UNH may have to Layoff More Staff

Box of tissues for UNH cry babiesBoo hoo.

Faced with a deficit, after years of a bad economy, UNH may be forced to do what many companies had to do years ago–cut more staff.  I can’t tell you how bad I feel for them.  The small business I work for went from 30 employees down to 12…two years ago.  Of course we were not supported by taxpayers, nor did we have unions or arbitrators insisting we pay people like Ed Larkin to do nothing for five years at the staggering cost of almost half a million dollars.

At my office we streamlined down to the bare minimum needed to keep things running, and have discovered efficiencies and opportunities to be more productive with less resources.   Not only are we still in business, but things are actually looking up. Yeah, it’s more work for the rest of us, and no we have not had raises in years, but we are working and providing a product and service (and paying taxes).

But State run enterprises, or those who have become dependent on tax payer prop-ups, have little or no incentive to make those hard choices. 

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Democrats Continue to Obstruct Obama

Reid still giving us he fingerHarry Reid’s excuse for refusing to bring the Obama Tax away jobs bill to the Senate floor was a busy floor schedule. This is only important because Reid and the Narrative gang are busy blaming Republicans.  But Dirty Harry Reid might as well have said he couldn’t do it because he had to wash his hair or arrange his sock drawer. 

The same Senate that cannot be bothered to address the matter of a budget–except when erecting straw men about Republicans obstructing this or refusing to fund that when they already know there is money available–does not appear to have much in the way of important business.

Would you like to see the more pressing matters before the US Senate for which Reid could not make time to ‘issue This Bill.?’  Follow the jump…

 

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Introducing The Morgan Freeman Rule

Morgan FreemanMr. Freeman is not the first but the most recent left winger to publicly declare their partisan ignorance on the matter of racism and the TEA party.  It is a shame really.  I like Mr. Freeman’s work.  And while I will continue to appreciate his other contributions to the culture, this most recent addition may prove to be one of his greatest.  For he has provided us with another name for the lefts poisonous and ignorant rhetoric on race, and a new template with which to apply it.

If objecting to  Mr. Obama’s lack of leadership, poor policy choices, and a destructive economic agenda is considered racist, then the "Morgan Freeman Rule" identifies as racist, anyone who speaks in opposition to the job performance of someone who is black.

It also exemplifies a narrowness of left leaning minds that requires them to assume objections must be based on the color of skin and not the character or choices of the man beneath it.

So having been handed this template I am more than willing to apply it to the real world with an equality no leftist ever would.

The entire staff at ESPN are racists.

 

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Govt spending taxpayer $$ to advertise giving more $$ away – for the benefit of a private sector Medical Records Czar?

Here’s the ad (Click here to see a bigger version) from InformationWeek:

Consider this a variant of "Cash for Clunkers" – without the messiness of clunkers of which to dispose.  Same deal, to an extent, as part of Obamacare is to "nudge" (there’s that Cass Sunstein reference!) medical professionals to automate their medical records.  In wit, Obama is willing to pay:

  • $44,000 to get a system for Medicare
  • $63,750 for Medicaid
  • $2,000,00 (base) for hospitals to get with it.

And yes, all your info is going to end up in the Feds hands – databases upon databases full of intimate, personal information online (yes, instant reaction should be "er, black hatters?".  Look what the Illinois govt officials did when Joe the Plumber questioned The One as to why HIS wealth should be "spread around"!).  Sure, a lot of docs are still paper based but have been moving, slowly, to more and more automated systems.  The accounting part is easy – storing the actual medical records is much harder.  Providing robust interoperatibility between systems – harder still.

At my last check up, I noticed that my doc had already done so – working from an iPad.  And no option on my part to opt out (yeah, a medical version of Joe the Plumber in waiting?).

And in keeping with the Obama modus operandi, of COURSE, there is a Medical Records Czar!  And of COURSE, there is a tinge (more of a tinge?) of crony capitalism…

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Notable Quote – Alexis de Tocqueville on soft despotism

It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but … Read more

Why Right-to-Work must pass in New Hampshire

I had a talk the other day with a couple of high-level Republican leaders in New Hampshire. They pointed out that according to census information the state is losing its young people in the 25-to-34 age range. Why? There’s no future here! No jobs! “We’re going to end up as a state with only old farts … Read more

A New Ed “Flash” Larkin Inspired Scratch Game From The NH Lottery?

Banana flasherIn the fall of 2009 UNH Professor Ed ‘Flash’ Larkin was put on paid leave for exposing his genitals to a young lady and her mother in the Milford Market Basket Parking lot.  (My earlier remarks here.) As of October of last year, the plan was to let him go, but it looks like the Union and an arbitrator have stepped in and Flash still has a job.

Ed “Flash” Larkin has, to the best of my knowledge, continuously collected his $87,375.00 per year UNH salary, since the incident.

Under the terms of his probation, as reported in the Sunday Union Leader, he will remain on the UNH staff for another three years before being permitted to meet with students.  That restriction prevents him from teaching during that time. We can only assume that a University that pays full salary during an investigation does likewise when they are told they cannot terminate said employee.  Without knowing any other details, this amounts to five years worth of salary at a state supported university, to a German Language professor, for what?   Exposing himself in public.

Talk about a government jobs program.  Show some strangers your “little professor” at the grocery store parking lot and we’ll give you $436,875.00 over five years.

