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Hour 1                                        Hour 2

Pat was out this week - Doug and Skip talk with the guests and each other... 

Hour One:

Opening banter- Doug & Skip discuss the sight of Pat moving furniture; Belknap County budget mess; Gilford Spending Cap Pledge

More banter- Skip & Doug discuss Obama, Gilford spending cap pledge, transparency

Peyton Wolcott part 1- Transparency movement. Putting financial information online. Discussion about check registers from school districts up on the 'Net. Peyton discusses how she first got activated

Peyton Wolcott part 2- More about how to convince the school board that putting more info online is a GOOD thing. Very enlightening!
 

Hour Two:

Jennifer Horn interview. Jennifer is a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for NH's 2nd CD US House seat currently occupied by Paul Hodes. She gave the listeners some background and an update on the campaign and recent endorsements. Doug and Skip asked a series of questions.

Paul Mirski interview part 1- Discussion about proposed amendment to CACR34 school funding "fix". Language of despots and dictators codified in NH's constitution?

Paul Mirski interview part 2- Discussion about redistricting lawsuit filed to force implementation of 2006 constitutional amendment regarding voting reps by town AND size, eliminating the archaic multi-town breakdown currently in place.

SchlubCam:

[coming soon]

 

Posted by Doug at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "More Educational Follies in NH" »

Posted by Ed Mosca at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Lost in the haze of the never-ending news cycle is the newly restarted violence in Lebanon. Like most people, I've been hearing about it in passing, not giving it much thought. Haven't they ALWAYS been fighting there?

If you care to find out a little more about what exactly IS going on there, I would recommend reading Michael J. Totten's excellent piece over at the Contentions Blog, "Lebanon's Third Civil War".

With Iranian money and weapons, Hezbollah has built its own state-within-a-state in South Lebanon and South Beirut which is used as a base to wage war against Israel. Hezbollah also wishes to violently yank Lebanon from its current pro-Western alignment into the Syrian-Iranian axis. Roughly one-fourth of the population supports this agenda. No country on earth can withstand that kind of geopolitical tectonic pressure. For more than a year members of Hezbollah have tried unsuccessfully to topple the elected government with a minimal use of force, but their patience is at an end and they have turned to war.

Totten paints a bleak picture for the near, and maybe long term for that battered country. And what will it mean for Israel and beyond? I still stand by my long-held contention that we are witnessing the ongoing fall of dominoes in a new world war...

Posted by Doug at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Answer: Cuddle Parties!

Meanwhile, the Islamists plot...

[H/T Matt T.]

Posted by Doug at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Starting Saturday morning at 9 am!

....

As usual, this week's broadcast version of GraniteGrok and AnkleBitingPundits brings an array of items and guests for your consideration-- ALL STARTING AT 9AM! As always, thanks to the technical wizardry and analytical skills of Skip, if you are beyond the broadcast area of Newstalk 1490 WEMJ, simply click here for instructions on how to connect and listen on the Internet via livestream. (Podcasts here)

• Signing the tax cap pledge. What now?

• The transparency movement to put more public records, including financials, online continues. While the reception is mixed from some quarters, it seems we're not the only ones that think it's time-- even the local Citizen newspaper seemingly agrees. This subject is the specialty of guest Peyton Wolcott...

• Peyton Wolcott is the Texas-based long-time public school activist who founded the national grassroots online check register movement 18 months ago with the names of a small handful of Texas districts; the movement has grown to almost 200 districts in 14 states, with $47 billion in annual transparency.  "Start small, start local and start simple" is one of Peyton's guiding principles.  Her commentaries have been published regularly in local newspapers and nationally in Education News, and interviews with Peyton have appeared in The Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman, plus regional radio across America.  Her voluntary ethics pledges for school board candidates were featured last month in Human Events and other venues.  Honors include being named to the Sam Adams Alliance Hall of Fame, and receiving the Upton Sinclair Award (also named in 2006 was ABC's John Stossel).  "My goal is to educate our children better, for less money," says Peyton.  Oh yeah--- she has a great website with stories that you just knew were happening someplace...

