Stealing by any other name…

Hopefully this Atlas WILL shrug… Guest Post by Robert Romano Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer can call the Waxman-Markey carbon cap-and-tax bill to be introduced in the Senate anything they want. “Pollution reduction.” “Cap-and-trade.” “Carbon limits.” But, at the end of the day, it’s still a tax. And it’s still stealing. As a recent … Read more

Outside Interests Interfering in Manchester Tax Cap Process

So says Andy Demers:  MANCHESTER, N.H. – New Hampshire Citizens for Sensible Legislation today strongly condemned the actions of the progressive group Keep Manchester Moving and its spokeswoman Zandra Rice Hawkins, who is tryingevery political trick in the book to thwart the will of the people in Manchester. Leading up to the November 2008 election, … Read more

Politboro… I mean Congress, tells insurer, shut up, or else!

  Guest Post by Ellen Sauerbrey  In an outrageous and un-American attack on dissent aimed at Humana Inc., a major health insurer is being investigated for the crime of communicating its concerns about health care legislation to its enrollees. Recently, Humana sent a mailing to seniors subscribed to the Medicare Advantage Program warning that "millions … Read more

NH Dems: A good time to create death panels

  After attending a hearing with the Judiciary Committee this morning, one thing’s for sure, the Democrats are back at it again.  They are trying to push through MORE radical legislation this year.   The Judiciary Committee met today to hear proposed amendments to HB 304 which is a physician assisted suicide bill.   Yes, in the … Read more

Sleeping Through the Revolution

Rip Van Winkle

Guest Post By Robert Romano

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the commencement address at Oberlin College when he famously said, “There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.” He was referring to the story of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, where the protagonist slept for twenty years. Said Dr. King, “While he was peacefully snoring up on the mountain, a great revolution was taking place in the world—indeed, a revolution which would, at points, change the course of history. And Rip Van Winkle knew nothing about it; he was asleep.” That revolution was the American Revolution.

Dr. King suggested that “There are all too many people who, in some great period of social change, fail to achieve the new mental outlooks that the new situation demands.” And so it is today, only with the mainstream media playing the role of Rip Van Winkle.

On September 20th, the Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander scratched the surface of the problem, pointing out that mainstream media outlets, including the Washington Post, were very late in reporting on the ever-developing ACORN scandal that featured videos of ACORN employees offering advice how to evade taxes, set up a brothel, and even use minors as prostitutes. The Post did not get on the story until two days after the now-famous videos emerged at BigGovernment.com.

Wrote Alexander of the Post’s delay, “One explanation may be that traditional news outlets like The Post simply don’t pay sufficient attention to conservative media or viewpoints.” He quotes the Post’s Executive Editor, Marcus Brauchli, who is worried that his paper is “not well-enough informed about conservative issues. It’s particularly a problem in a town so dominated by Democrats and the Democratic point of view."

This is particularly refreshing coming from the Washington Post, and Americans for Limited Government urges the Post to look even deeper than missing the boat on the recent ACORN scandal. It’s just the tip of the iceberg of the revolution that’s brewing—wherein citizen activists are holding the entire political establishment, including the government, the political parties, and the news media accountable for how they govern, for what their ideas mean for the future of America, and what they report, respectively.

 

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Fire Drill

From our friends at Americans for Limited Government:  

Dope of the Week: Creigh Deeds. If all media in America did this, we be further along in exposing and fixing what’s wrong… and ID-ing the perps!

Man, talk about getting a politician to screw himself into the ground. "I’m NOT going to raise taxes. I’m just going to collect more money to pay for stuff. Everything’s on the table. Except taxes. The new ones. That I’m not gonna raise. For anything. Except transportation. Never, I say! Got that?" Hmmm. You think … Read more

Ace in the hole?

Once again, from our friends at ALG:  

Insufficient Funds? Uh-oh!

