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Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom and how the Government is taking that away. As an evangelical Christian and Conservative with small "L" libertarian leanings, my fight is with Progressives forcing a collectivized, secular humanistic future upon us. As a TEA Party activist, citizen journalist, and pundit!, my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture.

Data Point – Poverty is NOT what you might think (US Government Data)

It has been often said that the poor in the US are not really poor – only in contrast to the rich in the US could that be applied.  Using another measurement, more of our "poor" are actually materially richer than the middle class in Europe and far better off than most when compared to world wide conditions.  From Heritage (who used US Government data to put these infographics together):

    

Compare those statistics; certainly not the wide disparity in ownership that I would have expected.  So, it is a difference in quantity of material goods or just in quality of them?  And compared to the amenities nowadays, many of them did not even exist as I was growing up in my middle class neighborhood.

Some snippets that caught my eye from the Heritage post:

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Data Point – Let’s add in House Size

A follow on to the comparison of All US household material wealth to Poor US household material wealth is the comparison of the sizes of various countries’ houses. From ApartmentTherapy:   US: 2,300 sf Australia: 2,217 sf Denmark: 1,475 sf France: 1,216 sf Spain: 1,044 sf Ireland: 947 sf UK: 818 sf

Gee, and I thought the RSAs were pretty much clear on this

OK, because I am a blogger but not a lawyer (nor play one on the ‘Grok), a bleg and favor to all those folks, lawyers and legislators, that can send some advice! 

As I have blogged before, I am an elected official in my NH hamlet – the Budget Committee (SB2).  Now as a former biz analyst, I like data – a LOTS of it.  Now, the last couple of years, I’ve looked at what was presented: each department with each of its own line items (e.g., electric, phone, salary, benefits, inventories, et al).  And then at the end, I re-aggregated all the like items together (all electric, all salaries,…) and was none too happy.

Well, this year, I’ve made a bunch of data requests to both the Town and School District for long term trending data on these same items; stuff that i bet no one has ever asked for before.  After all, if only presented with a couple or three years of data, it is all but impossible to say if there is a cost trend, and if there is, is it advantageous for taxpayers or against them?  And the RSAs clearly state that the Budget Committee is allowed to do so.  Period.

Well, it has come to my attention that the Selectmen and the Town Administrator have decided that they have the ability to add their own restrictions:

Selectmen have notified the chairman the town’s Budget Committee that requests for detailed fiscal information may be getting out of hand, and they feel requests for in-depth budget analysis be supported by a vote of the committee.

In a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Dick Hickok selectmen said committee members have a certain role to fulfill and a protocol will be set up to request information after a member of the committee was asking questions that might have exceeded his responsibility.

The letter to Hickok was send after a request made by Budget Committee member Skip Murphy. In the letter dated July 13, the town states the concern of possible other requests, similar to what was made by Murphy, could be forthcoming from each and every other member of the committee, which could hold up town resources from a time perspective.

…“With this in mind, the selectmen are concerned that this particular request may not truly reflect the ‘pertinent information’ needs of the Budget Committee as a whole, absent a vote taken at a duly public meeting that reflects a majority decision along those lines,” states the letter.

The town is requesting that a formal vote is to be taken if a member of the committee requests information on RSAs, regulations, unfunded mandates, financial consequences stemming from donating, 10-year trending data, hourly cost of service or other specific information.

“In addition, please be advised that we are troubled by the voluminous nature of the information being requested that will require research and the preparation of reports that are not currently available, especially given the dubious value of this information when you consider the level of line item detail that is typically provided with the budgets along with the numerous opportunities Budget Committee members will have to directly question department managers,” the letter states.

But like the salary studies I did my first year on the BudComm (that reverberated around our larger community and effected a number of fiscal structural changes in our town), I’m betting this data will do the same. 

And I’m betting they know it too.   Problem is for the Selectmen, the Town Administrator, and the lawyer that is most likely advising them, they have a huge problem…the RSAs do not have the Selectmen in the driver’s seat, they have the Budget Committee. If you read them (after the jump), there is NOTHING in the RSAs that allow the Selectment (or the School Board) the ability to direct how the Budget Committee does its job, makes it requests, or how it votes.