• We'll talk about the importance and value of placing school check registers online and the many places it's already being done.

• How do we actually make it happen?

• Second Congressional District candidate Jennifer Horn is a former columnist for the Sunday edition of The Telegraph and was the host of “On The Air With Jennifer Horn”, a daily 2 hour current events talk radio show.  She is currently considered the frontrunner in the pack of four Republicans seeking the nomination for the chance to take on Democrat Paul Hodes in the fall election. She has racked up an impressive list of endorsements from key players in the District. Basically an "outsider" when it comes to elective office, we'll find out if she's got what it takes to win this one back for the GOP.

• Proposed (Public Education) amendment to CACR 34. Is it a good idea to let the state define "education to prepare the student to become a productive and contributing citizen"? We'll ask former state rep Paul Mirski what he thinks.

• Redistricting lawsuit filed to bring back the old way-- every town (or most every town) gets its own representative. Is it feasible?

Wow! It all starts at 9AM EST Saturday. Tune in if you're in Central NH at NewsTalk 1490AM WEMJ or live on the 'Net here... The best radio (in our humble opinions) anywhere...
 

Posted by Doug at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In what is most likely the first public action involving the recently unveiled spending cap pledge promoted by the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, members of the Gilford Municipal Budget Committee found themselves voting on a motion to adopt such a cap at its initial meeting of the 2009 FY budget season. As reported by the Citizen (Laconia) newspaper,

Budget committee member Doug Lambert has challenged the elected officials in Gilford with imposing a voluntary tax cap on governmental spending.

The idea for a voluntary tax cap came out of an initiative started by the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition. The reason the coalition began the challenge is two-fold: first to lower the burden on New Hampshire families and secondly to encourage government to maximize the value of every dollar.

Lambert took the pledge and modified it slightly, though the principle is the same.

The Gilford Pledge to Defend the New Hampshire Advantage reads, "I believe that low taxes are the result of low spending. I believe that a government can only be fair to its taxpayers when it is actively looking for ways to run more efficiently. I hereby pledge: Not to vote for — or lend my support to — any budget raising government spending that causes taxes to be raised more than the rate of inflation, as it is defined by the Consumer Price Index-Urban, plus new construction growth."

[snip]

"I printed it; I signed it; I will adhere to it. That will be my actions on the committee," promised Lambert.

Skip Murphy, a budget committee member and chair of the Gilford Republican Town Committee, also signed and promised to follow the voluntary tax cap pledge.

Recognize those two guys? While it turned out we weren't able to convince a majority of the Budcom to adopt the voluntary cap, besides myself and Skip, two other members agreed to conduct all of our actions in line with the "cap." We will be working on a spreadsheet program in order to keep a running account of the budget process, identifying exactly how much the school, town, and (hopefully) county portions can increase under such a cap.

Please read the whole Citizen article, as reporter Cutter Mitchell does an excellent job in his reporting of what went down last night. It's my belief that this is but the first salvo in what will be a rising movement here in the Granite State as we seek to preserve and protect our special "New Hampshire Advantage".

Below is the pledge as I submitted, signed, to the chair of our committee. I shared a copy with every member, and will be presenting them to the school board and selectmen for them to sign as well.

Continue reading "Spending Cap Pledge Debuts in Lakes Region" »

Posted by Doug at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Government Approved Edukashun

Former State Representative Paul Mirski sends the following warning:

RE: Proposed [Public Education] Amendment to CACR 34

“The legislature shall have the responsibility to define the content of an adequate education to prepare the student to become a productive and contributing citizen and to determine the total statewide cost of providing that education to all public school students. The legislature shall have the authority and responsibility to raise the funds that total the statewide cost of this education……”
 

Only a budding despot could love the language the legislature has wrought. No sensible citizen of New Hampshire should let themselves be duped into voting for such misguided social policy nor be duped into giving up rights having to do with conscience, freedom of thought, action and association.

Posted by Doug at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[UPDATED] The NH Union Leader has the NH AG's full statement regarding this matter, determining there was no wrongdoing involved. I'm glad of that. But I stand by the points I raised in the post. As a commenter at the UL site wrote,

I don't think anybody expected this to be a criminal matter. Negligence? A judgment call. It's not surprising that it went the way it did.

