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…and what the Journalist Round Table failed to recognize.

WMUR’s CloseUp, their Sunday political rumination show, is generally good for a couple items and this week is no different.  Main interviewee was recently announced candidate for the NH GOP nomination for NH Governor, Walt Haverstein (re: info and oops!).  Well, Josh McElveen asked a question that I will be quite sure that NH State Senator Jeb Bradley and NH State Senator Chuck Morse (given that Bob Odell is running away, he won’t care) won’t be all that pleased.

“Do you think that the Republicans that voted for,  in favor for expanding Medicaid or expanding healthcare in NH (however they want to categorize it); is it fair that some of them are getting primaried, you believe?”

First, the “lift up” – Heh!  First he’s for the Rogue Republicans before…

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Now that the recent legal action taken by five area Democrats against Rep. Worsman and myself has been denied by Judge James D. O’Neill III, Belknap County Superior Court, I would like to comment on this most unfortunate and wasteful county lawsuit. The term “lawfare” comes to mind. By definition, “lawfare” is the weaponizing of our legal system and using it as a blunt instrument.

Now, this suit, brought forth by Rep. Ruth Gulick, (New Hampton/Center Harbor) and Reps. Beth Arsenault, (Laconia); Lisa DiMartino, (Gilford/Meredith); Ian Raymond, (Sanborton), and David Huot, (Laconia); alleged Belknap County Delegation Chair, Colette Worsman, and I, Jane Cormier, Clerk, violated the Right to Know Law by permitting Rep. Comtois, (Barnstead) to participate by phone at a February 18 meeting.  Because Rep. Comtois voted NOT to pass the Commissioners’ budget for 2014, as proposed by the Democrats, the vote was a tie – 7 to 7 and the motion did not pass.  Well after this vote occurred, Rep. Worsman and I were served by the Sheriff. The next day, on March 4, the County Convention voted to pass the Convention budget containing a modest 1.5% increase versus a much larger 8+% increase as proposed by the Commissioners.  While it is clear the Democrats did not like losing, they apparently liked Rep. Worsman and me even less… 

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Steve has been all over the Federal Government’s Ambassador to NH, Jeanne Shaheen’s utterances that global warming was going to kill off NH’s ski industry (here, here, and here).  And this year was one of the best EVAH for the industry as a whole.  So once again, Jeanne is wrong.  Really wrong.  And she was the 60th vote that is helping to actually shorten (and in some cases, kill off) the ski industry to which she professes love (emphasis mine, reformatted):

MANCHESTER — Owners of some small New Hampshire businesses said at a forum Thursday that paperwork and expense are threatening the economic platforms on which their companies are built — to the point that the Affordable Care Act could trump nature.  Greg Goddard, general manager of Gunstock Ski Resort, said requirements that health insurance be offered to employees who are on a company payroll for 120 consecutive days or longer could mean opening the slopes later and shutting them down earlier.

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The Bureau of Land Management is supposed to be part of the “conservationists” of the Federal Government.  This whole thing was blown up over “protecting the desert tortoises” (on the endangered list).  You would think that in the performance of their duties, the Bundy cattle that they had mercenary cowboys round up would have actually taken care of them at best and at the very least, bring them to a slaughter house and recoup some of the money that the Feds say that Cliven Bundy owes them for grazing fees.  and now those newly born calves are at risk.  Proof?  Click on each (more after the jump) for the larger versions.

Listen to the podcast – Jerry reporting in from the Bundy Ranch at the end with an extended interview.  Pix below just sent in by Jerry.

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That would be the girl made famous when Rush Limbaugh called her “a slut” when she was all up in arms that society should be providing her free contraceptives (and yes, I used the diminutive because it is clear that she willingly didn’t want to be self-sufficient – the hallmark of immature children that don’t know any better).  But when I saw this, my eyes just rolled:

“Sandra and I have been together for a decade… but this Thursday is her first birthday as my WIFE. I want Sandra to know how much she’s loved. Not just by me, but by all of her supporters across the country who stand with her. Will you join me in wishing her a happy birthday? Thank you for helping make this Sandra’s best birthday ever! — Adam

*Sign her card by clicking on the link below!*”

RIIIGHT. Nothing says “You love me by sending me money”.  Ten years.  Which means the entire time she was kvetching how bad American society was for not giving her the contraceptives of her choice (daily, monthly, whatever), this dude was sitting back and acting like he didn’t have to provide for

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Higher RANK number is safer:

Sen. Jim Rausch, R-Derry, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, which voted 5-0 to approve the bill, said the bill would give law enforcement the tools they need to make the roads safer.  “This is not an infringement on the rights of citizens,” Rausch said, “but a reasonable limit on the use of the technology we have today to keep us safer.”

