Meet local artists, buy a painting
The Manchester Artists’ Association has an open house tomorrow night (Thursday) from 5-8 p.m. at the MAA Gallery at 1528 Elm Street in Manchester. FYI.
Pearl Street fire victims still need help
It’s too late to donate physical goods to the Pearl Street fire victims. The Salvation Army’s warehouse for the victims was donated for only one month and closes this Friday. No more donations are being accepted. But you can still give cash. The Salvation Army just paid one victim’s rent today, and the need is ongoing.
If you want to help, you can send a check (make sure it’s marked for the Pearl Street fire victims or for the disaster relief fund) to:
The Salvation Army
121 Cedar Street
Manchester, NH 03101
A bad bet for charity poker
House Bill 1509 as amended would tax charity poker in New Hampshire in a bizarre way that could really harm charity poker games and send players back to Massachusetts. The bill does not tax a player’s winnings, as one might expect. That would make too much sense. Instead, it slaps an 18 percent tax on the buy-in. So anyone who wants to play is taxed for the privilege of playing.
If I remember correctly, under state law, operators can offer games with $150 and $250 buy-ins. That’s the amount you pay to get your chip stack and seat at the table. Under this bill, you would pay a $27 tax on that $150 game and a $45 tax on that $250 game. So your $250 game becomes a $290 game — whether you win or lose. Who is going to pay an extra $45 just for a seat at the table?
That makes no sense whatsoever. If there’s going to be a tax on these games, it should fall on the winnings, not the buy-in.
Obama and Wright
I post some thoughts on Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright here.
I’ve also run across some other good pieces on the matter.
Northwestern University withdraws its offer of an honorary degree to Wright. What in the world was Northwestern doing offering this guy an honorary degree in the first place?
The Economist notes, correctly, I think, that this is also a generational struggle and that the old generation of black leaders is not going to go quietly or let Obama keep them silent to further his political aspirations.
Jim Geraghty asks some good questions about Obama’s staff and surrogates and wonders who failed Obama in handling the Wright matter.
The AP reports that the Wright-Obama rift has created divisions in black churches. And one preacher who has known Wright since the 1970s says Obama cannot plausibly deny that he was unfamiliar with Wright’s views. “Anybody who has heard Jeremiah preach has heard that,” said Rev. William Revely. “Jeremiah, he’s a pastor, and as a pastor you have to see things as they are. Politicians see things as they want them to be.”
Linky, linky
Sorry about disappearing last week. I was sick. Still not up to full speed, so here are some links to start the week.
Does the U.S. military use an inferior machine gun?
Great Bay Community College’s Stratham campus could be turned into a retirement community.
How blueberry growers are doubly hurt by high fuel prices (you probably didn’t know that growers set blueberry bushes on fire every other year).
Voter ID laws get the OK from the U.S. Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote.
The U.S. population, by the numbers.
How the American Bar Association forces law schools to lower admissions standards for minorities.
We’re going after pirates off the coast of Africa. Again.
More bad news for Roger Clemens. Transporting a minor across state lines for sex?
Obama changes campaign tactics to go after blue collar voters.
Don’t forget tonight’s public hearing on Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta’s proposed budget.
Finally, a Coldplay song is appropriately priced.
Wallace and Gromit saved a cheesemaker from going under.
Scannell to direct state Dems
Manchester Rep. and school district spokesman David Scannell is the new executive director of the state Democratic Party.
That’s an excellent choice on chairman Ray Buckley’s part. David will bring a certain, shall we say, sobriety to the state party. He’ll be a good straight man to Buckley’s comedic antics.
Manch GOP to school district: Live within your means
The Manchester Republican Committee has issued a press release telling the city school district to live within its means. Mayor Frank Guinta has not kept up the pressure on the district, so the city GOP is taking a lead. Here is the text of the press release:
Manchester is facing a $13 million dollar decline in expected revenues and we have 1, 500 less students in our school system then (sic) just 4 short years ago. Every Manchester resident is facing a higher cost of living and is being forced to make tough decisions to make ends meet. The Manchester Republican Committee is calling on the Manchester School administration to stop playing politics and support Mayor Guinta’s reasonable budget reductions. We have attached a graph that shows just how much our school budget has grown over the past ten years.
