I Remember Dr. Tiller

On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was murdered, in his church, by a terrorist. These are the three pieces I wrote following his murder. One was written as an op-ed piece for the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.

US Physician Killed by Terrorist
This Murder was Allowed to Happen
The Tearful Troy Newman

Today I am remembering Dr. Tiller, and feeling the anger all over again. I still have the same questions I had 3 years ago:

At what point will terrorists stop having more rights than women and doctors?

At what point will we take domestic terrorism at abortion clinics seriously?

The House of Cards in Free Fall

By now you know that NH House Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt has resigned twice. The first time he announced he was getting married and starting a new job, so he'd be stepping down June 8, and wouldn't be running for reelection. The second time he resigned effective immediately, because it turns out he'd been falsifying intern work toward his law degree.

This editorial from seacoastonline.com really brings home the lies told by various members of the O'Brien junta. It's a good read. Here's part of it:

For those of you who might have been camping and unplugged from the news over Memorial Day weekend, Bettencourt announced Sunday that he will resign from the House immediately, after falsifying academic records submitted to the UNH School of Law.

Bettencourt had approached a fellow Republican lawmaker, Brandon Giuda, and told him he didn't have enough credits to graduate and needed an internship. Giuda gave him that internship but Betterncourt proved a no show, then lied about it to UNH. "I will never cover for a dishonest person," Giuda said.

The Concord Monitor reminds us that there are many questions still to be answered:

• It appears that O'Brien heard Giuda explain Bettencourt's fraud and was nonetheless willing to go along with the ruse that Bettencourt was leaving to take a job with the foundation. Was this an attempt to shield legislators and voters from the truth?

• Why didn't O'Brien demand an immediate resignation from Bettencourt?

• And when O'Brien heard Bettencourt's initial public explanation, was he troubled? If Giuda hadn't blown the whistle, would Bettencourt have avoided public scrutiny?

It seems to me, that if Bettencourt had done as Guida asked, Guida and O'Brien would have covered for him. That smacks of conspiracy. The voters of NH have a right to know the truth here.

In local news, James Pindell tweeted earlier today that Rep. Norman Tregenza of Madison has resigned, because he's moving out of the district. I hear he's been living out of the district for a while now. It must have been about to become public knowledge somehow - probably via real estate transactions in the newspaper.
There will be no special election - not with only about 10 days left in the legislative session.

Madison hasn't been represented for the last year and a half, so it won't make any difference. Tregenza spent his time in the House representing Ron Paul and the John Birch Society.

Frank Pageantry

On Tuesday (May 22, 2012), NH CD-1 Congressman Frank Guinta hosted a job fair in Conway, at Granite State College. A mere 4 days earlier, on May 18, NH Employment Security and Granite State College partnered on a job fair, at the same location. One might be tempted to think that two job fairs in a 4 day span must mean that there is a an abundance of available jobs. One would, of course, be wrong. The Guinta job fair was just another chapter in his re-election pageant. A failed chapter.

In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t get to the NHES job fair on the 18th, but I did attend the Guintapalooza. I spoke to folks who attended both events. By all accounts, there were 3 times as many vendors at the first job fair, many offering local jobs. There were more attendees, too. I’ll be generous in saying that about 50 people came through the Guinta job fair during the 3-hour period I was there. There were 14 vendors. Of the 14, two were branches of the Granite State college system; one was NHES, nhjobs.com, the Small Business Administration, NH Works, and SCSEP (Senior Community Service Employment Network) a non-profit that helps low-income folks over the age of 55 find jobs. The businesses represented were: US Cellular, Avon, Bankers Life and Casualty Company, efi, Dove Chocolate Home Parties, Personal-Touch Home Health Services, and Aeroflex.

Aeroflex manufactures microelectronic components. They’re located in Londonderry and in Lawrence, Ma. EFI is located in Meredith. They print big stuff, like banners and billboards. Both of these workplaces involve a rather lengthy commute. US Cellular did have jobs available, though mostly in Maine. Banker’s Life was looking for unspecified numbers of people to sell their investment/retirement products. Personal-Touch Home Health Services is a national corporation that provides home health care personnel and services to individuals in their homes. They’re located in Berlin, and trying to gain a foothold in the Conway area. Avon and Dove Chocolate home parties are also available for locals. I watched a number of men walk around the room and leave without speaking to anyone.

