It’s Only a 25% Increase, Who Cares?

By  vote of 186 to 165 the Democrat controlled New Hampshire House passed a 25% increase in New Hampshire’s fuel oil tax.  As numbers go the tax itself is not a large number, but the sum it extracts from the state economy–on the backs of families and business owners who will end up paying it–is.  … Read more

“A revolution in the works?” – Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Glenn Reynolds is a law professor at the University of Tennessee and is the father of InstaPundit.com.  Rather than try to condense his thoughtful USA Today piece, it follows in its entirety.

“But if there’s an upside to the increasing unhappiness that most Americans feel toward the political class, it’s that maybe it means people are paying closer attention.

Americans are out of sorts, and increasingly they’re unhappy with the government. According to a Pew poll released last week, more than half of Americans view government as a threat to their freedom.

And it’s not just Republicans unhappy with Obama, or gun owners afraid that the government will take their guns: 38% of Democrats, and 45% of non-gun owners, see the government as a threat.

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Biden:”If it only saves one life!” Does Joe want the Elderly just to take a knee and die?

Imagine what would have happened if the Progressives are successful in effectively neutering the Second Amendment: A 72-year-old homeowner immediately retrieved his handgun when he heard several home intruders attempting to gain entry to his Las Vegas residence early Monday morning. And when the criminals entered his bedroom, he opened fire, killing one of the … Read more

Data Point – Future Entitlement Spending

When you look at future Federal budgets and wonder why you can’t feed YOUR kids because the Progressive programs (and the debt for funding them) are sucking it away from you, you can blame ourselves for putting these chuckleheads at the helm. (H/T: Heritage)

Only a Matter of Time, Big Gov. Reaching for the 401k Plans

Like the dipsomaniac thirsting for Bourbon, the slakeless in Washington thirst for your retirement savings. And I’m not talking about the highly suspect and mythical Social Security payments that my generation and generations after mine believe are about as real as the “hair” that rests atop Joe Biden’s dome. I’m referring to the plenary savings of your own private retirement accounts, including, but probably not limited to, 401K plans.

Your 401k plan.

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Data Point: Homeschooled students place higher than the government schooled

Just cruising around and ran across this over at Breitbart: In a study published in 2009, 12,000 homeschooled students from across the 50 states were tested on national measures of reading, language, math, science, and social studies. In the core studies of reading, language, and math, the average homeschooler scored at the 88th percentile, while … Read more

Ted Nugent? Piers Morgan? Gun control? Slapdown!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkjIMxf0VyU “Why does anyone need…”  Always, the Progressive not understanding that Freedom does not require a need to obvious to anyone other than the person who wishes to possess or do someting.” Uncle Ted’s line of the interview: “Would you leave us the hell alone!”  I really do wish that Progressives would stop trying to … Read more

Are You a Union Member or a Lease?

Listen closely to what I'm saying...
Listen closely to what I’m saying…

After reading an article posted by Mike Antonucci yesterday at HotAir – included in it’s entirety below – I went to the NH Public Employee Labor Relations Board site to scan some NH collective bargaining agreements to learn whether this question should be asked here in NH.  In at least one case – the first one I read, in fact – the answer maybe ‘yes’.

7.3.1 Breaching of Contract.

Bargaining unit members will not be released from their individual teacher contracts without special permission and agreement from the Merrimack Valley School Board. Board action will be taken at the next regularly scheduled Board meeting after receiving such a request.

Any attempt by a bargaining unit member to resign, except in extenuating circumstances and when released by the School Board as set forth in this section, will constitute a breach of contract. A premature departure cost equal to 2% of Bachelor Step One (payable to the District before a release is granted) will be levied against any bargaining unit member who attempts to breach their individual teacher contract after June 1st. The amount will increase to 4% of Bachelor Step One after July 1st and will increase again to 6% of Bachelor Step One after August 1st. In addition, the District may charge the departing bargaining unit member legal fees incurred while enforcing this part of the collective bargaining agreement.

So, is this a bad thing?  Read the rest of the story.

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NH In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants?

HB 474  (Hearing Date: Thursday 2-7-13, 11:30 LOB 207)

This bill provides for in-state status within the university system of New Hampshire for students who are without lawful immigration status and who file an affidavit stating that the student has filed or will file an application to legalize his or her immigration status.

And yet out of state students who are permitted to vote here to elect the same representatives who may permit illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates….are still required to pay out of state tuition rates in the same University system.

Democrats.

The Bill’s sponsor is Rep Peter Schmidt

Representative Peter Schmidt (d) Strafford- District 19
Seat #:3078
Incumbent

Home Address:
PO Box 1468
Dover, NH  03821-1468
Phone: (603)743-3751
Email: reppbs@ttlc.net

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Occupy Senator Shaheen’s Office

Obama Drone StrikesA new Event just sprang up on Facebook called ‘Occupy Senator Shaheen’s Office.’  They’d like you to spend some “quality time there tomorrow and…

Demand an end to indefinite detention without charge and extrajudicial assassination of American Citizens under the NDAA.

