DEAR REPUBLICANS…

“There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.” ~Alexis de Tocqueville The Senate has now voted to override the Governor’s veto of Senate Bill 88. The Bill next will come to the full house for concurrence, allowing “Stand your Ground” to become … Read more

SUPPORTING ABORTION THROUGH ARBITRARY USE OF FEDERAL POWER

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” ~Margaret Sanger, founder, Planned Parenthood How corrupt is a private organization that will literally stop at nothing to get its own way? Such is the case with Planned Parenthood of New England. When PPNNE failed to prevail on … Read more

VETO OVERRIDDEN: SENATE BILL 88 NOW GOES TO THE HOUSE!

“Self-defense is the clearest of all laws, and for this reason: lawyers didn’t make it” ~Douglas William Jerrold

Despite the efforts of Governor Lynch, his Attorney General and a hand full of unelected Police Chiefs around the state, The New Hampshire Senate voted this afternoon to self%20defense%20femaile.jpg
override the Governor’s veto on a vote of 17 to 7. The Bill now goes to the House where it will become law upon concurrence with the Senate Veto override.

During his walking parade through some of the meaner streets of Manchester, several demagoguery cards were used falsely implying SB 88’s becoming law would empower gang members…Which I find rather bizarre since Local Law Enforcement here will tell you we don’t have a significant gang problem.

During his many rants, Governor Lynch challenged the need for this law, claiming supporters of the SB88, “have not been able to identify a single case in New Hampshire where someone has been wrongly prosecuted for using deadly force to protect themselves or others. In fact, current law puts the burden on the state to disprove beyond reasonable doubt claims of self-defense.”

Well Thanks to Attorney Penny Dean of Concord, who provided reference and source materials, the challenge is accepted….

STATE V. JOSEPH BROWN
Superior Court, Carroll County No. 05-S-358

Joseph Gleason, an over six-foot tall and 200-pound burley fellow with a criminal record for violence, pursued Brown off of a highway, characterized as a fit of “road rage.” The five-foot, four-inch 140-pound Brown (with no prior criminal record) now found himself trapped at a traffic light behind other vehicles, with no route of escape from Gleason, as the 280-pound Gleason exited his vehicle and began screaming, yelling, swearing and pounding on Brown’s vehicle punching on the windows of Brown’s Buick.

With no way to escape, and fearing for his safety, Joseph Brown produced a handgun, merely showing it, but never pointing it at Gleason. Brown was subsequently arrested, charged and forced to stand trial. After considerable legal expense the case was noll prosequied.

During Joseph Brown’s arrest, N.H. State Trooper Beth Keyes asserted, “Your right to self defense is your right to call 911…”.

STATE V. PHILLIP TUFANO
Superior Court, Merrimack County 2008

Tufano of Londonderry was charged with threatening Paul DeFilippo with a handgun in August of 2008 following a road rage incident on Route 93. Tufano charged after he held up his “still-holstered” gun in an effort to diffuse the situation when DeFilippo ran him off the roadway, causing him to fear for his life.

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Left Wing Hyporcisy Must Die!

Closer to home we could have the New Hampshire Democrat Party Must Die. (I know for a fact they’ll never seriously object to the current game and as such the entire state party must be responsible for failing to do so until they all denounce it–their rules.) Terie Norelli, Sylvia Larsen, John Lynch, and Kathy Sullivan, all gore covered, relentless, brain eating, mindless …actually wait.

SB88 Opposition: Same Crowd, Same Tired Untruths

“Self-defense is the clearest of all laws, and for this reason: lawyers didn’t make it” ~Douglas William Jerrold Is the average citizen really not all that smart? Is the average citizen not capable of making competent decisions about self-defense? That is what seems to be conveyed in this latest political campaign of untruths from unelected … Read more

The First Circuit Videotape Opinion and House BIll 145

“In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.” ~Lenny Bruce 

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On one October 2007 evening, Boston attorney Simon Glik, was walking past Boston Common where Boston police officers John Cunniffe, Peter Savalis and Jerome Brewster were effecting an arrest. Hearing a nearby person state, “Stop! You’re hurting him!” Glik began video recording the incident from approximately ten feet away, using his cell phone. Shortly thereafter, Glik was arrested and his cell phone confiscated.

