No one doubts that BP has a responsibility to clean up after themselves but Paul Hodes has taken the opportunity to play word games and politics. Yesterday he announced that because of BP’s complicity in the release of the Lockerbie Bomber they are no longer entitled to the tax cuts the government gives them out of the goodness of its frozen black little heart. Hodes calls them ‘Tax subsidies. ‘
That is lib-speak for money you legally earned that the government lets you keep. Imagine a mugger leaving you a twenty for cab fare after he takes everything esle including your car keys. That twenty is a subsidy provided by the mugger to you. Hodes is the mugger and he has decided that BP is not entitled to the money it legally earns–and likely needs to stay solvent to help pay for that mess down in the gulf.
Independent voices might have some expectation of doing independent things. Things like reading legislation or accessing resources outside the ones the people desperately selling a bill want you to stick to. That kind of open mindedness would go a long way to demonstrating integrity and responsibility. Or you could be Carol Shea Porter. 
The Hodes camp is trying to adjust their slightly twisted britches after a fund raising trip to the great white north eh. (Ok. This is like, me outside the country eh?) In defense of the move campaign spokesman Matt House said, (
Suzanne Smith, (D-Hebron) wants the state government to regulate the use of weed and insect control products to limit what she calls cosmetic use. That’s the regular everyday kind, used in ordinary everyday ways. She claims that her focus is on places where children congregate like schools, playgrounds, day care centers, and that spraying for things like clover or dandelions (as examples) would not meet a need like might be the case with say stinging insects or poison ivy. So she set up a study commission which has studied–under HB 1456–with the intention of writing a bill for the next session. So Suzanne Smith would like the state to be be the final arbiter of all things lawn and bug care.
