THERE IS NO LAW IN BEING CRAZY: ONLY ACTING CRAZY

 

There has been so much going on whenever I sit down to write something else happens.  Let’s start with the cohesive Republican agenda:  The former speaker, O’Brien, has put in another right to work bill.  What he says is that it is to find out who votes against it so they can be targeted in the next election.  What he is really saying is let’s find what Republicans won’t support it so the fringe groups can attack them in the next election. 

It was pretty plain to see that O’Brien brought down the whole Republican agenda in the last election and now he’s looking at finishing off the survivors.  So let me see, by some standards, that is cohesiveness, and the so called big tent. Wake me up; this nightmare has to end sometime.

The Democrats are reveling in their last election victories, and they should.  While the Republican train derailed and turned into a brawl the Democrats just had to promote themselves and they did that very well.

The Freestaters, some of whom, ran as Democrats in Democratic Districts and Republicans in Republican districts are still sensitive about being told they will do or say whatever it takes to win; OK, whatever.  We can all say they will not do or say whatever it takes to win; WINK, WINK.

There is sadness in the air and we all feel it for the kids killed in CT.  Kids who were so happy during the holiday season, presents under the Christmas Tree, parades to go see, houses decorated with all their beautiful Christmas lights and loving parents who kissed them goodbye when they sent them off to school that morning with the last words spoken were, “I love you and have fun in school today”.  The horror will live with us for a long time to come.  Kids, whether your kids, my kids, the kids next door are still kids and in a certain way belong to all of us so we all felt the loss and feel the mourning.  I guess it is OK for a man to cry sometimes.

It wasn’t the guns that killed the children anymore than it was the car the shooter drove to get him to the school.  It appears this young man had some serious mental health issues with warnings that he should never be alone; it has been my experience that people like that should be institutionalized.

Another point of discussion is the slow moral decay that has been taking place in our country since the 60’s.  The attitude of “if it feels good do it” and “what’s in it for me”, is the permeating feeling in our society.  Add that to the fact that most of these problems kids, or adults, come from split homes with no positive role models and we are starting to see the problems arise.  The new computer games are violent, bloody and de-sensitizing to killing and other people, same with TV.  What I’m trying to say is we need to revaluate ourselves, our society and the direction of our country.

This is not just in the “other guys” neighborhoods, it is right here in Exeter.  I know people who are politically active and I believe are crazier than an outhouse mouse; that is not illegal, only when they act crazy, then they cross the line.

I CALLED IT SO RIGHT IT SCARED EVEN ME!!!

Almost two years ago I gave a warning to the house Republicans that if they persisted in these attacks on Unions and Union Republicans it would cost the Republicans between 85-125 Republican seats in the next election.  Since many were first termers, and some nuttier than a fruit cake and part of the O’Brien cult, they didn’t listen; now many,  are on the outside looking in.  For me I’m happy and feel relieved that, what felt like, the weight of the world is off my shoulders.

Ovide was warned about his right to work stance and losing the union republicans, most of which are conservatives.  So let’s take a quick look at what don’t you get issues; absolutely don’t attack women, don’t attack working class people on non issues, like right to work, don’t attack gays and lesbians and don’t call the Catholic Bishop a pedophile pimp, and above all don’t act stupid.  So much for my advice to the new legislature.

Many people are blaming O’Brien as the architect of the stunning Democratic sweep and talk about the past two years of his leadership; I look ahead of the pending 10 years of his asinine redistricting plan.  The redistricting, although vehemently denied, took into consideration who disagreed with him and “screw your enemies while trying to protect your friends”.  The plan was to redistrict out people while trying to protect others (his supporters).  I always thought when you redistricted you tried to be fair and if you can’t be fair, stick it to the other party.  Well they out did themselves, by making, or trying to make smaller districts, they wiped out the Republican base; talk about the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.  Seeing this convoluted plan early on I was one of the people who brought suit to stop it and send it back to the drawing boards.  O’Brien sent an early shot across the bow of the Supreme Court that he was having second thoughts about supporting the courts coveted reorganization plan.  When the court sustained the plan part of the decision stated that the court needed to tread lightly on anything political; I’m of the opinion they were intimidated by the legislature.

Now on to the Democrats, in my opinion which this blog is, left to their own devices have a tendency to screw up worse than the Republicans.  I have the greatest respect for them and how they won this election; but, they don’t have time to gloat with another pending fiscal crisis coming and the needs of the state becoming to the forefront even more than in the past in its multiple needs.  I suspect the democrats will embark on raising revenues and we’ll get ready for another political swing.

The future of the state rests with the legislature and they are now as out of balance as when the Republicans were in charge.  The new speaker of the house will set the tone and direction the legislature will take in addressing the problems.  Right now for the Democrats the choice is either Dave Campbell out of Nashua, a moderate or Terri Norelli from Portsmouth, a liberal.  Many Republicans are going with Campbell; the liberals will go with Norelli.  What has not been approached is who the union supporters will go with.  They can make the difference; but someone has to ask them.

Republicans are dragging out the same old faces and names for minority leader.  Gene Chandler co-chairman of the O’Brien’s reelection for speaker committee.  Laurie Sanborn has no real chance and not all that popular or respected.  Pam Tucker=O’Brien and always claimed when, as Deputy Speaker, never knew what was going on.  When confronted with decisions the speaker made would always say, “They never talked to me about that”.

We need new faces, new ideas and a new direction for the Republicans in the house and the current candidates do not fit the bill.

CONGRATULATIONS TO PATRICK ABRAMI!!!

