Back from a couple vacation days on the range. Here is a snap of Lakes of Clouds on the way to the summit of Mount Washington.
Dear Patriot, begins the six-page letter from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, as the Kentucky Republican reaches out to conservatives in New Hampshire.
"Either get behind an establishment politician who isn't always with them - or stand with Ron Paul in truly taking back Washington." The letter sent to New Hampshire mailboxes last week from Paul, on behalf of his father's presidential campaign, takes a big swipe at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the poll front-runner for the GOP nomination. After a shout-out to the Tea Party, Rand Paul sharpens focus:
"It also isn't time to elect people who wake up every day wondering what they believe. And it surely isn't time to elect someone who passed the blueprint for ObamaCare while Governor of Massachusetts."
It will be interesting if the Romney campaign has any response, as he and his campaign have ignored other criticis so far. They say they've a laser focus on President Obama. In other words, it's part of being a front-runner.
The campaign mailer includes a sheet on which people can pledge support for Ron Paul for President or make a generous donation ... $5,000, $2,500, $500, and so on.
The folk singer-songwriter and author Bill Morrissey died Saturday while on a Southern tour. He was 59.
I saw Bill Morrissey perform maybe 10 times over the past 15 years, which is to say, in no small way, that I'm new to his scene. In New Hampshire and New England, there are those who have appreciated his art for two or three decades. If Bill and his guitar and that voice of his showed up within two or three hours driving time, you could find these people waiting patiently for the first chord. I'd count my wife, the hula-hooping journalist J.L. Stevens, in this camp.
The Grammy-nominated musician was a colorful character. Friendly. Witty. Deep. Dark. Funny. And sad. Sad, as in taking "a borrowed .22" out back of the bar to relieve a sick dog's suffering (and more, from "These Cold Fingers"):
Everything slips through these cold fingers /like trying to hold water /trying to hold sand /close your eyes and make a wish/ and listen to the singer/one more round bartender, pour a double if you can.
His discography is really something. It has range. It has meat to it.
And still, Bill Morrissey's music is -- much like the man was -- immediately approachable. Tributes have already noted that he wrote of the human condition (and his own: he battled the drink, with a few losing seasons). He conveyed life's trials and her little victories that people everywhere can appreciate. But it definitely plucks away at the heart strings of anyone who has ever spent a winter in New Hampshire. He wrote and sang of small towns, mill work, generous bartenders (hopefully), variable love affairs, loss and redemption, fishing and ice fishing, a musician's dream heaven, and the wicked, beautiful nature of snow storms ("When it snows in Pantherville the road just disappears").
I could go on. But we've a dozen or more Bill Morrissey discs here that need spinning. Bill Morrissey's gone. His music? It remains essential. Time for another long listen. Time, as it were, for one more round, bartender.
The wild consumes this Wild and Scenic sign on the coast.
One man, One Vote. It's that simple, right?
Governor Lynch vetoed Senate Bill 129, which would require a voter to present photo ID to cast a ballot in any municipal, state or federal election in New Hampshire. Here's what he had to say in this veto message yesterday:
"Voter turnout in New Hampshire is among the highest in the nation, election after election. There is no voter fraud problem in New Hampshire. We already have strong elections laws that are effective in regulating our elections."
Republican lawmakers disagree, obviously. Speaker William L. O'Brien, R-Mont Vernon, contends that if a citizen must have a photo ID to drive a car, for example, it is no stretch to require them to flash a similar ID to pick up a ballot. Here's O'Brien's remarks on what he calls a bill to ensure clean elections.
"I'll be back," Jon M. Huntsman Jr. said after cruising on the M/S Mount Washington. The Republican former governor, seen here on the cruise and shaking hands with another former governor, Gary Johnson, returns today to launch his presidential campaign.
One whole week after skipping the first major debate, Huntsman looks to promote his message before going head-to-head with his rivals.
Just picked up "Ten Years on The Rock Pile," by Lee Vincent. One of the best forewords (by Guy Gosselin) I've ever read.
Face-off: Will NH be torn between the Bruins and the CNN-Union Leader-WMUR presidential debate tonight in Goffstown, NH?
The game gets underway around the same time CNN's John King moderates the candidates. What's it going to be:
The buck stops here?
Or,
The puck stops here?
Here's a snap of the new U.S. Army monument at the State Veterans Cemetery. The 'Bronze Cross,' with its rifle and combat boots, is the focal point.
Primary Money Ball. The Countdown to the Billion Dollar Presidential Campaign long ago began. The money question keeps coming up, like in this story in The New Republic on Tim Pawlenty's ideal war chest, compared to someone like Mitt Romney, who tapped his millions in 2008, and who appears to be having little trouble raising money so far in the 2012 cycle.
Which got me thinking about the New Hampshire Primary, of course.
It still costs just $1,000 to be a candidate, after meeting eligibility. The funny thing - there is a state law that covers filing by petition if an ambitious leader happens to be ... indigent. That's right. RSA 655:48 carves out an opportunity for anyone qualified to run but who cannot pony up with the filing fee.
Luck with that candidate narrative...
The Donald said we'd all be very happy with his decision, released yesterday, announcing he would not be a candidate for president.
Presumably, that is as a Republican, Democrat, or independent candidate.
As so many people remarked online, the media may not be so happy with the decision. But "nothing gold can stay," as Frost wrote.
Except, maybe, The Donald's golden hair.
(Pictured here on Dover Point, with restaurateur and fisherman Jack Newick, during his visit late last month. ~2e photo)
Raimond Bowles, a long-time public figure and civic leader in New Hampshire, died Saturday. He was 87.
Peers and friends recall the contribution of the Portsmouth man.
Pamela Bowles, his daughter, said that his pipe was his trademark. "He golfed with his pipe and skied with his pipe," she told the Foster's.
There are so many great stories out there about Bowles, a World War II veteran and family man who grew up fishing beneath the Old Man of the Mountain, and whose mother, author Ella Shannon Bowles, wrote "Let Me Show You New Hampshire." (Said book remains timeless, and the state's tourism office in the past decade used some of it to promote the Granite State.) He was charitable with his friendship and his expertise. Many a Seacoast-area journalist received his advice, often unsolicited, and a playful scolding when a story was missed.
Today's stories mention what a gentleman Raimond Bowles was. And he was. But he was a fighter, too, and stubborn as hell.
One of my favorite stories, from covering the Legislature: Bowles, a Republican, was elected a decade ago to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, one of his priorities being to find an "equitable" way of funding public education in the state. As the House went about handing out those special license plates, there was the perennial jockeying for the plum committee assignments. Only Representative Bowles didn't want a committee -- he felt he could get more accomplished without sitting on a few committees, which do the heavy lifting when it comes to New Hampshire legislation.
So there was Raimond Bowles, Man Without a Committee.
I recall people saying at the time that it was unheard of -- unprecedented perhaps -- for a member outside of Leadership to take such a stand. That was Raimond Bowles: Occasionally dogged, always an original.
(Osama Bin Laden poster from FBI.gov)
Justice has been done, President Obama said in a speech late Sunday night to announce that U.S. forces killed the No. 1 wanted terrorist on the FBI's list.
SUVs and minivans are usually the vehicle of presidential campaigns - unless you're the president. Here's Trump's limo, seen from top of the Hanover Street parking garage in Portsmouth, NH.
Calm before the media storm.
A photo of NH Statehouse budget protest a few weeks back, looking down from third floor window.
