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And the newly crowned owner of this dubious award (or, at least, the owner of  the byline to which it is attached) is John DiStaso of the Union Leader.  I’ve gone back and looked at it several times over the day, still scratching my head over it:

NH still operating despite federal shutdown

Was this a sigh of relief?  Or a total jaw dropping reaction of surprise?  Or (especially if one is totally convinced that only Biggest Govt is able to care for us little people) a jaw dropping disappointment that perhaps the High Church of the Alter of Almighty Gubmint didn’t really matter much?  That things

think about – er, maybe we can get along without it?

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I watched the Obama Administration issue the “Washington Monument Act” strategy (e.g., shut down citizen-popular stuff to extract the most amount of pain and frustration) by fiat that all National Parks be closed – even those areas that normally not manned like the War Memoriasl on the National Mall that are ordinarily “open air”.  He and his minions smiled – once again, pulling the Community Organizer tool box out in agitating the crowds towards the outcome they wanted.  The Imperious President thundering forth “I don’t have to offer ANYTHING” – as he targets the House Republicans just as he used to do the Chicago elites.  Well worn, well played, and successful.

Cakewalk, they thought.  We can cower anyone.  Except a monkey wrench showed up.  A few hundred, actually

A bunch of old, enfeebled WW II Vets, from whose ranks thousands are  dying every day,came to DC.  Some walking, some behind walkers, many being wheeled to THEIR memorial earned those decades ago as THEIR gift to the nation. And many paid that ultimate gift for the rest of us.  The survivors simply made the journey (by gifts by others to them for this) to see what a grateful nation gifted back to them.  THEIR MEMORIAL earned by their blood, their wounds, and their dead buddies.

In front of them, in their way, stood Obama.

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From the Union Leader (emphasis mine, reformatted)

Conservative radio talk show host Jeff Chidester said Tuesday he has been approached by “numerous people inside the state and outside the state” about the possibility of running for the 1st District U.S. House seat. Chidester, a Republican, said he is considering it but feels in no rush to decide.

Republican Former U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta has announced his candidacy for the seat now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, while another Republican, former University of New Hampshire business school dean Dan Innis, is also strongly considering it.

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The last two weeks are a mighty powerful argument for giving politicians as little control over our lives as we possibly can.

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) October 2, 2013

• US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid denying a little child ill with cancer the help she needs
• President Obama’s shutting down “open air” memorials that honor our Veterans.
• NH CongressCritters Kuster, Shea-Porter, and Shaheen voting against money for WIC and TANF that helps “the most vulnerable amongst us”.

In fact, Democrats are pretty much voting against anything that would release the shutdown chokehold.  Now, don’t get me wrong – some departments should be kept shutdown in a large way – the States can handle these functions (e.g., EPA – we have an NH DES, DoEd – we have our own NH Dept of Education) and should.  Others as well.  In most of these cases, the money reality is that the above money is “power grabbed” from the States to begin with, and then “extorted” back (to use a Democrat word du jour) to us – with strings / cables attached.  But I digress.

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“Much Ado About Nothing…” FACT or FICTION?

On Monday evening, Virginia Barry, Commissioner of the NH Dept. of Education, held a forum for school boards and administrators at Bedford High School. It was quite an event with about 175 people in attendance. But, only members of NH school boards/administrators were allowed to ask questions or offer input. In addition to Commissioner Barry telling attendees, there is “much ado about nothing” with regard to critics’ concern of Common Core (CC), there were some very important MISTATEMENTS made by our Commissioner. We will take up a very important one here…

Carlos Martinez of the Alton School Board noted Commissioner Barry was “spreading misinformation” in her presentation as she denied DATA MINING was part and parcel of CC. Of course, Commissioner Barry knows the truth. You should as well.

• In December 2011, the US Department of Education amended the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Why is this important? In a nutshell, FERPA was a law which ensured personal (and identifiable) information was not shared with outside entities WITHOUT parental consent. Information could be Social Security numbers, health information, etc… For the past 40 years or so, this information could not be used. However, with regulatory amendments (no legislative approval – sound familiar?) added in 2011, these “firewalls” were disabled. The amendments shift responsibility from PARENTS to BUREAUCRATS / ADMINISTRATORS as “authorized representatives” who can personally receive access to personal data. This data can now be shared with trade unions, non-governmental agencies, and companies who develop educational products and services.

Now here comes BILL GATES (yet again)

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Saw this first over at The Blaze:

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Tuesday became one of the latest lawmakers to say he would be forgoing his congressional salary during the government shutdown, telling The Salt Lake Tribune he’s asking “that they hold my check until this is resolved.”

Members of Congress’ pay is ensured even during a shutdown because of the 27th Amendment, which bars Congress from changing its own salary. Still, lawmakers from both parties have announced they will either have their pay held or donated to charity.

and it linked over to the Washington Post.  Right at the top was this and she was joinged by our Sr. Senator.  And Porter and Kuster?

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.): A senior aide said that “Any days that federal workers do not get paid, Sen. Ayotte will donate her salary to a New Hampshire charity.”

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Greg Moore : Medicaid expansion would hurt families across New Hampshire

Is it ideological to question a plan that could cause more than 20,000 New Hampshire residents to lose their doctor, make all of us wait longer to get health care and put New Hampshire closer to having an income tax? If you said no, then you’re on your first step to opposing the Medicaid expansion plan under Obamacare that’s currently before the Legislature.

