Articles tagged as

Hackarama

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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Tin-Eared Bureaucrats

“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.” ~Laurence J. Peter

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Barbara Seebart, New Hampshire State Refugee Coordinator didn’t appear to grasp Mayor Ted Gatsas’ assertions that the City of Manchester is not prepared to absorb another 300 refugees. The Board of Mayor and Alderman voted in favor of a moratorium this month given the city’s current financial situation.

Seebart, told the mayor she would pass along his concerns to the hacks in Washington DC, but then ended her response to Gatsas with this little gem: “I look forward to our continued collaboration in assuring refugees are successfully resettled in Manchester.”  As reported in today’s edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Gatsas promptly responded to Seebart asserting, “I continue to question how success is measured with regards to resettlement by both yourself and the International Institute of New Hampshire; to date that question has yet to be sufficiently answered.”

 On July 7, the Union Leader reported that Seebart expressed concerns about scarce case management after refugees have been in the Queen city 6-9 months, as well as concerns with the economy and potential welfare law changes. Yet her above statement seems to indicate a tin ear.

On July 10 International Institute of New England Board Chairman William Gillett, in the Union Leader argued against a moratorium stating, “To suggest that refugees resettling in Manchester “are going to suffer because there are not enough resources for them” ignores completely the conditions and lives that the refugees have fled…” Gillett further arrogantly opines, “Any lack of adequate resources is a failure of will, not a failure of ability.” Another tin ear.

The city has cut back on many services; The city has laid off workers; and, the tax payers are facing another tax increase.  Gillett’s organization is not shy about spending the tax payers dollars, either. Gillett points out that, “A significant amount of federal money flows in to Manchester to support refugee resettlement. These funds target refugee employment assistance, health care, English language and citizenship classes and, specifically, the educational needs of refugee children in the Manchester schools.  organization…” What he wants us to believe is that such federal funds are sufficient to do all that he says they are intended to do. Not true. And Gillet’s own organization’s report reflects that where IINH states, “

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Evil Landlords Who Pick On Tenants

“I like to think of my behavior in the sixties as a ‘learning experience.’ Then again, I like to think of anything stupid I’ve done as a ‘learning experience.’ It makes me feel less stupid.“ -P.J. O’Rourke

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I was at a housing office today dropping off some “required paperwork.” As I sat waiting to review the issues that brought me there, I was forced to listen to a couple of young women talk about how they were going to hire attorneys and, “get their landlords.” Their complaints ran the gamut of being forced to get rid of pets (they were not supposed to have in the first place)… to the landlord’s refusal to repair a door broken by a boyfriend during a quarrel. Those Landlord bastards! The nerve of them! how dare they?

It is such conversations that so amuse me. For certain, being a landlord is a difficult endeavor. Take Manchvegas, for example where the city mandates Certificate Of Compliance Inspections (COC); A process that takes place every three years for those of us ‘evil bastards‘ who own multi-family residential housing. This can be an annoying process. One year’s COC inspection I was informed of a requirement to upgrade smoke detectors to the AC type with DC battery back-up. The current smoke detectors were already hard-wired so this wasn’t a difficult task. However, upon reviewing the building code, I found myself needing to call the building department for clarification. I was unable to find that specific reference. I was subsequently told the requirement had not been adopted yet.  Guess it didn’t matter, though. I had already spent the 500 bucks to purchase the AC/DC smoke detector units and install them. For me this was an object lesson in (a) waiting for the post-inspection report to arrive in the mail, and (b) verifying the very issues cited in the report.

Window screens are yet another challenge. I mean, how stupid is that? Window Screens? But, a COC inspection cannot pass muster without the proper window screens in place. I always ensure window screens are in place for COC so that is not an issue. But, despite that, there are often tenants who are fundamentally challenged by the mere existence of window screens. They break them, lose them or destroy them. After I’ve replaced a couple and receive yet another request to do so, I demand the screen-challenged tenant “pony up” 22 dollars for an entire frame and screen replacement and 12 dollars for a screen replacement. The tenant gives me a bunch of indignant static. “It wasn’t on purpose!” he or she exclaims… Standing my ground and insisting, the tenant calls the building department to report my, “refusal to replace a missing window screen.”  The building department subsequently issues a “violation of the COC:” “failure to have the window screens in place.”  A landlord keeping proper track of expenses will quickly conclude that spending $700 per year on window screens is excessive and unreasonable.

