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New Hampshire

SUPPORT LITERACY

“I know a lot of people think I’m dumb. Well, at least I ain’t no educated fool.”  ~Leon Spinks  Literacy is the vital to individual success in our modern world. The ability to read, write, and speak English enables people to get jobs, participate in children’s education, maintain family health, and participate in our society.  … Read more

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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Christopher Hill is Running For President

Christopher Hill is running for president. Who? Chris Hill. Chris is a gulf war fighter pilot who spent time in New Hampshire working in grass roots Republican politics. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1985. I met Chris about a year and half ago, and about twelve moths ago he told me over lunch that he was fed up with the government, and was interested in running for public office. He told me he was going to run for president.

Why You Should Run Screaming From A Balanced Budget Amendment

Run away -Photo Credit UK Daily MailI’ve never understood the Republican-conservative, Libertarian, Right-Wing-in General, love affair with the idea of a balanced budget amendment.  And it is not just my fear of letting the same modern Americans who think doing away with the electoral college is a good idea have a whack at the US Constitution.  It’s actually much simpler than that. A balance has two sides, and all things being equal, the side paying will get screwed.

And yes, I understand that almost every state has to balance it’s budget.  Even New Hampshire–despite what former governor (and dopey US Senator) Jeanne Shaheen thinks–must do this by law.  But this is no guarantee that a government will not spend more than it takes in.  The same government that decides what it spends will decide what it takes in.  And  unless you are a Granite Stater with a severe case of ADD, or just a very short memory, you may recall that balancing the budget need not have a single thing to do with austerity, control, or concern for the people who pay for government.  It merely requires you to find revenues to equal your spending.

For a quick review of how bad that scenario is, lets grab Simon and Mr. Peabody and jump into our way-back machine to the halcyon days after the 2006 elections when Democrats had complete control of the New Hampshire government for four years. " Balanced Budget" meant 100’s of new taxes and fees, many of them forced through at the last possible minute.  There were taxes that were enacted without a single hearing (in violation of other portions of New Hampshire law).  Land would be sold to raise revenue without anyone knowing what land or who might buy it, for how much, or if we could even sell it.  There was one time money, imagined cost shifting, raiding of dedicated funds, transfers from future years, and all manner of dark accounting magic used to create the illusion of a ‘balanced’ budget," perched in a Rube Goldbergian maze, upon a pedestal,  in a pentagram, guarded by straw men arranging goat entrails, scrying into alternate fiscal dimensions to hold off the demons of structural deficits yet to be.  To put a finer point on it, revenues were imagined to cover desired spending, without the revenue every actually being there to begin with, and when it failed to appear, someone had to pay for it to balance the budget. That or cut programs and spending. Typically, it is not the latter.

So having witnessed this abuse in one of the most politically active states, under some of the most withering scrutiny, with the benefit of the third largest representative body in the world, makes me wonder why anyone who lived through it would even suggest that things would be just ducky if we let distant, professional legislators, have a whack at it along the shores of the Potomac?

Sounds scary.  But could it get worse? Of course it could.

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RINO OF THE WEEK REPORT

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” ~Barry Goldwater This week’s installment of RINO of the week bring us an example of a real Dinosaur. This RINO has been around for way too long, ruining the Republican platform since 1988. … Read more

Can We Agree On The Value Of Broadband?

The most recent such move is the purchase of T-Mobile by AT&T. (Would that make them AT&T&T?) The debate is on whether or not this is good for broadband. Potential competitors say no, obviously, but most almost everyone else seems to think yes.

GSFTC Member Organization Spotlight -NH Citizens Alliance

There are a number of groups that the Left wing Granite State ‘Fare’ Tax Coalition highlights on it’s web site.  It’s your typical collection of "non-non-partisan" interests like the State Employes Union of NH (That’s the local SEIU 1984). The AFSC-which is the NH Chapter of a global leftist movement supported by all the nicest left wing foundations.  The League of Women Voters of course.  And there is even a who’s-who of left wing, NH social justice churches and their political arms, all promoting socialist activism and statist policy from the pulpit down to on the ground left wing activism.Socialism- Making everyone poor...

All of these groups warrant, and will receive, a proper vetting, but today I would like to focus on a special cog in the leftist machine of the so-called non-partisan GSFTC, one that happens to be very active in New Hampshire on its own; the NHCA.  The NHCA is the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance.  (You may remember their executive director, Sarah Chaisson Warner?  She received some unwanted attention after some remarks she made back in March of 2010. See also Here from the NHTPC.) The New Hampshire citizens alliance is…(drum-roll please)

…a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice.

