New Hampshire Archives - Page 89 of 120

An Apology to the NH SEA/SEIU

September 26, 2018March 19, 2012 Steve MacDonald

No one understands the problems of perception like the Democrat Party. They invest a good deal of time and money into hiding what they are truly up to. Almost as much time as they spend painting pictures of their opponents for the main stream media to hang on your living room walls. So we should not be surprised when a prominent member of the New Hampshire SEA, a chapter president with the local SEIU, sees the kind of perception issues he creates when we uncovered months, even years of online comments, posted during office hours, while he was supposed to be performing state business, on the taxpayer dime, from the Department of Environmental Services, where he is employed by you and I.

Perception is a problem but not nearly as much of a problem as reality.

Mark Vincent – Candidate for NH GOP Area 3 Vice Chair, Questions 7 & 8

September 26, 2018March 17, 2012 Steve MacDonald

We continue the interview with Amherst Republican Town Committee Chairman, Mark Vincent. Mark is running for the position of NHGOP Area 3 Vice Chair. Question 7 deals with the NH GOP State Party Platform, Question 8, with the NH GOP State Party by Laws.

Obama’s “Real” War On Women

September 26, 2018March 16, 2012 Steve MacDonald

While Democrat women were busy standing with planned parenthood in the NH state house last week, asking us to trust them, down in Texas a Federal Whistle-blower (who was also a woman), was getting help, preparing a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in Texas–which has since been issued.

The lawsuit, filed by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), on behalf of former Planned Parenthood clinic director, Abby Johnson, accused Planned Parenthood of submitting over 87,000 “false, fraudulent, or ineligible claims for Medicaid reimbursements” under Title XIX, in association with the Texas Women’s Health Program.

The Medicaid claims, filed between 2007 and 2009, were valued at more than $5.7 million. The lawsuit alleges that Planned Parenthood knowingly committed Medicaid fraud by “improperly seeking reimbursements from the Texas Women’s Health Program for products and services not reimbursable by that program.”

So Texas is cutting off Planned Parenthood. And in response, the Obama Administration, in defense of a political ally, is waging war on Texas, and treating the very women they claim to be defending as acceptable casualties.

Isn’t it Time We Enforced the State’s IT Policies

September 26, 2018March 15, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Democrats like to manage society, ever more so when they believe it has misbehaved. So here’s an idea the left ought to embrace with both left arms.

Because it is against state policy to use state computers for activities outside their intranet, like reading online news or–heaven forbid whiling the day away commenting on news portals like the Concord Monitor while on the taxpayers payroll–why hasn’t one of the states IT guru’s blocked all those IP’s from within the states network? (We know they have not.)

The policy is very clear yet the system is left open to abuse. So is this trust that the government is extending to state employees, something its leftist advocates are loath to offer to regular citizens on a wide range of things. Well, that trust has been broken.

NH Democrats Fight To Abolish Religious Freedom

September 26, 2018March 9, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Why is the New Hampshire Democrat Party attacking religious freedom in the State of New Hampshire? From the state party chair, to Democrat candidates for governor, right down to elected members, Planned Parenthood, and EMILY’s list lobbyists. The entire morally bankrupt Democrat party machine has a laser-like focus on denying you another first amendment right. The right to religious freedom is under attack again.

Emerson’s Boo-Hoo Towel Bill Goes Down in Flames

September 26, 2018February 24, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Consider it settled. Debating at the grown-ups table, at least for the remainder of the 2012 session of the New Hampshire House, will not be misconstrued as “bullying.” HB 1533, an Act to turn heated State House debate you disagree with into a crime punishable with up to a $2500.00 fine, was killed 224-78. (That’s right cry-babies, I said Killed!)

While the biggest goof with the Boo-Hoo Towel bill should have been Rep. Susan Emerson (:-( – Rindge) using the legislative process to get even after “somewun hurt her feewings,” there are two greater embarrassments that I believe must take precedence.

Where the Heck is My Damn Lobbyist? (HB 1342)

May 20, 2022February 21, 2012 Steve MacDonald

New Hampshire HB 1342 would prohibit towns and cities from using your tax dollars to hire a lobbyist to send to Concord. This seems like a pretty good idea to me. But not to the Committee which rejected it 12-2 sending it to the House floor as Inexpedient to Legislate. (It gets voted on tomorrow.) … Read more

RGGI…still a Scam (Audio)

September 26, 2018February 16, 2012 Steve MacDonald

RGGI Picking your pockets In my quest to mix it up , how about Blogs on Tape? Here’s the audio version of “RGGI…still a Scam,” my GrokTALK! special presentation about the ongoing effort to end the scourge of the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative. (or something…)

If you’d prefer the print version the full transcript is on the jump.

