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
What do we think of when we imagine a Republican office holder from New Hampshire? We think of someone who is rational, sober, fiscally conservative, and opposed to high taxes. We think of someone who wants small, thrifty, and efficient government, right? Wrong! Ever so wrong! Perhaps, there was a time when Republican office holders answered to that description, but no more.
Today, Republicans in the New Hampshire legislature are a witch's brew of Free Staters, Tea Party members, and extreme libertarians who have concocted weird legislative potions that are making our state the laughingstock of the nation.
Rachel Maddow held New Hampshire Republican office holders up to ridicule on her nationally-televised program (1/5/12). Maddow notes, "When Republicans won up and down the ballot all across the country in the 2010 mid-terms, there were few places where their victories were as big as they were in New Hampshire. (Before the election) Democrats controlled the New Hampshire House by a margin of 216-173. . . . Republicans flipped the New Hampshire House and they flipped it by a huge margin. They gained 124 seats."
"That was basically the same story in the State Senate. Republicans went from being a minority in the senate to having their biggest majority there in nearly half a century."
"So what have New Hampshire Republicans done with their big new majorities? They have taken a state with a national reputation for being sort of sane and within the mainstream among the Republican Party and they have decided to let their freak flag fly."
John Nichols traces the origins of right-to-work legislation to the Jim Crow era, when Southern states acted to prevent unions from fighting against segregation.
When the Congress of Industrial Organizations launched “Operation Dixie” in the aftermath of World War II, with the goal not just of organizing unions in the states of the old Confederacy but of ending Jim Crow discrimination, Southern segregationists moved immediately to establish deceptively named “right-to-work” laws.
These measures were designed to make it dramatically harder for workers to organize unions and for labor organizations to advocate for workers on the job site or for social change in their communities and states.
The resurgence of attacks on collective bargaining rights, says Nichols, is an affront to the memory of Dr. King.
King’s last march was with African-American public employees in Memphis, who were oppressed not just by segregation but by right-to-work laws that were written with the purpose of keeping workers divided and powerless. We honor King today by opposing the new push for right-to-work laws in Northern states and by campaigning to overturn the right-to-work laws passed decades ago by the Jim Crow legislatures of Southern states that were determined to prevent the arc of history from bending toward justice.
Opponents of federal health care reform have seized upon a novel end-run around the law, an interstate Health Care Compact that would replace all federal health care programs — including Medicare and Medicaid — with block grants to the states.
The history of compacts goes back to the colonial period, and more than 200 are currently in force. Many coordinate activities between contiguous states, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Others, such as the Driver License Compact and the Wildlife Violators Compact, offer reciprocal recognition of laws and licenses in member states.
The Health Care Compact, however, is the first one that attempts to shield states from a whole area of federal law. It is four pages long and would replace the current federal health-care system with block grants to the states. ...
If a significant number of states pass the compact, supporters plan to submit it to Congress for approval in the same way that the body approves interstate compacts regulating commerce, transportation, and resource conservation and development.
And just like that, billions of dollars will be turned over to the states without any strings attached? Unlikely. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said "we will put a person on Neptune" before Congress approves the compact.
HB 1560 is crafted verbatim from the ALEC model legislation. Its intent is clear. The preamble promises to give New Hampshire the "authority to enact state laws that supersede any and all federal laws regarding health care" within the state. The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire describes it as "the vehicle that we must use to nullify Obamacare in New Hampshire!"
HB 1560 is sponsored by House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt and has been referred to the Constitutional Review and Statutory Recodification committee. The first public hearing is scheduled for January 24 at 10:00 a.m. in LOB 206.
Robert William Beaulieu is 23-years-old, lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, and is a registered Democrat. He's also very much not dead.
But you wouldn't have known that if you watched the lastest undercover sting video from James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, which featured a man with an Irish accent attempting to obtain a ballot on behalf of a Robert Beaulieu who lives on Cassandra Lane.
Presumably the O'Keefe goon screwed up his attempt to impersonate a different, recently deceased Beaulieu.
The crime victim's reaction:
"Yeah, he butchered our name," Robert W. Beaulieu told TPM, adding that the fact that someone using his name was able to obtain a ballot doesn't change his opposition to a photo ID law.
"I've heard Republicans try to spin it their way, but I don't see [voter impersonation fraud] as a big problem at all," Beaulieu told TPM, but said that the poll watcher in the video shouldn't have helped the individual impersonating him out with his address.
James O'Keefe and his band of Project Moranitans spent $50,000 disenfranchising this young Granite Stater.
I'd very much like to know when they'll be arrested.
Blues musician T.J. Wheeler is a New Hampshire treasure. A quick Google search will tell anyone who doesn't know about him why. He's always on the cutting edge of important causes to bring people together.
T.J. has written a beautiful and heart-felt commentary about Martin Luther King, Jr., as yet another day of appreciation for this great man comes. With his permission, it is included in this posting. It is a great read as to why Martin Luther King, Jr. was so important to our nation and our world, and why our yearly commemoration is an important time to celebrate his life and learn from his words and deeds.
New Hampshire is one of the first states to adopt marriage equality, and the first to do it legislatively without a court order or threats of law suits. But in the race to adopt MLK, Jr. Day, we were the last. There were several reasons for that, but chief among them was the then-power of a statewide newspaper and a reactionary resistance among some of those in power in government. Sound familiar?
I was in the heart of that fight for quite some time, so I saw it up close. I sponsored the first MLK, Jr. Day bill when I was in the State Senate in 1979, at a time when only a handful of states had the day, and the federal government was still years from creating it.
We had presidential candidates running for office who made an issue out of their own opposition. That sounds familiar too, doesn't it. Then-Governor Hugh Gallen told me he was ready to sign that bill in 1979, a courageous position with politics being what it was in those days, but the bill lost and didn't make it out of the Senate.