A Non-partisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice?  Too bad that’s just not possible.  There are no right wing groups seeking these ethereal ends.  These are buzz-words, Orwellian constructs, created by statist agenda-driven socialists to mislead people.  So the NHCA couldn’t be "non-partisan" if they tried. But you don’t have to take my word for it.  Just look at who they associate with and what they support.

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William Jasmin The Beer Hunter

“He uses statistics like a drunk uses lamp-posts, more for support than illumination…” ~Romano Prodi

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 “(Attorney B.J. Branch) acknowledged that Jasmin had been drinking on the day of the accident but said he had only consumed one 16-ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and was at or below the legal limit for intoxication. He added that because of Jasmin’s serious blood loss, the blood alcohol test may not have been accurate.” -Concord Monitor, 7/20/11

 If one reads attorney Branch’s comment to the monitor at face value, you might just have the initial reaction that I had: “I think this attorney is full of crap.” The comment on its face suggests that Jasmin’s blood alcohol concentration cannot be effectively measured because he had experienced significant blood loss immediately after his fall.

Blood Alcohol Concentration measured is always the current and existing level in the blood at the time of a serological draw. BAC refers to the percent of alcohol in a person’s blood stream. For example, a BAC of .10% means that the individual’s blood supply contains one part alcohol for every 1000 parts blood.  That is the alcohol concentration existing in the blood stream at the proximal time of the draw. If a person consumed another several alcoholic beverages only minutes prior to the draw, that alcohol content has a higher probability of not being reflected in a test.

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William Jasmin: A Man Without A Hunting License

“Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.”  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.”

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In my previous entry about a “Hunter” who was seriously injured when a tree stand that he climbed into collapsed, causing him to fall, there was a presumption that the “Hunter” was lawfully engaged in the activity of hunting upon the land of Charles Corliss. That is not the case. WILLIAM JASMIN HAD NO LICENSE TO HUNT.

On Wednesday, July 13, I went to the New Hampshire Fish & Game Licensing Division and filled out the form, N.H. FISH AND GAME DEPARTMENT INFORMATION REQUEST .  “The information requested was not found” was how the form was returned.

This morning’s, Concord Monitor featured a story entitled, “Hunter falls from tree, sues property owner” where in that story Jasmin’s attorney B.J. Branch admits that  Jasmin was drinking the day of the accident and he tells the monitor, “[w]as at or below the legal limit for intoxication. He added that because of Jasmin’s serious blood loss, the blood alcohol test may not have been accurate…”

But all of that aside, other questions arise. For example, N.H. RSA 635:2 (Criminal Trespass) states in part, “A person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place…”

RSA 214:1(License Required) states in part, “No person, except as hereinafter provided, shall at any time fish, hunt, trap, shoot, pursue, take or kill…[w]ild animals in this state, without first procuring a proper and valid license to do so, and then only in accordance with the terms of such license and subject to all the provisions of this title…”

When Jasmin, through his attorney filed his writ, he asserted, “On or about November 17, 2009, William Jasmin sustained serious injuries while hunting on property owned by the defendant…” Jasmin, through his attorney, made a “sworn statement that he was “hunting.”

 RSA 207:36-a (Use of Tree Stands) states in part, “No person shall erect, build or use a tree stand… [o]n land of another person that damages or destroys a tree by inserting into the tree any metallic, ceramic, or other object used as part of a ladder or observation deck, without express written permission from the property owner or designee...” Jasmin asserts he had an “invite” to use the tree stand. Chuck Corliss states he hasn’t hunted in 40 years and was not aware of the tree stand’s presence.  I believe Chuck Corliss and if the court does, then Jasmin violated yet another law. If a person hunting happens upon a tree stand and climbs into the stand…and branches have been cut, and then a Conservation Officer thereafter happens along, the C.O. is going to ask for the persons “written permission” to have a tree stand where limbs have been removed. Having no permission, a citation is inevitable.

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If You Are Not Following Me On Twitter….

Twitter inspires the opportunity to aggravate the leftists who insist on following conservatives there. Not every witticism will fit on Twitter. Sometimes you have to write a blog and post a link. And then there are the thoughts that are too short to blog and too long to tweet. (Some things can’t be said in under 140 characters.)

The Very Partisan Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Part II

GSFTDNC%202.jpgThe Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC–Greedy Socialists Frisking TaxPayers Cash) is a partisan non-profit, which for years has insisted it is a non-partisan group advocating an income tax in New Hampshire.  But the GSFTC is non-partisan the way MSNBC is.  They use the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick.  ‘The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.” And while there is nothing wrong with being a left wing partisan group, started by a social-justice driven religious organization, to advocate for a top down income tax, there is something wrong with acting like this is a non-partisan effort.