Charged with violation of the Massachusetts wiretap statute(Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99(C)(1)), In February, 2008, the Boston Municipal Court summarily disposed of the wiretap charge, noting,  “the fact that the officers were unhappy they were being recorded during an arrest . . . does not make a lawful exercise of a First Amendment right a crime.” 

Glik filed a civil rights action against the officers and the City of Boston in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts when his internal affairs complaints were ignored. Summarily, The People’s Republik moved to dismiss Glik’s complaint asserting that his allegations failed to adequately support his claims and that officers were entitled to qualified immunity “because it is not well-settled that he had a constitutional right to record the officers.” The court denied the motion and the commonwealth’s interlocutory appeal followed in which they did not prevail.

In its opinion, the court stated, “Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting ‘the free discussion of governmental affairs.’” And the court ruled “a citizen’s right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment…”

In the wake of this opinion are the countless arrests in the Granite State for the very same activities, as detailed numerous times in the New Hampshire Union Leader.  The one incident that comes to mind is a Sheriff’s Deputy attempting to thwart Representative Gary Hopper from video-recording in the Legislative Office building back in 2010.  Finally, House Bill 145 , presently languishes in the Senate and has met with a great deal of resistance from Law Enforcement.  

Police are concerned that the bill fails to protect both their privacy and that of the public they serve. Privacy? What privacy? they are Public servants subject to the accountability to that same public they serve!

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Ray Buckley and his faux Mea Culpa

“Hypocrisy is great fodder for comedy.” ~Mo Rocca  The New Hampshire Democratic Party agreed to pony up  a $5,000 fine upon a finding of the Attorney General that the Democrats violated state law regarding its delivery of pre-recorded political message to 394 homes, presumably Republican, in House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s district on the eve of … Read more

THE SHRILL KATHY And Her Bill O’Brien Rant

“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” ~Ronald Reagan

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When one reads the Shrill Kathy’s latest diatribe in the Union Leader, there is one theme that plays like a broken record: Tax, Tax, Tax…Spend, Spend, Spend.  The Shrill Kathy complains, “a 10-cent cut in the cigarette tax, did not change prices for smokers because the tobacco companies raised their prices…” I think I missed something because the former argument of the day was that the tobacco tax reduction would increase youth smoking. So, now here’s Kathy Sullivan arguing the ill merits of a tax typically inflicted upon Granite Staters who earn the least….a tax on the poor…which of many, smoke.

Next, the Shrill Kathy complains that, “House budget writers ignored every signal that the federal government was about to impose a $35 million penalty for Medicaid errors dating back to the Benson administration…” adding that, “Their irresponsibility has caused a gaping hole in their ballyhooed ‘balanced budget’.”  How conveniently she ignores the fact that her beloved Democratic party, led by Teri “Billion-dollar deficit” Norelli had two full terms to reconcile and fix this issue, but did not do so. Instead, they created more layers of government, increased over one-hundred fees and taxes and put into motion record unsustainable budgets, creating the fiscal mess this state now faces.

The Shrill Kathy whines, “New Hampshire hospitals are laying off hundreds of employees because O’Brien and his Republican colleagues took away federal money that had paid hospital costs for the poor…” Yet it hard to ignore the countless millions of construction dollars hospitals are using to competitively outspend one-another in an unquenchable drive to be better than the next facility.  Now that the Democrats have created yet another constituency cash cow that becomes as angry as any other when bloated coffers are not being filled, The dependable Shrill Kathy is all too willing to step into the limelight and pimp their cash loss off onto the poor. Isn’t it about time we stop the demagoguing and manipulation of the less fortunate? Let’s be honest here; You don’t really care about poor people, Kathy.

