Shaheens stem cell “Surge”

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Governor Jeanne has launched a counter attack against the Republican War on Science.  This surprised me because I didn’t even know we had one.  But My curiosity was rewarded when it became clear that the forefront of this war–at least from Shaheen’s crooked little corner of the world–was Senator John Sununu’s voting record on embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of human embryos.  Some people have expressed some moral concerns over this idea.  Not being God, and not really knowing exactly when life begins, I myself have chosen to err on the side of caution, so I have to agree with Senator Sununu.  But unlike he or I, Jeanne collects a lot of campaign contributions from pro choice groups like Emily’s list, who gave her close to half a million in 2002, and currently-with other women’s and pro choice groups-have provided well over $200,000 so far this cycle.  They are donating to her precisely because she has no moral concerns on this issue.  So she can’t be in favor of anything but embryonic Stem cell research even if we could prove to her it’s a genetic dead end.

“As a grandmother and as an American, I am angry that we have lost seven years of promising research because of President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research,” Shaheen said

Well Jeanne, as a taxpayer and a voter, I’m getting tired of your half truths and misleading statements.

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics, National Politics & Policy, NH Senate race, Political Thought, taxes | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Outrage we can believe in

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Obama’s campaign is offended again.  (OMG!)

I just picked this up from the from the Concord monitor online.  It’s the latest cover of the New Yorker on which “radical positions” appear projected upon a caricature of the Obama’s–presumably in the living room of their posh Hyde Park domicile–asperhaps a parody of their real politics of meaning™?  Yes, that’s an American flag burning in the fireplace.

As this is the New Yorker I have to assume this is a parody of right wing concerns deigned to make the Right look like chicken-littles. 

 But it’s no surprise they are put-off.  But being offended is the one campaign ritual which Senator Obama has not had to come out and contradict.

…spokesman, Bill Burton, said: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” Burton said. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

This cartoon has not sparked rioting among the faithful, and no American lives are believed to be in danger. (Not yet anyway)

Continue reading →

Posted in National Politics & Policy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Becoming Illegal

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

This is supposed to be an actual letter to Tom Harkin but to be honest, it doesn’t matter.  I found it quite entertaining. Take a few minutes and treat yourself to a few laughs.  Just don’t cry when the truth of it strikes you.

 

 Becoming Illegal

The Honorable Tom  Harkin
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone (202  ) 224 3254
Washington DC, 20510

Dear  Senator Harkin,

As a native Iowan and excellent  customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am  writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate, and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill’s provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Secret Balloting not in the cards.

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

 

Imagine that this November, instead of going to your local polling place, three guys from “The Party” come to your house, hand you a ballot, tell you to put your name on it, and wait while you complete it. They look at it, make a few faces, then ask, “Are you sure this is how you’re going to vote?”  This becomes an open record of your choices, filed away at “headquarters,” a permanent history of your voting preferences. 

Our Congressional Reps, and Jeanne Shaheen, all support this kind of balloting.  And unions are paying them big money to make sure that federal legislation legalizing Card Check becomes a reality.

Card check is a way for labor unions to collect votes from their members–or would be members–when seeking approval for a contract or bargaining agreement.  It is the exact opposite of the secret ballot.  You have no anonymity.  Everyone will know how you voted, while you are voting, or at any point in time thereafter.   If you have ever worked for a union (Disclosure: I was a Teamster for ten years) then you are well aware of the pressure union members and officials can wield against dissenters or people on the fence.  Having a few union boys waiting on the lawn to see how you voted is nothing short of intimidating.  So Card Check is just a way to game the voting process.  It violates your fundamental rights and denies you the freedom to make choices based on your own beliefs.

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics, National Politics & Policy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Death knell for the Greene Jeanne routine?

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

I’m finding plenty of holes in Jeanne’s energy initiatives of late.  If you are unfamiliar with them, they are on her policy page.  I’m not linking to it anymore unless she changes it.  And I’m thinking she might have to.

Wind

Jeanne Shaheen has been blowing a lot of hot air about Wind Farms as renewable energy for New Hampshire and I guess the world.  Well in Texas, where they already have them, there’s already  a problem

…Seems the owner of the transmission lines have started charging “congestion fees” to transport the new power from the turbines. And even in Texas, the construction of more power lines are being held up by environmental groups filing suits and lobbying government agencies at all levels.

Were not Texas.  We wouldn’t need the power to go far.  But we don’t have the kind of open space you need for the kind of wind farm that can produce enough energy to be of much value.  We’d just be paying that much more for electricity from turbines we had to pay for with our tax dollars in the first place. (Wind get’s a lot of federal subsidies.)  Of course none of this matters because I suspect Shaheen doesn’t expect they’ll ever actually get built in New Hampshire.  I think that’s part of her diabolical plan.

