Happy Birthday New Hampshire. June 21 1788. #NH,
What If You Could Not Leave?
Actually you can’t leave. One of the little known “irregularities” of union membership is that you can’t take it with you. If you leave one region of the country to work in another, (or one local for another) even in the same union, in some cases you can kiss all your seniority goodbye.
So is it any surprise that the unions and their pet government bureaucracy the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the epitome of the fox in the hen house, didn’t want Boeing to move any of its manufacturing from Washington State (where employees are forced to join unions), to South Carolina (where workers have actual rights.)
Darrel Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, described it thus…
“If the NLRB had its way, then once you plant your flag in a union state, then you can never leave,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) during the hearing, in essence illuminating the true nature of the NLRB and the unions’ complaint against the aerospace manufacturer.
And there you have it. Employees don’t have rights and neither do employers who are union. The Federal government and a board of unelected lackeys will be deciding who employs who where. How this helps unions is beyond me. If the business can’t leave when a location becomes unfavorable to its business, you do what…continue to strangle the life out of it and wait for the business and all the jobs to die? Oh…that’s right! That is what you do. And then you ask the democrat party and the progressives in DC for a few billion to bail you out. Sustain what doesn’t work by force from Washington DC. This from the party of choice. Yeah, their choice, not yours.
Welcome to the Tyrannical Rule of The Left wing and progressives in both parties.
H/T Townhall.com
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Cornography
The US Senate has overwhelmingly voted to end billions in ethanol subsidies. And even though the bill has no hope of becoming law–Obama will not sign it–corn prices collapsed on the news. This is instructive for two reasons. First a large chunk of the subsidy being cut is paid to oil companies (or blenders) to offset the mandate to add ethanol to motor fuel. So this is not just some bipartisan effort to screw the corn belt–Big Oil gets tens of billions in support to offset the costs of adhering to environmental mandates. This measure would remove some or all of that. With this price support gone, fuels that include ethanol could get more expensive.
Returning real world costs to pricing is necessary to stimulate real world interest in getting corn out of the fuel supply but that will require more repeals of past mandates, none of which Obama will likely sign either.
But this vote does send a message that a different president (not Mitt Romney by the way) might end the rent seekers good fortune within two years and the price of corn has responded poorly to the news.
Second, and this what I really want to address, just the idea of a change in corn policy has had as much as a 12% immediate downward effect on the price of corn. So how much impact might it have had were it likley to pass? More.
So how can naysayers continue to insist that a similar act regarding domestic oil production and refinement capacity might not also have a similar impact on the price of oil and everything that uses it, motor fuels in particular?
There are plenty of people who insist that if the US announced tomorrow that it has lifted all its drilling moratoriums, opened up development, streamlined the lease and permitting process, committed to increasing domestic refining capacity, and is willing to let oil and gas companies invest their own money in new technologies to extract more resources, that it would have not short term affect on prices.
I contend that if the US did even one of those things it would have an immediate affect. Not just say they were going to do it, but to actually do it. But imagine if we planned do all of them?
Oil prices could collapse if the largest customer of global oil became more of a do-it-yourselfer. But we need a president who understands that cheap energy promotes jobs and growth in every sector, that America is probably the cleanest extractor of it on the planet, and that it is a national security issue worthy of our immediate attention.
But Obama does not agree and as long as this President, the environmentalists, the Farm Lobby, their rent seeking factory farms, and Republican morons like McCain and Romney are addicted to Cornography, we will continue to pay tens of billions up front to hide this failed policy of the past while centuries worth of more of cheap domestic energy sits under our feet.
cross posted from http://Granitegrok.com
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Bass Says ‘Feed That Pig(ford)”
The Pigford settlement, a fiscal resolution for claims of discrimination against black farmers, is under suspicion of massive fraud. Fraud that is being funded by taxpayers in excess of a billion dollars thanks to the lame duck democrat congress that added that billion at the request of Mr. Obama.But yesterday the House had an opportunity to block $1.25 billion in excess funding to that settlement by approving an amendment proposed by Rep Steve King of Iowa. This could have stopped the Department of Agriculture and the Obama Administration from pumping out more cash until the fraud charges could be investigated. Seventy eight Republicans voted against the amendment. One of them was NH CD-2 rep Charlie Bass.
I’m sure representative Bass has a perfectly good explanation for refusing to stop another $1.25 billion for a program under this much suspicion. But since he is not my representative (mine voted to stop the funding) perhaps his own constituents will feel inclined to do the digging and the asking themselves.
$1.25 Billion is not much in the age of Obama, but then what is. But you have to start someplace.
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Do Democrats Now Love The Chamber Of Commerce?
Arizona passed a law in support of federal law to ensure that employers were using the Governments e-verify system to screen out illegal immigrants. The United States Supreme Court has upheld Arizona’s right to enforce that law and the usual suspects are none too happy.