Our first look at the partisan make up of the GSFTC (God Says Fleece Taxpayers for Christ) was a rundown of their advisory board.  This revealed a panel of progressive and left wing water-carriers, who provide cover and material support for a specific leftist agenda: a state income tax.   They are democrats and democrat supporters, willing to use class warfare and a faux-morality-cum-guilt complex media campaign, to advocate for that state income tax.  Fish swim, birds fly, democrats spend and so must tax.  To insist they are non-partisan suggests a mental state that is non compos mentis.  Or to be a bit more colloquial; They are just a bunch of typical leftists.

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The Little Governor Who Couldn’t

Those were some funny tating browniesGovernor Lynch, in a fit of impotence and self contradiction, has confused his role as the states chief executive, as reported in a Union Leader column today by Tom Fahey. 

In regard to the passage into law of New Hampshire HB 601 and SB 148, Governor Lynch remarked on one hand that…

He allowed the bill (HB 601) to become law, he said, “because I did not want New Hampshire to default into federal oversight.”

and then claimed that…

…SB 148 has no practical effect on New Hampshire residents because there is no way to enforce it.

“ The assessments for not obtaining health insurance will not be administered through the state but through the Internal Revenue Service. Legislators and the public should understand that this legislation would have no impact on the capacity of the state of New Hampshire to block the individual health insurance mandate or the federal assessments for not obtaining insurance,” he said.

 

HB 601 (in short-hand) prohibits accepting pump-priming federal dollars for Obama Care–which must be returned to lower the federal deficit) and gives the NH legislature oversight of all state agencies on the matter before any part of it can be implemented.   SB 148 simply states that we will not enforce any purchase mandate fine or imprisonment related to the Health Care law.

As a matter of semantics Lynch is not wrong to suggest that if the IRS barges in and arrests us for failing to comply that no state agency is interposed to prevent that.  But that is exactly the point of SB 148.  It deems to interpose the law enforcing branch of the New Hampshire government–the executive and his Attorney General–between (in this case) the IRS and the people on the matter of  the Patient affordable care act.  SB 148 draws a line over which our chief executive is meant to stand in defense of his state and it’s people.  The same line, by the way, that he draws (at least rhetorically) with regard to HB601.

So according to Lynch, while he does not want to default to federal oversight, the IRS can just reach over the Governors office and snatch whomever they please. 

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RINO OF THE WEEK REPORT

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“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” ~Barry Goldwater

The RINO of the week is three term House Representative David H. Kidder.  Representative Kidder’s voting record reveals a rank statist who consistently supports governmental intrusion into the lives of Granite State citizens. Like The previous RINO’s Alida Millham and Ken Gould,  Representative Kidder is an enthusiatic advocate of nanny-statism. A common theme of these RINOs is the propensity to wage war on the traditional in-tact family unit. Often referred to as “Rockefeller Republicans”,   David Kidder was ranked by the New Hampshire House Republican Alliance with a whopping score of 42%. Clearly, this is a demonstrated fealty to liberal-progressive principles.

  • Voted against HB 125 a law that would support the right of the Granite State to regulate firearms within its sovereign borders as a state;

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  •  Voted against HB210, commonly referred to as, “Stand Your Ground” Which, “allows a person who is in any place where he or she has a right to be or reasonably believed he or she had a right to be to use deadly force to protect oneself.”
  •  Did Not vote on HB474 (2/15/11)Which would end Labor Union’s ability to compel non-union workers from paying agency fees as a condition of employment;
  •  Voted against CACR 9 affirming that parental rights are a natural right; “Provides that parents have the natural right to control the health, education, and welfare of their children.”
  •  Voted against HB519  A bill repealing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative…a a cap-and-trade system that has raised electricity prices, created a slush fund for the member states, and has no impact on reducing emissions. So Kidder voted for a tax expansion and big government spending.
  •  Voted against HB329 The parental notification bill;
  •  Voted against HB147, the, “Kimberly Cates” Bill which expands the death penalty to murders committed during home invasions and burglaries.
  •  Voted against HB519  A bill repealing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative…a a cap-and-trade system that has raised electricity prices, created a slush fund for the member states, and has no impact on reducing emissions. So Kidder voted for a tax expansion and big government spending.

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AFP New Hampshire Legislative Score Card is Out!

Americans For Prosperity has released its 2011 Score card for New Hampshire Legislators in the House, and the NH State Senate. The tally is based on eleven bills AFP focused on in 2011 and whether the New Hampshire Representative or Senator took AFP’s position.

Meet Bob “Bathroom Bill” Perry

Bob supported all the taxes, the wacky accounting, the bad revenue estimates, the overspending, the nanny state nonsense, even job killing taxes and bloated government spending during a recession. A vote for Bob is a vote for more taxes, more fees, less money in your wallet every year, and more bureaucracy and state control everywhere else.

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