But didn't these guys go a bit overboard in thinking that they could use private property for their training exercise without getting permission from the owner? The Constitution is pretty clear about this.
- Bruce, New London

=====================================================================

The story about the cop shooting in Concord has been simmering just below the radar since word first came out. Here's how I view this, being an ordinary citizen exposed to the available media...

First, I heard on NewsNine that a cop got shot during the night in a bank by another cop, but his bulletproof vest saved him.

The next day, reading the Union Leader newspaper, I learned it was accidental.

"This is not a case where a police officer discharged their weapon in pursuit of a suspect or in the midst of an arrest or something like that," Strelzin said.

Four Concord police officers were inside the building when one officer's handgun discharged, striking a fellow officer in the chest. Strelzin would not say why the officers were in the building.

"I can tell you the only individuals involved were those four officers," he said. Their names are being withheld while the investigation continues.

At this point, I thought, well, what exactly were they doing? Maybe something like this...

At work, tongues flapped about a cop "accidently" shooting another cop. Everyone was asking the same question I had intially thought-- "How does that happen?" Someone mentioned this guy:

He was only half-joking. So it went. What were they doing at 4:30 in the morning in an unfinished bank?

Another morning, and I'm getting dressed for the day, watching NewsNine again... On comes a report with an interview with some guy that either owns or is running the project at the building the cops were in during the "mishap." He says he has no clue what the cops were doing in the building, that nothing appeared amiss. The reporter notes the Concord police still aren't saying what happened. Hmmm. You can imagine the watercooler discussion THAT day, as almost everyone I work with saw the report.

And then nothing for a few days. The conspiracists among our bunch began to surmise a coverup was in the works. The local rumor mill coughed up a story that perhaps something really bad was going down. "One thing's for sure," one local wag said, "We'll never find out what really happened." And everyone agreed, even those of us not so prone to believing wild conspiracy tales.

Well, nearly a week has gone by, and finally, we find out some of the "facts." Guess what? It was simply a training mission accident the whole time! As reported by the Concord Monitor,

Continue reading ""Well, uh... you see Chief, a funny thing happened on the way back to the station..."" »

Posted by Doug at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Is it really over? Tim Russert seems to think so. Drat!

"We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be - and no one's going to dispute it, Keith. Sometimes in campaigns, the candidate is the last to recognize the best timing. It's very much like being on life support: Once they start removing the systems, you really have no choice."

"If, in fact, these reports of Senator Clinton giving her campaign more money are true, then the Clintons have a BIG decision to make in the morning: Do they go into further debt? … Their ability to raise money after the events of tonight - it's going to be very difficult. As opposed to what happened after Pennsylvania, when money roared in, because people saw a realistic chance. That no longer exists."

I can't believe I'm actually thinking I'm gonna miss the 'ole gal!

Posted by Doug at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You just knew this was coming...

The BMI reports

Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPR’s May 6 “Fresh Air” broadcast did just that. He was interviewed by “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross about the release of his book, “The Assault on Reason,” in paperback.

 “And as we’re talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated,” Gore said. “And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China – and we’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.”

Got that? We're seeing things that have been predicted "MIGHT be associated with global warming." And then again, maybe not, right Al? This is such bunk...

Posted by Doug at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the NHAC:

Because Low Spending Equals Low Taxes and the fact that each and every household is disciplining the family budget we believe our elected officials should promise to do the same.  It is in this light that the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition offers a pledge for every candidate running for office to further protect taxpayers from out-of-control spending.  We believe it is a duty to hold public officials and candidates for office accountable and have decided to release this pledge online rather than waiting for a reschedule of the press conference [canceled due to a family matter].

“Over the last two weeks, local community taxpayers across the state have joined with members of NHAC to send a clear message to elected officials at all levels of government; (1) We the people of the great State of New Hampshire believe that low taxes are the result of low spending, (2) We believe that a government can only be fair to its taxpayers when it is looking for ways to run more efficiently,” said Mike Biundo, Chairman of NHAC.  