The socialist progressive rulers of 
Arizona’s sanctuary cities (democrats) and leftists in general, who are usually gung-ho about long distance top-down mandates, are not pleased. Their businesses can no longer skirt the requirement of checking, and Arizona is free to pursue violators at their discretion. This could drive away a major victim class constituency and reliable democrat (cough-cough voters) to seek sanctuary where the law is not enforced. (Or maybe not–see below)*
Arizona’s sanctuary cities (democrats) and leftists in general, who are usually gung-ho about long distance top-down mandates, are not pleased. Their businesses can no longer skirt the requirement of checking, and Arizona is free to pursue violators at their discretion. This could drive away a major victim class constituency and reliable democrat (cough-cough voters) to seek sanctuary where the law is not enforced. (Or maybe not–see below)* But that’s not the most interesting part of the story.
Remember when the Chamber of Commerce (C of C) was the lefts whipping boy? They were evil capitalists using money from “outside the country” to affect their selfish policy agenda–at the expense of the real working stiffs and middle class families. Most if not all democrats hopped on this bandwagon, international union contributions in tow, to rail against the C of C. So what do those same leftists have to say about that same Chamber of Commerce (presumably with the same funding) leading the charge to prevent the enforcement of e-verify?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend?
I’m sure the left will be more than happy to cozy up to any Satan when it suits their purposes. In fact I know they will. Throughout this entire process we’ve not heard one complaint about the Chamber of Commerce and its involvement in fighting the enforcement of e-verify.
So why doesn’t that surprise me?
*One parting shot: While Arizona employers are required to verify immigration status before hiring anyone, and now SCOTUS has reaffirmed the states right to enforce that requirement, the last time I checked refusing to hire someone in Arizona if the system actually identified them as an illegal alien is employment discrimination and punishable by law. No, I’m not kidding. You break the law if you don’t check, and you break the law if you use that information to refuse them a job.
And for some reason people still trust the government to do everything. I just don’t get it.
Yeah. I posted someplace else. Want to see? : http://granitegrok.com
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Thursday Morning Grab Bag
Congratulations to the Boston Bruins on winning the Stanley Cup. (My facebook page is covered with GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!)
While fighting hard for the Middle Class Carol SEIU-Porter supporter Nancy Pelosi’s income….rose 62% last year. (Did you do as well?)
John Lynch Vetoes. To Quote State Rep Jason Antosz
Today….Gov. John Lynch has vetoed legislation that would require public employees to pay more toward their pensions and some to work longer to spare New Hampshire taxpayers. Gov. Lynch has vetoed a bill that would prohibit local planning boards from requiring the installation of fire sprinkler systems in homes as a condition of approval for local permits. Gov.Lynch has Vetoed a bill that requires parents or a judge to be notified before a girl obtains an abortion in New Hampshire
The NH State Supreme court says the legislature cannot tell government agencies what to do. Democrats should hate that, but they wont because it was about forcing the AG to join the lawsuit against ObamaScare.
Conan O’Brien is credited with giving one of the best commencement speeches ever. I’m taking their word for it–I still have not watched it but what the heck.
And US House Democrats are considering stripping Weiner of his committee assignments.
Yeah, It is a lazy morning post but the day is young.
See it First at http://Granitegrok.com
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Powerline Nails ThinkProgress To The Wall
ThinkProgress makes stuff up. They make stuff up and the denizens in the leftist ghettos spread it around like herpes until the entire lot of them is infected. The goal, of course, is to make the lie real by duplicating it in the media and the minds of everyone who hears it. It is the echo-chamber narrative, repeated until it is accepted as fact.But thanks to new media, that dog just don’t hunt anymore. Case in point, ThinkProgress making up stories about David Koch.
From Powerline:
Everyone makes mistakes, but ThinkProgress is unique. It doesn’t just get things wrong; it consistently fabricates lies out of whole cloth. Anyone who relies on ThinkProgress for information is asking to be deceived.
So what did ThinkProgress do this time? They ran with a story in which they claimed that David Koch was appointed to a board by President Bush from which he would object to regulation of a cancer causing chemical made by a company he owned; that he had to leave the appointment after being pressured by Greenpeace and others. That after he left the NIH handed down a ruling on the cancer causing chemical. Narrative Goal: support the David Koch is a greedy capitalist who was holding up the cancer classification so he could make more money.
The problem?
According to Powerline David Koch was never appointed to or even on that board. He did not even own that company during the period in question. The Greenpeace pressure line is a complete fabrication.
As a cancer survivor and someone who has donated over 200 million to cancer research, he did serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board. No connection to the ThinkRegress story.
But don’t tell that the echo-chamber. Just Google “David Koch, NIH” and follow the lie through the nutroots. It works well, the echo-chamber. It works well because the skulls of left-wingers are made for echo. Stink Progress is just tapping that ‘natural’ resource. But maybe next time they should try coming up with something that could at least pass for an honest mistake instead of just making it up as they go.
