Articles tagged as

New Hampshire

Half-Bass’d Mast [Updated]

Well the timer was short. The result? When you copy an image location and someone does not like what you do with it, they snip your little life-line and the image goes away. You are left with a broken link, some alternate text if you added any, and plenty of people asking–huh?

Kathleen Sullivan DiFruscia

You remember Tony DiFruscia? Lawyer, democrat, republican, independent, ex RINO NH House rep. Yeah that guy. Well his law partner and wife–wait until I tell you her name, is running for selectman in Windham.

Atlas Shrugged – The Movie?

Someone said this was one of the most anticipated movies…..I….no, I was not anticipating it.  In fact I didn’t know they were making it. And having watched the trailer, the first two words to come to my mind were ‘Red Box.’

But who am I?  Certainly not a qualified movie critic.  And this has to be at least as good as most of the crap that Hollywood makes.  And Hollywood makes a lot of crap.  So will this be more crap?  I can’t tell you that from the trailer.  Movie trailers are like airbrushed models in print.  That’s about as good as it is ever going to look.  So does it look good enough?  Red Box. 

I realize the books continued appeal is why we have a movie based on it.  I get the whole idea of going Galt.  And that will appeal to a slice of the movie-going public, but how big a slice.  Ayn Rand is provocative but can it be translated onto the big screen, and since this is part one, how many more parts must we endure to resolve the driving question of this trailer.  Who is John Galt?

One bonus I can comment on is that it is NOT scheduled to be released in 3D.  Movies are made in 3D as an excuse to charge 50% more for a ticket, turning a nice family outing to the cinema into another reason to refinance.  The movie is not supposed to cost more than dinner is it?  For that kind of cash you should get live actors and sets and an intermission so you can hit the restroom and not miss anything. 

But that doesn’t get us any closer to the trailer for Atlas Shrugged Part 1.  So here it is, on the jump, one of the most anticipated Movies….well, we talked about that already.  I watched the trailer.  I’m still not anticipating it.  Sorry.

 

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Democrats, Trains And HB 218

De railedThe Union Leader has a great editorial in this mornings Sunday News titled "Free Trains."  It is great for several reasons the least of which is that it mirrors concerns I have been expressing for years.  That no matter who pays to build them, someone has to pay to keep them.  That would be New Hampshire Taxpayers. But Democrats are aghast that the NH House would dissolve the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority–the head of a beast seeking to force commuter rail upon us–because hey it doesn’t cost anything.

But it does cost and it could lead to something that costs us even more in the future.  A lot more.

December 2009 at NH Insider – I hit it out of the park when someone compared road taxes to rail taxes.

Passenger rail costs are not limited to the root infrastructure itself.  That would be rails versus roads.   Taxpayers would have to subsidize passenger rail-cars, fuel the cars, maintain the cars, probably pay the workers and their benefits, and support the entire system when it fails to turn a profit, which will be always and probably forever.   While roads have some other infrastructure nothing compares to rail.

In contrast people buy their own cars, and pay for their own fuel and maintenance.  They may buy the car to get to a job that’s probably not funded by taxpayers either. (Except in Concord) Taxpayers do not need to subsidize any of that where with rail we’re supporting all of it.  So there is no possible apples to apples comparison to road and rail taxes. 

The state also makes a lot of money on registration fees and fuel taxes for road vehicles, tolls and license plates, and some towns rely so heavily on registration fees that even minor reductions can cause budget issues.   Passenger rail offers no comparable net increase in revenues and in all likely hood a net loss.  So Passenger rail risks reducing revenues and increasing tax obligations for no significant greater good. 

Read the whole thing here. 

But that’s hardly the most pressing point about the ongoing illusion of free commuter rail…

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GrokTalk! Saturday February 12th 2011

GrokTalk!Live Streaming local and National News with opinion you could only get from GraniteGrok.

It’s GrokTalk!

This Saturday from 9-11AM…

 NH House Rep Laura Jones, Doris Hohensee and Rep Andrew Manuse all check in with Skip.

Author and National Review Managing Deputy Editor editor Kevin Williamson is back to continue the discussion on his book, The politically Incorrect Guide To Socialism.

Lear More About Our Guests on the jump

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Another Wheel Off The Bus

Usually the wheels come off the bus before it goes into the ditch. But here we go. Another wheel falls off the Obama bus. (Must be one of the Dr. Seuss buses, given all the wheels this thing is losing). Obamacare, the Patient Unaffordable and Un-accessible (all we really) Care (about is government power) Act will require another 800,000 Americans to give up their jobs. Put another way, it will cost 800,000 jobs.

So when are Shaheen, Ex-Porter (That’s ex congresspersonista Carol Shea-Porter) and Paul ‘Hot Dog’ Hodes going to come out and clear up the record?  They have all argued that the loss of jobs was some right wing fear mongering.

The same CBO the left swore was non-partisan when it claimed the bill would save money, then that it would cost money if we ended it, can’t suddenly be partisan can it?

Obama StoogesThese are democrats.  Of course they can.  So should we wait for the "Big Pharma, and Big Health care" bought the congressional Budget Office narratives?

And how will Obama’s Bureau Of Laboring Statistics every hide another 800,000 lost jobs?  Though they are doing a fine job with the millions they are hiding now–except from the people who are actually unemployed.

So many unanswered questions.

While you are waiting.  Here’s some video courtesy of Town Hall.com (On the jump) where the CBO admits there will be employment casualties in the war for universal coverage.  Which makes you wonder what would happen if Obama waged war on universal employment?

My bad. He’s already waging that war.