 Obamanomics

As the debate over the nationalization of health care rages on—and rightfully so, we must not lose sight of the many other proposed policies and plans being put in place right beneath our noses as we focus mainly on that single topic. Indeed, while all eyes are on the value of extending granny’s end of life care and comfort versus ‘slipping her a mickey’ in order to save a few bucks, the forces of big government march forward apace. What, you haven’t noticed? Of course you haven’t—because they don’t WANT you to. That’s the whole idea– by the time enough people finally wake up and finally get a load of what all the promised “change” really meant, it will be too late. Those who would strip the founding principles from our Nation and replace them with their own radical ideals will have won. Freedom and liberty will be quaint-sounding words that will have no meaning in the new America.

One way in which large numbers of Americans could lose their freedom by default is via economic collapse. Let’s face it- in a situation of hyperinflation, ordinary hard working folks will suddenly find themselves without enough means to sustain themselves as it takes more and more cash to pay for everything. Recall last year’s extreme spike in gas prices and what it did to peoples’ budgets. When the cost of putting gas in a car or truck needed to get to work and everywhere else suddenly doubled, it immediately put a severe strain on being able to maintain life as everyone knew it. Without that extra fifty to a hundred bucks or more a week, life was dramatically altered. Imagine that same scenario playing out not just on energy, but on EVERYTHING we buy.

Surprisingly, the opposite of massive inflation, “deflation,” can also be just as harsh, albeit in different ways. FreeDictionary.com’s financial dictionary informs us that

“Deflation, the opposite of inflation, is a gradual drop in the cost of goods and services, usually caused by a surplus of goods and a shortage of cash. Although deflation seems to increase your buying power in its early stages, it is generally considered a negative economic trend because it is typically accompanied by rising unemployment, falling production, and limited investment.”

A logical result is that taxable situations decline, causing revenues into the Treasury to fall. Quite naturally, this leaves less funding to pay for government and all its services. In the absence of any reductions or cuts, taxes must be raised, or monies must be borrowed. What happens when they do both?

Consider some news you might have missed. As President Obama and his statist comrades seek to add untold costs to a federal budget already drowning in debt and red ink by scheming to provide health care for all, everyone forgets the 800 pound gorilla already in the room: a badly damaged economy getting worse by the day. Never mind whether it can withstand the added expenses of new health care spending—even without, we may be looking at a huge problem. “But Doug—I heard on the news the other day that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The recession is over, and it is thanks, in no small part to all the stimulus spending!” Do you always believe everything you hear? Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper… you know, get BEHIND the facade that those with an agenda see fit to create.

 

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Mark Your Calendars: Honor Flight New England fundraiser

  PLEASE JOIN US FOR A FUNDRAISING NIGHT OF COMEDY AND DANCING TO THE OLDIES!!! FRIDAY OCTOBER 2, 2009 FROM 7-11PM FEATURING LOCAL COMEDIAN KARL ZAHN AND COMEDY CENTRAL COMEDIAN JOEY CARROLL AS WELL AS MUSIC AND DANCING WITH DJ DAVE ALCOX WHERE???HANGAR 113  (BOB DAVIS’ HANGAR) THROUGH GATE G OFF PERIMETER RD ADMISSION $20.00 … Read more

Red Light District

This is but one of the many beloved "non-profit" groups that will thrive [and spend taxpayer dollars] under Obama’s vision for a socialistic utopian America. No thanks. From ALG:

Washington, DC: “We gotta follow the rule of law…”

Here is an excellent video of Saturday’s Washington, DC 9/12 rally. In addition to showing (briefly) a Seacoast area activist friend and fellow Tea-Partier, it depicts the sheer numbers of people at the event, especially when you look in the background at certain points. The interview at the end is my favorite part. This guy pretty much … Read more

American “strongman” not so welcome, it seems.

 Cult of Personality

Guest Post by Steven Cohen

While historians continue to be divided among the factual and the apocryphal, at the conclusion of the American Revolution, so the legend goes, George Washington was confronted by a movement within the Continental Army to declare him king. According to the story, a major proponent of the plan was Col. Lewis Nicola, a Frenchman who had fought under Washington alongside the colonists. The proposal was supported by a group of influential Army officers who evidently had little understanding of the man who had just led them to victory.

