Another way of saying “…comes with strings attached”: Matt Mayberry is quite right!

Free Market Govt Redtape“We don’t take any money from the state or the federal government. You know why? It’s because I don’t want to serve a piping hot bowl of red tape every day.”

From his UL Op-Ed, Matt hits the nail on the head.  The problem isn’t that the Feds want to make sure that their money (er, our money minus their vigorish) is well spent, it is that it all comes with micro-management. You may have the idea, you may have the sweat, you may have the willingness to do the right thing, but of course some government bureaucrat (or commission or board or some other entity that ISN’T doing the good work you want to do themselves) believes you don’t know HOW to do it – so you now have the privilege of paying taxes to them simply to have them tell you how to do what you want to do, how to spend that which you have left of your treasure, even as they simply sit in a chair with a keyboard (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Another View — Matt Mayberry: A piping hot bowl of red tape

I recently attended the 2017 Londonderry-Derry Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. That evening, the Sonshine Soup Kitchen won the Business of the Year Award. Linda German, a firecracker of an activist, talked about making ends meet during hard times, and she said something profound and unfortunately accurate.

“We don’t take any money from the state or the federal government. You know why? It’s because I don’t want to serve a piping hot bowl of red tape every day.” And she’s right. The federal government would come in and dictate things such as serving portions. These volunteers just want to feed people, provide fellowship, and comfort those in need.

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NH LSRs rated by sponsor ratings – Part 5

OK, time got away from me – time to put up some more LSRs (which by this time, I’m betting some have been turned into bills).  This time, those who the prime sponsor had a rating of 36% – 50%.  Like the last 4 posts, I’ve bolded a few that caught my eye (yes, I know, I haven’t gone back to review them but hey BUDGET SEASON!):

36% HB1343 relative to the protection of beavers. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/billText.aspx?id=1307&type=4
36% HB1719 relative to donations of liquor to nonprofits. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/billText.aspx?id=1593&type=4
36% HB1378 relative to domestic insurance company investments. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/billText.aspx?id=1639&type=4
36% HB1379 relative to confidentiality of forms and rates. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/billText.aspx?id=1641&type=4
36% CACR16 relating to privacy. Providing that an individual’s right to live free of governmental interference is fundamental. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/billText.aspx?id=1656&type=4
And with respect to the last one, it goes to show you that even if it doesn’t have a high sponsor rating, it does look fairly good Freedom wise!

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Tales from the BudComm – outsourcing an answer?

School houseSometimes, I just shake my head.  This started when we were going over “Federal Projects” of which one is Title II whereupon the Feds allocate monies to the Various States and then the State Board of Educations then allocate their share to towns and cities based on grant requests from said towns and cities.  Briefly said, this is money to “improve learning and school staff” (programs to make their teaching capability better). Involved in this is curriculum upgrades – new courses like, say, a new match curriculum for kids in 3rd-5th classes.  Knowing that past experience, we used to flip courses a LOT and while I saw the costs, I never heard what the outcomes were (gee, silly me for wondering, eh?).  So silly engineer me asked the following question (emphasis mine):

Scott, Kirk, and Steve, I am following up on a question that I asked during the Federal Projects subcommittee (in the line of “how do we know if taxpayers are getting sufficient bang for their bucks”):

With respect to the “revamp” question, even if no new curriculum is being introduced, I would still like to know what metrics, especially financial and educational improvement outcomes, were used previously. It goes to the heart of the issue of “we’re spending all this time, effort, and other peoples’ money – what did we get for it?”. Can you, or someone else on the team, dig up that information? What were/are the procedures that you use to determine, in a postmortem / multi-dimensional analysis, whether you got it right, just even, or a failure (to learn from)?

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ICE By The Numbers – Immigration Enforcement Report for 2017

ICEMr. Trump took a unique position on Illegal Immigration and international borders when he became president. He let the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforce the existing immigration laws. And letting them off the leash Obama put them on has produced some results.

Throughout FY2017, ICE deportation officers and special agents succeeded across a broad range of initiatives and operations. These include disrupting and dismantling illegal drug trafficking networks to arresting and removing aliens, including criminals who are too often released back into our communities.

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Trump Keeps Another Campaign Promise: Recognizes Jerusalem as Israeli Capital

smirking-trumpMr. Trump also plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

“It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “It is the right thing to do.”

He said the new U.S. embassy “will be a magnificent tribute to peace.” The president said his decision is not intended to derail any chance of peace talks.

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US House Votes 364-58 Against Impeachment Resolution

The US House tabled a resolution to begin Impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump. The House on Wednesday tossed aside an attempt by Rep. Al Green to bring articles of impeachment against President Trump. Many Democrats joined the Republican majority in voting, 364-58, to table the resolution from Mr. Green, Texas Democrat, after Democratic leaders said … Read more

US House Votes 364-58 Against Impeachment Resolution – who is the NH weasel CongressCritter?

Impeach Trump signSteve’s post ended with this thought:

Fifty-Eight Democrats voted for the measure. We’ll have to see if either of Washington’s ambassadors to NH from the House sided with the minority or did what leadership told them to do.

Teamwork, baby!  To help Steve out, I went out and got the info and my, who turned out to be the weasel:

  • Annie Kuster: voted yes to the motion to table the motion to impeach
  • Carol Shea-Porter: voted “Present

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But will conservatives admit and learn?

John Hawkins‘Grok friend John Hawkins (RightWingNews) has a column over at Townhall on 7 observations he’s learned during the last year.  I’ve put the first one up in its entirety as it shows a massive shift on how a lot of folks on the Right are changing their view on morality and politics simply because the Left wins by ignoring traditional morality altogether – character no longer counts; only winning:

7 Things Conservatives Can Learn From Donald Trump’s First Year in Office

Donald Trump’s election felt like a revolutionary act and love him or hate him, his first year in office has rewritten the rules of the political game. That’s why it’s surprising how little political thinking seems to have shifted. There are some big lessons we can learn from Trump’s first year in office.