[jwplayer mediaid=”17907″]

How About A Donation Comrade?

September 26, 2018February 15, 2012 Steve MacDonald

…or why we might want to NH HB 1534.

HB 1534 reminds us of one of those ingredients in the sausage of government that we know are going to be bad for us. Somehow the New Hampshire Department of labor was allowed to collect fines into a restricted fund that is then used to fund the Department of Labor. Need more revenue, collect more fines. What could go wrong?

I don’t know…a bunch of bureaucrats, looking to pad their own budget, free to fine whomever they please… no worries. Just make a “donation” to the Department of labor Budget expansion fund, and you’ll be in the clear comrade. We won’t come back for another month. Or, do we have to fine you for something now…?

Gambling On Our Future

September 26, 2018February 13, 2012 Steve MacDonald

A few days ago I wrote this (among other things) about the risk of bringing casinos to New Hampshire… Years of Casino ‘revenue’ in Concord would inevitably create the opportunity for entrenched incumbency and make every race about money, and who can spend it. The special interest money would favor those who support Casino interests … Read more

Free market liquor stores coming

September 26, 2018February 4, 2012

GOP Rep. John Hikel has sponsored a bill that will allow bottled spirits of all types to be sold in markets, grocery stores, convenience stores, and other outlets. This change in the law will obviously benefit the free market and consumers in New Hampshire, but it will also result in the creation of lots of jobs, and lots more work for truckers, delivery people, stockers, etc. A Commerce Committee hearing will be held this coming Tuesday, February 7th, at 2:15 p.m. in Room 302 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. You should be there and testify in FAVOR of the bill.

"The Feast of Spending Fools in Concord," by Bruegel

But wait! There’s a problem! To understand it, consider the famous picture above. You thought it was a raucous party of drunks in Concord, right? What might result if we allow expanded consumer choice and convenience in New Hampshire, and pass Rep. Hikel’s bill? No, you idiot. Read on to find out what the real problem will be….

I See Dead People (Petition Edition)

September 26, 2018February 3, 2012 Steve MacDonald

We’ve begun the process of getting our hands on the ‘so-called’ 109,900 names and addresses from petitions ‘collected’ by the well funded out of state groups who dropped them on the New Hampshire Attorney General yesterday I have speculated on a few occasions that a super-majority of these will be from outside New Hampshire, but … Read more

Should NH Give A Damn About Zandra Rice Hawkins?

September 26, 2018February 2, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Tomorrow, someone who relies entirely on out of state money, will present a pile of petitions, signed almost entirely with out of state signatures, to the New Hampshire Attorney General (AG), whom she will ask to investigate voter fraud in the Granite State.

Let me start out by thanking Zandra for the petition show she plans to put on tomorrow. She thinks she is going to make a statement about the need to prosecute voter fraud, James O’Keefe and Project Veritas specifically, but that is not the statement she will be making.

Please allow me to set the table.

HB 1711 Where’s The Fire?

September 26, 2018January 31, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Campfires still need permits - HB 1711 would not require them If you want to rub two sticks together around here, you have to go get a burn permit. So I leave my house in a 4000 pound (ish) SUV, drive 5 miles to the nearest Fire Station, and then hand the Fire-Fighter my ID. (If I was just doing something as unimportant as, say voting, they could just check my name off a list.)

He fills out a form, hands it to me, and reminds me not to burn before 5pm. I get back in my SUV, drive home and, at the appointed time, burn. There are very few variables to this formula, and almost any fire requires a permit. But unless you lose control of it, no one ever stops by to check on you, even if you use the permit to start the fire.

HB 1711 makes the bold assertion that some camp and cook fires, that you start on your property, should be permissible without all the four-play. And yet for some reason, it appears to have come out of committee as inexpedient to legislate? Why?

HB 1440 – Making Drivers Ed Affordable Act?

