The Branch Covidians of NH

 

Part Two is so that you can see the date stamp:

Then Chris Maidment made sure to let us know who is behind all of this:

For anyone who has been wondering about these groups, we see now that they're pretty much one in the same. 

Former State Rep. Joe Hoell attempted snark:

That tweet had a pretty short half life in light of today's revelation:

It sure would be sad if some of the infected were at the Covid Policy Summit. 

This would all be more amusing if December 2 weren't Organization Day for NH legislators. The NH GOP had no intention of letting the Democrats know anything about this super spreader event. They found out because the story was in the media. 

House Minority Leader Hinch is quite pissy about having been caught out.  NHPR

"In a statement, House Republican Leader Dick Hinch said he would not share details on the cases, including the number of lawmakers who tested positive, because “we’re dealing with private and personal health information.”

And

"He said Republican House leadership is working with state health officials to notify people who may have been exposed to the virus. As for Wednesday’s scheduled Organization Day, Hinch said, “we have a very small number of people affected and we have no reason to believe that the folks who tested positive will attempt to attend the event.”

Then there was this:

“We are less than 24 hours from Organization Day and the Republican Leadership in the House purposefully neglected to tell the Speaker’s office or their Democratic colleagues of an outbreak within their caucus,” Shurtleff said in a statement. “We were with Republican Leadership just yesterday for Organization Day and the COVID-19 outbreak was not mentioned to anyone.”

That translates as, "NO, we aren't going to tell you how many were infected, or who they are. We don't think they'll show up for Organization Day - but they might. And no, we weren't planning to tell anyone about it." 

Shouldn't everyone who was there be self quarantining for 14 days? That would, by the way, include Dick Hinch, who was at the event. An elderly, unmasked man, at a super spreader event. Can I be the one to shove the swab up his nose? 

One further note from the anus brigade: 

AFP-NH Koch mouthpiece Greg Moore would like to encourage all the sick reps to attend Organization Day. 

There are days, and today is definitely one of them, when I ask myself, what the fuck is wrong with these people? 

The Gold Standard

New Hampshire is a state with no income tax and no sales tax. A state where we are constantly warned that we must live within our means. For decades, the Republicans who govern our state have worked overtime to ensure that we have such limited means that we can’t ever fix anything that needs fixing, which is why 12% of our bridges are red listed for “structural impairments.” Our intentionally limited means ensure that our state parks are in desperate need of maintenance and repair. 

One might think that in a state where tourism is our number two business, we’d want to make that investment, but our limited means do not permit. Speaking of number two business, we have closed rest areas in Antrim, Epsom, and Shelburne, in places where tourists would undoubtedly like to stop. They were all closed in order to save money. Perhaps we could reopen them if the tourists signed an affidavit saying that in exchange for using the rest room, they swear they’ll buy a case of Hennessy on the way out of state? (Paying cash, of course.)

Given our constant state of poverty, I was surprised to read what Governor Sununu had to say at the annual spring luncheon for Seacoast Republican Women. From the story in Fosters:  “Despite Democratic criticism of his budget he said, “we have more money than we know what to do with.” 

If that’s the case, it seems our governor lacks imagination. I’ve tweeted suggestions to him about things we might do with all that money. Build a secure psychiatric unit that isn’t part of a prison, for treating our people who have mental illness. Eliminate the shameful wait list for developmental disability services. Fix all the red listed bridges. Open up those closed rest areas, fix the state parks…the list is endless.

He also said, “We slipped for a long time, but we’re back. New Hampshire is the gold standard. A 2017 CNBC report found that NH has the second worst infrastructure in the nation. We don’t seem to be using any of that gold to repair our roads, bridges, dams, water systems, etc. In fact, given those closed rest areas, we don’t even qualify as American Standard.

I’ve said it before (and I’ll say it again!) that NH is the seventh wealthiest state. We are intentionally starving our state, so that we can continue to fail to invest in the present and the future. 

Our politicians are proud to take The Pledge, which refers to the Mel Thomson/William Loeb pledge against the creation of a state income tax or sales tax. The Pledge became popular in the early 70’s and continues to be GOP cult dogma.