Fiscal Year
Expenditures
2000 100,573,352
2001 106,832,425
2002 115,808,857
2003 125,898,267
2004 126,575,275
2005 137,499,619
2006 142,203,719
2007 145,500,000
2008 147,250,000
2009 153,100,000
2009 #’s reflect budget request
“Many Manchester residents are making tough financial decisions every day. While school enrolment (sic) is continually going down, the Manchester School Department’s (sic) expenditures have risen by over 50%. I am sure that the average resident has not seen their income rise by this level during the same time period. With the rising cost of living, and uncertain economic outlook, the school department’s request cannot be seen as anything but unreasonable. Manchester residents cannot continue to be asked to dip into their pockets year after year. We are urging the Alderman (sic) and the School department (sic) officials to support Mayor Guinta’s reasonable budget reductions,” said Manchester Republican Committee Chairman John Castleot.
Benedict’s message
If you’ve read the news stories of Pope Benedict’s mass in Washington this morning or his speech at the White House yesterday, you might have entirely missed the message the pope was trying to deliver, what with the obsession over the priest sex abuse comments.
Here are links to the text of his White House speech and his mass at the Washington Nationals’ ballpark. They are really eloquent speeches, beautifully addressing faith and hope, love and redemption, and how to deal with the troubles of modernity.
Steve Merrill is famous
Will former Gov. Steve Merrill re-emerge to take on Gov. John Lynch this fall? I have no idea. I have been told that if he does, he could and would beat Lynch. I have no opinion either way, but I’m not sure the state is really the same as it was when Merrill was governor from 1993 to 1997. A lot of voters have moved into New Hampshire since then.
Some people think Merrill’s name recognition and reputation will give him an automatic advantage. That might be the case. But if he were still as famous as he was a decade ago, someone probably would have bid on this autographed picture of him on ebay by now. (Note that it was posted by some collector in Ohio, who probably wishes he didn’t make that investment.) Ditto for this signed letter, posted by some guy in Oklahoma.
By the way, if you’re looking for a signed item by a professional athlete named John Lynch, here you go. If you want something by Gov. John Lynch, good luck.
Dartblog wins big award
Dartblog founder Joe Malchow up at Dartmouth has won a $10,000 prize as the first winner of the America’s Future Foundation’s College Blogger Contest.
Congratulations, Joe. That’s a well-deserved recognition for an outstanding blog.
A little Monday reading
It’s hard not to be impressed with the job Manchester’s firefighters do. Last night they put out three fires in one night. They remind me of Jonathan Pappelbon, always reliable in a jam.
And speaking of Jonathan Pappelbon, he is a force of nature.
Some might call this overreacting, but the Dover police responded appropriately, I think, when they temporarily beefed up security at the middle and high schools when an expelled high school student they consider a potential threat to the schools went unaccounted for for a few hours.
A bio of Barack Obama’s mother, from Time magazine.
That bio might help explain Obama’s elitism, as Bill Kristol discusses by comparing Obama’s words to Marx’s — the bad Marx not the good one.
John Clayton’s first column as a freelancer.
At the Manchester Transit Authority Web site, you can check the status of the bus on your route — assuming you have a Blackberry or a laptop at your bus stop.
Want to lease an old Navy prison that was modeled after Alcatraz?
The Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School keeps its Indian warrior symbol.
John Sullivan, Revolutionary War general and New Hampshire’s second “President” — what is now called “governor.”
Carl Bernstein on what a Hillary presidency would look like. His prediction: “the whole Clinton three-ring circus.”
For-profit cell phone companies might save the Third World.
Vidal Sassoon: Anti-Nazi street brawler.
Why Bush insists on victory in Iraq
Bill Kristol posts a few excerpts of his recent interview with President Bush, and I think they provide a useful insight to the President’s determination to win in Iraq.
At the end of the piece, Kristol notes that Bush often meets with service members returning from Iraq or with the family members of those killed there.
“The one thing parents and wives of slain soldiers and Marines most often asked of him, the president said, was to complete the mission for which their son or husband had died. And the president quietly said he was determined to do everything in his power to see to it that this country kept their loved ones’ faith and honored their sacrifice.”
When the mothers whose sons were killed in Iraq ask you to keep fighting, how hard must it be to contemplate pulling out?
Kristol also reveals that Bush was close to tears at the Medal of Honor ceremony for Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor when the President looked up from his speech and saw every SEAL in the room crying.
