Salon.com > New Hampshire

The GOP’s abortion offensive reaches New Hampshire

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:14:00 +0000

New Hampshire is supposed to be a libertarian state relatively unconcerned by "social issues," so what is its House doing passing eight bills restricting abortion and contraception access? As atypical as New Hampshire politics can be in the U.S., what's unfolding there is typical of what the 2010 Republican wave actually achieved. Even as the state's GOP relents in its fight against gay marriage, it's waging an unprecedented assault on women's rights, some of it arguably unconstitutional. Their efforts are a sign of how wholeheartedly the Republican Party, despite its 2010 rhetoric on the economy, has taken up its war on women, even in places you wouldn't expect it.

"We haven't seen activity around this since Roe v. Wade," Jennifer Frizzell, senior policy advisor for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, told me. "New Hampshire Republicans had a long tradition of keeping out government intrusion in the practice of medicine."

James O’Keefe violates election law to prove liberals violate election law

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:10:00 +0000

James O'Keefe (remember him? weird guy who's always filming himself doing unethical and occasionally illegal things in order to somehow prove that liberals do unethical and illegal things?) has broken the law again, in his never-ending quest to prove that liberals have no respect for the rule of law. The conservative filmmaker and master of disguise attempted to commit voter fraud in the New Hampshire primaries.

"Voter fraud" is a right-wing obsession used to justify restrictive ballot access-limiting measures that are actually designed to suppress turnout among people who tend to vote for Democrats. It does not and cannot exist in anything approaching a large enough scale to affect an election, and even isolated incidents of fraud prove difficult for right-wingers to dredge up to prove that their concerns have merit. Dozens of people have spent years tirelessly attempting to prove that organized "voter fraud" is a real thing and all they have ever managed to prove is that sometimes lazy volunteers make fake registration forms, sometimes former felons mistakenly vote despite being disenfranchised, and sometimes people double-vote. There is nothing remotely resembling coordinated voter fraud, carried out with the intention of stealing an election, taking place anywhere in the United States. Those who sincerely believe that there is are deluded, though most of the people who constantly crow about it don't sincerely believe in it; they just want to make it harder for blacks and Latinos and poor people to vote.

Young people won’t stop asking Rick Santorum about gay rights

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:49:00 +0000

SALEM, N.H. -- Rick Santorum told the crowd at the Salem-Derry Elks Lodge that their 90 minutes were about up and that he'd take one more question before leaving. More than a dozen hands shot up, so Santorum tasked his wife with picking the final inquisitor.

She chose poorly. What would you do, the female student asked Santorum, if you found out that your child was gay?

"I got that question the other night at the debate," Santorum replied. "And it's funny -- I think I get that question more than most candidates. I haven't heard anybody getting that. I'll answer the question the same way I answered the other night at the debate, which is: My job as a parent is to love my child unconditionally, and I would love my child unconditionally."

RIP: “Live Free or Die”

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

As New Hampshire gears up for tomorrow's Republican primary, the candidates seem to have forgotten the state’s motto: “Live free or die.” Those words capture a libertarian spirit that traditionally has been at the core of conservatism in this country: that the government should not intrude unnecessarily into the lives of its citizens. Where national security policies are concerned, though, most of the GOP candidates’ commitment to this principle — and to other principles that are nominally favored by conservatives — appears to be running thin.

Take the candidates’ position on the government’s use of its war powers against U.S. citizens. The powers a government exercises during wartime — including detention without charge and summary execution — represent a far greater intrusion on individual liberties than, say, the power to raise taxes or confiscate private property. To an unprecedented extent, our government is claiming the right to exercise these drastic powers against Americans.