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When It Comes to the Second Amendment, Guiliani’s The Man!

“I love New York City; I’ve got a gun.”~Charles Barkley

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As I often do in the morning, I settled in with a hot cup of Joe to read today’s edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader. Turning to page A3, Dan Tuohy’s headline read, “Giuliani takes stand on firearms rights“. Now, given Mayor Guiliani’s high public profile and his history on the second Amendment, I just had to read this story before anything else. I mean, why pass up a chance to be amused first thing in the morning? This might even be funnier than one of Raymond Buckley’s quotes.

Manchester Harley-Davidson dealership owner Steve Talarico introduced Mayor Guiliani, wanting to  “help clear the air” of any misconceptions about the former New York Mayor’s record on gun issues. “The mayor seems to be probably one of the most misinterpreted politicians on the Second Amendment,” Talarico tells his audience. Really Steve? Damn! sorry about that…Guess the Mayor really is a gun guy when he told the St. Louis Post in December of 1993, “…a uniform licensing system with real teeth in it, and a period where you’d have to demonstrate your capability of using a gun, and then every two years you’d have to go back and once again show that you’re stable, your healthy, you’re able to handle a gun and you know what to do with it…”Now, that doesn’t much resemble a gun control measure, does it? how ignorant of me.

Or how about this little gem as recently as February 2007 while making an appearance on Larry King Live? King asks, “Favor Gun Control? Favor Brady?” Guiliani responds, “For Handguns, And I did…” Silly me, I took that to mean Rudy told Larry King that he supported the Brady Bill. I must have been in doofus-mode that day.

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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.

Manchester Needs a ‘Full-Time Refugee” Coordinator?

Liberals love to spend money. No doubt about it. Especially when the money they are spending taxpayer money. Despite tough economic times for the rank and file taxpayer, City Hall liberals are still crafting ways to generate new spending in an effort to expand the almighty nanny-feifdom of city government.

Powerline Nails ThinkProgress To The Wall

Everyone makes mistakes, but ThinkProgress is unique. It doesn’t just get things wrong; it consistently fabricates lies out of whole cloth. Anyone who relies on ThinkProgress for information is asking to be deceived.

Obama Administration Won’t Ban Your Guns…But The U.N. Will

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“United Nations: Where America feeds the hands that bite it” – Gregory Nunn

The Second Amendment debate is a never-ending and ongoing debate that has taken the argument all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. District of Columbia v. Heller,1 held that the Second Amendment is an individual’s protected right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes in federal enclaves; Purposes such as self-defense within the personal domicile. McDonald v. Chicago,2 was also a landmark Supreme Court decision to determine whether the Second Amendment is applicable to the individual states. Summarily, the Court held an individual’s right to “keep and bear arms” is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and does in fact apply to states.  It is without dispute that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally, culturally, and socially a cornerstone of American life, underscoring the natural right of self-defense which is essential to liberty.

As of 1986, thirty-five states had some form of right to carry through licensure. of those thirty-five states, only eight were “shall-issue” states (meaning a license must be issued if no legal reason existed to prohibit such issuance); nineteen of those states were “may-issue” states (meaning the issuing authority could issue or deny upon his or her own discretion) and only one state (Vermont) was unrestricted (meaning no licensure required to carry a firearm concealed or openly). Fifteen states were “no-issue” states.  Meanwhile, Legislatures across the nation acted over the last 25 years.  Presently forty-eight states have some form of right to carry through licensure. Wisconsin and Illinois still do not allow citizens the right to carry guns, nor does the District of Columbia.

