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My latest op-ed for the Conway Daily Sun.( I only wish I'd had enough space to include the tea party candidate for governor of Colorado, who thinks a bike share program in Denver is part of a UN plot.)
This could have been a boring mid-term election season, but thankfully, we have the tea partiers to liven things up. Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin - the fun just never stops. Tea Partiers complain that they're fed up, and they're a legitimate political movement, but it's difficult to take them seriously when they appear to be channeling the Mad Hatter.
Turns out, it wasn't the Tea Party. The small rally was organized by the Massachusetts-based white supremacist group North East White Pride.
"The Citizens Alliance seems like they were in error," said former Democratic Party chairwoman Kathleen Sullivan, who had called on local Tea Party-affiliated candidates to denounce the rally.
END UPDATE.
Shouting down the health care reform vote that will benefit working class families and small businesses all across the country isn't the only teabagger activity of choice today. Here in New Hampshire, people passing by the State House earlier today were treated to the "Don't Tread on Me Flag" flag flying proudly beside a "White Pride" banner.
While I won't bother to link to this racist material here, I did a quick search and it is, indeed, White Pride Day. Given the activities in DC over the weekend, how fitting that members of the group in New Hampshire should expose some of the real basis for their opposition to our country's leadership.
Staffers from NH Citizens Alliance caught this story today when they looked out their office window and saw the signs on display. Director Sarah Chaisson Warner issued an immediate rebuke, calling the behavior "disturbing" and "unpatriotic". She also stated:
"The elected officials and candidates in New Hampshire who have frequently spoken at Tea Party events and curried favor with them should quickly condemn this growing and disrespectful behavior before more damage is done."
Steward for Prosperity had an ostensibly nonpartisan event in Manchester. It was in fact totally partisan, but I went anyway. I scared Rep. Fran Wendelboe a little, whom I know from a recent hearing to be a gun-toting state rep, but she laughed it off and there was no gun fire. I only stayed for the speech by Newt Gingrich which is actually not what I will comment on.
I spent the day in Concord, first at the hearing of HB 1590, and then at the hearing of CACR 28. Both were heard by the House Judiciary Committee. In both cases, over a hundred people were present, though more attended the CACR hearing.
I've never seen such appalling behavior in committee hearings before.
(This is deeply disturbing. How can a political party or partisan group have influence over a town's voting rolls? - promoted by Jennifer Daler)
One might have cause to question the intent of the Seacoast Republican Women's event scheduled for this morning, which advertises showing you how to "clean up voter lists for 2010":
Ed Naile, Chairman of The Coalition of NH Taxpayers will speak to the Seacoast Republican Women on the subject of 'Cleaning up NH's Elections - Voting Process Fraud: What You Can Do Now for 2010' on Wednesday, January 13th 2010 from 9:00 - 11:00 AM. Learn about a process that you can use in your own town to help clean up voter lists for 2010 in order to prevent some types of fraud before they occur. This will be the launch of an initiative for SRW members to use in their own towns.
Ah, the old Republican tagline about rampant voter fraud. That must be what's behind the election of progressives like Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in New Hampshire. Now, if we could only clean up the voter lists and kick off all of those folks voting for working family issues ... This "initiative" should be closely investigated by the members of our media.
(My apologies Tim - I meant to front-page this a couple of days ago. - promoted by Dean Barker)
There was a raucous hearing at the gym of the old Tobey School in Concord about the LLC Tax which was passed as part of HB 2. This taxes an LLC's profits the same way a corporation's profits are. (The LLC is a "limited liability company": technically it isn't a corporation but it functions the same way.) I didn't speak, but I did send some written testimony afterwards.
I would like to be one of the few to support the LLC tax. It is not a perfect tax, but it is fair to tax LLC's the same as other corporations.
The tax was incorporated into HB2 during the committee of conference process with no public hearing, but that does not make it any less valid. Part 2; sections 22 & 37 say that the House & Senate set their own rules. We followed those rules. (No one else has the right to overturn those rules: not the DRA, not the governor, no one.) The governor signed the bill after majorities in both houses voted for it. I am a state representative from Strafford County District #7 and I was one of the legislators who voted for it.
Nothing sinister was going on when the tax was passed: the General Court needed revenue to pay for a very frugal state budget which was level funded from the previous budget cycle.
It would have been better to have a public hearing. However, no new information would have been gathered. We already know that the owners of LLC's would prefer not to pay the tax. We know that this llc tax comes close to being an income tax, and there is especially fierce opposition to an income tax. The gloom and doom rhetoric I heard today was the same rhetoric we hear whenever any tax is being discussed. The fact is that this is a good tax (insofar as any tax is good) which closes a loophole and which will raise some revenue, without destroying the state's economy.
The NH Republican Party is looking for a "Sheila Jackson Lee moment." Jackson Lee is the congresswoman from Texas who (in a blatantly faked video) supposedly whipped out her cellphone in the middle of a constituent's question.
This time, at the end of the event, a constituent approached Carol Shea Porter at the end of the event as she is about to brave a tropical storm and rush off to another event. Carol listens for a while and then (gasp!) turns her back because it is time to (gasp!) leave even though not every Republican in Manchester has had the chance to personally confront her with an inane accusation. This is purportedly just a random cellphone video, until the last frame where we learn that it was sponsored by the New Hampshire Republican Party. You can view it on YouTube, and it is embedded below the fold.
(It's good to hear from someone who attended this meeting. Also interesting to note no anti-health reform "protesters". Hmmmm... - promoted by Jennifer Daler)
Salem, this morning -
Little old lady: Would my health care costs go down or would I maybe lose my coverage [under current health reform proposals]?
Judd Gregg: You're [health care is] at risk.
This, it should be noted, is not word-for-word. It is, however, the gist of an exchange that U.S. Senator Judd Gregg had at his health care forum this morning. The type of forum where legislators should talk openly and honestly about health insurance reform, but at which our Senator dearest decided to scare little old ladies that they might lose their health care under the Obama Administration.
Shameful.
Senator Gregg also used his last-minute, last-ditch forum to tout statistics from the Lewin Group, which he went to great lengths to describe as non-partisan and non-biased. Which it could be - if it wasn't owned by one of the largest insurance companies in the country, namely the UnitedHealth Group.
I cannot tell you how fired up it gets me to listen to blatant lies and misinformation coming from the office of a U.S. Senator. In reality, though, it gets me fired up - and ready to go. Hope, anger. Two very strong emotions which, harnessed in the right manner, can produce great changes. Harnessed in the wrong manner ...
Those teabaggers? The ones who have never gone to any of the local health care community meetings but who are so darn concerned about health care that they are harassing Congressional members intent on making sure the health care system really works for hard-working Americans?
From a Working Families Win press statement about President Obama coming to New Hampshire, the venerable Jaime Contois:
As a candidate, Barack Obama heard from working families in New Hampshire about the need for health care reform. As President, he has made health care reform a priority and no amount of right-wing rhetoric or staged teabagger activities will overcome the real life stories he heard then and now. America's health care system is broken and President Obama is going to fix it.
Jaime goes on to say that pro-health care advocates will be out in force when the President is in town, which is a good reminder: have you saved the date for August 11th yet? Details coming any time ...
The Jennifer Horn wing of Glenn Beck Teabaggers, Inc. will rally today against massive government redistribution of wealth from you and me to the rich fat cats.
Everyone in our federal delegation voted against the bank bailout, except for Judd Gregg, who not only supported it but crafted it and cheerled it.
Strange electoral strategy. But I hope there are Tweets along the way!
