One of the biggest stories this week was Susan G. Komen's decision to cut funding for breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood, and their subsequent decision three days later to restore funding after the internet blew up with outrage and people across the country donated $3 million to Planned Parenthood in the space of 72 hours. I am glad Komen reversed course, but I think they have permanently damaged their reputation.
Honestly, for an organization that has in all other ways shown tremendous media and PR savvy, I am surprised they did not see this coming. But the anti-choice right shows a huge blind spot when it comes to Planned Parenthood.
Republican House Leader Rep. D.J. Bettencourt of Salem introduced the House Republican agenda Thursday. Bettencourt said the House was focusing on changes to economic and education policy that would bring job creators to New Hampshire and put citizens back to work.
Hot-button social issues like gun rights, immigration and labor laws were all absent from the agenda. The most noticeable omission was gay marriage, which is the target of several bills aiming to repeal it.
Doesn't it seem a little late to unveil the agenda?
New Hampshire's unemployment rate is 5.6% under Governor Lynch - lower than the rates in the home states of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, or Ron Paul. It's a little odd to focus on putting "citizens back to work" in the state.
(Doesn't the Koch Brothers / ALEC songbook allow for any local tunes??)
Every bill in New Hampshire gets a hearing. All those bills that Susan covered recently, and more, will get hearings. Social issues will consume the time of the General Court. What is this "agenda" you speak of?
(Well worth clicking below the fold... - promoted by elwood)
At the end of the day, by long House tradition, Unanimous Consent is given to individual House members to talk about, well, pretty much anything. Today, we had one member give a remembrance of a former member of the House who passed away recently. Another member detailed some Civil War history. In between, there was this remarkable speech, given by BlueHampshire's own Marjorie Porter, and posted here with her permission. It was one of the best crafted and most effective speeches I have heard, ever.
It is also a chilling rendition of how some of the current House members relate to our citizens. Here is the text of the speech:
Yesterday James O'Keefe put out a press release. It begins:
PARAMUS, N.J., Jan. 30, 2012 PRNewswire via COMTEX -- On New Hampshire Primary Day, Project Veritas, while violating no laws, exposed the ease in which voter fraud can occur in states lacking voter identification requirements.
659:34 Wrongful Voting; Penalties for Voter Fraud. - I. A person is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 if such person:
(a) When registering to vote; when obtaining an official ballot; or when casting a vote by official ballot, makes a false material statement regarding his or her qualifications as a voter to an election officer or submits a voter registration form, an election day registration affidavit, a qualified voter affidavit, a domicile affidavit, or an absentee registration affidavit containing false material information regarding his or her qualifications as a voter;
(b) Votes more than once for any office or measure;
(c) Applies for a ballot in a name other than his or her own;
That is exactly what O'Keefe's squad did. They - and their Republican supporters - make a lot of noise about not actually voting. But that doesn't matter - the crime is already committed before the vote is cast.
We do have a problem with election integrity in New Hampshire.The problem is: the Attorney General's office is not enforcing the law.
This morning Governor John Lynch will deliver his final State of the State address to the General Court.
His record-setting eight years in office have been characterized, perhaps, by cautious steering between ideological extremes. As his era ends, New Hampshire (like the nation) is slowly recovering from the national recession, having suffered a bit less than other states.
He leaves the state with a stronger commitment to civil rights and education than he found it. But he also leaves it with the central issue of funding - for education, even for roads and bridges - unresolved. Ours is the weakest Governorship in the nation, between the short terms, the Executive Council, and the holdover commissioners across the government. So, hoping for complete resolution may be too much.
How will you remember the Lynch years? How can the Governor best serve the state until his successor takes office?
Last year our state suffered the fewest highway fatalities in 51 years. Considering the difference in population between then and now, that is quite an achievement.
Rep. Cohn's bill empowers drunk drivers and threatens the safety of our family and friends.
It is exhibit A of why you need to begin talking to everyone in your community now about recruiting candidates, voting these reckless individuals out, and bringing common sense back to Concord.
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.