And since it is the Budget Committee that is judging the two respective budgets, nor should they.  And the Chair of the Budget Committee has made the formal request.

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House Republicans: Cut, Cap, and Balance Act has passed

U.S. REP. FRANK GUINTA STATEMENT ON THE PASSAGE OF ‘CUT, CAP AND BALANCE’ “Granite Staters know that Washington is broke and broken.  The House seized an opportunity tonight to correct both problems.” (WASHINGTON– July 19, 2011)  U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta (R, NH-01) released the following statement after this evening’s passage of H.R. 2560, the Cut, … Read more

Spending – Ever notice that Progressives hate Spending / Tax Caps?

Good for the House Republicans that just passed the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act in trying to stop the fiscal train wreck that has been slo-mo rolling for decades.  Frankly, I view it as a first baby step but the largest problem is this – does it actually stop the deficit spending NOW?  Does it … Read more

“The Law of Sacrifice”

Sacrifice – has our society forgotten that word?  Have we as a society forgotten what it truly means? Try this: The Law of Sacrifice So if that is the definition of sacrifice, what is the law of sacrifice? The law of sacrifice says that you cannot get something you want, without giving up something in … Read more

I thought this a rather amusing Presidential Primary story….

From Rich Lowry at The Corner – tracking down the elusive supporter: I’ve always been curious to meet a Jon Huntsman supporter. But how to do it? Going to Iowa and finding the one Huntsman supporter identified in a recent poll would just be too difficult. So I figured a leg of my honeymoon could … Read more

Notable Quote – Michael Walsh

The preamble to the Constitution talks about promoting the general welfare, not the welfare state. For the welfare state is incompatible with the rest of the preamble, which concludes: “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” By definition, dependents are not free. – Michael Walsh, syndicated columnist

A Letter by Speaker Bill O’Brien to his colleagues in the House

Dear colleagues, As many of you know, quite a few of our constituents have joined us in the debate as to whether or not we will become a Right to Work state.  As you and they have heard from many quarters, states that have adopted Right to Work protections for their workers are much more … Read more

And this is known as “a bad idea”

OK, first thought, maybe OK.  Serious thought: yes, this is a bad idea.  DJ, you have done a LOT of good so far this year; this would not be included in that pile:


House Majority Leader to Request Rules Change to Allow for Introduction of Caylee’s Law Bill

Concord–House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) announced today that he intends to ask the House Rules Committee to permit the late drafting of legislation that would make it a felony for any parent who failed to report a child missing within a certain time of their disappearance.  According to Rep. Bettencourt, he would like to work with the appropriate policy committee to set the window for reporting a missing child to a time specific, but said it would likely be  somewhere between 48 to 72 hours .  The legislation, called "Caylee’s Law," comes in response to the recent death of the Florida toddler, Caylee Anthony, whose disappearance went unreported by her mother for nearly a month.

"It is  unconscionable to think that any parent or guardian of a child would let their child’s disappearance go unreported for any length of time," said Bettencourt.  "The Caylee Anthony case has clearly brought to the national consciousness the need to close the  hole in any laws that don’t adequately protect our children.  We need to take steps right now to ensure that the search for any missing child can begin as quickly as possible and that any parent or guardian who fails to file a report suffer the consequence.  I intend to ask our  Rules Committee to allow the late drafting of this bill so that we may deal with it in the 2012 session," he added.

The theme of this year’s session has been the devolvement of power from Concord and the State back down to the lower levels of government here in NH as well as returning that power seized by Democrats to those that lend their consent to be governed – the citizens.  Examples are:

  • Parental notification in the issue of minor child abortions
  • Parents rights to remove students from objectionable school material
  • Protecting homeschoolers

and the like.  All have a single theme: parents know best what is good for their children.  Unlike Progressives (who do not trust individual), each of these Acts are emphasizing that Individuals/Parents know what is best for THEIR kids and not the State and have returned ‘stolen’ responsibility and oversight back to those parents.

The House passed parental notification under the rubric that the Government should not be the Nanny of a child as Parents can be trusted for their care and for being responsible for them. A "Caylee Law" would demonstrate, again, that Government (this time, under Republicans) does not trust parents to do the right thing. Imagine the PR black hole that the Republican leadership will be in when the Democrats point out the hypocrisy of this stance?

