News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
The featured speaker of last Wednesday night’s Belknap County Republican meeting was the new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn. She talked about some of the issues that confront the State Party and some of the ways she is going to try to mitigate them.
Please note that there is a section of her speech that I have deliberately not show dealing with fundraising.
Questions 1 & 2 after the jump
After new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn gave her speech, the questions started in (Questions 1 and 2 are here). The next two: Question 3 … Read more
More questions for new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn gave her speech, . The next two: Question 5 Question 6 Previous: Jennifer Horn’s speech Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question … Read more
More questions for new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn gave her speech, . The next two: Question 7 … Read more
After talking with Tim Carter of the Lakes Region TEA Party and listening to the Intro remarks by John Krebs and Molly Donovan, it was time to start observing “how” the “what” was going to happen. As I said in the Intro post, I was not there to participate but to merely observe. To recap some of what I had observed thus far:
The meeting lasted just about two hours so there is a lot of video. Again, I apologize for the relatively low sound quality (even though I was using a shotgun mic that is supposed to mitigate that – sometimes room acoustics trump technology. I’ll have a few more observations from observing NOT just the circle that I chose to record (circle “BBBB”), but another one as well (to be explained later). Now to be sure, NONE of the segment / clips are NOT what I would call riveting and jaw dropping excitement video – in fact, they are rather boring if you are expecting “gotcha” moments. However, I did see some rather interesting dynamics being played out – not only in how each small group was run (and make no mistake – by the end of the evening, it became VERY clear that these were not just simple listening session) but the dynamics between the two poles of the culture / political worlds too. First Segment here with two more after the jump – and yes, there will be more posts with more later as well as a single post on the other circle I “observed after the fact”. Each of these 3 three videos runs about 9 to 10 minutes; here is Part 1:
With an introduction by Senator Ted Cruz
Continuing on from Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the NHListens “visioning” meeting at the Meredith Plymouth Senior Center (NH). Thus far, the important takeaways that I have observed thus far:
and a new one to add:
This seemed to emerge in Part 3 (2 minute mark) when Susan started in on talking about Smart Growth principles, caught herself, and started to label them as if they were traditional New Hamspshire ones (instead of being cooked up by “Planners” that know better then we how and where we should live – certainly NOT a Live Free or Die Sentiment, or a Liberty & Freedom one either). So, let’s return to my phrase: “and remember that number 10!“. Next up is Part 4 which starts to show another dynamic right off the bat – those that are perfectly fine with a forced collectivism concerning land use, community priorities, taxes, and services, and those that believe that the voters have things right:
Quite different from the average CPAC speech, but he makes some very important points about where our focus is and where it should be.
When Life gives you video….post it. (Sorry, just not in the writing mood at the moment.)
You can’t be a conservative and not like Calvin Coolidge. He may be one of the best examples of how the Federal government and it’s chief executive ought to behave (with few and far between exceptions). We would do well to find someone like him and soon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dHj6iS8fM_s
Well, let’s see if I remember HOW to blog – it’s been a bit as I’ve been out straight since this past Sunday with events or tasks to attend to each and every night. Lots of video to put up and other stuff to catch up on, and this is one of the first ones. Wednesday was the regular monthly meeting of the Belknap County Republicans and the new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn was the featured speaker. While we did endorse her rival for the position, we’ve been waiting to see how she starts her term. So far, not bad – especially with this. However, that set of videos (a lively set of questions happened after her talk) will have to wait – there was another speaker that spoke before her. To set the table, from the NH GOP Platform: Oppose laws and programs contrary to our founding principles such as Sharia Law, the International Baccalaureate Program, UN Agenda 21 or other “sustainable development” programs
Since the inception of the TEA Party movement, there has been an uneasy tension between the TEA Party and the GOP as the former has seen the latter as complicit in the mess that the Country finds itself even as it sees the GOP Platform (it’s “supposed” beliefs, but more on that later) close to the TEA Party philosophy than the Dems. On the flip side, the Establishment Republicans see the TEA Partiers as a threat to their stranglehold on political power on the Right (as we watch this play out in DC right now). But there are times that things mesh – as the quote from the NH GOP Platform indicates. Tim Carter from Lakes Region TEA Party was allowed to speak to the full room quickly on the Federal Government over reach to Federalize local NH zoning codes in the form of HUD / EPA / DOT’s Sustainable Communities Initiative – otherwise known locally as Granite State Future (why can’t Progressives ever use the plain truth for their programs? Is it because they KNOW people would reject them out of hand if, you know, they actually were truthful and honest about what they were doing?):
More later on today on this topic. Intro from the meeting after the jump.
