As I said earlier, I was watching the Scotusblog Coverit feed to see what SCOTUS (Supreme Court of The United States) and my first reaction was “drat, drat, drat”.  I’ve had a chance to review some of the reviews (no, I have NOT read the actual decisions yet – I’m not a lawyer and am feeling that it would take a long time to understand the nuances so I’m relying on others with superior knowledge in the blogosphere to have picked out the troublesome parts.  It seems that there are a couple of things were OK, a definite No, and some stuff that really should concern anyone that believes in self-government, a Representative / Constitutional Republic, and a tri-part functional government.

OK:

• The small “L” libertarian part of me kinda went “er, not unexpected” as soon as I heard that Justice Kennedy wrote the decision on DOMA and figured that Prop 8 was going to go the same way – seen as a victory for the Gay Movement.  And then I started to read some of the commentary and realized “er, not so much” given the basis for the decisions – see TINGAA, below – my libertarianistic leanings are outweighed in this case by my belief in traditional marriage – and what that portends going forward.

• The idea of Federalism was strengthened. As The Corner pointed out:

To judge from most of the media coverage, today’s Supreme Court decisions in the marriage cases were supposed to give us a final answer on whether the U.S. Constitution requires the states to redefine marriage. They did not.

And this:

declaring that the federal government cannot define marriage for its own federal policies and federal laws but must accept whatever the states decide about marriage.

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“The Second Amendment does protect the right to people to possess weapons for self-defense in the home. That’s what the Supreme Court said.”   —Laurence Tribe

In the Union Leader today, the headline read, “AG says Manchester man justified in shooting home invader.” In my post on this incident on June 11, “Castle Doctrine, NOT Stand Your Ground”, folks were commenting in the Union Leader citing this as an example of, “stand your ground.”

The Attorney General’s office publicly released its final report. The matter is settled. To summarize what occurred, In the early hours of Saturday June 9, two men kicked in the door of  Ian Peters’ 430 Lake Ave apartment with the intent of harming Peters. The AG report indicates that Peters knew neither of the two men and the incident arose from threatening texts to Peters’ Fiancee.

The couple and 3-year-old son were in bed when they heard footsteps outside the apartment on the porch. The apartment door was kicked in and despite being armed with a handgun the attacker charged Mr. Peters who fired.  The assailant, 24-year-old Larocque was struck in the arm and abdomen and died there.

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On page A2 of the “Manchester Paper” there is a long write up about the nearly unanimous support for the new state budget.  If you read it with a discerning eye and ear, however, something becomes obvious.   While Republicans are quoted as happy with the results and view the budget as a responsible reflection of spending growth relative to things like inflation and actual need, the Democrats are using it as an opportunity to poke Republicans in the eye to promote their grow government first tax and spend agenda.

While everyone agrees that a bi-partisan budget was achieved and that it should serve the state well (or well enough), leading Democrats had to pepper their comments with modifiers and remarks like this…

“After the deep cuts and radical ideology of the last legislature…” – Democrat Governor Maggie Hassan

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Tired of the endless spending and debt. Worried about the interest on that debt swallowing up the budget?  Concerned about the cost of government your kids or grand-kids are inheriting?  Worried that big government is prying too much into your private life and that its gotten so big no one will ever be held to account; and that all the lack of accountability just costs you more an more every year?  Have you been taxed enough already.  Well that makes  you a member of the TEA party, even if it’s in absentia.   TEA, Taxed Enough Already.  You think government should slow down, maybe even back off a bit.

But thinking that makes you a domestic terrorist.

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I took a vacation day for a specific purpose dealing (second hand) with Government – and a bureaucrat made the time, effort, and gas all for naught.  And a cost to my currently unemployed Youngest a very dear $25 of his money.  For nuttin’.

I have oft been posting about my concern about a growing bureaucracy – and with a growth above a certain size seeming comes with a downward looking attitude or a “so?” attitude that is surrounded by Civil Service protections that can make it all but impossible to terminate bad apples (e.g., NYC infamous “rubber rooms” where really bad teachers spend their time, sometimes for years, on the citizens’ dime because firing them is all but impossible) – unelected, unresponsive, and unaccountable.  Today was a primary example of “So?”

The Youngest was told by a local bureaucrat (names and positions made generic to protect the wrong (no, not the wronged)) that he needed by a piece of paper that could only be researched and completed by someone at NHBHQ (NH Bureaucratic HQ) on Hazen Drive.  It was needed for yet another appointment needed to be able to set up yet a different appointment.  All within the square dance of Govt / NGO / Social Service Organization / Govt complex – one waterfalling to the other.  Heaven help him if he messed up.  And yes, by the end of this, he was appealing to Heaven.

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New Hampshire Democrats, in their race to the bottom with other New England States, like to raise taxes here–on items like tobacco–so they can grow government but still claim to have a slightly lower tax than those other Democrat run cesspools.

