Rubbing off some of the Shaheen

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Shaheen wants to distract us from the cold hard truth about her dark Blue roots by arguing that her opponent, Senator Sununu, is less capable than she simply because he voted with Bush 85% of the time.   But a quick look at her policy and issues pages will show just how closely aligned she is with Pelosi twins Hodes and Shea Porter who voted with Chancellor Peolsi 98% of the time.  If 85% is bad what’s 98% get you when it just happens to be 98% of what has turned out to be the most unpopular House of Representatives in American History?  Shaheen would simply be the Pelosi Triplet with a six year seat in the Senate. 

But while Shaheen beats her 85% drum, you won’t hear a peep out of her on that other 15% because it damages her credibility too much.  Just about every one of the issues Sununu voted against is a signature pin in the Democrats voodoo doll campaign strategy to unseat republicans, and since she can’t stick him with them she’s got to hope no one notices.  (Too late.)

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Dead men talking. 10 quotes from James Madison

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

“It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.”

“For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach themselves too much to local objects.”

“The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.”

“A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.”

“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”

“A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.”

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents”

“But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm… But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity.”

Thanks to The Patriot Post, and their extensive Founder’s Quote Database.

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Denying the cure

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

I stumbled upon a “heated” discussion about AGW at the Nashua Telegraph Website, based on this Letter.  My response is posted in the comments section of the article link, and elaborated below.  It’s premise is that no matter what we think the problem is the ‘cure’ is worse.

I don’t have to deny the science to deny the cure.  The ALGORE cure is not only expensive, we have proof that it doesn’t work.  So even if they are not wrong about AGW (and I think they are) the template of Kyoto and carbon credits has already failed.

From Investors Business Daily
Energy use per unit of GDP here in the U.S. fell 4.2 percent in 2006, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP fell by 4.5 percent, meaning that America is becoming more energy efficient. On the other hand, emissions in Kyoto countries, which are supposedly the standard of dedication to the environment, rose 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2005.

So while the US congress tries to force innovation by growing government and spending tax dollars, “to do it just like Europe,” the Free market has already made improvements on its own.  You see it’s not just about IF there is a problem, it is about how we solve it.  If conservation and renewable energy are really the desired end we should continue to allow these successful free market forces, and private investment and innovation to solve that problem, based on a consumer sentiment that seeks out technologies that actually get the job done, rather than top down mandates that ignore market forces.  

The top down, central control, taxaholic, euro-Kyoto mandate countries have been unable to make the problem better doing it their way.  Japan and Australia also have higher emissions on the Kyoto cure.  So the “cure” is not the cure at all; it has clearly made the problem worse.   All the Kyoto countries have increased the cost of energy, increased to cost of doing business, lowered the standard of living, failed to reduce unemployment, crippled their economies, and their reward is failing to reduce emissions.  Can we agree that this ‘cure’ won’t work?

If we can’t agree on the problem, we can at least agree that America has (so far) shown us the better “cure.”  Less government mandates, and more free-thinking innovation are the answer.  So we need to keep congress out of it before they ruin the progress we are already making on our own; and any legislator who can’t see this forest for the trees is probably serving an agenda other than that of climate change; those people are only serving their desire for bigger government and they are prepared to make all of us (literally) pay for it.

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Introducing “The Freeloader State.”

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

McCain went to Iowa and told the people there that as President he would help them market their farm products around the world, and discussed ways to help them profit in international markets, but that he would not support ethanol subsidies.  I find this very refreshing, and it is certainly consistent with the Arizona Senators position on out of control entitlement spending, but Iowa democratic chairman Scott Brennan believes that “this proves McCain doesn’t care about Iowa.”

“He voted against ethanol subsidies, he’s opposed to the farm bill.”

So according to the democrat chairman in Iowa, whatever it is Iowa does to contribute to the national and global economy, whatever it is Iowa has ever done, Iowans can no longer do it without the promise of a massive and sustained redistribution of tax payer wealth to support it.  By the sound of it, Scott doesn’t think all that highly of Iowans.  I wonder if he’s submitted a petition yet for Iowa to join the European Union?

 

So I guess the Hawkeye state is now reduced to keeping a sharp lookout for more federal pork?  

 

Should we change the state motto from, Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain, to “Your Tax Dollars We Prize, and Our Right to Them We Will Maintain?”

 

Personally, I think “The Freeloader State” says it best.   Is there a limit on how many states can have the same motto?

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AG Checks couch cushions for missing cash-finds IOU for 3 million

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Kelly Ayott is after drivers who have failed to pay fines going back up to six years.   Her office estimates that there are 3 million dollars in unpaid traffic fines due to the state.  In the past five years two State Troopers assigned to the same task managed to collect 600,000 dollars,  but at what cost to the state?  If the troopers were on this full time, using state resources, equipment, phones and vehicles, if we add in their salaries and time away from other more important work, what was our return on investment? 

 

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to collect fines, and people should never get the idea that they can break traffic laws and just get away with it, but a system that permits 3 million dollars worth of uncollected fines to accumulate over a six year period is not working.  If we needed a ten year equivalent in trooper man-hours to get back 600K, which even on principle is probably a net loss for the state, what do we need to fetch 3 million?  Might it not be cheaper to keep these losers on the radar, but simply save the money we’d waste on looking for them with a vengeance, and simply find a better way to collect the next 3 million before 72 calendar months have elapsed?

