Recently in New Hampshire Category

It wasn't until I was running some errands after work that I finally noticed something that had been just at the edge of conscious thought, bugging me over the past couple of weeks.

It wasn't something that was there that had been rattling around in my subconscious, but rather the lack of something.

What was it?

Obama campaign signs, or rather the total lack of Obama signs anywhere I've been over the past couple of weeks. There are plenty of Romney signs, Ovide LaMontagne signs (running for the GOP nomination for governor of New Hampshire), Kevin Smith signs (ditto), Maggie Hassan and Jackie Cilley signs (ditto, but for the Democrat nomination) and a spray of campaign signs for those running for offices covering the US Congress, the New Hampshire House, Senate, and Executive Council, to county commissioner. But I haven't seen one Obama sign. NOT. ONE.

I must remind you that I am only talking about a half dozen towns in one county of central New Hampshire (which happens to be heavily Republican), but still I would expect to see a few signs here and there. (I am not counting the various campaign offices, of which there is one in Laconia, I think.) Other than a few deluded souls who believe Obama is their Messiah writing letters to the editor in our local papers, I haven't come across anyone I know who voted for Obama in 2008 that are planning to vote for him this time.

This is something the polls have failed to show. But then my 'data' is anecdotal and covers a very small portion of one small state. But that doesn't mean it's wrong.

UPDATE 8/24/12: I talked to a number of co-workers about this subject and they've noticed the same thing. One co-worker lives in the Capitol City area (Concord) and he's noticed a dearth of Obama signs. Another lives down near the Massachusetts border and he says he's seen a couple of signs in the city of Nashua, but that's it.

Walking on the Center Harbor Woods trails, where a couple of years ago when it first opened I had an unpleasant encounter with a mother bear and her cub, I had another one, a nuisance/aggressive coyote.

I saw it around 7 am near a small stream . My golden retriever, Ruby, went off on the scent, going the wrong way, while I saw the coyote up close and personal. The corpulent chocolate lab, Beau, who's a lot smarter, was on the hunt. But I able to restrain him with a voice command.

I called "Booby," my nickname for Ruby, the voluptuous dumb blonde, and she came back. But shockingly to me, never having experienced anything like this in all my thousands of hours dog walking in the woods, the large coyote didn't hightail it, began barking, and even followed at an uncomfortably close distance.

Coyote harassment on the trail!

I am off to a special town meeting here in out little New Hampshire town to discuss a matter of great import - the replacement or refurbishment of one of our fire department's pumpers.

While this matter had been discussed and voted on during our regular town meeting back in February and March, the voters decided not to replace the 25-year old fire engine and considered having it repaired for a fraction of the cost of a new pumper. But the idea foundered when it was found the old pumper was in far worse shape than originally reported. And since the town can't make capital expenditures of this magnitude without a town meeting to discuss the matter and a follow-on vote the following month, our selectmen decided to call a special town meeting. They petitioned the court for permission to hold a town meeting off of the regular schedule and received the court's blessing to do so. (Towns can't just call a town meeting at anytime other than the designated dates, unless an emergency or other immediate need requires it. In this case the replacement of a vital piece of life-saving equipment was seen as meeting the conditions to allow this special town meeting to be held.)

I expect there will be lively discussions and debate at this meeting, if not some acrimony. (A lengthy series of letters to the editor in both of our local newspapers created an atmosphere that generated a lot of the aforementioned acrimony.)

If nothing else, it will be interesting evening.

And so it goes in small town America.

Deb and I ventured into the Halls of Justice today, getting our day in traffic court. (Deb got a parking ticket for parking out in front of The Manse in the midst of a snowstorm last February. She couldn't make it into the driveway after getting home from work after midnight.) Yes, the wheels of justice do grind slowly, but we still got our day in court.

Deb wanted to fight the ticket on principle as she felt there was no way she should have gotten a ticket for that.

We arrived at the local court house, waited until we could meet with the police officer from our local PD (they often act as prosecutors for traffic court), going over the facts of the case. There were two things that helped us out: the officer was quite familiar with our part of town, understanding the problems we deal with in regards to the effects of winter weather on our roads and driveways; he and I were well acquainted.

After reviewing the facts of the case he simply said "This is dumb. There's no way a citation should have been issued. A warning would have sufficed under the circumstances." And just that quickly we were done, other than a brief appearance before the presiding judge to get his blessings on the resolution of our case.

