Think John Lynch Cares about Granite State Sportsmen? Think again…

September 26, 2018July 14, 2011 Rick Olson

“Mr. Janet Reno? I think Mr. Janet Reno… I think he’s one of the best hunting dogs in the world.” ~Ted Nugent Governor Lynch could not give one hoot about those who hunt, fish or trap. Oh yes! He was there…in the flesh on June 17, 2011 at the New Hampshire Moose Lottery sucking up … Read more

Rockingham 14 Has RINO Written All Over It

September 26, 2018July 9, 2011 Steve MacDonald

RINO's I have no end of respect for Firefighters and their commitment to others, but politically there is very little evidence that when they run as (r)epublicans in New Hampshire they have any intention of supporting the party or the platform.

The latest example is in Rockingham 14 where Veteran Firefighter Kevin Janvrin has won the low-turnout GOP primary for an upcoming special election. While I’d be more than happy to have Kevin working as an EMT in my town, I have serious doubts about him working for Republicans in Rock 14.

Mr. Janvrin’s reported largest primary contributor was David Lang, the President of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. Mr. Lang’s PAC, of which he is the chairman, has a very specific union agenda. It donates almost 100% of its campaign dollars exclusively to democrat committees and candidates. (Through the PFFNH PAC and another PAC the union runs, Middle Class NH PAC.) So why support Mr. Janvrin with a personal donation when the only other one I could find of similar value was to Democrat Jackie Cilley?

The answer is to try and make sure the outcome is irrelevant. That way the union gets its agenda addressed no matter which party wins. An agenda that aligns 99.9% of the time with big-government, nanny-state left wingers. So if PFFNH gives him money he looks like a connected union plant, but lets be honest, having it come from Lang is no different. Janvrin looks like another union lackey running as a (r)epublican.

It will be interesting to see the other finance reports for Rock 14. Maybe PFFNH or one of its officers is or has placed bets on the other side of the race as well. (Janvrin has reported only had three primary donations-Lang, a firefighter Frank Chase, and another from Jabe Felch.)

Another point of interest is Mr. Janvrin’s candidate blurb, the beauty queen contestant equivalent of "If I am lucky enough to win the pageant this is what I’d like to do" remarks. While these are intentionally ‘generic’ his does little to suggest he has been advised by anyone outside the union-left wing cabal. They are full of democrat pap, with little obvious difference from that of his "left wing" opponent.

Is The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Just Another Left Wing Front Group?

September 26, 2018June 30, 2011 Steve MacDonald

The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition claims to be a non-partisan, non-profit group whose mission is to convince the people of New Hampshire that we need a broad based income tax.

What that works out to is using percentages and formulas with a focus on deception, misdirection, and Alinsky-like class warfare rhetoric, to corral (see also ‘Guilt’) enough support to dismantle a system that for years has made the state of New Hampshire one of the best places to live and work in the nation; for quality of life, low overall tax burden, health, safety, low crime rates, job opportunity and freedom.

You might ask yourself why someone would start a non-profit to mess with that kind of success? What kind of crank sees a state ranking on top in almost every category and decides, let’s mess that up? The answer? Democrats and social justice junkies who can’t advance a a massive and nearly irreversible spending agenda without a broad based tax.

So to get to Moscow on the Merrimack the partisan, left leaning, New Hampshire Council of Churches formed what is now known as the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC). It is run to this day by social justice-activist clergy and radical leftists and progressives ‘attracted to the idea’ of pretending an income tax would not ruin the New Hampshire Advantage.

Of course the only people it “attracted” were tax and spenders.

There is not one person on their staff, their advisory board, or leading their list of affiliated groups that is not either a democrat, working for the democrat social-justice agenda, or who is not a large dollar donor to democrat candidates or causes. How you can possibly claim to be ‘non-partisan’ under these circumstances defies belief, yet they continue to make that claim and it is time to call them out on it.