The most glaring omission here wasn’t the dearth of actual companies hiring folks. It was far worse than that. There wasn’t a reporter or photographer from any mainstream media outlet there to capture the Congressman as he did a walk-through, and glad-handed the vendors. This was a pageant failure. No bouquet of roses, no sash, no tiara, and worst of all, no photographers.

When I went in, I did tell Guinta’s aide that I write for the Conway Sun, and do some blogging. This was a true statement. I didn’t feel compelled to explain in what capacity my writing manifests itself. The Guinta aides interpreted this as me being a reporter. As Guinta briefly worked the room, another aide approached me and asked if I’d like to speak with the Congressman. Naturally I said I’d be delighted to. The aide asked me a few more questions. When he heard my name, his face froze and he said, “I’ve heard of you.” So much for the opportunity to speak with the Congressman. The aide said Guinta had a meeting with the college president, but he’d be back. Guinta never returned. I only saw him speak with one actual attendee of the job fair.

In March, the Congressman had an event at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester that was billed as the first “Empower, Educate, and Engage Women’s Conference. I was there, with approximately 50 other women. There were a number of photographers and someone doing video recording. Guinta gave a short speech, encouraged us all to reach out to him personally, because he is here to serve the people of NH. Lots of pictures were taken. When the photographers left, so did the Congressman.

The Women’s Conference began with a panel about leadership, and included a rather lengthy discussion amongst the 3 panelists on the “psychology of dressing.” We learned that, as women, we are all leaders. The next panel was comprised of women from the non-profit sector. They were more interesting. The last presenter was a young woman who is the HR director at a corporation. She offered up a lot of information about resumes, interviews, and what to do about gaps in one’s employment history. That was especially important to the attendees. There were some young women there; some obviously students from St. A’s, but the majority of attendees were over 50. I spoke with many of them. Mostly they’re older women re-entering the workplace out of financial necessity. They have sick husbands or family members, they lost their savings when the economy crashed, there were many wrenching stories.

These were women who didn’t need anyone blowing smoke up their skirts about leadership. They’re just trying to stay afloat – and they’re scared. They know that as unemployed people over the age of 50, they have a better chance of getting struck by lightening than finding a good paying job. This conference did little to help the women in that room. It did, however, provide excellent photo coverage for the re-election pageant, which is the sole reason for all of the job fairs.

Congressman Guinta puts out a series of memos called “Frankly Speaking.” In spite of his alleged frankness, he still has yet to adequately explain the magic bank account that funded his 2010 campaign. Frankly Speaking Frank was terribly concerned with Congressional franking privileges during the 2010 campaign. One of his centerpieces was getting his teanut supporters all wound up about Carol Shea-Porter’s alleged abuses of the Congressional franking system. The franking system was created in 1775, and allows Congresscritters to send out mail under their signature, with no stamp or postage. Congress reimburses the Post Office for the franked mail that it handles. Candidate Guinta bemoaned the mailings of our former Congresswoman, and asked, “How is this supposed to help our deficit?”

Given all the caterwauling over the franking, I was shocked to learn that Congressman Guinta spent more than any other member of the House on franked mail. Let’s be frank about Frank’s franking. He sends out big multicolored mailers all the time. He does this, because he doesn’t actually want to meet with constituents. Guinta has chosen to conduct his “town hall” meetings with constituents via conference call. I’m sure you all remember the contentious town hall meetings held in 2010, where teanuts were shrieking at Congresswoman Shea-Porter. It seems likely that the GOP is smart enough to realize that their tactics could easily be turned on them. Guinta’s chosen to eschew events that might provide that sort of potential.

If Guinta had chosen to speak to me, it wouldn’t have changed my mind about how he has served this district. It would, however, have caused me to give him credit for being willing to speak with a member of the alternative/opposition media.



A last minute addition that didn't make the newspaper: Webster's defines a pageant as "a mere show."

© sbruce 2012 Published as an op-ed in the May 25, 2012 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.

Maynard Thomson, Again

Imagine you were a GOP County Chairman - and you were so arrogant that you didn't think that properly filling out expenditure forms (the ones all political committees and candidates are expected to file) applied to you. You - a lawyer, unable to properly fill out simple forms. Too busy writing your next romance novel perhaps?

