WHEN THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE IS JUST NOT ENOUGH!!!

How often have we told or heard someone say to a veteran, “thank you for your service”?  I know it is better to hear that than, “how many babies did you kill today”?  I’ve heard them both and certainly appreciate the first one more than the second.

The fact still remains there is a degree of hollowness with the first.  I know the intentions are good; but, do you know what our service to our country was and is like? 

Does anyone, other than a veteran, know or understand the pain and suffering while in the service and afterwards?

Let’s take Korea for an example in the life of an infantryman.  While you were on patrol in the winter north of the Im Jin River inside the DMZ, the temperature could drop with the wind chill to 40 below or more.  It would be so cold the water in your canteen would freeze, the radio batteries would freeze causing your radio to die and the battery to your sniper scope would freeze rendering it inoperable.  You might be wearing 7-9 layers of clothes to try and stay warm; but, that didn’t work.  You would feel the cold starting to come through the layers of clothing; then your skin would start to feel cold, then prickly, then numb which meant you were starting to freeze, slowly; freeze.

If you were lucky around 0430 AM. You would be able to move either to your pick up point or to place where you could catch some sun when it came up to help warm yourself; knowing that somewhere out in the cold darkness was a North Korean Special Forces Team waiting for you to make a mistake, locate you and kill you if they could.

There are horror stories too painful and graphic to describe in a blog or letter to the editors I am going to save those for my book; but the next time you say “thank you for your service”.  Try to say “thank you for the pain and suffering you went through for our country and for me”.  I think a veteran would be more grateful that you understand even if just a little.

So while we sit at home, safe and warm for the holidays, two of the loneliness’  holidays of the year for our service men away from home, think of our troops who are defending us around the world and try to understand the pain and suffering they are going through to do it.

Ask yourself if “thank you for your service”, is enough?

PLEASE I AM TRYING TO WRITE A BOOK!!!

 

As I am spending more and more time collecting my thoughts for 40 years ago, I keep getting distracted by the lunatic fringe stabbing the Town Manager and BOS members in the back over issues that the fringe creates.

The latest issue is Frank Ferraro becoming emotional when, at the last selectmen’s meeting, argued against going into a non-public session to discuss an issue that if all the information was made public could hurt the reputation of the people the town is negotiating with for overdue water and sewer bills. In the past the BOS dealt with this issue in non public session and Ferraro well knew it because at the time it was dealt with in a non public session he threw a public hissy fit as well as members of the fringe.

The issue is quite simple; Ferraro is the BOS representative to the Water and Sewer Commission.  When this issue came up before the Water and Sewer Commission it was ferraro’s job to explain the position of the BOS to the Commission that this was a non public issue at least for the time being while negotiations were on going.  Very simply Ferraro failed to do this, and by failing to do so, deliberately undermined and stabbed the other members of the BOS in the back.

Members of the water and sewer commission claim they were not aware of the non public position the BOS had taken.  It was Ferarro’s job to tell them and not feign ignorance.  It appears that Ferraro and his small band of merry men were trying to create an issue to attack the Town Manager and BOS on.

How many times can someone get stabbed in the back before they slap the person doing it upside the head?  Well Frank I think you need to cut out your negative back stabbing behavior because members of the BOS and voters in Exeter are getting sick it; I believe they are sick and tired of dragging your reprehensible behavior behind them like a sea anchor while trying to deal with the many issues facing the town and moving the town agenda forward.

In my opinion Ferraro, you are not a selectman you are simply a distraction to the progress of the town.

I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Matt Quandt and Dan Chartrand for having the courage to finally point out your negative and destructive behavior to the voters of Exeter.

Frank put your name on your blog and stop hiding behind “anonymous”.

A SALUTE TO THE EXETER FIRE DEPARTMENT!!!

 

It was a personal honor to be invited to the Exeter Fire Department’s Awards Ceremony.  To be able to see firsthand the quality of the men and women who staff our Fire Department is quite humbling.

Award after award went to individuals for courage, kindness and dedication to the town of Exeter , ambulance calls, car accidents and all of the other duties too numerous to mention.  It was interesting to see the humility for those getting awards which only enhanced the pride Matt and I felt for those who do risk their lives to provide the very important services to the town and those in need.