Or is that even possible?
Steve also Blogs at NH Insider and GraniteGrok.com
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Electric Cars Are Worse For The Environment (Hah Ha!)
Back in 2008 when I was talking about how cars like the Prius were not nearly as environmentally friendly as the greens and Democrats let on because the manufacturing process for the battery system was so hostile to the environment. That process erased any benefits you might achieve during use of the finished product.
That assessment was spot on. And it is, in fact worse than I initially imagined. Apparently the batteries do not last all that long. They need to be replaced after a few years. They are very expensive, almost prohibitively expensive. Not including this new battery problem made hybrids look better than they actually were. And it turns out there are a number of issues I had not considered, issues that have come up as the battery only electric vehicle tries to find a place in the garages of drivers around the world.
…
Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car. Disposal also produces double the emissions because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery. The study also took into account carbon emitted to generate the grid electricity consumed.
Want to read more? It was too long to cross post to you can check it out here: http://granitegrok.com/blog/2011/06/electric_cars_are_worse_for_the_environm….
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Fred Who?
Fred Karger, “Republican” candidate for President (of The United States, actually) spoke at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Flag Day Picnic yesterday. He came with the slogan of “Fred who?” When he left, Fred Who? had a concrete political advantage to the Fred we met.
Fred has some negatives the least of which is not knowing who Fred is.
Fred is against requiring an ID to vote in New Hampshire. He thinks it puts a wall between the party and his goal of Republican outreach to younger voters. (Fred may not have noticed but Obama’s economic policies have been the best Republican outreach to young voters in nearly a century; and voter ID is an important platform issue for the party.)
One of the first people Fred came to visit in New Hampshire was State Democrat Party Chairman Ray Buckley. (Fred is a homosexual. I’m wondering if he had ask Ray’s permission to run as a Republican?) And to our knowledge has not really met with GOP Chair jack Kimball.
Fred spent most of his time telling us about campaigns he has worked on, not what he wants to do, but aside from the youth outreach thing, he did say that we need to deal with the Education problem.
I think he did accomplished some educational outreach. He managed to teach the Hillsborough County Republican Committee members in attendance why he is Fred Who? (No, not the father of Cindy-Lou Who who was no more than two.) He is a nice guy but he has been running for president for 15 months as a candidate for the wrong party.
Podcast video available soon, on GraniteGrok…and nowhere else. http://granitegrok.com
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Jeanne Shaheen’s Sticky Situation
In the “stupid things said by former governors of New Hampshire who have become US Senator’s category,” Jeanne Shaheen (Greene Shaheen) dominates. As another hack of the environmental movement she has said some incredibly stupid things and intimated plenty of others, forever making us proud.She blamed George Bush for brush fires in California. (It was left wing pro-green forestry policy) She has opined on the threat of declining snowfall and its negative affects on New Hampshire’s tourism industry. You may have noticed–snowfall is not a problem either. And then there’s Maple Syrup production which I suspect is both a jobs and tourism problem.
Jeanne warned us of these risks on her 2008 Senate campaign site, a quote you wont find anymore because it has all been scrubbed…
REVERSE GLOBAL WARMING
Reversing global warming is an economic, environmental and health imperative for New Hampshire. If we don’t act to reverse global warming, New Hampshire’s snow season is projected to shrink by almost 50 percent by mid-century, severely impacting our skiing and snowmobile industries. Increasing temperatures also will negatively impact fall foliage tourism, the hunting and fishing industries, and maple sugar production .
So has repeating the leftist dogma put former governor Shaheen in another sticky situation? You bet. According to yesterdays Union Leader Maple syrup production in 2011 hit a 76 year high, thanks to one of the best years for tapping since the 1920’s.
The perfect combination of mild days and frosty nights in key harvesting areas this winter and spring touched off a near record-breaking flow of the rich, tasty sap, Hernan Ortiz, statistician with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, said on Friday.
It’s not just key areas. Locals who tap as a hobby have more sap than they know what to do with. And if global warming is to blame they’d like a second helping please. Don’t forget to pass the Michelle Obama approved, government regulated, no-fat, high fiber (complete with 8 servings of fruits and vegetables) tasteless, orderless spread please. (Brand name: “It used to be Butter!“)
So we got us a sap bonanza and it’s not just in the woods of New England.
But fret not hooligan democrats. There has been a significant man-made impact that represents a growing threat to tourism and our local economy…It is Barack Obama and the Democrat party. Their policies represent the greatest threat to long term prosperity in decades.
Makes you wonder how much longer it will take the rest of America to realize that the real problem is nor Anthropogenic Global Warming, it is Anthropogenic Socialist Stooges. (Yes, that’s A.S.S.)
Cross posted everywhere, including here: http://www.nhinsider.com/steve-mac-donald/2011/6/12/jeanne-shaheens-sticky-si…
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The New Media Militia 