Imagine that you resigned your County Chairmanship on the very same day that the NH Attorney General sent you a cease and desist letter, warning you that you were in violation of RSA 664:6. Then imagine that you went to work for Rick Perry's campaign. You remember Rick Perry?



If you were so thoroughly, publicly disgraced would you be writing letters to the editor that criticized ANYONE?

You would, apparently, if you were utterly lacking in common sense, conscience, or propriety. You would if you were Maynard Thomson.

Now, some history. Maynard Thomson has something of an obsession with me. He's been writing letters to the editor about me for over a decade. Those letters failed to get him any response, so he's also tried sending me personal letters. I didn't ask to receive mail from Mr. Thomson. This was all done on his own. And it was done as an attempt to intimidate me into shutting up.

I'm not the only woman he's sent these little billet-doux to. He's tried to intimidate at least 2 other women of my acquaintance by sending them letters. He's never sent a personal letter to a male columnist or letter writer - so it's clear that his creepy intent is to shut women up.

Maynard's last attempt at shutting me up came in the spring of 2009. I mentioned him in a column, and the brilliant barrister read it - but lacked sufficient comprehension skills, apparently, because he sent a letter threatening to sue me. At the same time, he attempted blackmail. If I would only publicly apologize for what I wrote about him, in my column, than he'd call off the lawyers, but other than that, he was going to sue me. At the end of this creepy missive, he suggested I meet him for coffee or a drink.

Instead, I took a shower. Ugh.

Then I wrote back. You can read my response here.

Thomson is the kind of snide, privileged white man who overestimates his own intelligence, and is pompous and arrogant as a result.

His latest missive to the Conway Daily Sun attempts to chide me (as usual) for being an idiot, while using highly selective "facts" in order to do so. This is, by the way, a change. Usually he doesn't bother with citing any kind of facts, he just makes pronouncements.

"It's a shame that columnist Susan Bruce's passion to demonize Republicans leads her into credibility-shattering errors, since her May 11 column, "Reverse Migration," contains some valid points.
The most blatant error is her bald assertion that "the state's unemployment rate has increased since the O'Brien junta took control." That rates a "Huh?"
The Republicans, with Bill O'Brien as Speaker, took control of the House in December 2011. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, New Hampshire's unemployment rate on November 31, 2010, the last full month of Democratic control, was 5.8 percent. According to the BLS, on March 31, 2012 (the latest data available), our unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, an over 10 percent decline."

You'll notice he goes for the last month of "Democratic control" so that he doesn't have to cite the actual TRUTH. Thomson is a fan of selective use of "facts."

According to the very same BLS that Thomson is playing fast and loose with, for the month of June 2011, the NH unemployment rate was 4.9%. That was the last month of the budget from the former biennium - the DEMOCRAT'S budget.

The following month, according to the very same BLS the NH unemployment numbers jumped to 5.2%.

That's one month into the O'Brien Freebaglican budget.

In other words, Maynard Thomson is generating a great deal of florid prose that boils down to one thing: bullshit.

"I've asked Ms. Bruce in the past to sit down with me and see if we can't find common ground on some of these matters."

I can't think of a single reason why I'd sit down with a disgraced former County chair, serial liar, and utterly creepy guy.

Reverse Migration

A new report from the Carsey Institute at UNH shows that more people are leaving the state than moving in. In 2001, there were more people moving to NH than leaving, but by 2010, the trend was reversed and some 2,200 left the state. This report confirms the findings of demographers Peter Francese and Lorraine Stuart Merrill who published “Communities and Consequences: The Unbalancing of New Hampshire’s Human Ecology, and What We Can Do About It” in 2008. The book pointed out that NH’s population is aging, and essentially unfriendly to young families. The reverse migration is proof.

NH begrudges every dime it spends on education. Why would anyone move here (or stay here) with a young family, knowing that education is hated here because of our regressive tax structure? Then there’s higher education. NH spends less on our public colleges than any other state in the union. We’re so far in last place that if we tripled what we spend, we’d still be in last place. Last year a lot of states made cuts to their university systems. NH may be in 50th place for investing in our colleges, but we’re number one in spending cuts! NH cut 41% of the state funding to our colleges. The closest other state was Arizona, who cut a measly 25%.