I’ve come to realize that Exeter has a unique relationship to our fire fighters and EMT’s and it shows when they need new equipment and periodic raises.  When they show a genuine need for whatever they are asking the taxpayers for and we can afford it, it usually gets voted in.  That is because of the respect that is reciprocated to the respect the firefighters show us and the credibility we place in them.

Matt and I would kid the firefighters in the legislature by telling them we thought they were nuts, no one runs into a burning building to save the lives of not only people but pets. They do it because that is their job and career field they have chosen and dedicated their lives to. 

What more can a person say except THANK GOD WE HAVE PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE, COMMITMENT AND SENSE OF DUTY.

WHAT NEXT???

The government shut down has proven to be quite interesting.  I think what is missing is the understanding that the Tea Party movement has been hijacked by the conservative/radical wing of the libertarian party.  In my opinion the fight over Obama care is a smoke screen to do what they wanted to do and that is to shut down government which they did.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the Tea Party movement had its roots in basic Republican ideals, less spending, less government, and personal rights; but, now it is no government.  It started out as a Republican revival of principles. 

This appears to be a large scale remake of what happened in NH a couple of years ago when we had the lunatics running the asylum in the House of Representatives.  How many times did the more common sense Senate have to step in and use their common sense to deal with the anti government legislation coming out of the house.  Keep in mind this was all done in the name of Republicanism.

Now the US Senate is fighting with the US House of Representatives over common sense issues.  John Boehner is not as bad as the President and the press make out.  The problems appear to be him hanging on to his leadership position and, because of that, having to deal with the loonies in DC.  Couple all of this with a President who cannot lead, manage or tell the truth and we have a recipe for disaster, financially and for the security of our country.

When we step back and think of our political future it is apparent that we do not have any leadership ready to step up to the plate and run for political office.  It is starting to wear thin when we have to vote for the lesser of two evils.  The old guard Republicans appear to be tired and disenfranchised by the so called leadership of our party who are better at name calling then coming up with productive ideas; both parties are doing it so there is plenty of blame going around.

I cannot tell you what the fix is going to be, politically we haven’t hit bottom yet; but, I do know the voters have to engage in the process, we have to take back our government and the process.  If we don’t there will be a very short future for our country and our families  

 

 

 

 

THE WORLD IS AN AMAZING PLACE!!!

The world is much diversified and it is wrong and short sighted to try to judge other parts of the world by Western Civilization standards while forgetting that war is a contact sport.

Take Iraq for example, we lost thousands of our kids over there and countless, arms, legs eyes and traumatic brain injuries.  The Iraqis wanted us to leave and we pretty much have, selling their oil contracts to the Chinese.  Now they want us to come back because they cannot deal with the up surge in violence.  It sounds like a job for the Chinese to protect their interests.

Then we have Afghanistan, almost the same story and we do not have any interests in that country, we do not want to colonize them like British or Russians, we just wanted to track down and kill  the militant Muslims who have and  will come to the US and kill us if they get a chance, and it has been proven.  The Afghans sold their mineral rights to the Chinese, time for the Chinese to protect their rights and let our kids come home as soon as possible.

Now most of the world is in an outrage that somebody in Syria used poison gas on the Muslim militants who left fighting NATO in Afghanistan (mostly our kids) to fight the government in Syria.  Now our President is sending arms to the militants who again are be-heading anyone who will not support them, and at times eating their body parts. The more militant Muslims that are fighting in Afghanistan the less are fighting our kids.

Now that I am getting old I am trying to remember when the Towers were hit.  I was sure I saw Syrian civilians and their allies dancing in the streets celebrating yelling Allah Snack Bar or something like that; in short we do not have a dog in that fight and should stay out of it.

Unfortunately we have a President who knows nothing about foreign affairs, nothing about the military and out of fairness to him does know about entitlement programs and re-distributing wealth.  Many people are disgusted when they see pictures of him putting his feet up on the furniture in the White House, as I am.  Our Country is well on its way into bankruptcy while the president continues on with his unrealistic and ruthless spending spree.