New Hampshire’s peculiar system of funding our state government through fees and property taxes results in an underfunded state government. It isn’t the fault of the folks at the DMV that you wait for hours in line or can’t get through on the phone. They are chronically understaffed on purpose. That understaffing makes you the public unhappy, and willing to buy into the first tenet of GOP gospel: government is the problem. It certainly is when they’re running it. 

It’s all a false “economy.” As the 7^thwealthiest state, NH is certainly capable of generating revenue. Our secret is that we don’t want to. One thing the Republican Party fears above all is having enough money to fix the things that were deliberately neglected for decades. The scaremongering around The Pledge is key to their continued dominance in the state. 

A recent twitter exchange was a perfect illustration. Greg Moore is the head of Americans for Prosperity NH. AFP is an arm of the Koch brothers that has managed to achieve a disproportionate amount of influence over our state finances. Greg tweeted out that NH revenues are up in May, and claimed Trump’s tax reform is driving the NH economy forward. A reply to that tweet came from Grant Bosse, who wrote, “Don’t tell them! They’ll come back to spend it!”  (He was referring to the legislature.) Grant Bosse is the editor of the Union Leader’s editorial page. Before that, he worked for the Josiah Bartlett Center, the right wing think tank funded by the Koch brothers. 

That is, of course, easily translated into “spending is bad.” A successful business that invested in itself would be lauded, particularly if that came in the form of higher wages for workers. In NH success is defined as austerity. We don’t invest in education or any real safety net. We don’t even fix what is broken. To say that NH has “more money than we know what to do with,” in the face of our state’s many desperate needs is truly an obscenity.    

Published as an op-ed in the June 8, 2018 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

What About the Yacht Dwellers?

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI) recently released a report called, Taking the Measure of Need in the Granite State. NHPI looks at NH issues, and also examines problems with the federal poverty guidelines.

The poverty rate in NH is the lowest in the nation, at 9.2 percent. The federal poverty threshold was created in the 1960’s. At that time, a research showed that a family of three spent approximately one third of its budget on food.  After that, official poverty thresholds were created by multiplying the cost of a minimum food diet by three. Over time occasional adjustments have been made to account for inflation. In 1995, the Census Bureau created a supplemental poverty measure, which didn’t replace the poverty threshold, but exists to provide alternative information.

No adjustments have been made for the cost of housing. These days, housing costs account for upwards of two thirds of a poverty level budget. That’s another problem, the poverty threshold does not account for geographic differences in housing or other costs. As we all know, NH has some of the highest energy costs in the nation – as well as some of the highest property taxes and housing costs. Rent, day care, and health care costs combined make up at least half of the average working family’s budget.

The report finds that jobs in NH don’t match up with the cost of living. Only 30% of the jobs pay enough for a single parent with one child to have an “adequate” standard of living. The availability of those jobs depends greatly on where one resides in the state. The further north one travels, the more likely it is that the region is dependent on low wage service jobs. The cost of living does not decrease proportionally.

We all know that young people flee our state to avoid crushing student debt. We know they don’t come back because the employment prospects are limited and the exorbitant property taxes limit their ability to buy a house. There’s a shortage of rental property, so the rents are too damn high. We also know that many towns rely on volunteers to serve as firefighters and EMTs. This creates a conundrum in an aging population.

What are we doing about it? Well….nothing. We rely on volunteers to populate our legislature. Many of them are old and retired, and their sole interest is protecting their pensions. Some are businessmen whose sole interest is either passing or preventing legislation that applies to their businesses. Some are younger people who have no visible means of support. They generally do have a lot of expensive video equipment and plenty of weapons.

We are a state that lacks any kind of vision for the future. We live in and are legislated by the past.