A whole lot of people, organizations and groups, have spent time, money and energy to advocate for second amendment issues, pass laws and pave the way for the right to keep and bear arms. Despite this, it totally confounds me why some of our citizens, despite their stated support for the second amendment, still turn around and vote for gun-grabbing liberals like Barack Obama?

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Manchester City Politics and Swimming Pools

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“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.  Most people do…”  –Author Unknown

City pools…the latest whipping boy for the Alderman. Corriveau and Lopez want to charge out-of-towners, not make them go away.  Osborne dismissed it as minutia. Greazo wants to double-dip. Alderman Garth Corriveau said pools are a “luxury.” I would agree, Garth….let’s make this all about the “Haves and  Have nots!” Swimming Pool politics has it all! Apathy, Class warfare, taxing and spending, empire building, and demagoguing. Same old corrupt thinking.

Alderman Phil Greazo proposes to charge all users of city pools. Just one minor problem, Greazo…”WE ALREADY PAY FOR THE STINKING POOLS THROUGH THE TAX BASE!”

The UL reports in the June 1st story, “About 96,800 people who live in Manchester used the city pools in 2010…” That is 88% of this city’s just under 110,000 population. And, according to the data provided by Parks and Recreation only, 1,500 non-residents use the pools. But here is the real problem: these numbers are absolute bunk!

Anecdotally, here is where I think the numbers more accurately live: I think city pool use is more accurately +/- 12-16% of the total city population. With a staff of lifeguards on hand, the conditions prevail where public pools become babysitters by proxy. Here is my math…

(96,800 +/-16% = 15,488)  (15,488 / 2 = 7,744)  (7,744 +/-6 uses = 46,464) (7,744 +/-3 uses  = 23,232) (46,464 + 23,232 = 69,696)

I think non-resident use is DOUBLE despite Manchester Parks and Recreation assertions. Non-resident use most likely accounts for upwards of 25% of use. Heck, Why not? ITS FREE!!!( not Manchester residents)  Based on my own experiences at Livingston Pool, waiting there sometimes 40 minutes or more, the non-resident use is out of hand and isn’t tracked as well as it should be.  Here is what I think…More math…

(3,900 +/-$6 uses = 23,400)

I don’t think three non-residents or 3,000 non residents using the pools matters…until it is you, a city taxpayer, quietly watching and waiting at the fence…outside of the pool… roasting in the hot sun, while non-resident interlopers frolic about in the pool because it is, “free for them.” Under that circumstance, one non-resident swimmer is one-too-many.

Manchester’s Livingston pool is highly attractive. The net result, however has been a constant overflow of guests using that pool, while other pools in the city rarely see capacity use.  The pool clearly exceeds its bathing load because of high demand and the young staff is not equipped to properly manage the demand.

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Can Romney Do It?

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“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”   -President Harry S. Truman 33rd American President.

 Mitt Romney came to New Hampshire Thursday and formally announced he will seek to unseat President Obama in 2012.  Despite his formal announcement being overshadowed by Governor Sarah Palin’s visit, it’s official: Romney is in for 2012.

Can Romney win the nomination? The former Governor of the People’s Republic of Massachusetts has a very well-documented laundry list of problems. Romney supporters cringe at similarities between the Bay State’s health care program and Obamacare. Romney has shown himself to be a clear and unadulterated flip-flopper on the hot-button issues such as abortion, gun control, immigration, and gay rights.

In his 1994 bid for Senate, Romney said, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I believe since Roe v. Wade has been the law in this country for 20 years, we should sustain and support it. I sustain that law and the right of a woman to make that choice…” Romney would ultimately go on to proclaim himself to be “pro-life.” The late Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, when campaigning against Romney in 1994, quipped, “(My opponent isn’t pro-choice or anti-choice, he’s multiple choice.”

