Quiet Struggle In NH Woodlands

I meant to write this a few weeks ago so people could see for themselves but I missed the perfect timing end of it. Here goes anyway.

As I drive into Concord more often than I used to before I got involved in the almost senseless world of politics I have not taken my eye off what is going on around me.

Along Rt. 89 heading into Concord the right of way edges leading up to the tree line are showing an amazing new development - chestnut saplings, lots of them.

Chestnut trees started dying at an amazing rate once the Chestnut “Blight” was found in NY in 1904. It was once a majestic tree that produced large amounts of nuts and light, strong, highly prized wood.

I used to top very large high quality trees like walnut and white oak in Pa. for a log-buyer named Ed Ray who was born in 1900. He remembered chestnuts in their prime and as we drove from one job to another he would point out patches of woods he had logged in the 30's and 40's and describe what trees where there then. Ed could still show me “seed trees” they left behind. Once we even stumbled across a large stack of chestnut lumber still in a barn after being air dried for ages. It was beautiful lumber which had never been edged and some still had the bark on.

Years ago I would spot a chestnut sapling or even a small tree and grab a few leaves off of it to hang around the office or barn just to look at. But this year I noticed there were saplings almost every few yards for about a mile out from Concord. They are easy to spot because the leaves are oval with teeth in the sides and about 7-10 inches long. They are bright yellow in the fall. The nuts, with husks on, look just like sea urchins covered with spines. I found some small deformed chestnuts in Pa. once while turkey hunting on an old strip mined ridge.

Imagine a tree that once dominated our forests being completely wiped out, which then for fifty years grows back from ancient stumps only to die back over and over and over again without ever living long enough to produce nuts or seeds. I think its amazing.

There may come a day they re-populate our forests. That would be good for New Hampshire.

A Plug For My Candidate

Just wanted to let everyone know that Democrat Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana has, according to a recent Loyola University New Orleans poll, a five point lead in his quest for re-election!!!

This is fabulous news for Democrats in their national campaign to Clean Up Congress and Vote For ChangeEvery seat counts and our good friend Rep. Jefferson is not about to let taking $90,000.00 in marked bills from the FBI in a bribery sting let him stop representing the good Democrats in his district. No sir! Tapes or no tapes he is progressively “moving forward together” with all the Democrats.

As I sit and watch Republican pundits try to justify why they should be allowed to retain control of Congress I always tun to our good old Democrat friend Rep. William Jefferson. Just because Republican spokesmen are afraid to mention how steadfast Rep. Jefferson is in his desire to work with other Democrats to “fix” our country, it doesn't mean I can't bring it up.

I for one am proud of him! So he is on tape taking a bribe. At least he GOT something out of the deal. Republican Congressman Foley chickened out and quit over a sex scandal where he didn't even have sex! Bill Clinton wouldn't stand for that and neither would Gerry Studds or Barney Frank. Sure, Senator Torricelli did take a powder for getting a few goodies like jewelry and such, we can't all be perfect.

So run Representative Jefferson run!

And this November 7, I call on all voters to join with Democrats and - Vote For Change – or I mean, More Of The Same. Or wait, no change. I'm so confused.

Hey! I Can't See Your House From Here.

As could be expected.

Our favorite “public policy” (read government) organization, The New Hampshire Municipal Association, aka, The Local Government Center since they were swallowed up by the school industry lobby, has come out AGAINST a constitutional amendment to protect private property.

The NHMA lawyer/political activist in this case, Cordell Johnson, is dismissing the seriousness of what happened to private property in Connecticut recently with the decision there that a sub-committee of the city government could draft a plan to take people's valuable waterfront property by eminent domain. The purpose of this taking was part of a scheme to generate more tax cash for their own general fund. In the process, the eminent domain taking kept the local homeowners from receiving fair market value for their property IF THEY WANTED TO SELL IT AT ALL!

It is OK for rich people to make an obscene profit says New Haven Ct. - if you are a pharmaceutical company or developer. But God forbid you are the last holdout in a multi-million dollar project. We will just TAKE your property - toss you a bone – and a developer your property – cheap.

Welcome to NH where the NH State Supreme Court rules that “cherish” means INCOME TAX and there is no longer a balance of power, just a dictate from the court.

Couldn't happen here says NHMA's Cordell Johnson.

Already has fella! Our courts rule on redistricting, education funding, and ballot position of candidates without a whisper of a constitutional right.

That's of course when they aren't cutting deals on who will hear one of their own member's divorce appeal, or sitting in on cases they should recuse themselves from, or using court letterhead to send a letter to a neighbor in Maine over a property line dispute. Sound familiar?

No, our State Supreme Court would never think to re-interpret our NH Constitution to take private property.

So why is NHMA even worried about this? Why bother opposing a do-nothing amendment?

Is it because NHMA is a PRO-GOVERNMENT lobbying group?

Or is it because they don't want the taxpaying peasants to get used to taking things into their own hands with the amendment process?

Voters in NH CHERISH their property rights that is why they will vote YES on Question One on November 7.

