A Tutorial for the NH Media on the Meaning of the Word Apology

 Let us begin with a definition, paying particular attention to #1: 

Webster's defines an apology as an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret. Hold that thought, we'll be coming back to it. 

On December 11, we learned that newly sworn in Republican State Representative Dawn Johnson from Laconia had posted an anti-Semitic theory (complete with pictures) on social media. The material she posted came from the Daily Stormer, a white nationalist/neo-nazi website. Rep. Johnson posted on Twitter, and tried to post on Facebook but her post was blocked, which she complained about on Facebook. (Johnson has since closed her mainstream social media accounts.) 

William Tucker, aka Miscellany Blue saw Johnson posting material from the Daily Stormer, and tweeted about it. NH is a small state, and the story spread quickly on social media. People began calling for her resignation. She's also on the school board in Laconia, which generated even more outrage. 

The story was covered by InDepthNH.org. Their story was picked up by Concord Patch and the Laconia Daily Sun. This was the headline:

From the InDepth story:

"In an apology posted to her social media accounts, Johnson apologized for sharing an article from the Neo-Nazi website, saying she was unaware of the source of the article.

“I have removed the report as it came from a source I do not agree with and thanks to a couple of people who showed me,” Johnson wrote."

The Union Leader  had a few paragraphs about the story in the State House Dome column, with the heading "New rep sorry."

From the UL story: 

“I want to apologize for a post I did the other day. I have removed the report as it came from a source I do not agree with and thanks to a couple of people (who) showed me,” Johnson wrote.

”I apologize again and will in the future look at the source closer before sharing content. God Bless and Happy Friday!”

As we learned above, an apology is an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret.

Rep. Johnson expresses regret for posting "from a source she does not agree with." She does not, however, express regret for the CONTENT of what she posted.  This is not an apology. It's a weasely attempt at ass covering. 

Johnson got caught posting anti-semitic garbage from the Daily Stormer. (During Hanukkah!) She didn't accidentally fall on her keyboard, click on the Daily Stormer site and repost their material by accident. She went to that site on purpose, and reposted material that she agrees with. 

There is no way for her to apologize for that. What can she say, "Sorry I'm an anti-Semite, but I'll try to do better?" Instead, she made up a lame excuse, and the NH media was all too eager to accept it as an apology. Why? 

Because reporting it for what it is might upset people. Republican people, especially, and the NH media is always afraid to do that. 

The NHGOP Twitter account has been silent since December 11. So has the Twitter account of Governor Sununu. 

The NH Republicans want this to go away, so that they don't have to ask for her resignation. They'd rather keep a known white supremacist in the legislature than lose the seat, even when they have a 26 seat majority. 

In Today's Mail

I've corrected my recent piece about those who didn't sign off on the House Sexual Harassment policy. State Representative Brian Stone was annoyed that I had said he'd suspended his campaign because he was in jail for violating a restraining order. I was wrong. He was arrested for violating a restraining order, but the charges against him were dropped. He says he didn't suspend his campaign because of the arrest, or any other reason. I take him at his word.  

Let's summarize - Brian Stone was arrested for violating a restraining order. The charges were dropped. Brian Stone did not sign off on the House Sexual Harassment policy. Those are the facts. 

I apologize for my errors. Mea culpa.  

This could have gone a lot more easily if Brian Stone had sent me a note asking,  instead of issuing threats. 

http://www.fosters.com/article/20150224/gjnews_01/150229791

Representative Stone has expressed annoyance because he feels I've insinuated that he's part of a sexual harassment culture. I'd suggest if he wants to be free of that stain, he should leave the Republican Party. 

CEASE AND DESIST

December 1, 2017

Rep. Brian J. Stone

860 1^st NH Turnpike

Northwood, NH 03261

Dear Susan Bruce:

You are hereby directed to

CEASE AND DESIST ALL LIBEL & DEFAMATION OF

MY CHARACTER AND REPUTATION.

I’m an educated, respected professional in the community. I have spent years serving the community in public service and building a positive reputation. I have learned that you have engaged in spreading false, destructive, and defamatory rumors about me.

Under New Hampshire law, it is unlawful to engage in libel of another’s character and reputation. libel consists of

(1) a written statement that tends to injure reputation;

(2) communicated to another; and

(3) that the writer and/or publisher knew or should have known was false.