Our students leave here with the highest burden of college debt in the country. It’s why the best and brightest students of NH don’t stay here when they graduate. There aren’t enough jobs for them, and the potential for opening their own businesses in a state that doesn’t invest in infrastructure is very, very limited.
Our state’s 27,000+ millionaires seem to be failing in their role as “job creators.”

Speaker of the NH House, William O’Brien, announced this week that he wants to eliminate a further $400 million from the state budget next year, if voters are foolish enough to send him back. The last budget shaved some $30 million off the DOT budget, in a state that has the 11th worst infrastructure in the nation. Folks will recall that the DOT planned to deal with these cuts by cutting back on plowing snow on some secondary roads. Rep. Gene Chandler, ever mindful of covering his own political heinie, charged in and “fixed” the situation, just as he’s doing now with the East Conway Road. Lucky for the Speaker Pro Tempore, we had a light winter, and some of those unspent DOT funds are being used to patch up East Conway Road. There’s certainly not enough money to actually fix it – nor will there ever be as long as we vote for the new, even more offensive breed of Republicans who are currently running our state. Don’t forget for a moment that Chandler is part of the O’Brien junta’s leadership team. He’s defended O’Brien, shilled for the dreadful budget passed in 2011, and will do the same, if voted in for another term. In past years, Chandler made sure a whole lot of money went to straighten and “fix” roads in Bartlett that really didn’t need fixing, while doing nothing for roads in other towns. If Conway voters send Gene back to Concord, they’ll continue to get exactly what they deserve. In the meantime, be sure to ask him for a look at the Speaker’s plan to cut $400 million more from the state budget.

It’s difficult to imagine why young families don’t want to move to a state that hates education and infrastructure, isn’t it?

In other legislative news, once again the clown car that is the NH GOP is providing us with more entertainment. NH state legislators have an email system. They can send and receive emails from constituents, and they can send out group emails to their fellow legislators through this system. State Rep. Jerry Bergevin of Manchester has been sending out some questionable commentary recently to all of his fellow legislators. Bergevin, you may recall, is the same fellow who filed a bill to create a “Terry Schiavo Day” in NH, and an anti-evolution bill. Bergevin wanted to teach evolution as a theory, but also to ensure that children were taught that the people who came up with the theory were atheists. He told the Concord Monitor that the Columbine school massacre was the result of teaching evolution. Another of Bergevin’s bills would have provided a “religious” exemption for those who wanted to refuse to provide services to gay folks. In other words, legalizing his own brand of bigotry, with a side order of piety.


Bergevin’s latest hobbyhorse is medical marijuana, and he’s been sending emails out to his colleagues calling them “Potheads” for exploiting the sick and trying to legalize “dope.” He mentions that he’s experienced pain from health problems, but only taken prescription medications. Bergevin predictably found a way to insert some ugly anti-gay commentary into his email. Best of all, however, were his comments on the upcoming elections. Here’s a direct (unedited) quote:

“RHINO republicans Hunting season is about to begin and I Love hunting 
for 
these its going to be a Great Kill this year !”
Given the quality of his prose and his level of punctuation, those prescriptions he touted haven’t yet expired. The Speaker of the House and his Charlie McCarthy (aka Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt) have so far made no comment on Bergevin’s offensive, and vaguely threatening commentary, so one is left to assume that Bergevin’s comments are supported by his colleagues and the House leadership.

Once again, the Freebaglican legislature proves to be nothing but an embarrassment to our state. Despite their claims to be focusing on job creation, instead, they’re creating a climate that virtually ensures that businesses will be fleeing the state. The state’s unemployment rate has increased since the O’Brien junta took control.
Decent roads, bridges, and communications infrastructure are vital to the economic future of our state. Will we vote for the future in November, or will we continue to cling to the failed policies of the past?

Fun Fact: William Loeb – the dead Republican who still dictates NH policy from the grave, lived in a mansion in Pride’s Crossing, a wealthy enclave in “Taxachusetts.”



© sbruce 2012

This appeared as an op-ed in the May 11, 2012 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.