 

I’m honestly not familiar with the costs, or time involved, but when you have a budget deficit, and you know the State is checking all the couch cushions for money to fill it, solutions that make a nice sound bite, or look good on paper, could just as easily be losers for the tax payers.  I’d like to see the State, and the Senate budget committee issue an estimate on how much it’s going to cost the Tax payers of New Hampshire to try and collect this delinquent “3 million” if that is the accurate number.  Government has no qualms about wasting your money on a wild goose chase.  We need to keep an eye on this.

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I actually want the Democrats to win this one

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

I’ve decided, for the good of the country, to support the democrats plan to make oil companies give up their leases on land they are unwilling to drill on

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Democrats are sold part and parcel on this scheme they have concocted to make it look like they actually want to drill.  They don’t want to drill.  They never wanted to drill.  If they wanted to drill they would have drilled years ago.  This is all a bunch of election year pandering.  So I say, give them some rope and let them hang themselves because democrats are to markets and economics (and now geology) what fish are to bicycles.

 

They are going to get these leases back because the current owners know it is not worth the expense to develop them.  The oil is too sparse and too low grade for the massive capital investment required to get at it.  I mean if Exxon –Mobil thinks it’s a waste of money, there is not much hope that any of the other oil companies will see it any different.  No one is going to buy them, and no matter how much oil the lefties claim is there, not one drop of it is coming out of the ground unless it’s from an existing well.  And they can’t do a damn thing about it

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But they might want to try.  So remind me how big government liberals convince people to invest in energy projects with no obvious hope of sustainable profitability?  Why, they give them truckloads of our tax dollars—as many as it takes to cover the loss a private company would have to risk if it went in on the project alone.  That’s right.  In order to make this plan work democrats would have to give “hand-outs” to oil companies.

 

It’s perfect.  They just can’t do it.  The Maxine Waters plan to use the government to take over the oil companies isn’t going to fly.  It’s just another empty-headed promise for a solution which democrats are not even remotely equipped to solve.  They have no solution that will not increase the cost of energy.  Not one.

 

I say let ‘em hang

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Demo-graphics

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Democrats like to spend tax dollars.  They like to create and enrich social programs, multiplying them like rabbits one atop the other, all for each and every perceived need—always collecting the authority to administer them as high up in the government as they can.  Now this is not necessarily a problem of intention, because they probably mean well, but it is a problem.  It’s a problem because apparently democrats can’t be bothered to ensure future funding for their own programs. Let me explain.

 

Democrats overwhelmimgly favor all the birth-dearth policies like abortion, gay marriage, contraception, morning after pills, uncontested divorce, secular humanism, save the earth, global warming, and various other so called civil and social “rights” or protections.   It’s fine to want things.  Sex is fun, responsibility is a drag, but sometimes taking all the responsibility out of something that’s really important, and trying to make it into a hobby, or an after school program, or simply a “life-style choice,” can come with long reaching consequences.  If you fail to see these consequences well in advance, you will very likely do far more harm than good.  And here’s the proof; because of the unabashed liberal commitment to their own policies, they are a steadily “declining” demographic. Democrats have not been having enough babies to replace themselves. 

 

So do you see intellectual stupidity in this?  Even if you favor declining populations, you shouldn’t be taken seriously if you always order the steak and lobster and then plan to skip out on the check.  To pay for all the expanding federal programs these democrats insist we need, each succeeding generation must be at least equal too or larger than the one it is later meant to support to prevent an imbalance or unfair burden, or the system could eventually collapse, yet they themselves cannot even be bothered to breed enough to replace themselves.   These morons won’t even have kids around to see if their idiotic global warming predictions even come close.  Oh, but lets start paying just in case.  The world is at an end.  It is for your blood line and good riddance you math-challenged, check skipping, freeloaders. 

 

Stupid!

  

So the next time you hear a democrat talk about how they are “trying to protect the future for our children,” what they really mean is someone else’s children.  Probably your children.  And they might need that college money you tried to squirrel away to help pay all the taxes.

 

Stop the madness.  Your wallet, and you children, and your grand children, and their children, will thank you.

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Crude oil is at 118.68 a 3 month low

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

I predicted that if oil went under $100/barrel that the left would completely abandon their “new found” interest in drilling, even in places with little or no oil.  Here’s to finding out if I am wrong.  Come on $100!!

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More Left handed math.

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

How can Jeanne Shaheen insist that depleting a 700 million barrel fixed supply of oil into an economy that uses about 20 million barrels per day will really help the middle class, when the same Jeanne Shaheen insists that drilling new domestic oil will not?  If it’s such a great idea to deplete the Strategic Petroleum Reserves–which might save us 4-5 cents per gallon for just a few months–why won’t adding up to 70 times as much oil per day, for 50-75 years help even more?  I’m not good with math.  Does that mean that the next time Jeanne and the democrats  want to add some 5 billion dollar program to the budget every year for the next 50 years that we can say, hey wait!  You know what?  There’s this  3 million dollar plan that expires in 4 months that will work out a lot better.

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The risk of broad based taxes

Posted on August 3, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Kathryn Forry is running to the far left of Governor John Lynch on almost every issue.   On the fiscal side she wants to replace the current property tax funding system with a broad based tax, but so far no democrat has every won the governorship running openly on a broad based tax platform.  Forry has other issues that would probably make her an unlikely victor in New Hampshire against almost anyone who chose to run against her but this primary offers an opportunity for observers on all sides to see how much attention she gets given her policy positions.

The results of a Lynch/Forry primary should provide some much needed insights into just how far to the left some NH Dems are willing to go, and if their policy preferences will remain in the closet or if they’ll have an even bigger coming out party than they have over the past two years.  With that in mind I think it behooves us to take a look at some of the potential advantages of the current property tax system Forry decries, and what I believe are some of the disadvantages of either abandoning or diluting it with other forms of revenue.

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