Jackie Cilley - There When We Need Them

There are many jobs we don’t give much thought to on a day-to-day basis.  The local hospital only surfaces to our conscious mind when we drive by, visit someone we care about there or need it ourselves.  The folks who plow our streets so that we can get up and go to work after a snow storm receive little attention unless a snow bank blocks our driveway.  Public safety fits this frame well.  We simply don’t think of first responders, police or firefighters until we need them.

On a cold, dark February evening last year that was just the case for my son and daughter-in-law.  She had arrived before him to find their modest, well-tended first home had been robbed of its copper piping  -- leaving them without heat or hot water.  After calling my son, the first calls she made were to firefighters and police, one to investigate the lingering odor of gas and the other to try to catch the thieves.

On another cold winter day before the holidays, yet another family member was involved in an accident so horrendous it required cutting him out of the van he was driving.  Having shattered his hip and sustaining other injuries, he was thankful for the loving care the paramedics provided.  It was a lengthy healing process from which he never fully recovered, but they gave him the start he needed to get as far as he did.

These incidents pale in comparison to much more traumatic events such as those on 9/11 in which so many were lost – including hundreds of firefighters and police.  Nonetheless, even the seemingly most innocuous incident can turn deadly.  Our public safety officials are and must always be prepared for that eventuality.

Our state has consistently been rated as one of the safest in the country in which to live.  Our public safety personnel work diligently to keep it that way.  Our citizens expect no less from them.  Business leaders choose a safe state and count on the protections afforded by well-trained and well-equipped public safety employees.  Visitors arrive in the comfort of knowing we are a safe state to visit.

Our safety net, however, is stretching at the seams like a fire hose that’s been dragged along the gravel too many times.  State and local cuts to public safety budgets are placing substantial stress on already thinning ranks.  Recently, Chief Jamie Sullivan of the Hampton Police Department was quoted as saying, “…we have been expected to do more with less and have done so.  Now we are doing less with less.”

Hampton thrives on its tourist industry.  These visitors come, at least in part, because they believe it a safe place to visit.  Yet, Chief Sullivan does not have the budget for a full complement of police for all shifts and locations.  He must depend on back-up from equally stretched Sheriff’s departments and State Police.

Areas of the nation that fail to invest in sound public safety pay the price through higher rates of crime, fewer middle class families who want to live there and fewer visitors who come with their tourist dollars.  That is not the New Hampshire we have had and it is not the New Hampshire we want.

Over these past two years our Free State/Tea Party legislature has maligned public employees, including firefighters, police and first responders, at every opportunity.  The adjectives and labels used to describe these hardworking men and women would have been unthinkable to utter in the halls of our Statehouse not so long ago.  Regardless, these brave men and women have continued to go about their job – sometimes at great personal risk – to keep our citizens safe. 

Protecting those who protect us is a primary motive for my decision to run for Governor. I will always remember that it is our police, firefighters and first responders who make New Hampshire a safe and inviting place for businesses, tourists, and growing families. Together, we'll change the way public employees are valued.  We will preserve the quality of life that well-trained and well-equipped safety forces defend.

This week I was proud to receive the endorsements of the New England Police Benevolent Association and the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. I am honored that they have seen in me someone who will fight to keep New Hampshire a beautiful and safe state  Together with all of our citizens we will protect the traditions that have made New Hampshire the greatest state in the country in which to live and work.

Carol Shea-Porter - Super PAC Alert

If you live in America, you cannot escape the result of the Supreme Court decision in 2010 that changed political campaigns.  Known as Citizens United, this decision allowed those with big checkbooks to contribute unlimited amounts of money for a politician, as long as they do not give directly to the politician’s campaign.

That is why we now have Super PACs—they are used as the vehicle to transfer money.  If an individual wants to give directly to a campaign, he or she can only give $2500 per election, and a political action committee can only give $5000, but if you are really rich or you are a corporation, and you want really heavy influence, you can now just give to the Super PAC who backs your candidate, and then sit back and enjoy the air war on TV that you paid for. And as a bonus, voters in each state won’t even know you and your partners were the ones who brought ugly ads to them until after they have voted, so they won’t know that you had a particular agenda.

For example, Mitt Romney’s group, “Restore Our Future” (never mind that you cannot restore something that has not existed yet), will not file until January 31^st, well after New Hampshire and South Carolina, and on the day Florida goes to vote after seeing thousands of ads attacking other Republicans from Romney’s people. Governor Romney said he cannot talk to “Restore Our Future,” but that Super PAC is full of his former top campaign aides who know Romney intimately, so it is a pretty thin wall.

We could still win our future though, if Newt Gingrich has anything to do with it. The Super PAC that supports him, “Winning our Future,” is running ads about Governor Romney’s business dealings, thanks to one donor who gave a check for $5 million dollars to the PAC to pay for those attacks. If he had given directly to the campaign, he could only have given $2500 for the primary, but now, the Supreme Court has allowed him to give unlimited money to take Governor Romney down.