We need to congratulate Patrick Abrami for getting the coveted Bill O’Brien endorsement for State Rep, in fact O’Brien’s Committee sent out at least two expensive mailings in support of Abrami.  Even though Abrami’s disingenuous attempt at hiding his loyalty  towards O’Brien at the last Stratham candidates forum was transparent at best with Abrami trying to talk his way out of the question about supporting O’Brien I was surprised it would become so apparent before the elections.  I think the last person to get this endorsement was Newt Gingrich whose numbers were at about 25% and a week later after the endorsement was around 12%. 

 In the last election, two years ago, it was reported to me that Patrick was going door to door bad mouthing Matt and me.  I called him on it, he denied it; in my opinion when you catch a liar lying they will try to lie their way out of it.  I didn’t pursue it and let it drop.  Then in this primary it was reported back that he was up to his old tricks again denying any support for O’Brien and lying about Tim Copeland.

 The sad truth is there is not much to pick from running in Stratham for the Stratham district, you have Tim Copeland who shines, and that is about it.

 Tim, Matt and I are the only Republican candidates that I found that were not endorsed by the NH Republican Liberty Caucus.  From what I’ve seen this group is the crazy wing of the Free Stater’s and their plan to take over NH and turn it into an anarchist’s utopia of non government.

 In my opinion, in politics you only have your word, your reputation for honesty and your ability to tell the truth.  If you lose these then the only thing you can fall back on is your loyalty for Speaker O’Brien.

TIME TO SIT DOWN AND BLOG!!!

 There have been some interesting events since my last blog. First there are the growing rumors that the Free Staters and Libertarians won’t be voting for Ovide, coupled with the thousands of Union Republicans that will not vote for him guarantees him a defeat in the next election.

Interestingly enough, the same rule applies to Romney with Gary Johnson (Libertarian candidate for President) factored in. The libertarians will take about 5% of the vote away from Romney which will give Obama a victory; so the worst nightmare of any Republican is about to come true if the pundits are correct.

From what I’ve been told and seen, many of the independent voters took Democratic ballots. We saw, in the last election, most of them took Republican ballots; so if this is a harbinger of things to come the Republicans are in trouble. Of course O’Brien ordering that all the bill (LSR-Legislative Service Requests) titles be kept secret until after the election is simply a way to hide what the far right of the party is planning for next session. We already know that the repeal of gay marriage is coming back and a host of bills that didn’t make it through; last session will make a comeback if the voters want to make it round two of the political gong show with the less than stable element of the last two years being reelected.



DOMESTIC TERRORISTS ATTACK AGAIN!!!

The concept of Stepford Politicians was only half way successful in the primaries. We lost some good people and others withstood the numerous and expensive attacks that were thrown against them. For example Tim Copeland withstood about 7-9 nasty and misleading mailers and lit drops against him to win. He was targeted by several groups of political jihadists who fancy themselves as the only purest thinking Republicans in the state. It is no coincidence that they are all O’Brien supporters; there is no right, there is no wrong only their ideas and ways of doing business.

I have heard that some of these people are so crazy that, while referring those who disagree with them or O’Brien, as RHINO’s (Republican in name only) were openly talking about going “Rhino Hunting”. I was told one victim of the loonies was Susan Emerson, when one group put the word out that they were going to her town to “kill a Rhino”. I also hear that a complaint was made to the AG’s Office about a possible death threat. Does anyone think these people are normal?

The twisted concept is if you are a Republican and talk about what is going on with these people (how crazy they are) then you are a Rhino and not a real Republican. When Matt and I decided to walk away from this insanity by declaring that we are Republicans; but, independent of the establishment it caused quite a stir among those who were a little right of center. However, it has shown that there is a place for those whom are independent thinkers and have always put their constituents before themselves.

GRANITE GROK---DOMESTIC TERRORISTS???

 

My opinions on the Granite Crock group:

 

By my definition a Domestic Terrorist is anyone who, from an organized format, attacks and tries to terrorize anyone who disagrees with them; it is not always the nuts that go around blowing stuff up and shooting people. The nuts that do the shootings, etc, probably get their start in similar hate groups with this venomous rhetoric.

 

I have had referred to me different postings from the above group not only about me; but, other

Republicans, who do not support the Free Staters or Bully O’Brien cult mentality.

 

The vileness and venom they spew is really sickening. They tried to hide their out of control militia mentality under the guise of being Republicans; well, these people are not true Republicans and in my opinion have some kind of mental issues. They appear to be trying to bully, intimidate, berate and beat people who dare to think for themselves and disagree with them, into submission.

 

This group is closely aligned with O’Brien and Free Staters, which I believe, comprises the ultra right less stable wing of the Republican Party. And I believe that, more often than not, they knowingly put out misinformation and out and out lies.

 

As their hopes are fading of taking over NH and turning it into a government less Wild West show they are becoming more desperate and, I believe, more dangerous and unstable.

 

The only way to defeat their dreams of wiping out government and public education is at the polls.

The phrase of “take back NH”, is becoming more and more important. Before the general election the candidates who align themselves with these groups will be made public so you can help to Take Back NH.

DO THE DEMOCRATS SUPPORT O’BRIEN???

There is growing rumors that the Democratic leadership doesn’t want to see the bully out of the house. It is hard to believe; but, if this is true then there is a case to be made that the Democratic leadership is putting politics above people; that is no great surprise they play politics the same as the Republicans do.

The theory is that keeping O’Brien in office will help the Democrats win seats; in other words O’Brien is being used as a democratic recruiting tool, unfortunately it is working.