The advice the officer gave before we left: "If you have to park where you did the last time due to the weather, give the PD a call and let them know you're leaving the vehicle there. There should be no problem."

And so ended our latest venture into the legal system of the state of New Hampshire.

You could tell it was the opening weekend of the July Fourth holiday. All one had to do was look at the traffic pouring off of Interstate 93 into the Lakes Region and the full parking lots at the local supermarkets.

I normally make my bi-weekly stop at the local discount warehouse every other Thursday. But due to another commitment I had to put off that trip until yesterday.

That was a mistake.

It was immediately apparent I was going to spend more time there than is usual as the lot was almost three-quarters full. I've never seen the lot with that many cars and trucks in it and I've been shopping there for over 12 years.

Seeing that the gas pumps had only one or two cars fueling up, I decided to fill up the trusty F150 before braving the shopping inside the warehouse. (This discount place also sells gasoline, usually for as much as 10¢ a gallon less than most of the other gas stations in the Lakes Region.)

Once done and making the trip across the parking lot and into the warehouse, I was able to pick up the items I needed pretty quickly. In less than 10 minutes I had gone through my entire shopping list. (When you're buying in bulk it doesn't take much to fill a shopping cart.) However, checking out was a different story.

It is my usual routine to use the self-checkout lanes as they're generally faster than using the regular checkout lanes. That wasn't the case this time. Due to poor planning or poor resource management there were only 2 cashiers working the regular lanes. They should have had all eight of them open. That dearth of human checkers meant the self-checkout lanes were also jammed. And to add insult to injury, many of those using the self-checkout had obviously not done so before as they fumbled around, trying to figure out how to use them. That slowed an already slow-moving process even more. In the lane where I found myself it got worse.

The fellow at the self-checkout terminal had finished running his items through the scanner and was paying for his purchases....with cash. It's one thing if he had his cash wad in some logical order, but he had to pick through to find the bill denominations he needed to feed the terminal. It took a long time. It wasn't until he was almost finished that I realized why it was taking him so long: he was trying to give the machine exact change! Either he didn't know or didn't care that the terminal would give him the correct change if he fed it enough cash. (This wasn't an older gentleman who might not be conversant with the technology, but a fellow easily 20 or 25 years my junior.)

Then his wife ran her items through the scanner and once again he went through his stack of cash, feeding one bill at a time into the terminal. Something that should have taken them all of 5 minutes to do took them 15, which meant the line got even longer than it might have otherwise.

I wasn't the only one having to deal with this as Deb spent a considerably more time at our local supermarket than usual.

First, the parking lot was full, meaning it took time for her to find a parking space.

Second, there were no carts available. She and others had to wait for departing customers to empty their carts before snagging one for themselves and heading into the market. She's never had to do that, either.

I don't know whether this is due to the fact that the Fourth of July is in the middle of the week and the summerfolk are making a long weekend or a full week of the holiday or if this is going to be happening all summer long.

I'm almost hoping for the latter rather than the former because it means the tourists and summerfolk are spending more time and more money here in the Lakes Region, something good for our local economy.

No post last night as I was out and about with two blokes from my company's European affiliate. Mark and Simon are from the UK and will be servicing our equipment rather than having European customers shipping their instruments all the way back to the US for service or calibration.

I took them out to one of our local favorite places to eat and then down to Weirs Beach, the center of activity for Motorcycle Week. (It was a bit deserted due to some of the rain that started early yesterday evening. It's also a bit early to see the large crowds, which should start arriving in earnest tomorrow.)

Neither Mark or Simon have been to the US before, so it was a bit eye-opening for them. They've been enjoying themselves immensely, taking particular delight in the food. One thing they find truly different: free refills of their coffee when dining. It just isn't done in Europe!

Deb and I are out and about tonight, going over to one of our favorite eating establishments before heading over to our local concert venue to see Crosby, Stills & Nash. (As both Deb and a friend from work have dubbed it: Crosby, Stills & Nash - The Geriatric Tour.)

It's going to be a great night out!

Guest blogger Bill attended the Lakes Region (New Hampshire) TEA Party meeting in Moultonborough this evening, taking the opportunity to listen to Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne speak. Here's his take on Lamontagne.