My mission here, and in posts to follow, is to show you who runs this scam so that you can grasp what their real motivations are. To grow the size and reach of government by defining ‘fair’ to mean more taxes and more spending on the radical left wing agenda.

Part I The GSFTC advisory Board: “More Progressives than you can shake a stick at.”

How Much Is Enough? (And Other Problems With Left Wing Policy)

September 26, 2018June 27, 2011 Steve MacDonald

How much Is Enough Why can’t democrats trust their own constituents to do the right thing? Their first response to every problem is to institutionalize it with more government, typically as far up the legislative food chain as possible. That means as far away from you as they can manage, even to the point of giving control to unelected bureaucrats you can’t punish, just to keep you from messing with it. They entrench it in a bureaucracy, make it impossibly inefficient and expensive and then refuse to let anyone touch it ever again, while charging you more and more to maintain it.

The only reason I can think of for that kind of knee jerk behavior is that Democrats use themselves as the template for the rest of us. The left by their very nature must be selfish, insecure, inconsiderate and un-trusting. Only people so un-giving of themselves or simply incapable of volunteering their time and energy would have to mandate volunteerism and "giving" by legalizing the taking of other peoples time or property through mandates.

America transforming into a police state? Or are we arleady there?

September 26, 2018June 22, 2011 Rick Olson

It appears that it is, in the name of "national security." The article below comes from The American Thinker online.

TSA Now Storming Public Places 8,000 Times a Year

By Tara Servatius
Americans must decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly.

Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow….

What If You Could Not Leave?

September 26, 2018June 21, 2011
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So is it any surprise that the unions and their pet government bureaucracy the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the epitome of the fox in the hen house, didn’t want Boeing to move any of its manufacturing from Washington State (where employees are forced to join unions), to South Carolina (where workers have actual rights.)

ATF’s Project Gun Runner: An Object Lesson In Corruption, Lies And Cover-ups

September 26, 2018June 10, 2011 Rick Olson

“I don’t believe gun owners have rights…”–Sarah Brady, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, October, 1997; “Handguns in America“

What is Project Gun Runner? Project Gun Runner is a program implemented by the ATF for the express purpose of interdicting weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels into Mexico. Mexican drug cartels have emerged as the leading illegal gun traffickers in the U.S. First implemented in 2005 as a pilot project in Laredo Texas, the ATF went national with the program in 2006 with the objective of reducing or eliminating cross-border firearms and drug trafficking, as well as the high level of associative violence occurring on both sides of the border.

Project Gun Runner segued an expansion of the ATF’s eTrace firearm tracing software system to Thirty-two nations, a number of which have a demonstrative track record of police corruption anti-gun biases and overt fraud. eTrace results provides these nations complete and unfettered access to American gun owner’s identities, names, addresses and personal information. Now, why would some government hack in Guyana have some need to access Rick Olson’s ATF purchase trace data? Most likely, none. But having such infrastructure in place would certainly interface well with the machinations of the future U.N. Treaty on Small Arms.

It has also been found that Project Gun Runner has netted an inverse result to its’ original stated purpose. Senator Charles Grassley, (R) Iowa, initiated an investigation after he received credible evidence that the ATF had facilitated and allowed for the sale of over 2,500 firearms, consisting of AK-47 rifles, FN 5.7mm pistols, AK-47 pistols, and .50 caliber rifles in ‘straw purchases. Also determined was the destiny of these guns were Mexico. The Phoenix Field Division of the ATF now only allowed but facilitated the sales, despite objections and discomfort of law-abiding Federally Licensed Firearms dealers enlisted to participate following their reports of suspicious purchases.

On December 14, 2010, Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was on patrol along a smuggling route in Arizona when a firefight erupted and Agent Terry was killed. In the immediate aftermath, assault rifles were recovered at the scene, one of which was traced back to a gun Shop in Arizona. on February 23^rd of this year, Insiders told CBS’s Scott Pelley, “(This incident) surpasses the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge and the deadly siege at Waco.”

