Internet Doodlings – Once again, back at Treehugger…this time, Mayor Bloomberg soda ban

Ah yes, the Nanniest of them all, Mayor “Do as I say, not as I do” Bloomberg wants to ban large capacity soda servings.  One more thing that “It’s good for you to NOT drink all that” as if sugary water is the worst thing EVAH!   Hey Bloomberg – how about concentrating on stuff that Mayors are supposed to concentrate on that would be more important – like murders and crime?  Potholes?  What about your failing public school system – what was your graduation rate again? Oh yeah, a rate of 65% but not ready for college:

Sixty-one percent of city students who started high school in 2006 graduated on time in 2010, compared with 59 percent of those who started in 2005 and graduated in 2009.

But only 21.4 percent of those students earned high enough scores on their math and English state tests to be deemed prepared for college and well-paying careers.

That’s the [success] ticket!  If 78% of your grads can’t go directly to college, that’s not properly educating your students (a MAJOR part of your responsibility).  Yet, that is of lesser importance than grabbing big cups of soda out of the hands of folks in your city?

Anyways, back to the Treehugger post (which isn’t as bad as some of the pro-ban pandering I’ve read):

When if comes down to it, the ban would only be an inconvenience for the die-hard soda drinkers. If you really want to drink 32 ounces of Coke, no one is going to stop you from ordering two.

Your ability to choose what YOU want?  Not so much.  They don’t see it as individual freedom issue – rather, an infringement on the collective having to pay for the bad habits of all us fat people.  My response:

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Minorities, The Elderly, And The Poor Shut Out of Massachusetts Democrat State Party Convention

Just doing my morning reading when what to my wondering eyes should appear…but a link to the Massachusetts Democrat Committee Delegates Guide for their 2012 Convention (Which is happening today, right now.)  It looks like the Democrats in Massachusetts don’t want minorities, the elderly, or the poor to participate in their state party.  Just scoot … Read more

Is this starting to show that Obama isn’t a good enough manager of the economy?

Obama-Unemployment May 2012As if we already didn’t know it.  He keeps blaming Bush for the economy he inherited; I remember the economy that Reagan inherited too.  Reagan merely said “let’s get down to working at making it work” and produced one of the (if not THE) largest recoveries ever in US history.  It did take a while, but he didn’t whine about things the way that Obama has.  In three and a half years, the only time he has acknowledged that he would be held accountable is when he said “If I don’t have this done in three years, there is going to be a one term proposition“.

They why does he keep insisting “HEY!  It’s NOT MY FAULT”?  It has been one excuse after another: Bush, Europe, the weather, a tsumani, Republicans (even as he “owned” Congress as Democrats controlled it before he was elected  and for his first two years) and at a cost of over $800 Billion.  Meanwhile, the latest jobs report yesterday shows his Administration’s continued ineptitude in setting up and implementing the policies in the best way to help American families: setting those conditions that make it easiest to get a job.

People don’t like whiners, Mr. President, they want results.  I understand that Government does not create jobs – it does, simply because of its size and its rule / law ability, set the environment that tells others the conditions under which they can operate and thus, decide to hire.  What the market is saying is “Mr President, we find your environment wanting, and wanting too much from us in believing you will do the right things.  Thus, we will wait”.  Now, one month upwards is not a trend, but it is indicative that even a President and all the smartest Progressive ideas can implement a command and control system that would truly meet the needs of the nation’s businesses that are, in turn,  supposed to meet the needs of over 300 million consumers.

I expect that soon, Mr. Obama will soon revert to bashing business for “not caring about American families” by hiring the unemployed” and continuing his class warfare scorched earth policies.  Bashing may indeed be a campaign strategy but it is not an economic one – too bad (for all of us) that Obama doesn’t understand the difference.

The problem is that there are just 6 months left in this campaign – while most people DON’T want to get involved in politics, they are paying attention to the economics coming up to the vote.  And they will do the one thing that often Liberals decry – they will vote their self-interest and their wallets.  Politics is fine but for most, taking care of their family is job one.  And they will ensure that the person best suited to enable that will get the nod.

And this above result is not going to cement the feeling that Obama is up to the job.

(H/T: Instapundit)

The hard data:

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10 top and 10 bottom of College Endowment funds – how well would they respond to “spread the wealth around”?