One more distraction before you jump. Queen, the Band? Song–“another one bites the dust;” change the lyrics to..”another wheel off the bus.” CArry that around in your head until November 2012. Ok. Go ahead. Watch the video. I’ll keep quiet. (for a minute)

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The New Hampshire House RINO Caucus

RINOsHow a representative votes can tell you a lot about their priorities.  The folks who just  voted against HB 89, who happen to run around with an (R) next to their name, think that state-crushing federal mandates like Obamacare should not be resisted by every means possible. 

They seem willing to accept that the Federal government has the right to require citizens to buy something, though I can almost guarantee they would never force you to buy and own a gun for your own self-defense.

A handful of elected "republicans" always seem willing to give up a little more State sovereignty and local control to a distance central power. (A dwindling handful, if you take my meaning).

They are what we lovingly refer to as RINO’s.  Republicans In Name Only.

Now some will argue, RINOs and Democrats mostly, that these folks voted against HB 89, and ACT requiring the NH Attorney General to join the challenge against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, because it was (insert left wing rhetoric here.)  It really does not matter, but I think my favorite is separation of powers which is a silly argument.  How do you legislate anything affecting any department under the governors leadership under those terms.  You can’t.  But I digress. The point is that for most of them this is not their first visit to the RINO rodeo.

These folks are the kind of republicans who might support John Lynch for Governor, or go to a No Labels meeting, or join a left wing run ‘bi-partisan’ House caucus.  Of course that is the only way the democrats will have them.  As democrats they would have no voice in that party at all unless they went all in on the socialist progressive agenda.  They are old school democrats, and unless their only hope is to either form an independent/moderate caucus, or take back the democrat party from the extremist liberals.  There is no longer any room for big government politicians in a small government party.

So without further delay, and to ensure their continued glorification by the left as victims, here are those ‘republicans’ who voted against HB 89 …on the jump!

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Yes, More US Energy Use Equals More Output

This is not a theorem, or a rule, it is more of a guideline.  That US Energy consumption produces  equals output.  I made this case back in 2008 when wackadoodles like Jeanne Shaheen, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter (among others milking the teats of the earth-mother for green votes) complained about how America used 25% of the worlds energy–or something close to it, and we were evil for using all that energy.  The narrative was that we were domestic abuses of a child named "resources."

My point, proven time and again, and again, and again, is that we took roughly 25% of the worlds energy and turned it into 25% or more of the worlds wealth and prosperity.  The US GDP as a percentage of global GDP was almost identical to our percentage of energy consumption. 

But we did it cleaner, faster, better, with more freedom and choices than anywhere else on the planet. And the end result was the richest nation with the fewest poor, the best health care, and almost a better everything else.  Even our poor are better.

Liberals and progressives in the democrat party however hate that, just like they hate this; more proof that we do more good things with energy by 6AM than the rest of the world does all day.

It is a chart (on the jump), that shows GDP output compared to energy consumption.  Follow the link, and you can play with the interactive version that shows you who, where, what and so on.  Press play to watch use and growth. Try the tabs and check boxes, and have a grand old time–for about 90 seconds.  Then share it with your annoying liberal friends, and make them buy you another drink for being wrong yet again about something else they will continue to insist is true despite evidence to the contrary.  (There is no settled science but global warming after all.)

 

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Can You Smell The Campaign Fires?

After two years of extravagance on the taxpayer dime. Week after week of high priced parties with expensive food and high priced entertainment. Date nights that shut down cities. Frivolous trips (in his and her jetliners complete with entourage) to various parts of the globe. Vacation, after vacation, after vacation. And despite the glamor of a designer wardrobe, pimped by the adoring media for the past 24 months, we are now supposed to be impressed by this?

“Retard” Makes A Comeback

In a moment of honesty, John Gage, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees Union (AFGE), calls elected officials who want to cut government pay “Mentally Retarded.”

Supporting A Corrupt Business

Would you stand up in a public hearing and defend an organization implicated in aiding illegal activity, sexual abuse, statutory rape and sex trafficking?  What kind of people would?  How about democrats, union members, and greedy corporate stooges on the take? (oh, my!)

If it was anyone but Planned Parenthood, the national media sensation that admits it has a ‘training’ problem, the professional left would be storming the castle not just to demand why taxpayer dollars were begin given to these criminals, but when the bastards were going to be rounded up and put on trial.

There would be bus loads of angry folks protesting outside executives homes, harassing staff and customers.

Left wing bloggers, even at that sad little web site Blue Hampshire, would be disconnecting their brains from their keyboard, bellowing about the injustice and abuse, the violation of civil rights, and another destructive association by a political party full of hateful bigots and misogynists who view women as second class citizens.  A few of them might even ponder running a few people down in the crosswalk.

But this is Planned Parenthood, a national business, a big business, that makes plenty of money while using its status as a “health care provider” to milk taxpayers for money it does not even need.  And there are still a few people here in New Hampshire willing to stand up and say incredibly stupid things in defense of a business model that seems incapable of protecting the interests of the young girls it claims to champion from a life as an underage sex slave.

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Straight? Republicans Want To Meddle In Your Marriage, Too

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 HB 569 to see if she was just making stuff up again was, "what the hell is this bill?"

And then it dawned on me. (or maybe the coffee kicked in.)

The sole purpose of HB 569 is to preserve existing civil unions and Marriages while removing the State almost entirely from the business of marriage altogether.  HB 569 does not dissolve your marriage, it simply (well, not simply) re-defines the state’s role in the decision of any two legally eligible persons to form a domestic contract, with or without a religious ceremony referred to as a marriage.

It’s like a union between "State" and "none of your damn business."

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Guest Post: Richard Olson Jr. “Send In The Clowns”

While the UL’s Mark Hayward story gives a description of some of the things the bill would allegedly do, the story also contains statements that the leadership disavowed this piece of legislation. Regardless of where one stands either supporting HB 523 or HB 330, it is clear that Republicans agree to disagree on some levels.

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