Mayor Gatsas is no different than any other cash cow constituent, be it Republican or Democrat. Every entity that gets some form of funding for something from the state or federal government cries, cut theirs…but NOT MINE!  Cuts made to the at-risk juvenile program, shows no indication of any highly-paid hacks taking any pay cuts or losing their jobs. Nope! self-preservation trumps program delivery.

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545 People Are Responsible For The Mess, But They Unite In A Common Con

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”~Plato, Ancient Greek Philosopher

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Charley Reese retired July 29, 2001. Who was Charley Reese? He was a columnist, serving 30 of those years at the Orlando Sentinel.  Characterized best by his plainspoken manner and conservative views,  he was with the Sentinel from 1971–2001, serving as  a writer and other such editorial capacities. King Features Syndicate distributed Charley’s column, which published up to three times a week.

 On February 3, 1984 Charley originally published the column below. This column additionally republished as his final column. Rightfully so and despite being 27 years removed from its orignal publish date, it is no less relevant. 

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

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Teri Norelli Cries Foul on the Budget: Insert Yawn Here

“If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” ~Milton Friedman, Economist Democratic leader Terri Norelli takes pen to the Union Leader this morning to decry the Republican budget. Norelli does a masterful work in her use of descriptors and categorizations demagoguing the Republicans … Read more

Executive Council’s Defunding of Planned Parenthood Is Sinister

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” ~Margaret Sanger, founder, Planned Parenthood

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Kate Lancor, former Moultonborough welfare director decries the Executive council’s recent vote to defund Planned Parenthood. In her Union Leader Opposite Editorial entitled, Women need the services Planned Parenthood provides, Ms. Lancor characterizes the council vote as, “A pathetic lack of creative thinking in this [sic]country’s elected bodies that even allow such choices to be made.”

While giving readers a thumbnail history of Planned Parenthood and extolling its “community virtues,” Lancor admonishes, “Don’t politicize this, and make it an abortion issue, but rather a health care issue for millions of needy women. Buried underneath the portrayal of Planned Parenthood by lobbyists and politicians as trained abortionists lies years of providing family-planning education and much-needed affordable healthcare to millions of women and men.” 

Lancor nails the talking points flawlessly in stating that, “Planned Parenthood provides contraceptives; breast, cervical and testicular cancer screenings; pregnancy testing and counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; comprehensive sexuality education, menopause treatments; vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortion.”  Kate Lancor paints us a picture of a multi-faceted, healthcare-focused organization that is invaluable to communities.  Now who could possibly argue with that? Indeed, Ms. Lancor makes the case for its virtues. Ms. Lancor however overlooks the many problems with Planned Parenthood as an organization. So I’ll take them up where Ms. Lancor has conveniently left off.

Planned Parenthood is a corrupt organization. Despite repeated requests, Planned Parenthood will not open its books. Planned Parenthood spent more than $1 Million dollars in the 2010 election cycle supporting their candidates.

Planned Parenthood has provided services to men characterized as traffickers in the sex trade. Planned Parenthood has been the defendant in lawsuits charging the organization covered up the rapes of under-aged girls. Finally, numerous media reports detail clinics that overbilled by millions.

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Florida Adopts Drug Testing For Recipients Of Public Assistance

“One of the consequences of such notions as “entitlements” is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”~Thomas Sowell

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Florida is the first state to pass a law requiring those receiving state benefits to submit to drug testing. Florida Governor Rick Scott told CNN that the law was passed to provide personal accountability of those who would receive public assistance. Governor Scott believes that taxpayers should not be subsidizing the illegal drug use of those who are on the public dole. Under this law, those seeking to receive aid would be responsible to bear the up-front cost for drug testing, but the law provides for reimbursement.

And as predictably as could be anticipated, the rank-and-file liberal establishment lined right up to fight and advocate for status quo unaccountability. The perjuring impeached former Federal Judge and current State Representative Alcee Hastings made a whole bunch of noise about this bill being, “downright unconstitutional.” There is somebody we should listen to.  

The ACLU does what it usually does and filed a suit to block the law. Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida told CNN, “What (the Governor) is doing is giving ugly legitimacy to an unfortunate stereotype that has been in this country for a couple of decades – that all welfare recipients are a bunch of drug abusers,” pure demagoguery…But okay…let us look at what Howie confabulates.