Right. Actually, wrong.  True, there is not a “Right” to use a cell phone or to drive but if the goal is to make us safer, then pick circumstances in which that can actually be attained.  Once again, however, we see Government deciding to remove freedom of choice from its Citizens.  Remember what Ben Franklin say about safety:

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Given NH’s standing, there is little Safety to be gained in this and the problem is that the Republicans in the Senate are falling (or is that embracing, given the BradleyCare / Obamacare Medicaid Expansion they also passed?) the Progressive philosophy that ALL risk can be removed from reality in their march to march the rest of us to their Utopia.  It simply turns out to be, however, an ideology casting desperately to declare a solution that advances, not a solution, but that ideology. And in doing so, it must be definition reduce overall Liberty. NH State Senator Lou D’Allesandro lied when he said: “The data is quite clear,” he said. “This is worth doing because it saves lives”.  The actual data (see full chart below) does not support this at all – New Hampshire is the third safest state for driving and fifth best for “careless driving” in the nation as determined by

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It has taken a few years but blogs (like GraniteGrok) have slowly crept into the mainstream.  While many of the bloggers have crept into the MSM and most of the MSM outlets have incorporated blogs into their offerings, there has always been a pecking order.   Many have derided bloggers as “not journalists” and certainly early on, “journalists” sniffed at and looked down upon these “mere bloggers”.  No longer (although most bloggers still dwell near the bottom of the media totem pole – or political one for that matter).  However, with the disintermediation of the Internet, journalism seems to be returning to the realm of “what you do” rather than “it is how I get paid”.  Journalism is now longer just a profession but an activity to which millions of “amateurs” now practice and some of them that go payless are far better journalists than those that do.

However, the legal status in terms of liability has been sketchy at times as the law and law practice has been outpaced by the technology and the embracing the public has given to this “disruptive technology”.  But thanks to a case in Florida, we bloggers (at least in FL) have legal status (emphasis mine):

…it is hard to dispute that the advent of the internet as a medium and the emergence of the blog as a means of free dissemination of news and public comment have been transformative. By some accounts, there are in the range of 300 million blogs worldwide. The variety and quality of these are such that the word “blog” itself is an evolving term and concept. The impact of blogs has been so great that even terms traditionally well defined and understood in journalism are changing as journalists increasingly employ the tools and techniques of bloggers – and vice versa. In employing the word “blog,” we consider a site operated by a single individual or a small group that has primarily an informational purpose, most commonly in an area of special interest, knowledge or expertise of the blogger, and which usually provides for public impact or feedback. In that sense, it appears clear that many blogs and bloggers will fall within the broad reach of “media,” and, if accused of defamatory statements, will qualify as a “media defendant” for purposes of Florida’s defamation law as discussed above.

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Been real busy so playing catch up.  Here’s a few unconnected, disjoint factoids:

• Census says!  86.5 million workers are supporting 148 non-workers.

Enough people riding in the wagon for you, Zandra Rice-Hawkins, Jeanne Shaheen, and President Obama?

• The average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity hit a March record of 13.5 cents, according data released yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was up about 5.5 percent from 12.8 cents per KWH in March 2013. The relative price of electricity in the United States tends to rise in spring, peak in summer, and decline in fall. Last year, after the price of a KWH averaged 12.8 cents in March, it rose to an all-time high of 13.7 cents in June, July, August and September.  If the prevailing trend holds, the average price of a KWH would hit a new record this summer. 

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Update: Arrgghh, Steve posted this up yesterday.  But it still makes sense for you to read it again!

OK, I’ll let them borrow it:  FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States.

Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord.

