NH House Passes Right To Work Bill

By a vote of 221 to 121 HB 474 passes the NH House. While this is not a veto proof majority 58 House reps did not vote leaving plenty of room for a veto override.

How big do we really want our Government to grow?

Remember, as you look at this graph – this is not due to inflation: This isn’t like a car, or a house, where the price has risen pretty much because of inflation. This is because of the expansion of government, and that government has become more expensive. Remember too – as Government takes more from … Read more

Half-Bass’d Mast [Updated]

Well the timer was short. The result? When you copy an image location and someone does not like what you do with it, they snip your little life-line and the image goes away. You are left with a broken link, some alternate text if you added any, and plenty of people asking–huh?

Kathleen Sullivan DiFruscia

You remember Tony DiFruscia? Lawyer, democrat, republican, independent, ex RINO NH House rep. Yeah that guy. Well his law partner and wife–wait until I tell you her name, is running for selectman in Windham.

Notable Quote – Herman Cain

From last night, Herman Cain has this to say in response to those that denigrate the Founding Fathers for not living up to their own words: "Our Founders set the bar higher than themselves so that future generations could strive to and eventually reach that high bar of freedom that was not possible for them. … Read more

A Valentine present / reminder to Congress

Was sent this by BankruptingAmerica.org, a group out to keep our legislators accountable: I thought that this might be something you would be interested, Bankrupting America hand delivered unique Valentine’s Day treats to offices on Capitol Hill. Our “gift” is to remind lawmakers that while the debate about spending cuts is a good start, one … Read more

Atlas Shrugged – The Movie?

Someone said this was one of the most anticipated movies…..I….no, I was not anticipating it.  In fact I didn’t know they were making it. And having watched the trailer, the first two words to come to my mind were ‘Red Box.’

But who am I?  Certainly not a qualified movie critic.  And this has to be at least as good as most of the crap that Hollywood makes.  And Hollywood makes a lot of crap.  So will this be more crap?  I can’t tell you that from the trailer.  Movie trailers are like airbrushed models in print.  That’s about as good as it is ever going to look.  So does it look good enough?  Red Box. 

I realize the books continued appeal is why we have a movie based on it.  I get the whole idea of going Galt.  And that will appeal to a slice of the movie-going public, but how big a slice.  Ayn Rand is provocative but can it be translated onto the big screen, and since this is part one, how many more parts must we endure to resolve the driving question of this trailer.  Who is John Galt?

One bonus I can comment on is that it is NOT scheduled to be released in 3D.  Movies are made in 3D as an excuse to charge 50% more for a ticket, turning a nice family outing to the cinema into another reason to refinance.  The movie is not supposed to cost more than dinner is it?  For that kind of cash you should get live actors and sets and an intermission so you can hit the restroom and not miss anything. 

But that doesn’t get us any closer to the trailer for Atlas Shrugged Part 1.  So here it is, on the jump, one of the most anticipated Movies….well, we talked about that already.  I watched the trailer.  I’m still not anticipating it.  Sorry.

 

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Democrats, Trains And HB 218

De railedThe Union Leader has a great editorial in this mornings Sunday News titled "Free Trains."  It is great for several reasons the least of which is that it mirrors concerns I have been expressing for years.  That no matter who pays to build them, someone has to pay to keep them.  That would be New Hampshire Taxpayers. But Democrats are aghast that the NH House would dissolve the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority–the head of a beast seeking to force commuter rail upon us–because hey it doesn’t cost anything.

But it does cost and it could lead to something that costs us even more in the future.  A lot more.

December 2009 at NH Insider – I hit it out of the park when someone compared road taxes to rail taxes.

Passenger rail costs are not limited to the root infrastructure itself.  That would be rails versus roads.   Taxpayers would have to subsidize passenger rail-cars, fuel the cars, maintain the cars, probably pay the workers and their benefits, and support the entire system when it fails to turn a profit, which will be always and probably forever.   While roads have some other infrastructure nothing compares to rail.

In contrast people buy their own cars, and pay for their own fuel and maintenance.  They may buy the car to get to a job that’s probably not funded by taxpayers either. (Except in Concord) Taxpayers do not need to subsidize any of that where with rail we’re supporting all of it.  So there is no possible apples to apples comparison to road and rail taxes. 

