One  DoE affected by the Shutdown™, the Department of Education, not to be confused with the Dept. of Energy, has a $70 Billion dollar budget it spends primarily on nothing that has anything to do with teaching children.  (It is, as are most federal agencies, an Oasis for lobbyists, rent-seekers, and the handing out of indulgences.)  So it is not surprising that Obama’s Shutdown of the government would reveal just how much waste is being reduced by keeping these pencil pushers out of the office.

Ninety-five percent of the Department of Education’s staff is deemed “non-essential.”  They have been furloughed.  Given a stay-cation. As in stay home tax-dollar-wasting pencil-pushers.

And lucky for us….they are not alone.

Read more

Did you know that House Republicans sent three Continuing Resolutions to the Senate before the October Deadline?

And did you know this as well…

The Republicans in their CR to fund the government expressly reiterated that Members of Congress and their staffs, as well as the President and Vice President and top Obama Administration political appointees, would all be subject to Obamacare in the Exchanges under the same rules as they have imposed on everyone else. But every Democrat in the Senate voted against that and in favor of the special exemption from Obamacare for themselves in the process of unpeeling and rejecting the Republican CR to fund the government.

Read more

“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)

Read more

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.”

Read more

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.

Read more

“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). 

Read more

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.”

Read more

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): 

Read more

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?

Read more

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.

Read more

Observe the Spin.

Harry Reid has blocked every budget for four years running.  The Democrat Senate has obstructed every effort to manage the fiscal needs of the nation in an orderly manner.  The only things that get action are politically driven, press-headline grabbing, last minute, temporary resolutions and machinations about raising the debt ceiling.

Read more

It’s all right if you keep spendin’
You keep saying there’s no way
To cut the budget, the debts not endin’
we’ll deal with it some other day

There is no sense in pretending
Your staffers say there’s no way
Compromise isn’t something you’ll ever do
You’ll try to make Republicans pay.

Baby Shutdown
Go ahead and give it to me
Shutdown Harry can’t give-in to the right

Read more