HB 546 would ban cell phone use in your vehicle while driving. But is that the actual problem? Up until we had Ray LaHood the phone-o-phobe running the NHTSA from the department of Transportation most of the data indicated that talking on a cell phone was no less dangerous than having a conversation in the vehicle with another person. As of this writing, you can’t find that data anymore. In fact the NHTSA and the government have a dedicated web site to distracted driving that highlights cell phones as a major cause of driver distraction and even Oprah is in on the action, but that tidbit appears to be missing.
Suspicious? You should be.
Looking at the large picture cell phones have become the bogeyman equivalent of CO2. The Democrats and their green $pecial intere$t friend$ say CO2 is making the planet hotter but despite there being millions more tons of it about it hasn’t gotten warmer. It has gotten cooler. And rich liberals keep buying up expensive ocean front property despite dire warnings of rising sea-levels. Insurance scam or hypocrisy?
So what’s the deal with cell phones?
That is the title of Kathy Sullivan’s most recent contribution to the Union Leader. "Straight? Republicans Want To Meddle In Your Marriage, Too." And I must confess that my initial reaction after trying to wade through her editorial and then through 
Riding in on the heels of the UNH/Hirshberg cow fart research we have other news from the research front of which is just begging to be made fun.
The December New Hampshire labor report, period ending October 2010, is not all that remarkable. Coos County is still suffering while overall the state is hanging in at 5.4%. This number is still reflective of issues with the size of the labor force versus mid 2009 numbers. We have to watch that as we head through the November and December reports into January, where holiday hiring will add to the labor force, and then most likley drop off.
Democrats continue to insist that they created jobs. To do this they extracted trillions from our economic future in an effort to create jobs that did not yet exist–that perhaps were not needed yet. Looking at similar exercises, cash for clunkers–which moved car sales forward a few months but has since resulted in a collapse in the market; the home mortgage bail outs, supports, credits, and the "home affordable" programs which improved home sales briefly but which have since collapsed (also to historic lows); and then there’s the stimulus, several public sector employee bailouts, bank lending infusions, small business bills, and everything in between including health care reform–many trillions spent, all made with claims that they would create, save, or incentivize job creation.
The economic relationship between government, the private sector, and the people, has been the object of much debate as democrats try to convince people that spending trillions we don’t have has some kind of payoff at the other end. The fact that we can’t see that "end" and none of their predictions have come true fuels the fires of the opposition while encouraging proponents to claim we just need to wait a bit longer–or spend a few trillion more.
Paul Hodes is trying to restyle himself as a fiscal conservative. As a Washington outsider. But Washington outsiders don’t get huge campaign donations from the left wings senatorial elite Like Dan Inoyue, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez. Paul Hodes does.
