All Member Posts (694)

Without question, Republican Rep. Steve Vaillancourt’s “sieg heil” outburst toward House Speaker O’Brien this week was inappropriate.



But the outburst speaks to a fundamental issue in the New Hampshire House: O’Brien is a my-way-or-the-highway tyrant who has created a level of political dysfunction in…

Republican Bill Binnie told the Nashua Telegraph that he won't be a candidate for governor.



According to the Telegraph story, he wants to concentrate his efforts on his new television station, WBIN in Derry.…

U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte are using both their bi-partisan political clout -- and their membership on the Senate Armed Services Committee -- to get the Air Force's newest tanker planes located at Pease for the New Hampshire Air Guard.

The NHAG has been flying the current 1950s era KC-135 tankers out of Pease and the hope is for the newer planes once the new KC-46A tankers are deployed starting in federal fiscal year 2014.



The pair met with N.H. guard…

There is division -- and some derision -- between the New Hampshire Senate and House.



The in-party sniping among the Republican leadership in both bodies has resulted in the scuttling of House initiatives by the Senate and the dismantling of Senate initiatives by the House.



The derision was in evidence this week over two issues in one bill -- a tax on Internet access and what to do with state budget surplus money.



The effort to ban any tax on Internet access…

Health insurance plans often reimburse care provided by practitioners of various areas of "medicine,", from chiropractic to massage therapy to reiki. In my view, athletic trainers offer valuable, scientifically sound treatment regimens, so they should be eligible for reimbursement from insurance companies. 
 

Adultery is largely about one going where one shouldn't go, and that's the case with government trying to regulate marriage and marital behavior, which ultimately are civil and spiritual matters.

New Hampshire should purge its RSAs of any trace of overreach, and leave questions of adultery to divorce lawyers and rolling-pin manufacturers. 

Be happy, New Hampshire residents, that you have a presidential primary.



More and more during this quadrennial presidential election cycle the weaknesses of the caucus system are becoming more apparent.



And look no further than next door Maine to see how bad it’s become.



It’s gotten so bad next door, according to a recent Associated Press article, that lawmakers there are…

The filing period for New Hampshire's 2012 election is still nearly a month away, but already a number of gubernatorial candidates have collected some key endorsements. Keep checking back with the Live Free or Die Alliance for more updates on the state election campaigns, with some bulletins from the campaigns themselves.



Among the recently announced gubernatorial endorsements:…

According to a recent poll, the vast majority of NH citizens don't know enough to give an opinion on the candidates for governor.

At the end of April the UNH Survey Center released a WMUR Granite State Poll that showed 54% of NH citizens are unfamiliar with Ovide Lamontagne (R), 84% are unfamiliar with Kevin Smith (R), 81% are unfamiliar with Maggie Hassan (D), and 83% are unfamiliar with Jackie Cilley (D).

Do you know the candidates for governor?  …

The redistricting of House seats in the Granite State might appear as too much inside baseball, too much of an issue for political insiders.



But it really matters to Granite State voters because it gets to the heart of fair and equal representation, particularly in a state like New…

Fenton Groen, a Republican from Rochester, this week became the seventh state senator to announce he will not seek reelection.



Consider that there are 24 members of the New Hampshire Senate. Groen’s decision means almost a third aren’t running for their seats in November.



According to a Union Leader story, the others include: John Gallus, R-Berlin; Jim Forsythe, R-Strafford; Matthew…

According to a new report from the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute, the state's 1.3 million population is growing older, becoming more diverse and seeing pockets of poverty.



This reflects national trends, according to senior demographer Kenneth Johnson, speaking Tuesday morning on the "Open Mic" program on Dover radio station WTSN AM 1270.



The…

By Paul Briand

For the second time in six days GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney shared a stage with Granite State Sen. Kelly Ayotte.



No wonder the wags are running amok with speculation that the Republican first-term senator is on Romney’s short-list to be…

The survey center at the University of New Hampshire this week released four WMUR Granite State Polls that show the most current pulse of voters.



The results are a mixed bag of good news and bad new for Republicans and Democrats alike. What comes clear in each poll, however, is that the state’s independent voters hold sway on whatever decisions will be made at the polls come November 2012.



The…

A crowd of approximately 40 residents, along with local, state and federal government officials attended Thursday night’s public hearing in Hampton related to Seabrook Station’s 2011 safety performance.



More than 8,000 hours of inspection and inspection- related activities were conducted at the Seabrook…

The state’s two U.S. senators -- Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Kelly Ayotte -- shared a stage on Friday to discuss not only issues affecting the Granite State but their cooperative effort to resolve them.



They were guests of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, and they touched on a variety of issues, from the deficit to the…

By Johnny Love

Hello World,

According to the latest fundraising data from OpenSecrets.org, Mitt Romney received  90% of his campaign contributions from large individual contributions. Barack Obama received 45% of his campaign contributions from small individual contributions.

Does this mean that Mitt Romney will be working for individuals who contributed large amounts of money?

By Henry Gekonde

Most of us would agree that there's already too much noise out there about the Trayvon Martin case in Florida and it'd be an offense to add to it. But I couldn't resist. “Talk of the Nation" on NPR had an interesting discussion on April 12 about this case. At issue was Florida's…

By Paul Briand

New Hampshire’s Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is an important asset to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.



But she’s not important enough to be his running mate.



Even as Romney has begun to look in earnest for a running mate, now…

The town of Greenland, indeed the entire Granite State, was shaken by the news Thursday evening that Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was shot and killed during a police raid on the home of a suspected drug dealer.



Maloney was just days from retirement. He was killed, four police officers were wounded, and the suspect in the case, Cullen Mutrie, was later found dead at the Post Road…