Senator Jeb Bradley has been tweeting out lovely photos of his climbs up our 4000 footers in our various state parks. The same state parks we fund with user fees. NH is the only state that does it, because every other state was smart enough to realize that it doesn’t work. We are so miserly that we’ve created a mess. To fix the state parks would require a large infusion of cash. Our visionless legislature has been kicking the infrastructure can down the road for decades. You have only to drive down East Conway Road to see the results of that brilliant strategy. It would have been cheaper and smarter to keep up the maintenance of our roads and bridges all along, but that would have meant spending money, and we don’t do that here. As I’ve said far too many times – we prefer to pay the pound of cure. NH would rather amputate a limb than buy a band-aid.

The NH Senate will be voting on extending the NH Health Protection Plan (NHHPP) this week. Our Republican brethren don’t want to do it, because only people who can afford health insurance deserve it. The 50,000 low-wage workers in our state that are currently covered by the NHHPP apparently aren’t “deserving.” Greg Moore, the head of Americans for Prosperity in NH, was quoted at a hearing on the bill, as saying that “we aren’t getting a return on our investment,” when it comes to the NHHPP. The health of our residents isn’t worth investing in. It’s all about money for the Moores of the world. When everything has a price, nothing has any value.

Moore is a mouthpiece for the Koch Brothers, the funders of Americans for Prosperity. He was included in secret budget meetings last year. The Kochs aren’t creating any jobs here, other than Greg Moore’s. Luckily for the Kochs, we know that money is speech, and they get to speechify aplenty in a state where they have no investments other than AFP and the Free State Project.

The Senate is intent on attaching a work provision to the NHHPP. These are people who have been marinating in Reagan mythology for so long that they’re unable to accept reality. The welfare queen was a myth, and so is trickle down economics. When the NHHPP was first proposed, State Representatives Laurie Sanborn and Neal Kurk penned a letter to the editor that bemoaned the fact that “low income yacht dwellers” would be taking advantage of “free” health care. Has anyone found a low income yacht dweller in NH? The Republicans in our legislature believe that workers will quit their good paying jobs so that they can get “free” health care. Because that “free” health care will pay their rent and buy their groceries? These same legislators conveniently forget the fact that low-wage workers pay taxes. The same taxes that fund the NHHPP. 

The report from NHFPI shows that we use an outmoded tool to assess poverty, in a nation (and our state) where it is increasing. It’s difficult to imagine that this is an accident. The wealthiest country in the world doesn’t want to have accurate information about the poverty of its citizens, because that might require doing something about it. Right now, we’re more than content to blame that poverty on the poor.

published as an op-ed in the April 1 edition of the Conway Daily Sun 

No Pretense of Compassion

Remember the “compassionate conservatives?” Former President George W. Bush would get that earnest, constipated look on his face as he described himself as one. Early in his administration, he used compassionate conservatism as a basis for his faith based initiative program, which was just a way of shoveling tax dollars at right wing Christian groups. Once Bush got his war, we stopped hearing so much about compassion. He did have boundless compassion for the plight of the wealthy, giving them huge tax cuts while putting the cost of his wars on a credit card, and sending off the children of the far less wealthy to fight and die in the war he was so desperate to start.

The compassionate conservative label was a layer of sugar coating intended to distract us from the fact that what these conservatives were espousing was the same old mean-spirited conservative policies they’d always been in favor of.

Then along came the Tea Party, and sugar coating just washed away. There was no pretense of compassion any longer. That lack of pretense has grown louder and nastier over the years.

There was no pretense of compassion in Indiana, when Governor Pence signed the bill legitimizing discrimination by the religious right. There’s no better way for the religious to show their faith than by refusing to serve gays and lesbians. They tell us that if we don’t allow them to discriminate in the name of their religion that we are discriminating against them!  Of course the same section of their Bible that they point to in order to justify their bigotry also calls for stoning adulterers to death, a practice they don’t seem to have the necessary fortitude to engage in.

A reminder: In 2012, the NH legislature attempted to pass a similar bill. Eighty-five legislators voted for it. Thirty-one of them still serve in the legislature, including Conway’s own Frank McCarthy.

There was no pretense of compassion in the legislature this week while the House was in session, passing their bungled budget. Speaker Jasper and former Speaker (and leader of the rump caucus) O’Brien somehow kissed and made up and worked together to pass this thing. Representatives Neal Kurk and Dan McGuire cackled with glee over the many opportunities they took to gut programs for the most vulnerable among us.

