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I wrote back in 2009 about the Lifeline (aka Obamaphones):

Once again, we see that the line at what Big Government defines as the “needs” of those needing “welfare” always seems to go ever upward over time (in addition to what the definition of what “poor” is). I saw an ad on TV the other day (in fact, I JUST saw it again) that if you are on food stamps or receive other type government aid, there is a program just for you.  The actress proudly proclaimed “I can now call my family any time I want!” – she has a free cell phone!

Don’t know about you but I consider a cell phone a luxury – a “want” vs a “need”. Handy?  Absolutely, but I am not one that is tied to one.  As such, it comes from my discretionary income (such as it is).  If things were to get tough, it would be banished from the budget.

Indeed – want vs need.  Now apply that to Obamacare.

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I have it around here someplace, but one post I have reviewed had guestimated that US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (NH-D) and US CongressCritter Carol Shea-Porter, with their votes for Obamacare, will be directly responsible for over 20,000 New Hampshire residents having been kicked to the curb – these two have decided to social engineer these 20,000 folks and their families:

“How DARE you have insurance policies that YOU like but that we DON’T!  We have told your insurance companies that they must cancel what you voluntarily paid for”

And sometimes for years.  IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM the hard times you may now have to face.  IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM the financial hardships you will endure (just remember, YOUR taxes are paying, not just their $174,000 / year salary, but THEIR healthcare costs as well – a very FINE package as well!).  IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM how you will have to struggle to find new doctors.  IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM how far you may have to travel to get to a hospital.  IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM that you might end up with a plan that will cost YOU up to $12,700 in deductibles BEFORE you still get to pay 30% or more of costs out of pocket.  And IT DOESN’T MATTER TO THEM that if you don’t get their oft-talked about “subsidies”, you are paying for others to receive care that is now out of your financial reach.

IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER –

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On October 29, legislators and guests were invited to a Common Core rally, “Perspectives on Education Reform ” at the Legislative Office Building in Concord.  The keynote speaker was Dr. Marc Tucker, from the National Institute for Education and the Economy (Economy?).  Dr. Tucker has a colorful past and I have to say, he is a slick progressive bureaucrat who knows how to stack the deck in his favor.  But, after sitting through his hour long presentation, I was amazed at what Dr. Tucker COULDN’T tell us.  When I asked Dr. Tucker about FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and the Dec. 2011 regulatory amendments which replaced parental consent with that of “authorized representatives” to include non- governmental agencies, trade unions, and companies who develop educational products and services, his response was “…well, I would not be in support of that…but I don’t know anything about it…”.  Really?  I find that most difficult to believe.

When I asked Dr. Tucker about specific information regarding the so-called “testing” and “benchmarks” of the Common Core Standards, he again said he “didn’t know which countries were included in the testing”.  I may believe this because I do not believe the Common Core standards were EVER benchmarked.  It doesn’t matter how many times the “Powers That Be” say these standards have been “tested”.  We cannot find any verification of such (and neither could Mr. Smarty Pants), so they are empty words for me.

But, perhaps the most egregious moments of Dr. Tucker’s presentation may rest with his obvious distain for anyone who questions the power of the government in education.  

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Andrew Breitbart – a fighter for Freedom in today’s oppressive Progressivism where the Left believes that it’s role IS to advance soft despotism policies simply because “it good for us and we all don’t realize it”.  He is missed.  Junk Science has a post that includes a lot of his points in fighting what often seems to be an ever encroaching army of locusts, each one tasked with taking just one more sliver of Freedom away – I am reproducing some of them here as we ALL need a bit of bucking up now and then! Emphasis mine:

Joe Bast sent me today a thoughtful slight revision of Breitbart’s 10 rules of war, unpacked to 19 points for strategy. The Bast/Breitbart list is essential for any advocate, regardless of viewpoint, to consider. I wish i knew them by heart and could effectively execute on them.  From Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World! (Grand Central Publishing, 2011). Breitbart enumerates only ten rules, Joe Bast unpacked them into 19 points. What follows is a mix of Breitbart and Bast.

“Our opponents have spent so many years on the offensive with people lying prone at their feet that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be on the defensive. If we come after them, they won’t know how to respond.” (p. 147)

1. Don’t be afraid to go into enemy territory. Our most articulate voices, likable faces, and best idea-makers need to go into hostile territory and plant the seeds of doubt in our ideological enemy and the apolitical masses who simply go where the media flows. Don’t just preach to the choir. Invade their space, get their attention, make them report what you say.

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Rule #1, Rule #2, Rule #7, Rule #12, Rule #15.  Except I’m still banned – I tried to leave a comment, saw it was waiting for moderation, and just saw that it was delete.  Oh well, this is why I have the ‘Grok!  Emphasis mine with some reformatting:

Quote of the day: Jack Diamond on the true cost of sprawl

Toronto architect Jack Diamond writes in the Globe and Mail about the real costs of sprawl, noting the economic burden for the homeowner, the community and the whole country. He notes that it just costs too much to support low density sprawl, but that doesn’t mean we all have to live in high-rises.