NH Gets a Yeast Infection

A few days ago, Emily's List announced that they were endorsing Maggie Hassan in the NH gubernatorial race. This is noteworthy because EL supports pro-choice women candidates. There are two of them running for governor in NH. Candidate Jackie Cilley is also pro-choice, with a similarly distinguished pedigree. The filing period hasn't opened yet, and the primary is not until September, yet here we have Emily's List choosing sides.

Or, if you prefer: out-of-state special interest groups choosing sides.

Emily's List would not endorse Carol Shea-Porter for Congress until the other pro-choice woman in the race for NH CD-1, Joanne Dowdell, dropped out. Yet here they are, choosing a candidate before the filing period even opens.

One wonders what this is all about. It's true that one of Hassan's staffers is a former Emily's List employee. But, what is the most defining difference between the two candidates?

The Pledge.

The NH "no income tax/no sales tax" pledge, as given to us by the late Union Leader publisher William Loeb and the late Governor Meldrim Thomson. The pledge is a Republican tool to ensure that there's never enough money in the coffers of our state to actually do anything that needs doing. The timid conservadems who run the NH Democratic Party are in favor of the pledge, because it ensures that they continue to consolidate NHDP power in Manchester, which is hardly representative of Democrats throughout the rest of the state. It's unlikely that Emily's List made this decision without input from the NHDP leadership.

This kind of thing is one of the reasons I'm not a registered Democrat anymore. Remember 2006, when Jim Craig was the anointed candidate (by the DCCC and the NHDP) to run against Congressman Jeb Bradley in CD-1? He may be a very nice man, but he was an unimpressive candidate. I heard him speak at a candidate's forum in Sandwich, where he told the assembled throng how happy he was to be there in "podunk." There were audible sighs from the people standing near me. Sandwich is a small town, it's true. It's a small town where a number of well-to-do college graduates live. Politically savvy and active folks. The kind of people you want on your side. He blew it with the opening line - and went on to cement his fate by having to ask his staffer for answers to questions. This was the guy that the party chose to go up against a multimillionaire Congressman.

Emily's List is deja vu all over again. Emily's List has just joined the Susan G. Komen Foundation in terms of relevance and status in my mental filing cabinet.

This action by Emily's List serves to rip open a wound inflicted during the NH presidential primary in 2008. A group of prominent NH supporters of Hillary Clinton sent out a letter that lied about Obama's votes on choice in Illinois - just before the primary. Those of you who know me will recall that I didn't have a dog in that fight; I was neither a supporter of Clinton or Obama. It was just dirty business, two days before the primary. It created a divide between women in this state, a divide and hard feelings that continue to this very day. I know a couple of women who carry around the email, and a list of all of the signers - in their wallets. To this day. There are still a lot of hard feelings about that letter.

My point? Maggie Hassan signed that letter, and remains unrepentant about having done so.

From the Washington Post:

The other two Clinton supporters who signed both the critical e-mail and the conciliatory one stood more strongly by the initial one. Sen. Hassan said she, too, was unaware of the Illinois Planned Parenthood defense of Obama at the time she signed the critical letter, that she had only been told by the Clinton campaign that the Illinois chapter of NOW had cited concerns about Obama's present votes. She said it was wrong for anyone to suggest that Obama was not pro-choice, and that she was sorry about the upset that the letter had caused.

But Hassan stood by what she said was the main point of the initial e-mail, that Clinton was the most staunchly pro-choice Democrat. "All of the leading Democratic candidates are strongly pro-choice but I think Hillary's record is unparalleled. I stand by what I signed before the election and don't think it's inconsistent with" the new e-mail stating that Obama is strongly pro-choice, Hassan said. "Everybody's going to interpret these letters and e-mails as they want to."

Some of the other signers have apologized for getting hoodwinked into signing the letter.

Deja vu.


Even Foster's Daily Democrat - generally a mouthpiece for the GOP, chimed in with an editorial on this subject.

As Cilley pointed out in a press release following the EMILY'S List announcement: "Whatever the reasons, Emily's List made its choice now, even before formal electoral filing dates and without a discussion with their members in the State."

But if what Cilley also noted is true, it casts a cloud over the endorsement that may cause Hassan more trouble than it is worth.

Cilley: "Only a few weeks ago EMILY'S List advised me that New Hampshire voters would have the chance to choose their preferred candidate at the Primary before any decision being taken regarding endorsement. At no time did we ever sit down and discuss my experience and commitment to women's issues, my campaign plan and the qualifications of my team."

