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Let’s just say that while Congressman Annie Kuster (D-NH) put in a magnificent political performance here, she kept that same upstanding level on WMUR’s 6pm news for the event that today was the last day for Obamacare sign up.  After all, don’t do it and you invoke the fines and penalties (although with the many Royal Decrees and unilateral Changes that His Highness Obama has handed down since Obamacare was actually passed, who really knows when it really ends – Steve is right, it IS Lawlessness)!

Josh McElveen (having just commented that Healthcare.gov failed not once, but twice this last day of signup):  “While supporters have taken heat since the launch of that website could only grin and bear it”

Congressman Annie Kuster (D-NH, see mark at 1:10): Honestly, I just think it was so much interest.  Two million people went online this weekend.  You know, we’re a nation of procrastinators, that’s the bottom line. So, I think its important to do everything you can to get online today and start that process…

Interest?  Or “hide saving” time?  After all, Congresswoman, 

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Otherwise known as “Stack’em and Pack’em” – SCI wants zoning changes such that higher density living will be mandated – high rise living for all with retail on the first couple of floors, sidewalks galore, and if you like public transportation, you will be in love with your only source.  The single family homes of suburbia will simply be now over-densified and remade into little urban areas and rural areas may well be eliminated so that “green space” will hem in humans into certain areas and no further.  Think of it as TreeHuggers writing housing and living policies for the rest of us – freedom of choice will be regulated away. So if that happens, what happens when this happens (emphasis mine, reformatted):

7.5 quake on California fault could be disastrous — kill thousands, cost billions

The shaking from a 7.5 quake at the Puente Hills thrust fault in the center of urban Los Angeles could be so intense it would lift heavy objects in the air, could kill 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage.   Experts say a bigger earthquake along the lesser-known fault that gave Southern California a moderate shake could do more damage to the region than the long-dreaded “Big One” from the more famous San Andreas Fault. The Puente Hills thrust fault, which brought Friday night’s magnitude-5.1 quake centered in La Habra and well over 100 aftershocks by Sunday, stretches from northern Orange County under downtown Los Angeles into Hollywood — a heavily populated swath of the Los Angeles area.

A magnitude-7.5 earthquake along that fault could prove more catastrophic than one along the San Andreas, which runs along the outskirts of metropolitan Southern California, seismologists said.

As a dyed in the wool New Englander who used to visit California fairly frequently, 

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(Emphasis mine, reformatted):

Terrorists could knock US electricity grid out for 1.5 years, but more solar power could help protect it

The idea that the US electricity grid could be knocked out for 1.5 years is a bit shocking. But that’s what the agency in charge of protecting it has revealed.  It may have all gone under the radar and unnoticed, but someone at the Wall Street Journal took notice of a number of warnings put forth last year by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (following an attempted “terrorist attack” on a California substation) and recently wrote up a story about the matter.  The essence of the risk was pretty concisely put forth by FERC officials: “Destroy nine interconnection substations and a transformer manufacturer and the entire United States grid would be down for at least 18 months, probably longer.” (Note that many substations are protected only by fences and cameras.)

Well, the actual stats Shahan put up seem to jive with what I’ve seen elsewhere.  But then he runs towards the cliff: 

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Small clip of Scott Brown’s own words on he got along in Washington, DC.  Play it here or…

…click / download here.  Transcript after the jump.

(H/T: well, you know who you are, and so do I)

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Bravo (or do I have to be PC / Spanish correct and go Brava?)!  ‘Grok friend Betsy McCaughey is one of our favorites – former Lt. Gov. of New York, Constitutional Scholar, and one of the nation’s premier experts on Obamacare.  She goes all around the country on speaking engagements, is on the radio, a Fox News Contributor – and I keep going through her books on it.  Well, she caught Kagan in a lie from the oral arguments for the Hobby Lobby / Conestoga Obamacare case this week in her New York Sun Op-Ed (emphasis mine, reformatted):

That playbook was laid out in a brief that had been filed by 19 senators and 91 members of the House, all Democrats , supporting the Obama administration’s legal war against Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft stores that provides health insurance to all employees but refuses to cover morning-after pills such as Plan B and Ella. The owners, the Green family, try to run their business according to Biblical principles, including closing on Sunday, foregoing hauling beer even when their trucks have to run empty, and not providing abortion drugs.  Senator Murray claimed that “What’s at stake in this case before the Supreme Court is whether a CEO’s personal beliefs can trump a woman’s access to free or low-cost contraception under the Affordable Care Act.”

And we see the 3 female (and more importantly, Progressive) justices spew this same nonsense.  We see three things at play here that have never been tried

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I often fume at Katrina vanden Heuval when she goes on the Sunday morning talking head shows (she is the Editor of the extremely Progressive magazine, The Nation – and no, I have no idea what nation is that her magazine is calling “The Nation”).  She hates Conservatives, hates the TEA Party, and pretty much everyone else that is for limited government, self-responsibility, and free markets.  So, like many of the Leftists that have decided that the Koch brothers are the devils incarnate (and pretty much refusing to see their own brands of Billionaire do-badders like George Soros and the Brothers Styers), she asked what turned out to be a very dumb question:

http://twitter.com/#!/KatrinaNation/status/450088170428694528

Well,

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Ah yes, back to TreeHugger.  They really are all about downshifting one’s standard of living to ensure that “Gaia” won’t be hurt from global warming global cooling climate change Mankind activities that would make us like Venus (or was that Neptune?) in temperature.  They also are all about Socialism (“we’re all in this together and we won’t let you out”) and the totalitarianism that you will live your life by their sacred proscriptions.  I call it “the cave and firepit lifestyle”.