Talking to statewide Republicans, people who follow politics (and vote), claim O’Brien is a dirty word around the state. They are also afraid that he is bringing down the Republican Party in NH. Some of the political hoity toities do not want to admit it; but, it appears to becoming more recognizable in political circles. The sad thing is, many saw this coming and just kept drinking the cool aid admired the emperor’s clothes.

THE FIGHT IS ON!!!

I was reading an article today about the free stators fighting with the Occupy NH group and Occupy NH does want anything to do with them. The one thing that the free stators are good at is infiltrating legitimate boards and commissions then trying to move up to state politics like the legislature. It looks like Occupy NH nipped them in the bud. We can see that on the local levels, budget committees, planning boards, ZBA boards and gun clubs. It looks like the word is getting out at how destructive the free stators can be to the legitimate political agenda of a state and especially NH, we have to keep in mind their purpose of coming to NH is to take over and turn us into their idea of a no government utopian state.

WHAT IS UP IN THE LEGISLATURE???

Rumors will be rumors and the latest are very interesting. As if Republican State Party Chairman Wayne McDonald doesn’t have enough head aches with the bully bringing down the party, new rumors are rising. The biggest is that there is a small group of House Republicans talking about giving the Democrats a number of committee chairmanships if the Democrats are in the minority and are willing to support a, yet unannounced, Republican speaker candidate. They are hoping that O’Brien wins his local race for state rep and runs for speaker. If O’Brien is in the house and runs for speaker again the Democrats have a bargaining chip, if he loses then they don’t.

No matter what party was in charge of the house, neither party has given up chairmanships in the past while the logistics is mind boggling. If anyone does this will it mean we invite the Democrats to our majority leadership meetings?

My advice to the Democratic House Leadership is do not do this it will only hurt the house and an argument can be made that you do not care about good responsible government only trying to get back the power and control that the voters took away from you in the last election.

POLITICS CAN BE LIKE FOOTBALL!!!

There is no question politics in NH is a contact sport. Complete with varying teams that are mentally handicapped to physically handicapped. It just depends on which team you want to play on.

For example, we have two republicans running for governor, neither one seems to be all that appealing to the voters. Ovide has name recognition for losing all of his campaigns while Smith is known for running Cornerstone Policy Research, using this organization to attack those Republicans that disagreed with his philosophy; it is rumored that Smith is heavily supported by former governor Craig Benson.

On the Democrats side we have Maggie from PEA and then Jackie Cilley who got her start in a third floor tenement with mill worker parents in Berlin, NH. The choices are clear and defined if you’re a democrat.

If you are one of the thousands of NH Republicans who are also union members the choices are even clearer, both Republicans have no use of us and seem to be supporting Bill O’Brien who union Republicans have no use for. My big question is how do you get elected when you start out with, up to a 300,000 vote deficit when you get done counting family and friends? I guess you have to ask New Gingrich, after getting endorsed by O’Brien saw his poll numbers cut in half in NH. Newt didn’t want to listen either.

As a life long Republican I have a philosophy that we can beat the democrats; but only after fighting the republicans.

On a national level we have Obama and Romney. Again we have a decision, should we stay home on Election Day or hold our nose? Obama will not show the public his college records and Romney will not show all of his income tax returns. These two are like drinking warm beer.

Mike McCarthy, a super state rep and close friend, told me the republicans are like a non winning football team who can’t win because they keep tackling their own players; how true how very true.

RICK OLSON: SOCIAL SCIENTIST OR POLITICAL PERVERT?

We often think that pervert is used to describe weird sexual things or people so inclined. What we too often miss is how certain people with blatant insecurities lie and twist the truth and facts to try to bully other people into either doing or not doing something. In my opinion Olson is a political pervert and needs to do some fact checking when he makes false claims.

What the Republican (Rhino) Liberty Caucus is doing is perverting the Republican message that Republicans have used in NH since I got into politics in 1972. They do articles claiming THEY are the only true Republicans in the state. No they are either Free Staters or Free State supporters who have done a good job at destroying the Republican Party in NH with their crazy anarchistic ideas of dismantling government.

If you don’t agree with them they’ll attack you for not being a true Republican, a Republican in name only (rhino). It would be nice if they would just go back to where they came from.

NH Republicans are fiscally conservative, socially split on some of the issues dealing with abortion, gay marriage and those issues that belong to the individuals. We understand that there is a need for government, they don’t. They want some kind of Free State libertarian society without rules. They don’t need police, fire fighters or teachers. Real Republicans understand the need for what we have; we just need to limit its growth.

In my opinion Richard Olson fancies himself as some kind of political figure that uses the Granite Grok or Granite Crock as I call it to intimidate anyone who disagrees with him or the cult following that makes up the Liberty Caucus.

TYRANNY CAN ONLY BE REPLACED WITH KINDNESS!!!

In another unbelievable move of extremely poor behavior the speaker had a press conference today in his office at the State House and allowed all of the Concord Press Corps except Ann Marie Timmons from the Concord Monitor.  I guess the Concord Monitor does not buy into the speaker’s tyrannical smoke and mirror style of politics.

 This asinine and immature act of stupidity was caught on camera when Shannon Shutts Bettencourt allowed everyone else in but the Concord Monitor.  Bully and his leadership team are acting like little kids who refuse to invite other kids to their birthday party so they can hurt their feelings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qon2z_W34&feature=youtu.be

If anyone knows Ann Marie Timmons who is a political reporter for the Concord Monitor, she is like the Mary Poppins of the press corps, just a kind, super fine person and to be treated this way in public is an absolute disgrace to the O’Brien speakers office and an embarrassment to the hard working State Reps and staff who work at the state house.