This, of course, does not work.

Three or four years ago, after NH Democrats raised the tobacco tax in the state several times, the end result was a 20% increase in cigarette sales in Maine, as people stopped coming to NH to save money because the difference in taxes did not amount to savings that were worth the trip.   A likely decline in traffic from VT and MA was not reported but can be presumed.   The left’s tax increase “race to the bottom” inevitably cost us long term sales, secondary sales, tax revenue, jobs, and so on.

But Democrats never learn.

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I guess some author at BuzzFeed regurgitated a list from a book by a health food goo-roo and added some scary CAPS; “Eight foods that we eat in the US that are banned in other countries.”  

Derek Lowe, a Biochemist, who himself has a blog, notes that…

Many science-oriented bloggers have taken on what’s been called “chemophobia”, and they’ve done some great work tearing into some some really uninformed stuff out there. But nonsense does not obey any conservation law. It keeps on coming. It’s always been in long supply, and it looks like it always will be.

It’s not just food, Derek.  It’s not just food.

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“Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties – provided we’re only talking about criminals.”   —Ann Coulter

Jamaal Moore, who had a considerable criminal history was shot after attempting to flee the scene of a robbery and a high speed chase through a residential neighborhood.  Five offenders, including Moore, “piled out” of the car, and attempted to run. Moore and a police officer fought. Moore threw the officer to the ground twice. “The officer was thrown around like a rag doll,” Police said.An officer warned that Moore had a gun. Moore then went after a female officer and who fired twice, killing Moore.

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President Barack Obama vowed to tackle climate change during his second term as President of the United States – and now he has promised to unveil a national climate action plan at Georgetown University on Tuesday. In his upcoming address, President Obama will propose a new strategy to reduce carbon emissions, prepare for the impact of climate change, build a green economy, and empower all Americans to do their part to “preserve God’s creation.”

Inhabit is another TreeHugger type site – environmentalism all the way (and, in fact, there is some cross-over in some of the writers).  We all know that President Obama has decided that tomorrow he is going to tell us how our energy usage is going to look like going forward (emphasis on tell) and Inhabit decided to comment on it; the above is how they started their post.  One of those changes will be, I’m sure, is to fulfill one of his 2008 campaign promises:

“You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

The Legislative process in Congress decided to NOT do a Cap N Trade – there just was not a consensus that the benefits were not worth the cost (either to us financially or to them politicially).  However, given the size and the overreach of the Federal Government, the EPA decided that it could be both Legislative and Executive Branches all on it own say so to dramatically change the make up of America’s energy sources.  No Congress, No President, no law, no free market – just regulation.

This is the hallmark of a Representative Republic? 

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Now that Grokster Susan has outlined that you have voted to limit debate on “new and devolved” Schumer Open-Border Immigration bill, it may be too late to note that this is turning into yet another “We have to pass the bill to see what is in it”.  With almost a total rewrite of the original bill with the Corker / Hoeven Amendment of 1200 pages, you only had about 72 hours to read the bill AND UNDERSTAND all of the ramifications (again, is this REALLY how a Representative Republic is supposed to work – by voting for bills nobody understand?  Obamacare redeux!).  A bill that was more convoluted, referencing pages within itself and to existing law and deleting other law, than most code I get to at.  I don’t wonder why that code doesn’t work, and with the worse spaghetti orientation in this bill (so I’ve been told) I will not be surprised in what is in it – or the harm this will cause.

For instance and just like in Obamacare, you and your other Senatorial chuckleheads have delegated much of your “higher level” authority and oversight to the Executive Branch (even as the bill micromanages things that SHOULD be delegated to the Executive Branch).  So, Kelly, did you know that you voted, not for Obamaphones, but for Obamacars??

That’s right – the ability for the Executive Branch to use some of the slush funds you just voted for to purchase “transportation” for our newly “legalized residents” (as that’s what “Provisional” means – instant legality for formerly illegal aliens at the press of your button press and Obama’s signature); from Big Government:

Breitbart News has learned there is a provision included in the immigration bill that could be used to give free cars, motorcycles, scooters or other vehicles to young people around the country over a period of 15 months after the bill passes.  The new provision is a result of the latest addition to the Corker-Hoeven amendment, which is essentially an entirely new version of the bill.

…“The original Gang bill ended with a section designated Title IV, which was headlined REFORMS TO NON-IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAMS,” York wrote on Sunday. “The Hoeven-Corker version of the bill added a Title V, with the headline JOBS FOR YOUTH. The measure would provide $1.5 billion in the next two years to provide jobs for Americans between the ages of 16 and 24…

A provision under that new stimulus program title allows for the use of spending the taxpayer money on the program to provide transportation for youth to and from their jobs.

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