Doug Lambert was fired for calling Democratic leader Ray Buckley "a faggot."

If Doug Lambert ever had delusions of grandeur and invincibility, the Mouth That Roared is quickly finding  out that he is as expendable as a dead rat on a sinking ship.

Over the weekend, the GOP activist called New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley “a faggot.” But that was only a small part of Lambert’s outburst. Here’s how it was reported in the Laconia Citizen:

After Lambert called Buckley a faggot, co-host Skip Murphy suggested they turn off the live Web feed but, instead, Lambert looked into the camera, made some dancelike movements that were intended to mimic the way gay men walk, and said, “Yeah, you faggot. That’s right, I said it and I meant it. You are a reprobate. How the people, the Democrats — I think of some of the gray-haired ladies from the old party — would stand behind you is beyond me. You are a disgrace to yourself, to humanity, to mankind and to your party. Other than that, happy birthday, Ray, and many more — not,” he said before the feed suddenly went dead.

Since then Lambert has been fired as co-chair of Frank Guinta’s congressional campaign, he has been evicted by WEMJ AM, the radio station that aired his weekly radio show, a local newspaper, the Laconia Daily Sun, has promised to stop publishing Lambert’s rants, and the high and mighty of New Hampshire’s Republican party have eviscerated him in the press and denounced his homophobic comments.

The details can be found here.

Lambert will continue to serve on the Gilford, NH, budget committee, only because as an elected official he cannot be removed by the town for being an ass. The “enabler” in Lambert’s world is his media partner, Skip Murphy. Murphy is also on the Gilford budget committee. The two of them are like a wrestling tag-team, basically bullying the rest of the town into doing what they want.

The best Murphy could say about his partner’s homophobic outburst is that it was “a dumb thing.” I can only hope that Gilford’s voters will have something more to say to both of these cretins in the next election –

“Your fired!”

Doug Lambert, a Glenn Beck wannabe and notorious local publicity hound, has finally gone into hiding. . . .and for good reason.

Lambert, a co-chair for Republican Frank Guinta’s New Hampshire congressional campaign, was fired this weekend for calling the chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party “a faggot” during Lambert’s weekly radio show, “Meet The New Press.”

According to an article posted today on the Laconia Citizen web site, Lambert called Ray Buckley, the openly gay chair of the state Democratic Party, a “faggot” and then proceeded to further insult Buckley:

After Lambert called Buckley a faggot, co-host Skip Murphy suggested they turn off the live Web feed but, instead, Lambert looked into the camera, made some dancelike movements that were intended to mimic the way gay men walk, and said, “Yeah, you faggot. That’s right, I said it and I meant it. You are a reprobate. How the people, the Democrats — I think of some of the gray-haired ladies from the old party — would stand behind you is beyond me. You are a disgrace to yourself, to humanity, to mankind and to your party. Other than that, happy birthday, Ray, and many more — not,” he said before the feed suddenly went dead.

Lambert is known in the Laconia area for his intrepid efforts to gain personal publicity while shaming conservative Republicans into thinking he is championing their causes. A foe of any federal, state, or local tax that does not personally benefit him, Lambert has nevertheless squandered thousands of citizen tax dollars by filing frivolous law suits against government entities that rub him the wrong way.

Lambert is also famously known for opposing Gilford’s effort to build a much-needed library. In a close vote, the project failed to gain voter approval. When donors stepped up to fund construction themselves, Lambert then took exception to the “hidden costs” of this free gift to the town. I can only assume that if Lambert actually read books he might have supported this venture. But as I said, if a project does not personally benefit him, he has no interest. His sense of community begins and ends at his front door.

While it is unfortunate that Ray Buckley had to suffer a public insult from the homophobic Lambert, the silver lining in all this might be Lambert’s permanent exile from New Hampshire’s exclusive GOP club house. Following his slur, Republican notables fought over each other to be the first to condemn the outcast.

Here’s a sampling of their comments:

GOP Congressional candidate Frank Guinta: “This type of dialogue has no place in politics or in our country.”