Greg Moore of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch funded special interest group, appears to have had a great deal of influence over the budget, despite the fact that none of us voted for him. Moore was brought in to serve as O’Brien’s policy director in 2011, and then became O’Brien’s chief of staff. Moore wasn’t too principled to refuse a taxpayer-funded paycheck. (The guys who hate gummint never are.) At the end of the O’Brien reign, Moore moved on to AFP, where he has served his new masters (the Kochs) well by putting out political ads last year that were outright lies about the Affordable Care Act. He’s a paid shill who is given a disproportionate level of influence over our legislature and given a disproportionate share of attention by the incurious GOP sycophants who make up the mainstream NH media.

New Futures, a group that works to educate and advocate the reducing of drug addiction in NH staged a “die in” in front of the State House on the day the budget was voted on. Some 300 people lay on the ground, representing the 300 people who died of heroin overdoses in the last year. Some of the participants were family members. Greg Moore was overheard mocking them from inside the State House. Later in the day, a reporter from WMUR tweeted out a statement made by Governor Hassan on the budget. Moore’s tweeted response was “You want fries with that?” Because what is more fun than mocking the plight of those less fortunate! Please ask your elected Republicans why this Koch tool has such sway over House Republicans.

That the GOP has whined for years about the raiding of dedicated funds didn’t stop them from emptying the state’s rainy day fund – a move that would lower NH’s bond rating. Please ask your elected Republicans why they would sanction such an action, knowing how it will impact the future of our state. They claim that hacking apart the governor’s budget was necessary, that we must live within our means. These “means” are an artificial construct. NH is the 7^th wealthiest state in the nation. There are plenty of “means” at our disposal, but we refuse to use them. We refuse to raise sufficient revenues to fund our state at a responsible level, so every two years a new budget kicks the can down the road for the next legislature to have to deal with.

The hope now is that the Senate will have a more compassionate take on the budget. Anyone who equates the GOP majority in the NH Senate with compassion hasn’t paid any attention to the legislation they’ve been passing this year. One bill was a direct attack on people receiving benefits via EBT cards. The bill’s sponsor, Jeanne Forrester admitted that the bill’s provisions were impossible to enforce, but it needed to be passed anyway. What could be more important than demonizing the poor? It’s certainly cheaper than bucking up and doing something about the infrastructure. It’s the kind of legislation that appeals to the lowest common denominator of the GOP, something that she can point to with pride when it’s time to pass the hat for campaign contributions.

Today’s GOP no longer requires the veneer of faux compassion. Today’s GOP would mock Jesus for not getting a co-pay from the lepers.

Door Prize - A twitter exchange with the far right

AFP-FSP Twins Separated at Birth

This is Greg Moore, from the NH branch of Americans For Prosperity. AFP is a far, far right political advocacy group, funded by the Koch brothers. Here we see him urging members of the Free State Project (armed libertarians moving to NH to take over and dismantle our state government, then threaten secession - also funded by the Koch brothers) to run for office. 

Carla Gericke is the President of the FSP. 
Mark Warden is a soon-to-be former State Representative, pondering a run against State Senator Lou D'Alessandro. 
Dan and Carol McGuire are Free Staters and state reps, living in Epsom. 

This is from the Free State Project website:

We are not a political action organization. We are not tied to any political party or organization; we do not run candidates for election; we do not financially support or endorse candidates; and we do not oppose or endorse legislation. 

Hmmm. One of these things is not like the other. They aren't a political action organization - they just want to act politically. This doe-eyed disingenuous routine is getting old. 

Note: It's true that they aren't tied to any political party. They mostly run as Republicans, but they encourage people to run as a member of whatever party is most likely to get them elected.


h/t to anonymous tipster
h/t to Tuck at miscellany blue.

The DECIDING VOTE on Obamacare

Scott Brown asserts (not very intelligibly) that Senator Shaheen cast the DECIDING VOTE for Obamacare. He says it's true - he was there! This is, of course, the message that his friends the Kochs dba Americans for Prosperity NH are pushing. 

