June 19, 2009—One thing we love about this new method of presenting the paper is that we can finally present Mike Dater’s cartoons in a way that does them some kind of justice.

From “The Fortnightly Rant”

For the last eight years, Cheney ran the office Finley Peter Dunne once described as “not a crime exactly … but … kind of a disgrace … like writing anonymous letters,” in a way that made Tony Soprano’s operation look quaint. Now that we’ve been relieved of his governance, one might have hoped — or fervently wished, or feverishly prayed — that he would retreat to some obscure burrow in Wyoming, shut his droning pie-hole, and leave the world in peace. Instead, he continues to force toxic advice on his victims.

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Saturday, June 6, 2009—We celebrate the 65th Aniversary of D-Day by introducing our new method of bridging the gap between our newsprint edition and these here Intertubes. It is now possible for you to read our paper in your web browser. (We’ll continue posting links to download whole pdfs, too. Here’s the 3.5 MB pdf for this issue.) Click on a thumbnail, and you will get a larger version of the page. Click again on that image, and you will get an even larger, quite readable image. The quoted texts to the left of the thumbnails are taken from that page.

Page One

“As the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 — well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion — its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al Qaeda.”

This passage, along with a host of other well-known facts, leads almost inescapably to the conclusion that Vice President Dick “Still Dick” Cheney†* and his flock of pet chickenhawks tortured several hundred people, killing at least fifty of them in the process, to “prove” things that weren’t true, and strengthen the false argument that America must either invade Iraq, or put its own survival at risk. The success of Cheney’s scheme led to the deaths of more than four thousand Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, reduced the nation’s international reputation to ruins, and hastened us along the road to bankruptcy.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009—Portsmouth celebrated Memorial Day yesterday. As it has been for at least six out of the last ten years, the weather was superb. (It was partly cloudy in 2000. For 2001, 2003, and 2005 we have no data.)

Our Wandering Cinematographer caught the Portsmouth Middle School and High Schol Marching Bands, and Jack Kimball’s comments at the close of his New Hampshire Patriots’ Rally.

We could be wrong about this — Mr. Kimball will no doubt think so — but it appeared to us that his Rally wasn’t so much about Honoring the Fallen, which was obviously being well taken care of through more traditional means, as it was about trying to build a political organization to dissent against a duly elected President. And Kimball is not alone in his determination to misinterpret events. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose record of being wrong is unmatched, would no doubt agree with Kimball.

Thursday, May 14, 2009—You might think that after being shown to be dead wrong on an issue of the utmost national importance — and with the most tragic consequences — a reasonable person would say “I’m sorry,” and shut the hell up. Chickenhawks, though, are not, by nature, very reasonable.

The Bush administration is over, but not gone. And the notorious chickenhawks who provided cover for them by running their mouths on television still seem to be on the Rolodexes of the producers who run the talk shows. In fact, it almost seems like the Iraq War never happened. Unless, of course, you lost a husband, a wife, a child, an eye, a limb …

Which is why we found it so refreshing to view this clip, in which Jesse “The Governator” Ventura tells Larry King, “You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”

This intolerable situation has motivated us to — finally — begin rebuilding the Chickenhawk Database. If these yahoos will not shut up, we can at least expose them as the hypocritical cowards they are.

Nota Bene: We are not asking for individual chickenhawk nominations at this time. We have to build the database first.

We’re going to try to make the design process open. For starters, we are soliciting suggestions about categories of information.

So far, these are the fields we’re considering: Title [if applicable]; First Name; Last Name; Usual Occupation; Born [dd/mm/yy]; Home State; Conflict Avoided; Lame Excuse; Preferred Activity; Pro-War Evidence [quotes, votes, &c.]; and Photo.

Fair Warning: When and if we get operational, we’ll probably have to require potential nominators to register with a valid e-mail address for accountability.

Please use the “Write a Comment” feature below to make your suggestions.

Friday, May 8, 2009—From today’s paper, with minor edits:

“Google Maps added Street View to its coverage of Portsmouth a few weeks ago. The photos appear to date from last fall, judging from the ‘Going Out of Business Sale’ signs on the Klines Furniture building. We assigned our Wandering Photographer to take a virtual tour of the town and look for familiar faces. He found the bicyclist shown in the screenshot at right. In his yellow and black spandex, he looks an awful lot like Christ Svetanoff. In the lower photo, Dino Pappas may be sitting on the right hand bench in front of Caffé Kilim, but we couldn’t confirm it. Anyone making similar discoveries is invited to forward them to us here [editors (at) nhgazette.com]. If we get some good ones we’ll post them here.”

Meanwhile, we’ve uploaded a .pdf file of our April 10 paper and put a link and brief description on our Free Downloads of our 2009 Papers page.

Friday, May 1, 2009—Seriously. It was twenty years ago today, on May Day, 1989, that Bill Gardner, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State for Life,* officially assigned the legal right to publish The New Hampshire Gazette to the current editor, publisher, &c., &c. This brief video, created by Dan Freund and Jason Tublewicz, of Kinney Hill Media Partners, contains the short version of how that came about. We’ll add a few details after the show.
* OK, we’re kidding about “For Life”—but he has been in office since 1976.

