We've been taking a look at some of the proposed legislation for 2012. Here are some of the 175 bills that were withdrawn:
2026 establishing a permanent state defense force.
Poor Itse. That he couldn't get this bill through THIS legislature must be breaking his heart.
2045 prohibiting state courts from using a foreign law or legal code in any ruling.
Because this happens all the time in NH? I wasn't aware.
2110 establishing a committee to study the economic benefits of processing, storing, and recycling nuclear waste in New Hampshire.
Excellent! An opportunity for a bunch of legislators from Rockingham County to send nuke waste to the north country. Then we'd have to move, like the flatlanders always suggest.
Neal Kurk gets on the social engineering train. From Boston.com:
A New Hampshire lawmaker wants the state to stop rewarding women who have babies after going on welfare by raising their monthly cash grant -- a move opponents say would penalize the infants for actions by the parents.
Rep. Neal Kurk, a Weare Republican, told the House Finance Committee on Thursday that the average monthly increase attributed to a birth of $72.50 wasn't the point of his bill. He said the mothers are behaving irresponsibly for doing something that increases taxpayers' costs.
Because with that $72.50, she's going to go right out and buy a Cadillac.
Apparently Dan McGuire doesn't want any tainted National Endowment for the Arts money coming into NH, and doesn't want NH tax dollars invested in art. Undoubtedly he wants us to think this is a heroic money saving measure. Some of us remember that last year he cosponsored a bill that called for NH taxpayers to spend millions diverting the Suncook River so that his property would have riverfront footage once again. It's all about priorities.
AN ACT abolishing the department of cultural resources.
SPONSORS: Rep. Vaillancourt, Hills 15
This bill abolishes the department of cultural resources, transferring the division of libraries and the division of historical resources to the department of state, and transferring the New Hampshire film and television commission to the department of resources and economic development.
Given that Vaillancourt wanted to eliminate the inter-library loan program because the books arrived too fast in his library, it's unsurprising to see him taking another run at libraries. Vaillancourt is obviously well read, and quite literate - but like many fauxbertarian types, he benefitted from libraries and education, but now wants to pull the ladder up after him. It's clear that this crowd of parvenus lacks any appreciation for history, unless it's the Magna Carta or the Constitution of their imagination, and has even less appreciation for culture. NH literature and art are of no consequence to these barbarians.
Carroll County House District 2 covers the towns of Albany, Eaton, and Madison. This district used to be represented by the hard working and well respected Representative Bob Bridgham of Eaton. In 2010, a toxic red tide swept through our state, and anyone who had an "R" next to their name was elected. Such was the case in this district. The toxicity was at such an extreme level, that voters in this district voted in a young man from Madison named Norman Tregenza. The most frequent comment about Norm is, "He's such a nice young man, and so polite."
Norm's a member of the John Birch Society. That was NOT on his campaign literature. That salient detail was never reported by the local newspaper, except for the op-eds I mentioned it in. Norm's also a member of the lucky sperm club. Born into a well-to-do family, he's had plenty of time to read Ayn Rand, and worship at the altar of von Mises, and Ron Paul, while working p/t as a substitute teacher.
(Granite Marionette is so much nicer than "blockhead." Thank you, Dean. - promoted by susanthe)
New Hampshire House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (print only UL):
"The [health care compact] bill was absolutely not written by ALEC," Bettencourt said. "It is a classic tactic of the Democrats to demonize every piece of legislation that they don't like as the product of an 'out of state group' to avoid a substantive discussion on the real issues facing New Hampshire. It's a completely dishonest fallacy that they continue to use to distract from the fact that they have no solutions other than a bigger government and higher taxes. The Democrats should produce some evidence of their claim."
Alexandria, Va. (Nov. 30, 2011) - The Health Care Compact Alliance today announced the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators,has adopted the Health Care Compact as model legislation. This move will make the Health Care Compact vision and language widely available to nearly 2,000 state legislators across the country,
State Control. Each member state, within its state, may suspend by legislation the operation of all federal laws, rules, regulations, and orders regarding health care that are inconsistent with the laws and regulations adopted by the member state pursuant to this compact. Federal and state laws, rules, regulations, and orders regarding health care shall remain in effect unless a member state expressly suspends them pursuant to its authority under this compact.
State Control. Each member state, within its state, may suspend by legislation the operation of all federal laws, rules, regulations, and orders regarding health care that are inconsistent with the laws and regulations adopted by the Member State pursuant to this Compact. Federal and state laws, rules, regulations, and orders regarding Health Care shall remain in effect unless a Member State expressly suspends them pursuant to its authority under this Compact.
