfNH?" at Saturday's meeting.

The reason for this is straight-forward: if we calibrate our expectations for this organization, we will have much better chance of keeping the organization together and actually seeing it grow.

To start the conversation, here's my initial thoughts:

30 days -- press release and public announcement (ideally at NH DP convention), website up-and-running (able to take contributions and new members), committees staffed and engaged in activity; recruitment of ten new candidates to NH state races

60 days -- 2,000 active email addresses in DfNH, most of which have come from chapters; one-statewide activity organized by DfNH; a first-draft of by-laws;

90 days -- 4,000 active email addresses; day-long Fall strategy meeting for DfNH leaders and activists, focusing on how how to have biggest impact in coming election.

At least for now, when I think about DfNH, I think about a flat organization run by volunteers with huge assistance from our website to mobilize and communicate with one another. DfNH will seek to raise only a modest amount of money this year and instead encourage activity (including fundraising) at the chapter level. I see DfNH fundamentally not being a "party" with a command-and-control management style, but instead (again, for now) a framework by which people who are outside of the traditional political infrastructure can be identified and activiated.

Mike Vlacich wrote:

Greetings,

Governor Dean and his supporters have revolutionized the way campaigns will be run and supported, and the New Hampshire Democratic Party wants to send a clear signal to all of those involved in this past presidential primary that this party belongs to all of you. We look forward to staying in close touch in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

With the assistance of Alexander Lee, I'd love to work out a regularly scheduled time to chat with you online, on the phone, or even in person. In the interim, please join our BLOG and check out our new website (www.nhdp.org) to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter which keeps you posted on the events and news of the week.

Plans for a progressive caucus in the party are also underway, if you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us about how to get involved. An organizational meeting will take place on May 15 and we are working to see if that might be coordinated with your planned activities that day. Lastly, we strongly encourage you to consider running for office at all levels this cycle.

How do we want to incorporate new members, and when should we bring them in? Should they be part of the organizational group, or brought in as members within the committees? How quickly should we do this, with an eye to the elections 11/2? Do we bring new members in by inviting them to this website? Should one person (? Roger) be the gatekeeper?

Jocelyn suggested: "Suppose we had the smaller, organizational meeting first and then invited interested new people to join the committee meetings? That way new people could participate and the smaller group could hash out the organization."

I agree with this, but do think a few more "organizational members" would be helpful as we lose the students among us. I realize it is difficult without having a completed mission statement, but to be powerful we need to expand soon. Exponentially.

1. Reach out to all sectors – social, cultural, political, economic - in our New Hampshire community and cultivate a diverse network of citizens working together toward common cause.
2. Recruit and encourage progressive candidates to run for office at every level. We will help them find the resources to campaign successfully with small donations from grassroots supporters, to begin to break the stranglehold special interests have on the political process.
3. Raise funds for local, state and national candidates for whom financial support could be the key to winning, and whose election will be key to winning back a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Read more...
4. Develop strategic partnerships with other progressive organizations to maximize resources for candidate recruitment, training, and organization.
5. Build relationships with other political initiatives to focus on the failed, destructive policies of many of our elected officials and the hopes and plans for new policies that support a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Instructions: if you haven't already, first create an account on this Web site. Then, create a comment using the form that will appear below once you're logged in.

In your comment, vote for any three items from this list. Your top choice gets five points, second choice gets three, third choice gets one. For example, if A is your first choice, B is your second, and C is your third, you would vote "A: 5, B: 3, C: 1"

You must have attended the April 18, 2004 organizational meeting in Concord in order to vote. Only one set of three votes allowed per person per topic. You can edit your vote until the voting period ends. The voting period will end at 12:01 A.M. Monday, April 26, 2004 or when at least 14 people (half the attendance at the April 18 meeting plus one) have voted on each topic, whichever is later.

Please sign your comment with your real name if it isn't obvious from your account's username.

Please don't post a comment in these forum topics that isn't a vote. Instead, use the mailing list for discussion.

There are five votes in five topics. At the end of each of the first four you'll find a link to the next one.

I. COMMUNICATION

A. Create and Publish Progressive Newsletter
B. Publicize Legislative Issues to Educate Voters about State Issues
C. Publicize Legislative Issues to Educate Voters about National Issues
D. Contact Local, State and National Media
E. Distribute Short Actionable Email Bulletin
F. Hold Local Media Accountable For Reporting of Legislative Issues

Go on to the next vote, Mission statement vote - group #2 - political action.

Please read the voting instructions in Mission statement vote - group #1 - communication.

II. POLITICAL ACTION
A. Support Progressive Candidates for State and Local Offices
B. Voter Registration & Get Out The Vote
C. Incorporate Progressive issues into Democratic Party Platform
D. Promote Social Justice Issues
E. Effectuate Removal of Bush and Election of Kerry
F. Effectuate Removal of Governor Benson and Election of Progressive Candidate
G. Support Candidates for Message, not necessarily Electability
H. Reform 2-Party System/Constructing Electoral Reform
I. Facilitate Fundraising for Progressive Candidates
J. Work to Protect the Integrity of the Voting System and Election Process

Go on to the next vote, Mission statement vote - group #3 - organizational outreach.

Please read the voting instructions in Mission statement vote - group #1 - communication.

III. OUTREACH TO OTHER POLITICAL/PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS

A. Develop Strategic Partnerships with other Progressive Organizations
B. Organize Local Communities Around Progressive Social Issues
C. Create and/or Rejuvenate Democratic Committees in towns
D. Develop Coordination with New Hampshire Democratic Party

Go on to the next vote, Mission statement vote - group #4 - structure.

Please read the voting instructions in Mission statement vote - group #1 - communication.

IV. INTERNAL STRUCTURE

A. Support Mission of Democracy for America
B. Reconnect and Reconstitute Dean Network in NH
C. Promote a Broader Vision for action on Progressive Social Issues
D. Avoid Redundancy with Other Groups and within our Internal State Organization
E. Present Governor Dean's View of Progressive Principles (reference "Common Sense")
F. Create Broad-based & Local Organization- Avoid "Democratic Identification"

Go on to the next vote, Mission statement vote - group #5 - voter outreach.