I think we just keep track of this type of behavior and let the voters decide in the upcoming elections.

On behalf of those State Reps who are professional and caring, I want to apologize to Ms. Timmons for this cruel and abusive behavior on the part of the speaker’s office and staff.

EXETER TOWN HALL HEP C MEETING!!!

On Tuesday June 26th we had an Exeter Town Hall Hep C meeting (where else) at the Exeter Town Hall. Even with the bicycle race and parking issues, I stopped counting at 120 people in attendance.



We had Doctor Paolini a former heart surgeon and also an attorney who discussed legal rights and expectations. We had Doctor Chung in charge of the liver transplant division of MA General. We had Greta Cocco an insurance broker who discussed health insurance questions for those with pre-existing conditions and we had a room full of people with many questions.



You could feel the tension and anxiety from the people with Hep C, rightfully so; but, by the end of the meeting and a superior presentation from Doctor Chung and Doctor Paolini it was obvious people started to realize they can make it through this and everyone on the panel would be available to help them and answer question or help with any referrals they may need.



Dr. Chung talked about the new treatment regimens which are light years ahead of when I had Hep B in 1976. People left knowing they weren’t alone in this sad issue and there was life after Hep C.

WHERE DOES ONE BEGIN???

WHERE DOES ONE BEGIN???     

I guess we should start with the Hep C outbreak at the Exeter Hospital.  The rumors are running wild as to how it was caused, who caused it and how many people are infected.  Not helping seems to be the conflicting information coming out of our State Public Health Department.

First they thought it was equipment then they claim to have a suspect medical provider that was stealing drugs and injecting them into themselves then the patients or swapping syringes that the person used.  One of the reasons the health department knows this is how it happened is because this is what is going on around the country.  The only way the AG’s Office will get a conviction is if someone saw the medical provider do any of this or they have a confession.  Merely having a medical provider with Hep C is not going to send that person to the block.  There are a number of rumors about how this disease was spread; but, from the last meeting held at the High School with public health didn’t reveal  a lot of new information

I had a heart procedure done at the Exeter Lab, a number of years ago and I can say without qualification that Dr. Tom Wharton is one of the finest surgeons you’ll find; I had and have the utmost confidence in his ability and procedures.

It is frustrating when it seems there is more misinformation than information with an awful lot unanswered questions.

I had a lawyer tell me that each one of these medical malpractice claims is worth about 1-2 million $’s each.  When you think this all through to the end, health insurance=high risk pool, about 150% of your premium to increase; life insurance probably not.  This is not a good way to go through life.  Should they have a person who injected people with hep c, many years in jail would be fitting.

THE RACE IS ON!!!

Exeter now has four state rep seats with eight people running for them, four republicans and four dems.  I look at the candidates of both parties and see the same attitudes that have recently contaminated the state house.  When the democrats were in charge they blindly followed their leadership over a cliff and got thrown out on a monumental scale.  No matter what they say during the campaign the democrats want the power back with a big majority so they don’t have to deal with the republicans while the republicans want to keep power and not deal with the democrats.  After awhile the faces all start to look alike.

Matt and I are going to stick to our basic independent, “you before politics”, approach.  Working with constituents to resolve their problems is what we enjoy most, not abortion battles, school squabbling about who gets what money and or fighting with a leadership group that can’t tell the truth.  It is all about you, not us.

THE WEEK THAT WAS!!!

AT LEAST YOU CAN’T CALL the State House boring.  The Bettencourt fiasco kept everything in the news with all of its little twists and turns and it is too long and complex to try to explain in a blog posting; but, if you run a Google check it should all come up.

This past Weds. Session was more like a wake than a pre ending to the legislative session.  House leadership was, in my opinion, trying to run for cover not only on the Bettencourt; but, also who authorized Bob Mead to collect mileage for driving around the state trying to get republicans to run for state rep.  I think we all know who authorized it; but, I don’t think it will ever see the light of day.

The Seacoast Newspapers did an editorial board with the Speaker and Bettencourt and concluded they either lied or told half truths.  In fact it was probably one of the most negative editorials I have ever read; but, very accurate.  It was right after that the law school scandal broke with Bettencourt.

The political sign up period is a week away and I still haven’t seen anything positive being said about Republicans; unless it is we cut the budget and spending.  I think the voters know that republicans do that; but, what is problematic is what about our ethics and character?

This next election is going to be about keeping spending down (at least within our revenue estimates), truthfulness, character, integrity and moral fiber.  We have to bring civility and integrity back into the state house and the political discussions; there are times you can cut the tension in Concord with a knife.

I’m a firm believer that talking is always more fun than fighting and we are not always doing a lot of talking.  The house seems to run on orders instead of discussions; everyone in the house has the right to contribute to the process and by leaving people out is a huge disservice to them and their constituents who have a right to be heard and represented.

I think this is all going to change in the next election; most of the freshmen will be gone as well as others who have shown such a blind loyalty to the speaker.  I want to see people who can think, analyze and use common sense to come to a conclusion, not people who say, “What does leadership want?”  We don’t need PHDs in Concord just people who will listen and have common sense.

I’m a Republican (independent one at that) and want to see how the democrats are going to attack us in the next election.  There can be a case made that because of how the democrats ran the house when they had the majority is why they were thrown out and got us into the current mess. 

