Dream of the Sun:
From often very quotable and ever erudite Tim Smith, Democratic state rep, Manchester Ward 10:
“The world’s first solar-power photovoltaic cell was invented in 1839, by Edmond Becquerel in France. The first coal-powered electric power station (in fact, THE first power station) was built 43 years later (1882) on Pearl Street in NYC.
There’s simply no excuse why our global electrical grids are based off fossil fuels. The amount of R&D time we’ve squandered has been costly, indeed ….”
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The firefighter spouts off:
Mark MacKenzie, AFL-CIO President who won a recent re-election by a very narrow vote (24 votes) is facing a charge of corruption by his opponent, Glenn Brackett. Brackett claims that 691 ballots were thrown out due to a technical error. The Union Leader gets some insider information on the election and does their duty to report.
Although we can understand that MacKenzie might have some sweat around the collar right now but geez Mark, really?
When questioned about the dispute by a Union Leader reporter, MacKenzie responded (as the reporter then of course reported): “This is none of your business, this is being handled internally by our members. This is not in any way a matter of public record. For you to have that letter is inappropriate.” [MacKenzie referring to a letter Brackett wrote in his appeal to the union for an investigation].
But he doesn’t stop there:
The reporter then reported (as reporters must do): “MacKenzie told a Union Leader reporter that, if the newspaper ran a story about the letter, he would seek whatever legal remedy he could. ‘You do what you want to do,’ he said. ‘This is none of your business. If you run this, I will do what I can to come after the Union Leader.’
While MacKenzie then backed off a little and the UL reporter did also quote that, the fact remains that McKenzie gave the union hating Union Leader an appetizer, then an entree and a final desert of some good old fashioned union thug verbiage. You’d think after thirty years as president McKenzie would know better than to feed the vultures.
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Dude, I was so drunk…
Carl Gibson, a volunteer charged with running a Twitter account for Maureen Mann attempted to screw up Maureen Mann’s campaign in Rockingham District 32 after being fired after a week on the job. How does Mr. Gibson, the aspiring journalist/aspiring political operator respond? By making up a fake email purporting to be from Mann’s opponent that said she was dropping out of the race.
Gibson is quite over it, glibly responding to a Concord Monitor’s inquiry by passing off his behavior as “having too many beers” and claiming that, as apparently a self appointed great champion of the left, he was “trying to lead her [Mann] left“. Unsuccessful, he decided he didn’t like her or her opponent and thought he’d just play a little joke on her while drunk, “I thought it was funny. I didn’t really think it would be taken seriously,” said Gibson.
As a result the opponent understandably called the election commission and understandably as well, Mann said she welcomed any investigation into the matter. “Rat-fucking” an election is taken pretty seriously and you’d think the self-styled journalist, wannabe political operative might know this. Mann has handled this whole episode with grace and openness and moved on.
Gibson hasn’t been quite so tactful about the mess he made, preferring to use the tactic common among twelve year olds of dissing your opponent when your back is up against the wall, “We left on kind of bad terms. I haven’t talked to her in about a month and a half or so,” he said, adding he doesn’t like either candidate in the special election for Rockingham County’s 32nd district and “if they could both lose that’d be great.”
While many speculate on the motives of Gibson, no doubt the voters of Rockingham District 32 would rather their electoral process play out in the more traditional, democratic way.
And of course Jennifer Horn (NH RNC Chair) has to horn in on the whole thing, being her usual mean-girl self attempting to smear Mann stating, “The fact that Maureen Mann trusted a radical extremist who engages in illegal campaign activity to work on her race speaks volumes about her and her candidacy. Mr. Gibson’s deplorable attempt to spread misinformation was clearly designed to help Maureen Mann and disenfranchise Yvonne Dean-Bailey’s supporters,”
Let us say that Gibson never presented to anyone as an “extremist”, heck we’ve published a couple of his written pieces on this blog. Mann had him handle a Twitter account and for only a week. Twitter, a social media tool and he screwed the pooch on that so Mann had enough, fired him and changed his password. Also, the stunt had Mann on the defensive, not her opponent. Draw in your claws Cruella and let the election carry on.
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Frankie Goes Nowhere
Finally, now that baby-face Republican US Congressman, (NH DIstrict 1), Frank Guinta has finally been charged by the FEC with accepting campaign contributions from his parents that far exceeded the legal amount (to the tune of $355,000). The Boston Globe has a good story about the whole affair and how he’s now become the dead man walking with the NH GOP. But what we find notable is Frank’s continued efforts to deny that ma and pa just got a little too over zealous in helping their baby-boy. He has insisted all along that the funds were his. The Globe quotes him from a prepared statement to the press, “… I have always maintained the money I lent myself was, in fact, money I had generated since the early 1970s.”
That’s a lot of paper delivery money Frankie.
Guinta partying with his Tea Party friends. Where are your buddies now Frankie?
Progressive Action New Hampshire 