Special Agent John Dodson accuses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly let gun runners walk off with weapons – thousands of them – to see if they’d end up in the hands of the cartels, in an ABC News interview. The Justice Department and ATF have denied it ever happened and Senator Grassley went on to further investigate allegations of Retribution against Dodson as a “whistle-blower.”

HOUSE BILL 474: THE “NAY’S” AND THE “NO-SHOWS”

September 26, 2018May 13, 2011 Rick Olson

“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” -Samuel Butler

“The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.”-Michael Caine

HOUSE BILL 474, “An act relative to freedom of choice on whether to join a labor union,” passed out of the house and obtained Senate Concurrence with Amendments. In laymen’s terms, both houses passed the bill. However, it is important to note that in the House, the bill did not pass with a veto-proof majority. According to the House Bill 474 Roll Call, the Bill passed 225 Yeas and 140 Nays.

How It Breaks down:

DEMOCRATIC
Yea Vote		0
Nay Vote		93
Not Voting		9

REPUBLICAN
Yea Vote		225
Nay Vote		47
Not Voting		21

INDEPENDENT
Yea Vote		1
Nay Vote		0
Not Voting		0

Clarity and Collective Bargaining?

September 26, 2018April 25, 2011 Rick Olson

Mr. Sapienza asks in the Union Leader, “Do legislators even know what state workers do?”
Perhaps some don’t. I know for a fact that some do…many have been state workers themselves. With so many flawed or misquided assumptions, the demagoguery lives on.

Edward Sapienza of Manchester, through the Union Leader opposite editorial pages seeks to “offer some clarity and ask our state representatives and state senators, specifically what conservative values do [sic] you bring to the table?” Mr. Sapienza asserts this legislature is taking from the rank and file working class. “Getting state and county spending under control is, “taking from the working class?” pointing to the measure to remove collective bargaining.

Mr. Sapienza is a correctional officer at the Hillsborough County Jail. As a Hillsborough County taxpayer, I am grateful and thankful for his service because being a correctional officer is a tough job. The care, custody, and control of our societal miscreants is a significant task, requiring patience, an even temperament and intelligence. Correctional Officers must follow a clearly defined set of rules, procedures and standards in dealing with our county prisoners and detainees, who, on the other hand, adhere to no such rules or standards, other than those imposed by the facility that keeps them. Few truly know what a day in the life of a correctional officer is truly like and often times, the only public mention of the men and women who do this job is when we see acts of wrong-doing by them in newspapers. It’s unfair.

Moreover, very few understand that in Mr. Sapienza’s workplace; even the most seemingly innocuous question or request by an inmate or detainee can tax a Correctional Officer. A Correctional Officer must be able to think quickly, evaluate, and understand that his response may have an unintended consequence. The CO must ask, “Did the inmate or detainee already ask another staff member? Did that staff member say, ‘no'”? If I say, ‘yes’, am I causing an inconsistency with my other staff members, enabling an inmate manipulation?” Being a correctional officer is a challenging career and is not a job for stupid people.

Parental Notification: It’s Not Really About ‘Choice,’ Is it?

September 26, 2018April 20, 2011 Rick Olson

House Bill 329. A law that will require the notification of parents for unemancipated minors prior to the performance of an abortion procedure, will get it’s public hearing tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary committee. Most certainly, that public hearing will segue the militant hit-parade decrying this often-called, “anti-choice” legislation.

Planned Parenthood, making quick use of our tax dollars to lobby against this piece of legislation, gives us indicia that should the bill pass the Judiciary and Senate, Planned Parenthood might sue to block its implementation as they did in Alaska. In fact, Planned Parenthood has made concerted efforts all over the Country to block such legislation with various court challenges. Planned Parenthood shows their resolve and that they will not be deterred. In 2005, for example, A Minnesota court ruled that St. Paul Planned Parenthood violated a parental notification law when an abortion was performed on a 17-year-old girl without prior notice to her parents. History instructs us that Planned Parenthood not only actively opposes these laws, but that they are willing to simply disregard them.