I have many democrats that are my friends and respect their philosophy and ideals; but, they are taking notice of what is wrong and are as much as we are as to how to fix it until the next election.

SEAIU 1984: UNION OR SOCIALIST CHANGE AGENTS!!!

I have been a member of SEA for over 20 years and always wondered why they always lean liberal.  If you look at the membership numbers the lowest amount is Republicans who feel the SEA does not represent them but always push for a different liberal socialist agenda.

It is not so much the union membership that has caused this but, the union leadership, most of which is liberal and pushing the socialist agenda.  A few years ago SEAIU1984 was pushing the liberal democrats anti war agenda of “Save our troops pull out of Iraq”.  In fact those signs that were popping up along our State Highways and rights of way, according to the little message on the bottom of the signs were paid for by SEAIU1984.  That agenda didn’t go far due to many SEA members being veterans, the high veterans count in NH and it brought back some real bad memories of the anti war protesters of the Vietnam era. 

Now they are pushing the Obama health care agenda, which, if there is an upside should bring down the Democratic Party within the next two elections.  Most people recognize that this health debacle is huge and we are just starting to get into it.  I was told that 40,000 AFL-CIO workers quit the union because of them pushing this health care program.  I think one of the main reasons the state employees voted against the state contract is because of the Obama care issues, it scared them and rightfully so.

Now SEAIU is pushing to take money away from those who work for it and make it and give it those people who don’t.  I think their catch word is economic equality.  So the old saying that our parents told us is, do good in school, work real hard, and make a good living now has been thrown out the window and the new saying is if you have more than I do, we need to take some from you and give it to me; that is not the American way.

The other socialist agenda item is gun control. I was told that the NH SEA President and the first vice president were at an anti gun rally, they denied that SEA supported this because they were there as private citizens.  When your president and first vice president of a union that is what you are, you don’t always have the luxury of hiding behind “I’m a private citizen”, if you want to be a private citizen that it will up to the union membership to vote you out of office and you can go back to being just a good union member and can do what you want. In fact the first Vice President and members of the Board of Directors were at subsequent Bloomberg rallies which were videoed. 

The issues that are facing us are Social Issue versus Union issues.  What issues that I have mentioned are union issues?  Are they pay raises,   Working conditions, Health insurance issues, a safe work environment?  No they are mostly socialist issues pushed by a union that thinks they are a socialist change agent and they are using the union membership to do it.

There is a lot of discontent within the SEA membership over what I have discussed.  There is an argument to be made that if a union doesn’t represent their membership then why the disenfranchised group is is being forced to pay agency fees.  If the more conservative and moderate wing of the union feel they are being used for a political agenda and not a union agenda, they should not be required to pay the fees.  If any legislation comes up to do away with these fees I think not being represented is a good argument.

WHO SAYS I PLAY SILLY GAMES???

At a recent selectmen’s’ meeting Frank Ferraro got on his hypocritical high horse and was talking about a selectman publically stating he played silly games and how he follows the law and that is not silly games.  It has become obvious that you and your free bagger friends are just trying to smear the BOS in preparation for the next election; I think the voters have seen that, much to your loss.

Frank, you missed the point, it has nothing to do with following or not following the law, it has to do with you stabbing other selectman in the back, bad mouthing them behind their backs and playing games with your free bagger friends.  To add insult to injury I actually had someone tell me they do not watch the selectmen’s meetings anymore because of you and your small group of supporters acting nuts at the public comment section. The voters in Exeter are just watching and realizing what the problem is on the BOS and I feel confident they will fix that in the next election by removing you.  I suspect when that happens you will break down and cry, because that is the sensitive sort of guy you are, but; you’ll get over it and the Town will function all the better.

It is almost as funny as Griset’s letters to the editor, all of which are starting to look like home work assignments from an anger management counseling program.

THE HEAT DOES AGGRAVTE THE LUNATIC FRINGES’ THOUGHT PROCESS!!!

 

Just recently there has been an uptick in the lunatic fringes activity.  We recently had a very strange young man, who we affectionately call a California Drama Queen, go before the selectman, make strange accusations and follow up his psychological rants with letters to the editor.  Evidently someone accused him of being a member of the lunatic fringe and that set him off again.  I never thought he was a member, I always thought he was on the board of directors. He just needs to remember if he doesn’t act crazy nobody will think he is crazy.