But you get forced out of your job if you just expose yourself on Twitter? I bet Anthony Weiner is pissed.

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GrokTALK Special Interview – NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien

Last weekend (heck, last week) was a very, very busy weekend for GraniteGrok for covering events and the subsequent process of all the stuff….and this weekend, for me, has been a big zero as yesterday I was under the weather and the sun is just starting to come up now.  So, time to play a … Read more

GrokTV Event: NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald

Well, still some more video from last week as I continue to play catch up. 
 
Three weeks ago, there was a special election in Rockingham 14 (NH) to replace a State Rep. who had resigned.  At the time, Republican Unionist Kevin Janvrin beat both the Democrat Unionist and the Libertarian Brendan Kelly (who we still think, had he been elected, would be more in line with the current agenda than Janvrin).  After the election results were announced, I saw what was said on Pindell’s site and had my own thoughts on the results – especially what was said by newly ascended NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald and the NH House Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt concerning this:
 

Upon logging into FB tonite after trying to do some catch up posts, I saw the news from Seth Cohn:

Janvrin’s true colors, minutes after winning: @JamesPindell tweets: GOP Janvrin tells me his victory "sent the message that the Tea Party needs to get out of NH" #nhpolitics #whoa #nhhouse #Rock14 
Well, two videos – the one on the left is from last weekend’s NRCC’s "Steak Out" in Nashua.  The one on the right is his talk at this month’s Belknap County Republican meeting:
 
     

"Steak Out" talk                  BCRC talk
 
Well, at the BCR meeting, I had the chance to bring up my post, and bluntly asked Wayne directly what about Janvrin’s wishing to get rid of the TEA Party and did Wayne & DJ’s responses signify a change in direction for the NH GOP?

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Left Does Not Want You To Connect These Dots

Police Chiefs and Leftists and Lynches oh my!  They conspired to limit your right to self defense in New ON TARGET towards freedomHampshire.  Intimidated you with warnings of bloodshed.  Introduced fear as a catalyst against you.  And for what reason? 

Tyranny?  It is more difficult to use government power to manipulate an armed populace, armed with knowledge, armed for self defense. The first thing  tyrant must do is to go after their guns.

Or is it victim-hood?  Let’s face it, muggers and criminals are more than prepared to show you that they are willing to use force to commit a crime.  Why would Democrats refuse you a similar opportunity to prevent a crime? Are they afraid you will discover that a lawfully armed populace can prevent crime without them?  Do they need you to be a victim to advance some agenda?

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Democrats Want Lobbyists In DC

(Originally written September 13th but never posted –Blogger House cleaning.)

Anand Giridharadas, writing for the newspaper of record, took the time and column inches to suggest that when Sarah Palin spoke last week she had some useful things to say.

I know, shut the front door. 

While not flattering, coming from the New York Times, there is some measure of respect for the notion that Palin is capable of critical thinking.  But the left wing progressive memes still linger between the subdued high fives.

“Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done?” she said, referring to politicians. “It’s because there’s nothing in it for them. They’ve got a lot of mouths to feed — a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along.”

Because her party has agitated for the wholesale deregulation of money in politics and the unshackling of lobbyists, these will be heard in some quarters as sacrilegious words.

Emphasis mine,

The end of the McCain-Feingold era of unconstitutional speech restrictions demonstrated one very important point.  It was wholly a left wing agenda item, and critical enough to the Democrats as a party that they would make total fools of themselves over its end. Almost every left winger who has spoken on the matter is off the rails and Giridharadas’ remarks are no different; that public corporate speech and backroom corporate lobbyists are a reflection the same problem when in fact restriction of the first is what necessitates more of the second, and that is exactly the point.

The left has no intention of removing corporate money from politics or political speech because no Democrat can survive without corporate money or its equivalents.  So the left wing narrative for controlling corporate speech has nothing to do with limiting corporate influence in politics it is about keeping the home field advantage.  It is about controlling the speech and controlling the narrative–free has nothing to do with it.

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The Post Office vs. Private Enterprise

This from my buddy Fred in Florida:

The response of the post office to their financial crisis really displays the difference between "government-think" and private enterprise.  Faced with a financial crisis the government approach is this:

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“REPUBLICANS” WHO OPPOSE RIGHT TO WORK THINK ONLY OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR PALS

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”—Mark Twain

UnionLabelClosed.jpg

Reading Steve MacDonald’s entry, “You Can’t Be A Republican And Vote Against Right To Work“…caused me to once again step back and reevaluate the public debate about Right-to-Work. I opened House Bill 474 and carefully read it again…and again…I could find no provision within the Legislation that abolished Unions. I read it yet again…. I could find no provision within the Bill that restricted, outlawed or otherwise “busted” Unions. Not one.

Several reasons brought me to revisit this. First, there seem to be many Republicans who fancy themselves “liberty-minded conservatives yet they support statutory Union oppression; Second, The strident opposition, bad behavior, swearing and threatening by Police and Fire over this bill has created a loss of confidence and apprehension within the communities they serve. Finally, What Unions say about this bill is absolute nonsense and nothing more than bold-faced lies.

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Want to learn how to run an election campaign? Got $20?

If you do, you could do a lot worse than signing up for the Young Americans for Liberty CAMPAIGN BOOTCAMP being put on at the University of New Hamsphire in Durham next weekend. That’s on Saturday, October 1, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. SIGN UP NOW. Highly recommended.  

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