US VOTERS SUFFER FROM THEIR SUFFRAGE

A newly elected US state politician who says all police should be killed is
testing the legendary tolerance of New Hampshire.

Since being elected to the state legislature, Tom Alciere has been called a
"hate-mongering lunatic" by a police chief, been shunned by fellow
Republicans and earned the "shock and dismay" of the governor.

The Granite State - where the motto is "Live free or die" - is now
reviewing its electoral system to discover how he got elected.

He in turn has called those who voted for him in the town of Nashua "a
bunch of fat, stupid, ugly old ladies that watch soap operas, play bingo,
read tabloids and don't know the metric system".

Mr Alciere, 41, has run for state office twice as a Libertarian and once as
a Democrat. He has worked repairing circuit boards and running a dating
agency for men to meet "Spanish-speaking ladies" and a website offering sex
tips to high school students. He declared himself bankrupt last year.

His election appears to have been the result of voters simply ticking off
Republican candidates all the way down the voting list. While the attention
was given to candidates higher up the ballot, no one bothered to scrutinise
Mr Alciere.

If they had, they would have found his anti-police rantings all over the
Internet. He insists he is not "a nut", but in one on-line discussion he
wrote: "Maybe the USA will give up its war on drugs if Americans kill more
cops. Nobody will ever be safe until the last cop is dead."

In another posting, he suggested that people ram their cars into funeral
processions for police officers.

He claimed he never meant much of what he wrote and that he was simply
"venting into cyberspace".

There is nothing that can be done to stop him from serving his two-year
term. His agenda includes repealing drug laws and drinking restrictions. He
said: "The same lame-brains who vote for politicians who are wrong finally
voted for one who is right."