In today’s Union Leader story, Gary Rayno reports that opponents of the bill say, “(This bill) will needlessly put the lives and health of young women at risk…” Seriously? opponents all say this, but they never tell you exactly how. Or if opponents tell how, they give anecdotal examples of extreme abuse, rape or incest. If one accepts that logic, one also has to first admit that all of the other systems and precious safety nets they so ardently champion and advocate for have failed. In cases of abuse, where was DCYF? and why did they not intervene?

The (other) Picture of The Day

September 26, 2018April 12, 2011 Steve MacDonald

New Hampshire may have a chart just like this one, so with any luck someone will be kind enough to provide it. Until then this shows us what Ohio Education Association Union Employees make compared to the other suckers who “also pay taxes.” A theme repeated in every state most likley. Data is supposed to be from the US Dept of Labor.

Unions: “I Got Me and Mine…F*ck You and Yours!”

September 26, 2018March 25, 2011 Rick Olson

I fear that New Hampshire Senate Republicans lack the testicular fortitude that Wisconsin Republicans embraced in dealing with Union-related issues. In my 47 years on this planet, I never once begrudged a labor union its’ right to exist and advocate for workers. Today, that has all changed. I now think unions totally and unequivocally ‘suck’.

Unions’ time has come and gone. The present-day union hackarama serves as little more than a loud, thuggish mouthpiece for a very small percentage of the labor force and merely exerts force on the greater masses into accepting higher taxes to pay for their often times lavish pay and benefits, not commonly available to comparable private sector workers. Only a Union collectively assembles people to act like disruptive bullies, and the rude jerks we witnessed yesterday at the Statehouse. Summarily, I think it behooves us to once again put the greater facts about Unions in perspective once again.

According to a 2010 report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.9% of the nation’s workforce are union members. Of that number, roughly 35% are public sector employees and 6.9% are private sector unions. Demographically, the highest rate of union membership is among those aged 55-64, closely followed by members aged 45-54.

Despite the representation of a small percentage of the American Labor Force, public employee unions have become the largest contributors to political campaigns. This self-serving, greedy and corrupt allegiance has now netted unsustainable and structural deficits in local governments and municipalities across the nation.

The End Of The “We Pay Taxes Too” Argument?

September 26, 2018March 23, 2011 Steve MacDonald

The only way it could ever be equal, is if we all paid the same taxes, and taxpayers paid nothing extra for benefits and retirement; you would have to fund pay all of your share of both at the same rates as the average private citizen.

NPR Video Sting 2.0

September 26, 2018March 10, 2011 Steve MacDonald

James O’Keefe has released a second video on NPR. In this latest installment NPR exec Betsy Liley discusses with someone she believes is with the Muslim Brotherhood front group, how he might best hide a 5 million dollar donation to NPR from the federal government.

Northern Pass: Redux Of 1970’s Pope County Michigan

September 26, 2018March 10, 2011 Rick Olson

Northern Pass wants to build a build a 180-mile power line corridor through 44 Granite State Communities from as far North as Pittsburg down to Deerfield.

House Bill 648, “An act relative to eminent domain petitions by public utilities” brought 250 supporters, roughly 170 of which are property owners located on the proposed or alternative route of the project. According to the Bill’s analysis section, the bill seeks to, “Prohibit public utilities from petitioning for permission to take private land or property rights for the construction or operation of a private large scale transmission line.” The bill drew overwhelming support by those who fear their land might be taken from them or rendered worthless.

Such fears are not without precedent. This fight is not a new fight. This very situation played out in Minnesota in the early 1970’s where farmers waged a fight against big power companies taking farmland by eminent domain. The farmers ultimately lost this fight. This account is detailed in the book Powerline: the first battle of America’s energy war, written by the late Senator Paul D. Wellstone and Barry M. Casper (Forward in 2003 by lefty Senator Tom Harkin). Aside from the book being written by a couple of liberal progressives, the book is otherwise instructive in the plight of these farmers against Big Power.