Certainly there is a LARGE disparity between these funds that allow university systems fund either “new” stuff or offset the cost of attendance to their places of higher learning to economically disadvantaged students (or so we are led to believe): 2,011 Endowment Rank Name State Funds 1 Harvard University MA 31,728,080,000 2 Yale University CT … Read more

An example: When Government oversteps it bounds via Boards and Commissions

“Can the government throw you in jail for offering advice on the Internet about what people should buy at the grocery store?…When does the government’s power to license occupations trump free speech?” Blogger becomes overly hefty Researches / picks a “Paleo” diet Works fabulously He blogs it Natural extension: answers questions about his diet North … Read more

Romney At Solyndra – The New Shape Of Solar.. (cough-cough)

solyndra for sale - Hope it sells for more than 535 million

Solyndra was going to be “The New Shape of Solar” but it turned out to be the old one, losing millions and collapsing under the weight of it’s own incompetence.   And how fitting that Solyndra parallels the same glide path as the one their crony capitalist political benefactors have put the entire country on.

Makes you wonder why Mr. Obama isn’t out in front of the shuttered plant with a big ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign hanging behind him, in preparation for America Inc to come crashing down around his ears as everything wrong with government and the progressive vision of it screams FAIL.

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Time to Come to the Aid of Your Republican Party in New Hampshire….

Tim to get into the fray....I meant "time" to get into the fray. But I'll leave it like that....

How NOT to be a summer soldier or sunshine patriot for your party.

TO: All New Hampshire Republicans

FROM: Tim Condon (with information originally provided by Ray Chadwick)

We’re all familiar with the effort to recruit candidates for the NH State House and Senate. But you should also give thought to becoming a Delegate to the Republican State Party Convention(s). Basically, the job of NH GOP Delegates is…

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Planned Parenthood – No Early Abortion for Their Growing Gender Bias Problem

The second shoe has hit the floor in the Planned Parenthood ‘gendercide’ scandal.  Video number two has been released, taken at the Margret Sanger Clinic, in Bloombergville (NYC), and that staff also seems to have been absent the day Big Abortion’s Corporate Messaging folks announced that…

“Gender bias is contrary to everything our organization works for … Planned Parenthood condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias.”

…becasue at the New York City office they say things like…

 “I can’t tell  you that, you know, here at Planned Parenthood we believe that it’s not up to us to decide what is a good or bad reason for somebody to decide to terminate a pregnancy.”

They can’t tell you.  But they can keep your secret, whatever that may be.

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Brett Kimberlin is a….

At GraniteGrok lately, we’ve been talking a lot about Brett Kimberlin lately HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. He’s the guy over on the left, a convicted felon who now is out of prison and threatening various high-profile national bloggers. For a little background, see the short video about this character HERE. He’s becoming better and better … Read more

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Instutite Doesn’t Like CACR 6 or CACR 13

Why would we give a damn what Jeff McLynch–Executive Director of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute–thinks about Republican efforts to push CACR 6 and CACR 13?  It’s a great question.

CACR 6  is a constitutional amendment that would require a 3/5 vote of the legislature to pass any new taxes.  CACR 13 would change the state constitution to prohibit a personal income tax.

Jeff McLynch is “concerned, but Jeff McLynch is a Democrat, the former State Policy Director at the Soros/left wing funded Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)–which pushed for an income tax in the Granite state (see also here), and Jeff is also an avid Obama supporter.

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute he runs is the New Hampshire chapter of the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, which is a state by state project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).  CBPP is a left wing group that promotes the Democrat parties social and economic justice agenda through budget based think tanks and policy organizations with support from the cranky Progressives over at the Bookings Institute and deep pocketed left wing foundations like Ford, Rockefeller and George Soros’ Open Society Institute. So Jeff isn’t working too far out of his known circle of “friends.”

So if you have not yet connected the dots, NHFPI looks all smart and sophisticated but it is really just another socialist/Democrat front group, using the cover of  a welfare-state based (we’re the ones who really care) tax-and-spend-budget policy agenda (Social and Economic Justice) to advocate for the progressive creep of bigger government and the higher and broader revenue streams needed to fund it.

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Remembering Democrat Rule Part 2

If New Hampshire Democrats were ever again allowed to run the State legislature we already know the first thing they would do.  They would overestimate revenue to justify spending for the purpose of driving us into a broad based tax.  They did it during a recession, with unemployment skyrocketing, embarking on one of the most massive modern day expansions of New Hampshire state government.  What’s to stop them doing it again under any other condition?  Republicans.  Barring that, nothing.  It’s who they are.

Spending was and always is the Democrats first priority and Governor Lynch’s most recent budget was just another example.  Even without a Democrat legislature he wanted to spend 4.731 billion on General and Education funds, almost 300 million more than the current Republican Budget; a budget 6% less than that of Governor Lynch; a Republican budget that is almost exactly in line with actual revenue.  (That means it spent what they estimated they would take in.)