GOP spokesman Ryan Williams: “This is inappropriate and offensive. We strongly condemn the use of such vulgar language and personal attacks.”

GOP State Rep. Francine Wendelboe: “I think he’s finally slit his own throat.”

GOP U.S. Senate Candidate Ovide Lamontagne: “There is no place in politics or anywhere else for the type of language or sentiments expressed by Doug Lambert today … and I reject them categorically and unequivocally,”

GOP State Senator Jeb Bradley: Lambert’s remarks were “harmful and unfortunate, completely inappropriate and hurtful.” He called on Lambert to apologize.

For those of us who had forgotten, the Citizen article reminds us that racism and homophobia are like twin-headed monsters among GOP activists like Lambert:

This is not the first time Lambert has made disparaging comments regarding sexual orientation or race on his blog. Following black comedienne Wanda Sykes’ comments at the annual White House Press Corps Dinner in May about former Vice-President Dick Cheney, Lambert wrote, “May she choke on a chicken bone or a watermelon rind. What ever gets the job done.”

The biggest shock of all: Lambert declined the opportunity to talk to the local newspaper about this incident. I guess if you want to “Meet the New Press,” you’ll have to do it on Lambert’s show where he can control the conversation.

Here’s a reprise of my annual Thanksgiving message —

Thanksgiving has always been one my favorite holidays. Here in New Hampshire we are usually just on the delicate cusp between fall and winter. The leaves are down, the skies are still clear and bright blue, but the ground is frozen and wincing from the cold reality of a fast-approaching winter.

One of my personal traditions this time of year is listening to Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.” When I was still a teenager, my uncle gave me a recording of this classic; George Szell conducted the Cleveland Orchestra. His interpretation of early American folk songs became embedded in my young consciousness and have never left. His music inspired vivid images of the first settlers in this area — a land that was still wild, pristine, romantic in its breathtaking beauty and possibilities.

Every now and then, living close to the woods and hills of northern New England, I feel those images of Dvorak coming to life around me. This is especially true around Thanksgiving, the quintessential holiday of the New World. Thanksgiving makes me think of the wild turkeys that emerge from the woods in late fall. I love watching them waddle down my yard, like boot camp soldiers trying to learn how to march, all left feet and proud nevertheless. Their captain, usually the oldest male, keeps guard against “the enemy.” For turkeys, that means something human. Most times, at least around here, they escape into the woods, fat, happy, and unharmed.

Read about wild turkeys here.

The turkeys we find frozen in our local supermarkets are obviously not so lucky. As a vegetarian I realize that I have a less-than-typical perspective about eating meat and our tradition of gobbling up bird flesh on a day that commemorates our freedom in a new land. On the other hand, most people that I know who eat meat have no idea how their food landed on their plates. We humans have a bizarre “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to discussing our methods of raising and slaughtering animals. Most people would just rather not hear about it.

If PETA is controversial, it is because it knows that sometimes “in-your-face” methods are often needed just to break through our consciousness and make us aware of what we do, needlessly, to feed ourselves. How do you get the attention of people wearing ear muffs over their psyches?

So, in an attempt to break through to the hearty souls who are still reading this, here is some unnerving information about how that Butterball turkey became the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal.

PETA reports:

Butterball workers were documented punching and stomping on live turkeys, slamming them against walls, and worse during an undercover investigation at a Butterball slaughterhouse in Ozark, Arkansas.

One Butterball employee stomped on a bird’s head until her skull exploded, another swung a turkey against a metal handrail so hard that her spine popped out, and another was seen inserting his finger into a turkey’s cloaca (vagina).

Need more evidence? Watch this video from PETA.

Almost 400 years after the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, perhaps we have advanced in our attitudes about the planet we share with other species.

There are alternatives to eating meat.

Be thankful but don’t be cruel.

Go to the PETA web site and learn more.

No one likes to see animals of any kind — including humans — needlessly die. However, when men — why is it always men? –  go out into the woods with guns, hide in trees, and use other means to create an unfair advantage over trusting animals that are then killed, I am not going to lament the death of such a person.

