In NH and around the country, as well as in DC, we hear over and over that cutting government budgets, getting rid of all that "job-killing" spending, will create lots and lots of private sector jobs. Even if it hasn't worked in the last 30 years, this time it will work.Well, the guys who do economic predictions for Wall St., big banks, etc., beg to differ:Zandi, an architect of the 2009 stimulus package who has advised both political parties, predicts that the GOP package would reduce economic growth by 0.5 percentage points this year, and by 0.2 percentage points in 2012, resulting in 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of next year. |
Zandi was John McCain's financial guru in the 2008 campaign. Others as well:The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, relying on data compiled by the Center for American Progress, found that the Republican budget plan would force roughly 975,000 Americans from their jobs. What's more, just last week, economists at Goldman Sachs estimated that the GOP proposal would reduce economic growth by as much as 2% of GDP, which would cause the unemployment rate to go up about a point.In effect, our Republican representatives at all levels of government have a real job killing agenda. Might be worth talking about? |
Monday, February 28, 2011
About the "job-killing" agenda - whose is it anyway?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Being a Democrat in NH
I was at the supermarket today and was approached by a fellow townsperson who has kids in elementary school. She informed me that “we” needed to get hold of people and let them know that a couple of the candidates for school board would be very bad for the school and that they should vote for other candidates. I told her that I was very busy trying to do something about the NH legislature, and that I was afraid that no matter who we elected to the local school board, if we couldn’t stop the legislative agenda our schools would be in big trouble.
After I left the store and headed home, I starting thinking back to last fall, when I was running for state representative, as well as being still employed full time and trying to get ready to retire (think switching from employer insurance to Medicare, etc., for both me and my husband, Social Security, etc.). Neither this woman, nor 90% of the people in town who knew me and all the work I did for the community over the past decades, wrote a letter in support of my candidacy, donated money to my campaign, or even contacted me to let me know they would vote for me and tell their friends to do the same.
I am not even sure they voted. One thing that became clear after the election was that there were a lot of Democrats who had voted in 2006 and 2008 who did not bother to come out and vote in 2010. I heard a lot about disappointment in Obama (and that is a whole other subject that drives me nuts, because I believe it was the Republicans who were to blame for what didn’t get done, and racism also played a part, yes, in NH), and of course it was an off-year election.
In 2010 we lost Carol Shea Porter, one of the best legislators ever and the first woman ever elected to Congress (in 2006) from NH. We elected a puppet of the big money, Kelly Ayotte, instead of Paul Hodes, a star as a freshman congressman in 2006, as Senator. We elected Charlie Bass, who is great at enriching himself and his family in government service, instead of Annie Kuster, a grass-roots champion. And we got this excuse for a legislature.
And if a few more Democrats had only just voted, none of this would have happened. Or at least not all of it. But NH Democrats are still gun-shy (probably a bad description at the moment, with all the pro-guns-everywhere legislation pending) and coming out of the closet, so to speak. Some of us got active when Howard Dean came to town, and have been working without rest, it seems, since then. Others are still very scared to reveal themselves, for fear of being targeted in these tough economic times.
After I left the store and headed home, I starting thinking back to last fall, when I was running for state representative, as well as being still employed full time and trying to get ready to retire (think switching from employer insurance to Medicare, etc., for both me and my husband, Social Security, etc.). Neither this woman, nor 90% of the people in town who knew me and all the work I did for the community over the past decades, wrote a letter in support of my candidacy, donated money to my campaign, or even contacted me to let me know they would vote for me and tell their friends to do the same.
I am not even sure they voted. One thing that became clear after the election was that there were a lot of Democrats who had voted in 2006 and 2008 who did not bother to come out and vote in 2010. I heard a lot about disappointment in Obama (and that is a whole other subject that drives me nuts, because I believe it was the Republicans who were to blame for what didn’t get done, and racism also played a part, yes, in NH), and of course it was an off-year election.
In 2010 we lost Carol Shea Porter, one of the best legislators ever and the first woman ever elected to Congress (in 2006) from NH. We elected a puppet of the big money, Kelly Ayotte, instead of Paul Hodes, a star as a freshman congressman in 2006, as Senator. We elected Charlie Bass, who is great at enriching himself and his family in government service, instead of Annie Kuster, a grass-roots champion. And we got this excuse for a legislature.
And if a few more Democrats had only just voted, none of this would have happened. Or at least not all of it. But NH Democrats are still gun-shy (probably a bad description at the moment, with all the pro-guns-everywhere legislation pending) and coming out of the closet, so to speak. Some of us got active when Howard Dean came to town, and have been working without rest, it seems, since then. Others are still very scared to reveal themselves, for fear of being targeted in these tough economic times.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
How extreme is the new NH legislature?
