While it's possible that the debts have been paid, each month's filings with the FEC isn't available until about the 20th of the next, so the February numbers are about all we have.

h/t to tpmcafe

From: Cafe, Election Central

Hillary please pay these debts first

By - April 4, 2008, 12:16PM

We've all heard the stories about Hillary Clinton's debt. The small businesses left to pick up the tab after Clinton came, saw and left an unpaid invoice.

Let's talk about the other folks she's stiffed.

The school districts, universities, cities, towns and non-profits.

I am a new member of DFNH and a native Vermonter who moved to southern NH 18 months ago. To begin with, I'm an avid hunter and angler and frequent listener to talk radio as well as NPR. I am a registered independant who doesn't go for the politics of party but rather votes on issues which are important to me. I'm probably not what you would call your "average" DFNH member as a result.

Having said that, I would also like to add that I am a public school teacher and musician who is pro-public education and an advocate for the Arts as well as Environmental conservation. I'm extremely confused by some of this state's "traditions" regarding taxes, politics, etc. Specifically:

1) Members of our legislture, from what I understand, get something like $300 a year to do their job. Forgive me for my ignorance, but WHO can live on $300.00 a year?!?! The answer is NO ONE! So then, who can afford to be a NH legislator? It would appear that only those who are independantly wealthy. So we have a system where a bunch of rich people are making laws for the state. I wonder who will benefit from laws that are made exclusively by rich people?

While it may be unfair and even inaccurate to characterize the personnel of the United States Air Force as flyboys, being flyboys is what the George Bushes and John McCain have in common and the Air Force, it would seem, is where their agenda was/is being carried out, even as that agency's role in global affairs is, so to speak, flying under the radar.

For any number of reasons, the Air Force is stepping up a public relations campaign, including the filming of commercials inside a refueling plane out of Edwards Air Force base in California, as well as reports from the ground in Afghanistan.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MANCHESTER – The Friends of Patrick Arnold PAC has launched a campaign website at Democracy for America’s DFA-Link.

Patrick Arnold, a resident of Manchester’s Ward 12, is running for State Representative to represent citizens of Manchester’s west side (Hillsborough Co., Dist. 17) in the State Legislature.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy
1 603-391-7450
info@nhcommonsense.org
www.nhcommonsense.org
12/14/2007

The New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy today announced the launch of its online petition to support a marijuana decriminalization measure in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. The bill would reduce penalties for possession of less than 1.25 ounces of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a "civil violation" offense punishable only by a fine.

Executive Director Matt Simon said the measure that will be considered is a far cry from legalization. "This bill will simply reduce the penalties for marijuana possession and acknowledge an obvious fact: that marijuana is far less harmful than some other currently illegal drugs," he said.

Supporters note that similar 'decrim' measures have been in effect since the 1970's in other states, including Maine. "We're just trying to minimize the harms done by Marijuana Prohibition," Simon explained.

SOURCE: Union Leader

State pension fund performs well, but ...

By TOM FAHEY, State House Bureau Chief

Concord – The state's pension fund for public workers had strong earnings last year, but not strong enough to lift it out of the bottom 10 percent of similar funds.

New Hampshire Retirement System investments made 16 percent in the year that ended June 30.

Even with the good performance, the $6 billion fund is still only funded at 63 percent of its long-term pension obligations, short by $2.7 billion the $9.3 billion it should have on hand, NHRS accountants said yesterday.

NHRS provides retirement funding for 20,000 retirees, and 50,000 active workers contribute to it.

The fund's long-term funding had bottomed out at 57 percent last year.

NHRS held onto an extra $204 million in June that in past years would have gone to special accounts that pay for medical insurance and cost-of-living increases. The Legislature blocked the transfer this year.

SOURCE: National Priorities Project

NEW FEDERAL SPENDING ANALYSIS SHOWS MOST STATES PAID MORE FOR MILITARY THAN THEY GOT BACK; State rankings on procurement contract and social program spending also available

    In spite of the claims that military spending creates jobs, much of the money spent on the military never makes it back to the States, according to an analysis released today by the National Priorities Project (NPP) of newly released 2005 federal spending data.

    NPP's analysis provides state-level rankings comparing the money that came back to states in  military spending with how much was paid in taxes by state taxpayers for military spending.  A total of 32 states paid more in taxes than they got back, while 19 paid less.  The top three states with the worst return for their tax dollar are Minnesota ($0.19), Delaware ($0.23) and New York ($0.24).  States which had the best return for their tax dollar are New Mexico ($5.00), Alaska ($4.81) and Hawaii ($3.95).  Per capita rankings are also available.  This analysis is based on the Census Bureau's Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) for fiscal Year 2005 and IRS tax data for 2005.

    "These numbers challenge the myth that military spending is essential for job creation," said Greg Speeter, executive director of the National Priorities Project.  "For most Americans, spending close to $700 billion on the military next year would only promise fewer dollars to meet their real needs." 

    NPP's report also provides breakdowns by state and per capita on:

• the amount each state received in Department of  Defense procurement contracts, showing that the largest recipients were California ($31.2 billion), Virginia ($26.8 billion) and Texas ($20.6 billion) while the smallest were Idaho ($156), Delaware ($178) and Wyoming ($184).
  