1) Conservatives Have Lost Faith That Good Behavior Will Be Rewarded: There was a time when conservatives took great pride in being the sort of people who wouldn’t tolerate a Ted Kennedy, Marion Barry or William Jefferson in their ranks. However, eventually conservatives have started asking a basic question: How does this benefit us? Do we get credit from the American people for being more moral than liberals? Is this helping us to succeed? What’s the pragmatic value of doing the right thing beyond feeling superior to the Left? When conservatives concluded there was no practical value to having high standards, standards declined. A lot. In a hurry. Is that a good thing? No, but when you create a situation where virtue is no longer rewarded, you can’t expect virtuous people to slam their heads into a wall forever.

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Data Point – Economy may hit 3.9% GDP rise this quarter??

New York Fed Now Projects 3.9% GDP Growth in Fourth Quarter… Another week – another set of weekly economic data – another upward forecast of anticipated 4th Quarter GDP growth.  Two weeks ago the Fed raised the 4th quarter growth projection to 3.2%. Last Week they revised that up to 3.8%. This week they have revised it upward again to 3.93% Remember, … Read more

Democrat Politician Gets 5 Years in Prison for Fraud

We haven’t mentioned Democrat Congresswoman Corrine Brown in a while (seven years), but it’s time to bring her back. The former Democrat congressperson and member of the Socialist Party of America is going to jail. Former Rep. Corrine Brown was sentenced to five years in prison and three years probation Monday after being found guilty of fraud earlier this year, … Read more

ObamaCare Individual Mandate is a Tax on the Poor.

With any luck, Tax reform reconciliation will include the Senate’s repeal of the ObamaCare individual mandate. The mandate punishes poor people, something Barack Obama understood before he became president. The individual mandate and its associated fine is, in other words, a tax on the poor. This is why, after years of Obamacare, the number of … Read more

New Hampshire Senators Oppose Turnpike Toll Hike

NH SenateBy Sen. Kevin Avard

The New Hampshire Senate
Republican Majority Office
Senators oppose turnpike toll hike

Concord, NH – The Governor’s Advisory Commission on Intermodal Transportation (GACIT) held a public hearing on Monday regarding the Department of Transportation plan for a statewide toll hike.

Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem), Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead), Senator Kevin Avard (R-Nashua) and Senator Andy Sanborn (R-Bedford) issued the following statements after attending the hearing and speaking in opposition.

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Tales from the BudComm – Cost vs Results

SchoolhouseFrom Weekend Pundit (emphasis mine):

Speaking of small town New Hampshire, we are going through out budgeting process for both the town and school. It can be a time-consuming effort, with some wanting a lot more money this coming year and others making do with the same amount they spent this year. One of the biggest parts of the budget for our town is the school system which takes up over 68% of the money the town spends. The town side of the budget has managed to keep spending in check, with most budget increases coming in at approximately 1% or less (this coming year’s is no different). But there have been times when the school side has seen huge increase, both as a percentage and in actual dollars. Of course the reasoning we always hear for those increases are the usual “But it’s for the children!”

It’s funny how all that money “for the children” ends up paying rather high salaries for teachers, supervisory staff, and paraprofessionals. I would say it would be worth it if we had the best schools in the state and out kids performed at the top. However the reality is that our school system is really slightly above average. We spend a lot of money for ‘slightly above average’.

In fact, here’s how “slightly above average” our hamlet really does:

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Tales from the BudComm: we don’t need no stinkin’ private sector

Urn and vaultBudComm 2017 Cemeteries - UrnsCemeteries.  Usually a very small part of any town or city’s budget but it is there.  It seems that every town has at least one within its boundaries; mine, due to historical reasons, has a bunch of them.  Many of them were old family plots started well over a hundred years ago and over time, the town took “ownership” of the land and care of the plots (and yes, if they were and descendants are now among us, I feel they should take care of those plots instead of socializing the costs across the rest of us but this is a beef from my last stint on the BudComm) as well as the “central” one across from our Middle/High Schools).  It’s not much of a budget – a couple of guys to properly take care of the grass and detritus that seemingly collects on the grounds.

And urn vaults….what, URNS VAULTS? Is this a Proper Role of Government? And is this a prime (if tiny) example of mission creep?

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Fake Russia Collusion News Trap Snaps

snopes-fake-news-sites
Image Credit- Snopes

Fake News backfires on ABC as the Russian Collusion Trap Snaps on its first victim.

ABC News announced Saturday that Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross had been suspended for four weeks without pay over a botched “exclusive” about former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Ross’ suspension is effective immediately. ABC News spokeswoman Heather Riley would not comment on whether anyone else had been suspended in connection with the error.

Meanwhile, over at the FBI division of Mueller-Russia-Find-Something, anything, the shotty “integrity” of the Deep State tries to hide under a rock.

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Meanwhile, As A Special Prosecutor Tries To Nullify An Election, Democrats Are Being Democrats

Ray Buckley

The NH Democrats held a meeting to discuss their crooked superdelegate mess which was exposed when a candidate, not even in their party, was marginalized by having the superdelegates pledge support for his crooked opponent – before he announced his well-known intention to run as a Democrat.

As if that isn’t “Democrat” enough, there was a futile move to remove the name of a serial abuser of women from the name of their annual banquet. The serial abuser of women is the husband of the Democrat icon who was advanced in the Democrat Primary by the corrupt selection process.

But take heart!

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