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HOUSE BILL 474: THE “NAY’S” AND THE “NO-SHOWS”

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“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” -Samuel Butler

“The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.”-Michael Caine

HOUSE BILL 474, “An act relative to freedom of choice on whether to join a labor union,” passed out of the house and obtained Senate Concurrence with Amendments. In laymen’s terms, both houses passed the bill.  However, it is important to note that in the House, the bill did not pass with a veto-proof majority. According to the House Bill 474 Roll Call, the Bill passed  225 Yeas and 140 Nays.

How It Breaks down:

DEMOCRATIC

 

  

Yea Vote

 

0

Nay Vote

 

93

Not Voting

 

9
 

 

  

REPUBLICAN

 

  

Yea Vote

 

225

Nay Vote

 

47

Not Voting

 

21

 

 

 

INDEPENDENT

 

 

Yea Vote

 

1

Nay Vote

 

0

Not Voting

 

0

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THE VETO OF HB 474: “RIGHT TO WORK? NOT SO MUCH…

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“Labor unions would have us believe that they transfer income from rich capitalists to poor workers. In fact, they mostly transfer income from the large number of non-union workers to a small number of relatively well-off union workers…”   –ROBERT E. ANDERSON, Just Get Out of the Way

 

 CONCORD – Governor Lynch, true to his word vetoed HB 474, the right to work Bill recently passed out of the house and Senate.  Passed out of both the house and Senate, the bill has drawn the ire of the Union Hackarama far and wide. All of the pro-unionists came out in force to pontificate about being against the working men and women of this country; About people who will starve and go hungry; and when the rhetoric and false logic had no effect, They crowded hearing rooms and were disruptive with verbal outbursts. Despite all this bad behavior, rank demagoguery and cursing at lawmakers, the bill passed anyway.

Tom Fahey, Statehouse Bureau Chief for the Union Leader  writes, “Unions see the bill as a move funded by out of state interests to undercut their role in the workplace. (Unions) argue that the measure intrudes in labor-management relations,” in this morning’s UL article,GOP goes after right-to-work opponents.

Juxtapose that against Unions bussing in “volunteers” for Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign from, Lord-knows where; And, the Union interests from all around the country pumping big dollars into local campaigns, those hardly qualify as out-of-state interests? Leave it to Union mouthpieces to complain about the very thing that is not only pro forma for them, but done with absolute shameless impunity.

Governor Lynch and his union cronies, with their Machiavellian Template,  redefine the plain and ordinary meaning of words in the furtherance of their subterfuge. In his press release Governor Lynch chastises, “States should not interfere with the rights of businesses and their employees to freely negotiate contracts. That is unless there is a compelling public interest, and there is no compelling public interest in passing this legislation…” They would have us believe that somehow the veto of this bill is was advocacy for freedom.” Lynch would have us believe job seekers have this “freedom” already in place enabling them to be free from the yoke of the Unions. That is untrue, when an employee has to pay an agency fee to the coffers of the Union. That is essentially joining the Union by proxy.

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Hillary Clinton Edited Out Of ‘Iconic’ Photo

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(First a Note: This is not the picture in question. It’s better)

That’s the Yahoo! News headline. Hillary Edited Out of Iconic Photo.   Though I’m not particularly concerned about that.  I’m more interested in the media narrative about a staged photo.  The word iconic keeps popping up as an adjective to describe this "piece of…history." 

Well, Iconic is defined by dictionary dot com as…

-Adj,

1.  relating to, resembling, or having the character of an icon.

2.  (of memorial sculptures, esp those depicting athletes of ancient Greece) having a fixed conventional style.

OK. Not much to work with there. How about Icon then?

— n
1. Also: ikon  a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, esp one painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church
2. an image, picture, representation, etc
3. a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement
4. a person regarded as a sex symbol or as a symbol of the latest fashion trends
5. a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system, that enables the facility to be activated by means of a screen cursor rather than by a textual instruction

Which of these five do you think the media is shooting for?

Given the direction of public education, I think we will have to amalgamate these into a common perception.  Something that fits the modern, western, collective unconscious, or in this case the media narrative about the current administration.  Iconic implies a historical moment of great importance destined to define our nation and it’s leaders (so -depicted) for generations to come.  Think- Sputnik moment!