On Wed. May 23rd, Ovide Lamontagne came to the regular monthly Moultonboro TEA Party meeting at the Moultonboro Public Library. I've heard the man's name sporadically over the last couple of years, usually along with little bits and pieces of his views. Since he is running for Governor and since all those bits and pieces never really got strung together enough to have a real opinion about the man, I decided to go. The evening's event was well attended compared to one I had gone to a few months ago. After opening and a brief mention of America's current state using JKF as a reference point, he talked a bit about his personal and work past. He has always been surrounded by extended family, and has been a business attorney for over 20 years. Concurrent with that, he has served on multiple boards and councils ranging from the NH State Board of Education, the local Daniel Webster Council of the Boy Scouts of America, St. Mary's Bank, the Easter Seals Society, and the Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence. His public service resume is notably longer than that, with the positions Chairman and Director appearing more than not. Many of these details were spread out and elaborated through the evening. Shortly after this, he talked in a declarative way of his respect and admonishment for not just the Constitution of the United States, but of the Constitution of New Hampshire. Referring to each throughout the meeting as well, in both a first person understanding as well as a historical context that when combined often led to very natural moments that moved the audience. Personally, I believe I saw people being tugged and motivated simultaneously. Mr. Lamontagne spoke several times on such meaningful elements of personal freedom and the requisite personal responsibility a functioning Republic demands, that much of the audience appeared to feel not only related to, but I think also a little moved to be and do more than they have been. Now, I recognize that that sounded romantic and more than a little potentially contrived. The thing is, this was through the course of a conversation, he was not giving a speech. Mr. Lamontagne was communicating ideas and values that are deeply important to many people, and did it in a way that did not appear forced or rehearsed, making this audience rather appreciative.

So, he got good grades on the likability factor. That being said, if America is to survive, we have to remove Progressive brainwashing from our voting habits, among other things. By that I mean casting votes based on how candidates make us feel about ourselves, and on how pretty one speaks over the other, and all those unicorn and rainbow platitudes that we have allowed ourselves to be conditioned to [accept], all of which at direct expense of the substance and reality of our responsibilities in our Government. Voting on what amounts to a high school popularity contest is killing us. While I will not pretend to speak for the man or his campaign, and I fully recognize the limitations of my knowledge of the details of his positions, based on what was said that night, here is a short list of what I came away thinking of the man's positions:

He is highly motivated to regain the State of NH's state sovereignty that is by definition part of the Balance of Power in Federalism, doing so by judicious means of both roadblocks (vs. Obamacare) and slow means (vs. US Dept of Education).

He expressed strong interest in a state voter ID policy and stands against casinos in NH with the singular exception of the possible redevelopment of the Rockingham Park horse track.

He is both pro-life and appears to be willing to take a stand with Natural (Traditional) Marriage.

The Northern Pass was brought up, fortunately only in brief as that subject could (and does warrant) considerable dialogue. While he did not take a definitive stand for its development, it appeared that its development would be contingent on both the power lines being buried and that NH would have legal right to that power once its in the state. (The Northern Pass is a project to bring high voltage lines from Canada through New Hampshire into southern New England. The problem lies with the proposed route which takes it through some of the most scenic areas of the state, something that some folks in this state believe will destroy part of the tourist industry in favor of out-of-state electricity consumers. - ed.)

He expressed disinterest in enhancing any gun control law with several notes from a common sense, practical point of view. On the question of the creation of a state referendum, he appeared luke warm to it, but in such a way that one could not really tell if it was his opinion of it itself, the political reality of getting it through or some other issue.

He did make several strong stances on the need for vigilance (on all our parts) when it came to encroachments on NH's state power, including but not limited to Cap and Trade through any number of back doors, UN potential power grabs, and an overreaching Federal gov't in myriad forms.