Your libelous statements involved publishing of an article where you state that I had suspended an election campaign because I was ‘in jail’ for violating a restraining order (i.e. https://www.conwaydailysun.com/opinion/columns/susan-bruce-harassment-in-the-house/article_adb5b94a-d633-11e7-89f7-8b8bb8f316ac.html https://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2017/11/harassment-in-house.html https://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2017/05/no-honor-among-sleaze.html . This is not true. I have never served a jail sentence. I have never been convicted of any crime, no do I have any criminal charges pending against me. I have never suspended my campaign, let alone for that reason.

Accordingly, I demand that you (A) immediately cease and desist your unlawful defamation of me, (B) remove the said article, or in the alternative, any reference to me in the article, and (C) provide me with prompt written assurance within ten (10) days that you will cease and desist from further libel of my character and reputation.

If you do not comply with this cease and desist demand within this time period, I am entitled to seek monetary damages and equitable relief for your libel. In the event you fail to meet this demand, please be advised that I will pursue all available legal remedies, including seeking monetary damages, criminal prosecution, injunctive relief, and an order that you pay court costs and attorney’s fees. Your liability and exposure under such legal action could be considerable.

Before taking these steps, however, I wished to give you one opportunity to discontinue your illegal conduct by complying with this demand within ten (10) days.

Sincerely,

Rep. Brian J. Stone

Tom Alciere, Free State Project Role Model

Remember Tom Alciere?

He was elected to the NH House in the November 2000 election. Days after taking office in 2001, he was forced to resign after this:

Alciere told the Valley News of Lebanon that he loves it when someone kills a police officer: ''It's unfortunate that cops do make it necessary (to kill them) when they're waging a war on drugs, and I view cops as enemy officers.'' He said he is ''too chicken'' to do it himself.

He acknowledges posting his views at Internet chat sites for months, including this 1999 comment: ''Nobody will ever be safe until the last cop is dead.'' 

It seems the doughty Republicans of Nashua weren't paying much attention to whom they voted for:

In 1997, three days after Carl Drega killed two state troopers, a part-time judge and a newspaper editor in Colebrook, Alciere sent a letter saying that except for the editor, Drega was ''an otherwise innocent cop-killer taking out enemy officers in battle.'' 

And there was this:

After the election, Alciere went online and said he was elected by a ''bunch of fat, stupid, ugly old ladies that watch soap operas, play bingo, read tabloids and don't know the metric system.'' 

In 2009 he was arrested for assaulting an 11 year old girl. 

He's back on the radar, because he sent a letter out to GOP candidates warning that Paulbearers would "sink the Republican Party" if they failed to nominate libertarian extremists. Tuck has the story at Miscellany Blue.

Alciere was forced to resign in 2001 when the NH GOP cared about things like violent rhetoric. That was before the Free State Project chose NH as the state they intended to colonize and take over. They flew under the radar for nearly a decade, but their violent rhetoric has begun to ratchet up in the last couple of years. Some are quite vocal these days about their "obligation" to respond to the evil statists with violence, including those who advocate cop killing. 

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2014/01/those-peace-loving-free-staters.html

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2014/06/copblock-backpedaling-furiously.html

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2014/06/big-turd-lands-in-free-state-project.html

It was Free Staters who started the Cop Block website, where Larken Rose (member of the FSP) narrates a video called When Should You Shoot a Cop?

Alciere isn't the only libertarian nutter who venerated Carl Drega. Vin Suprynowiscz, FSP member, wrote a book attempting to make him a sympathetic character. 

Given all that Alciere has espoused, it's no wonder that he served as an inspiration to early Free State Project colonizers, as we see in this 2002 Yahoo Group:

The point I'm trying to make is that if Tom Alciere can get elected, 
anyone can. He found a way to work the system and got himself 
elected, when he would otherwise be unelectable.

Why is he unelectable? He posted several times on Usenet that if a 
person is selling drugs, and the cops try to bust him, then the drug 
dealer has a right to shoot the police in defense of his honest 
trade. He refers to his constituents as "lame-brains who will vote 
for anyone that smiles and waves at them." He also runs a website, 
deporttheborderpatrol.com on which he gleefully contemplates the 
possibility of Mexicans sniping Border Patrol agents from across the 
Rio Grande. He is not a lawyer or well-known businessman, if I 
recall (can't find it on his site right now), he stocks groceries at 
the supermarket.