Check more similarities for yourself.
To be fair to the Majority Leader, he did change some capital letters to lower case.
Rep. Robert ( Biblical Literacy) Kingsbury has been busy coming up with a bunch of nuisance bills. Job creation isn't big on his agenda, but social engineering certainly is:
CACR-24: A constitutional amendment stipulating that no person shall be eligible to become a judge until they're 60 years of age.
Apparently I have a second career to look forward to. In a few years. Kingsbury is the sole sponsor of this masterpiece.
HB 1146: Requires students to stand for the pledge of allegiance, if they are physically able to do so.
The bill contains no mention of the penalties for those students who refuse. Perhaps this is a jobs bill - creating a need for more security guards and truant officers. As far as teaching "patriotism," I'd suggest it's counterproductive, and may well lead to Alinsky reading and Yurpeen style socialism.
(Another big gummint power grab from the O'Brien junta. Thanks, Kathy. - promoted by susanthe)
Another bill making its way through the legislature this session is HB1560, which has the innoucous title, "The Interstate Health Care Compact". This bill would have state law supersede federal law regarding health care within the state. This may sound like "just" another effort to do away with health care reform, but it goes deeper than that. This bill would require the federal government to block grant all federal dollars for health care to the states, excluding military, VA and Native American health care. Medicare and all other federal health care programs would be eliminated, turned over to the states.
In addition, it would establish a new bureaucracy run by the states: an "Interstate Advisory Health Care Commission", with two members from each state, with the authority to "study" issues of health care regulation, and make recommendations to the states. So, each state will have to establish a new bureacracy to handle the health care programs, and then we also will have to pay for a new non-federal, but multi-state bureaucracy.
But wait - there's more!
HB 1147 is an act proclaiming March 31 of each year as a day to remember Teri Schiavo.
Intent. The general court hereby establishes March 31 as a day to remember Terri Schiavo who died tragically on March 31, 2005. The general court recognizes that her death occurred as a result of the failure of the state and federal court systems to uphold the words of the United States Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
According to the Legendary Constitutional Scholar Dan Itse and Legendary Tealibanista Jerry Bergevin, her death occurred because there wasn't enough gummint interference.
The end of Teri Schiavo's life was turned into a right wing Christian Taliban fiesta - where all kinds of people got involved in the most private decisions of a family - a place where they had no business.
That's the thing. The Freebaglicans love to boast of how they hate gummint interference. That hatred lasts until they find themselves in the gummint, and then they can't wait to interfere. Especially where women's medical issues are concerned.
Teri Schiavo had no connection to NH. This is just obnoxious posturing by Itse and Bergevin. NH taxpayers should be furious that they're paying for this kind of pious baloney.
HB 1712: An act relative to teaching the Bible in public schools. Sponsored by Bergevin, DeLemus, Itse, Tremblay, and Kingsbury. There's a bag of mixed nuts.
Intent and Justification. The general court finds that New Hampshire Republicans are united by our belief in God, individual liberty, personal responsibility, places of worship, communities, and volunteerism. The general court also finds and recognizes the history of our country, from the Mayflower Compact, Revolutionary War, the Federalist Papers, and other speeches and writings of our Founding Fathers, is rooted in the belief in God and the teachings of the Bible.
In other words, NH Republicans are sure they've managed a permanent coup, and now they're going to marry their politics with their religion. It's sounding more and more like Gilead.
In an interview with the Nashua Telegraph Speaker O'Brien demonstrates an amazing capacity for, shall we call it, revisionist history.
Yesterday, in the hearing on Rep. Susan Emerson's anti bullying bill, a statement was read from Rep. Emerson, detailing the incident in which she was shouted at for offering amendments to the state budget which would restore services which Rep. Emerson, because of her years of service on the Health and Human Services Committee, thought necessary for the ongoing health and welfare the citizens of NH.
Speaker O'Brien's response? He pulls the "emotion card."
"She was emotional about it, but not because of anything I said. It pains me to this day to say Rep. Emerson has fabricated all of this," O'Brien added.
This is, of course, the appropriate response if you a bullying a small woman who wears magnificent hats.
But what about the comments of Rep. Timothy Copeland? Rep. Copeland spoke about overhearing the Speaker's encounter with Rep. Emerson. He says he heard a one-sided yelling match. Rep. Copeland also testified that the Speaker promised to ensure that Copeland would not be re-elected if Copeland offered an amendment of his own.