• the amount each state received from the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Nutrition Services, as compared to military spending.  While $390.9 billion was distributed for the military in Fiscal Year 2005, $56.8 billion came to states in Department of Education programs.
• total expenditures by state as reported by the CFFR and compared with the information on taxes paid by state.  Thirty-one states received more than its taxpayers paid in taxes and 20 states paid more in taxes than came back in federal spending.

These findings follow the release of a recent report by the Political Economy Research Institute which found that the economic impact of military spending that goes to local areas is not as effective at creating jobs as other types of spending.  Specifically, the report shows that public spending on education creates more jobs that are higher paying than the same amount of money spent on the military. 

Jim Wallis tells NH audiences: Creating change requires more than your vote

Progressive Evangelical leader calls on NH voters to create a political movement to address poverty, AIDS, global warming

DURHAM – (Oct. 16, 2007) The Rev. Jim Wallis last night challenged people of all faiths, as well as those who consider themselves “spiritual, but not religious,” to create a movement to address the major global issues of our time, including poverty, AIDS, genocide and global warming.

Wallis told a crowd of about 200 people in Dartmouth College's Rollins Chapel Monday night that “people of faith should be the ultimate swing voters,” who use their moral compasses to evaluate candidates. But he also cautioned that regardless of where the next U.S. President stands on these issues, he or she will not be able to solve them without “a social movement pushing them from the outside to make it happen.”

“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” he said, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The Big Lie And The Rightwing's Neo-Feudal Vision (A Supplement To The Political Duality Series)

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Oct 07, 2007 at 01:44:56 AM EDT

One key to why movement conservatives are so successful is that they are playing a different game than everyone else-even most conservative voters, who really have no idea what they've signed on for.

What they are after, at a minimum, is a return to the Gilded Age system, when big business owned Congress outright, and the country was run directly for their benefit, and little else.

I'm going to be talking about this in an upcoming diary, but to illustrate it a little more fully, I created this standalone diary.

Two trends have been particularly destructive to the people of our nation who make things with their hands. One is privatization and the other is outsourcing.

The supposed reason for promoting privatization was the promise of more efficient and lower cost goods and services than government agencies traditionally delivered. That promise hasn't been realized, as we all now know.

But, the reason it hasn't been realized, I would argue, is because it was never intended to. The real impetus for privatization was to evade public scrutiny of government functions that became increasingly intense as a consequence of the passage of civil and consumer rights legislation and government-in-the-sunshine legislation. When people started paying close attention to how their money and resources were being used, government officials were easily convinced that it was time to hide behind the "private corporation."

SOURCE: KOS

by markthshark
Thu Oct 04, 2007 at 05:44:07 PM PDT

When the State Department tried to shield the CEO of Blackwater USA, Erik Prince, from testifying before Waxman’s oversight committee on Tuesday, it not only displayed the ties between the two entities, it also showed just how far the State Department was willing to go to keep that relationship intact.

But those ties don’t begin to expose the deep connections between the notorious security firm and the Bush regime writ large. Nor does it reveal the links between Blackwater and other prominent Republicans, a virtual rogue’s gallery - from former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to convicted uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

From 2001 to 2007, Blackwater employees passed effortlessly through the proverbial turnstile between the firm and the administration, several leaving important posts in the Pentagon and the CIA to take high-paying jobs at the security company.

When I was growing up, reasonable people agreed on the facts and disagreed on the solutions.

Yet now, and especially over the last six years, our political discourse has grown ever more shrill, especially on the Republican side, with name-calling, demonizing and attacking the messenger, personal insults – anything to draw attention from the truth.

What are the Bush/Cheney administration and their Republican apologists afraid of? What is the dirty and terrible secret they are apparently frantic to protect?

What is the common thread behind this administration’s hideous legacy, which includes:

1) Their failure to detect and prevent 9/11
2) The squandered golden opportunity to bring America and the world together in the aftermath of 9/11
3) Their failed invasion of Afghanistan
4) Their failure to capture Osama Bin Laden
5) Lying America into war with an unthreatening sovereign country
6) Fabricating, falsifying and exaggerating intelligence information, then blaming the messenger

Million-dollar washers recall platinum-plated toilet seats

Campaign pressures Presidential candidates to reduce wasteful Pentagon spending

CONCORD, NH – Yesterday's report that the Pentagon spent nearly $1 million to ship two 19-cent washers illustrates why Presidential candidates need to get serious about protecting American taxpayers from ongoing Defense waste.

The latest example of wasteful Pentagon spending became public when a South Carolina defense contractor pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. The company was paid $20.5 million for bogus shipping costs over a six-year period.

"This 20 million dollars is the tip of the iceberg," said Steve Varnum, PrioritiesNH director. “Despite absorbing half of our nation’s discretionary budget, the Pentagon cannot even pass a simple standard audit. Wasteful Defense spending is rampant and robs money that could be used to improve America’s education, health care and job training and energy independence.”