We need to think outside the box for lowering insurance costs (we will never curb their greed) but can come up with better ways of delivery.  We need to balance our budget cuts in education to what we want to accomplish in the long run and need to have the teachers involved in helping to keep costs down; without their input the budget cuts will be forced on them and that is not good.  We need to totally revamp our consumer protection laws, special interests have been attacking them for years and we need to dig in and fight back to protect our constituents.  If we can focus on just a handful of issues we can get more done with the right leadership.  There is nothing that we can’t do if we all work together.

THE SHOUT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD!!!

Just when you thought you have heard everything and seen about everything you get surprised. 

This past week in the legislature the speaker out did himself and got into an argument with Rep. Steve Vailancourt from Manchester.  Steve is a very popular Rep. in his area and his well known for his intelligence, flamboyance, and fierce defense of right from wrong and people’s rights.  This past week a democrat got up to speak and was cut short by the speaker.  Then one of the speaker’s friends got up to speak and was allowed.  Then Steve got up to speak and challenged the speaker on what he just did and a shouting match ensued.   You can never win an argument with a bully holding the hammer and Steve was told he was out of order and to sit down.  In a set of circumstances like this, Steve is not inclined to do either and the speaker ordered security to escort him to his seat.  Steve started to walk away and the speaker said something else and Steve walked back to the mike and said, “sieg heil”, and the speaker ordered him removed from the house.

I never took offense of what Steve said, bad choice of words, but no offense.  I knew Steve was paying tribute to someone acting like a German dictator and nothing else.  The speaker’s cult quickly jumped on this and made it sound like Steve was a Nazi sympathizer which is the furthest from the truth.

Steve went back to his seat to sit down when house security and state police arrived to escort him out.  What was interesting was several legislators started yelling at security to leave him alone.  At that point Representative (attorney) Soltani from Epson, who has been thrown off the house floor for arguing with speaker on prior occasions, went and sat down with Steve for a legal chat.

Things quieted down and Steve made his apology and the house started to get back to normal.  An interesting side note is when Tony tried to speak about this incident; the house (cult) started booing him which is a big taboo.  Tony asked the speaker “if you’re going to throw rep. Vailincourt out he needs to throw out all the people booing”.  The speaker couldn’t do that because they were mostly his supporters.

I then find out that this incident went global and was reported in a number of other countries.  This whole incident was avoidable and showed the world what the NH House is like; this wall the house and press talked about for the rest of the week.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP THAT CAN’T TELL THE TRUTH???

The latest out of the speaker is NH has added 10,000 jobs since the republicans have had control back.  I wish I could believe that; but, there was no caveat as to where this info came from.  The last credible information I have received is that we caused the layoffs of about 4,000 between hospital layoffs and state employees.

Now the speaker is talking about cutting another 400 million dollars out of the budget if he gets re-elected; 

I think the voters will have something to say about that.  Whenever possible I fully support budget cuts; but, they have to be well thought out and prudent.  Slash and burn tactics to grab headlines is not a prudent way to go about cutting the budget.

Everything I’ve been reading and seeing on TV tells us that the NH economy is slowing down even more than it has in the past.  I’m not an economist; but, I think the signs are starting to show.  I think the towns and communities need to make plans for layoffs and budget cuts, the state will need to review what we have done in the last budget and see if there is anymore reductions to be had; but, to say 400 million more in cuts could be a little too optimistic.

New leadership that will work with the senate while working with the department heads will be the right path to travel on this issue.

POLITICS OF ANGER!!!

How many times have we seen or heard people say “I’m mad about this or that”, and then proceed to attack whomever they are addressing; whether it is the Board of Selectmen or a legislative committee hearing, this becoming more and more prevalent. 

There is no easy way to deal with this, sometimes people will listen and other times they start attacking and keep it up never listening to an answer for their issues.

Now we have ultra groups that have funding from sources that they don’t want to make public while the contributors do not want to become known.  This goes against everything most of us stand for and is against the movement for more transparency in government and politics.

What gets formed are hate groups who say and do whatever they want and think they can keep who is behind and pushing them in a closet.  There is a movement underway in Concord to force them to report who is paying them to attack people.  It would be nice to see who paid to have the tobacco tax reduction pushed through a how much they paid.

ONLY A FOOL RUN’S INTO A FIGHT!!!

Last week was certainly telling on O’Brien’s leadership mentality. I have said in the past that O’Brien wants to attack instead of talk when it comes to dealing with problems and this past week proved my case. The house, under the recommendation of O’Brien attacked the senate.

What brought this to a head were some bills the senate either refused to accept or killed out right. I am glad and NH should be grateful that the senate has more common sense this session than the speaker’s office has. This is a WAH, WAH AND WAH, you killed our wonderful bills and we are going to show you by tabling yours.

A true leader or diplomat would have sat down with the senate and see what could be negotiated out before going to war.

Many of the senators were state reps before being elected to the senate and I worked with all of them; good, honest people who, like many of us, just want to try and do a good job.

This isn’t a fight over I have more power than you, it should be a meeting of the minds of moving the state and peoples hopes forward for a better place to live.

The sickness that has infected the state house is really starting to show.

IS REPRESENTIVE Will SMITH UNHINGED???

The following is a post from, supposedly, Representative Will Smith from New Castle, that appeared on the Exeter Patch. This is so typical of the O’Brien Supporters and leadership team and speaks for itself as to why we need a change. I guess poor Willie is now the poster child for the O’Brien cult.

Don’t worry Will; O’Brien will give you a pat on the head for this fabrication.

