Cornerstone Policy Research - a group claiming to be dedicated to empowering families has worked overtime to ensure that NH doesn't expand Medicaid and provide access to health care for thousands of working poor families. Ashley Pratte, the current-but-soon departing Executive Director sent out an email just now:
Senate Medicaid Expansion Plan Successfully Tabled
During the past few months, our State Legislature has been debating the merits of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. Cornerstone has shared our concerns regarding this policy and are pleased to report that the bill was successfully tabled in the New Hampshire Senate.
We would like to thank three conservative Republican State Senators: Senator Sanborn, Senator Carson, and Senator Prescott who took a stand today and voted against the NH Senate proposed plan. They lead the charge against it, knowing it was fiscally irresponsible and would inevitably hurt New Hampshire's middle class families with an income tax, should this program be expanded in theGranite State.
Cornerstone wants to acknowledge and thank these Senators for standing up for our values and fighting for NH families. We are grateful that the Senate bill was tabled and it is our hope that the House bill will be defeated later this evening because we believe that NH deserves better than expanding a broken program.
For Families,
Ashley Pratte Executive Director
Underneath Miss Pratte's signature was a link to click on, to make a tax deductible donation to support Cornerstone. For that's what this is all about. Cornerstone pretends to care about families - but not the families of the working poor. Hell no! They don't click on that link to make donations.
On August 24, Fosters published an opinion piece by Ashley Pratte, the Executive Director of Cornerstone Policy Research. From Ms. Pratte's scattered, confusing, and somewhat dishonest opus: In recent weeks there has been discussion around the topic of abortion as well as female objectification when recent sexting scandals were brought to light.
It is important to note that I myself am a single, twenty-four year old woman involved in activism in New Hampshire. On a regular basis I am subject to constant criticism because of my pro-life views.
I think I speak on behalf of all women when I say enough is enough. We need to stand up for ourselves and not be degrading to one another. While as females we may hold a variety of different opinions and beliefs there is one thing that binds us all and that is our gender. If we ever hope to be respected by men we must first respect ourselves.
Last week a known blogger here in the Granite State found it necessary to tweet the following, “@ashpratte @demchairs at least they won’t hit you. Or leer at your boobs. Or call you a “vagina”. They aren’t republican men after all.” Not only do I find this tweet to be horribly offensive but it depicts the culture that we are living in. Women are constantly the subject of degradation especially those in the political arena. Oh, some naughty blogger offended poor Ashley. That would be me. Fosters generously agreed to give me space, and they've just published my rebuttal to the horribly offended Ms. Pratte. Some highlights:
In April Rep. Peter Hansen of Amherst became world famous for calling women “vagina’s” (his grammatical error) in an internal NH House email. I tweeted Pratte to ask if this was an example of family values, since Hansen has a high rating on the Cornerstone legislative report card. No response.
In July, Representatives Jordan Ulery and Gary Hopper came under fire for their internal House emails, which included a cheesecake picture of a nubile young woman. There was no reason for the picture to be included, other than the reason that all women are familiar with — the one that involves drool. Both Ulery and Hopper have high Cornerstone ratings. I tweeted Ms. Pratte to ask about her silence on the subject. No response.
On Aug. 5, we learned that a Republican Super Pac registered in Nashua was hosting a video game called Slap Hillary. What could be funnier than slapping women? This is certainly a novel way of showing respect to a former First Lady, US Senator, and Secretary of State. This was an opportunity for Ms. Pratte to express her concerns about respect for women. She didn’t take it.
On Aug. 6, in an attempt at snark, Ms. Pratte tweeted out, “What an exciting new follow @DemChairs.” For those not conversant in twitspeak, that means that DemChairs had just opted to follow Pratte on Twitter. My “horrifying and offensive” tweet was in response to that. I tweeted “At least they won’t hit you. Or leer at your boobs, or call you a “vagina” They aren’t Republican men after all.”