Then at the last selectman’s meeting the Town Managers secretary had the day off and there was a screw up on the agenda posting.  Evidently that was her job and there were errors made.  The lunatic fringe started making accusations for lack of transparency, shenanigans and some very strange stuff.  All over what appeared to be a simple mistake that the selectmen had nothing to do with, it was the town managers issue.

The lunatic fringe is still trying to jockey for pole position for the elections in March.  They didn’t learn from the last election that the Exeter voters are fed up with them.  We just need a couple of good, mentally stable candidates with a proven record of representing the voters and taxpayers of Exeter to come forward and sign on the dotted line.

My prediction is this group will be rejected again, in the next election, based on their psychological shortcomings as well as their message.

While the nutties were acting nutty, Matt opened the discussion on putting the LGC repayment money towards our property tax savings and asking the school district to do the same and the board thought that was a good idea.  Congratulations to Matt for keeping his eye on the ball and not losing sight of the ball and not letting the nuts get through to him and the other board members.

I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES!!!

This was a facebook posting by Rep Gary Hopper about NH's SEA involvement in the NH anti gun campaign.  I don't think it needs anymore explanation right now; but, in the near future.

WHEN POLITICAL RHETORIC MEETS BUDGET REALITY!!!

We all know that when politicians are campaigning they sometimes will say or do anything to get votes.  When Governor Maggie was running she was saying how, if elected, she would tell her department heads to give her budget numbers that were 3% less than what the Republicans gave them in the last budget.

When Bully was running for State Rep in the last election he said he was going to cut spending by 400 million $’s.

Well it looks like the state is about 300 million $’s short in the budget, depending on who you listen too, which is probably about Gov. Maggie was talking about for numbers.  But now that the numbers are probably close to what she was talking about the world seems to be collapsing with the lack of money for this program and that program.

One of the problems seems to be that NH is lagging behind on coming out of the recession, in short the revenue projections are down.  If the department heads are not careful they will start taking money out of the 2d year of their two year budget to cover shortfalls in their first year’s budget.  You don’t need a degree in economics to see the problem.

It is still too early to call the shots on the proposed budget; but, it is clear that reality is setting in.

GOOD NEWS!!!

The rumor is Bully O’Brien is going to run for Congress in the somewhat liberal 2d CD, the seat is currently held by Annie Kuster.

That means that every Republican that Free Bagger O’Brien screwed over can now have another shot at him.  Republican from around the state will show up to hold signs for his opposition in the primary.

Anybody that doesn’t believe in a living god should rethink their position.

MORE GOOD NEWS!!!

I have been hearing that more and more Free Staters are complaining that they made a mistake in coming to NH.  Evidently they feel they were sold a bill of goods and thought they were going to be welcomed with open arms, only to find that when they are identified, they are being rejected by NH Citizens.

Some of the people who openly admit to being Free Staters are very smart and just nice people; but, like in the NH Republican Party the nuts are the ones bringing down the whole program.

LIVING PROOF THAT BOTH PARTIES HAVE THEIR SHARE OF NUTS AND THE LUNITIC FRINGE!!!

I have been told this picture was sent to Senator Ayotte on Mother’s Day from the Londonderry Democratic Committee on their website.

These are some of the pictures of victims of the shooting in Newtown being used to promote a liberal political agenda.

I have been active in Republican politics since 1972 and thought I have seen it all; but, nothing as low as this, no matter what party or what candidate, this is most despicable.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!

                  

It was good to see the current Republican State Party Chairman and two prior State Party Chairman come out and chastise the State Rep from Auburn for her remarks about the government being behind the Boston Marathon bombing.  Two prior chairmen referred to her, I believe, as a “nut case”. The current State Party Chairman just disowned her and promised no support from the Republican Party if she decides to run again.

The Rockingham County Republican Party will now have to make a decision on whether to put up enough candidates to unseat her in the next election.