There was an odd question posed by a member of the audience, that was followed by another person in the audience that appeared a set up/gotcha moment. One person asked a loose question that seemed to be "what's the hardest 'No" you've ever had to say?" Perhaps trying to get an idea of Mr. Lamontagne's ability to say "No" to someone when it would hurt. Possibly a character test question when so much of America is the weakest it's ever been, and at a time when Occupy demands everything with the veiled threat of violence. He answered it well from the position of his American/Conservative point of view. Taking his time to flesh out that there are things that just are not government's job to do. Adding, and I believe quite well, that a representative must say No in such a way as to be understood a decision has been made, but by such means that the person being refused realizes that that answer does not apply to everything that same person would ask for. That it was important to make the distinction between saying No to a thing, and not No to the person. The person's involvement and other future requests were still of some value, and will be heard and understood as such. This was said in such a simple and honest way that it would have demanded the President and other National representatives who call for civility and show none, be left shamed and humiliated. Fate however, would rear its head with a follow on question by another that was, simply put, "Are you going to make some kind of price control/anti-gouging law for gas and oil companies with their ridiculously inconsistent prices, that are forcing some people to choose to either eat, heat, or get their treatments?" Mr. Lamontagne did laugh, not at the question, but at the oddity of the moment, which everyone recognized as well. He then went on to explain that prices can be difficult, but that free markets by their nature do find their own ideal price, albeit over time, and that government usually makes things worse despite good intentions. The man that posed the question did in fact say that he respected Mr. Lamontagne for his answering a direct question honestly.

The meeting continued, but with this being the candidate's second such meeting that day and having a dinner date with his wife, left shortly after.

In a perfect world, when asked "Mr. Lamontagne, what are you going to do for me?" He would reply, "Nothing."

That's what I did on my field trip.

I think Mondays or Tuesdays are going to become the official "Pull Something From The Archives" day here at Weekend Pundit. It makes it easier for me to make the transition from weekend mode to work day mode.

From March 2004 comes this gem, yet another in a series about recreating or living up here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. I have made a few edits (I removed a part about the exact change lanes at the toll booths as for the most part they've gone the way of the dodo, replaced with the EZ-Pass system), and removed references to some other no longer existing websites or blogs.

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I realize I've been remiss in regaling you with (mostly) true stories and northern New England wisdom, the kinds of things that will help visitors (or those thinking of moving here) survive...er...enjoy their time here.

One thing that new residents and visitors seem to have a difficulty with is time. Not telling time so much as understanding that time moves at a different pace up here. While California is often seen as the capitol of 'laid back' it was actually invented here. The old saying "The hurrier I go the behinder I get" pretty well describes how we don't do things around here.

For instance I've seen too many people up here on vacation trying to jam in a month's worth of recreating into one or two weeks. They go home more exhausted than when they arrived and then they need time off to recuperate before they go back to work. It kinda defeats the purpose of coming up here.

Folks have got to learn to slow down a bit. Not so much to the point that mañana becomes the theme of their stay, but more like not trying to do too much in a single day. No one needs to go skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, shopping, and ice skating all before lunch. Nor is it necessary to go swimming, boating, water-skiing, jet-skiing, and playing video games at the arcades all between lunch and dinner. It's OK to kick back, sit on a lawn chair in the shade and read a good book or watch other folks recreating hard or even lie back and do nothing at all. Heck, folks are even allowed to take a nap any time they want. It's not like we're going to tell on you if that's what you want to do. Take a walk. Take a hike. Ride a bike. Go to a movie, maybe even a drive-in! Stop at a roadside ice cream stand and indulge yourself and your family. But for cryin' out loud, don't try to do it all at once. All anyone trying to do that will do nothing but tucker themselves out.

For those moving here to live rather than to recreate, some of the same advice applies. Also. don't over-schedule things, particularly your kids' extracurricular activities. They don't need to play soccer, football, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, run track, cross-country ski, etc. in order to be 'complete'. Allow them some time to be just kids, to hang out and play with their friends. And whatever you do don't fall into the habit of 'play dates'. Save that crap for the city. You didn't move here just to do exactly the same things you moved from the city to get away from, did you? If you did, then why did you bother to move up this way in the first place?

Next, something near and dear to my heart - driving.

One thing that visitors and new residents learn the hard way is that the posted speed limits are pretty well enforced on the smaller highways and town roads. The police seem to give more leeway on the Interstates, but even that is subject to change without notice. While there are stretches of road that appear to have an artificially low speed limit, it's usually because there are farm or logging operations going on somewhere along that road. So the speeds are kept down in order to make it easier for the farmers and logging truck drivers to pull out onto the road. Farm tractors don't move very quickly and fully loaded logging trucks take a while to get up to speed. Give them time and space to do so. It's the courteous thing to do, something that we take quite serious around here.