It is a fair statement to say that not all people on welfare use illegal drugs. Fact is, we don’t really know how many people on welfare use drugs. Nobody wants to talk about it for obvious political reasons. However, lets take a look at what the National Poverty Center says about drug use:

“Citing (April 2004) estimates of the extent of substance abuse among welfare recipients, the authors suggest that policymakers and analysts have likely overstated the contribution of substance dependence to welfare receipt. The authors note that while substance use, abuse, and dependence are barriers to self-sufficiency, so are poor education, lack of transportation, physical and mental health problems, and other difficulties that are more common than substance dependence among welfare recipients. The authors stress the need for comprehensive services to address the multiple barriers faced by the most disadvantaged welfare recipients.”

NPC steers clear of making any concrete determination by simply directing attention away from drug use, to the whole host of other problems endemic in the welfare community. Their underlying thesis is to modestly acknowledge drug use but redirect the focus away from it and advocate for a more broader expansion on services. In other words, “Taxpayers, don’t ask us for details, you simply must pay more…”

The NPC has a graphic on their website that would suggest only 21% of welfare recipients use illegal drugs. Lets accept that at face value for the sake of discussion. In the Granite state roughly 53,000 households or 112,000  people use food stamps. That is roughly 1% of the total state population. According to the Henry Kaiser Family foundation, New Hampshire’s per capita food stamp benefit is $121.21. That is $13,575,520. So according to the National poverty center, the Granite State pays a public benefit in the amount of $2,850,859 to people who use illegal drugs. And with our liberal friends that is just aye-okay.

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The Very Partisan Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Part II

GSFTDNC%202.jpgThe Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC–Greedy Socialists Frisking TaxPayers Cash) is a partisan non-profit, which for years has insisted it is a non-partisan group advocating an income tax in New Hampshire.  But the GSFTC is non-partisan the way MSNBC is.  They use the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick.  ‘The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.” And while there is nothing wrong with being a left wing partisan group, started by a social-justice driven religious organization, to advocate for a top down income tax, there is something wrong with acting like this is a non-partisan effort.

Our first look at the partisan make up of the GSFTC (God Says Fleece Taxpayers for Christ) was a rundown of their advisory board.  This revealed a panel of progressive and left wing water-carriers, who provide cover and material support for a specific leftist agenda: a state income tax.   They are democrats and democrat supporters, willing to use class warfare and a faux-morality-cum-guilt complex media campaign, to advocate for that state income tax.  Fish swim, birds fly, democrats spend and so must tax.  To insist they are non-partisan suggests a mental state that is non compos mentis.  Or to be a bit more colloquial; They are just a bunch of typical leftists.

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SB 88 VETO: More Of The Same Lies, Pandering and Demagoguery

“The sure foundations of the state are laid in knowledge, not in ignorance; and every sneer at education, at culture, at book learning, which is the recorded wisdom of the experience of mankind, is the demagogue’s sneer at intelligent liberty, inviting national degeneracy and ruin.”~George William Curtis, Author, Social Reformer (1824-1896)
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Governor John Lynch vetoed Senate Bill 88 yesterday, once again affirming allegiance to yet another unelected, unaccountable constituency: The New Hampshire Police Chiefs Association.  Despite thirty-one states adopting “stand your ground” laws and eliminating such duties to retreat, Lynch takes his counsel from those who think of themselves as smarter, wiser and more intuitive than the very people they were hired to serve.

As I pointed out in earlier blogs, back in 2006, I went on  TV-50 in Derry and debated then N.H. Association of Police Chiefs‘ President, Nathaniel “Chip” Sawyer on this issue. I also pointed out that it wasn’t much of a debate and Chief Sawyer didn’t put up much of a spirited counter-argument because he didn’t have to. He already had Lynch’s fidelity and the veto was already a done deal.

