admin

The PUC’s Heartless Order

by

By Donald M. Kreis, Consumer Advocate at the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate At the heart of last Friday’s astonishing, destructive, and radical order from the Public Utilities Commission is a gaping hole. But before leaping into that hole, let’s start with wisdom from media critic and New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen. Because, let’s face it, even though I hung up my reporter’s spurs 28 years ago when I graduated from law school, this column is journalism, at least kinda sorta. Rosen urges journalists to reframe what they do, at least when covering politics and public policy, so as to get …

Read more

The Worst and the Weirdest

by

Except for a few Amazonian tribes, all of us Earthians have by now been introduced to the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A movie franchise making that much money becomes culturally unavoidable. Those celluloid shenanigans may be safely ignored, of course. At least, so we presume. If only we cold say that about the RCU—the Republican Criminal Universe. True, the nation’s plunge into competitive weirdness does seem to roughly coincide with the release of Iron Man in 2008. We suspect, though, that other events that year may have had a more disruptive effect. For example, the presidential election was won by a Black man. If …

Read more

Fri, Nov 19

by

2005—Marines in Haditha murder 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children. One man is tried and convicted of dereliciton of duty. 1967—A 500 lb. bomb from a Marine jet goes astray during the Battle of Dak To; 45 men from the 173d Airborne die, 45 are wounded. 1963—In Havana, Frenchman Jean Daniel, sent personally by JFK, finds Fidel Castro “cautiously receptive” to a rapprochement with the U.S. 1962—Dick “Dick” Cheney racks up his first drunk driving conviction in Cheyenne, Wyo. 1960—At a party in New York, Norman Mailer stabs his second wife. 1932—A petition is signed by 19 of Germany’s top industrialists asking President Hindenburg …

Read more

Thurs, Nov 18

by

2020—Feds indict Kansan Shawn L. Parcells for wire fraud. He collected $1.1 million from 375 clients for performing autopsies, yet was neither a physician nor a pathologist. 2005—Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) apologizes to ’Nam combat vet Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) on the House floor for implying he’s a coward. 1999—Texas A&M’s student-built Bonfire—a 59-foot stack of vertical logs—somehow collapses; 12 die. 1997—Operation Northwoods is exposed: the 1962 plan would have murdered U.S. citizens on the street to build support for an invasion of Cuba. 1988—Congress jacks up penalties for smoking crack. Lighter penalties for powder cocaine are unchanged. 1978—Jim Jones and 913 followers drink cyanide-laced …

Read more

Wed, Nov 17

by

2008—Citigroup announces it will sack 52,000 workers. 2006—“We’ll succeed [in Iraq] unless we quit,” says George W.[MD] Bush. 2003—An Austrian muscleman becomes Governator of California. 1995—President Clinton, multitasking, speaks on the phone with a Congressman while violating his marriage vows with an intern. 1995—The Commander of the Pacific Fleet calls the rape of an Okinawan girl “stupid.” The culprit should have hired a prostitute instead, he says. 1992—Dateline broadcasts a rigged video of a GM truck exploding. 1973—Speaking to newspaper editors at Disney World, Richard M. Nixon says, “I am not a crook.” 1965—First Cav survivors of the Ia Drang are marched into an ambush; …

Read more