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New Hampshire

State Senate Votes 13-11 to Table HB 370 – The Education Scholarship Credit Lives!!!

HB 370, the government-school monopoly, anti-education-choice-bill from the union-owned Democrat House, that would have repealed the education scholarship tax credit that passed last year, has been tabled by the New Hampshire State Senate.    Tabling a bill is not legislative death but it is not unlike locking a prisoner up in a dungeon and forgetting they are there.  Someone might wander down to take a peek, but more likely  than not no one will ever visit it again.

Snidely whiplash - NEA loses as HB370 is tabled in NH Senate

There are several reasons for doing it, but more than likely this was to give cover for folks who would rather leave things as they are.  As a way to end the repeal effort without actually having to vote pass or fail..   Or maybe we got lucky.  I don’t much care what or why, just that it’s done, at least until Fred Lynn the ACLU, and the out of state wing-nuts who are planning to file suit at the bench of left-wing Judge John “I redefined domicile in time for the November Elections” Lewis….who will be asked to block the program on the grounds that it violates the separation of church and state.

Today we are victorious.  Tomorrow is another day.

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New Hampshire Democrat Women! How Do You Think Live Birth Abortions Should Be Performed?

NH Democrat women and live birth abortion

No point in beating around the bush.  Kermit Gosnell has put live birth abortion front and center and so should we.  It is a thoroughly documented fact that this is something that a number of prominent Democrat women in New Hampshire support.  Democrat leaders in the state and the Democrat party support it.  So we should explore this support to learn more about it.

It is reported that Gosnell, who performed many live birth abortions, would take the crying newborns and snip their spines to kill them.   But that is not necessarily the way every abortion doctor kills newborn babies, so we should pose the question to those in the New Hampshire Democrat party who not only support the practice but enrich their political careers because of it.

To the Democrat women in New Hampshire that support this practice…do you believe that Gosnell’s method–severing the infants spine at the neck– is the best way to kill a baby or do you prefer another?

If you prefer some other method of killing them, what is it?  We know you support it.  So speak up.

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Senate Hearing on HB399 at 9am Today

The news cycle is full as we watch and wait for more details on the Back Bay Bombing that has so far killed at least 3 and wounded 140.  Our prayers go out to everyone affected, but up in Concord, New Hampshire today their will be additional business to attend to.  The State Senate will … Read more

Sorry It’s Been So Quiet Today…

I guess we all get busy on the same day. I actually have a half dozen great things to write about and no time to do it.  Hint? Something Strange and infuriating may be afoot at the New Hampshire Vets Home. Someone suggested that some on the right should be embarrassed with the Honor Your Oath Rally … Read more

Let’s Take Kelly Ayotte On A Trip In the Way-Back Machine

Susan DeLemus shared this.  It is a link to a pdf file;  Kelly Ayotte’s complete 2010 New Hampshire Firearms Coalition Survey (NHFC). In it she identifies herself as pro-gun.  Very much so.  It looks like she answered all the questions ‘right.’ So I expect, having gone back in time to this 2010 survey, that moving … Read more

Mayor Gatsas Goes after The “Benfit Plan One-Percenters” in Manchester

oil rig - theres another 'resource' we have to tap
There’s A Public Sector “Resource” That We Need to Tap…

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas is singing a tune we like to hear and one that I have advocated for myself.  What is it?  Hidden in the Cadillac plans of public sector employees is a revenue resource that must be tapped.

Gatsas is standing up for taxpayers, and defending the spending cap, in his negotiations with the Teachers union with regard to Manchester’s School budget.

He said teachers still enjoy plans with zero deductibles, $5 co-pays and $50 charges for emergency room visits, while the police union, among others, recently made concessions to avoid layoffs, shifting to a plan with higher co-pays, deductibles and $150 per emergency room visit.

“With the $3 million in savings, we hired more police officers,” Gatsas said.

So why can’t the teachers do the same thing?  It’s a great question.