And 

So I suggest that if you think we need a new party, a porcupine 
party, independence party, or whatever, just STOP...and consider that 
what we really want to do is to get our porcupines elected. Read 
Alciere's story, see how easily he got elected by running AS A 
REPUBLICAN, just BECAUSE he ran as a REPUBLICAN. There are three 
ways to get votes: win people to your side with the issues you 
believe in, run with a party that most voters will DEFAULT to if they 
don't know the issues, or outspend everyone else in a massive PR 
blitz. By infiltrating a major party, we will have the advantage of 
all three--financial support, votes from the "default voters" as well 
as ISSUES we can use to win over the voters.

Are the Free Staters infiltrators of the NH GOP or allies? 

Read Alciere's website. Note how that if he can get elected in New 
Hampshire, certainly a Porcupine can.

Back then the Free Staters marveled that Alciere could get elected. Now they sound just like him. 

A reminder: 


Last year, NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn was on NHPR's The Exchange, speaking of the Free State Project in the most glowing terms:

Horn said the group’s philosophy is “something that’s right in line with the Republican Party.”   

"For the most part," explained Horn, "the Free State Project has been very much a movement with character that I think has probably been a positive thing in our state.”

When is it okay to shoot a cop, Jennifer? 

Same Old Song and Dance

Last week in Los Angeles, a 100-year old water pipe broke, and spilled more than 20 million gallons of water. That’s a day’s worth of water for about 100,000 people. According to a story at Grist.org, due to our aging water infrastructure, ancient pipes leak 7 billion gallons of treated drinking water every day. Most of our water infrastructure was put into place during the early part of the 20^th century. It’s now languishing in disrepair because we have other national and state spending priorities. We aren’t willing to invest in our country, because it would mean spending less on offense, and it would mean creating jobs, and that can’t happen while the Black Guy is in the White House. All that dripping water is something to chew on as we await the coming water wars.

It is an election year, and around New Hampshire, politicians are gearing up for the primary on September 9. The signs are coming out, and so are the usual talking points. “Cut spending!” “No New Taxes!” That’s been the GOP mantra since I moved to NH thirty years ago. It’s been successful because it is easily absorbed and repeated by low information/low intellect voters. As a plan for running a state, it has not been successful – any more than it would be a successful business plan. A business that doesn’t invest in itself will eventually go under. We’re seeing what becomes of a state that doesn’t invest in itself – all the states around us are bouncing back from the meltdown of the economy in 2008. Our neighbor states invested in education and infrastructure. They began planning for the future. NH remains obstinately stuck in the past. 

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, over half of NH’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition. NH reports the need to invest $847 million in drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years. We need to invest $1.2 billion in wastewater infrastructure over the next 20 years. We all know that there are hundreds of red listed bridges that need fixing, and that our state park system has unmet needs of about $100 million because we don’t fund the park system properly.

With all of that in mind, I looked at the websites of our top gubernatorial candidates. Andrew Hemingway wants to offer tax cut incentives to bring new businesses here. He wants to create a business friendly atmosphere, which in Hemingway speak means “a regulatory and tax structure that is inviting to small and large businesses.” Nowhere in the “Solutions First” section of his website is infrastructure even mentioned. We’ve heard all of this before.

Walter Havenstein, the Maryland resident who wants to be our governor, has a snappy graphic and a 3-part plan on his website. It seems that our problem is business taxes and high electric costs. Havenstein blames the high electric costs on REGGI. Perhaps it is unfair to expect a recent emigre to be familiar with what the Seabrook nuclear plant did to our energy costs, and how PSNH has managed itself over the years. He also adds the usual mantra of no income/no sales tax. No unions. Passing right to work will send a strong message to the whole country that we are open for business! We need qualified employees! The university system better shape up! We need to eliminate regulations and fees! And so on.

This is all in his plan for The Economic Transformation of NH.  If it sounds curiously familiar, it’s because it’s the same plan we’ve heard from every GOP candidate for the last 30 years. The word infrastructure is never mentioned in Havenstein’s 3 point plan. He does, however, pat himself on the back for his career at BAE Systems, a company that relies entirely on government contracts. Walt may be a stranger to NH, but he’s no stranger to feeding from the public trough.

