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Let’s see how this attempt at a pre-set coronation works out here in “retail politics” New Hampshire:

Although the specifics are still hazy, The New York Times reports that a group of deep-pocketed Republican donors and bundlers has hatched a plan to clear the GOP field of all insurgents to make room for a favored “establishment” candidate—preferably Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or Mitt Romney. But there can only be one.

For the first time in decades, the Republican Party is facing a wide-open primary with up to a dozen serious candidates representing virtually every branch of the party. Republican leaders, hoping to minimize damage to their eventual standard-bearer, have already sought to compress the formal primary season and reduce the number of candidate debates.

So once again, does the GOP want to alienate its activist base?  I keep saying it but will they listen: we may not win but you will lose.  How can one expect to win when the strategy is to cut out the most motivated voters in the Party?  And do it well in advance in such a way that the “now on hair trigger” Conservatives can truly say “See!  We were right”.  And rather than “You have made them not care“, they may well turn it into “You have made them fighting mad”. 

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The look of despair on that poor Ferguson shopkeeper that just had his store ripped apart by all those Michael Brown “social justice warrior”  that Steve posted reminded me of Warrenism and one of Elizabeth Warren’s pillars thereof:

You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Didn’t have to worry“.  We saw how that turned out, 

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Hmmm, much afoot within the NH GOP haunted halls – or is that hunted halls?  Looks like the old Chinese curse of “May you live in interesting times” is of great import right now – and it seems that those that live here are sending us interesting tidbits on which to munch – more J’Ass’perism.  And the votes that “never were” (aka, the 16 blank votes that were recorded during the voting in the NH House Speaker race).

Yes, we have heard the “rumor” (from several different sources) that Laurie Sanborn may have pulled a “Lurch” (aka, John Kerry’s “flip – flop” in the “for it / against it” howler) in that she praised Bill O’Brien and then entered a blank ballot instead of an expected vote for O’Brien.  Now we have heard that one or more of her “lieutenants” (i.e., perhaps those that were looking for Chair goodies if she had continued her run for Speaker) also did the same thing and helped trigger the whole hot mess the NH House Republican caucus is in. 

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Ah yes – I bet that Kelly Ayotte didn’t read it either.  For you see, for ALL of her campaigning against Illegal Alien Amnesty, she turncoated on that promise when she arrived in DC.  Notice that since the Illegal Alien Kid Invasion this summer, she’s gone REAL silent.  And with her vote supporting the CRomnibus (with little to nothing said about fighting Obama’s unconstitutional Executive Order in which Obama assumed the Legislative Branch’s Constitutional role – HER role), she has now officially reneged on that campaign promise – there is no other explanation that she supports that Amnesty – else she would have fought with Senators Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and others.  But I digress and will cover this later.

There’s a lot in this craptastical bill – 1,600 pages that I bet NONE of our high cost CongressCritters read.  Yes, the GOP Leadership decided that merely passing the bill was more important WHAT they were passing.  And they decided that giving a HUGE gimme to both political Parties – and this snippet from this piece from the Washington Post piece (psst – there’s bit of a Gruberism in it – from a Republican) (reformatted, emphasis mine):

A massive expansion of party fundraising slipped into a congressional budget deal this week would fundamentally alter how money flows into political campaigns, providing parties with new muscle to try to wrest power back from independent groups.

Yeah, we certainly can’t let OTHER people horn in on our money, can we?  It isn’t even about the money – it is about the CONTROL and who has it.

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An email from a good friend after getting back the Republican majority in the NH House, then getting bushwhacked with Democrat appointed Speaker Shawn Jasper, and now he’s published his Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs (some having appeared in past editions of our RINO Report):

It looks pretty hopeless, Skip. Two years of nothing but pain…

The outcome of November that seemed so good at first has dismayed many here in NH.  Sure, and then I remembered that hopelessness can be a CHOICE.

It is hopeless only if we make it hopeless or have it MAKE us feel hopeless.   Look, given the high we were on right after the election, this does suck.  We were expecting “Ah….we won’t have to worry about NH for two years.” Yes, compared to that expectation, this is a severe let down.

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Much is being talked about torture since US Senator Diane Feinstein decided to release the “CIA Torture” report – what happened during the Bush years right after 9/11 when over 3.000 of our fellow citizens were murdered in cold-blood by Islamic fanatics intent on hurting America.  Typical is the ideological split – protection vs we need to be nicer.  In other words, rough men doing what was necessary vs we CANNOT do this.  And then Obama’s policy of not capturing / interrogating them for information but just outright killing of targets (remotely, with “collateral damage” including innocents).  Andrew McCarthy puts a different spin on which people MIGHT choose IF they have to choose:

If you were to take everyone in America who is serving a minor jail sentence of, say, 6 to 18 months, and you were to ask them whether they’d rather serve the rest of their time or be waterboarded in the manner practiced by the CIA post 9/11 (i.e., not in the manner practiced by the Japanese in World War II), how many would choose waterboarding? I am guessing, conservatively, that over 95 percent would choose waterboarding.