Obama’s lawyers have laid out who he can kill. “[T]he confidential Justice Department “white paper” introduces a more expansive definition of self-defense or imminent attack than described by Brennan or Holder in their public speeches. It refers, for example, to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than actual intelligence about any ongoing plot against the U.S. homeland.

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From the Democrats, a deafening silence…

Obama has just issued another Executive Order: Henceforth, unregistered firearms in America are to be referred to as “undocumented weapons.” What? What happened? Where’d all the anti-self-defense, “gun control” Democrats go?    

SB 0120 – Bride of HB 1704 (2012) Political Speech For The Privelaged Few Makes A Come-Back

Free speech under assault againSB 0120, sponsored by three New Hampshire Senate Republicans, a House Republican and a House Democrat, is nothing more than the free speech killing bride of the amendment to HB1704 proposed last year.

It is the same language, placing the same similarly complex, overly demanding, ambiguous bureaucratic horse collar on political speech, which last May prompted me to ask…

How does one define the “value” of the ‘distribution’ of the speech for the purpose of determining the need for compliance, and therefore registration; and then jumping through hoops to exercise your right to free speech? 

(and) Using the internet as an example, how do we prevent lawsuit-filing opponents from manufacturing complaints of violations–simply to intimidate or stifle speech by ensuring it (that speech) never happens…

That was just the beginning of the problems with HB1704, all of which have been reincarnated in SB0120. So let’s get this out of the way right now.    I don’t care what ‘good’ you think you will be doing by sponsoring, supporting, or passing this bill.  It will, intentionally or not, silence political speech and I can’t believe you can think yourselves Republicans while doing it.

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SB 0120 – Let’s name the names, shall we? Jeb Bradley (R), Sharon Carson (R), Bob Odell (R), Shawn Jasper (R), Gary Richardson (D)

Let me get this off my chest: I am now ashamed that GraniteGrok, Meet the New Press (our former radio show), and I, did all we could to help Jeb Bradley, the prime sponsor of this Act, beat “Bathroom Bud” Martin in that special election that seems so long ago.  I was told he was a moderate Congressman – boardering on “squish”; I heard it but thought “well, that was ‘before my active time” and he’s sounding a whole lot more conservative now” and beat the drum.  Stupid me – he’s drifted Leftward ever since that first year.  And no, not happy with the results of the NH Senate last session either.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

One of my pet peeves lately is why is it that normal people can read the plain language of the Constitution and can understand it literally as written – and yet lawyers and politicians cannot?  How simple are the words “… no law….abridging the freedom of speech” – what is there to not understand? Five single syllable words, one with two, and one with three; this is elementary school level English.  Yes, while the Constitution is supposed to be binding on the US Congress, it is the Law of the Land, the foundational philosophy of our Constitutional Republic. The ordinary person who is NOT a lawyer keeps thinking “isn’t it about time to get rid of the lawyers, get rid of the prancing around with “case law” and nuances and penumbras that seem to emanate from black robed creatures when looking upon these words – and just read the words as written?

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Commuter Rail in NH Is a Fools Errand

I don’t typically link to the Concord Fish Wrapper, but this is worth the trip. I am a retired highway engineer and transportation planner with more than 36 years of experience in eight states and Washington, D.C. My opinions are based on experience, 42 years of transportation policy observations and objective study of publicly available … Read more

Coming Soon To A Tea Party Rally Near You

I bet the Obama Police State wants to get them some of these…(and I’m not saying they don’t already have some). The Scandinavian-designed Black Hornet Nano weighs as little as 16 grams (roughly half an ounce) — the same as a finch. The 4-inch (10-centimeter) -long helicopter is fitted with a tiny camera which relays … Read more

Annie McKluster Doesn’t Pay Her Taxes? [Updated & Bumped]

Ann Kuster doesn't pay her property taxes?
Ann Kuster: “Property taxes? What property taxes?”

The New Hampshire Young Republicans (NHYR) want to know why Congress-critter Ann McLane Kuster (I prefer McKluster) is worth an estimated $1.8 million dollars but can’t manage to pay her property taxes?

“While Annie Kuster pushes a message that we all need to chip in a little extra, she has failed to pay her fair share. Yesterday we realized that a tax-and-spend liberal member of Congress is delinquent on her own taxes. Time and again, Uncle Sam’s cup is passed around and we are told to dig a little deeper. When the cup was passed to Annie Kuster, she didn’t chip in.
…
I can understand if she was late on a payment or if there was just a simple oversight, but this is not a one-time mistake. Kuster has been delinquent 6 times for over $40,000 in property taxes owed to the towns of Hopkinton and Jackson. With a reported net worth of $1.8 Million (Center for Responsive Politics) how can she in good faith and with any level of moral authority ask any more of the American people than she does of herself.

This arrived in my in-box, and I don’t have a link or details, so I’m just reporting what I received… but we’ll follow up with more information as it becomes available.

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“Good Paul”- “Bad ‘Paul”

After the death of Navy Seal Chris Kyle, Ron Paul Tweeted… Chris Kyle’s death seems to confirm that ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.’ Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn’t make sense.  Yesterday, Rand Paul Tweeted this… Chris Kyle was a hero like all Americans who don the uniform to … Read more

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