When Nicola put forth the idea for Washington’s consideration, he received an immediate response laced with scorn and revulsion: "Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or for posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind and never communicate, as from yourself or any one else, a sentiment of like nature."

Thus did the nation’s most revered Founding Father set the country on a democratic course that would explicitly reject the cult of personality. The ensuing centuries would produce dozens of American statesmen and scoundrels with unique qualities and defects that would capture the country’s attention and occasionally even its collective imagination, from presidents like Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK and Reagan, to demagogues like Huey Long and Joseph McCarthy. But unlike Argentina’s enthrallment with Juan and Eva Peron as well as numerous other examples in South America, Europe and the Far East, America has never succumbed to the cult of personality by surrendering its liberties to any movement based on a pledge of unquestioned devotion and loyalty to the will of a single individual.

Perhaps for the first time in our history since Washington, the nation’s present leader has come to power through the cult of personality, except this time he appears to welcome and encourage the movement surrounding him rather than reject it, as Washington did, in the interests of democracy. Barack Obama ran a campaign largely based on personal charisma as well as the promise of "change." As with most personality cults, he found a receptive audience among a restive electorate generally dissatisfied, if not disgusted, with the outgoing administration on many counts, including already out-of-control government spending and two wars that appeared to be going nowhere. The economy had already begun to crumble under the weight of a growing financial crisis. These were nearly perfect conditions for candidate Obama to seemingly parachute into the fray out of nowhere, armed with a studied "cool" demeanor, a genuine gift for eloquence, and a powerful ally in the news media that followed him with an unprecedented fawning obsequiousness that gave him a free pass on crucial issues such as legislative experience, personal judgment, and character.

 

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Grokster Delivers NH TeaParty Note to Rhode Island Compatriots

 

I had the honor to be asked to speak at the Rhode Island 9/12 Project’s September 12 rally in Providence on the State House steps. Below is the speech I delivered, and the note I read to our RI brothers and sisters from the NH TeaParty Coalition, along with a few pics. It wasn’t Washington DC, but the messages, and the enthusiasm were the same. People I had conversations with were shocked to hear that NH is talking an income tax and forced sick pay for businesses of 10 or more people.
 
I assured them that the big government/ big spending sickness afflicting them and Washington is  affecting us here in the Granite State, too.

All in all, we felt like we were here in NH, listening to the messages and reading the signs. Different states, maybe, but we are all on the same page. That is the amazing thing about the Tea Party movement all across America. Nobody needs to be "organized." Those who take part simply know what to do. Liberty is at stake and must be defended…

RI Tea Party.RI Tea Party

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

When I was asked to speak here today, I thought, what am I going to say? After all, I left this state, the state of my birth and youth, to create a new life with my young family nearly 25 years ago. But, the great people of the movement to preserve liberty here in Rhode Island saw fit to invite me, so here goes. After all, we’re all Americans, no matter where we might happen to live. It’s a great honor to be here, and I am humbled for the opportunity to speak at this event as we stand in solidarity with like-minded fellow citizens gathered down in the Nation’s capitol, and all across this great land today.

A few words about myself—I was born in Woonsocket, raised in Cumberland, and was schooled by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart at Mount Saint Charles. Those were the good old days–ones in which worries about losing freedom and squandering the precious and fragile gifts bequeathed us by the Founders never really entered my mind. And why should it have, really? I was a young American pursuing life, liberty, and happiness as the Founders intended. In his famous work, Democracy in America, the famed Frenchman Alexis DeTocqueville remarked that 

“Nothing is more striking to a European traveler in the United States, than the absence of what we term the Government, or the Administration.”

And so it was, at least for me, at that time.