By Jack Shanahan

Presidential candidates routinely rail against big government, but they’re often silent when it comes to denouncing the biggest source of waste, redundancy, and inefficiency in the federal bureaucracy. That is, the Pentagon.

This year, against a backdrop of ballooning deficits and serious threats from terrorists, we’re already starting to see a few candidates break free from the taboo against calling for serious cuts in defense spending.

But if you listen closely to the presidential hopefuls traipsing though Iowa and New Hampshire these days, you’d think it’s only a few of the Democrats who will cut Cold War weapons systems from the Pentagon budget—and their proposed cuts are mostly nominal compared to the potential savings that could be realized.

Sen. Joe Biden, for example, opposes space-based weapons. Gov. Bill Richardson wants to cut 10 percent from the Pentagon budget. Both candidates would cut the V-22 Osprey and the F-22 Raptor fighter plane. And Sen. John Edwards opposes Star Wars.

SOURCE: OpEdNews

June 29, 2007

By Nancy Tobi

I've lately been advised by a friend that I am beginning to sound like Chicken Little, because I've been talking and writing a lot about this piece of federal election reform legislation called the Holt Bill, or HR811.

I've been told to ease up on the doom and gloom scenarios associated with the bill. I admire and respect this person and take his advice to heart.

But I told him that maybe instead of saying, "Oh, that Nancy. What a lunatic. She's on a crusade. She just won't shut up" he might not only take notice of the sky falling, but take some action by calling our NH Congressional delegation and tell them to cease and desist from giving their support to HR811.

Let me spell it out as best I can, in the simplest of terms.

I won't talk about the bill shifting power from the American people to the White House, changing forever the nature of our current constitutional system of representational democracy.

To the Editor,

From: Dr. Roger G. Wells, State Representative, Ways & Means Committee

Rockingham District 8 (Hampstead, Kingston, Plaistow)

Date: June 20, 2007

Subject: BEWARE! AMENDMENTS MEAN HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES

Governor Lynch's proposed Constitutional amendment and all its revisions and modifications WILL result in higher property taxes. While the amendments may sound noble and "reasonable," they actually contain code words with double meanings which would have a disastrous effect on local property taxes.

The term "targeted aid to the most needy towns," for example, sounds like a reasonable solution to education funding but taxpayers should realize that the extra money sent to a few towns will be gained by removing funds now sent to most "middle tier" towns. Currently, the state of New Hampshire is in last place in the nation with state grants funding only 22% (compared to a national average of 50%) of total education costs. The amendments are designed to keep it that way---to prevent the state from contributing more money for education funding. The less the state pays, the greater the burden on the local property taxpayer.

SOURCE: Union Leader


By TOM FAHEY, State House Bureau Chief

Concord – The state Senate will debate two school funding constitutional amendments today, but House leaders say they are not in a mood to hear the arguments.

The House voted last week to block consideration of any more school funding amendments unless two-thirds of House members vote to allow the discussion. The next time the House meets will be June 27, and lawmakers go home for the summer on June 29.

The House Senate standoff has produced strange alliances. Senate Democrats want to pass an amendment, CACR 19, that meets House Republican demands. House Democrats and Senate Republicans, by and large, want to block passage, for different reasons. Many Democrats are uncomfortable with amendments in general.

►Education funding amendment still alive
►Granite Status: Amendment issue puts Lynch to the test

SOURCE:Concord Monitor

By SARAH LIEBOWITZ, Monitor staff, Jun 14, 2007

A Senate-led effort to resurrect a constitutional amendment on education funding may be slowing. Late yesterday, Senate Democrats were debating whether to send the proposed amendment to the House or keep it in a Senate committee.

"I'd be perfectly comfortable to keep it in the Senate," Senate President Sylvia Larsen, a Concord Democrat, said yesterday. "But if I understand that the House is ready for it to come over, I will vote to have that pass over." The Senate is scheduled to vote today on the proposal, which would allow the state to bypass portions of a recent state Supreme Court ruling and target money to needy school districts.

The debate reflects the challenges any amendment will face in the House. Last week, the House overwhelmingly rejected a nearly identical proposal. House leaders said yesterday that they're reluctant to suspend that chamber's rules to take up the issue for a second time in the final weeks of this legislative session. Rather than press forward with the new proposal, they said, senators should give the House time to digest last week's vote.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Matt Simon
NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy
(603) 391-7450
info@nhcommonsense.org
www.NHCommonSense.org

NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy Launches Presidential Project, Urges Federal Marijuana Reform

Pembroke, NH (May 29) – The New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy (NH Common Sense) has created two new websites which announce and promote the group’s plans to raise drug and marijuana policy issues more effectively in the media. NH Common Sense will participate in the presidential primary process as a focal point of raising its issues, and results of candidate interactions will be published at the websites: RescheduleCannabis.org and SendTheRightMessage.com.

“Our issues have received some very good coverage in local and state media,” said NH Common Sense spokesman Matt Simon. “As we educate and activate responsible citizens in New Hampshire and across the country, we believe decriminalization and other marijuana reform issues can be raised more effectively in national media as well.”