Havenstein and Hemingway have both taken the Americans for Prosperity pledge. The Koch funded AFP is desperate to ensure that NH residents don’t have health insurance or roads and bridges. The more pledges a candidate signs, the less creativity or actual thought is required of them.

Governor Hassan acknowledges the need for modern, safe, transportation infrastructure on her campaign website, and touts her accomplishments in investing in business-backed plans for investing in road and bridge projects. She’s the only candidate who uses the word infrastructure on her campaign website.

None of the candidates mentioned telecommunications infrastructure at all. The idea that we can somehow continue to struggle to move into the 21^st century without dramatically improved telecommunications infrastructure is befuddling.

A great deal of high volume whining goes on about the transportation fund. Many people seem to think that somewhere in the highway budget is buried treasure that’s just waiting to be properly spent. The Bartlett Center for Kochenomics insists that it’s the carve outs from the highway fund that are the problem. It is true that money from the highway fund goes to the Dept. of Safety, and sometimes to other departments. The trickle downers are aghast upon their fainting couches at the very thought! What they don’t ever acknowledge is this: If NH doesn’t raise enough revenue to run the state properly, then departments will continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. That’s how the NH budget has worked for as long as we can all remember.

Infrastructure investment isn’t a sexy subject. It does not inflame the passions of voters. Addressing NH’s infrastructure needs won’t be cheap. The longer we put it off, the more costly it becomes, and we’ve been putting it off for decades, because NO TAXES/CUT SPENDING. Guns get people wound up. Infrastructure bores people. Roads, bridges, and drinking water are all essential to our state’s economic future, and all we’re getting from our candidates are the same old non-solutions from the last 3 decades. Its no wonder the future looks bleak – we can’t seem to find candidates who have any interest in it.

© 2014 sbruce

Published in the August 8 edition of the Conway Daily Sun Newspaper. 

Neanderthalenis Seabrookis

Max Abramson is a Republican candidate for the NH state legislature. He's also a member of the Free State Project, the group of armed malcontents moving to NH to take over and dismantle our state government, then threaten to secede. 

His illiterate friend is a real prince, isn't he? 

This is Abramson's sports section from his FB page. Apparently "hot females" are a "sport" in his world. 

I'm so tired of guys like this. The men of the NHGOP are a constant source of shame. 

https://www.facebook.com/max.abramson1?fref=ts

How Now Brown Cash Cow

The 2014 legislative session is coming to an end. The House passed a lot of bills that met obstruction in the Senate. A number of NH Senators have announced that they won’t be running for reelection. With luck, a few more will reach that same decision.

Last week’s Senate vote on the creation of and increase to the state minimum wage is an example of why the Senate needs the application of a big broom. During the O’Brien years, the state minimum wage was struck down, leaving NH to march in lockstep with the federal minimum wage. Even the ability to set our own minimum was too frighteningly permissive for the O’Brien crowd. (Ironic when one considers that the gummint haters turned over the NH option to the federal gummint.) The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If a minimum wage worker worked 40 hours a week, they’d earn $290 before taxes. The cheapest apartment advertised in the local classifieds was $600 a month, without utilities. Even if they could pay the rent, they’d be unable to afford utilities, food, transportation, clothing, and health care.

Most employers that pay minimum wage don’t offer full time jobs, because then they’d have to offer benefits. These same companies (big box stores in particular) also provide fluctuating hours, so a worker never has a regular schedule they can count on. That makes juggling other jobs difficult at best. When companies don’t pay workers enough to live on, the rest of us help subsidize their company profits, by picking up the tab for public assistance programs.

Legislators and business owners love to pretend that the minimum wage is a sort of training wage for teenagers entering the job market. In NH, 72% of minimum wage workers are over the age of 20. They’re breadwinners. In our brave new economy, where we manufacture nothing, the bulk of the jobs being created are low wage service jobs. Adults with families to support are competing with teens for low wage jobs.