Multiple intelligence agencies confirmed that the militant Islamist organization and its numerous affiliates intend to carry out a massive, coordinated plan to stand aside and watch America’s increasingly rapid decline, with terrorist operatives across the globe reportedly mobilizing to take it easy, relax, and savor the spectacle as it unfolds.

“We have intercepted electronic communication indicating that al-Qaeda members are actively plotting to stay out of the way while America as we know it gradually crumbles under the weight of its own self-inflicted debt and disrepair,”

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That’s right.  On April 15th, I messed up big time.  Actually, I figured it out on Monday, the 14th, as I did my taxes on a vacation day.  How badly had I booted it the previous year? Yeah, I’m getting a refund.  Which means that I failed – I just gave Obama an interest free loan for the year for the US Government, after taking my money from me legally by the 16th Amendment (which was originally sold as “just target the few highly rich people”).

Sidenote: “After all, the first tax ranged from merely 1% on the first $20,000 of taxable income and was only 7% on incomes above $500,000….(Ed. note: Expressed in 1994 dollars this sentence would read, “the first tax ranged from merely 1% on the first $298,000 of taxable income and was only 7% on incomes above $7,460,000.”)…The collection process was greatly facilitated in 1943 by a device created by FDR to pay the costs of WWII. It was called “withholding from wages and salaries”. In other words, the tax was collected at the payroll window before it was even due to be paid by the taxpayer. Economists point out that this device, more than any other single factor, shifted the tax from its original design as a tax on the wealthy to a tax on the masses–mostly the middle class.”

So, I’m mad at myself for not doing the right calculations and mad that, once again, we see the Left’s persistence on incrementalism – create a man-made need based on ideology (as opposed to solving a real life problem), 

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The Democrats are now not just “the bad guys” but “the petty guys”.Court Order – Gulick vs Cormier

That is from the judgment of Judge James D. O’Neill, III in Belknap Superior Court in the case of NH State Rep Ruth Gulick et al vs NH State Rep Jane Cormer, Clerk, et al. where the former sued the latter in what I considered to be a frivolous, political theatrical stunt with all the intentions of a SLAPP suit using the pretext of a RSA 91-A:2 violation that I knew to be absolutely false.  It was simply one way for the out-gunned Democrats of the Belknap County Delegation (aided and abetted most of the time by one Republican, NH State Rep Dennis Fields – but that is fodder for a future post) getting back at the Republicans, especially the Conservatives that made up the majority of the Republican members.  I did not attend all of the Belknap County budget meetings but it was clear that the Democrats were stymied at that lack of ability to block the Conservatives in protecting the taxpayers’ wallets.  They were not allowed to grow Government.

So, they lashed out in the only way they could (and the refuge of the scoundrels that having fairly failed to win Legislatively, turn to the Judiciary to subvert the democrat process) – they sued for a remedy that they could not get using a twisting of the statute that would not hold up. 

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From a longer piece at The Federalist (go read the whole thing, emphasis here is mine):

…Americans, Madison argues, are natural republicans–republicans in their heads and in their hearts, determined to show the world that “self-government” is possible. The republican principle, as Madison defines it later in the essay, requires “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior.” That is to say, republican government is responsible to the people, from whom it ultimately “derives all its power” and to whom it must directly or indirectly give an account of its stewardship of those powers.

On this point, at least, there is no daylight between the positions of the 1960s-style liberal Robert Kennedy and the 1780s-style liberal James Madison. In both accounts, the people are primary; the government is secondary–a necessary help supporting self-governing citizens, in both the political and moral senses of the term.

Today, the Progressives leap from responsible government to

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When we see the armed might of the US Government arrayed against a single American rancher and not against illegal alien “invaders, why is it that those in Government wonder why “the consent of the governed” is being withdrawn from them?

We see multiple episodes of those wishing to cede from their own States to form new one because they are ignored and denigrated – the Rights of the suburban or rural “minority” populations trampled by the larger urban liberal ones.  We see Progressive legislators not trusting their constituents and take decisions away from them – and not seeing the anger building from being treated like children at best and cretins at worst.  We see “solutions” to the littlest problems put in place while avoiding the big ones we actually want them to fix (and those generally result from previous government tries to fix something that should have just been left alone).

Which IS the higher priority –

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