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“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

Buy that park.  Buy that library.  Buy more schools.  Buy light rail (think Boston’s Green line).  Buy EVERYTHING for that foundational Progressive saying “It’s about the quality of life!”.  Sure it is – for there is NO connection between having Government do more and more for your quality of life and the cost of the same.  Congratulations, Gretchen, you just “only a cuppa coffee a day” yourself out of the neighborhood for every spending project possible – how’s that “Java tank truck” of your’s getting for mileage now?  You wanted it, you voted for it – and now you are complaining that you’ve priced yourself out of your own home?   While on my Budget Committee in my hamlet, I fought against new or expanded projects because I KNOW the people that can’t keep up with rising property taxes.  But this one, that did it to herself?  Hoisted on her own petard, logically speaking – no sympathy for this one.

We think of Texas as being this really Conservative state – but just like Portsmouth or the college towns here in NH, Austin is a dot of Liberal Progressive blue in a sea of red.  Liberal?  Check.  High taxes?  Check.  Looking for a scapegoat instead of looking at yourself and said “maybe we shouldn’ta bought all that stuff“?  Check (emphasis mine, reformatted):

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 A Merrimack business group rescinded its invitation for a one-on-one meeting with Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown after concluding that Brown ducked showing up at a forum with his GOP primary rivals. Merrimack Business Association President David McCray said it’s clear to him Brown’s campaign was untruthful that he couldn’t make a June 18 forum with other candidates in the town because of a scheduling conflict.  In a letter to Brown campaign officials, McCray said the invitation was extended more than six weeks ago.

McCray cited an editorial in The Telegraph that revealed Brown’s campaign had sought to have the candidate meet with the newspaper’s editorial board during the day on June 18.

Steve wrote about this here (and Mike on the shell company) but I wanted to add my two cents (and Mike has the story on He may not be able to say it, but we here at the ‘Grok can say what others only WISH they could say:  IT CERTAINLY LOOKS LIKE SCOTT BROWN OUTRIGHT LIED TO YOU, doesn’t it?  After all, the leader is responsible for the actions and statements of those underneath him.  It works both in civilian life and in the military world.  Else, how could Brown tell the Merrimack Business Association to go pound sand while at the same time trying to firm up time with the Telegraph board??

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Steve already had part of the Editorial up, speaking that Brown refuses to be on the hot seat – there’s always a scheduling conflict that is the ready answer.  This is the part that got my attention (emphasis mine):

Back in April, Scott Brown, the former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, announced his “Obamacare Isn’t Working Tour,” which followed closely on the heels of his “Main Streets and Living Rooms Tour.” That last one took him to all 10 New Hampshire counties as a run-up to his announcement that he would seek the New Hampshire seat in the U.S. Senate now held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Brown this week announced his “Making Energy Affordable Tour.”

That’s all well and good, but it’s time Brown started his “The Public is Entitled to Some Answers Tour.”

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From the Union Leader (emphasis mine, reformatted):

One Medicaid managed-care company leaving the state

CONCORD — Meridian Health Plan, one of the three managed-care companies administering the state Medicaid program, will withdraw June 30.  Meridian, based in Detroit, Mich., said it wants to focus on its core businesses in the Midwest.  With the NH Health Protection Program beginning this year, Meridian and the Department of Health and Human Services agreed a summer withdrawal would minimize disruption to the program and newly eligible patients.  “We will work quickly with the company to develop a transition plan that protects Meridian members,” said Health and Human Services Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas. “Meridian’s members and providers can be assured that we will work very closely with Meridian on how best to transition their members to our other two MCOs.”

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That’s right – recently appointed to the NH Board of Education,  William Tucker is one of those that seemingly believes that only Government schools manned by union teachers should be the ONLY form of education for our children.  After all, we’ve seen such stunning scholastic successes with this 140 year way of doing business – educational factories turning out cogs for Society’s machine of life.  Simply, churn out that workforce.  ‘Cept in too many cases, neither Johnny or Mary can read, write, or do math (but can spout the current PC nonsense of diversity and social justice, thanks to the Bill Ayers radicals teaching the teachers, ayup). So news that there are no longer any public schools in New Orleans and that it is working, must be shaking Tucker to the core (emphasis mine and reformatted):

In New Orleans, major school district closes traditional public schools for good

…With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation.

…It has been two decades since the first public charter school opened in Minnesota, conceived as a laboratory where innovations could be tested before their introduction into public schools. Now, 42 states encourage charters as an alternative to conventional schools, and enrollment has been growing, particularly in cities. In the District of Columbia, 44 percent of the city’s students attend charter schools.   But in New Orleans, under the Recovery School District, the Louisiana state agency that seized control of almost all public schools after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, the traditional system has been swept away.

They realized that what was the norm was also what was not working – the traditional model that has, in my mind, outlived its usefulness.  Except for 

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