I was going to go through the entire list of bills introduced in the NH House of Representatives this year, but I got about half way through and ran out of steam. So I will just present a bunch of bills I found that are what I would consider extreme for NH, and you can go to the link above if you want to explore more. I will try to add notes about the context in our state.
As you read through, try to find a bill that creates jobs. That’s what they ran on.
2011-H-0007-R
title:
prohibiting the department of health and human services from entering into a contract with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. or any organization that provides abortion services and prohibiting the use of public funds or insurance for abortion services.
This is obviously part of the national campaign against Planned Parenthood.
2011-H-0008-R
title:
requiring parental notification before abortions may be performed on unemancipated minors.
NH had such a law but Planned Parenthood filed suit and it went to the Supreme Court, which found it did not have the exclusion for the health of the mother. What makes this particularly interesting is that the Attorney General who defended the state in the suit was Kelly Ayotte, who is now a US Senator elected in November in the Republican wave in NH. She arranged a payment to PP of $300,000 and managed to keep it out of the news for several years. Then she ran on “winning” the suit!
2011-H-0009-R
title:
relative to state authority over firearms and ammunition.
This and other bills about firearms expand what the supporters call “safety zones,” which are places firearms may be carried (as opposed to “killing zones” where guns are banned), bar executing federal law over firearms and ammunition manufactured in NH, make it legal to use deadly force to defend oneself in any situation (we used to have to flee if possible, now all we have to say after we have killed someone is that we felt “threatened”), etc. It is now fine to carry weapons into the legislative chambers in the NH State House, which makes us unique in the nation.
2011-H-0012-R
title:
relative to carrying firearms.
2011-H-0013-R
title:
repealing the department of education's rulemaking authority for home education programs.
This is part of the movement to let home schoolers do pretty much whatever they want and call it home schooling. There is also a bill to change the definition of child neglect to remove lack of education from the wording.
2011-H-0039-R
title:
relative to physical force in defense of a person.
2011-H-0070-R
title:
promoting parental choice in education and providing for an abatement from the education taxes for parents of children not enrolled in the public school system.
Municipalities would have to pay the parents of home schooled and private schooled parents a rebate of the property tax that we use to fund schools in NH. For those who don’t know, we have the “NH Advantage” which means no income or sales tax allowed. People move here because they hear about our “low taxes” and then they get their first property tax bill.
2011-H-0072-R
title:
requiring that New Hampshire join the lawsuit challenging federal health care reform legislation, and repealing the authority for state implementation of federal health care reform.
2011-H-0073-R
title:
relative to local spending caps.
Copying California, except not state-wide, yet.
2011-H-0078-R
title:
relative to lawful commerce in firearms, including manufacture and sale, in New Hampshire.
2011-H-0079-R
title:
establishing a permanent state defense force.
This is cool, a militia. I guess this is a jobs bill, but I thought we didn’t like to spend on those awful public employees.
2011-H-0065-R
title:
repealing the tax on gambling winnings.
This is one of many bills that will cut state revenues. I am sure that this will make the looming budget deficit better.
2011-H-0122-R
title:
relative to the adoption of the common core state standards in New Hampshire and relative to the substantive content of an adequate education.
To even start on the story of NH education funding is difficult. I did find a quick outline. The Democratically controlled legislature of the past 4 years did define an adequate education and what it should cost, and we thought we were finally in compliance with the finding of our Supreme Court, but the new legislature wants to go backwards. They want to remove the arts, health, technology and foreign languages from the definition of an adequate education, along with all sorts of other games with funding, etc.
2011-H-0124-R
title:
establishing a process for recall of United States Senators from New Hampshire.
New Jersey has tried this, it is unconstitutional per the US Constitution. However, we have a representative who considers himself a scholar of said document, and he is perhaps the weirdest law maker in the bunch.
2011-H-0140-R
title:
repealing the authority for regulation of certain professional occupations.
This one and others like it will keep the state from regulation hairdressers, barbers, etc. and will cost the state $800,000+ in fees (when you don’t have many taxes, those fees keep the place running) the first year.
2011-H-0223-L
title:
eliminating various taxes and fees and tax and fee increases enacted in fiscal years 2007 through 2010.
See the previous note.
2011-H-0235-R
title:
requiring valid photo identification to vote in person.
Numerous bills to keep people from voting, especially Democrats. College students are being targeted, as is the ability to register to vote at the polls. The latter would make NH’s waiver from the so-called MotorVoter act void immediately and would require the state to make sure that anyone who visits a Federal agency office be offered the chance to register to vote. I suspect this would cost the state some money.