All candidates and current office holders are invited to take the pledge. We will be periodically informing and educating voters on whom exactly is standing up for the New Hampshire taxpayers.

“This pledge further reinforces the traditional no sales/no income tax pledge. In order for New Hampshire to stay free of a sales and income tax burden, and continue our economic advantage in the region, we must get control of the spending that has run wild on all levels of government,” said Roger Wilkins, spokesman for NHAC.

Here is the text:

Whereas, I believe that low taxes are the result of low spending;

Whereas, I believe that a government can only be fair to its taxpayers when it is actively looking for ways to run more efficiently;

I hereby pledge:

Not to vote for or lend my support to any budget that raises government spending more than the rate of inflation, as it is defined by the Consumer Price Index- Urban Plus Population Growth.

(office holder/ candidate of the State of New Hampshire)

Pledge to Defend the New Hampshire Advantage

We will link to the pledge and form as soon as we get it.

Posted by Doug at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Manchester - With the introduction of our spending cap efforts in communities across the state, the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition has officially begun its proactive campaign to return commonsense spending to all levels of government. Tomorrow afternoon, at a 1:00 p.m. press conference, NHAC will introduce the second part of our campaign, our "Defending the New Hampshire Advantage Pledge."

Defending the New Hampshire Advantage Pledge New Conference

Date: May 7th, 2008

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Where: Legislative Office Building (LOB), Concord, NH

According to the National Association of State Budget officers, only seven states had a higher percentage increase than NH in general fund expenditures from their fiscal 2007 budget to their fiscal 2008 budget.

New Hampshire had the largest percentage increase in general fund expenditures in the region.

Posted by Doug at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

.

For those of us activists that seek as much openness and transparency as possible with our government and its multiple webs of bureaucracy, there is no doubt that there is good reason for the effort. Reality demonstrates that people are not always prone to do the right thing. Just because they are in the government doesn't automatically mean they are without blemish. That's not to say that everyone is a crook, but, you just never know. How many stories do we hear of some government employee somewhere caught with his/her hands in the till or abusing the credit card, etcetra.

The best disinfectant for abuse is a little sunshine. The more open and visible certain aspects are, the less suceptible they are to fraud and abuse. Part of this, along with access to financial and meeting data being placed on the Internet for all to see, should include the preservation of records and correspondence-- including emails. Otherwise, how can citizens get the full picture of what their government does in word and in deed. In a big corporation, anything that happens within its confines paperwise or on its computers and machines, is subject to inspection at all times. After all, they are the company's computers-- they belong to their owners. Why should government be different? We are the owners, and we should have access and retain all rights to what happens on "our" equipment.

Consider this story as reported in yesterday's New York Post:

THE office computer of suspended Power Authority Inspector General Daniel Wiese was "wiped totally clean" of e-mails and other records just days before being seized by investigators probing an alleged State Police dirty-tricks squad, The Post has learned.

[snip]

"The hard drive had been wiped totally clean just a day or two before investigators got to it," the source said.

"Given the way it was scrubbed, it does not appear that the attorney general's investigators can recover the information that was there."

Investigators also found Wiese's computer had been equipped with a rare and sophisticated "destroyer program" that automatically wiped out files and e-mails stored for more than 60 days.

The use of a destroyer program may have violated a state law requiring the retention of official records, a second authority source said.

Had the emails and other records been preserved, perhaps investigators would be able to handily piece together whatever wrongdoings may have occured. How could innocent government officials possibly be opposed to any such means to prove themselves so? Unless they are up to something? Make no mistake, this case as reported by the Post involves some pretty bad stuff...

Wiese, a former State Police colonel and longtime associate of former Govs. George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer, was the power behind State Police operations in New York City, Westchester and Long Island for more than a decade.

No way! Why, he was part of the GOVERNMENT-- the cops! They never do wrong, do they? There's absolutely NO reason to keep tabs, right?

He was linked last summer to the Dirty Tricks Scandal involving Spitzer's efforts to gather purportedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), and was accused by former Rep. John Sweeney (R-Saratoga), a Pataki political rival, of involvement in the leak of an embarrassing State Police report on a domestic dispute that may have cost him re-election in 2006.