The fact is on the Right to Work Bill, O’Brien took it out of order to try to run it through since I was not there and still in the hospital. Representative Peter Bolster took to the floor to move that the bill be special ordered to the following week to see if I could be there, a very common process. O’Brien did not want this and it went to a roll call vote of 300 to42, or close to these numbers and the speaker lost the argument and issue. Since the house rebuked the speaker, I got out of the hospital on a Sunday and was in Concord 3 days later to argue the Right to work issue that Rep. Smith sponsored. I felt I needed to return the show of respect shown to me by the house and the show of gratitude for the respect of the political process.

Calling Emerson and Copeland liars is like calling Mary Poppins a hooker, just doesn’t fit and not credible.



Rep. Smith

4:41 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012

“Peter that's because none of the so called "bullying" episodes EVER occurred! Emerson is a liar, the Senate Sergeant at Arms is a union hack and was FIRED and he wasn't even in the room and Tim Copeland is a union hack liar who also wasn't there and never even had a conversation with the Speaker or majority leader. Isn't it interesting that all those alleging about bullying were against right to work and bringing jobs to Nh and they themselves were bullies. One NEA member Telling one rep that his daughter wouldn't be on the varsity basketball team of he voted for it, threatening another he'd lose his job, threatening yet another rep that her husband would lose his job, stalking and following reps on the highway and following them home to intimidate them. And those dues go toward giving BILLIONS to get Dems re-elected so NO WONDER they want to force people who don't want to be in labor unions to still pay to fund their political agenda. It's gotten out of control in state government and in the school system. O'Brien is a good, good man with amazing character who is very compassionate but does so quietly because he's not a fake like all these guys alleging bullying. Anyone mention when Quandt had his heart attack O'Brien put off the right to work vote until he could come back to speak against and vote against the bill (even though it wasn't in Obriens best interest)? No, because it doesn't fit in to YOUR narrative and intimidation tactics.”

WOW, NEVER TRUST A BULLY!!!

The redistricting bill passed the house; but, I don’t think the fight is over with almost guaranteed court challenges on a variety of issues. Matt and I said we would not support this bill, as well as many others, and then they caved and supported it.
What O’Brien supposedly did was to tell the press that he would NOT bring the governor’s veto up (redistricting) last week and a number of reps took a spring vacation. Then, it looks like; the speaker counted votes and rammed the bill through. Manchester is suing because of the bill and other cities are looking to sign on.

The people, who fought the Right to Work bill, knew you couldn’t trust the speaker. During the Right to Work fight the speaker constantly put out misleading information on when he was going to call for a vote, called us back for three session days and lost the vote anyway because we knew he couldn’t be trusted. Now there are a bunch of red faced reps that went along with him and denied those reps in opposition of the redistricting plan a chance to be heard because of intentional misinformation was put out.



WHAT HAPPENED TO STEVIE V???



I heard last night that the out spoken house rep from Manchester Steve Vaillancourt was thrown off of the finance committee. He and the speaker have been going at it on policy and anyone that knows Steve knows he does his home work on the issues and won’t back down. One thing about Steve, and I know him he will not go quietly into the night.



THE DESTRUCTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN NH IS ALMOST COMPLETE!!!



Some of our state reps also are locally elected officials, selectmen, budget committee, etc. Well, some of them either didn’t get elected to their positions, their family members didn’t get elected to a position or they were thrown out of local office. They don’t seem to understand why because they believe that this insanity that we call legislative politics (the house) is what they think the voters wanted. Unfortunately, when the new people got elected they just talked amongst themselves, didn’t listen or talk to the voters, and proceeded to dissect state government. Instead of creating jobs, we have caused the layoff of about 4,000 workers. Anybody proud of that is off their meds and out of touch with the reality of the last election.

I was told by someone in state campaigns, and travels the state that there are two names that equate with mud. One is Bully O’Brien and the other is the free staters, they are both being tied to the “out of touch republicans”. Unfortunately, we have a good group of old fashion republicans that are simply overwhelmed by the craziness that is prevalent in the house. We are still counting votes to remove the speaker and waiting for the right spark to do it.

WHEN OPINION IS JUST OPINION!!!

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up on the blog; but, still recovering from open heart surgery.

It appears to be busy in the legislature since I’ve been gone but a surprising number of O’Brien supporters lost their seats in the local elections, either selectman or budget committee. I’m sure they can rationalize it away; but, I think we all can see the writing on the wall for the next election. The speaker has done something most other speakers could not do, bring down the Republican Party in NH; don’t take this lightly, it was no easy feat. It is equally sad the number of Republicans that have stood by and watched this happen; most do not see what is coming down the pike, but can at least put it on their resume there were state reps. Some who lost local seats blame the public sector employees and various union groups, but, I think it was more of their inability to listen to their constituents about what the people wanted and not the far right of our party.

The so called marriage equality bill appeared to be a total fiasco to the republicans, it is a republican platform issue and yet many republicans voted to keep it. Now, when 50 republicans voted not to support right to work, another platform issue we were called RINO’S, and Democrats even though many of us were Republicans longer than some were born. I guess we have a whole new crop of hypocrites.

I’ve been told by republicans that have been going around the state that this legislature and the O’Brien leadership have been on the tip of every discussion as a problem for the next election. It sounds like all the people the speaker has thrown off their committees, people who have been threatened and bullied, has started to take their toll.

As far as I can see the political system in NH has been broken for about six years, four with the democrats and the past two with this group of RINO’s passing themselves off as republicans. If we are lucky, after the next election, we will have a close to even split between real republicans and reasonable democrats. We need to be forced in to sitting down and negotiating our issues, neither party should have absolute control, whenever that happens they screw up the system; politics is about the “art of negotiating”, that will be in the best interests of the state.