I really wanted to leave this whole Casey Anthony case alone – horrific as…

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And James O’Keefe is at it again – this time Medicaid!

First it was Planned Parenthood (those paragons of reproductive death health virtue), then onto the the convention of NJ Teachers Gone Wild (those paragons of union power educational virtue). Now, a new skewering brought to you by overblown acting, bad Russian accents, implausible business schemes, family relations that only a bad comedy writer would entertain….and … Read more

Ruminations from Friday’s WGIR Morning – Part 1 Show spot

GraniteGrok has been fortunate to be asked to participate EARLY during WGIR’s Morning Show – usually around 6:08 am.  My gosh, that’s WELL before that 1/2 can of Mt. Dew consumed has actually hit the brain, so if I sound a bit ditzy, well, I am. Anyways, I always try to give the host (usually … Read more

Ruminations from Friday’s WGIR Morning – Part 2 Show spot

"…this is at the heart of the Progressive mantra"

On of the other topics I wanted to bring up on Friday was Steve’s post:  Meanwhile, back at the tense White House budget negotiating session…

Meanwhile, back at the tense White House budget negotiating session….

The Debt Ceiling is pretty much wrapped up in this picture; let’s discuss:

  • Moody’s AND Standard and Poor’s proximity alarms are going off
  • And not just over the sympton (the debt ceiling), not the disease twice over:
  • The willingness of Progressives and Lovers of Big Government to spend money we don’t have – continuously.
  • The politicalese over the blame game- a game of MAD-BPTWTOTA (Mutual Assured Destruction by Pinning the Wrong Tail on the Asses).

The FINANCIAL problem, the rot that is lurking under the veneer of the most powerful country in the world is not financial, but a corruption of morals both on the part of the politicians and we who have put these lunkheads in charge of affairs.  Yet, while Obama demonizes the other side for saying "Stop", he himself has not put a single thing in writing, with his signature on it.  All he is doing, all that he knows how to do, all that he can do, is to continue to act as a community organizer acting according to the rules of his mentor, Saul Alinsky.  We have NO idea what he really is putting forward as a plan – all we get is a gauzey, filmie rhetoric used during the last campaign.  Problem is, this is not a campaign but a for real problem.  And as always, Obama is using the "leading from behind" of a C.O. and that is not true leadership.

What are the REAL arguments here, with the debt ceiling crisis as a proxy?

  • Are we going to have a European Socialist Democracy where we are wards of the State?
  • Will the American populace return to, to learn, understand, and practice our historical American Exceptionalism philosophy?

This is truly a real difference in Philosophy.  To the former, we have these enlightening words of wisdom from the Progressives that believe that Government knows best:

  • "Government has to protect us from our own stupidity." – NH Rep Kris Roberts (D-Keene) 
  • And I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact, I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans.  – President Obama

The latter, certainly, words from a Petulant President? 

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Notable Quote – Nikita Khruschev

“We can’t expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism.” – Nikita Khruschev, former head of the Soviet Union

Progressives: Anti-Choice – and that is what Charlie Bass is!

Congressman Charlie "Greenie" Bass (P-NH) agrees with the title

As I said here:

"Certainly, it seems, that Progressives believe that we have far too many choices, as indicated by Secretary Chu with his statement.  … 1It also shows a heavy dose of conceit and disdain for the ordinary citizen – not only do we make bad decisions but we cannot even spend our own money correctly.  We must told what is good, and what is bad.  And the latter is done similarly to what a parent does for a young child…" 

As far as the effort to repeal the part of the 2007 Energy bill that basically outlawed the simple incandescent light bulp, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said:

"We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money"

The Elder Son bluntly said "What about folks like KXXX who can’t afford these expensive bulbs?? Those Axxxxxxs! They expect them to stay in the dark??"  He’s right – socialism only works for the rich and not for the poor.

He pointed out that they can’t afford the latest greenie tech orgasm of LED bulbs; it doesn’t matter that it may save them money long term when they cannot afford the upfront cost of them.  The CFLs aren’t much better.

And now for Congressman Charlie "Mr. Greenie" Bass (P-NH).  With his vote (H.R. 2417)…

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Ah yes, the private marketplace is ever so clever…

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."            – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09  A while ago, I had posted that the US … Read more

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