Gov. Paterson, who directed Cuomo to conduct a criminal probe of the State Police five weeks ago, said Friday that fears that a renegade State Police unit was circulating damaging information on him led him to disclose past marital infidelities and youthful drug use just after taking office in March.

People didn't tolerate Nixon's empty spaces on official government recordings. The same must be so for emails and other data that is contained on the public's computers.

Posted by Doug at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

With prices of oil and gas at all time highs, and people searching for relief, whether it be with a gas-tax suspension or going for the throats of "big oil", the fight to hang on to our hard-earned dollars rages on as the varied political classes seek to "help". This is all well and good, although, short of some American means of "nationalizing" (plundering) what are private companies, I see little the government can do-- Well, unless they take the rational steps of drilling offshore and in Alaska and building new refineries and jump-starting the nuclear industry. None of these, however, even if they were to come to pass, provide relief from the pocketbook pressure in the short run. Stretched family budgets need help NOW.

Why is it, that when the politicians offer their "solutions", they never seem to include reductions in government spending, thus lowering taxes? What if every level of government were to actually SHRINK spending in lean times? Would this not help? Whether it be payroll taxes, property taxes, or "fees", how much of our paycheck is consumed by what's taken by the government? Have you ever stopped and totalled it up? My guess is if you did, you might get as angry at government as you are with "big oil".

What do you think about the USA Today's report last week about one sector where job prospects remain rosy?

Federal, state and local governments are hiring new workers at the fastest pace in six years, helping offset job losses in the private sector.

Governments added 76,800 jobs in the first three months of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

That's the biggest jump in first-quarter hiring since a boom in 2002 that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. By contrast, private companies collectively shed 286,000 workers in the first three months of 2008. That job loss has led many economists to declare the country is in a recession.

The piece continues, including the liberal view of this statistic:

Some economists say a government hiring binge could soften a recession in the short term.

"Government jobs are an important cushion for the economy when the private sector falters," says North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden.

And then picks up on my thoughts:

But the job expansion could later cause financial problems for governments that are spending too much.

"More hiring has nothing to do with good government or economic policy," says economist Kenneth Brown, research director at the Rio Grande Foundation in Albuquerque. "It has everything to do with government being slow to react to economic change."

Bingo! Think about all this as all levels of government jack up spending and tell us there's nothing they can do. Even as the signs of economic troubles have been coming for some time now, none of the warnings mattered to the big spenders, whether they're in Washington, Concord, NH's counties, or at the towns, cities, and schools. Let's not stop at the gas tax. Let's cut back on ALL taxes! Step one is to stop hiring new government workers. Every budget at every level spends more on salaries and benefits than anything else. The numbers reported by USA Today shows us the place to go to save money. Immediately...

I'm ready for a tax revolt. Thankfully, I've found a place where the revolution is getting started. Go here. How many readers will join me? The time is NOW!

Posted by Doug at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Saturday was Machiavelli's birthday (May 3rd, 1469). While much reviled by some as a ruthless political animal, there are many that believe him to be the master of political observation and strategy-- based on the realities of human nature as it exists, not fanciful utopian wishes. His best known work, The Prince, is a book about the attainment and preservation of power and a stable state. It contains good advice about the need and use of military force in order to protect nations.

Consider the war in Iraq and the larger overall threat posed against America by the Islamo-fascist world, led by Iran and Al-Qaida. Given the ongoing rhetoric of the various enemy leaders, the verbal threats of Iran's president backed by the mullahs, and the very real attacks of September 11th and others, there is no doubt that the intent of our enemies is to bring war right into the heart of our country. What do we do? Do we wait till until more Americans are dying on our streets? No. You do what Machiavelli points out. You do what President Bush is doing: You bring the war to them...

[T]he Romans saw when troubles were coming and always took counter-measures. They never, to avoid a war, allowed them to go unchecked, because they knew that there is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others. They made up their minds to wage war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to do so in Italy.