September 26, 2018January 30, 2012 Steve MacDonald

In New Hampshire, Parents are not recognized, by themselves, as adequate driving instructors for children under age 18. State law requires new instruction through a certified drivers Ed course. As is the case in any such arrangement, the price for this instruction is not cheap, not even through the public school system. While I would … Read more

ID at The Dump

September 26, 2018January 28, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Your Vote Counts...even when someone else steals it — ...even when someone else steals it

Not long ago Merrimack went to annual renewal of our dump decal. You display it on your windshield so they know you are a resident. It costs nothing to get the decal, but according to the guy handing them out, the amount of savings more than covers the cost of doing this every year. Quite a bit more. He says that asking people to present an ID once a year to get a new sticker, saves the municipality a lot of money.

Not only was there fraud at a place where not too many people were thinking about it (at the town transfer station) but there was enough of it to make annual renewals an important disincentive against it.

Of course the cost of operating the transfer station is just one part of the town budget.

So how much could it cost a town if just anyone can walk into a polling place, get a ballot without any ID at all, and vote for or against issues, Warrants, and candidates that will affect local spending and inevitably the tax burden required to fund that spending? More? Millions more?

Sylvia Larsen – Zipper head

September 26, 2018January 27, 2012 Steve MacDonald

I suppose you’ll want some context for that headline. Back in December (12/9/2011) I explained why New Hampshire should continue lowering tobacco taxes. I suggested we adopt some kind of schedule by which we would sunset tobacco taxes over the next decade based of the long term decline in sales. Why, after all, would you risk the states ability to invest in anything, including the left’s rhetorical “neediest residents in their most desperate hours (or something),” using an unreliable source of revenue in decline?

OK, what I actually said was

“Only a progressive zipper-head would rely on more revenue from something they want to get rid of. Increasing the tax on a declining market will only accelerate the unreliability of the revenue stream. That creates the opportunity for bigger budget holes that must then be filled on the fly.”

As if by magic, Sylvia Larsen, Democrat super-minoirty leader of the New Hampshire State Senate, in the face of declining unit sales, as fewer people smoke, after a decades long trend indicating that tobacco purchases will likely continue to decrease in the future, thinks we should increase our reliance on cigarette taxes in New Hampshire.

Zipper head. (doofus, goofball, goober, dunderhead, maroon, doh!) see note#2 below

Is It Time To End The Injustice of Out Of State Tuition in NH?

September 26, 2018January 26, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Students voting - but do they really live here? New Hampshire’s white tower liberals and their advocates in state government have been adamant about their policy on College students voting in the Granite State. While we have called this voter fraud, the Democrats insist that if you go to school here, then you should be able to vote here.

But are these “New Hampshire voters” getting screwed over by these same liberal establishment types? Are the same people who insist students should be able to claim residency for the purposes of voting for Democrat candidates, denying these students the same status when it comes to the cost of their education?

Using UNH as an example, the average New Hampshire voter who applied to attend the State school from someplace outside New Hampshire, shall not be denied their “right” to affect our elections, but must still pay 110% more per year in tuition than a New Hampshire “voter” who is defined by the university as domiciled inside the state for billing purposes. And the progressives think voter ID disenfranchises the poor?

HB-1412 “WARNING! Massachusetts Border 500 FEET”

November 19, 2021January 23, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Want to send a message about the differences between New Hampshire and Massachusetts? Make people ask why we might want to pass a house bill that would allow the placement of “Warning” signs 500 feet before the border on every road leading from New Hampshire into Massachusetts. That is what HB 1412 would do.

Order Your Susan Emerson Commemorative Boo Hoo Towels Today!

September 26, 2018January 20, 2012 Steve MacDonald

The RINO from Rindge, House GOP 69 percenter Susan Emerson, has sponsored a bill to stop bullying in the State legislature. No. I am not. Kidding.

The Union Leader reports that HB 1533..

“….would allow the Attorney General’s Office to investigate allegations of bullying in the Legislature, rather than current rules that allow such allegations to be investigated by an ethics committee.”

The paper claims the bill has 97 Sponsors, while the bill as submitted has just a handful of support; moderates pretending to be Republicans, pining no doubt for the days when more people voted for their spineless ilk and they actually had some kind of voice in State government? (Too harsh?)

This bill does not fix that problem, no bill could. What it does do is create an atmosphere built on tension and self imposed censorship, where healthy debate and disagreement becomes almost impossible without fear of being branded a bully backed up by the threat of a $2500.00 fine (per incident) and the stigma of criminal proceedings.

Mom! He’s Bullying me!