Pity the poor voter in South Carolina right now.  According to McClatchy newspapers, New Hampshire voters saw 2,800 ads. By the second week in January, the South Carolina voters had seen nearly twice that many, and Super PACs were responsible for 69% of the spending on TV ads.

Does this matter? Does it influence voters?  They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work.  Senator John McCain told CNN, “Now it’s the system under which we operate, which leads to this kind of campaigning and will lead to corruption and scandals. I guarantee it.” CNN reported that McCain said the Supreme Court, “basically unleashed—without transparency—and without accountability—huge amounts of money from those so-called ‘independent campaigns’.”

Right now, the Republicans are shooting at each other, but the general election is right around the corner, and Democrats have now answered with some Super PACs of their own. What we saw in 2010 was just a teaser to what we will endure this year.  Super PACs and their very wealthy donors are drowning out the voices of the small-dollar donors. David Woodward, a professor of political science at Clemson University, said in the Kansas City Star, “it goes back to politics before we had campaign finance reform and Watergate. It’s just a complete reversal that has brought us full circle to where it’s rich guys playing politics.” Or, I might add, playing for friendly policies and legislation.

These Super PACs will once again be active in congressional races and Senate races, but in a bigger way than in 2010. Jeff Roe, a Kansas City, Missouri based Republican strategist said, “It will have huge impact.” We all remember the deceptions, the distortions, and the trickery from 2010 and from the 2012 Presidential primary. Is there anything we can do to stop it in the general election this year?

Yes, there is. Educate yourself. We all have a civic responsibility to pay attention and learn. There are so many places to check facts now, like FactCheck.org. Listen to the candidate debates, and watch C-Span programs. Look up voting records. Watch several major news shows. Visit websites like The Sunlight Foundation, and see information on Super PACs.  Ask candidates if they will support legislation to take this kind of money out of politics.  We are citizens, not merely spectators, and we still have the power to be heard. Speak up!

###

Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter represented New Hampshire’s First District from 2007-2011, she is seeking a third term in the November, 2012 election.  She wrote the proposal for and established a non-profit, social service agency, which continues to serve all ages.  She taught politics and history and is a strong supporter of Medicare and Social Security.

Nathaniel Gurien - THE PEOPLE WHO MATTER

We’re all dupes. For decades now, we’ve been gorged on propaganda, slogans, demeaning slurs, lies, fairy tales, dog-whistles, blaming minorities, blaming anyone but the true culprits, titillating distractions, magical thinking, and scripted political kabuki theater, while being starved for honest news and information by the media that our Constitution vested with special rights and protections to produce the informed citizenry essential to a functioning, bottom-up democratic society.  But in exchange for flunky access to the powerful, combined with corporate dominance, most journalists have been reduced to being craven stenographers for our political elites.  To be well informed nowadays requires diligence and time most of us can’t afford.

This is as they intend it to be. The “People Who Matter” (as they refer to themselves) have no use for or intention to share even a sliver of our nation’s wealth with a prosperous middle class, and since Reagan’s election in 1980, they have engaged in a comprehensive campaign to re-feudalize our society and take back the gains Labor won in the early twentieth century with their blood, courage and lives.

The People Who Matter – the ‘first world’ of business and financial elites and their eager courtiers in politics and the media - have deliberately set us against one other by repeatedly spreading lies blaming assorted relatively powerless minorities for the damage they themselves are responsible for. Their name for us is the “Underlying Population”. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Everyone knows how to tell if our politicians are lying - just check if their lips are moving. So how come when the election comes around, we forget this simple fact as they ply us with sweet, simple fables we would like to believe, while often without missing a beat telling a different set of fantasies and lies to another audience. After we elect these snake-oil salesmen, they throw their supporters a few crumbs here and there, while blaming their intentionally broken promises on anyone but themselves.

William Black, the chief regulator who oversaw the S&L scandal in the 1980’s, referring to those responsible for the 2008 crash stated matter-of-factly: “Bernie (Madoff) was a piker compared to these guys”.  Here’s a typical example of just one of their many grand rackets:  They conceive of the con (e.g.,’credit default swaps’ or ‘putting lipstick on the pig’ of subprime mortgages via ‘securitization’), then entice willing co-conspirators into the racket (like the whores at ratings agencies like Standard & Poors and Moodys), then hire ex-government ‘revolving-door’ lobbyists who pay off the ‘people’s representatives’ (their former colleagues), who then change the laws on bogus ‘smoke & mirrors’ pretexts so their patrons’ scams are now legal. And when the crooked bubble inevitably bursts the Underlying Population is left to clean up the mess, while the People Who Matters’ lickspittles in politics and the media wax philosophical on the canards of free markets, unregulated capitalism, and “no laws were broken”. Sound familiar? Lucy fools us again. And again and again. When will we learn? They’re never going to stop this behavior until rule of law is restored and those responsible are sentenced to many years in jail after forfeiting and returning their ill-gotten gains and then some.