According to today’s Union Leader, a New Hampshire hunter shot and killed himself while he was acting out his childish hunting fantasy. I am sorry for his family. On the other hand, I rejoice that another deer — supposedly being “managed” with these government-sanctioned slaughters — escaped to see another day.

On the same day, according to the newspaper report, another hunter in a separate incident shot himself in the hand.

Given the number of hunting accidents each year, I wonder if most hunters are both cruel and stupid. Or perhaps the two character flaws always go together?

Ran into a Gallup Poll video today. They surveyed some 600,000+ Americans to see who was happy and who wasn’t.

Turns out that young people are the happiest group. Is that a surprise? Probably not. What’s there to do but party, have sex, watch TV, text your friends, and get drunk. Not a bad lifestyle!

What did surprise me was how much the “happy meter” dropped when they got to the Baby Boomer age group. Does that mean fewer parties, less sex, no friends to text, and too much sobriety? I don’t think so. I really don’t have a clue, except that I suspect some Boomers are dismayed at how their lives turned out after having started off as the most idealistic generation ever, only to turn out taciturn and cynical in late middle age just like their parents.

As for me, I am as happy now — or as miserable — as I was when I was 25. So I guess I am happy that I am still unhappy. . .or whatever.

– Rake

(In case you missed it. . .)

Those of us who have known Hillary for a long time are not surprised that she can pull off such a deadpan swipe at Conan and Mayor Booker.

Thank goodness she means this in a nice way. I would hate to be on the receiving end if she were really pissed off.

Know what I mean, Bill?

From my friend, Frank Marafiote, comes this article posted today in the Village Blog —

As much as I love New Hampshire, living in the “Live Free or Die” state can sometimes be frustrating.

Case in point: in the conservative hamlet of Raymond, New Hampshire, just on the outskirts of our largest city, Manchester, the town’s selectman turned down a request to have a peace rally on the town commons to support the UN’s International Day of Peace.

“What kind of crowd is this going to gather? This is a peace group, we are at war and I wonder if this is going to bring a crowd of people into town on both sides of the issues and whether we need police down there,” selectman Jack Barnes said.

Anyone who knows these old-timers could have predicted that anything associated with the United Nations didn’t stand a chance of being approved. Many people in this state still believe the UN is a Communist plot to take over the government.

As details of the subversive event came to light, it was clear that there were other sinister, terrorist overtones to this so-called peace rally.

Resident Molly Schlangen sent a letter to the board requesting use of the town common for a brief gathering with complimentary yoga classes to “promote peace in our community and in our world.” Schlangen, a local yoga instructor and formerly the school nurse at Lamprey River Elementary School, held the same event last year. About 20 people attended and took part in a 45-minute outdoor yoga class.

Imagine: a yoga class in public to support peace! It’s pretty obvious that those 20 people in tights doing the Warrior pose would be sending signals to Al-Qaeda operatives across the U.S.

Perhaps more amusing than the reaction of the town fathers (the town mothers, in the minority, voted in favor of peace),  is the reaction of local cheerleaders to the ruling. Here’s a taste taken from the comments section of the Union Leader article:

“Peace” rallies have been violent in the last few years, just look at Code Pink. They’re also populated by pot smokers.”
- Jason Entres, Hollis

We don’t need people out there not supporting our troops in public. it sends the wrong message to them and they are fighting to keep us safe from terrorists. Terrorists do yoga in iran an iraq, not in america.
- HunterMike, Raymond

Please….since when does the UN actually promote peace? It’s comprised up of some the worst civil rights abusing countries. It’s a total façade. You want to promote peace – more power to you. Just stop promoting the UN fallacy. It’s time the U.S. pulled out the one-world-government UN / World Bank. UN treaties are a dangerous threat to our national sovereignty and our Constitution – stop selling us down the road to the New World Order government. Do our own research on this subject, the lasting they actual want is peace.
- Mac Wade, Newmarket

In all fairness to my home state, many people commented in support of the rally. Maybe there’s hope, after all.