The assessment of her by the two prior chairmen is right on.  Although I welcome this timely assessment it is about two and a half years too late.  Unfortunately, she is not the only one in Concord that made us cringe when some of them open their mouths before engaging their brain.  Couple this last embarrassment with referring to women as “vaginas” and another State Rep that wants to purify the Republican Party in NH and you end up with NH being the laughing stock of the country right now.

If we are going to clean up the mess in the NH Republican Party it needs to go top to bottom.

In Exeter it appears that we have a selectman who is telling people that part of his job is to uncover what the other selectmen or members of town government are hiding from him.  Nobody that I know of is hiding anything except, perhaps, their lack of respect and trust for the 5^th selectman.  What he doesn’t understand is if people do not trust you, and they have plenty of reasons not too, they don’t want to talk to you.  So far four members of the board have been too nice not to bring out what they think of the 5^th, maybe they are saving it until they get closer to the election, I can only hope.

The warnings have been out there for a couple of years, as a party we are destroying ourselves with more and more people saying, “I didn’t leave the party the party left me”.  I’ve talked about this issue for a couple of years and now you can all see what the state has had to endure.

The good news for Republicans is Obamacare is a horror show and some insurance brokers and professionals are saying this will set us back for years to come and cost us a fortune.  If they are right and I have no reason to doubt them, this will cause the voters to reject the democrats in the next election, and no matter how crazy the Republicans look right now blindly vote in anyone who has an R after their name.

Matt and I have always been proud of our Republican roots and have not compromised on our conservative principles.  However, there have been times when we were not proud of our party and things that have taken place; we came to realize that with either party it is all about money and power and not about people.  Even in our beautiful little Town of Exeter, Dennis Brady and a small group of very strange people (who’s hiding whatever’s) tried to politicize the non political selectman’s race.  In a selectman’s race you look for leaders, not the name callers.

I can see some similarities between the Concord “nut cases” and what is happening in Exeter.

THERE ARE RADICALS AND THERE ARE NUTS!!!

I believe it is becoming clear that the Republican political fabric is torn.  Matt and I saw this a few years ago when we decided to run for State Rep as independent Republicans.  People would ask us what an independent Republican was and it was easy to explain; that is someone who subscribes to less government, less spending and to keep your nose out of people’s personal business. 

It is a Republican who serves his constituents and not the ever changing political agenda, motivations, and elitist power brokers who want to control the party and their own agenda.  Republicans who believe that people come first and the party agenda comes second (or third or fourth).

Just recently Free State supporters in Belknap County want to have another Republican Party made up of just conservatives, who defines conservatives, they do.  That is not as bad as the Free State group that wants NH to secede from the Union.

In Auburn there is a Republican State Rep who just posted on line that she believes that the bombing in Boston was actually done by the US Government; if you remember there were Democrats that argued that George Bush was behind the planes flying into the towers, so both parties have them.

Exeter has not been spared in this contagion of craziness.  The town is wrapped up in a fight over should we have a receptionist or do we want to be more efficient in making it easier for you, the taxpayers, to have easy access to the town departments.  Personally I don’t like recordings or push 1 or push two; but, at least everything is still in English.  Do I like these systems, no; but, I think in financially tough times it is probably cheaper than paying the equivalent of a Wal-Mart greeter about $60,000 a year with benefits to guide us through the town office building, when we have easy to read signs that seem to be working well.

This issue will not go away easily because it is being pushed as a political issue being used to beat on four of the Selectmen by a fifth selectman who claims the other board members either don’t listen to him or don’t respect him; I can sympathize with him because Rodney Dangerfield had the same issues.

For those of us who use to be main stream Republicans, what is the difference between a radical, a nut or a main stream public servant?  That will be defined well before the next election.

POLL QUESTIONS TO SEE IF YOU SUPPORT EXPANDED GAMBELING!!!

       1.    Would you rather have expanded gambling or an income tax?

       2.     Would you rather have expanded gambling or sales tax?

       3.     Would you rather have a root canal without Novocain or      expanded gambling? 

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then you are definitely in favor of expanded gambling.

John Lynch did not support expanded gambling because he knew that the money pushing it forward in NH would eventually control the political process in NH to the detriment of the voters.  In this respect Governor Lynch was truly looking out for the people of NH.  The above questions, although facetious in nature are similar to the type used to see if NH wants expanded gambling as used in a statewide poll.

I have never supported expanded gambling and after seeing what is happening in NH with the gambling money being spread around I can definitely agree with Governor Lynch’s concerns.

Contact your local State Reps and Senator and let your feelings be known.

IF YOU ARE FEELING CRANKY, I'LL GET YOU A HANKY!!!

I just read a letter to the editors from one of Exeter’s fringe claiming there was no leadership on the BOS and Matt always did what the Town Manager told him to do.  After I read this delusional rant I stepped back and understood how little Dennis Brady and Frank Ferraro know about what was happening in Exeter this past year.

Anyone who watched the selectman’s meetings on channel 22 could see how well the four members of the board interacted and worked together with the town manager and department heads.  The issues Exeter is facing just in infrastructure, is monumental and need the full cooperation of the board and departments.  If you had two board members who were hell bent on pushing to fire the town manager when there is no cause, there would be chaos in Exeter and a sizable lawsuit to boot; thankfully the voters saw that and decided to keep everyone in place.  Make no mistake getting rid of The Town Manager is exactly what they want. There are two things preventing this from happening, first they need three votes on the board, secondly the Town Manager has to do a fire able offense.

It is obvious that the next selectman’s race started when the loonies lost the last one a couple of weeks ago and Matt is once again the target; if he wants to run for his Selectman’s seat it will be in the next election.

Dennis Brady, who claims to have graduated from the Coast Guard Academy, obviously didn’t pay attention to his leadership classes because he thinks the definition of no leadership is when he thought Matt, didn’t show any leadership because he worked with the town manager, other selectman and department heads to continue to move Exeter forward while trying to keep the taxes down. Matt’s definition of leadership is similar to mine, “leadership is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way as to make them look forward to the trip”; hey Dennis, have a nice trip.

I CALLED THEY ANSWERED WHAT IS THE PROBLEM???

We had an old saying in the Probation/Parole Department, “when in doubt, scream and shout”.  This has to do with the warrant article to have a receptionist answer the phones at the Town Offices.

I haven’t found anyone who likes answering machines or answering services, me included.

With cooperative management the Town has a new and I think a better system than they had.  If you remember the group in Town that is out of control in their attacks on the selectman and Town Manager, were attacking on financial audits that needed to be upgraded for quality and timeliness.  The Town Manager made a case that he needed additional staffing and the receptionist’s position was transferred into the finance office.  From what I have heard that move has taken care of much of the problems in that section of the town administration.  Then the Town automated their phone system explaining how to access the various town departments with a live person, Town Manager’s Secretary, on the end of the line if you need help.  I called the Town Offices just to see how the system worked and ended up on the line to talk to a real person and I did, the system works very efficiently.  If the new catch phrase is innovation, then it has been achieved; the number to the Town Offices is 778-0591 for anyone who wants to check this out for themselves.

MY MY!!!

          

We have to switch gears from the local loonies to the state level loonies.  The latest going around with the remnants of the once respected House Republican Alliance is that they are circulating a letter for signatures, to Gene Chandler; the minority Republican Leader, requesting that he removes Shawn Jasper from his Republican leadership post. It was always my personal opinion that in any dealings I had with Jasper I always felt he was untrustworthy and should never be put in any republican leadership positions.  I thought Gene learned his lesson the last time.

Evidently Jasper offended the Free Staters who have taken control of the HRA and they want him removed.  What Chandler isn’t aware of is HRA is supposedly going to make a move of removing him from his position and replacing him with none other than Bully O’Brien.  If you remember Bully is the former speaker that brought down the whole Republican agenda in NH, put the Republicans once again in the minority and to add insult to injury threatened to finish off the Republican survivors of the past election if they didn’t do exactly what he says.  Again, my opinion is this will be a touch and go situation because I don’t think Gene has as many old guard Republicans in the House to back his play or defense against the Free Staters.

Has anyone heard how the little band of jolly Free Staters are doing about getting NH to secede from the union?  You just can’t make this stuff up.

WOW boys and girls isn’t this what every Howdy Doody fan wants running their agenda and state.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, Concord is no longer about good representation it is about, money, control and power.

WHERE ARE YOUR PAPERS???

As a fledging Probation Officer in Merrimack County in the early 70’s I dealt with a number of people coming out of the State Hospital on Probation.  As a matter of policy we would ask to see their discharge papers, make a copy and put it in their file.  On more than one occasion the person would say, “I just showed you my papers that say I’m not crazy, can I see yours?”  You know what, I could never produce mine and I always got a big chuckle when that happened.

The last Exeter Selectman’s meeting made me think of this when, in my opinion, the local chapter of the lunatic fringe, didn’t have their papers checked at the door.  The anger could be felt on TV and the attacks were way over the top.  If they acted this way at a hearing in the legislature, security would have been called and they would probably be removed while the hearing was recessed.

The direction of the attacks was the allegation that the Board of Selectman was trying to disenfranchise the voters on the budget committee warrant article.  If I remember right, and I could be corrected, the issues the angries were attacking the Board on were actually under the control of the Town Clerk.  What I saw was this situation has never happened in the Town in the past and the Town Clerk, who I have, a lot of respect for, and the Board of Selectman were trying to work to straighten this out, which did get straightened out, so what is the problem.  I know it was just another excuse to attack the Board or the Town Manager; this was all amplified by a full moon.

There was a funny side to last night and that was when Frank Ferraro was complaining that no one listens to him.  Well Frank, if that is the situation, maybe you should talk to the Board to see what they think of your credibility.  If you talk behind other selectman’s backs, if you do that, if you hang out with people who some have the opinion are a little different, and you actively campaign as a selectman against other selectmen’s campaigns, if that is the case; I might have an idea why people do not listen to you, if they don’t.

I met Dennis Brady and he is a likable person; but, he showed up at last night’s meeting with a display of anger that seemed to be choreographed with the angries.  I was disappointed with Dennis on this and it showed who his support group is and do not have the best interests of the town at heart.

Although I think the Board and Town Manager collectively could have explained this issue better, as to what the issue was, the problems surrounding it and more clearly state how they worked with the Town Clerk to resolve, they should all be congratulated(except for Frank) on how well they handled themselves in maintaining their cool.  They showed good leadership and deportment in how they maintained themselves and I was proud of Matt, Don, Julie and Russ.

My advice is, if you don’t have your papers don’t go before the Board and attack them if you don’t have all the facts.

The above is my opinion on what I observed.

WHEN IS DUMB REALLY DUMB???

 

Dumb is really dumb when a state rep goes before the Exeter Board of Selectman to do a legislative update and does not know about the legislation that they are supposed to be briefing on. 

Now really dumb is going before a legislative committee and make comments on how she isn’t sorry that other state reps didn’t win their elections.  What part of any legislative testimony is that?

The person that told me about this asked if there was any way we could give our Democrat State Reps an IQ test before we elected them to weed out the dumb ones.  I explained that would happen the same time we gave our Republican State Rep candidates a psychological test to make sure they weren’t nuts.

DID GOVERNOR MAGGIE WANT SPEAKER TERRY AS SPEAKER???

During the last speaker’s race there were a number of democrats loyal to Terry and friendly to Maggie that claimed they were not going to vote for Terry for speaker.  In my opinion, and knowing how the inside politics is played, it does not look like Maggie wanted Terry.

Dave Campbell got about 70 votes for speaker, which is about 30 or so more than most expectations.  It would have taken a little horse power to push more democrats into his camp; this certainly is an interesting discussion.

WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT!!!

The recent deliberative session for the Town of Exeter is usually an informative cordial event; but this past Saturday it was anything but.  We have seen, over the past few years, a subterranean political agenda in Exeter; but, this last meeting not only proved it and showed who is behind it.

I ask everyone to go to the town website and review the meeting to get a flavor of the brain trust that is causing the turmoil and the behind the scenes back room politics/antics that spilled out at a public meeting.

They appear to be the self proclaimed Republican leadership for Exeter; but, after talking to some Republicans that were there it was agreed upon that don’t represent any Republicans that we know.

This group of political misfits added about 2-3 hours of debate that need not happen and angered a lot of people.  As Dorie and I were leaving someone asked me “what is wrong with those people” and the only answer I could give was, “I don’t think the psychology books have found a name for it yet”.

The crowning touch of this meeting was when a selectman, Frank Ferraro, got into a verbal argument with Fire Chief Brian Comeau about the ladder truck that is on this year’s warrant; I don’t know how I am going to vote on this issue, but it won’t be based on Frank’s argument.  It seemed to boil down to an issue of credibility between the two.  It is certainly my opinion that in a credibility issue, Frank and his little band of merry men are going to lose every time and I think they did.  Congratulations to the chief for maintaining his cool.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POLITICIANS TALK A LOT; BUT DON’T LISTEN???

I think it was about six years ago the Democrats beat on George Bush and were swept into office.  They really didn’t know how that happened and started pushing a liberal agenda thinking that was what the voters really wanted.  So the state went through raising and spending about a billion dollars in fees and various increases; some of the funnier ones was the rooms and meal taxes on campgrounds (yes that is where you bring your living accommodations, your food, etc and we will tax you on that).  Then the disastrous LLC Tax and so on and so on.

Then two years later they beat up poor old GW again and won.  The voters caught up to them, threw them out and elected a very Republican/Free State legislature who cut back most of the liberal spending agenda, then went too far on many of the social issues and got thrown out on another voter sweep.  Now the liberals are back in power and doing the same thing all over again.

The battle cry in the last election was jobs, jobs, and more jobs; not repealing gun laws, having an anti bullying day and pushing another liberal agenda.  If this keeps up they will get thrown out again and the cycle will start all over.  I think the only phrase to describe this is “politically unstable environment”.

Let’s take a look at one issue that is taking center stage and that is gun control.  This has been on the liberals agenda for decades.  There is nothing wrong in having a crazy political agenda, we all live in America and it is our right; but, to not understand it and not understand the issue is sad.

I am not a constitutionalist and I do not know all the ins and outs; but I had to study it in High School and in college.  The Second Amendment does not guarantee me the right to go rabbit hunting; but to allow me to have firearms.  I believe the founding fathers put that in place to guarantee firearms ownership to defend against government.  If you can understand that then you can understand the fight against gun control.  What you are doing is fighting over an argument that is truly embedded in our Constitution and I don’t know how far the constitutionalist can be pushed on this issue.

THERE ARE DEMOCRATS AND THERE ARE REPUBLICANS:

The new style of politics isn’t over political issues it is all about image.  When the Republicans were in power they wanted to be perceived as conservative oriented and fiscally and socially restrained.  They believed in life of the unborn, the second Amendment and you shouldn’t vote in NH if you don’t live in NH.  The democrats believe in gun control (although they claim it is only on certain weapons); they claim they want to protect children while advocating for abortion as a women’s reproductive health issue.  The name for what really is happening on this issue is changed to take out the end of life issue for life that is in its earliest state.  Abortion is not a super issue with me, I support the exceptions to protect the mother’s health; but, that is the extent that I would argue.

Now the Democrats are claiming how they want to work in a bi-partisan manner while promoting their old and tired agenda of more government (which in their opinion knows better than you), more spending and anyone can vote even if they are not NH citizens; both of these observations are limited because of the extensiveness of the issues.

The Republicans in the last session did not want to work with the Democrats because they had enough votes to push through what they thought was the Republican agenda.  This year the Democrats do not want to work with Republicans because they have the votes.  During the last election the Democrats were trying to convince the voters that they wanted to reach across the aisle to work with Republicans.  Well they lied, they don’t and won’t unless they really need a few extra votes.

The best advice you can give anyone in politics is watch what the Democrats do and don’t pay attention to what they say; because the two doesn’t always go together.

I have been talking to democrats and republicans who care about doing the right thing in Concord.  Most believe those that know Maggie, believe she is over her head politically.  Like many I know Maggie is using this governor’s election as a stepping stone for Maggie to go to Washington.

At first glance, Maggie wants to be everything to everyone.  Her couple of years as governor could very well be, “promise them everything, give them nothing and tell them how they have it”.  Time is going to tell and I hope I’m wrong, and if I am I will be the first to admit it. Maggie and the Democrats can, when all else fails, blame it on George Bush.