2011-H-0254-Rs
title:
revising the child support guidelines based on foster care reimbursement rates.
This is nice. It would limit the amount of child support that would be allowed in a divorce to the amount paid a foster family. Even if one parent made a million bucks, the custodial parent would only be paid what a foster family would get per child.
2011-H-0257-R
title:
including "unborn child" in the definition of "another" for the purpose of first and second degree murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide.
2011-H-0272-R
title:
urging Congress to amend the Internal Revenue Code to permit churches and other houses of worship to engage in political campaigns.
2011-H-0274-R
title:
relating to initiative petitions. Providing that referenda to enact laws may be initiated by petition.
Another attempt to make us CA-East.
2011-H-0289-R
title:
relating to taxation. Providing that a 2/3 vote is required to pass legislation imposing new or increased taxes or license fees provided that the legislature may increase the rate of taxes and fees with a majority vote in any fiscal year that insufficient revenues are provided to pay the principal and interest on a debt payable in that year, to which the state has pledged its faith and credit.
Another CA-East proposal.
2011-H-0288-R
title:
prohibiting a state agency from establishing a fee without legislative approval.
2011-H-0291-R
title:
repealing the New Hampshire rail transit authority.
The state does not fund this, but these guys hate trains. They hate them all over the country.
2011-H-0293-R
title:
establishing a state defined contribution retirement plan for state and political subdivision members of the retirement system and establishing a committee to study the transition of current employees into the new plan and administration of the new plan.
Get rid of the NH retirement pension system and put them all in 401(k)s.
2011-H-0317-R
title:
establishing a committee to study the abolishment of the department of education.
The NH Dept. of Education is the only place federal education money can go to.
2011-H-0326-R
title:
relative to voter registration and relative to procedures for absentee voting.
2011-H-0335-R
title:
(New Title) requiring the attorney general to join the lawsuit challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
2011-H-0339-R
title:
relative to physical force in defense of a person.
2011-H-0340-R
title:
relating to prohibiting any new tax on personal income. Providing that no new tax on personal income shall be levied by the state of New Hampshire.
2011-H-0375-R
title:
making changes to the pupil safety and violence prevention act.
Take cyberbullying out of the landmark NH anti-bullying act.
2011-H-0389-R
title:
(New Title) prohibiting the use of state funds for New Hampshire public television.
This one has passed the house. One of my reps told me that what they do is duplicating other educational programs. Right.
2011-H-0393-R
title:
affirming States' powers based on the Constitution for the United States and the Constitution of New Hampshire.
2011-H-0394-R
title:
ordering our federal senators to vote against the Law of the Sea Convention.
2011-H-0395-R
title:
declaring Merrill v. Sherburne to be void and of no force.
You may note that the NH Legislature is known as the General Court. Way back the legislature was the court of last appeal in lawsuits. Merrill v. Sherburne struck that use down. These guys want to bring it back. They have a number of bills attempting to get rid of the separation of powers and make the legislature the one supreme authority in the state. Ordering the AG to bring lawsuits, attempting to fire judges, and allowed the legislature to override court decisions are all part of this attempt to bring tyranny to NH.
2011-H-0436-R
title:
repealing the comprehensive shoreland protection act.
We finally got some protection for the many waterbodies in NH. Keeping them clean is part of the protection not only of our water supplies, our wildlife habitat, but also our tourist industry. But it upsets the rich folk who buy up the camps on the shorelines, tear down the little houses and build MacMansions and want a golf-course lawn kept up with fertilizers and herbicides right now to the shore.
And here is where I ran out of steam. Please add others in the comments.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Legislating from the Bible
This interesting, weird and rather scary interchange began with me sending an e-mail to each of the members of the NH House Judiciary Committee who had an e-mail address listed. I almost immediately received a reply from a representative, not one of mine, none of them are on the committee. I am reproducing it without the full name of the representative at this point.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sent: Sun 2/13/2011 2:01 PM
Subject: Civil rights
As a married heterosexual woman whose life is filled with friends who are both married and single, straight and gay, all of whom are contributing members of our communities and powers of example of how to live good, productive and caring lives, I urge you to listen to the majority of the people in NH who do NOT want us to take away rights that were granted to our fellow citizens. If you repeal gay marriage in NH, it will be the first time NH has ever taken away rights once granted, a really dreadful precedent for the LIVE FREE OR DIE state.
I hope you will vote ITL on HB437-FN & HB443-FN and then turn your attention to matters that do help NH, growing the employment opportunities and crafting a fair and compassionate budget. Please stop letting your agenda be run by groups from outside our state, and concentrate on what your constituents thought they were voting for.