This past Thursday, the Granite State Future project (the project that the Federal Departments of HUD, EPA, and DOT are using locally to Federalize the local zoning codes here in NH via their “Sustainable Communities Initiative”). The “purpose” is ostensibly to “listen” to the public and get their input as to what the future of … Read more
Well, these should have gone with the “intro” post, but that’s OK – blogging means never having to recycle pixels if you don’t want to. The Vesta Roy is a training program for Republican women and given that the Belknap County Convention just finished setting up its budget (along with cry baby Commissioners), NH State Rep Frank Tilton gave the attendees an update.
Vesta Roy Budget Update
Previous video:
On a short leash today so we’ll leave the exposition for later…
Just because she’s, like, from New Hampshire, right?
If Joe Biden makes a gaffe about domestic violence against women and the entire media industrial complex can hear it…will they make a sound? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-tMwBseyToU
[Note: a compendium of “Dennis-isms” from the just completed Belknap County budget process at the end -Skip]
Boy, this being a “representative” is pretty difficult stuff. I have to admit, even though I take our Wednesday meeting/voting sessions at the State House pretty seriously, sitting through some of these difficult County Budget meetings has really been eye opening. I am happy to say, our conservative majority in the delegation have level funded the county budget for our Belknap County taxpayers. No tax increase this year much to the chagrin of our County Commissioners, County Administrator, Deb Shackett, and the Democrats on our county delegation. However, the most surreal experience of all, has been working with Republican Representative Dennis Fields. Not only did Rep. Fields vote with the Democrats to RAISE the county portion of our property taxes, Rep. Fields has also voted with the Democrats at the State House against our 2nd Amendment rights. And, I have to wonder if Sanbornton voters truly understood what they were getting in their Republican candidate, Dennis Fields when they voted for him. If so, then you need not read any further. If not, then you need to recognize his anti-Second Amendment votes and actions at our county budget meeting prove Rep.Fields is not supporting the proposed Republican Party platform or our Constitutional rights to bear arms. He ran as a Republican and was voted him in as such. Hmmm…..
During the process of county budget talks (the 9% proposed increase on the county portion of our property taxes was beyond egregious, in my opinion), Fields continually sided with the Commissioners and Democrats, often attacking his own Republican Chair, Rep. Colette Worsman, with unprofessional diatribes and hyperbole. His quarrelsome statements on Worsman holding “secret meetings”, (they are called CAUCUSES, Rep. Field. ALL political parties hold them. There is nothing “secretive” about them
I didn’t go to any of the Belknap County budget meetings this year – except for this last one. I almost didn’t go to this one – a West Coast customer called so I didn’t even get out of the house until a half hour after the meeting started. But you know, I remembered one … Read more
Yes, this is part of this post, where the emphasis was on how they left the County Attorney in a lurch – yes, she is an elected official but reports to the Commissioners (yet, the County Convention sets her budget). Yeah, playing politics. It both rather amusing to watch this childish stunt (“Oh look, we’ll … Read more
As with many towns, the Counties around New Hampshire are also constructing their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. Here in Belknap, two Republicans (John Thomas and Steve Nedeau) and a Democrat (Ed Philpot) crafted a budget that would raise the County’s portion of the property tax by approximately 9% – this in a time still beset economically with rising taxes at the State level (certainly, the Democrats are already hard at work doing that in Concord), rising taxes at the Federal Level (again, thank you Democrats), and the people looking at their thinning wallets every time they fill up their cars and see how few bags of groceries are bought for $25, $50, or $100 (inflation – the hidden government tax on us all). However, the County Convention (the 18 elected NH House Representatives from all of the districts in Belknap County) has the final authority over that budget – and new Conservative leadership elected to head that Convention (led by the Chair Collete Worseman) reduced that percentage to 0.3%. What did it take?
Simple – Leadership, a “say what you mean, do what you say” attitude. A political courage to go against the grain of those that have no problem in spending other peoples’ money, the rent-seekers called social services that live at the teat of Government and have transformed themselves from being charities to mere outgrowths of that Government (or many as many levels and parts of Government they can latch onto), and the biggest Special Interest of all – Government itself. Sticking to ones guns and Conservative values. A willingness to put themselves between the hard working taxpayers and those that would spend their money by ensuring that essential services would be present – but not extraneous expenditures or “pet ideas”.
Government above people. The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen.
Here is the final vote:
The full meeting (chopped into approximately 15 minute chunks each) after the jump. And yes, there were heated words said, for not only has this been about Dollars but also about Power and Political Turf.