Another thing - that doodad on the left side of your steering wheel is called a turn signal. Learn how to use it, and use it before you actually make a turn rather than after in order to show us what it is you just did (I believe that's something endemic to the People's Republic of Massachusetts because it's mostly folks in cars with Massachusetts plates that pull that little stunt).

One thing that a lot of folks from away have a tough time getting used to is stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks. Cityfolk might not think it's all that important, but around here the pedestrians have the right of way. That, and you must also remember that some of them carry guns. So be polite and stop for those crossing the street, even if they aren't in a crosswalk.

Okay, that takes care of the driving part of this post. Let's move on.

One thing that we really like up here in northern New England is the scenic beauty that surrounds us. We try hard to keep it clean for both visitors and the folks living here. All that we ask is that you do your part, too. In other words, clean up after yourselves. Trash belongs in a trash barrel, not along the side of a road or a hiking trail, and certainly not in the rivers, lakes, or streams. While we enjoy the fact that tourists like to come here, enjoy our scenery, partake of the various recreation opportunities, for the most part we are not your servants and we don't take kindly to people trashing our home.

I'll close out this post with a quote from Weirs Times columnist Lorrie Baird that explains a very important concept that visitors must understand:

Only the people who live here and pay taxes have earned the right to complain about local services - which is almost a sport around here.

Indeed.

This post comes from the Weekend Pundit archives, in this case back in October 2002. I have made a few minor edits, mostly grammatic, though one change was more along the lines of "this sounds awkward so I'll change these three words." The post below was actually part of a much larger post covering a number of topics, a precursor to my regular Thoughts On A Sunday posts.

This one was near and dear to my heart, dealing with seasonal visitors opining how great it would be to "live out in the country." The problem is that quite often they don't have a clue what that entails.

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Have any of you urban or suburban dwellers out there have ever wondered what it would be like to live out in the country? I hear this quite often from visitors to this state. Usually it's from someone spending a week or two of their vacation time at the lakes, up in the mountains, at some campground in one of the many forests, or at one of the ski resorts. All they've seen or experienced of New Hampshire (or Vermont, Maine, or upstate New York) in the limited time they're here is what is aimed at the tourist trade.

Many have no concept what it means to live someplace where pizza parlors and Chinese restaurants don't deliver; where the nearest convenience store might be 20 miles away down a dirt road; where winters can be harsh and deadly; and where you haul your own trash to the dump. There are no Starbucks, Taco Bells, or tofu burgers. The closest thing to a Sak's Fifth Avenue is the L.L. Bean outlet store in one of the shopping meccas in the heart of tourist country.

Most have never experienced cabin fever after being stuck inside for a week or more because of the brutally cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls in the winter. The same can also be said of mid-spring - the black flies are out in force making any time spent outside uncomfortable to an extreme.

Few are cut out for small town life, where everybody knows your business. For some of us hardy Yankees, it's no big thing. But for others it can be quite trying. Up here, neighbors watch out for neighbors, even if that neighbor lives on the other side of town.

Some people have trouble with the concept of town meeting, where the residents of the town gather once a year to decide how the town will or will not spend their tax dollars. It can be a very personal thing, town meeting. Though it is local government at its best, people also have to contend with egos, feuds, and the ubiquitous anti-flatlander mentality. Most new folks make the almost fatal mistake their first time speaking at town meeting by starting their remarks with, "Back where I come from....". Most folks at town meeting could care less about where you come from or what you did there, unless you're going to use the reference to show how something the town is thinking of doing is a bad idea. Then they might let you get away with it. Maybe.

Something many others moving to the country end up learning the hard way is this: Never piss off the Town Clerk, the Road Agent, or the Police Chief (assuming the town actually has a police department). Getting on their bad side can make living in a small town an extremely uncomfortable and frustrating experience.

One thing anyone wanting to move out to the country will have to get used to is guns. Lot's of folks around here own guns for hunting, protection, or just plain plinking. By association, they'll also have to get used to the various hunting seasons. Getting all misty-eyed about the Big Bad Hunters out stalking Bambi so they can carve him in to venison steaks will earn you no points up here. It's more likely to get you talked about.

And one other thing: You are expected to take responsibility for your own actions. It's not 'society's fault'. It's not because your mother didn't breastfeed you. It's not because you ate too many Twinkies. That kind of pseudo-psychological BS won't fly out here in the sticks. Folks out in the country don't have time for it. We're too busy making a living, raising our kids, working on our homes, and paying our taxes.

