News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
The NH State Senate just voted on HB628, the So-called Family Medical Leave Insurance Bill (FMLI). (For the Grok archive on HB628 look here and here.)
It’s a bad bill, with bad mechanics, built to fail, and its only redeeming quality (and by that I mean if you happen to be a socialist Democrat tax and spender hell-bent on ruining the New Hampshire Advantage) is that it creates a pricey payroll taxing authority inside the Department of Employment Security.
You’ve seen movies where a couple of Goodfellas in suits show up at a business and the proprietor, looking uncomfortable, hands them a bag of cash. New Hampshire has this too. Some nicely dressed guys (and girls) are using the state legislature to force a business to extract protection money from you. (Again.)
This time around it’s your electric rates (Again?). The Senate passed changes that would turn electricity providers into enforcers for a protection racket that takes money from you to line other people’s pockets.
Student testing, statewide testing, has been an issue for years. Parents can opt their children out of these tests, and there is ample support for this right. But administrators obsessed with participation rates have no legal disincentives.
“…school districts and administrators are getting more aggressive with parents and children who do not participate in the statewide assessments. Examples of intimidation and harassment have been documented across the Granite State.”
Susan Olsen joins me this week to discuss Kevin Avard’s Bill, SB 500: an Act amending references to firearms terminology. We talk about the proposed changes, testimony, support and opposition to the legislation.
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
So let me get this straight, some 250 folks were trusting (nay, let’s be honest, greedy and stupid) enough to loan money to a Ponzi scheme in the hopes of making astonishing returns on those loans and when the scumbag operating it finally ran out of suckers and money and the game collapsed, these 250 … Read more
Shawn Millerick, the head of the political fiction section at NH Journal, wanted to know why we at GraniteGrok were not covering the real world story about Ann McKluster Kuster not paying her property taxes. The appropriate response was to provide a link to the story I actually wrote on February 5th about how Ann McKluster Kuster was not paying her property taxes. A story I updated with additional comments from the Chairs of both political parties and a bit of exposition with regard to the sources.
It was a story posted the same day as the first story at NH Journal about how Ann McKluster Kuster was not paying her taxes, at roughly 6 am, perhaps even before NHJ pushed out their version; a story with the eponymous title…”Annie McKluster Doesn’t Pay Her Taxes?”
How hard could that be to find? I’m pondering a pithy epithet for the NHJ Political Fiction Department that involves an ass, both hands, and a flashlight.
“An once of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.” —Michael Korda
Last Wednesday, the new leadership in Concord saw fit to forgo the Committee on Redress of Grievances. And they did.
Enter State Senator Martha Fuller-Clark. She found a “petition of Redress” from twenty black slaves in Portsmouth dating back to 1779.
According to the Concord “Fishwrapper” Monitor, “On Nov. 12, 1779, 20 black slaves in Portsmouth sent a petition to New Hampshire’s General Assembly. Amid the rhetoric and
It seems that US House Speaker John Boehner is being sorely tempted? His words about semi-caving into Obama’s demands on new taxes, new spending, and new debt ceiling limits show us that he’s already got his eye on the prize: How well will the new NH Republican legislators resist the same temptation, especially under … Read more
The New Hampshire Democrat House Majority has chosen their previous Democrat House Sepaker Terie ‘Billion Dollar Deficit‘ Norelli as their new Speaker for the 2013-2014 session. This is good for lots of reasons. Deficits, spending, taxes, accounting gimmicks, bathroom remodels, bathroom bills, and a dedication to back-benching and marginalizing anyone who does not pull the lever for her far-left agenda.
As a blogger, I couldn’t be happier. Nothing makes my hobby easier than the likes of Terie Norelli. I look forward to watching her repeat the same mistakes again.
Of course this time around she doesn’t have a completely compliant Democrat majority Senate to help cover her tracks. She has a slim and squishy potentialy compliant Republican majority in the Senate, with whom she may have to barter a bit. How much barter, as well as what the GOP willingly gives up, remains to be seen.
Despite years of Democrat condemnation of rich bankers, Senatorial candidate Bob Lamb shows that rich bankers can even be applauded if they parrot Democrat talking points, promote the special interest groups that fund Democrats, and help the Democrat Party extend its control over the lives of the American people.
Describing lawsuits against him and other executives, Lamb says, “these lawsuits never went to trial, and no factual determination was ever made that the allegations were true.” This strange wording proves nothing. Similar wording, e.g., “no criminal court ever determined that I killed Nicole and Ron” allows OJ to claim innocence.
Lamb seems like a nice guy but he repeats the old Democrat complaints and promises. Did Democrats improve your life when they controlled the NH Legislature (2007-2010)? E.g., did they fix all the roads and bridges? No. But, they raised our cost of living and hurt NH employers with 99 new or increased taxes and fees.
Another speaker at Barbara Aichinger’s Conservative Candidate Night in Gilford last night was Josh Youseff. He is running for the NH GOP nomination for the new NH Senate District 7 and we did an interview series with Josh Youseff a while ago (click here for the last in the series; it links backwards to all of the other questions) and have expectations of doing the promised follow up soon.
This is Josh both giving his stump speech and answer questions from the attendees (including your’s truly):
That quote is from former Democrat Tip O’Neal from Bawston, MA who served many years as the US Speaker of the House. He meant it that national political wars are waged locally. We took it sideways – our local politics are your’s where ever you are, albeit with different names and slightly different issues. That … Read more
Updated and Bumped: Grok Reader Bob saw this and asked that I update this post given that it is out of date – Bolster quickly gave up his delusions of a NH Senate run and is now running to retain his seat in the NH House, I should make sure that folks knew if they came across this post. While what his sign says (NH District 6) is now out of date – given that he IS a former Democrat, and VOTES like a Democrat (another one of those that is using the Republicans to get elected), my little addition to his sign is STILL applicable.
Accomplishments?
We always try to spend “a little time with GraniteGrok” and with Andy Sanborn (running for reelection to the NH Senate in District 9), we came to the realization that we had spent a lot more time than just a little. So, we decided to end our interrogation interview with him with this last question.
Question 8:
What things have you accomplished since our first interview last cycle? Not get done?
We did all agree that we needed to come back and yak with Andy strictly on some issues rather than on the concentration on how the State does what it does – but it is nice to know that SOMEBODY has this in their head that not only do Legislators create laws for the rest of us but also how the “back of the house” (as Andy the restauranteur would put it) is doing as well. After all, they ARE supposed to be serving us, the citizens.
To fix a perceived problem (which Questions 5 & 6 brought up), you have to know all about the problem – or at least the biggest and most influential parts of the problem. In discussing State Agencies, we wanted to know if there was a sense of “us vs them”, if State Agencies had drifted into a condition of reversing the proper role of government serving the people and morphing into one of “we will ensure that YOU follow OUR rules”.
Question 7:
Adversarial relationship between State agencies vs ordinary folks?
Most people want to see that the potholes are filled, the snow is plowed, and that the police and firemen are there when needed. That’s how most decide who to vote for – its the stuff they see. To us, however, philosophy counts as well – for that leads to the next “upward” step of … Read more
Like I said before, I just giggled when I learned that big Andy Sanborn was going around his NH Senate District 9 on a wee scooter in his bid for re-election to the NH senate (watch his explanation here). Well, another candidate is now following in his footsteps burnt rubber (can a scooter actually lay … Read more
Increasingly, we see NH State Agencies setting their own level of taxation (fees, fines, et al) outside of authorization of the Legislature. It is the Executive Branch to self-fund and making itself independent of the taxation authority of the Legislature. And of course, it goes without saying that while Legislators are accountable to the voters, … Read more
