Kathy Dunton | GrokWatch News Desk

If you’re a parent of an 8th grader in Rochester, you may have received a letter from the Rochester Middle school last month, informing you that your child has been “selected” to take the NAEP mathematics, reading or science assessments.  These assessments were to begin on February 10th, but because of all the snow days and delays, we have had this month, they have not yet been carried out.

On the surface, participating in these assessments may seem harmless to your child, and possibly beneficial to the schools.  After all the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been around since 1969.  If you were born in the 60’s or after, you too probably took these assessments with your trusty #2 pencils, intentionally filling out the ovals with answers you knew and playing Eenie Meenie Mynie Mo with the ones you didn’t.

So what is the big deal now?  Why am I opting my child out?

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Senator Pierce made a complete fool out of himself during the vote on SB 116, aka ‘Constitutional Carry’, by claiming that it wasn’t a ‘Women’s Rights’ issue.  He insulted New Hampshire women and appears to be the ‘king’ of deciding what issues are women’s rights issues.

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Yesterday Bill Wynne of Goffstown Today posted video of the New Hampshire Senate vote on SB 116. The video is almost 50 minutes with Susan Olsen from the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire reporting at the beginning and end. As previously reported, the bill, aka “Constitutional Carry” was passed along party lines by a vote of 14-9. There was a lot of misinformation spread from New Hampshire Senate Democrat David Pierce which has already been debunked.

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I’ve been busy all day (you know, that “balance” thing) so blogging has been light.  Pretty much most Sundays, I do watch the talking head shows.  On today’s This Week, “Republican strategist” Anna Navarro who never seems to lose an opportunity to “sniff” at conservatives did exactly that.  Donna Brazille talked about the conservatives she knew that they want a true conservative to run and win; she said “I dunno if that is Jeb Bush”.  True to form, Navarro said exactly what I would have expected an Establishment Republican to say:

“We have been in White House exile for 8 years. The hunger on the Republican side is to win and whomeever convinces they can then, we’ll support.”

Spoken like a true political operative

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Liberals have shown a repeated tendency to simply not enforce laws they don’t like.  In 2011, Obama’s Justice Department decided that it would effectively repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act without the consent of Congress.

A year later, Politico was reporting that the Obama decision to not enforce the laws it didn’t like had expanded. The story began this way:

On issue after issue — gay rights, drug enforcement, Internet gambling, school achievement standards — the administration has chosen to achieve its goals by a method best described as passive-aggressive. Rather than pushing new laws through a divided Congress to enact his agenda, Obama is relying on federal agencies to ignore, or at least not defend, laws that some of his important supporters — like Hispanic voters and the gay community — don’t like. ‘If the president says we’re not going to enforce the law, there’s really nothing anyone can do about it,’ University of Pennsylvania constitutional law professor Kermit Roosevelt said. ‘It’s clearly a political calculation.’

Dangerous ground for our Republic – Leadership roles are watched and then emulated; when the President, when top Federal appointed officials, refuses to “faithfully execute the laws”, what to do?  Certainly our “feckless” opposition (e.g., the GOP) seem to have no answer (mostly because they are too scared to hammer down and use their Constitutional powers (impeachment and/or power of the purse) because they are more willing to risk the Republic than to risk their seats.  “But we’ll LOSE”, they whine.  Well, what’s the difference when you fail to “win” with your asses in those seats?  But that behavior is emulated and trickled down; Conservative Review continues:

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And if it is up to them, we’re gonna keep this taxpayer sucking, dependency creating program that breaks EVERY plank in the Republican Party that is even remotely related to it.  From the Union Leader:

Including the state’s share of the cost of Medicaid expansion for the final six months of the next biennium, when the state has to begin paying 2 percent of the cost, while also removing the program’s sunset is a mixed bag on the spending side of the ledger.

The House leadership, including House Finance Committee Chairman Neal Kurk, R-Weare, are unwavering in their opposition to continuing the program, but the NH Health Protection Act was sponsored by Morse and Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, and they want it to continue.

For sponsoring Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion, I have to ask this question:

How do you tell the Republicans from the Democrats?

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