WHAT HAPPENED TO NEWT IN NH???

When New Gingrich first campaigned in NH he showed promise then his campaign started to go down hill. First he went before the legislature and, in his speech, supported right to work. What he did was walked into the middle of a nasty battle started by the speaker of the house. It wasn’t just Newt all of the republican presidential candidates did the same with Bachman looking the dumbest of them all. So, Newt then got the endorsement of Bully O’Brien and his numbers went into a free fall voting against Newt was the only way the union republicans had to send a message to the speaker.

Nobody wants to acknowledge what happened but, were warned the republican numbers are going independent. There are thousands of union republicans that have been driven away from the party. The current make up of the Republican Party has no use for senior citizens, veterans, gays, or the working middle class. They have proven this by, not only the right to work issue; but, the myriad of other anti working class bills that they have put in. The bottom line is the pool of republicans is getting smaller and it is being done on purpose. Let’s kill the republican party and push for free state movement philosophy of wiping out government and the programs that we need to protect us from predatory business practices (consumer protection), programs to help those most in need with no resources to help themselves and unprecedented and unwarranted attacks on our middle class work force and public sector employees.

The house was warned that this insanity of numerous attacks on the above groups would cause republicans and those groups being attacked would vote against them. Well, sorry Newt, your had huge numbers of republican union members and seniors, go somewhere else when you snuggled up to Bully; plain and simple and we all thought you were smarter than that.

The bad house leadership has brought down the Republican Party in NH. The arrogance and self serving decisions that are coming out of our leadership team is being hard to believe according to many active republicans that are watching what is going on. They don’t listen and have put themselves in an un-winnable situation.

I cannot believe that we cannot get better candidates running for governor. The republicans at least have started out supporting right to work, when they already know this is not on the radar screens for the republican voters, at least those who haven’t gone independent because of the current house leadership and agenda. So we wish those candidates the best of luck and they can always put on their resume they ran for governor. While the thousands of public middle class republicans can ask, “why did you stab us in the back, what did we do to deserve this”?

The next election will be about individuals and issues and not about parties the voters will have to continue to stay on top of this and I believe they are. An interesting side issue is I don’t see a ground swell of support for the democrats; they seem to have taken a vacation after the last election and it is not going unnoticed.

THERE IS A SICKNESS IN THE LEGISLATURE!!!

It was very interesting to follow the Susan Emerson bullying bill as it went through the committee process. The testimony was conclusive that the incident against Susan happened. The former Sergeant at Arms for the senate testified he witnessed the incident and saw Susan with her back pushed up against the wall and O’Brien and Bettencourt about 2 inches from Susan’s nose yelling at her. I guess that shoots down the argument that it never happened and supports Tim Copeland’s version of events, which I already knew was true.

I also had the chance to talk to the Alvirne choir director who re-affirmed the attack on Susan did take place.

There are also reports that the majority office has threatened news paper reporters who write stories they don’t like, threatening to cut them off from any information from leadership office, is this another example of out of control leadership.

So the reputation of our house leadership is they are bullies, untrustworthy and lie. WOW isn’t that a lot to be proud of.

At the hearings that I attended on Susan’s bill it was obvious to me that many of the committee members believed Susan was attacked or bullied and some made recommendations to improve the bill and make it more workable. Then they did a double take, all in about 2 days, and voted against the bill in committee. So the question is did leadership bully the committee that heard the bullying bill?

This must make other members of O’Brien’s leadership team real proud and should make the voters proud of them in the next election.

There are conversations that we have a corrupt element in the house. First there was the infamous tobacco tax reduction of 10% that was one of the bully’s lines in the sand, shortly after he supposedly had a meeting with some big shots in D.C., only to have the tobacco companies raise the tobacco cost by 9%. Unfortunately, many republicans bought into the argument that it would raise revenue to plug some of the drastic cuts we made to the budget; well, that never happened and we were lied to. Now the speaker wants to suspend the rules to allow Cancer Centers of America to come to NH without following the rules or going through the Certificate of Need process to determine if we even need them in a state that has a number of quality cancer treatment centers. In my opinion this smacks of money.

I wonder how much money ALEC and the out of state right to work groups have paid to continue their attacks on the public sector workers? They have created artificial issues to attack those workers whose only fault is they provide us with badly needed services, such as protecting us, teach our kids, and make our state and towns run and belong to a union. In years gone by people joined the unions as cheap insurance against unfair treatment, sexual harassment and to bargain for safer working conditions, better pay and benefits; now, they do it to protect themselves from corrupt politicians.

DOES SHAWN JASPER HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION???

Shawn Jasper has been placed on the Labor Committee, since it would appear that he cannot get along with anyone and is making the rounds for committee assignments and is now on Labor. There has been some talk that he was placed there because Gary Daniels (Chairman) is perceived by leadership as not being able to control his committee.

I know Gary and he is a decent capable guy who is a non-union supporter; but, will always listen and talk to you. I don’t think Gary cannot control his committee as much as it is the stupid anti worker bills that have been coming before the committee and the committee not supporting them. The only advice I can give Gary is, watch your back.

In my opinion our so called leadership had a serious question, where do we put him next?

I’m not sure labor will be a good fit since Shawn appears to have serious credibility problems based on past testimony on the floor of the house. At the hearing I testified on I thought he had a medical condition when he sat there making faces and rolling his eyes. I suspected he was either hitting on me or had a gas problem.



WHEN IS IT OK TO LIE???