Over the last decade, they’ve made enormous strides in cementing their gains at our expense: shredding our Constitutional rights; perpetual, profitable wars, “warfare by video game”, and the rise of the National Security State; massive layoffs and foreclosures; perpetual fear-mongering; so-called free trade agreements; multi-trillion dollar raids on the US Treasury then claiming we’re out of money; domestic drone surveillance; torture, unlimited detention, rendition, kangaroo courts; Citizens United; jail and death sentences without trial; arrest and harassment of dissenters; massive transfers of wealth from taxpayers to Wall Street, insurance, defense, pharmaceutical, security and energy companies; obsessive government secrecy; prosecution of whistleblowers who attempt to expose their waste, fraud & abuse; recklessly low bank reserves, evasion of the rule of law for the powerful, and so on.  Many of us now put our personal and private information on social media and ‘smartphones’, blissfully unaware that one day it will be used against us. Total surveillance as well as the infrastructure for controlling the Underlying Population is nearly complete. Google: POSSE COMITATUS ACT OBAMA.

What can now be done with facial recognition, tracking our internet activity, emails, analytics, public surveillance cameras, satellites, smartphones, drones, EZ Pass, tailored messaging, GPS, supermarket discount cards, social media, RFID chips, and so much else is admittedly a boon for business, but it has a dark and frightening side.  Its potential for abuse and control is already being implemented.  Our nature as a species is that the strong will often prey upon the weak. The measure of our civilization is our will and ability to control and mitigate those instincts.

Our charismatic Nobel Peace Prize winning President, who long ago cast his lot with the People Who Matter and obviously not with the Underlying Population despite his soaring rhetoric, along with his Wall Street/PNAC /AIPAC/CFR-dominated Administration and Congress, now has us in nine publically-acknowledged war theaters: IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, LIBYA, YEMEN, SOMALIA, PALESTINE, SYRIA, BAHRAIN & IRAN, raining terror, death and destruction on defenseless Underlying Populations. We have over 1000 military installations in 130+ countries. The world is terrified of us.  With our decades of despicable and ruthless imperial behavior, and countless crimes against humanity, we have deeply shamed ourselves and lost all claims to decency.  It’s not surprising that we’ve irritated a few folks along the way.

To reclaim our former position in the world as a beacon for the highest aspirations of humankind, we’ll have to unite as a people and learn to work together.  We must reject their lies that some hapless minority is our enemy. We must stop them from continuing to loot, poison and enslave us. We must reclaim the birthright of OUR media and government.

How wonderful it would be if we simply elected people who were decent, honest, straight-talking and interested in the common good.  Only an informed and engaged citizenry can effectively demand such accountability.

No one who loves our country more than our military. They commit their lives and honor every day to building and defending America to be the strongest and most admired country in history. They do not aspire to the conquering, killing, occupying and destroying of other countries on which so much of their energy is expended, but our leaders who command them are the callous and traitorous lackeys of the People Who Matter.

The People Who Matter do not care what the Underlying Population think about their stealing our wealth and destroying our lives, hopes and dreams, and those of so many other peoples around the world.

Why do we tolerate all this for even one day longer?

Nathaniel Gurien lives in Kearsarge and is the executive director of NH Asks, Inc. and NH Citizens Against Unfair Bank Practices. He can be contacted at: nathaniel@nh-asks.org

Carol Shea-Porter - JUST SAY YES TO THE JOBS ACT

President Obama came out—finally—with a jobs bill last week. Members of Congress, who have not passed a single jobs bill of their own, immediately started to pick at it. Republicans thought it spent too much, some Democrats thought it was not bold enough. And so it begins again. The endless tussling, the fighting, the political partisanship and games have started. While most disguise their partisanship with polished phrases, one senior Republican aide actually told the truth straight-out when he told Politico, “Obama is on the ropes. Why do we appear ready to hand him a win?”

And meanwhile, millions of Americans wait, either jobless or feeling insecure about their own jobs. The millions who are unemployed worry about unemployment benefits ending, and about how to find work in a country that keeps focusing just on deficits, and on cutting jobs instead of growing them. America lost eight million jobs in the Recession, but the economy had been growing jobs until last month. All of the cutting led to zero job growth last month. In their zeal to cut budgets and jobs, our leaders forgot a basic rule for economic growth. There has to be consumer demand for businesses to grow. Consumer demand is 70% of our economy. If people aren’t working, they cannot spend. The best way to reduce deficits is to grow the economy, not to just slash spending and lay off government and private workers. And for those who always say the government does not create jobs, just ask government workers who lost theirs. Ask companies that rely on government contracts, and ask their employees if government creates jobs.

