Don

The caption for the photo on page one of Wednesday’s (9/10/2014) Laconia Daily Sun (laconiadailysun.com) describes the Thomas-Burchell race for County Commissioner as “symbolic of … the poison relationship between the Belknap County commissioners and the controlling majority of the Belknap County Convention”.

The “poison” was created by the Belknap County Commissioners and their special interest supporters in response to the County Convention lawfully and Constitutionally exercising their duties to control the Belknap County appropriations to meet the needs of the county and to reflect the wishes of the voters of Belknap County who object to continually increasing county spending and an outrageously expensive 5-Star jail proposal.

The County Commissioners frequently shifted money in the approved County budget.  They have reportedly over-spent by over $200,000 in some areas by shorting funds in other areas.  This shift has been contrary to the lawful budget and without the approval (required for shifting funds) of the County Convention.  The recent court decision indicated that these actions by the County Commissioners were illegal.

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Congress has a well-deserved 77% disapprove rating.  Congress’s members are irresponsible, wasteful, dishonest, and they don’t solve America’s problems.  Illegal immigration is tolerated and even rewarded, politicians spend future generations into debt to buy votes today, welfare keeps people poor rather than leading them to be successful, public education declines after forty years of Federal government “help”, etc.

So why do the American people keep sending the same people, or people like them, to Congress?  Because special interest groups, which get billions of dollars and special privileges from our corrupt and dysfunctional Congress, spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reward supporters and to fight against the election of anyone who might threaten their generous incomes and privileges.

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Do you ever wonder how some candidates can put signs on every street corner, flood the airways with advertisements, and fill your mailbox with their ads? The special interests and political establishments are richly funding their chosen candidates. Do you believe that the special interests and political establishments are funding these candidates because they expect these candidates to put the interests of the people ahead of their interests?

For example, there are two main candidates in the the primary race for Governor, Walt Havenstein and Andrew Hemingway. Havenstein’s signs, mailings, and advertisements are everywhere, he has raised about 20 times as much money as Andrew Hemingway. You can be certain that all that money didn’t come in small donations from middle-income Americans.

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Why would Republicans want Scott Brown in the Senate?  Brown’s Senate voting record went from fair to poor to bad.  In 2012 Brown voted more like Senator Shaheen than Senator Ayotte on key issues.

Senator Brown voted against the ban on insider trading for members of Congress, against domestic energy production, for energy subsidies, against efforts to stop government fraud and waste, for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts, and subsidies for mortgages over $700,000.  He consistently votes to restrict our Second Amendment rights.  Scott Brown’s votes don’t benefit the American people.

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Two years ago the Belknap County Commissioners tried to foist on Belknap County residents a new 5 Star jail.  This jail not only had a $42 million price tag, but it would increase, not reduce, operating costs.  The proposal would double the current jail costs and significantly increase County taxes for every Belknap County property owner.

Fortunately the Republican led Belknap County Delegation refused to be railroaded into a quick decision and required further investigation into our county’s jail situation.  While the Commissioners, Democrats, and special interests reacted viciously to the Delegation’s requirement for further investigation, investigating further was a wise decision.

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Most Americans know that illegal immigration hurts Americans and want our immigration laws enforced.  However, illegal immigration benefits the Washington political class, so President Obama, like several Presidents before him, doesn’t seriously enforce our immigration laws.

President Obama exacerbated our illegal immigration problem by announcing that he won’t enforce our laws against “young people”.  Now young people from around the world believe that President Obama welcomes them to come here illegally.

Previously most illegal aliens were adults who avoided border agents.  But President Obama’s announcements have enticed many tens of thousands of children to accept the dangers (e.g., illness, death, rape, enslavement) of traveling hundreds of miles to come here illegally.

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Today we are celebrating the achievements of graduating students.  We applaud them and wish that they achieve their dreams.

While we are happy for those who are prepared for their next endeavor, we need to recognize that many of our schools are just not good enough for students or for our country’s needs.  Too many graduates are not prepared for the next level of education or for a decent job.  And, far too many students drop out of bad, dangerous and uncaring schools and end up poor and/or incarcerated.

Changing the names of top-down driven programs, e.g., now Common Core, previously No Child Left Behind, continues to fail and neglects the real problems anyway.

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President Obama gets the blame for the failures and deaths at the VA  because President Obama is the head of the Executive Branch of our Federal Government.  (Bush got the blame before, Obama gets it now.) The Executive branch is the only branch with the Constitutional authority to execute our laws, i.e., to manage our government.  President Obama’s blame is increased because he complained about the VA when he ran for office and promised to fix it.  And, the widespread use of unofficial waiting lists so that employees could claim undeserved bonuses for responsiveness seems, but may not be, new with President Obama.

But no one should be surprised by President Obama’s failure to fix the VA.  He has demonstrated no management skills.  In fact he doesn’t appear to be managing anything except fund raising. 

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Yesterday’s Mississippi Republican Senate primary race clearly demonstrates that the real political contest in our country is not between whether we will be governed based on the principles that Republicans or Democrats believe are best for the people, but whether Republicans or Democrats will get to control big government and reap its benefits at the expense of the rest of the American people.

In yesterday’s primary election both Washington Republicans and Democrats came together to support the Republican incumbent Senator, who long ago gave up the fight for traditional Republican principles, against the grassroots candidate who is energetic and committed to traditional Republican principles, e.g., small constitutional government, freedom, opportunity, equal justice for all.

Because the incumbent has disappointed Mississippi Republicans, Republicans were going to elect the challenger.  So the incumbent’s supporters spent millions of dollars, made outrageous, false racial charges against the challenger and bought advertisements and phone calls to encourage Democrats to vote for the incumbent.   I haven’t heard Senator Ayotte or anyone else in Republican leadership condemn these lies and improper practices…practices so bad that establishment Republicans would NEVER use them against Democrats.