I combined those three incidents of disrespect that Pratte had intentionally ignored into one tweet. “Hit you” was a reference to Slap Hillary. “Stare at your boobs” referred to Ulery and Hopper’s soft-core porn, and “call you a vagina” was a direct reference to Rep. Hansen. All are items she’d gotten tweets from me about, which makes her slow ride to horribly offended seem a bit contrived.
It is difficult to take Pratte’s finger waving about respect seriously. She is saying is that in order to show her proper respect as a woman, I must refrain from commenting as she ignores GOP men who are degrading women. She wants me to ignore her hypocrisy.
Sadly for Miss Ashley, that is a thing I cannot do.
I mentioned dishonesty. At the end of Ms. Pratte's op-ed, she gives a big shout out to Cornerstone, yet fails to mention her connection to the organization. She's the Executive Director.
In making this a big public thing, Ms. Pratte has succeeded in exposing her poor reading and writing skills, and put her hypocrisy on a platter for all of us to admire.
Ah Cornerstone - how the family values have changed. Only a few years ago, founder Karen Testerman expounded on how holding hands should be discouraged because it "leads to other things."
I wonder what she makes of Miss Pratte's television viewing:
This is a show where a woman is shown dating and kissing numerous men on television, in an attempt to meet a husband. This season began with one woman and 25 guys. Every week at least one of the potential suitors is eliminated. When the show reaches the final episodes she shares a night alone in a "fantasy suite" with each one of the final three, before choosing the one she will pretend she's going to marry.
According to one former contestant, there's a lot more than hand holding going on behind closed doors. This year, word is that Desiree will be taking the bachelors for a test drive.
Relationships are wonderful gifts given to us by God. As we read in the Bible, the most-intimate relationship is marriage between a husband and a wife.
Apparently the most intimate relationship can also be given to us by a television reality show! Let me be clear - I'm no prude. I don't care what any of these people do, or who they do it with. (It is silly that they pretend they're going to get married.) I don't care that Ashley watches this tripe (as mockworthy as it is). The trouble with wagging a prissy moral finger and presenting yourself as possessing superior values is that you're setting yourself up for a fall. Like having some jerk on the internet point out that you (of the allegedly superior moral values) are cooing on Twitter while watching a show about a woman who is paid to be on a reality show, and who is having sex with some of the contestants. Isn't there a word for that? Anyone? Karen Testerman?
After the Zimmerman verdict was announced on Saturday night, Ashley Pratte the Executive Director of Cornerstone Action/Policy Research sent out the tweet you see above.
An adult man who killed an unarmed boy was found not guilty, and Miss Pratte* calls this justice. In my own understated way, I called it as I saw it, and mocked Miss Pratte. From Cornerstone's mission statement:
Cornerstone communicates with a reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues in the media and in the halls of Concord. We believe the origins of our culture were purposely rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and thus advocate for the traditional New Hampshire values of personal responsibility, strong families, limited government and free enterprise. I guess I just don't understand contemporary Judeo-Christian values. Is applauding the not-guilty verdict of an adult man who killed an unarmed boy what Jesus would do? Is finding this verdict "justice" the use of a "reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues?" More from the mission statement: We believe that one person can make a difference in his or her community. In our democratic-republic form of government, public policies essentially stem from the values, attitudes, and behavior of people and institutions. Therefore, changing laws without changing the hearts, minds and lives of people proves futile. We believe that influence over hearts and minds are earned by compassion in service, wisdom in relationships, and intellectual excellence in persuasion.
Oh, well, that explains it. Ashley was trying to influence hearts and mind by her use of compassion, wisdom, and intellectual excellence.