Well, owning a big car?  Very much a mortal sin.  Electric car?  Well, maybe – as long as you use PV panel to recharge it. While they are all about cramming everyone into high density “walkable neighborhoods” (like the self-righteous do-gooders from the Federal Government EPA / HUD / DOT), they will allow that riding bicycles are OK and rate just a tick under forcing you to walk everywhere. And certainly, if those bikes are “communally owned” so much the better.  Thus, this bad news gave them a rather latte day (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Citi Bike is underwater and de Blasio refuses bailout

One of the most unique features of New York City’s bike share program is that it’s privately funded. In most cities, bike-share programs, like other forms of public transportation, are subsidized with taxpayer money.  But according to The Wall Street Journal, Citi Bike is in debt. Alta Bicycle Share, which operates Citi Bike as a subsidiary, needs to raise tens of millions of dollars to keep the program going according to WSJ’s off-the-record sources. 

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Back in June, I posted about Elizabeth Daly who was pursued by a pack of nitwits from the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control agents  – over water bottles:

More and more, Government workers are making us believe by their actions that we Citizens (and Parents) are the problem to be taken care of and solved.  Now, this real story I had seen before, but who can pass up and putting in a line like this from NH’s own Mark Steyn to introduce it?…

…When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.  That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the Barracks Road Shopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.  A group of state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents clad in plainclothes approached her, suspecting the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer. Police say one of the agents jumped on the hood of her car. She says one drew a gun. Unsure of who they were, Daly tried to flee the darkened parking lot.

Well, it looks like these power hungry para-military folks may be serving up a big pay day for the college co-eds that so dastardly thought that those comestibles were EVIL.  The HORROR of it – SUGAR TERRORISTS!  Obesity Mongers!  From the Daily Mail (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Student, 20, sues for $40MILLION after being hauled from her car at gunpoint and arrested for buying beer underage when she only bought WATER

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From Pindell on Friday:

Maggie Hassan: It took more than a year, but the freshman Democratic governor finally has her first solid legislative victory on Medicaid expansion.

And a big Progressive step Leftward (and remember, Progressives are merely incremental Socialists in disguise) – in furthering the instrusion of Obamacare here in NH.  Like I said here, this Democrat Progressive could not have done it, nor set the financial / cultural stage for a broadbased tax, without Republicans in the State Senate.  Leaders, even: NH State Senator Chuck Morse, NH State Senator Jeb Bradley, NH State Senator Bob Odell, or NH State Senator Nancy Stiles.

Isn’t it nice to see the Democrat ball advanced down the field even as this Plank in the NH GOP Platform has now been shattered: from within.

Oppose the implementation of Obamacare in New Hampshire 

“Having one’s back” – the trust that one places in another that no matter the situation, no matter the circumstances, the other guy will be steadfast, present, and loyal.  It’s that last term that seems to be such a nuthingburger in politics where if political speed of movement could be measured when the mud starts flying around someone, politicians AND political operatives would be Olympic world class sprinters.

Heh!  once again another set of bon mots from Political Scoop this Friday:

Scott Brown: His odd, “whatever,” comment to the Associated Press this week became late night comedy fodder, but he is continuing to win over conservatives and now Ayotte is on the record having his back.

Hmm, maybe that phrase “on the record having his back” does not mean what I think it does because 

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This morning, I saw this photograph on the Concord Monitor front page – Governor Maggie Hassan ALL smiles as she signs the legislation that implements Obama’s Medicaid Expansion:

Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat – ringed by all Democrats.  But nary a pixel of any of the real folks that made it happen: NH State Senator Chuck Morse, NH State Senator Jeb Bradley, NH State Senator Bob Odell, or NH State Senator Nancy Stiles.  If it weren’t for these Rogue Republicans, this Democrat Happy Day would not be here.  But it probably will be here again.  Why? 

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From the Laconia Citizen:

County admins work to pay health costs

LACONIA — The Belknap County administration and department heads presented a working budget plan to commissioners on Thursday that, in many departments, takes money from wages to pay health care costs…

Now, the rest of it is behind a paywall, so I’m not going to bother trying to get the rest of it.  Actually, don’t need to as they left the most important part up front (and bolded above).  Welcome to the private sector, boys & gals!  Every outfit that has a payroll knows that while you might pay a wage, the managers think “total compensation”  where wages are only one component.  Sure, every cost for an employee is divided up into separate General Ledger accounts but when someone is hired, it is the totality of the cost of that employee that is factored: wages, vacation, holiday, healthcare, other insurance, taxes, and other ancillary costs make up the whole cost.  One reason why wages have stagnated has been the rapid rise of healthcare – it’s like the carnival whack a mole game – when one comes up, another has to go down.  In a lot of cases, especially for smaller businesses, they can’t raise both wages & insurance costs.  So one takes from one part of the pie to pay for the other.  If healthcare costs are zooming, and the decision is made not to cut them, you end up with the same wage.  So the above bolded line is not surprising to those of us who have signed both the back and front of payroll checks.  Total compensation MAY indeed be going up – higher taxes paid, higher healthcare paid – just not wages.  Reality, dude. 

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