If all of that sounds appealing to you, then we'll welcome you with open arms. Otherwise, don't even think of moving to any place like this. You'll hate it.

It's a teaching moment, as legal Second Amendment scholar Evan Nappen relates, on a man in Newton being ignored after filing the paperwork to carry a sidearm concealed.

It also enables a NH resident to have a loaded firearm in one's vehicle while driving.

The law is black and white which, for whatever reason, the police chief violated.

Nine states are 'may-issue.' which means the courts would tend to side with the discretion of the state issuing authority. A state is not good if it's shall issue. (Story below the fold.)

I think the English language should have rights, too.

Feminists view our beloved tongue as something to use for their political ends.

I'm not interested. But when I come across a clunky sentence at the end of an editorial in the University of New Hampshire newspaper--on a frivolous topic that's being blown out of proportion because of militant secularism--I can only shake my head, saying, "O tempora! O mores!"

Here it is:

When a student leader gives the pretense of acting on behalf of his/her constituents, he/she needs to actually be doing so.

Ice Out was declared on Lake Winnipesaukee this morning, the earliest Ice Out since records have been kept starting in 1887. The previous early Ice Out was March 24th, 2010 and March 28th, 1921. The latest Ice Out was May 12th, 1888. The latest Ice out recently was May 2nd, 2001.

Ice Out is defined as when the ice that has covered Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire since December or January has melted enough that the M/S Mount Washington cruise ship can make all five of its ports of call, those being Alton Bay, Center Harbor, Meredith, Weirs Beach, and Wolfeboro.

Town meetings have been in full swing since late last week here in New Hampshire. Many take place this week, this coming weekend, and next week.

It is American democracy writ small.

My little town had its town elections today, where our townspeople elected some town officials, voted on the the town and school budgets, and approved or disapproved various warrant articles that dealt with everything from buying a new fire truck to funding some non-governmental agencies to changing how the town sets up default budgets to imposing a property tax cap.

This election has probably garnered more voter attention than some I've seen in the past. I had to wait in line for a voting booth to open up, as did a number of other townsfolk. When I voted (just after work) over 1400 ballots had already been cast and there was still a couple of hours left until the polls closed. The parking lot outside our middle school, the town's polling place, was rapidly filling up as I left after voting.

It will be interesting to see which warrant articles passed and those that didn't.

One last thing -

As the saying goes here, "If you didn't vote at town meeting, then you have no right to complain about how things turned out."

Just sayin'....

By way of Facebook comes this photo which I believe correctly illustrates what many people think of my home state.


Click on picture for larger image

It's town meeting season in New Hampshire, with many towns holding their town and school district meetings over the next 6 weeks or so. (It depends upon the town calendars and whether they hold traditional town meetings or what are called SB2 town meetings. More on that later.)

Ours started at 7PM last night. There were 29 warrant articles to discuss, mull over, and/or amend. While not the largest number of warrants articles we've seen, it was still a goodly number.

We finished at after 11PM.

I wish I could say the voters spent the 4+ hours going over each article in detail, showing due diligence and carefully shepherding our constitutional obligations. But I can't.

Instead, almost 2 hours was spent on what I must derisively call "How many Angels can dance on the head of a pin" triviality. The lost 2 hours dealt with only three of the articles, and two of those were moot.

One article dealt with the purchase of a new fire truck. That topic in and of itself was no trivial matter. Instead, it was an amendment to the article that, when broken down, didn't do anything any differently than the original, merely changed some language. The proposed language would not change the process or the amount of money spent, nor would it change the plans of the Fire Department in any way shape or form. Yet we spent almost an hour debating an amendment (as well as a follow on amendment) that, in the end, was defeated.

Then there were two petition warrant articles. (Any registered voter in town can get an article placed on the warrant through petition. All that's required are enough signatures of other registered voters on the petition to have it added.)

The two petitions, while they may have had the best interest of the taxpayers at heart, were horribly flawed. Both violated the constitutional separation of powers, laid out in both the US and New Hampshire constitutions. (The articles dealt with personnel policies, something exclusively the purview of the executive branch, in this case meaning our Board of Selectmen.) This meant that at best they were advisory articles and could not be enforced. These two articles were debated and amended ad nauseum. It surprised me how much time and effort went into debating two meaningless warrant articles. You'd have thought this kind of effort would have gone into debating portions of the budget, something that has a direct effect on all the taxpayers in town. But no, all of this energy and emotion went towards something that was trivial.