But left unchecked by Republicans Democrat Governor Lynch would have got his budget and then some, and added another 300 million dollar hole that the taxpayers of New Hampshire would have had to fill because there wasn’t another $300 million plus to spend without raising some more taxes in this lousy economy.

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Mental Recrement 5-31-12 “Got Big Plans?”

  Got Big Plans?  The United States Senate Federal Credit Union would like to help you save for them.  Even if they happen to be…um…large firm breasts.  They don’t actually say that, but a recent mailer (focus of which accompanies this post to the left) suggests that the USSFCU (no connection to the actual US … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Andrew Hemingway, Chair, 4RG

Andrew Hemingway has started a new PAC here in NH called 4RG.  He takes a few minutes to talk with GraniteGrok about its mission (For a Republican Governor) and why the election of either of the two Left wing extremist Progressives, Jackie Cilley or Maggie Hassan, would be a disaster for constitutional governance and limited … Read more

Veto of HB 1549 by NH Gov. John Lynch – does anyone ever really proof this stuff?

HB 1549’s official title is  “AN ACT prohibiting the use of motor vehicle records for any federal identification database.”

There were three changes to RSA 260:14

  • III. Motor vehicle records may be made available pursuant to a court order or in response to a request from a state, a political subdivision of a state, the federal government, or a law enforcement agency for use in official business. The request shall be on a case-by-case basis. Any records received pursuant to this paragraph shall not be further transferred or otherwise made available to any other person or listed entity not authorized under this paragraph. No records made available under this section shall be used, directly or indirectly, for any federal identification database.
  • Changes the ID of a Federal form (I-151 to I-551) – NH has no control over this
  • Change United States Citizenship and Naturalization Service to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services – NH has no control over this

The latter is a simple change reflecting the name change that the Feds have done to themselves.  The first is basically saying – we continue to no support the REAL ID program (which NH has never agreed to participate in).  See for yourself – here is the entire bill:

AN ACT prohibiting the use of motor vehicle records for any federal identification database.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Motor Vehicle Records. Amend RSA 260:14, III to read as follows:

III. Motor vehicle records may be made available pursuant to a court order or in response to a request from a state, a political subdivision of a state, the federal government, or a law enforcement agency for use in official business. The request shall be on a case-by-case basis. Any records received pursuant to this paragraph shall not be further transferred or otherwise made available to any other person or listed entity not authorized under this paragraph. No records made available under this section shall be used, directly or indirectly, for any federal identification database.

2 Employment of Illegal Aliens Prohibited. Amend RSA 275-A:4-a to read as follows:

275-A:4-a Employment of Illegal Aliens Prohibited. No employer may employ an alien whom the employer knows is not a citizen of the United States and not in possession of Form [I-151] I-551, Alien Registration Receipt Card or any other document issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration [and Naturalization Service] Services or the Attorney General of the United States which authorizes him or her to work.

3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.

Gov Lynch (or his speechifiers), in his veto, decided that instead of supporting this narrow, limited prohibition in participating in REAL ID-by-another-name, they decided to drag in irrelevant issues in order to beclown Gov. Lynch (hey, he has a few short months – don’t waste that time crisis!):

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Ask Jeanne Shaheen – Where’s The Oversight?

According to this video (from Obama Isn’t Working.com) Mr. Obama has blown through $16 billion ($16,000,000,000.00) on public equity green energy gambles that have cost jobs and lost our money, much of it to Big Obama donors, and cronies.

So here’s a question?  New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen cut her teeth in her first Senate race by raging about taxpayer hand outs to big oil.  These “Handout’s,” as it turns out, were actually incentives that reduced how much of those Oil companies legal profits would be taxed.  Less taxes on the oil companies money, not handing them billions of our money.  Most people don’t know the difference, they just see the spin.

So how does that compare to Mr. Obama and his Department of Energy giving direct grants and loans (of our money),  totaling tens of billions, to companies that are all going bankrupt or out of business?  (No Spin.)  Does it make a difference that Senator Shaheen is a huge supporter of Green energy boondoggles, sits on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as well as three Energy Subcommittees on Energy, Public Lands and Forests, and Water and Power, who would presumably have some interest in how that money is being wasted?

Where is the legislative oversight Senator Shaheen?  We are out 16 Billion (so far), and I can’t recall hearing a peep out of you about that.

Video on the Jump.

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