A perusal of the Cornerstone website reveals a lot of Christian oriented material. They have a compassion project. They have a page of lessons on social justice from the the Heritage Foundation. Cornerstone has a page promoting Focus on the Family's Truth Project, which claims to be dedicated to showing the importance and relevance of living the Christian world view in daily life. An unarmed teenager is dead. I'm still not getting how cheering the fact that his killer was found not guilty fits into the Christian world view. I'm aware that this verdict has created a lot of anger and discussion. That's neither here nor there. A woman who is the Executive Director of an organization that allies itself with Christianity should have had the sense to keep her opinion to herself. She could have tweeted something compassionate out, about sadness for all of the families involved, since Cornerstone claims to care so much about families. Instead, she got mad at me. Miss Pratte's response to my jab was:
Given that I don't work for (or belong to) the NH Democratic Party, I'm not sure what Miss Pratte is hoping to accomplish by calling upon them to chastise me. (They haven't even tried) A couple of Ashley's buddies retweeted her plea, but she wasn't able to get the kind of media juice for it that she seems to have been hoping for. She's right though. It is blatant disrespect. And it is deserved. Someone who could send out a tweet congratulating the killer of an unarmed teenaged boy doesn't deserve my respect. Her respect for the family of Trayvon Martin is nonexistent. In the land of Cornerstone, only some families have value.
* Since I'm guessing Ashley doesn't identify as a feminist, I chose to eschew the term Ms. and go with the old-school Miss, given that she's unmarried.
Today, Beverly Woods and Shana Aisenberg were on hand at the Medicaid expansion rally in front of the LOB, to sing their new, witty and topical song about health care in NH:
There were about 60 people in front of the LOB, ready to welcome legislators heading in to the LOB for the budget committee of conference, where Medicaid expansion will live or die.
Of course, cowardly legislators headed in through other entrances. The group went upstairs, where the hearing room was jammed.
It's the Senate that is all boogered up about expanding Medicaid. This is largely because POLITICS. A number of our state senators are rumored to be thinking about running for higher office. One of them, Chuck Morse, is on the committee. Andy Sanborn is reportedly thinking about a goobernatorial run, and Jeb Bradley is thinking about using his famous charisma in a bid for the US Senate. The NH Senate has done their best to obstruct and undo anything positive the House has done. They may be under the impression this plays well with voters - but that's because they only talk to the Libertea types.
Chuck Morse announced during this morning's Committee of Conference opening ceremonies that there would be no Medicaid expansion. That's that can-do spirit of bi-partisan cooperation we all know and love. The inmates took over the GOP asylum in 2010. Now everything is a contest, and it's all about winning. The state, and the people who live here aren't even a factor in their calculations. It's just about winning and scoring political points. I've sat behind a bunch of the fratboy libertea brigade during the House sessions this year, and that's what they do. They high five. They giggle, and pass the messages on their phone screens around. They whisper back and forth, and then some will get up and join the mini caucuses going on around the room. It's all about obstruction. It has not a goddam thing to do with what is right for the state. The GOP has a lot to answer for. When they ceded their party to these cretins, they ensured their own doom.
So, no cigarette tax increase. No gas tax increase. No expanded Medicaid. What's all that mean?
It means hundreds of job losses. The Freedumb crowd wants to liberate hundreds of state employees from their jobs. Why? Because they want the state to run badly. Then they can say: "SEE, GUMMINT BAD." It also means that the 300+ bridges on the state's red list will be joined by more. It means that more people will pretend not to be sick until they have to go to the ER, and the cost of that visit will be more than their poverty can support. It means that NH taxpayers will be subsidizing the expanded Medicaid benefits received by people in states like Arizona. NH gets back $0.67 on each tax dollar we send to Washington. We're a donor state. And rather than get some of it back, our state Senators would just as soon shovel it at the states who want it.
In the back row, wearing a white shirt is Greg Moore, of Americans for the Prosperous. Sitting next to him is Ashley Pratte, the director of the Cornerstone Policy Institute. Cornerstone claims to be a Judeo-Christian organization that promotes families and family values. That would explain why Ms. Pratte is at this hearing to register her disapproval of expanded Medicaid - her deep concern for families. She's following right along in Jesus' footsteps.
These people are all loathsome. They're going to do a lot of damage to our state, in the name of scoring political points to appeal to their base. The teabagger, Free State, John Bircher crowd. Ignoranuses.
Definition of ignoranus:.
(ĭg'nə-rā'nəs)
1. (n.) A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