The state also makes a lot of money on registration fees and fuel taxes for road vehicles, tolls and license plates, and some towns rely so heavily on registration fees that even minor reductions can cause budget issues.   Passenger rail offers no comparable net increase in revenues and in all likely hood a net loss.  So Passenger rail risks reducing revenues and increasing tax obligations for no significant greater good. 

Read the whole thing here. 

But that’s hardly the most pressing point about the ongoing illusion of free commuter rail…

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Pemi-Baker Valley Republican Committee – Other parts of the event

Last night, GraniteGrok was invited by the folks at the PBVRC to cover their Lincoln Day dinner (a fundraiser staple of Republican Committees everywhere – regardless of the event actually being on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday or not).  There were two headline speakers:

* Herman Cain (who has announced his Presidential Exploratory Committee)

* An Abraham Lincoln "replicator" who did a very credible job!

As with many other events, there are other parts of the event. this clip is of the Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.

"Notables" were recognized after the jump

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Pemi-Baker Valley Republican Committee – Charlie Bass (R-NH02)

Last night, GraniteGrok was invited by the folks at the PBVRC to cover their Lincoln Day dinner (a fundraiser staple of Republican Committees everywhere – regardless of the event actually being on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday or not).  Another of the speakers was US Representative Charlie Bass (R-NH02) who gave a brief address:

A slightly different view after the jump:

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Pemi-Baker Valley Republican Committee – Abraham Lincoln

Last night, GraniteGrok was invited by the folks at the PBVRC to cover their Lincoln Day dinner (a fundraiser staple of Republican Committees everywhere – regardless of the event actually being on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday or not).  There were two headline speakers, one of which was an Abraham Lincoln "replicator" who did a very credible … Read more

MicroInterview – Herman Cain at the PBVRC

At the PBVRC Lincoln Day dinner last night, Herman Cain was the headline speaker.  He was kind enough to sit down with GraniteGrok to talk about the race and some of the issues of the day:

GrokTalk! Saturday February 12th 2011

GrokTalk!Live Streaming local and National News with opinion you could only get from GraniteGrok.

It’s GrokTalk!

This Saturday from 9-11AM…

 NH House Rep Laura Jones, Doris Hohensee and Rep Andrew Manuse all check in with Skip.

Author and National Review Managing Deputy Editor editor Kevin Williamson is back to continue the discussion on his book, The politically Incorrect Guide To Socialism.

Lear More About Our Guests on the jump

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GrokTALK! – Podcast page for 02/12/11

Podcast – week of 02/12/11 GrokTALK! Streaming Live! from GraniteGrok To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you. (Click here for the promo page) Hour 1      Hour 2 The … Read more

Another Wheel Off The Bus

Usually the wheels come off the bus before it goes into the ditch. But here we go. Another wheel falls off the Obama bus. (Must be one of the Dr. Seuss buses, given all the wheels this thing is losing). Obamacare, the Patient Unaffordable and Un-accessible (all we really) Care (about is government power) Act will require another 800,000 Americans to give up their jobs. Put another way, it will cost 800,000 jobs.

So when are Shaheen, Ex-Porter (That’s ex congresspersonista Carol Shea-Porter) and Paul ‘Hot Dog’ Hodes going to come out and clear up the record?  They have all argued that the loss of jobs was some right wing fear mongering.

The same CBO the left swore was non-partisan when it claimed the bill would save money, then that it would cost money if we ended it, can’t suddenly be partisan can it?

Obama StoogesThese are democrats.  Of course they can.  So should we wait for the "Big Pharma, and Big Health care" bought the congressional Budget Office narratives?

And how will Obama’s Bureau Of Laboring Statistics every hide another 800,000 lost jobs?  Though they are doing a fine job with the millions they are hiding now–except from the people who are actually unemployed.

So many unanswered questions.

While you are waiting.  Here’s some video courtesy of Town Hall.com (On the jump) where the CBO admits there will be employment casualties in the war for universal coverage.  Which makes you wonder what would happen if Obama waged war on universal employment?

My bad. He’s already waging that war.

One more distraction before you jump. Queen, the Band? Song–“another one bites the dust;” change the lyrics to..”another wheel off the bus.” CArry that around in your head until November 2012. Ok. Go ahead. Watch the video. I’ll keep quiet. (for a minute)

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Picture of The Day 2/11/2011

    (Somehow, I’m not sure TMEW will let me set up my office this way – those screens are EXPENSIVE!)

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