The NH Senate voted to kill the establishment of a state minimum wage, and a two-step increase that would result in a state min. wage of $9 an hour by 2016. Senator John Reagan was quoted in the Laconia Citizen as saying he “thinks it’s silly to say someone couldn’t be supported on minimum wage, as they can take on multiple jobs.” Our local Senator, multimillionaire Jeb Bradley said that raising the minimum wage would harm teenagers and entry-level workers. It sure would suck for entry level workers to be able to afford food and shelter. Senator Andy Sanborn, who owns a bar/restaurant, drove up in his Mercedes to claim that an increase in minimum wage would hurt restaurants. Sanborn should have declared conflict of interest and abstained from voting. He pays some of his employees minimum wage. Former Senate President Peter Bragdon (who just signed a contract for a job paying $185,000 a year) called the bill “feel good” legislation. He’s right. It would feel good for workers to be slightly more able to feed their children and put a roof over their heads.

A couple of Senators took the minimum wage challenge, where they lived for a week on the minimum wage. Senator David Watters said that it quickly became clear that on that wage he wouldn’t be able to continue to live in Dover without food and housing assistance. Senator David Pierce said that the challenge produced such anxiety for him that he was shaken by the experience.

The cost of higher education has skyrocketed. The kinds of jobs being created offer low wages and no possibility of advancement. The creation and perpetuation of a permanent, poor underclass in our country will have dire consequences.

In other news, Scott Brown was in North Conway last week. Many of our local politicians were on hand to meet, greet, endorse, and toady up to the recent émigré who wants to be NH’s next US Senator. From Lloyd Jones’ excellent news story, we learned that even though Scott Brown moved to NH in February some of our local state representatives and wannabes think Scott’s the guy who represents NH values.

Let us be clear about what kind of value our GOP friends see in Scott Brown. It’s green and has a funny pyramid on it. This senate election is reportedly going to be one of the most expensive in our nation’s history. Thanks to the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions by the Supreme Court, the amount of money shoveled into our state will be breathtaking. Our local solons understand that of all the candidates running against Senator Shaheen, the one who is going to have the big bucks behind him is Brown. Politicians are pragmatic folk, and they’re going to get behind the money candidate, and wait for the trickle down effect. The state GOP is desperate for cash. Mr. Brown is the cow they’re pinning their hopes on.

The Supreme Court has ruled yet again that money is speech. No longer do we have “free” speech, thanks to SCOTUS the kind of speech we have is very expensive. Those who give the most get the loudest speech. With no limits and no accountability. It’s called dark money, because there is no transparency. We the voters won’t know where all this money to manipulate us comes from. The only one who will know is the candidate. Big money comes with marching orders. We are about to be bombarded with negative ads, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Negative ads work in two ways and both are intentional. They discourage people from voting and they plant lies that become truths. When Scott Brown was here last week, he repeated one of them. The Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity NH has been pushing a particular message for months: “Jeanne Shaheen Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” Scott Brown repeated that, and embellished it, by saying he was there and he saw her do it.

In Louisiana, Americans for Prosperity’s ads inform voters “Mary Landrieu Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” In Florida, Bill Nelson cast that vote. In Arkansas it was Mark Pryor. In Ohio, “Sherrod Brown Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” In Minnesota it was Al Franken. And in Virginia, Mark Warner “Cast the Tie-Breaking Vote for Obamacare.”

So, when Scott Brown says he was there and he saw her do it, he’s counting on the fact that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. It’s both craven and cynical - and that’s what life is going to look like in NH from now till November.

© sbruce 2014 

Published in the May 16, 2014 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Scottachusetts

For months now, former Senator Scott Brown, formerly of Massachusetts, has been flirting with New Hampshire. He talked about running for US Senate against NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Then he moved to NH in December. Then he talked some more. Some of the Republicans were thrilled by the idea, figuring that Senator Big Name would bring in all kinds of money. They need the money. So far greed trumps the anger emanating from the liberty crowd.

Brown has moved from flirting to heavy petting. No commitment, yet, but the windows are certainly steaming up. Last week he announced he was setting up an exploratory committee, and heading out on a listening tour of the state. This was a good thing - if he’s going to run for office, he needs to learn his way around the state.  He packed up his carpetbag, and leaped into his shiny, waxed pickup, and headed off into the frost heaves.

Sen. Brown’s Twitter team (more on them later) tweeted out pictures every few hours. Scott Brown in Rochester at a diner. Scott Brown at Linos in Wakefield, having a chat with a group of men, including newly minted Executive Councilor Joe Kenney. There was a photo of Gene Chandler trying to sell Brown a time-share in N. Conway village. Next he went up to Berlin, where Mayor Paul Grenier commented that tourists were always welcome to visit and spend money.