This is the flyer that Americans solely  for the Prosperous are canvassing in Manchester with this weekend:

OMG! It must be true! Scott Brown says he was there! Americans for Prosperity have fliers that say so! After all, Greg Moore wouldn't lie to us...would he? 

Oh dear. It seems that he would. After all, how could Jeanne Shaheen cast the deciding vote if Mary Landrieu did? That's what Americans for Prosperity is saying in Louisiana:




WaPo

Americans for Prosperity needs to get their story straight. 

But wait! If Jeanne Shaheen didn't cast the deciding vote because Mary Landrieu did, how could Bill Nelson have done it? 



American Crossroads is Karl Rove's PAC. Perhaps he and the Kochs need to get their stories straight. 

Uh oh. It was Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas who cast the deciding vote for Obamacare:




But wait - it was Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio who cast the deciding vote! 



OH NO! It wasn't Sherrod Brown - it was Al Franken!



Or at least that's what the Tea Party Patriots think. We now have 6 "deciding votes." 

But wait - there's more!  Ken Cuccinelli, the failed goobernatorial candidate from Virginia claims that Senator Mark Warner cast the tie breaking vote.

So, let's summarize. Jeanne Shaheen, Mary Landrieu, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Sherrod Brown, and Al Franken each cast the deciding vote on Obamacare, according to a variety of wingnut funders and PACS. According to Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Warner cast the tie breaking vote. Presumably all those deciders were tied, and required a tie breaker. 

Or not. What's really going on here is that Big Wingnut Money is spending lots of it to convince low information voters from targeted states that their Senator cast the deciding vote. 

Thanks SCOTUS!  

Panderers to the Prosperous

Here's what we've all been waiting for:  the America Is For The Prosperous - NH Legislative Scorecard. Greg Moore, who was former Speaker O'Brien's babysitter for a while (to the taxpayer tune of $75,000 a year) is now the executive director of Pasty and Pecunious. They've just come out with their legislative report card, based on 13 key votes. The votes included right to work for less, and of course anything that included a revenue stream was on their shit list.

The scoring key was designed by someone who spent many lonely, acne covered hours playing Dungeons and Dragons in high school:

A = Advocate of Prosperity
B = Guardian of Prosperity 
C = Friend of Prosperity
D = Neglector of Prosperity
F = Opponent of Prosperity

Best of all is A+  =   PROTECTOR OF PROSPERITY!  That comes with a trumpet fanfare! 

Al Baldasaro is a PROTECTOR OF PROSPERITY.  Almost all Democrat scored F's, even the fairly conservative ones. Those who did not were the Free Staters:

Joel Winters, Democrat and Free Stater scored a 31% - an F.  Sorry Joel. You are an OPPONENT OF PROSPERITY. 

The Free Staters who ran as Democrats in order to fool their constituents scored higher than some Republicans. Convenience Democrat and Free Stater Michael Garcia had a score of 100%. He's an ADVOCATE OF PROSPERITY. Convenience Democrat/Free Stater Anarchist Tim O'Flaherty scored a 91%. He still qualifies as an ADVOCATE OF PROSPERITY.  

Gene Chandler - lifelong Republican and House Minority Leader scored 92%. He gets an A for ADVOCATE OF PROSPERITY.  But - Republican David Bickford only scored 40%. He gets an F. He's an OPPONENT OF PROSPERITY. Republican James Belanger scored 67%. He's a NEGLECTOR OF PROSPERITY. Brad Bailey scored an 89%. He's a mere GUARDIAN OF PROSPERITY.  How can this dude even hold up his head in public? The man who wants to be our next governor, George Lambert scored 100%, but it was not a perfect score, so he's only an ADVOCATE OF PROSPERITY. It must gall him a tad that his buddy, JR Hoell had a perfect score and has won the coveted title of PROTECTOR OF PROSPERITY.  

The scoring has nothing to do with missed votes. Republican Ronald Belanger missed 9 of the 13 votes, but he still got a score of 100%. Ronald is an ADVOCATE  OF PROSPERITY. We all know Kyle Tasker missed a bunch of votes this session. Kyle still  gets a 100% score, making him an ADVOCATE OF PROSPERITY.