Read the whole piece. Coming from Foster's it is especially remarkable.

I've heard that some women who have been very generous donors to Emily's List in the past have called them to express their ire, and taken the money they might have given EL and donated it to Jackie Cilley.

I do have a dog in the fight this time. I'm supporting Jackie Cilley. Some will choose to dismiss this as sour grapes - but it's all about ethics and interference. I'm sick to death of outside groups coming in to manipulate our elections - ANY groups. They think we're an insignificant state full of hicks who don't know anything.

We're pretty smart hicks, in my opinion. This was a bad decision, and one that may well backfire on Maggie Hassan.

The Daddy State

This is a transcript of my remarks, given today at the Unite Against the War on Women in NH rally on April 28, at the State House in Concord:



Conservatives, especially in NH, love to throw around the term “nanny state.” Generally speaking, anything that involves legislation that protects people (food labeling, professional licensing, seat belt wearing, non-smoking in restaurants/bars, drunk driving laws -(you get the idea) is labeled as “nanny stateism.” “Nanny state” must be said with a Randian sneer. The implication is that pesky liberals want to micromanage your life, force political correctness upon you, and prevent you from allowing your kids to play dodge ball and feeding them deep-fried Twinkies for breakfast.

It’s been my experience that whenever the far right tosses terms like this around, what they’re REALLY doing is projecting their own behavior on to others. Sure they love to bleat about FREEDOM and LIBERTY, but as soon as anything even remotely related to the freedoms of any group NOT comprised of white male, heterosexuals comes up, we see how invested in freedom they really are.

Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen an increase in authoritarian laws. Protestors can now be sequestered in so-called “free speech zones.” Security personnel can feel you and your children up at the airport, all the while telling us this is necessary for our safety and security. We can be wiretapped without our knowledge. We’ve seen NH become the only state in the union to actually decide to USE the death penalty, as opposed to ending the death penalty, which many states are doing.

In the last 2 years, we’ve seen the NH legislature eager to regulate women’s bodily autonomy, by attempting to limit access to both abortion and affordable birth control. We’ve seen that same legislature attempt to strike down NH’s marriage equality law. Apparently the silly women and homosexuals of NH need Big Daddy to make our decisions for us. That’s why I mentioned projection. They complain about the nanny state, while initiating something far more sinister: The Daddy State.


Daddy is an authoritarian, a stern patriarch who wants to set the rules, and punish the girls when they’re bad. 

It's Daddy who must make the rules for our reproductive decisions. After all, left to our own devices we might continue to use birth control and choose not to have children so that we can have careers - and even run for political office! Women might actually choose to continue to compete with men!

The Daddy Staters don't like that. Daddy Staters know what's right for silly girlies.

Last year, Executive Councilor Ray Wieczorek voted against funding for Planned Parenthood in NH. At the time, he said: "I am opposed to providing condoms to someone. If you want to have a party, have a party but don't ask me to pay for it." Councilor Wieczorek stated that he was opposed to abortion. Planned Parenthood provides mammograms and pap tests. Apparently the health of the incubator is of no concern to Wieczorek - who, by the way, wisely chose not to run for re-election.

Rush Limbaugh, one of the Stern Patriarchs of the Daddy State gave voice to what many didn't dare to say, when he called college student Sandra Fluke a slut for testifying before Congress about the importance of birth control. Somehow, in Rush's drug addled brain, Fluke's testimony on how birth control is used as a treatment for some serious medical conditions, turned into a demand that the gubmint give her excessive amounts of free birth control. The Daddy State Patriarchs know that only bad girls have sex, and bad girls must be punished. They think forced incubation is an appropriate punishment.

That the Daddy Staters want to cut every safety net program that would help women and children tells you all you really need to know about how deep their concern for the unborn really is. Once that little nipper hits the chute, it’s pick yourself up by your bootie straps time.


We saw the Daddy State go wild when CNN pundit Hilary Rosen commented that Mitt Romney’s advisor on how to speak to women…his wife had never worked a day in her life. What Ms. Rosen meant was that Mrs. Romney had never worked outside the home. In the ensuing backlash and round of apologies, the most important part of the discussion failed to occur.

