An ordinance that would ban political advertising on city property and public rights of way was returned to the Planning, Licenses and Development committee for further review. Current state law prohibits the placing of political advertising on public property but this has never stopped candidates from doing just that every election season. Because of this, a new city ordinance was introduced earlier this month in an attempt to clarify the law by indicating the exact locations within Keene that would be off limits. It was recommended (3 to 1) and sent to full council for a final vote.
However, a recent Supreme court ruling, Reed vs Gilbert, has brought into question the constitutionality of such a restriction. It was decided to return the bill back to committee for further scrutiny. City officials as well as members of the public weighed in and it was ultimately decided to reverse the previous decision. This time the committee voted unanimously to “not adopt” the ordinance. Full city council will vote on the proposal at its Nov 3rd meeting.
On Wednesday & Thursday nights NH1 held a pair of debates for the Gubernatorial & Senatorial candidates from the Republican & Democratic Parties. The Libertarian Party nominees for those offices as well as independent US Senate candidate Aaron Day were not invited to the debates. The Ballot Access Fairness Coalition in conjunction with the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire held a pair of protests outside the NH1 studios to protest these closed debates.
Despite ballot retention requiring 4% in the general election (i.e. the vote threshold needed for a party to retain ballot access without needing to collect a burdensome number of petitions), Libertarian Gubernatorial nominee Max Abramson polling between 4-6% and Libertarian US Senate nominee Brian Chabot polling at 4%, NH1 only invited candidates polling over 10%. In short, NH1 set the threshold at a level that only the Republican & Democratic Party nominees could meet.
The protests – including one on a cold rainy Thursday night – served to bring awareness, not only to the candidates excluded from these debates, but also to the media bias that often serves to protect the ruling duopoly.
Historic District annex brought to its knees • Rethinking the prohibition on political signs • Keene 2016 Benchmark. How do we compare? • City wide revaluation. Good for some. Bad for me. • http://CitizenCain.org
Many libertarians are sharply divided over the national Libertarian Party’s nomination of two former republicans, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld for president and vice-president, respectively. Some, like me, say it’s a continued betrayal of the party’s principle of non-aggression, as Johnson and Weld are not taking principled stands on the issues. Nor are they even broaching the subject of non-aggression, the principle to which they signed their names in order to join the party in the first place, which says, “I do not support or advocate the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.”
To others, like Free Keene blogger Rich Paul, the watering down of the message is seen as a way to promote libertarianism in the hopes that people will see Johnson and Weld’s campaign and learn more about the principle of non-aggression on their own.
It’s a disagreement that has split the libertarian party for much longer than just this campaign season. Sadly, the pandering pragmatists have been winning for a decade-or-so, and have nominated unprincipled people like Bob Barr, Bill Weld, and Gary Johnson, when the party used to put forward principled, true libertarians like Harry Browne and Ron Paul. Browne and Paul explained the principles and ideas of liberty, whereas Johnson and Weld won’t even broach the subject. Their campaign is about them, not libertarianism.
Thankfully, the tide is turning in the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. First, the party’s delegates to the national convention this year were some of the only delegates to NOT vote in favor of Johnson/Weld. Then, more recently the party overwhelmingly voted in principled doers Darryl W Perry and Rodger Paxton into the chairman/vice chairman roles.
Now the LP of NH’s executive committee has made an unprecedented move and voted to censure Weld for donating money to Chris Sununu, the republican candidate for governor here in New Hampshire:
Since the gubernatorial race is pivotal to ballot access retention in New Hampshire for the Libertarian Party, it is a betrayal for Bill Weld to give money to our direct competitor, money that will be used in direct contravention to the money spent by the national Libertarian Party and the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire to achieve and retain our ballot access.
It’s refreshing to see the long-languishing Libertarian Party of New Hampshire finally getting active again and making a stand for the principles that have been long lost on the national LP. Kudos.
If you enjoy my posts, please sign up for a free account at Steemit, follow my posts there, and vote them up. If you do that, I’ll actually get paid in cryptocurrency for your vote-ups, thank you!
We are currently less than three weeks from the 2016 general election, and the Presidential debates are behind us. You can now, if you haven’t already, begin looking at the other races on the ballot, and learning about your options. NH1, which has previously given somewhat favorable coverage to alternative candidates, will be hosting a Gubernatorial debate on Wednesday Oct 26, and a US Senate debate on Thursday Oct 27. Despite ballot retention requiring 4% in the general election (i.e. the vote threshold needed for a party to retain ballot access without needing to collect a burdensome number of petitions), NH1 has only invited candidates polling over 10%. (more…)
Apparently conspiracy talk show host Alex Jones has offered $5,000 to people who can get on television for shouting “Bill Clinton is a Rapist”. Yesterday, it happened in Keene during the Bill Clinton speech:
https://youtu.be/rKW2WJ-swuI
Jones’ challenge appears to be working, as the Keene Sentinel, after mentioning the two men who interrupted Clinton’s speech by repeatedly shouting the phrase, went on to discuss some of the sexual assault allegations against him. Kudos to the brave, unknown activists who smartly shouted out near the media riser, so it was easy for the cameramen covering the speech to focus on their interruption.
If you enjoy my posts, please sign up for a free account at Steemit, follow my posts there, and vote them up. If you do that, I’ll actually get paid in cryptocurrency for your vote-ups, thank you!
On Wednesday & Thursday nights NH1 held a pair of debates for the Gubernatorial & Senatorial candidates from the Republican & Democratic Parties. The Libertarian Party nominees for those offices as well as independent US Senate candidate Aaron Day were not invited to the debates. The 
and Libertarian US Senate nominee Brian Chabot polling at 4%, NH1 only invited candidates polling over 10%. In short, NH1 set the threshold at a level that only the Republican & Democratic Party nominees could meet.