Economic burden for the homeowner?  Really?  I keep seeing this “argument” over and over – “those poor saps in the ‘burbs!  We have to save them from spending their own money from living in places we don’t think they should be.  This is one reason we created the Sustainable Communities Initiative – WE know where you should be – and we’ll save you money, too!”

Clearly low-density suburbs are unaffordable. Alternative housing types that meet child-rearing requirements and private ownership, but at densities that make supporting infrastructure affordable and public transit viable, are entirely possible and practical – and critically necessary.

Translation: not matter how you got there, you can’t afford it! 

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“…the near-elimination of piracy was a major accomplishment of the two centuries of British/American naval dominance…”

Although it was more of a generalized one than that below, I did make the case during the Prez Primary with a very strong Ron Paul supporter that a strong Navy did have a definite role to play with Ron Paul’s major tenet on foreign policy: free trade.  This post makes a tangental argument more specific than mine, but Glenn sums it up with pretty much what I said (emphasis mine, reformatted):

In 2011, the U.K., Greece, Norway and other major maritime nations began letting their merchant ships carry armed private-security personnel for self-defense in hazardous waters. This overcame longstanding legal and cultural barriers such as stringent local firearms laws and fears of liability.  The result? Successful hijackings off Somalia fell by half to 14 in 2012 from 28 in 2011, and overall attacks dropped to 75 from 237. Through the third quarter of 2013, there have been just 10 incidents, with two hijackings.  The main reason for this drop is that Somali piracy is an industry like any other, albeit far more brutal. When risks are low and profit margins are high, piracy flourishes. Investors on land buy shares in a piracy venture, funding weapons and equipment in exchange for a stake in any ransom. Thus to suppress piracy, the return on investment must be made unfavorable.

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I’ve been talking about this since before I posted this about what doctors in San Diego County (in the Democrat Ruled State of CA) were going to face at the advent of Obamacare:

Rather than mere head count, officials say they are scrutinizing what capacity physicians have to accept new patients. And to assist consumers, California will enable people to search for specific doctors online during enrollment to determine what, if any, health plans they will be part of in Covered California.

So, if everyone that Government has thrown into this new ill conceived Socialist program can’t get access, read the above again. If they close a program, what happens to everyone else? And like the Germans did recently when Obama returned to Berlin and accused him over the NSA spying with Stasi 2.0, is California going to have its own Stasi to snoop on doctors “Ve vill MAKE you see morrre peeps!” for Stasi 2.5?

First, you have to take more patients. And now, the outright admission by a Democrat candidate to the next level and advocating EXACTLY what I said they would:  making it illegal for doctors to not take Medicaid / Medicare patients.  The ramifications should scare us all – From the Mason Conservative (emphasis mine):

…But here is Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock, telling a forum in Great Falls that she believes it should law to force doctors to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. Forced by government decree, mind you. A birdie sent me this:

FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted…Democrats appear to want to make physicians slaves of the state,

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“And yet, the fundamental principle of Progressives is that they alone can provide “expert Government” for us all.“

Or, should this post’s title have been “The miserable government we hoist above ourselves” (think about that double entendres stemming from that).  What DO we call a government that cannot be honest with its Citizens, that denies the truth of its publicly stated “truth” to cover up its “intended” truth – the latter so poisonous to itself, it could not speak of it while passing the legislation that implemented it?  When a President stands up for years and says “Got what you like?  You can keep it.  Period.”, we are supposed to think “this is good governance”?

No equivacations.  No wiggle room.  No weasel words.  This time, plain words.  Short sentences.  And a single declarative word, “Period”, that screamed “case closed.  Finality.  No bad outcomes.  A narrative that told us, normative Free Citizens, that we still had the Freedom to Choose for ourselves and our families.  A nod to what should be commonly understood – we Citizens have and are to be the final choices for our lives rather than Government.

And they, and the President, baldfaced LIED to us.  They knew all along.  They knew since the beginning.  THAT WAS THE PLAN from the get-go. To herd us as if we were mere cattle?  That in their eye, we ARE JUST cattle?

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The stories are going to come out hard and fast.  Sure, low income folks are going to get “such a deal”.  The dirty secret that Senator Jeanne Shaheen and CongressCritters Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter won’t outright amplify is that the only way that the Obamacare plans are “affordable” are the federal tax funded subsidies.  “SURE, you can find a low cost plan- using other peoples’ money!” – how often do these three Socialists honestly say:

“because we’re taking it away from other families to give to you“

Yeah, I thought so.  So, it’s great for those at the bottom, OK for those at the top – and the vaunted Middle Class that these three liars always say that are “fighting for” have been now screwed over by these same totalitarians.  They’ve all voted for this Papa Oscar Sierra several times each, one way or another, and the outcome result is the same: Yuck Fou, Middle Class?  Now we have folks’s stories of those that Obama has decided “they don’t matter to Democrats”.  Yes, three from Fox News tonight:

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Steve’s post (“NH US Senator Jeanne Shaheen Was For It Before She Was Against It”) outlines her absolute perfidity: she talks the talk in “supporting the Middle Class” with her grandmotherly words, but in each and every action and vote she shows her disdain for the same set of folks.   All that is important is obtaining the Progressive Nirvana of Totalitarians: a Single Payer healthcare system in which she and her sojourners are sitting in the catbird seat.