This is a point we mustn't forget as we head into a presidential election where the Democratic candidate (whoever it might be) promises withdrawal and retreat. Click here for a more extensive post I wrote back in November about this subject. I know I'm repeating myself here, but some of these points cannot be stressed often enough given the realities we face today. There is no better teacher than history. There is nothing new in the world that hasn't been seen in some form or fashion in the past. Happy birthday, Niccolo!

Posted by Doug at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In his radio address this week, President Bush raised several good points about the economy and what we should be doing about rising enegy costs. While I'm not all that "stimulated" by the so-called rebate checks coming our way, I do know many people that DO need that money, and it will help, no doubt. If the government is going to spend money to buy our way out from a recession, at least by giving it directly to the people, it lets US decide how and what to spend it on. (This is how I'm viewing it, anyway, because then it makes me less uptight when I think about the thing...)

The radio spot hit on several items near and dear to where I'm at: Drilling in Alaska, build refineries, and restart the nuclear power industry. Additionally, he rightfully bags on the farm bill, and, yes, he once again calls on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent...

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, the Commerce Department reported that GDP grew at an annual rate of six-tenths of a percent in the first quarter. This rate of growth is not nearly as high as we would like. And after a record 52 months of uninterrupted job growth, April was the fourth month in a row in which our economy lost jobs, although the unemployment rate dropped to five percent.

My Administration has been clear and candid on the state of the economy. We saw the economic slowdown coming, we were up front about these concerns with the American people, and we've been taking decisive action.

In February, I signed an economic growth package to put more than $150 billion back into the hands of millions of American families, workers, and businesses. This week, the main piece of that package began being implemented, as nearly 7.7 million Americans received their tax rebates electronically. Next week, the Treasury Department will begin mailing checks to millions more across the country. And by this summer, it expects to have sent rebates to more than 130 million American households. These rebates will deliver up to $600 per person, $1,200 per couple, and $300 per child.

 

Continue reading "President Bush makes a few good points..." »

Posted by Doug at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This video really nails it. It's by AngryRenter.com, who ask people to sign their petition here. While it focuses on renters, the point made is applicable to people like me and many others that live in modest little homes within our means. We save so the government can take it? It just doesn't seem right...

Consider this story of poor Jose, the "hapless victim"-- Is it not related? How many less famous "Jose's" are out there with the same basic problem-- or a lesser, yet parallel scale of economy? What's happening is the market has been "correcting" the anomolies. When government interferes, it blocks prospects of any real fix... Again.

[Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin]

Posted by Doug at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of quick follow ups from the show:

Skip -  I'm not sure suspending the gas tax will help - doesn't that just put off paying bills? guess I'd like a) relief from oil company profits, and b) federal and state programs cancelled that can't demonstate 80+ % going to what it was intended for.  The perception is, its all spent on admin and special interest projects.  -J

I agree with point B - I wish that all programs started had a sunset clause built into them - just like the tax cuts that President Bush pushed through have.  What's good on the revenue side should be good on the expenditure side too!  After all, fair's fair, right?

On point A, I disagree.

If you think about it, there is no "relief" legally from profits.  After all, remember a few things:

• Government actually retains more $$ from a gallon of gas (when all things are factored in) - 18.4 cents/gal than Exxon does (about 7.5% profit MARGIN). Exxon made far less than the government on their oil.
  
• Profits are reinvested in R&D and back to shareholders - many of whom are retirees and holders of stock in their 401(k) programs.  So ask yourself - why does Hillary want to keep that money from the elderly?

From our friend, Jorge, comes this info:

Are gas prices really all that high?  A change in price can be a result of inflation, taxes, changes in supply and demand, or any combination of the three.

First, we need to take into account inflation.

Continue reading "Follow up from yesterday's MTNP show" »

Posted by Skip at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Right To Know - Freedom of Information Act requests
How Hard Is It? 

Often, the trepidition that many feel in approaching their government in requesting information can get people to say "ta heck with this!".  Most people just do not want the spotlight placed on them with thoughts of repercussions going through their heads - "what will happen to my kids if I ask for the salaries of the teachers"?