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This is either a complete waste of our money, another example of entitled government workers (like, why can’t they buy their OWN stuff??), or a real serious question: is something about to happen (or could happen) and they won’t tell us? From the Washington Free Beacon (reformatted, emphasis mine)

The Department of Treasury is seeking to order survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation. The emergency supplies would be for every employee at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which conducts on-site reviews of banks throughout the country. The survival kit includes everything from water purification tablets to solar blankets.

The government is willing to spend up to $200,000 on the kits, according to the solicitation released on Dec. 4.  The survival kits must come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines. The kits must also include a “reusable solar blanket” 52 by 84 inches long, a 2,400-calorie food bar, “50 water purification tablets,” a “dust mask,” “one-size fits all poncho with hood,” a rechargeable lantern with built-in radio, and an “Air-Aid emergency mask” for protection against airborne viruses.  Survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States including Bank of America, American Express Bank, BMO Financial Corp., Capitol One Financial Corporation, Citigroup, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Company, and Wells Fargo.

Why can’t these banks buy their own durn kits – just another 

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It is less than 2 hours before the Feds run out of money (though it could be said that with an $18 Trillion debt, that happened a long time ago).  Frankly, I am ticked that the Republicans that won HUGE just last month have been caving in on what the Dems have wanted.  But, since the Dems are not getting EVERYTHING they want in this CRomnibus (even as it was their leadership that helped to draw it up), there are things on which they cannot allow.  One such thing being US Senator Elizabeth Warren (Uber-Progressive from MA) is seems to be acting like a Progressive version of Ted Cruz who WILL NOT allow one iota of her baby, the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau, be touched.  She is willing to burn down the entire Government than allow a single hair of that entity be mussed and has done all she can to rally the HOUSE Dems to vote this thing down.

Remember this line from her during the shutdown that the Dems blamed on the Rs: “Hostage taking is all they have left. A last gasp for those that can’t face reality“.  How those words hitting you now, Senator Fauxcahontus? 

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Simply to pass the CRomnibus so that these R wusses wouldn’t get a drop of political mud on themselves – and spitting in the faces of voters that just gave them the biggest R majorities since Prez Hoover.  From The Corner (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Retiring Representative Jim Moran (D., Va.) said that Democrats got “virtually everything” they wanted in the cromnibus package, as he praised the bill in terms that could double as the conservative critique of the legislation. Moran said that “the Republicans are indicating they need 80 Democrats” and he’s frustrated that Democrats won’t provide the votes.

Right – the House doesn’t have to wait until January to have a Republican majority to pass a good bill.  It is ONLY because so many Conservative CongressCritters see this as an abject caving into the Democrat agenda simply to “get things done” that Boehner needs the Democrats.  That in itself says much – and how bad this is.  Look, if MORAN IS PRAISING this crap load waste of paper (which was released to late to really understand what’s in those 1,000 plus pages).  And Boehner doesn’t understand why he has to be groveling for votes (and what is THAT gonna cost us in real taxmonies afterwards with this dealmaking?). 

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Boehner needed 57 Democrats.  Have no idea what deals have been made that will end up biting we taxpayers in the wallet and how much regulation will now be applied.  Or effectively, if “earmarks” have been applied.  Yeah, the Republicans are acting like they are still in the minority – afraid of their own political shadows.  Instead, the base is having a raised blood pressure.  Once again, what the Elites have failed to do (regular order, pass individual bills in regular time instead of a rushed “kitchen sink” at the last second).

Illegal amnesty fully funded in a lot of cases.  Obamacare fully funded. Money for the EPA.  Money for abortions.  Money for lots of the Democrat Agenda. Yet it is the Republican House that controls the Constitutional Purse.  A tool is of no use when it simply hangs on the wall. 

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Brief snippet from the text accompanying the above graph (Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics paper here) (emphasis mine below):

1. Among full-time workers (those working 35 hours or more per week), men were more likely than women to work a greater number of hours (see Table 5). For example, 25.5% of men working full-time worked 41 or more hours per week in 2013, compared with only 14.3% of women who worked those hours, …

2. The BLS reports that for full-time single workers who have never married, women earned 95.2% of men’s earnings in 2013, which is a wage gap of only 4.8% (see Table 1 and chart above), compared to an overall unadjusted pay gap of 17.9% for workers in that group. When controlling for marital status and comparing the earnings of unmarried men and unmarried women, almost 75% of the unadjusted 17.9% wage gap is explained by just one variable (among many): marital status.

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