What will she know of the personal problem of navigating this hellhole of Big Government?  After all, she’s already “Grandfathered in” with her wealth and noble title (and Senate retirement package) forever even as she has the “Obamacare Waiver” that accrues only to the Political BFFs of the current regime with her current place in the Senate.  That’s right, Grandma is “Grandpa’d In” even as she wrote the Letter to help “Grandpa Out” all of the rest of us.  Ruler, not Governor, guv.

You almost made it happen here in NH with your SB711. 

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Max Abramsom asks:

St. Senator Martha Fuller-Clark, famous from the out-of-state campaign workers who registered to vote for her while helping her campaign, apparently “blacked out” and hit a pedestrian. As usual, the police decided not to breathalyze her, despite the accident. Why isn’t there some kind of mandatory post-accident drug-alcohol test for elected officials who hit a pedestrian?

From SeacoastOnline (emphasis mine, reformatted):

PORTSMOUTH — State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark allegedly “blacked out” as her car jumped a curb and hit a pedestrian on Maplewood Avenue Friday night, police said.

The pedestrian, whom police didn’t identify, was brought to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries around 8:40 p.m., said Sgt. Chris Roth, who noted that he wasn’t on the scene and didn’t have specifics about the pedestrian’s injuries.  “At this time, anything’s possible,” he said about 40 minutes after the crash.

So, were they “serious injuries” or not?  “non-life-threatening injuries” does not mean “not serious” – that definition will play a role in just a bit. 

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Using Sarbanes’s baseball analogy, the situation facing these nearly 1.4 million health-insurance refugees would be akin to a loyal aficionado receiving the following letter from the Baltimore Orioles:

October 30, 2013

Dear Orioles fan:

It is our duty to inform you that you no longer will be able to sit in the bleachers at Camden Yards. Seats in this section have been cancelled, due to the Essential Spectator Benefits of the Affordable Sports Act (a.k.a. Obamasports).

We encourage you to visit Sports.gov, where you can shop for tickets that comply with these new, federally mandated minimum standards.

For example, you could purchase seats in Section 250. Supporters of ObamaSports have described these as “better seats” rather than the “flimsy seats” that you have occupied. These new seats would be in the shade, instead of in the bright sunshine, where you and your friends and loved ones preferred to sit before Obamasports ejected you from this part of the ballpark. These shaded seats should reduce the risk of your developing wrinkles or contracting skin cancer.

These ASA-compliant seats also are nearer to providers of Maryland crab, Korean barbecue, and other healthy food options at Camden Yards, rather than the low-quality hot dogs and popcorn that were sold near the seats that you used to frequent.

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“VaporVotes“

After voting 40 times to repeal Obamacare in the US House, why should I trust the DC Establish Republicans?  Yeah, I get it – for the last 3 years I’ve listened to “we’re gonna repeal it!”.  First couple of times, rah-rah!…and then snoresville.  There comes a time when credulity just breaks down from sheer repetition of doing the same thing without a result.  Even if all of the TEA Party AND Establishment Senate candidates had won their Senate races, the Senate Repubs still would not have had a filibuster proof margin – and no where enough votes to override a veto.  The Framers gave the US House the ultimate last resort on paying for the functioning of the government – even to the point of not funding “settled law” (and yes, go back to Viet Nam history).  Progressives and Big Governmentalists were all agog – “what do you mean you wouldn’t fund the Federal Government!!”.  Well, when the Senate’s Reid decided not to pass a “regular order” budget for 4 years and decided to go with indecipherable Continuing Resolutions (that hardly let us Citizens know what we were spending where) instead, why not?

Thus, smoke and mirrors, pure political theater – vaporvotes. As in vaporware.  As in  Flash!, no substance.  The ONLY chance to stop Obamacare was to use the power of the purse – defund it.  They knew it.  Harry Reid knew it.  And Obama knew it (as his sycophants in the MSM). Constitutionally (Article I, section 7, clause 1; Article 1 Section 7 Clause 9), the US House has the authority to fund what it wants.  Or not.  Period. And the Republicans got scared of:

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From the Daily Brief – a prior military gal turned writer and freelancer (to pay the bills).  She’s not a constant blogger and there’s a lot she puts out that I’ll read and go “oh” but this is the first time in a while enough to link and post – because it is indicative of an undercurrent that is re-establishing itself. A couple of excerpts (emphasis mine, reformatted):