In some cases, as Doug has found out, it isn't easy (when you end up at the NH Supreme Court, I guess that qualifies in the "not so easy" category). At the Town level, I have nothing but good words for the cheerfulness and speed of fulfillment of my requests so far (often with emails or call backs to make sure that I received the info I asked for).  At the School Board / SAU level, a little bit more formal, but I've been satisfied.

At the County level, however, I found out personally that it really depends on who is servicing the request, even at the within department.

Sorta like these folk have received. This from our friend Maggie at Thurber's Thoughts; this one - not so much:

When I first started FOIA Fridays, I blogged about a local citizen who was seeking information about red light cameras, aerial traffic enforcement and the convenience store licensing law. That was a month ago.

Yesterday, in a follow-up to that request, GraphicsGuy copied me on his email to Brian Schwartz, the city's public information officer. (personal contact information has been removed)

Mr. Schwartz:

On 07 April, I delivered 3 FOIA requests to your office:
(1) Records pertaining to the maintenance, certification and testing of red light cameras;
(2) Costs incurred for aerial traffic enforcement;
(3) Documents supporting Councilman Ludeman's claim as to pricing of security camera for convenient stores.

To date, I have only received an answer to item # 3, as outline below.

On 23 April at 9:30a.m., I called and left a message on your voice mail asking to be contacted with an update of the status of the 2 remaining requests. As of 01 May, you have not returned my call or otherwise provided me with the information I am legally attempting to obtain.

Please contact me by email at xxxxx@bex.net or by telephone at (419) xxx-xxxx with information regarding my FOIA requests.

Thank you.

As you can see, he's not getting the public records he requested and now he's having trouble getting a response to his phone calls.

But sometimes, things go well: 

Continue reading "Hmmm, seems to mimic what we experience here." »

Posted by Skip at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Openness and Transparency in Government seems to be an ongoing theme here at the 'Grok lately.  Doug and Tom are active in the trenches in trying to get the Belknap County Commission to supply information under Right To Know requests, as none of it is otherwise available.  As I showed here, it does not take a lot of effort to put some of that online.

As a review, the Gilford Town Republican Committee requested the Gilford Selectboard that more information should be out on the website ( see here and here and for which I have been advocating for a couple of years now).  Well, at the latest Selectboard meeting, I was able to formally ask to be put onto their Agenda for their next meeting.

In today's Citizen (one of the local papers), I was pleasantly surprised that there was a follow on story to that meeting (emphasis mine):

By CUTTER MITCHELL

The Gilford Republican Committee has taken one of the founding principles of the Republican Party to heart, seeking to have basic public information more accessible.

The group has sent letters to the Gilford Board of Selectmen and the Gilford School Board, along with Belknap County officials, formally requesting the information to be made public via the Internet.

"We decided if we really do embrace a transparent government, we should ask for something to be done," explained Gilford GOP Chair Skip Murphy.

The initiative started with a visit to a website called SunshineReview.org. The website is maintained by a group called the Sam Adams Alliance whose mission is to advocate for a more transparent government across the country at every level.

To help other citizens interested in advocating along the group's mission line, the SunshineReview has provided a 10-checkpoint list of items that could be placed on a governmental website. There also is a checklist for citizens to fill out to rate their state, town, school, or county government.

Note: I have done so for the Gilford Town website and for the local (SAU #73) School District's website that serves Gilford and Gilmanton (NH).  Evaluating the Belknap County website will probably be done real soon.

[snip]

"There is a lot that could be done with the websites that would save citizens and government employees both time and money," said Gilford Republican Doug Lambert. "The technology is there, so the bigger question in all this is, 'Why not?'"

For Lambert and many behind the request, the most important piece of information to get on the websites are financial data.

Continue reading "Transparency in government - another step locally" »

Posted by Skip at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To date, I've said little about the Barak meltdown that has been precipitated by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.  Yes, I am one of those that does not buy the denouncement by Barak of Reverend Wright, that he had, essentially, no clue as to the racist outlook and theology of the man who conducted his wedding ceremony, baptized his children, and to whom he listened to

for 20 years with Barak's butt in the pew.

Twenty months would be a tad long in failing to realize t