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Red Rover in Dover

In Norwegian, apparently, Røver means Pirate.  I won’t hold fast to that definition.  I just learned it on Wikipedia, which is about as reliable as a school board in Dover spending your tax dollars to pay lobbyists to push legislation you may not support.  Which is what I mean by pirate.  The Dover school board, like many similar cabals throughout the Granite State, spends your tax dollars on professional lobbyists to promote the “interests” of the “district” up in Concord over your own, though they will always insist these ideas have parity when they do not.

So follow the bouncing ball.

Schools, like any government agency, seek bigger budgets.  Those budgets are paid for with local and state taxes.  The folks who run the school–boards, committees, administrators, the unions and the teachers, want budgets to exapnd to protect their jobs and benefits.  To that end they are funding or promoting the funding of other professionals, with your tax dollars, to go before those with taxing power, including the state Legislature, to support laws and policies that will give them more of your money, and further secure their monopoly on education.

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The NH Tobacco Tax Increase is Not About Youth Smoking or Public Health…it is a Transfer of Wealth

Take some money and give it them

The Tobacco tax war is underway again, this time in the New Hampshire State Senate, as both sides debate the House passed 0.20 cent per pack tax hike before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.   Supporters of the tax point to potential health benefits and a reduction in youth smoking.  The Union Leader Article I draw this from is actually titled “Cigarette Tax Increase Seen as Deterrent to Youth Smoking,” but we already know that to be false.

According to the American Lung Associations own publications there has been absolutely no change in the middle-school smoking rate in New Hampshire since at least 2006, despite Democrats more than doubling the cigarette tax, taking it from 0.80/pack to 1.78/pack (plus a 65% wholesale price increase passed by Democrats in 2010).

The Lung Association’s reports for New Hampshire High School age smokers document the rate in 2006 at 20.5% (rising and falling) to settle in at 20.8% for 2010.

We also know that New Hampshire is consistently one of the healthiest states in the nation.

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Best Headline from Today’s Union Leader: Loon Groups Push for bill…

Loon groups push for bill to ban lead fishing jigs in NH

heh!

By DAN SEUFERT 
Union Leader Correspondent

MOULTONBOROUGH — The Loon Preservation Committee and the New Hampshire Lakes Association are pushing hard for passage of a bill that would ban the use of lead sinkers and fishing jigs, which they say threaten the lives of loons.

Loon preservation.  Isn’t that the same thing as when the New Hampshire Democrat party tries to protect incumbents?

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“We have to fight back if they come for Jeanne. She shares our values and stands up for them,” -Senator Bob Menendez

Shaheen

It looks like Senator Robert ‘Bob’ Menendez is fundraising for New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.  Well, there’s a wise decision.  Robert has been  implicated in a number of suspect behaviors for a sitting US Senator, not the least of which was accusations of sex with underage Dominican prostitutes.

What are the Shaheen optics on that, “well, as long as they had free contraception and access to taxpayer funded abortions without interference from a parent or guardian it’s no big deal.”(?)

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State Senate Committee Votes to End NH Democrat Efforts at Repealing Education Equality

From Facebook:

Senator Andy Sanborn reports fabulous news!! –> the Senate Health, Education, and Human Services Committee voted to kill HB370, so that’s a win for parents and school choice!!!

The Senate will still have to vote on the recommendation to kill the repeal effort but this is a very positive signal.   And I I get to say ‘…Democrats attempt to repeal education equality.‘  That’ll have the leftocrats foaming at the mouth and spraying spittle on their keyboards as they attempt to translate their outrage into smears and slurs.

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GrokTALK! is Back! And We’re Booking Guests…

GrokTALK! is back.  We are booking guests to discuss bills and issues, local, state and national.  We record the podcast on Saturday from 9-11 am at the CNHT Offices at 8 North Main Street in Concord. If you would like to be a guest tell me the date you are available and what you’d like … Read more

Is Senator Shaheen Your Senator…or Just the Democrat Party Senator?

New Hampshire US Senator Jeanne Shaheen is not here to talk to any little people that are not her little people.   When asked a question about more spending stimulus, as recommended by President Obama, that would be more debt spending at the expense of our children and their children, she couldn’t even be bothered to respond. I guess she’s … Read more

Dumpster fire

Take It Back or Burn It Down?