Arguments against the project range from blighting the landscape and disparately affecting the tourism industry to devaluation of land have been leveled. those are all reasonable. But there is one component given very little attention in the discussion here.

Big Power will nearly always make an attractive financial offer to you for a utility easement over your land. But what few really comprehend what happens after such an easement is given by a landowner. Read the account of a Fond-du-Lac Wisconsin Farmer that granted a power company a lease to install a wind turbine on his farm land.

Local Fish Wrapper Concord Monitor Editorial On Asylums And Witch Hunts

September 26, 2018March 1, 2011 Rick Olson

When assertions come to the forefront accusing the government and the courts of corruption, misconduct and oppression…and those assertions are made by those who might be well-considered, “conservative,” those people are wing nuts…nut jobs, extremists, fascists and, as the Concord Monitor characterizes them, “Witch Hunters.”

And, when accusations of government of corruption, court misconduct and oppression are made by those who of a liberal progressive bent, suddenly the conversation devolves into the plight of the poor oppressed and persecuted individuals and their plight before a corrupt right wing government consisting of the, “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Oligarchy,”…usually followed by the requisite hue and cry, “We must rise up and stick it to, ‘the man.'”

How an issue is couched depends largely on one’s world view. But to read the Concord Monitor editorial, accepting what is written at face value, one might easily opine that the actions of Representatives Itse, Ingbretson, Baldasaro and Seidel are patently without merit. But in typical liberal fashion, the editorial staff at CM banks its assertions on the notion that people are not going to critically think about what is being done in the name of justice and accept their notion that this is nothing more than a witch hunt.

The Weare Secret Police

September 26, 2018February 25, 2011 Rick Olson

Officers of the Weare Police Department do not like to be video-recorded, audio-recorded or photographed. In fact if recorded, they will arrest those who do without permission.

Since October of 2010, three people have been arrested by the Weare Police on felony wiretapping charges because individuals did not obtain consent from officers being videotaped. Do people ever ask for permission? Yes, in fact they do. Do police officers consent? I know of no instance.

Police Cruisers, Booking Areas and the appurtenances of Police buildings often have video equipment installed and operating. Irony. Looking at 570-A:2, II (j), there is a legal exception for a, “uniformed law enforcement officer to make an audio recording in conjunction with a video recording of a routine stop performed in the ordinary course of patrol duties on any way as defined by RSA 259:125, provided that the officer shall first give notification of such recording to the party to the communication.”

So, the law states that police can video traffic stops and no consent is required, but a mere giving of notice to the person being stopped. But, it seems that some discretion is afforded as to video or not to video.

A call for violence: Jump on it, all you lefties!

September 26, 2018February 6, 2011 Steve MacDonald

The political left is anti-freedom. That much is clear. It also thrives on violence and threats of violence.

But as any scary, dangerous, wild-eyed, right-wing, extremist, believer-in-the-Constitution can explain, the only time that violence is philosophically justifiable is in defense of life, rights, and property.

The political left, on the other hand—including so-called liberals, activist Democrats, union thugs, and other fellow-traveling fascists—always seems to feature anti-liberty scabs using intimidation and threats of violence.

And it seem to work just fine! For instance….

How To Know You Have A Winner

September 26, 2018January 17, 2011 Steve MacDonald

You can just tell when you have a winner. It becomes more important for your opponents to smear your candidate than to promote theirs. It’s all about scare tactics. The noise machine. The echo chamber. Creating a narrative. And the media and the career party folks all seem like they are on the same side frantically offering doomsday scenarios.

Government As God

September 26, 2018December 18, 2010 Steve MacDonald

For as long as I can recall the New Hampshire Democrat Party has been using the “Press Release” to make up crap about people, misrepresent the words they use, change the meaning of their words, or in some cases creating out of whole cloth whatever perception they think will advance their clawing obsession with accumulating political power by damaging anyone or anything that stands between them and their Pinky and The Brain like nightly quest (minus the Brain) to take over the world.