2013: A Year in NH GOP Shame

A brief overview of embarrassing commentary by NH GOP legislators. (Not intended to be comprehensive.)

January: 

Rep. William O’Brien, speaking at a “right to work” hearing:

“New Hampshire wages are artificially high, a symptom of stagnation.”

February: 

Rep. Donald LeBrun in a committee hearing (Health and Human Services) was quoted as saying: “Rather than spend money on people with disabilities we have another choice, Voluntary Euthanasia….”

h/t Tuck at Miscellany Blue

March: 

Rep. JR Hoell speaking on one of last session’s gazillion gun bills: “Maybe Democrats want a young mother to allow her children to be murdered as she runs under a table to hide instead of take a weapon from her purse and save her most precious loved ones?”

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

April:

Rep. Peter Hansen, posting on the House internal email system for legislators gave his opinion on what was missing from the debate on the stand your ground bill:  “Why children and vagina's of course.”

Rep. Romeo Danais used the House internal email system to compare feeding poor children to feeding wild animals – twice in the same day.

Rep. Al Baldasaro testifying before a committee hearing on a bill to phase out lead sinkers and jigs – because they’re killing the  loon population:

“If you take a look at other areas, uh, what’s going on around the country under Agenda 21, this isn’t get – the nose is already under the tent. This now is pushing the foot under the tent, to slowly get the fishermen off the lake. That’s what this is gonna do.”

Rep. Stella Tremblay gave her opinion on the Boston Marathon bombings on Glenn Beck’s website: “Just as you said would happen. Top Down, Bottom UP. The Boston Marathon was a Black Ops “terrorist” attack.”

Miscellany Blue

susan the bruce

May:

Rep. Jane Cormier, in a lengthy floor speech on SB11, a bill to allow municipalities to work together on financing and building water and sewer projects: “The EPA now considers rainwater a pollutant.”

June:

Rep. William O’Brien gives a speech from the floor, describing the budget that was just passed as “his legacy.” 

He had also just voted against the budget.

July:

Senator Andy Sanborn:

Sanborn, R-Bedford, was the guest host of the afternoon radio show on WTPL-FM in Concord Tuesday afternoon. During one segment he was talking to former State Sen. Ray White, also a Bedford Republican, about the new national health care law. Sanborn has been vocal opponent of the law.

At one point Sanborn said the new law "is barreling down on us like a jet landing into San Francisco. It’s (laughter) it should make people really concerned."

After the program Sanborn didn't recall the remark, but after hearing the audio of the program said he apologizes for it.

"It was my mistake. If I offended anyone I am sorry," Sanborn said.

Two people were killed and 168 injured in a plane crash in San Francisco just 2 days before Sanborn was yucking it up on air.

August: 

Rep. William O’Brien, at an Americans for Prosperity rally against the ACA:

And what is Obamacare? It is a law as destructive to personal and individual liberty as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that allowed slave owners to come to New Hampshire and seize African Americans and use the federal courts to take them back to slave states.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

September:

Rep. Al Baldasaro retweeted something posted by his friends at Americans for Prosperity: “RT if you want to be exempt from #Obamacare like members of Congress! Yes!”  Sadly for Al, that proved to be a falsehood.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

October:

Former Rep. Pete Silva  tripped over his racism during a particularly ugly special election battle. Silva was trying to regain his former House seat. 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.

November:

Representatives Laurie Sanborn and Neal Kurk on the subject of expanding Medicaid:

Is it fair that eligibility for expanded Medicaid is based on income only and not assets, so that a 50-year old who lives on a yacht and has a very low income qualifies for free health insurance?

December:

Rep. JR Hoell was the gift that kept on giving in December. First, from an interview he did on wingnut radio:

“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.

h/t to Tuck at Miscellany Blue

This lead to more tantrums:

“Regardless of where Brown lives, he BROKE his oath of office by stating he wanted to ban certain semi-automatic rifles.

Brown does not support NH values!

(BTW, he has taken an oath to up hold the constitution on at least 3 separate occasions: Swearing in as a National Guard member, MA legislature and US Senate)”

And finally, this little gem from the NSFW files.