Rep. Copeland is a former police investigator and a volunteer firefighter, so playing the emotion card is not an option. What is the Speaker's response? He says it never happened.
O'Brien said the entire story was fabricated and that he never spoke with Copeland after meeting with Emerson.
"I had one conversation with this representative, and it was, 'Welcome to the House, Rep. Copeland,'" O'Brien said. "I later learned that his liberal agenda was not one in concert with the Republican caucus. Other than that, I've never spoken with him."
Total denial. Not just a river in Egypt, but present on a daily basis in the NH House. We have all witnessed or overheard the Speaker's tantrums. His account here leaves me breathless. And I wonder if the Speaker of the New Hampshire House should not be a person with a better grasp on...reality?
Dean already wrote about the constitutional amendment that the House passed this week. It bans a state income tax.
If you've followed this political football for a couple of generations you know that isn't the formula. The Pledge is to block a "broad-based tax," defined as either an income tax or a sales tax.
That isn't what O'Brien's amendment does. It prevents the people we elect in future years from resorting to an income tax only. It leaves a sales tax right there on the table, needing only a simple majority of the House and Senate to pass.
If you think the Pledge and writing tax law into the Constitution are clumsy and shortsighted moves, of course you don't like this week's vote.
But if you support the Pledge, the proposed amendment has to disappoint you. By blocking off only one of the two big revenue raisers, it makes the remaining choice much more likely as budgets get tight.
The big question raised by this week's vote: why do O'Brien and his Republican supporters like the sales tax so much??
(Thank you, Michael. The CHINS cutbacks saved the state $7 million over two years, about a quarter of the surplus. - promoted by William Tucker)
A few months ago, House Speaker Bill O'Brien was asked a question by a concerned former foster child, now a foster mother, about the future of New Hampshire's successful "CHINS" program, at his town hall in Lyndeborough. CHINS, or Children in Need of Service, is the program in New Hampshire dedicated to assisting children suffering from dire circumstances and in need of state assistance, taking children out of abusive homes that foster the behaviors the program combats, and backing up Child Protective Services. And it has suffered from budget cuts.
(In case you missed it - promoted by William Tucker)
Today in political news:
1. Enough House Republicans voted with D's to amend the redistricting plan to conform to the NH constitution; O'Brien recessed to call a GOP caucus, twisted arms, called back into session, would not turn cameras or mikes on for public viewing. This is the same guy who excused clearing gallery by saying live streaming satisfied constitutional requirements.
2. I agreed with Steve Vaillancourt on something (that tax policy should not be enshrined in the state constitution).
3. The Lobby publishes story that O'Brien was tipped off to O'Keefe voter fraud
4. WaPo publishes story that Mitt Romney benfitted from off shore accounts set up in Cayman Islands (hey, the guy bankrolled all these GOP rep elections, so it counts as a NH story)
Did state House Speaker Bill O'Brien have advance knowledge that James O'Keefe would be sending his associates to obtain New Hampshire primary ballots using the names of deceased voters? Did he get a sneak preview of the video before it was made public? Writing in The Lobby, the anonymous "Mr. Snitch" suggests he did.
Bully's sure been busy now that the session is in full swing. So busy, in fact, you'd think he wouldn't have the time to act as a production consultant with James O'Keefe, conservative activist, pretend journalist and Mama's Boy (what else do you call a 27-year-old male son who still lives at home, nicely ensconced in Mom-and-Pop's North Jersey manse, Snitcherinos?)
Turns out Jimmy the Jerk, a convicted felon BTW, gave Bully a heads up on his little voter fraud skit. Explains why Bully was all set with his righteous indignation sound bites for Channel 9 after the video magically appeared.
We have not talked a lot about PIPA/SOPA here on Blue Hampshire but we are going to join as we can in protesting these dangerous bills that could lead to internet censorship, security issues, and/or present a very risky operating proposition for sites with user generated content such as Blue Hampshire.
The blacklist bills are dangerous: if made into law, they would hamper innovation, kill jobs, wreak havoc on Internet security, and undermine the free speech principles upon which our country was founded. But deep-pocketed lobbyists are trying to ram this legislation through as quickly as possible, hoping elected officials will turn a blind eye to the widespread opposition to these bills. We can't let that happen.
According to ProPublica Sens Shaheen and Ayotte are supporting PIPA (the Senate version of the bill) and Rep. Guinta is No/Maybe on SOPA (The House version of the bill). Rep. Bass is listed as unknown.
If you feel strongly about the issue you could give them a jingle