Which reminds me: You know how liberals say, “Yes we want tax cuts but how will we PAY for them?”

The NH State Supreme Court says: “Yes we want tax cuts but how will we “CHERISH” them”.

It all makes sense now.

http://nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061030/OPINION02/110300281\

That Vision Thing

I was at the Coburn/Lynch debate the other night to help with signs and had to leave early to get to our NH Taxpayer Radio program (WLMW 90.7FM Thursday evenings 6-8 pm – no commercials) which was being manned ably by CNHT First Vice Chair, Howard Dilworth and Dan McGuire of the Republican Liberty Caucus. I got to our program about 15 minutes into it and did not see the debate until last night on C-SPAN.

No wonder the in-the-tank-for-Lynch papers were saying things like “No knock-out punch by either side.”

Lynch looked like scared little rabbit – Coburn like an adult. Coburn won.

The weirdest thing though was the eye blinking by Lynch. He was batting about three blinks per second. Try it yourself some time. Blink your eyes as fast as possible for a minute and see how strange that really is. Now think about Lynch doing it for the whole debate. Its a wonder he didn't fall off the stage.

Calm down Gov.! You got pitched soft balls for goodness sake. Spradling even popped the old popularity theme into at least one question for ya.

Maybe it dawned on Lynch that night how, if he wins a second term, his own tax and spend liberals are going for his throat if he doesn't support an income and sales tax. I was at a forum in Portsmouth back when Gov. Shaheen was set upon by about four hundred angry liberals. It wasn't pretty. The only people I saw in the place from my side of the political isle were having a grand old time watching Shaheen get spanked by the Volvo crowd.

Lynch is at his highest point in his political career so far. My advice: stop the blinking and enjoy it while it lasts.

Mail-Jamming Suit Hits The Courts

Every dog has his day they say. Love him or hate him you just can't hide Joe Kelly Levasseur's campaign mail in The Manchester Post office until after the election and get away with it - so it seems.

Maybe some judge can find a way to make this situation go away before it starts getting ugly (as in publicized). I hope not.

Recently, former candidate for various political offices in Manchester, Joe Kelly Levasseur, filed a case in Superior Court, in the same city, regarding his mail not being delivered on time last November when he as running for a city office. The US Post Office actually paid Joe back for his “lost” mail.

I have not seen the actual court filings yet but it looks like the bulk mail company which delivered Joe's political mail did so along with a total of 44,000 other pieces. But only Mr. Levasseur's mail “got lost” for a while.

Now I have worked in a facility that shipped US mail and I know that we did not leave piles of mail in closets, containers, or bathrooms when we left in the morning. In fact, we even climbed up conveyor belts, under the auto-belt delivery system and catch nets slung around machinery that caught stray pieces of mail. All the yellow tied-at-the-top mail bags were emptied. So how this happened is going to take some explaining. And a long, long, long, detail-oriented trial. I hope.

Point of note: The lawyer handling the case for Mr. Levasseure is Chuck Douglass, former State Supreme Court Justice, US Congressman, and all-round political fixture here in NH.

Enter a bit of history: Chuck Douglass had his mail “not show up on time” back in 1990 I believe it was (TJ can check that for me) when he ran for Congress. Wow what a coincidence!

I had my political mail tampered with by the Hillsboro post office in 1996. Why I do believe we all have enough in common here to hold a good old boy reunion at a pub every so often. But who else would come!!!!

Let's try some other groups who have complained to me about this “lost mail” scenario since the pattern showed up. Try right-to-life groups for instance. I have heard similar complaints from them as well. It could have been an unsophisticated attempt at bulk mail by the conservative groups that caused the delays in the past but you can bet that from now on we will all be paying close attention to every mail drop we do.

As a bonus in this lawsuit we have the resurgence of "his lowness", Geoff Wetrosky, the out-of-state Democrat campaign thug for hire who was caught stealing signs from candidates and the GOP. As Geoffy was careening towards Democrat Party Chair Cathy Sullivan's home/motel? that fateful night last November futilely attempting to shake the dauntless Republicans on his tail, he was desperately barking into his cell phone. (Or so I am told by one of the guys in the car.)

Just whom was Geoffy, the John Kerry paid for campaign thug, chatting it up with during his attempted escape from the scene of the crime? I would hope a nice long trial would include some discovery of his cell phone records. In any case, we know he landed at his “temporary domicile” 192 South Mammoth Rd., the home/motel? Of Dem Party Chair Cathy Sullivan with his stolen signs. That is where the Manchester cops caught him and let him go. 192 South Mammoth Rd. is same the address he used to steal a vote in the Manchester election several days later before he escaped back to South Dakota.

So what did the Dem. Party Chair know and when did she know it? What about Mayor Baines who Geoffy was working for? Or how about US Senator John Kerry who was footing the bill for Geoff Wetrosky the campaign thug for hire? What did they know about Wetrosky's past campaign problems in other states?

Boy this mail-jamming sure is complicated.