Well lets work with that.

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THE LIBERAL CHARITABLE TEMPLATE

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“If I ever get real rich, I hope I’m not real mean to poor people, like I am now”– Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey

In the context of budget debates, we can always count on liberals to wage class warfare. When austerity draws its uncomfortable bead on health and human services line items, school budgets, public sector unions, and the arts, liberals form up the fight line to speak of epic meanness. They caterwaul and accuse Republicans of starving the children, or killing the old people or taking away food stamps from the poor.

Those evil, heartless rich Republicans! they just keep getting richer and the poor just keep getting poorer! Republicans Are People Too — Mean, Selfish, Greedy People! How many times have we grown tired of hearing that? The sad fact is that all too many people buy into these sham assertions.

“Republicans.”  They are the straw man in public debate that liberals love to point their prune-picking, pablum-puking, American-hating, boney little fingers at, as the source of all thing miserable.

Class warfare Liberals gloss over the fact that uber-wealthy liberals vastly outnumber wealthy conservatives. Andrew Gelman, Professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University asserts that, “The average income of the 100 million or so Republicans is LOWER than that of the 150 million or so Democrats,” in Rich state, poor state, red state, blue state. American Conservative households statistically earn 6% less than Liberal American households.

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A Glass of Kool-Aid With Jackie Cilley

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“In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. –George Orwell“

Former State Senator Jackie Cilley waxed in awe(Union Leader – “Another View”) when President Obama addressed the nation late Sunday Night to tell us Bin Laden was dead. Cilley writes, “This is the essence of leadership and courage, lest we forget what it looks like. It also sharply contrasts this man and the current crop of contenders for his job.” Little more than a disquisition of gushery, Cilley suggests Obama is the essence of leadership and the Republican candidates are a bunch of pedestrian neddle-nosed light-weights.

And while Jackie made quick work of diving into the all-too-typical topically boring, class-warfare laden template of caricaturing GOP hopefuls as money-grubbing wind bags, she rounds out her observations with a slaps at all things antithetical to rank liberalism. Rounding out her diatribe with some “Blame Bush” doctrinal morsels, as a true partisan will do, Jackie seems to be suggesting that Democrat campaign money comes from hard working folks and not the like of Move-on,  George Soros or any of the other Kool-Aid drinking commie-libs. Oh No, that never happens, Does it, Jackie?

Yet, while taking some partisan shots at, “The Donald,” RINO Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachman and Tim Pawlenty, Jackie suffers from selective and acute amnesia failing to remember her own darling community organizer’s light-weight bumblings.  Remember when Obama told voters in Beaverton Oregon about his visits to “57 States.” And, while addressing voters in Pennsylvania, he quipped, “It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations…”

 My all time favorite is the National Prayer Breakfast bumble February of last year, where he repeatedly mispronounced, Navy Corpsman (Cor-man) not just once, but four times saying, “Corpse-man”.

Finally, this knee-slapper: “My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to change it.”

So when Jackie finally finishes throwing mud at the Tea Party, the Birthers, Republicans and Bush, she extols the virtues of Obama with, “Every element of the mission that brought down bin Laden speaks to the character of the man who bore the ultimate responsibility for its failure if not its success…” Now that, is just plain-old Sheep manure. 

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LIBERALS AND FISCAL DENIABILITY

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Since the beginning of the year, countless editorials and opposite editorial pages across the Granite State have been one large veritable whine-fest…A seemingly never-ending weeping and gnashing of teeth over cuts in various line items of the state budget. Hand-in-hand with all the pissing and moaning, is the rank demagoguing of New Hampshire House Republicans for the choices they are making. If Liberals are good at nothing else, they are certainly adept at blaming everything bad on Republicans, even after it was they who made the mess.