The wheels are coming  off the GOP clown car, kids. Stay tuned, and Happy New Year to all of my readers.


PS: Thank you Tuck. Not only could I not do this without you, it would be so much less fun. 

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. 

Tough Manly Men

My friend Tuck over at Miscellany Blue came across a conversation that some boys from the freedom and liberty crowd were having. One of the more notable aspects of the conversation is that they've been trying to stalk Tuck, and found an architect in Virginia with the same name - and you know what that means:



Yup. Tuck's the Highlander.

Despite a thorough mocking by Tuck, the discussion continues on, in some weird and unattractive directions.  It doesn't take much to get the boys all wound up about guns, and from guns to homophobia is just a step to the right.

As you can see, Rep. Burt has decided that Rep. Timothy Horrigan should go out shooting with him, and he links that to some of his buddies who begin to chime in:

After a brief detour the topic veers back to guns. (Apparently the Tuckanoia is on the back burner for now.)

Rep. Al Baldasaro opines: "Once Tim learns safety, than (sic) he fires a weapon, he may just toughen up and get rid of his wimpy talk."

Because firing guns is the very defining characteristic of manhood!  Tough, manly, gun totin' men don't engage in wimpy talk. By wimpy talk, I believe Baldasaro means any talk other than the kind of talk routinely engaged in by angry white conservative Republican men. Their talk seems to consist of guns, all the things they hate, and boobs. Not exactly the Algonquin Round Table. 

Then we have Representative Leon Rideout chiming in, with some homophobic attempts at jocularity about "Timmy or Tammy" needing to man up. Because Tough Manly Men make accusatory 'jokes' about men who don't fit their definition of "manly." Like guys who don't choose to wear a sidearm as a sort of modern day codpiece.

This is not the first time I've seen Rideout do the "Timmy/Tammy" thing on Facebook. It seems the 5th grade playground was so much fun for Leon Rideout that he chose to stay there forever.

Shooting a gun doesn't make you a man. Making comments that reek of homophobia about other men doesn't make you a man, either. It just makes you a jerk.

Free Staters and that Pesky First Amendment

My friend Tuck over at Miscellany Blue started up a real snitstorm a couple of weeks ago when he posted 2 letters published in NH newspapers that were in response to the Free Stater's Outraged Victimhood over being named as potential domestic terrorists. 

There were 308 responses, most of them from angry Free Staters. They don't take criticism well. In fact, unless one writes about them in the most positive and glowing of terms, their thin skins puncture, and outraged blood begins to flow. It's pretty simple, New Hampshire: a group of armed colonizers is going to try to take over our state - but unless we agree with their simplistic randian fantasies, we're supposed to just shut up. 

This was admirably illustrated by Free Stater Seth Cohn: 

Seth and victoriap are discussing a booklet written by some folks attempting to warn others in their community about the Free State Project. 

As you can read, not only is Seth irate about the booklet, he's also miffed that it was printed anonymously. So much so that he attempts to compare an anonymous pamphlet about the Free State Project with actual racism. 

The Free Staters are not an oppressed group. No one has ever forced them into slavery because they were Free Staters. No one has ever denied them employment or housing because they were Free Staters. They have not been rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. They are not forbidden to come to our state.  They do not experience segregation. They are not routinely assaulted or killed for being Free Staters.

The Free Staters are mostly white men - not exactly at the top of the list of groups who have experienced oppression. Once again Free Staters show how incapable of any sort of self reflection about themselves or their project they really are. 

Seth goes on to bleat that he isn't going to tolerate anonymous attacks on "me or others." He goes on to say: "if you hide yourself to attack FSPers, you are no better than a racist by any other name, and I will call you that." 

Irony overload. 

The folks who want to bring you freedumb and libertea aren't going to tolerate you using that pesky first amendment! As a dunce told me at the gun melee in June, the second amendment is the most important one. (He was stumped when I asked him why, if that were the case, the first one came...you know..like.....FIRST?) 

Yup, if you make an anonymous criticism of a Free Stater, you're a racist! Seth Cohn says so! 

On the other hand, if you make an anonymous criticism of me on my blog, you're usually a Free Stater.  IOKIYAFS