 Medicaid expansion would hurt families across New Hampshire

Obamacare supporters have said that the reason why many level-headed elected leaders have resisted adding more than 50,000 new people to the government-run health care program called Medicaid is because of a zealous opposition to the President and his policies. They’ve said that the federal government will always keep its promises, and that every day that passes after the expansion goes into effect nationally, our state will lose out on “free” money from the federal government.

Consider re-reading that last paragraph and ask yourself who has been drinking the ideological Kool-Aid.

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Obama has been nothing if not a petulant little kid with a temper the last couple of days (“I don’t have to offer anything!”).  Will he take a hit for the absolute jerkiness he has been displaying over the CR, as if he was not to be defied or King or something.  Probably not – from Newsbusters yesterday:

But there’s one thing on which the President is surely right. In devising his strategy for dealing with the shutdown, the prez can count on the MSM to blame Republicans.

Mark Halperin bared the president’s calculus on today’s Morning Joe, saying the Obama admin has little incentive to negotiate because it believes a “sympathetic” press will blame Republicans like they did in the 1990s, accusing them of being “obstructionist.” View the video after the jump.

Halperin offered what amounted to an indictment of MSM bias.  But no one on the panel made a peep. They apparently just took it as a given that is neither controversial nor objectionable.

“Marriage is increasingly the big sociological divide in American life. Getting and staying married makes you part of a privileged elite.”

Who knew that you were an elitist by eschewing mere shacking up?  Yet, three things can basically keep one out of poverty – get your diploma, get a job, and get married before kids.  For all of the hoopla over the “new” trendy of single unmarried girls with kids and that they shouldn’t be shamed, I saw the misery these gals lived while running our daycare.  Dependent on the state for child care, food, medical needs, transportation (and for the very few that took advantage of it, meaningful education other than LGBT / womyns studies); I watched the veritable circus of badness rotate through the lobby – the smiley faces followed by dour looks as the latest “beau” flips into their lives and their beds followed by withdrawnness (and sometimes, bruises). 

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Yes, he was drummed out of the US Senate for praising retiring ex-segregationalist Strom Thurmond – the grievance-mongers hauled out their Political Correctness swords and hacked him to slivers (even as those same hypocrites gave ex-KKK Grand Kleagle Senator Byrd a pass for the same stances). At the time, I thought he got a raw deal.  Then he came out with this after the 2010 elections in which a larger than expected TEA Party based candidates won their way to DC:

“We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”

As a TEA Party guy, whose main goal was only to put Constitutional values back into vogue and into force of operations of our Government, my jaws gritted more than a few molecules of dentin from my molars.  He showed pretty much all that was wrong with the Establishment Republican wing of the Party – only concerned with winning elections and wielding power – but in doing so, only wishing to be loved for being more efficient at implementing Democrat policies which did nothing to stem the higher and higher spending, the increase in the debt, and slow but steady distance from what the Framers knew to be needed in Government.

And now, if Obama wasn’t enough, Lott has now inflamed the Liberty and Freedom wing of the Party, once again with these bon mots:

“That Ted Cruz. They have to teach him something or cut his legs out from under him.”

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Just saw this over at TownHall:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been the most ardent proponent of President Barack Obama taking a hard line with House Republicans in the latest fiscal crisis engulfing Washington. And so far, Reid is getting his way. When the president considered sitting down with the four congressional leaders in the White House ahead of the deadline to avert a government shutdown, Reid privately urged Obama to call off the meeting, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Which, pretty much, has been the attitude of Reid and Obama during this whole charade – compromise is being redefined to be “until you agree with us 100%, there can be no compromise”.  So, if the MSM still wasn’t “Obama starry-eyed” and in the Democrat tank (and, you know, actually doing its job instead of being cheerleaders for the Dems?),what do you think this new nugget might have effected the general public if it had been reported earlier than yesterday?

And speaking of being in the tank and up to their MSM eyeballs, here is a member of the “Objective Press Class” from CNN berating calmly discussing the news of the day with two Republican Congressmen (emphasis mine, full transcript at the link): 

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Americans, Presidents and others, who have done their jobs well, have become famous for that, and honored after their deaths?  Their faces on our currency:

President Obama?

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Yup, for all the sturm und drang over Keene, NH and then Concord NH getting free money from the way-in-debt Fed Govt to by their very own Bearcats, this beats them all.

Sidenote: when ARE local officials gonna start show some adulthood and say “thanks, but no thanks – we are NOT going to be the cause of our federal Government to put us all further into debt????

For all of the talk about keeping police safer, here in NH the stats show that these things are rather poorly and minimally used – pretty much, what they do best is as a “Touch the Truck” event after “gathering rust”.  Sure, we hear about protecting police or civilians “down” scenarios and serving warrants – but here in largely rural NH?

Serving warrants.  Yeah, exACTLY the same reason why the Dallas County Sheriff decided that they had to step up the “protection factor” – and got them some MRAP.  From IBD:

…The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office gets an MRAP tactical military vehicle, used for counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq, as law enforcement becomes a collection of SWAT teams pursuing not-always-guilty Americans.

…The 19-ton, diesel-operated behemoth with bullet-proof doors and tires was built to survive improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, but will be used in the execution of warrants.

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