Read on…

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics, NH Senate race | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

If you think we need change, how about a new Governor?

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald
I can see Beacon Hill from here!

I can see Beacon Hill from here!

[UPDATED]

There’s the New Hampshire way, and then there is John Lynch’s way. 

John Lynch is leading New Hampshire in the wrong direction.  Our State government has a spending addiction that he can’t or wont stop.  Our Democrat legislature is growing State government and no one is standing in their way.  He has abandoned his own positions, given up the beach on school funding, and is letting the legislature have nearly anything they ask for.  Even the most complacent among us must understand that what New Hampshire does not need during a national economic downturn is a swollen State government that just keeps getting bigger.  John Lynch either doesn’t see it that way, or he just doesn’t see it.

His excellency could have stopped the free-fall early on, but he hasn’t had the sense to stop his own parties spending ways. So at the last minute he tried to stuff the budget hole full of State bonds whose values have declined for the very reason he needs to sell more of them.  Poor fiscal planning.  Is that good government?  Is that the New Hampshire way?  Not the New Hampshire I want to live in.

There is a solution…

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics, New Hampshire News | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Congratulations on your new job.

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

I was over at Monster.com and no matter how hard I tried I could not find a job or occupation whose benefits included extra payroll deductions to help fund the Federal Government.  Can you imagine?  There are no businesses looking for people who want more of their salary to go to the Feds.  There are no career objectives for “make government bigger.” Not one.  And wage growth potential; not one note, not one word that guarantees that any scheduled salary increases–regardless of size–can simply be forwarded directly to the IRS.  Isn’t that what we go to work for? 

Continue reading →

Posted in Local NH Politics, National Politics & Policy, taxes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What do Democrats eat?

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

My daughter was in a very short version of the play Annie with her Girl Scout Troop-at day camp.

At one point, after Big Daddy Warbucks invites President Roosevelt over for dinner he turns to his assistant and says, “Oh and Grace, find out what Democrats eat?”

I laughed out loud.   I’m not sure why I found it so funny.  I Just thought I’d share that.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Independence ‘from Democrats’

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

Democrats are talking about ‘Energy independence’ as if it is attainable.  When were the words “Democrat” and “independence” ever linked successfully in any stated policy of the left?  Aren’t liberals obsessed with taking money from people who are financially independent and giving it to people who are not?  Does this create fiscal independence?  It does the exact opposite.  And their energy policies are no different. 

 

Democrat policies are all designed to take the independent action of free choice, remove the words free , and call it progress.  Even their favorite “choice,” abortion, is a federally mandated one, such that the people of the several States can make no independent moral decision about whether or not it should even be a choice for their citizens.  The science is settled!

 

So while the energy situation should be improved, to accomplish this we must use what is available to us now, so we can afford the luxury of other choices in the future.  Unfortunately Democrats have decided that “independence” can only come if we limit our choices to theirs.  

Posted in Energy, National Politics & Policy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lynch Mob

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Steve Mac Donald

John Lynch has introduced a broad based tax on New Hampshire and most of us don’t even know it.  By signing up for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative(RGGI), Lynch will now be taxing us through our utility companies.  The money earned by the state from energy providers in the form of carbon offsets, will raise the rates on electricity.  So every home owner, renter, and business in New Hampshire, without exception, will now be  hit hard by Lynch’s new shadow tax.

One justification in the independent report is that the extra income Cap and Trade provides to the state more than makes up for the increase to rate payers and could “even be used to offset the rate increase.”  That’s right, it’s OK for the Democrats to make the rates go up because there might be some left over to give back.  And I guess it’s also OK for the Governor to drive up the cost of everything else as businesses try to adjust for the increased cost of doing business at the expense of everyone in the state?  You know there is actually a reference somewhere–which I can’t seem to find–that claims this scam will increase jobs.  Where, in the government?  Between this and Lynch’s business taxes we’ll be Lucky if we don’t lose jobs.  Oh, but this is good for New Hampshire!

Democrats just don’t get that any money a State collects is extra.   It all belongs to “The People!”  The last thing this budget-obese administration needs is another feeding tube,  and now, by laundering tax dollars through increased electric rates from the utility companies, any market changes in the cost of offsets will increase state income without any elected representative ever casting a single vote.  This amounts to even less fiscal transparency in State government and can’t be much different from taxation without representation. 

Governor Lynch has probably just violated your constitutional rights.  I think he should pay for it.

Posted in Local NH Politics, New Hampshire News, taxes | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments