Freebaggers Get Ready to show NH Senate Who's The Boss

What are the priorities for NH residents at this very moment in time? It's likely to be a long list: the economy, jobs, the cost of living, property taxes, affordable health care, affordable college tuitions, roads, bridges,  and so on. Would guns be at the top of the list? Probably not. But guns are where a number of NH's reactionary right wing legislators have chosen to make a stand, as I learned from my friend Tuck at his blog:

Miscellany Blue: Emergency Petition for Redress - filed by Representatives Al Baldasaro, Lenette Peterson, and John Hikel have sponsored this petition, demanding that 189 legislators be removed from the NH House. 

Miscellany Blue Criminal Complaint  Rep. John Hikel has filed a criminal complaint with the Hillsborough County Sheriff alleging that 189 legislators violated their oaths of office, and conspired to deprive him of his constitutional rights by voting to repeal HB 135 - the so-called Stand Your Ground bill. Other members of the freedumb and libertea squad are filing similar complaints: disgraced former NH GOP chair Jack Kimball, and Rep. JR Hoell of Dunbarton. 

It's important to note that HB 135 cleared the House but has not been voted on by the NH Senate. 

Clearly this pageant is being enacted to make sure the Senate obeys the dictates of the lunatic fringe that has taken over the NH GOP. 

In 2010, when the red tide swept the NH House, the newly elected GOP majority promised a "laser like focus on job creation." What we got instead was a budget that eliminated thousands of NH jobs, and raised the unemployment rate. 

We also got a bunch of legislators who really put NH on the map. The map of global ridicule and mockery. 90 year old GOP freshman legislator Martin Harty had to resign after telling a constituent that it was too bad we couldn't send all the people with disabilities to Siberia to freeze to death. House GOP Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt called  Catholic Bishop John McCormick a "pedophile pimp." (That was before DJ had to resign for cheating in law school.) Free Stater/Republican Rep. Jennifer Coffey filed a bill to put up warning signs at the NH/MA border. GOP Reps. Bob Kingsbury, Lucien Vita, and Tim Twombley filed a bill that would have required relevant quotes from the Magna Carta in each new piece of legislation. It was a 2 year clown show, and one that resulted in big losses for the NH GOP in 2012. Many of the most visible were voted out,  but not all of them. Far from being chastened, the remaining faction seems determined to send the remaining clowns out into the glare of the public spotlight. 

The rubber nose brigade loves to bleat about taxes. Their mantra for decades has been: "NH doesn't have a revenue problem, NH has a spending problem." Their deep concern for NH taxpayers is on parade, as they file nuisance lawsuits that will be paid for by......NH Taxpayers. The same NH taxpayers subsidizing their re-election campaigns by paying for all those roll call votes. 

They're also having a big rally at the taxpayer funded NH State House. The HONOR YOUR OATH RALLY is taking place on Saturday the 13th. This rally is the inspiration of Jack Kimball, who is desperate to regain credibility and power. Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth!  A bill was passed  by the House that would return NH's gun law to where it was when it was  signed into law in 1972  by well known liberal Meldrim Thomson! Oh, the injustice of it all! 

Will Stand Your Ground create jobs? Will it repair NH's failing infrastructure? Will guns ensure affordable housing? Will SYG bring down health insurance costs? Will it bring down tuition costs at UNH? Will Stand Your Ground remove any of the 300 bridges from the list of 300+ bridges with structural impairments? Will SYG improve our telecommunications infrastructure? Will it adequately fund our state park system?

Not so much. 

What it will do is give a bunch of angry white guys a chance to wave their guns and their fists in front of the NH State House. This clown show is intended to show the NH Senate who is boss. 

h/t tuck