For years I have been belaboring a point that some adults refuse to accept: any kind of physical discipline of children is a form of abuse. Worse, what starts out as “harmless” spanking escalates over time into serious emotional and physical injury to the child.

Now a new study of toddlers shows that even spanking kids at that early age can have long-lasting consequences.  According to CNN, the study from the Journal of Child Development shows –

Children who were spanked as 1-year-olds tended to behave more aggressively at age 2, and did not perform as well as other children on a test measuring thinking skills at age 3. . . . Spanking, moreover, reinforces negative memories in the child’s mind. Parents should aim instead to build “prominent, happy memories” of childhood for their kids.

The study also concludes that parents who spank are more likely to be younger, less educated, single, and/or depressed and stressed.

Susan Newman, social psychologist and author of “Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day,” said parents should discourage bad behaviors by taking away privileges such as dessert, or setting an earlier bedtime. Newman believes that children are too young to understand when parenting behavior is wrong, even at the level of abuse.

Physical violence, Newman says, gets passed down in families because the only parenting skills people know are the behaviors that they saw at home. So, if you want your children to abuse their children, keep hitting them. Your grandchildren will thank you for it!

From The Village Blog today, a great post asking why we should let those two small states — and their reactionary senators, Grassley and Enzi — have such a major role in health care reform.

Mike Enzi, Republican senator from Wyoming, Pop 510,000 (2005)

Charles Grassley, Republican senator from Iowa, Pop 3 million (2008)

It sounds as if the Obama Administration is finally coming to its senses and is ready to dump the anti-reform tag-team of Grassley and Enzi in favor of health care policies that actually help 300 million Americans, especially the 47+ million uninsured.

After so many years of listening to all the reasons why my home state of New Hampshire and that corn-field known as Iowa should not have the first primary and caucuses for president, it is astonishing that two Republican senators from states with a total population of about 3.5 million should be allowed to have such a major impact on health care policy for the rest of the country.

How David Axelrod and Company could have missed the major lesson of the Clinton reform effort is equally astonishing. It was not that Hillary held “secret meetings,” or that the reform plan was too complicated, or that it was “socialistic,” or that she did not include enough politicians in her deliberations (she did). It failed because the Republicans wanted it to fail. And they wanted it to fail because they do not believe that the poor deserve health care. In other words, like most Republicans, they were greedy and did not want to pay for someone else’s health insurance.

They still don’t. Nothing has changed folks. The GOP is still the party of the rich, the entitled, the haves. And they will do everything they can to keep their stash as safe as possible, the rest of the country be damned.

Grassley and Enzi?

Let ‘em go home and shuck corn and shovel cow shit. That’s where they belong.

Markteting Taxi

What an excellent question!

As someone who has been posting to this blog for almost five years now, I can vouch for the challenges of proofreading posts and otherwise being ready for the blog traffic we bloggers try so hard to achieve.

The Marketing Taxi, a marketing planning consultancy, recently reviewed a business coaching blog that still had the infamous Latin fill-in “Lorem/Ipsum/Dolorem” as its tag line.

Not throwing stones exactly, the author admits his own fallibility in this area and knowingly writes:

Most of us with blogs have had this experience: we edit, proofread, spell check, read it again, and feeling we’ve covered all the bases push that “publish” button. Only then do we see the mistake, the name we didn’t get right, the link that isn’t working, etc. So, back we go, hoping we can correct our errors before anyone sees it.

What is perhaps less realistic is his idea that a blogger’s “friends” should tell a blogger about mistakes they find. Unless it’s your wife or husband — someone who really enjoys pointing out your faults — don’t count on getting much feedback about your spelling or grammar. Most of us are lucky just to get an angry right-winger to damn us to hell for our opinions.

In the meantime, I will content myself to use the spell-checker, try to catch the more outlandish errors, and hope that my perspicacity as a commentator about politics and life make up for errant ways as a copy editor.