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Attempting to distract the American people from the Benghazi, VA and other scandals, President Obama committed another major blunder instead of the media coup he desired.  The illegally executed, ill-considered trade for Sgt. Bergdahl aids the enemy and will cost Americans and many others their freedom and/or their lives.

According to the military Sgt. Bergdahl was not a prisoner of war.  He voluntarily and secretly abandoned his post in Afghanistan, reportedly to join the enemy.  Soldiers in his unit call him a “deserter” if not a “traitor”, and some believe that he gave the enemy information that helped them kill more Americans.

The trade for Sgt. Bergdahl released five top Taliban terrorist (unlawful enemy combatant, not soldier) leaders including some al Queda members and some wanted by the World Court for War Crimes (for killing thousands of civilians).  From a danger standpoint, Viet Nam veterans should consider these terrorist commanders as dangerous as Viet Cong or North Vietnamese Commanders like General Giap.  WWII veterans should consider them as dangerous as Commanders like Admiral Yamamoto, who planned and attacked Pearl Harbor, or Field Marshal Rommel, who won many victories, including beating our army at the Kasserine Pass.  Such trades would have been unthinkable because such trades would, just like this trade will, cause many thousands of people to suffer and die.

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Last weekend I traveled through beautiful parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. These nearby beautiful states do all the things that New Hampshire Progressives/Liberals/Socialists complain that New Hampshire doesn’t do. It’s a shame that we have so many unhappy citizens when these Progressive paradises are so close.

Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York have huge governments with many thousands of employees providing almost every imaginable service including helping the truly needy and pretty much anyone else with their hands out.

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Have the basic laws of economics changed? Lew Henry from Gilmanton Iron Works (see his 5/7/2014 letter in the Laconia Daily Sun (laconiadailysun.com)) apparently thinks so and other Progressives, from President Obama to Mitt Romney, agree. They say that raising the minimum wage will create jobs.

Progressives want us to believe that employers who don’t have any jobs for which they are willing to pay $7.25 an hour will hire lots of people to do that same work at $10 per hour. That makes no sense and it doesn’t work. This idea borders on insanity!

If it’s not worth it to you to pay someone $50 to cut your grass, you are not going to hire someone at $65. But the Progressives want you to think that other people will pay $65 even when they wouldn’t pay $50 for the same work.

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President Obama and his supporters are celebrating their Obamacare achievements.  Great, so the 40-50 million uninsured are now insured?   No.

Their March goal was 7 million.  Well, insuring 7 million of the uninsured is a good start.  No, that didn’t happen.

Their goal was revised to 6 million.  Well, insuring 6 million of the uninsured is a start.  That didn’t happen either.

What are they celebrating?  That 7 million people signed-up for Obamacare.  But signing-up doesn’t mean they are insured now, or that they were uninsured before (apparently most who signed-up had insurance before). That’s confusing.

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(The Editors- it’s election day: Everyone in EC District One please turn out to vote for joe Kenney!)

Originally published Mar. 9th 2014
When you hear Michael Cryans say how much he cares about people, question who he actually cares about, whether he is able to help, and whether his “caring” helps or hurts you.

Did Cryans care about Grafton taxpayers when he approved the gratuitous spending of their hard earned tax dollars?  Did he show caring for the taxpayers or for himself  when he voted to give many thousands of taxpayer dollars to his employer?  (How much did Cryans personally benefit (salary, bonuses, perks, etc.?) from obtaining money for his employer?)

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In the important election on March 11, 2014, I will be voting for Joe Kenney for Executive Councilor for District 1.  You should vote for Joe too.  As he demonstrated when serving as a Selectman, Representative and State Senator, Joe Kenney’s priority is what is best for the people of New Hampshire, not what’s good for the special interests.

Part of the Executive Councilor’s job is to oversee spending on contracts over $10,000.  Joe’s habit and commitment is to ensure that the taxpayer’s get the best value for the money that government takes and spends.  Joe’s focus is whether a project is really needed and, if so, to ensure it is done most efficiently.

If you think taxpayer money should be used to benefit special interest groups or friends, then Joe is not your guy.  Joe thinks it is more important to reject unnecessary projects than to bring them in “under budget”.

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It is amusing to see Democrats trying to claim to support Veterans and claiming that Republicans don’t.  Democrats cut military retirement benefits, over strong Republican objections, that they now claim to want to restore.  In fact Democrats specifically intended to hurt the military, cutting military pensions for current service personnel, while only cutting civilian pensions for future employees.

This latest fake claim of wanting to help veterans is only a political move to put Republicans in a box, either they agree to restore the benefits which further increase  our irresponsible deficit spending (to benefit Democrat constituencies), or they charge Republicans with being anti-veteran.  Republicans opposed these cuts and they want pensions restored, but they want them restored without increasing our irresponsible deficit.

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It should come as no surprise to anyone that politicians and bureaucrats want to increase their power and the amount of money they can control.  These are the true purposes of the World Health Organization’s ranking of nation’s healthcare systems.

When people hear complaints about the US healthcare system based on the World Health Organization (WHO) rankings, they should understand that the WHO rankings are not what most Americans assume.

The WHO rankings are based on criteria which is intended to justify big-government controlled, essentially socialist, healthcare so that politicians and bureaucrats can justify increasing taxes, allocating healthcare, and controlling citizens’ everyday lives.

The complainers don’t mention it, but in the one WHO criteria that most Americans would consider most relevant, “Responsiveness”, the US healthcare system is rated best.  Responsiveness measures how quickly the healthcare system responds to your problem, i.e., how quickly you can see a doctor and get treated.