This scorecard is telling on 2 levels.  These are not people who are thinking about the future of our state. They are thinking about keeping their seats in the next election. 

And any Democrat who gets a high score isn't one. 

The NH Medicaid Expansion Waltz

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. 1. (n.) A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

What is Wrong With the NH Media: An Illustration

Big press conference today at the LOB, on the subject of medicaid expansion. Good speakers, good experts who gave  good answers to questions. Lots of media.

And what did the reporters from our major papers do the minute the press conference ended?

They raced over to Greg Moore of Americans for Prosperity. As you can see in the picture above, Moore is surrounded by Kevin Landrigan of the Nashua Telegraph, Garry Rayno of the Union Leader, and Norma Love of the AP.

Greg Moore is not an expert on health care or Medicaid. Greg Moore is a shill for a far rightwing group that claims tax free status so they don't have to disclose their donors. (Don't whinge about the IRS, APF. You slithered through - and the last thing you are is charitable. To anyone.)

Some of those donors are undoubtedly paying for Greg Moore's health insurance. During the last biennium his insurance was paid by NH taxpayers, while he worked for disgraced former speaker Bill O'Brien.

This is what is wrong with the NH media. A roomful of experts to talk to, but  they'll break their legs to interview a wingnut who has nothing but propaganda to offer.

UNH Logo - Tempest in a Teaparty Pot

The University of NH has been trying to find a logo to replace the current Thompson Hall tower logo. A NY design firm was engaged and came up with some less than stellar concepts.

Naturally, in the state that ranks a firm 50th in the nation for state funding of our university system, that's created a bit of a buzz. Oh, the outrage! The clutching of pearls!

Just exactly who is it that is yanking on those strands of pearls?

Greg Moore, state director of Americans for Prosperity, who said he's been digging into the finances of UNH and the USNH system, said,” this appears (unfortunately) to be an all too common a pattern in terms of a lack of disregard of the mission of both the school and system, which is providing a quality education at the lowest cost possible for the families of NH.”

Greg Moore....Greg Moore - that name sounds so familiar. Oh, I remember!

Speaker O’Brien, after numerous clownish debacles in the early weeks of the legislature, has hired a fellow named Greg Moore to be the “House Policy Director.” Moore was formerly the policy and communications director for John Stephen. Apparently the new Policy Czar will prevent the Speaker from trying to improperly toss Democratic legislators out of office. Perhaps he will ensure that no more embarrassing bills will go public, like the one Rep. Lars Christiansen filed to get rid of the judge who convicted a child rapist Christiansen seems to have taken under his wing. We taxpayers are paying the Speaker’s babysitter $75,000 a year. 

Mr. Moore certainly wasn't worried about providing quality services at the lowest possible  cost to the taxpayers of NH, when he was feeding from the taxpayer funded trough. That's a mighty hefty salary for a guy who repeatedly failed to prevent the Speaker from bringing shame to the state.  Then there's the fact that  Americans for Prosperity is a right wing political advocacy group. This guy gets paid to bloviate on behalf of the Koch brothers. We should listen to him....why?

“$100,000 is an obscene misuse of taxpayer money. Yes, taxpayer. I don't care what fund it comes from, taxpayers support UNH,” Alicia Preston, group member and alumnus, said.

You may remember Alicia Preston, who served as communications director for Craig Benson, the only one-term Republican governor in recent NH history. The GOP governor that the NHGOP never mentions. He is their Voldemort. Ms. Preston has a PR firm, and has worked for Guiliani, Pataki, Jeb Bradley, and Frank Guinta. Are you starting to see a pattern yet?

Alumni John Hikel said, “The logo is just a symptom to another part of the problem.”  

This alum is Rep. John Hikel of Goffstown, who recently filed a criminal complaint against 189 of his fellow legislators because he was unhappy with the way they voted on a partial repeal of NH's Stand Your Ground law. 

All right wingers. ONLY right wingers. It's the NH version of the war on Christmas.