It is ok to lie when it is to protect the speaker. As many of you know the famous Rep. Susan Emerson Anti Bullying Bill, for the legislature, is in the hearing process. According to the newspapers the speaker denies everything, including talking to Tim Copeland and throwing a hizzy fit at Susan over a couple of budget amendments, is it surprising that Majority Leader Bettencourt is trying to back up the speakers story. Both Tim and Susan had wood shed sessions that were not very nice, with alleged screaming at Susan and threats against Tim. The speaker denies any misbehavior towards Susan and ever meeting with Tim.

I can’t say I heard or saw the misbehavior; but, there were a number of witnesses that did. I can’t find anyone with an ounce of common sense that believes either the speaker or DJ, except for the inner cult circle who continues to admire the emperor’s new clothes.

The big question is if any of these witnesses are willing to come forward what will the house do to a speaker and majority leader that got caught lying to the house, the press and the people of NH?

If the house does nothing than the house walks away with a total lack of credibility; it would appear that disciplinary action would be discussed for both individuals.

I personally saw Tim standing outside the senate chambers door the day of this incident, he looked out of place. When I asked what Tim was doing I was told he was waiting to get his a— chewed for putting in an amendment that he co-sponsored with a democrat. I guess if Tim forgot that he and the rest of us were elected to represent our constituents and not our so called leadership, then he deserved every threat that could be thrown at him. On the other hand, not just for Tim, but the 50 + or – republicans that represent their constituents even against leadership, then they all should be praised and not attacked.

Our so called leadership does not understand that at the end of the day we all have to come home and face our families, our constituents and ourselves in the mirror.

For those 50 I can only say thank you for showing the courage to do the right thing and serve your constituents.

WHEN IS IT OK TO VOMIT???

I was reading the Concord Monitor this morning and there was an article about the NH Republican Liberty Caucus and how wonderful they are. If you know them and have been attacked by them it was quite sickening. Did you know they closed the 800 million dollar deficit that the democrats left? The last I knew it hasn’t been closed yet and the cost shifting to the towns and cities is to take place in 2013 after the next election.

Carol McKinney, who wrote the article, was talking about republicans, how they are all members of the Republican Party and by the way they are the only true republicans because they adhere to the party platform. If I remember right it was this special education section of the Free State Project, along with the Free Stators, that infiltrated the Republican Party, and wrote the agenda that is tailored to their ideas and not main stream republicans.

They claim not to be free stators; but, appear to be cross bread as an organization, the groups seem to be made of the same people. So now that they are being brought out into the open are running for cover.

Aren’t these, along with the free stators, the same group that is reducing health insurance coverage for you and your families? Aren’t these the same people who are wiping out your consumer protection coverage that protects you from unscrupulous predatory business practices, like pre-buy oil contracts? I think they are.

These are the same people who attack republicans who do not agree with them or their out of control agenda. They openly brag about attacking republicans who disagree with them to force their will on those who disagree. These people are the true RINO’S Republicans in name only; they are not republicans and are in NH to take the state over politically and institute their psycho anarchistic philosophy.

They are so republican, if you listen to them and believe them, they are trying to institute a third party just for them. I’m in favor of that I just wish it isn’t in NH.

They are hoping to double their numbers in the house and senate in the next election; but, they will be identified in the next election and it will be up to you the voters to join the fight and vote them out of office and keep those who are running out.

The NH way of life is at stake.

IT IS A NEW YEAR AND NOTHING SEEMS TO BE CHANGING!!!

So much for the saying, “hope and change”.  In Concord things never seem to change no matter how much we hope for it.  As a young infantry combat sergeant I was told, “never factor hope or luck into a battle plan”,  and since the combat NCO school I was attending was taught by much more experienced combat NCO’s I thought it best to listen and learn; it worked I’m still here.

Concord is different, I don’t remember who said it; but, someone much smarter than I said something to the affect that the definition of lunacy is to keep trying failed experiments in the hopes one will succeed.  I’m not sure but I think it might have been Einstein, but I will stand corrected when someone sends me the actual quote.

I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know how bad Concord is being run.  We have just gone through another leadership shakeup.  I don’t think I have had a frappe that was shaken up as much as our leadership team.  Most dictators will get rid of their generals when the war doesn’t go the way they want; this usually shows psychologically rooted problems inherent with dictators.

We have a right to work bill coming back, only this time just for state employees the bill smacks of sour grapes and vindictiveness, the only thing we can hope for is more members of the house want to get on with fixing the state problems and not carrying out some crazy vindictive agenda being promoted by the speaker.

We also have repealing gay marriage on the docket.  I have not supported gay marriage; but, this bill goes too far.  There are a couple of lines in it that tells you how to get pregnant and it cannot be by artificial means like infertility fertilization or other such means.  That is really none of my business and government needs to stay out of those issues.

We will be dealing with guns on public property and colleges.  I have a problem with the way this bill is written since college campuses are notorious for drinking, drugs and partying.  Guns do not belong in that kind of atmosphere and I am a firm supporter of the 2d Amendment.  Are the Free State Anarchists trying to turn NH into the Wild West?

The free stator’s attempts at dismantling our state government are becoming more apparent in the consumer protection field.  They are voting against the pre-buy oil contract protection bill claiming that if you get cheated on a pre-buy oil contract than that is your fault and let the buyer beware.  I think one of less intelligent reps from Hampton claimed you were dumb to get involved in pre-buys.  We will gauge the voter’s intelligence on election day.  I will point these people out to you.

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year; we are in tough political and economic times but we will live through it.