LACONIA - While thunderstorms raged outdoors and the sounds of hail pelting the windows of the "Campaign For Change" office on Canal Street proved to be a minor distraction, the dozen or so volunteers gathered indoors Sunday afternoon remained focused on their mission - to ensure the re-election of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter from New Hampshire's First Congressional District.

Representatives from throughout Belknap County, as well as a couple from Rockingham County, shared their enthusiasm for Shea-Porter's proven commitment to New Hampshire voters, citing her strong legislative support for veterans, families, education, health care reform, environmental protection, economic development, and a sensible energy policy that will wean the nation from its dependency on foreign oil.

"Anyone who has been observing Carol during her first term in Washington has come to appreciate that she is relentless in advocating for policies that benefit New Hampshire and its families," said Ron Tunning, Chair of the Laconia Democratic Party.     ….continue reading

Esther Dickerson (left), a Field Director with the Democratic Party's Coordinated Campaign, discussed with Gary and Lenore Patton of Hampton their role in encouraging Shea-Porter's supporters to write letters to the editors of newspapers throughout the state.  The three were among a group who gathered on Sunday in Laconia for a "Campaign Organiational Meeting".

By Kathy McCormack

CONCORD, N.H.--The way to ease the pain of high prices at the pump, the grocery store and winter heating contracts is to invest in renewable energy sources and expand oil drilling at home, most of the candidates in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District agree.

But Congress can take some steps in the short-term to stabilize prices or possibly reverse the trend of higher prices, said Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, responding to an Associated Press questionnaire on economic issues.

"Removing speculators from our oil market is one way, releasing a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is another," she wrote. She said long-term answers also are required.

"I agree with T. Boone Pickens, a well-known oil man, that this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of," Shea-Porter said. "We must encourage responsible drilling here at home, we must invest heavily in renewable energy sources and we must conserve energy where we can."    ….continue reading

Tom Parfitt in Vladikavkaz, Helen Womack in Moscow and Jonathan Steele

Russian forces were moving to take total control of South Ossetia last night as Georgia withdrew troops amid intense diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire to end the three-day conflict in which 2,000 people have reportedly been killed and up to 22,000 displaced. Seizing the opening offered by President Mikheil Saakashvili's doomed military incursion last week, Moscow also insisted the Georgian leader should resign, according to senior US diplomats.

Russian aircraft bombed Tbilisi's international airport hours before the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, was due to land on an EU mission, the Georgian interior ministry said. Last night it was reported that Russia sank a Georgian ship after coming under attack.    ….continue reading

By Andrew E. Kramer and Ellen Barry

GORI, Georgia -- In retreat, the Georgian soldiers were so tired they could not keep from stumbling. Their arms were loaded with rucksacks and ammunition boxes; they had dark circles under their eyes. Officers ran up and down the line, barking for them to go faster.

All along the road was grief. Old men pushed wheelbarrows loaded with bags or led cows by tethers. They drove tractors and rickety Ladas packed with suitcases and televisions.

As a column of soldiers passed through Gori, a black-robed priest came out of his church and made the sign of the cross again and again.

One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.

"We killed as many of them as we could," he said. "But where are our friends?"

It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?

Since the conflict began, Western leaders have worked frantically to broker a cease-fire. But for Georgians -- so boisterously pro-American that Tbilisi, the capital, has a George W. Bush Street -- diplomacy fell far short of what they expected.     ….continue reading

By Nicholas Riccardi and Maeve Reston

John McCain and the adjective "maverick" were once seemingly inseparable, and his quixotic attempt in 2000 to win the Republican presidential nomination helped weld that link.

But now that the Arizona senator is about to become his party's nominee, he finds himself in an uncomfortable spot: having to defend his reputation as a political independent.

McCain's campaign unveiled an ad last week that calls him "the original maverick," and he has retooled his stump speech to remind independent voters disen- chanted with Republicans that he defied his party on campaign finance reform, tobacco regulation and the early Iraq strategy.

Democrats, sensing a weakness, have started to chant that this year's John McCain is not the voluble insurgent who terrorized his party's establishment eight years ago.   ….continue reading

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Iraq and Afghanistan are the messes getting attention today, but they are only symptoms of a much broader cancer in American foreign policy.

A few glimpses of this larger affliction:

¶The United States has more musicians in its military bands than it has diplomats.

¶This year alone, the United States Army will add about 7,000 soldiers to its total; that's more people than in the entire American Foreign Service.

¶More than 1,000 American diplomatic positions are vacant because the Foreign Service is so short-staffed, but a myopic Congress is refusing to finance even modest new hiring. Some 1,100 could be hired for the cost of a single C-17 military cargo plane.    …..continue reading

Nicholas D. Kristof

By Ian Urbina

Divisive social issues will be on the ballot in several states in November, including constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage in Arizona, California and Florida, and limitations on abortion in California, Colorado and South Dakota.

Although research indicates that ballot measures do not drastically alter voter turnout, they have begun attracting the attention of both presidential campaigns.

Unlike 2004, when same-sex marriage bans were considered in 11 states, no single issue will dominate statewide ballots.

"Tax and spending issues are typically one of the main focuses of these measures, but this time that's less true," said Jennie Drage Bowser, a policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ms. Bowser said that many of the social measures on the ballots are being pushed by evangelical groups that hope to force Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to pay closer attention to their agenda.

On the ballots are at least 108 measures, down from 204 in 2006. At least 30 measures may be added as signatures are verified.  The same-sex marriage and abortion amendments are likely to attract the most attention, along with proposals to ban affirmative action.   ….continue reading

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced yesterday that his wife, Michelle, will be the star attraction on the opening night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 25.

Following Michelle Obama on Monday, the "headline speakers" for the rest of the convention will be Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday, Obama's vice presidential choice on Wednesday, and Obama on Thursday. The convention will move that day to Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium,     ….continue reading