The pamphlet in question was titled, The Monster of Monsters, by the pseudonymous “Tom Thumb, Esq.” It was printed by Daniel Fowle’s younger, weirder brother, Zechariah, with help from Daniel’s enslaved pressman, Primus. The story is told in Isaiah Thomas’s History of Printing, first published in 1810.

Our apologies to the late Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, whose title we mangled so badly in the video. Guess that anti-aristocratic streak runs pretty deep.

Monday, April 28, 2009; 12:20 a.m.—Memorial Bridge, between Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The placement of Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel, in New Castle, on the 1996 Most Endangered Historic Places list, is widely credited as a pivotal moment in its survival.

Since 1988, 211 sites have been placed on the “Most Threatened” list. Only six have been lost. If that was a batting average, it would be .971.

A rally in support of the Memorial Bridge, and its up-river companion the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, will be held today at noon at the John Paul Jones Park in Kittery, Maine.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009—This just in: the details of Tuesday’s Save Our Bridges! Rally, scheduled for Noon on Tuesday, April 28, at John Paul Jones Park in Kittery. Thanks to Ben Porter, at PortsmouthBridges.com, for sending this.

As of today, the weather prediction is for sunny weather and a high of 73 degrees. You can take this with a grain of salt, but it makes us feel better to hear what the weather service thinks.

The Rally will take place at John Paul Jones Park, just across the street from Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery. We expect a sizable crowd, and there will be media coverage. That coverage will be critical for us to send a message to the governments of Maine, New Hampshire, and the US as to the importance of our bridges. The more people taking part in the rally, the more forceful our message.

Here are the logistics for the rally:

Rally location: John Paul Jones Park, Kittery, ME
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Time: Noon
Parking: On streets adjacent to JPJ Park, and at Autoworks, 107 Government Street.

For Portsmouth participants:
A group will be forming at Prescott Park in Portsmouth to walk across the Memorial Bridge, to join the Rally in Kittery.
Group Formation: 11:30 AM, Prescott Park Parking lot
Depart for Kittery: 11:45 AM, on foot and bicycle
Parking: Prescott Park and Connie Bean Center

In case of Rain:
The weather forecast looks good, but this is New England, so…
In the event of rain, the rally will be held at the Portsmouth Discovery Center (Old Public Library) Corner of Islington St. and Middle Road, Portsmouth, NH.
Time: Noon, April 28th.

Ben Porter
Webmaster
PortsmouthBridges.com

Wednesday, April 22—Two public meetings have been scheduled for next Monday, April 27, in Portsmouth and in Kittery, to inform the public about the now-underway study of the Memorial and Sarah Mildred Long bridges.

The following information regarding the Maine-New Hampshire Connections study was released by Morris Communications on April 9. We should have posted it earlier. Sorry, we still don’t quite have the hang of this instant communications thing. Guess that comes from being a 252 year old paper-based lifeform. We shall aspire to do better.

We would draw the reader’s attention to two things: (1) anyone wanting to ask questions must apparently bring them in writing, and, (2) if the hearings are not well-attended, they may not be continued.

Maine-NH Connections Study Public Informational Meeting Scheduled

The first two public informational meetings for the Maine-NH Connections Study will take place on April 27 from 3:30-5:30 pm at the Kittery Trading Post, and from 6:30-8:30 pm at Portsmouth High School Auditorium. The two meetings will cover the same topics, acting as an introduction to the study process and timeframe, and giving the public the opportunity to ask questions.

According to Carol Morris, study spokesperson, “Our hope is that having two meetings at different times of day will allow a broader range of people to attend, especially those who find it difficult to attend an evening meeting.” Morris added that if the meetings are well attended, the practice will be continued throughout the study as a convenience to area residents.

At the meeting, those who want to provide their thoughts or ask questions regarding the study in writing will also be able to do so.

Those who are unable to attend the meeting will be able to view a meeting report at the study website, www.maineNHconnections.org shortly after the meeting. The website will go live the same week as the meeting. The public will also be able to ask questions via the website on an ongoing basis.

Friday, April 10, 2009—Save Our Bridges is online now!

Ben Porter, the U.N.H. professor who conducted the recent survey of bridge use between Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire (download a 1.3 MB pdf of the results by clicking here), has created a website dedicated to saving the two threatened bridges, the Memorial Bridge, and the Sarah Mildred Long (SML) Bridge.

The new site lays out the problem: Memorial Bridge could be shut down in as little as 750 days, and the SML Bridge is also endangered. A page for each bridge lays out the specifics.

Another page on the site shows the solution, and explains why the community must act now to save both bridges.

And a third page—Take Action—lays out clearly what can and must be done, to prevent the catastrophic closing of either bridge.

Anyone who cares about the Seacoast region owes it to themselves to go to PortsmouthBridges.com, get up to speed on the problem, and get active!

In fact, there’s no need to wait. You can start right now. Here’s a link to the page where you can sign the online petition to Save Our Bridges. On the same page, you can also download a PDF of the petition. Print it out and get your friends and neighbors to sign up!

For links to more than 100 stories in various local media about Memorial Bridge, going back at least ten years, see our “Memorial Bridge” page.