 Noticeably absent from all of this cacophony, noise, caterwauling and fit-pitching is any reasonable alternative or meaningful way to fund all these sacred cash cows that each their loyal patrons willingly advocate for keeping and maintaining. It is as if there is no budget shortfall or structural deficits realized. Call it fiscal deniability.

 “Those evil Republicans! They are cutting (“insert esteemed cash cow here”).

And, in predictable fashion, the noisy screeching of the liberal magpies checker the ambience with demagoguery and finger-wagging, replete with the requisite vitriol of class warfare.  Like sculptured nails on a chalk board, the tax-and spend liberals still offer no reasonable suggestions even when they run out of steam.  We would be remiss to overlook the much-heard faux straw man charges like, “Republicans hate children,” or, “Republicans are stealing from the working class.”

 A week ago Friday the esteemed fishwrapper, The Concord Monitor weighed in with an editorial admonishing its’ readers that, Killing ‘car tax’ will make things worse. When House Republicans sought to repeal the motor vehicle registration surcharge, The editorial

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Clarity and Collective Bargaining?

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Mr. Sapienza asks in the Union Leader, “Do legislators even know what state workers do?”
Perhaps some don’t. I know for a fact that some do…many have been state workers themselves. With so many flawed or misquided assumptions, the demagoguery lives on. 

Edward Sapienza of Manchester, through the Union Leader opposite editorial pages seeks to “offer some clarity and ask our state representatives and state senators, specifically what conservative values do [sic] you bring to the table?” Mr. Sapienza asserts this legislature is taking from the rank and file working class. “Getting state and county spending under control is, “taking from the working class?” pointing to the measure to remove collective bargaining.

Mr. Sapienza is a correctional officer at the Hillsborough County Jail.  As a Hillsborough County taxpayer, I am grateful and thankful for his service because being a correctional officer is a tough job. The care, custody, and control of our societal miscreants is a significant task, requiring patience, an even temperament and intelligence. Correctional Officers must follow a clearly defined set of rules, procedures and standards in dealing with our county prisoners and detainees, who, on the other hand, adhere to no such rules or standards, other than those imposed by the facility that keeps them. Few truly know what a day in the life of a correctional officer is truly like and often times, the only public mention of the men and women who do this job is when we see acts of wrong-doing by them in newspapers. It’s unfair.

Moreover, very few understand that in Mr. Sapienza’s workplace; even the most seemingly innocuous question or request by an inmate or detainee can tax a Correctional Officer. A Correctional Officer must be able to think quickly, evaluate, and understand that his response may have an unintended consequence. The CO must ask, “Did the inmate or detainee already ask another staff member? Did that staff member say, ‘no'”? If I say, ‘yes’, am I causing an inconsistency with my other staff members, enabling an inmate manipulation?” Being a correctional officer is a challenging career and is not a job for stupid people.

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The Shrill Kathy and the Business Finance Authority

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The “Shrill Kathy” Sullivan has a bee in her bonnet over Executive Councilor’s St. Hillaire, Sununu and Wheeler’s “vote to table” the April 13 agenda items two, three and four regarding the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority request for a public guarantee for small business loans.

An in her normal, usual and customary fashion of pandering, demagoguery and straw politics, the Shrill Kathy pens her diatribe in the Union Leader Op-Ed section, grossly mischaracterizing the meeting vote as being anti-small business and anti-job creation.

The Shrill Kathy’s first shot is at District 5 Executive Councilor Dave Wheeler and she quips, “Wheeler’s votes often lack thoughtfulness…” Really? How thoughtless? Councilor Wheeler posited the following question, “What does the thirty-five million look like to the bonding companies regarding state debt? and Wheeler adds, “We increased state debt tremendously in the last four years…how does this fit into that picture?”  To which the response was given, “This is reflected as a ‘contingent liability.'”

In that context, we should define, “contingent liability“. A contingent liability is The possibility existent of an obligation to pay certain sums dependent on future events. Liability which is difficult to quantify, or which may or may not come to pass, such as an outstanding lawsuit or a guarantee such as this.

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