The current New Hampshire Republican Party has devolved away from being any kind of bulwark against creeping progressivism and the ardent promotion of candidates who will man the bulwark or (God help us) take us into battle, to little more than an exclusive group for hand-picked political insiders, partying away in the captain’s quarters of our anchored and sinking fleet.

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Is the NH Economy So Good That We Can Afford To Grow State Government by 16%?

NH Democrats cram 16% increases in budget down taxpayers throats

I know what you were thinking while you were paying almost four dollars a gallon for gas, or looking at your utility or cable bill, or thinking about how much more it costs to do the grocery shopping these days.  You were thinking, “Hey, times are so good, lets grow the size of the state government by 16%!”

You must have said that because someone in Concord seems to think they heard you say it.

What?  You weren’t thinking that?  Well you’d best get in touch with your legislator and tell them because the Democrat majority House is preparing to vote on a budget that will make your state government cost you 16% more.

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Governor Maggie Hassan Nominates Joseph Foster for N.H. Attorney General

Joseph Foster nominated for NH AG
Image Credit – New Hampshire Union Leader

I guess the good news is that Governor Hassan did not nominate gambling Lobbyist Lucy Hodder.  Instead, the Union Leader reports today that Joseph Foster is her pick for NH Attorney General.

Foster is a former NH House rep 1994-1998, former State Senator from 2002 to 2008  (D- Nashua), in the employ of McLane law in Portsmouth.  (I’ve never heard of him so I have culled a few things from the Internet– but feel free to add anything in comments we should know or explore moving forward.)

Here is a quick overview of his personal details and professional experience, and here is a link to his large dollar political donation history.

The only details we have of his political preferences, short of digging through his legislative voting record, are his Liberty Ratings from 2006 to 2008 and a Project Vote Smart political survey completed in 2004.

State Senator Joseph Foster’s Liberty ratings…2006 D+, 2007 D, 2008 – Constitutional threat. (Well, isn’t that promising?)  Oh, and it does look like Foster has experience as a lobbyist, I’m just not sure representing whom exactly.

The complete Project Vote Survey is on the jump.

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New Hampshire’s “No Information” Voter

Grok Friend Spec Bowers just posted this on facebook. (Talk about a bridge too far.) A friend was talking with a neighbor about the gas tax. The neighbor said, “Yeah, that’s what you get when you vote Republican.” My friend told him the bill is being pushed by the Democrats. His neighbor replied, “No the … Read more

Rules of Misconduct and Conflicts of Interest

On the matter of Governor Hassan considering Gambling Lobbyist Lucy Hodder as her next Attorney General, the indispensable Ed Mosca provides more fuel for that fire.

How would it not be a violation of at least the spirit of Professional Rule of Misconduct 1.11 for Hodder to be involved with Millennium Gambling as AG; as I read it the spirit of the rule suggests she shouldn’t even be involved as Hassan’s counsel:

(d) Except as law may otherwise expressly permit, a lawyer currently serving as a public officer or employee:
…
(2) shall not:
a. participate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or nongovernmental employment, unless the appropriate government agency gives its informed consent, confirmed in writing; or

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Where Todd I. Selig Admits to Some Heavy Lifting…But Not All.

Book of Bad Habiits-Cheating
Image credit – boysguidebooks.blogspot.com

Several of us writing here at GraniteGrok have taken to task Durham Town Administrator Todd I. Selig for both his position on the issue of raising the gas tax and how he went about showing his support for it.  Literally.  The letter he submitted to various publications around New Hampshire, explaining his support for the tax, included direct quotes from other sources–in some cases lifted in their entirety–without attribution.

In a recent comment to one of those posts Mr. Selig reiterates his position and admits the following.

In addition, I did quote heavily from TRIP in the paragraphs noted, in particular in the second to last paragraph without attribution. I view the TRIP overview of the deficiencies in NH roadways to be factual and accurate and fully consistent with my own understanding of the issue. The words used represent my perspective. I take full responsibility for them. Further, I did subsequently write to TRIP and the organization had no objection to the use of the material as utilized.

Subsequently?

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