The President’s plan invests in the economy, and offers many of the ideas that each party has embraced in the past. There are tax cuts in there for individuals and for businesses. Although I worry about the payroll tax reduction because I believe it could ultimately weaken Social Security, I also know that we have hit a red light in our economic recovery, and I think compromise is essential if we are going to move forward. Most economists have been positive about the president’s plan, USA Today reported, and that includes being positive about those payroll tax cuts. “Payroll tax cuts are very powerful," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. "They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth." The newspaper also covered Mark Zandi’s supportive comments. Zandi was John McCain’s economic advisor during his campaign for president, and is now the chief economist at Moody's Analytics. The paper said that Zandi “estimated that the president's plan would boost economic growth by 2 percentage points, add 2 million jobs and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point next year compared with existing law.” There is a possibility that President Obama is wrong, and that these economists are also wrong. But given the current situation we find ourselves in, doing nothing or continuing to just slash spending and slash jobs presents the greater danger.

We have to take care of the unemployed veterans who cannot find work, especially the wounded. This bill does that. We have to work on infrastructure and put construction workers back on the job. This bill does that. We have to protect unemployment insurance for 6 million people, while trying new and innovative programs to get them back to work. This bill does that. We have to help small businesses with their taxes and we also have to help them compete on infrastructure projects. This bill does that. We need to keep cops and firefighters on the job. This bill does that. And we need to create jobs for low-income youth and adults, who cannot get a leg up into the middle class if there is no work. This bill does that also. There is finally a plan on the table, an idea to move our country out of the quicksand. This bill is not the one the Republicans would have written, if they had written one at all. It is not the one that will get a ringing endorsement from all of the Democrats in Washington. It is the bill that requires compromise and working together. Pass this bill.

#####

Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter represented New Hampshire’s First District from 2007-2011, she is seeking a third term in the November, 2012 election.  She wrote the proposal for and established a non-profit, social service agency, which continues to serve all ages.  She taught politics and history and is a strong supporter of Medicare and Social Security.

Republicans must end the ‘government as usual’ model

By Andrew Hemingway, chairman, Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire

While New Hampshire’s unemployment numbers of 5.2 percent continue to impress by undercutting the national average of 9 percent, it’s important to take a step back from these numbers and consider what the often-quoted comparison doesn’t say.

The state’s unemployment statistics, however low, do not account for people who work part-time and would prefer a more comfortable full-time job. They don’t account for those who have given up looking for a job, because good jobs are too hard to find. They don’t account for the fact that our schools continue to fail us by graduating people unprepared for higher-end jobs, despite the fact that we give these government institutions a greater portion of our shrinking income year after year. They also don’t account for the falling dollar and the resulting increase in prices.

New Hampshire lawmakers certainly cannot address every economic problem, because some are larger than the state, but they can address many of them by developing the political will to rein-in the power brokers in Concord. Unfortunately, many of the Republicans sent to Concord to remove the rules and regulations that stymie jobs and the economy are falling into a government-as-usual mindset.

Rather than listen to the voice of reason and the loud call of the voters who sent Republicans to create a smaller, affordable government that leaves them alone, some lawmakers seem to be listening to the bureaucrats, lobbyists and special interest groups who only have their own interest at heart. “Regulate us” is a cry often heard by those who seek to get rid of the competition. Do Republicans really want to join their Democratic counterparts in support of such job-killing cronyism? It baffles me how politicians are so quick to listen to the people who are on the take and so quick to ignore the people who are having the fruit of their labor taken from them against their will.

Take the bill that repeals the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for instance. This multi-state program may provide money to some companies for renewable energy projects, but that money is coming from energy producers, manufacturing firms and ratepayers, who are now facing a higher cost of doing business and a higher cost of living as a result. And wouldn’t companies that think renewable energy projects are a good idea pay for such projects on their own? Why should a multi-state bureaucracy pick the winners and losers? That drives up the cost for everyone.

The labor union special interest group has managed to use the law over time to solidify a power position over voters and companies (both employers in this state). A few common-sense efforts to rein-in the unions’ unique power position have had far too much trouble from some. These detractors should note that companies relocate to Right to Work states because they know they can hire workers there who will not force them into contracts they can’t afford. If politicians really cared about those jobs they promised, they would turn down the union money that was taken from workers against their will and support the right to work without interference from a third party. We need those jobs!

Whether Republicans ultimately garner the political will to change the way Concord works for the better really comes down to how they view government. If Republicans do what they said they would and create a limited government that respects free markets, their super majority might mean something come reelection time. If Republicans continue to see government as a mediator in the economy, we will all be losers in November 2012.