When she was Attorney General, Senator Kelly Ayotte urged Lynch to veto the Castle Doctrine Bill in 2006 (SB318) Yet, when she became a candidate for U.S. Senate, she quickly flip-flopped on the issue.  In 2006, SB 318 passed with arguable bi-partisan support in the house and it was Ayotte and her cronies that decried the bills’ passage with red-herring-esque”, arguments that somehow, “the use of deadly force on street corners, in shopping malls, public parks, and in retail stores. Drug dealers and other felons who brandish weapons will be further emboldened to use their weapons, while prosecution of those criminals will be made more difficult because of this bill’s expansion of the right to use deadly force.” That has not happened in the other thirty-one states who have passed the measure. As I recall, one assistant AG characterized the, “streets running red with blood,” if the bill became law.

Standing ones ground and owing no duty to retreat is not a new doctrine. There is a considerable body of case law addressing this very question. In Beard v. U.S. (1895) that a man who was, “[W]here he had the right to be” when he came under attack and “…did not provoke the assault, and had at the time reasonable grounds to believe, and in good faith believed, that the deceased intended to take his life, or do him great bodily harm…was not obliged to retreat, nor to consider whether he could safely retreat, but was entitled to stand his ground.”

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The Class Warfare Of Blue Hampshire

Caitlin fails to do an effective case study on wealth and liberalism while she waves a finger at Bill O’Brien because if she looked hard enough around the Granite State she would see the utter rank hypocrisy of leftists and their verbal articulation of progressive policies, while pursuing within their own personal lives a hard-core capitalist modus operandi that would make even Milton Friedman blush.

How Much Is Enough? (And Other Problems With Left Wing Policy)

How much Is EnoughWhy can’t democrats trust their own constituents to do the right thing?  Their first response to every problem is to institutionalize it with more government, typically as far up the legislative food chain as possible.  That means as far away from you as they can manage, even to the point of giving control to unelected bureaucrats you can’t punish, just to keep you from messing with it.  They entrench it in a bureaucracy, make it impossibly inefficient and expensive and then refuse to let anyone touch it ever again, while charging you more and more to maintain it.

The only reason I can think of for that kind of knee jerk behavior is that Democrats use themselves as the template for the rest of us. The left by their very nature must be selfish, insecure, inconsiderate and un-trusting. Only people so un-giving of themselves or simply incapable of volunteering their time and energy would have to mandate volunteerism and "giving" by legalizing the taking of other peoples time or property through mandates.

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John Lynch Vetoes Are A Political Shell Game

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“He is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation…” Adlai Stevenson

Governor Lynch’s vetoes show him for who he really is: A big government, big spending, social liberal. And not an honest one either. His vetoes of these bills clearly prove that.

Lynch’s veto of HB109 is a slap to working families all across this state. In a time when home values are on a downward spiral and fewer working families can afford to purchase a home, the Governor paves the way for local bureaucrats to impose a costly regulation on working families. “I believe that the decision of whether or not to require fire sprinklers for new or renovated residential development should remain a local one.” This is class warfare by another flair.

How does Lynch assert sensitivity to a working families’ pursuit of purchasing a home by effectively shoving that cost further out of their financial reach? How does Lynch reconcile his class warfare by proxy by putting a regulation in place that clearly and effectively will exclude working families from obtaining a home? His veto effectively and potentially removes some affordable housing from the market. I personally know of several fire chiefs around the state who have been pushing and lobbying for local ordinances requiring sprinkler systems.

Governor Lynch’s veto of HB 218 is demonstrative of the larger mentality that the interests of a few friends should be served so that at some point for rail expansion, the rail authority can pick the pockets of New Hampshire taxpayers. Lynch grossly misrepresents the intent of the bill, implying that its sponsors are anti-rail. Fact is, proponents of rebuilding the rail infrastructure sought to maintain the option of receiving taxpayer funded subsidies and Lynch was more than willing to oblige.

Finally, Lynch’s veto of HB 329, commonly referred to as “Parental Notification,” shows him to be the consummate dishonest politician he truly is.  When he did not support the Granite State’s original parental notification law, he did so under the pretext of its lack of a medical exception.

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