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Sunday, January 25, 2009—Some time ago we had a volunteer who distributed the Gazette to a number of place in Kittery. Sadly, his work took him elsewhere. At present we have one stalwart friend who brings copies every fortnight to the Rice Library, but that’s it. It’s a shame, particularly now that the Memorial Bridge is suddenly on the “Expendable” list. So, we want to expand—or rebuild—our distribution in Kittery. We could sit here and arbitrarily work up a list of places to put the paper. But we had what we think is a better idea: let our readers in Kittery use the “comment” feature …

Read moreKittery Distribution Wish List

Thursday, January 22, 2009—Jill Lepore has an ambiguous but lovely piece in the latest New Yorker called “Back Issues: The day the newspaper died.” She seems not to take a predictive position on the format’s future, but it’s gratifying to see such a vivid picture of the newspaper’s place in the fight for liberty. All the more so because we get a mention. Ms. Lepore quotes Daniel Fowle’s issue of this paper dated October 31, 1765, which “lamented its own demise.” And she cites his coverage of the mock funeral of Liberty held here in Portsmouth the next day. “In the eighteenth century,” Lepore writes, …

Read morePut Down That Shovel!

Friday, January 16, 2009—“Through last-minute rule changes and appointments, George W. Bush and his unindicted co-conspirators are doing their damnedest to extend the influence of the worst president in history as far into the future as they can.” In the Fortnightly Rant which leads off our January 2 paper (Vol. CCLII, No. 7), we attempt to sketch the outlines of the Bush administration’s “domestic version of Operation Gladio,” the CIA’s series of clandestine paramilitary “stay-behind” organizations, “whose official purpose was to counter a possible Soviet invasion. Their membership often included former Nazis and other fascist sympathisers. They meddled in the internal politics of sovereign nations …

Read moreReady For A Departure

Monday, January 5, 2009—In our Volume 253, No. 6, published December 19, 2008, we used the Fortnightly Rant to take a little closer look at Henry “Hank” Paulson, the Bush Administration’s designated economic saviour, and at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, where he learned to ply his trade. For some reason, we found ourselves less than reassured. In the News Briefs section, we had to consider the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who lived out a fantasy fondly held by many an American. It’s highly likely that the best justification for the wood pulp consumed in publishing this issue was the information in it about how …

Read moreLast Year’s Last Paper

Tuesday, December 30, 2008—In our next paper, we’d like to run a list of some of the Bush/Cheney (mal)administration’s most egregious last-minute rule changes. Visitors to this site are invited to nominate their “favorite” attempt to do last-minute damage by writing a Comment, below. UPDATE: Thursday, January 1, 2009—For better or worse, we’re preparing to go to press. Thanks to everybody who left suggestions through Comments or e-mail. The next issue should be on the street early tomorrow afternoon.—The Ed.