The tour worked its way over much the first Congressional district. Senator Brown still doesn’t know where Peterborough and Keene are, but he’s got plenty of time to learn his way around his new state. Give the guy a break; he’s only been here for about 3 months.  One picture, taken by James Pindell of WMUR, and sent out on Twitter showed some mud on his truck bumper along with some strategically placed duct tape. Yessir Mabel, he’s just like us.  

The big question about all of this is pretty simple: who is Scott Brown going to be in NH? In Massachusetts he ran as a moderate Republican. In NH we don’t have moderate Republicans any more. Will Brown reinvent himself to fit in to his new state? Is he that big an opportunist? And why is his Twitter team preemptively blocking folks? They’ve blocked at least one state rep, my blogger friend Tuck at Miscellany Blue, and even blocked Dante Scala, who teaches poli-sci at UNH. A brief twitter campaign of #freedante turned that around, but, preemptive blocking on the part of someone who just moved to NH half an hour ago is odd.

There are things in his voting record that will please the tea partiers. He voted against a federal school breakfast supplement. He’s supported the use of torture. Brown is also a supporter of Big Oil, and Big Banking, and has voted to continue subsidizing them, while threatening cuts to Social Security and Medicare. (He may learn the hard way about the demographics of his NEW state full of OLD people.)

There are going to be some things that are tough for Senator Brown to explain. He voted for Romneycare, and may have a hard time convincing folks that Romney care is different from the ACA. It’s going to be tough to explain why he thought everyone in his OLD state deserved access to health insurance, but he doesn’t think everyone in his NEW state merits that same access.  He supports the roving wiretaps of the Patriot Act, which will be hard to explain to the liberty crowd. Brown will learn the hard way that privacy is a big deal to NH voters. We can’t expect him to know everything – he’s only been here for 3 months.

In 2012 he said, “I’m a moderate, pro-choice Republican, and I always will be.” That probably isn’t going to go over well with today’s NH Republicans, who are desperate to eliminate regulations on everything BUT the uteri of half the population.

By far and away the biggest problem Senator Brown has when it comes to reinventing himself is GUNS. Ever since Obama took office the prevailing philosophy of the libertea fringe is MOAR GUNZ. Scott Brown, former moderate Republican, formerly of Massachusetts has not shown an adherence to the MOAR GUNZ philosophy. He’s been in favor of licenses and background checks. In 2012 he opposed right-to-carry reciprocity. In 2012 he was in favor of extending the state’s assault weapons ban, but not the federal. Then, in 2013, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, Scott Brown said okay to a federal ban on assault weapons.

How will Senator Brown bounce back from that? NH State Rep. JR Hoell has called Brown a “traitor to his oath to protect the US Constitution” because he was in favor of “gun control.” That was AFTER Hoell threatened armed insurrection if Brown were the GOP nominee. Will Brown have to wear Kevlar under his folksy barn jacket?  How will he reinvent himself to be THE candidate running against Jeanne Shaheen? Poor Jack Kimball must be howling with rage inside his command center, as he scans the horizon for UN invaders.

The NH Republican Party is desperate for the dollars that Brown will bring to the state. Poor old former Senator Bob Smith isn’t going to get the dark money juices flowing, and neither is Jim “sycophants waiting to shake my hand” Rubens. The GOP doesn’t seem to have much of a bench.  Young researchers are undoubtedly poring over deeds in vacation areas to find other well known, wealthy Republicans who might want to move quickly to NH and run for office. The NH GOP is open for business and Scottachusetts is obviously for sale.

© sbruce 2014

published as an op/ed in the March 21, 2014 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

NH State Rep Will Shoot Unless He Gets His Way

My friend Tuck over at Miscellany Blue  finds that NH State Rep. JR Hoell is mightily miffed at the idea of Scott Brown as NH's next US Senator. Ole JR and the freedumb/libertea crowd aren't peeved that Brown is a carpetbagger from out of state, who has never lived in NH, and seems to be something of a lightweight. No, they're annoyed because he's not a gibbering gun nut, like them.

