You ever been to New Hampshire? Not much there. As we say in the West - blink and you missed it. In fact, both Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, in California, are larger and more diverse. So why don't THEY have primaries?

IIn fact, San Bernardino County is the largest county in the United States, containing more land than Nine states. The county is so large they could stick those eastern, bumpstop states, places like massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island AND Delaware in it and have a grand old primary. As long as there aren't any touch screens, that is.

San Bernardino County, with two million plus people has nearly twice the population and more colleges and universities than New Hampshire. Indeed, I'd dare say, SBC is more representative of the whole US of A then a little white backwater state in New England that doesn't even boast a decent BCS team.

Nope, New Hampshire is not a serious state. Take that license plate, "Live Free or Die." What exactly does that mean to a state that allows 81% of its votes to be counted by a machine? And not even counted in New Hampshire! Indeed, they send the votes next door to Maine. Why? Maybe people in New Hampshire are so busy living "free" they haven't got time to get their hands dirty and count their own votes.

Maybe New Hampshire is such a busy, bustling state, filled with world-shaking activity, that vote counting needs be out-sourced to somewhere else. Out-sourced to some lesser state, like Maine (Which is bigger than San Bernardino County and nearly four times bigger than New Hampshire). Maybe, on second thought, New Hampshire really is like America: Out-source the tough jobs, like counting paper ballots or making every single product we use, and let other people, preferably immigrants, do the dirty work for you.

No, New Hampshire is not a serious state. A mountainous state park, maybe, but not a serious state. A nice place to send your kids to prep school, or for a skiing vacation, or to vote in a primary election while living freely, but not a place to actually, physically COUNT votes. Gosh that might have required, what, an entire day of strenuous counting? Imagine how much each paper ballot weighed!

Another thing I noticed, not many freeways in New Hampshire. LA County has five times as many freeway miles. Hardly any immigrants live there either, in New Hampshire. The immigrants-legal and illegal--living and working in LA County probably outnumber the entire population of the state of New Hampshire itself. So WHY doesn't LA County have a primary then, being far more representative of America in the 21st century?

And why, exactly, are the Live Freers and their chosen candidates so worried about these immigrants, or "terrorists," as we should probably call them, since very few immigrants actually LIVE there? No brown foreigner (terrorist) is ever going to go to Exeter, that snooty prep school in New Hampshire, unless that brown person is very, very rich or their brown daddy is very, very powerful. Maybe an ambassador or a prince or an embezzler.

Another funny thing I noticed from the results of this primary. New Hampshirites love those doddering old soldiers like John McCain. They voted for him, what, twice? Of course, few folks from The Granite State ever actually served as soldiers, at least not their two (Republican) senators. I guess, like a lot of folks, people in New Hampshire prefer immigrants do all the serving for them, whether as waiters in local restaurants or as soldiers in the US military.

While New Hampshire was the first state to declare its independence in the American Revolution, only one actual battle was fought there. Locals raided Fort William and Mary and swiped all the weaponry there. Some battle. Perhaps this is why we honor New Hampshire with one of the earliest primaries, rather than San Bernardino County. We allow them to swipe the first votes and count them elsewhere.

Another odd thing. While folks in this tiny backwater have rescinded the state income tax, they don't mind voting for US presidents that spend other taxpayer's money on foreign wars. Look at the record. Bush and Clinton and Bush again and, now, either Clinton or McCain meet their approval, both of them imperial big spenders.

So, New Hampshire, please explain to me again: How does the slogan "Live Free or Die" influence your choices? Because I don't see any connection. Is it because, as long as YOU yourself don't have to die, and as long as YOU yourself can live free from the tax burden, things will be fine in America?

Because, I'd like to know why anyone here in America should care which way you vote on anything? At least anymore than we care about San Bernardino County.

Longtime Rense contributer Douglas Herman lives in your neighborhood.