 

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Video: 9/12 Rally in Manchester

Our friend Grant Bosse, Lead Investigative Reporter for the Josiah Bartlett Center, AKA the NH Watchdog, turns in this video report of the 9/12 Project Rally in Manchester. The pouring rain did not stop these folks, or dampen their enthusiasm…      

Sen Jeb Bradley: When Dems tout “truth and responsibility” while talking about the budget, they mean taxes

 

Guest Post by State Senator Jeb Bradley 

Budget Storm Clouds Looming 

The ink is barely dry on the New Hampshire budget signed into law by Governor Lynch on June 30. Only 2 months have elapsed in the 24 month spending blueprint, but problems Republicans warned about are intensifying like a hurricane ready to make landfall. More ominously, a Plan B strategy dealing with budget problems is not even discussed in the polite company of Democratic legislative leaders.  In fact the chair of the House Finance Committee said publically a Budget Plan B is not even necessary.

Here is why Budget Plan B is more urgent every day. Tax revenues are well below expectations.  When the budget was negotiated among House and Senate Democratic leaders, a funding gap between desired spending and available revenue was papered over when budget negotiators inflated revenue expectations by $75 million in the dark of night. Observers warned this $75 million was optimistic. Two months into the budget, those warnings are reality. Action needs to be taken now but Democratic leaders seem smug with happy talk that the budget will magically balance.

Here are the facts: July’s revenue was $4.7 million below expectations.  August was even worse with total revenues $17.6 million below expectations. Rooms and meals was $3.7 million under estimates – even after the tax was increased from 8% to 9%. Tobacco taxes were $2 million less than predicted – even after a huge 45 cent increase on a pack of cigarettes.  Business revenues were off by nearly $3 million.

To be fair, the July and August $22.3 million revenue hole needs to be taken in the context of not being historically large revenue months. However, September’s revenue figures will be a bell-weather as many businesses and individuals make estimated quarterly payments.  If September underperforms and continues the July / August trend, New Hampshire is staring down the gun barrel of a very large revenue deficit.  And no one should forget that the $22.3 million hole comes despite 38 new or increased taxes or fees in this budget.

Revenue deficits are only one part of the problem. The state is in a losing streak in court cases. Superior Court Justice Diane Nicolosi ruled in favor of the New Hampshire Health Care Association and blocked the State from keeping $9 million that nursing homes claim they are entitled to.  Belknap County Superior Court Justice Kathleen McGuire ruled that a budget provision, which transferred $110 million from a fund controlled by the Joint Underwriting Association to the State’s General Fund to balance the budget, is unconstitutional.

Justice McGuire’s well researched, clearly written and completely unambiguous ruling, held that the politicians who supported this proposed $110 million transfer, are in violation of both the ‘takings’ and ‘contracts’ clauses of the New Hampshire Constitution and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

While the State has appealed Justice McGuire’s decision, nobody in Concord —- except the Democratic cheerleaders who proposed this $110 million sleight of hand transfer —- believe the state will win the appeal.

A third lawsuit is about to be filed by the New Hampshire Municipal Association over the budget downshifting of state expenses to towns and cities. The Municipal Association has estimated the downshift will increase local property taxes by $90 million which is why nearly 150 towns and over 50 school districts will join this lawsuit.

 

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The “lion’s” final partisan shot…

   Guest Post by Michael Swartz When the Massachusetts legislature next convenes it’s possible that their very first order of business will be to complete the final chapter in the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s legacy and preserve the precious 60-seat majority the Democrats currently hold in the Senate. The story dates back to 2004. Senator … Read more

A warning to New Hampshire

  Just in from Paul Jacobs, who notes in the latest edition of Common Sense: Connecticut used to be one of the go-to places for escaping state income taxes. But in 1991, Governor Lowell Weicker hatched the novel idea of burdening Connecticut residents with the same direct tax on income with which Americans have been saddled … Read more

People Died. Obama Lied.

  Why am I not surprised? From the Yid With Lid: Do you remember how the US had a fit when Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the terrorist responsible for the Lockerbie bomber was released? Well apparently the POTUS knew all along, and the British government is not playing along.  They have told Obama to quit bitching … Read more

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