I wish I could say this was an unusual case, but in all my years of going to town meetings in the towns in which I have resided, I have seen this kind of scenario played out again and again.

Welcome to Town Meeting!

Tonight is our School District Meeting, where we will do the same thing, but this time dealing with our school system and how much we will spend to support it. Hopefully we won't be dealing with the trivialities seen at town meeting...but I'm not holding my breath.

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There are two forms of town meetings in New Hampshire - the traditional "everyone shows up and votes on the warrant articles" town meetings, and SB2 town meetings. (SB2 means Senate Bill 2, the legislation that created this alternative form of town meeting.)

In SB2 towns there are actually two different town meeting sessions. The first is called the deliberative session, where voters will meet to go over the articles in the town warrant. They can approve them for inclusion on the town warrant as written, or amend them and then approve them for inclusion. But they can't vote them up or down until the second session.

The second session is Election Day, generally a month later. Voters will elect their town officials and vote on the articles in the town warrant.

Our little town is an SB2 town, which means we won't actually vote on the warrant articles until next month.

Winter weather finally arrived, albeit about a month late.

We got about 7 inches of snow here at The Manse, and unlike the first two snowfalls we experienced at the end of October and just before Thanksgiving, this was pretty much all powder. It made for slick roads, snow drifts, and the occasional white out. It required the use of 4WD to make it up the rather steep driveway this morning.

If nothing else it gave BeezleBub an excuse to fire up the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and give it a try.

With about 54% of the districts reporting, it looks like Mitt Romney has won the New Hampshire GOP primary with ~37%, with Ron Paul coming in second with 24% of the votes.

After work I headed down the our local election polling place, in this case located in the gym of our middle school. One thing I noticed right off was not so much something that was there but something that wasn't: volunteers holding election signs. There were none.

It wasn't until I got to the entrance to the school that I saw a few campaign signs lying side by side on the ground. But no one was outside holding the signs of their candidate. That is something I haven't seen in all the years I've been voting. It could have been the time of day as I got out of work a little earlier than usual as I wanted to avoid the post-work crush at the polls. The volunteers may have shown up after I had already voted and headed home.

While there was a lack of campaign volunteers, that was not the case for voters.

When I finally entered the gym there were moderately long lines at voter check-in. And while I didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes in my line (the lines are separated alphabetically), others had more than a dozen or so people in front of them waiting to check in and get their ballots.

Voting itself took all of 30 seconds, with the most of that time spent looking for my candidate's name. (The candidates are listed in random order chosen by lot rather than in alphabetic order, a change made to New Hampshire's election laws some time ago.)

On my way to drop off my ballot in the ballot box I asked the town clerk if it had been busy. Her response: "Since the moment we opened the doors!" Apparently that's been the case just about everywhere across the Granite State, with a heavy turnout, particularly for the Republicans.

As I write this the last of the polls should be closing and we should start hearing the results any time now.

It's voting day in New Hampshire, where the voters will make their preferences for president known. More to follow later!

The GOP primary madness in New Hampshire is starting on its upward swing, with so many media people in the Granite State that you can barely go anywhere without running into someone from the multitude of media. I figure we've just about reached saturation, with the peak to come some time Tuesday after the polls open.

One thing I have noticed is the very large number of campaign signs, specifically GOP signs, in places you wouldn't necessarily have seen them in previous election seasons. This is something that has also been noticed by Andrew Boucher, and as he writes, it means trouble for Obama.

With the exception of a few die-hard Obama-Is-Our-Savior brainwashed Leftists, most folks in the Granite State know he's been a dismal failure. A lot of them are unabashed Republicans, Libertarians, or contrary independents and they are making their displeasure with the president known. Some are disillusioned Democrats. All one has to do is look out on lawns and along streets to see the signs everywhere.

In any case, many of us here in New Hampshire are waiting to get past the campaign insanity and get back to living our lives. We're waiting for the media hoopla to die down and the myriad campaign volunteers to move on to other venues. We'll have a respite until the full blown presidential campaigns start early next fall.