Lucy Edwards
N****d NH
I hope you will vote ITL on HB437-FN & HB443-FN and then turn your attention to matters that do help NH, growing the employment opportunities and crafting a fair and compassionate budget. Please stop letting your agenda be run by groups from outside our state, and concentrate on what your constituents thought they were voting for.
Lucy Edwards
N****d NH
______________________________________________________________________
On Feb 13, 2011, at 2:03 PM, P***, L*** wrote:
Dear Ms. Edwards, Thank you for your e-mail concerning the marriage bills. I am in total support of any bill that defines marriage as between one man and one woman period. Anything less will be opposed.
Again, thank you and please contact me in the future with any questions or concerns.
Respectfully,
Rep. L M. P***
______________________________________________________________________
To: P***, L***
Subject: Re: Civil rights
Could you tell me why you take this position?
Thank you,
Lucy Edwards
______________________________________________________________________
On Feb 13, 2011, at 2:11 PM, P***, L*** wrote:
Dear Ms. Edwards, I be glad to tell you why: the Bible clearly states what the definition of marriage is and anything different is an abomination to God.
Respectfully,
Rep. L*** M. P***
Hillsborough Dist. **
______________________________________________________________________
From: Lucy Edwards
Sent: Sun 2/13/2011 2:19 PM
To: P***, L***
Subject: Re: Civil rights
What happened to the Constitution? Did the Bible replace it?
And it actually is Mrs. Edwards. As I said, I am a woman married to a man.
Lucy Edwards
______________________________________________________________________
On Feb 13, 2011, at 2:39 PM, P***, L*** wrote:
Dear Mrs. Edwards, The Constitution does not define marriage, the Bible clearly does.
Rep. L*** M. P***
______________________________________________________________________
From: Lucy Edwards
Sent: Sun 2/13/2011 3:03 PM
To: P***, L***
Subject: Re: Civil rights
So, if I have this correct, NH law on marriage is governed by the Bible, not by the constitution? I don't think that is way we usually write laws in NH. Or the United States. We aren't one of those countries where one religion is the state religion, and all the laws have to agree with its holy book.
I feel for your constituents.
Lucy Edwards
______________________________________________________________________
On Feb 13, 2011, at 3:14 PM, P***, L*** wrote:
Dear Mrs. Edwards, no where in the NH Constitution is the word marriage, it is not a Constitutional Right. There is a definition of what marriage is in the Bible. I suggest you read your Constitution and you will see what rights you have.
Rep. L*** M. P***
______________________________________________________________________
From: Lucy Edwards
Sent: Mon 2/14/2011 10:55 AM
To: P***, L***
Subject: Re: Civil rights
I have been trying to remember my Sunday school lessons and the stories in the bible. Didn't Abraham have two wives, and I know David and Solomon had many. Where in the book does it say that marriage is one man and one woman? I would really appreciate if you could cite the chapter and verse.
Thank you,
Lucy Edwards
______________________________________________________________________
Mark 10:6-8 Jesus, himself, quotes from Gen. 1:27 is one example.
Rep. L*** M. P***
I looked up the references in Google:
Mark 10:6-8 (New International Version, ©2010)
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b]8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Footnotes:
Mark 10:6 Gen. 1:27
Mark 10:7 Some early manuscripts do not have “and be united to his wife.”
Mark 10:8 Gen. 2:24
Genesis 1:27 (New International Version, ©2010)
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
How do you talk to an extremist?
The problem I have is that I can't talk to these people because I really, really, really don't like them. All they want to do is hurt others. They really get off on that, and I can't fight back because that's not who I am. I can say some cutting words, but I can't do to them what they would have absolutely no qualms doing to me, "for my own good," of course.
We are about caring for others, not being selfish, seeing the world as an interconnected whole, understanding in the depths of our being that we are all in this together, and loving other human beings, the animals and the plants we share the planet with, and upon whom we depend for life.
They are the rapists of the planet, the misers who hoard and won't share, the punishers who get off on hurting others. They look like reasonably normal people, but they act like petty tyrants. They don't accept logic, or facts, or caring as reasonable ways to approach civic life. I do not like them, and I don't want to have anything to do with them.
And they are running my country and my state.
We are about caring for others, not being selfish, seeing the world as an interconnected whole, understanding in the depths of our being that we are all in this together, and loving other human beings, the animals and the plants we share the planet with, and upon whom we depend for life.
They are the rapists of the planet, the misers who hoard and won't share, the punishers who get off on hurting others. They look like reasonably normal people, but they act like petty tyrants. They don't accept logic, or facts, or caring as reasonable ways to approach civic life. I do not like them, and I don't want to have anything to do with them.
And they are running my country and my state.
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