Hoell, in an interview with the mighty intellects at Granite Grok, had this to say:

We’re not here to threaten anybody. We’re here standing on our soapbox as opposed to standing with our ammo box in hand to make a point politically. The message needs to get out that Scott Brown does not represent New Hampshire.

If things continue the way they are, there may be a day or a time where firearms and ammo are necessary. It happened in the Revolutionary War. I’d like to think we’re not there yet, but as things continue to unravel, that may be the next step.

Allow me to translate: "we aren't here to threaten anybody - BUT - unless the small crowd of pinheads I hang out with get their way on every issue, you bet we're gonna start shooting. For your own good, of course."

Big h/to to Tuck for listening to that interview so that the rest of us don't have to. 

That Pesky Political Correctness

It's 10 days till the special election for the NH House in Nashua. As I've pointed out, there has been some controversy surrounding remarks made by candidate Pete Silva. He said that on the day of the primary election "I thought I was in New Delhi." His opponent is Latha Mangipudi, who is of Indian descent. His further comment about how Indian voters would be "coming out of the woodwork" to vote for Mangipudi seemed, to many, to carry the unappealing aroma of racism. Silva, and the NH GOP have been quite aggrieved since the story aired, bemoaning "political correctness." 

It has been my experience that people who complain bitterly about political correctness are people who miss the good old days of racial/ethnic, homophobic, or misogynistic slurs. Back when a broad was a broad, a fag was a fag, and a nigger, a kike, or a spic knew their place. Forgive me if I don't miss those days. Feel free to call me a bleeding heart - I just don't think we need to speak to each other with that kind of contempt and disrespect. 

In the Nashua Patch, Silva offers up some unrepentant attempts at justification:

"I'm standing by what I said, because people are turning it into something it isn't. If there had been a huge turnout of Italian voters, and someone said, 'It looks like Little Italy,' I wouldn't have a problem with that.

How generous. He might, however, have a problem if someone said "look at all the dagos, greaseballs, guineas, and wops crawling out of the Sicilian woodwork." I'm betting his disgust with political correctness might be tested by the use of ethnic slurs that apply to HIS background. 

Those words show contempt and a lack of respect. The same kind he displayed when speaking of Ms. Mangipudi and the voters in her district. 

His comments are inexcusable. 

There were 50 to 60 people there who heard what I said. I was a Majority Leader – I know how to speak in a group of people, and I wasn't trying to be guarded, because what I said was harmless," Silva said.

Silva was the House Majority Leader under former Speaker O'Brien. He was part of the O'Brien leadership team.  That alone should instill some fear into the voters of Nashua. That he thinks he knows how to speak in front of a group of people is certainly worrisome. Silva's refusal to apologize was stupid. By refusing, he's kept this story alive far longer than it needed to be. Unless he thinks he's going to win BECAUSE of those comments, the refusal to apologize is a big tactical error. Someday the NH GOP is going to want the immigrant community's votes. This isn't the way to get 'em. 

NH Senators Conspire To Take Your Water Rights Away!

The latest conspiracy theory has come to town. The NH Tea Party has decided that SB 11, a bill that permits municipalities to establish water and/or sewer utility districts and to enter into intermunicipal agreements for the establishment of such districts.

A bill that would allow municipalities to work together? Oh the horror! What can they be thinking?

Thank heaven those sharp eyed Tea Partiers found the menace in this abhorrent bit of legislation. What kind of people would sponsor such a thing?

Oh dear. The lead sponsors are state Senators Nancy Stiles and Russell Prescott. Well known pinkos, the two of 'em 

A state rep friends tells me his/her phone is ringing steadily and he/she is getting lots of email on this bill, since the tinfoil hat brigade decided to make it their own. How did this happen?

The bill sailed through the Senate. Apparently they're in on the conspiracy. The bill also moved smoothly through the House Municipal and County Government Committee, where it was voted OTP (ought to pass) on a vote of 18-0. This bill was considered so innocuous that it was put on the Consent Calendar. Then JR Hoell rode in on his aluminum steed and removed the bill from the clutches of consent. It will be dealt with at the next House session, where presumably the fight will be long and rancorous and involve numerous roll call votes. 

Where does the Tea Party get this stuff? And why does anyone give them an iota of serious consideration? 

In the meantime, start getting your chapeau ready for next week's House Session.