Certainly anyone who has been a mother knows how hard it is. Mrs. Romney had 5 boys. I know how hard I struggled with only one girl. Feminism has always been about giving women choices: reproductive choice certainly, but also the choice to go to school, join the military, work outside the home, or be a stay at home mom. Ann Romney was lucky that being a stay at home mom was a choice for her. Unfortunately she’s completely tone deaf when it comes to that.

Ann Romney never had to worry about how she was going to pay the electric bill or the rent. She didn’t have to agonize over how to stretch the groceries till payday, health insurance, or how on earth she was going to get new shoes for the kids. Most moms have to worry about money. Ann Romney never did. She is married to an incredibly wealthy man. Her failure to acknowledge that is – for me anyway – the most irritating thing about her. Wealth is the best insulation there is. Not only will you never be cold, you’ll also never have to even consider what life is like for those who lack insulation of any sort.

And Mitt is a Daddy. He wants to regulate women’s reproduction for them. He wants to cut the kind of safety net programs that help low-income women and their children stay afloat.

In fact, Mitt, while Governor of Massachusetts proposed raising the required number of work hours for people on welfare so that they could have “the dignity of work.” In NH, Mitt had this to say:

"I wanted to increase the work requirement," … " even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, 'Well that's heartless.' And I said, 'No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.'"

Apparently wealthy white women are born with an innate sense of dignity. When they stay home with the kids its hard work – but doing the right thing for the children. When low-income women stay home with the kids, it’s because they’re lazy.

The Daddy State has no real concern for women or children. They just want to govern them.

Birth control has been the big game changer for women. It ensured that anatomy was no longer destiny, and allowed women to pursue careers, including political ambitions. We hear the representatives of the Daddy State frequently express a desire to “take our country back.” I bet I’m not the only one who shivers a little when I hear that phrase. Perhaps I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale too many times.

The lesson for all of us is this: Constant vigilance is the price of women’s equality. Somewhere along the way we may have thought we’d won, that we didn’t have to fight these battles any more. We were wrong about that.

No matter how much the right wing media smirks and denounces the very idea of a war on women – women know it’s true. And we must fight back, harder than ever. One of the easiest ways to fight back is at the ballot box. Women fought and died to give us the right to vote – and we have a responsibility to honor them by VOTING!
We need to encourage women to run for office, and support them when do. We must also support the men who believe in equality - because as the old bumper sticker says: Men of Quality Support Women's Equality!


We must also speak out against injustice, even when it makes us uncomfortable.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of my favorite suffragists. She said a lot of smart things, but this is one of my favorites, and the thought I leave you with, today:

“The best protection any woman can have... is courage. “

Live Free and Porta-Potty

New Hampshire’s old tourist slogan: “You’re Going to Love it Here,” has been retired. We now have a new slogan, designed to lure tourists to NH where they can spend lots and lots of money. The new slogan: “Live Free and ____.” The advertiser can fill in that blank with the activity of their choice, “Live Free and Ski,” or “Live Free and Hike” – you get the idea.

This exciting new slogan was recently unveiled by the NH Dept. of Resources and Economic Development (DRED) and discussed last week on the NHPR call in program The Exchange. DRED is an appropriate acronym for this department, given the level of esteem our state has for our natural resources. Commissioner George Bald did a fine job of making this slogan seem like a great idea. Not everyone agrees. A commenter known as “elwood” at the blog Blue Hampshire quipped, “Live Free and… Sorry - No Budget to Complete Slogan.”

Tourism is the second largest industry in NH. Given that fact, one might think that the state would do all that it could to welcome visitors and provide amenities to ensure those tourists enjoyed their stay, and returned at every opportunity. One would be wrong.

Along the NH highways and byways lurk 16 rest areas /welcome stops. At this moment in time, 3 of them are closed, with no plans to reopen. Sorry visitors – if you expect a welcome in Rumney, Antrim, or Epsom, better make other plans. Four rest area/welcome stops are seasonal: open from May through October. Colebrook and Shelburne are seasonal rest areas. Lebanon and Littleton are seasonal rest areas and welcome stops. Apparently our winter visitors do not require welcoming. Best of all are the new hours at the Sanbornton rest area on I-93 south. It is now open Friday through Sunday, with the exception of 3 holidays: Independence Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day. Since it’s a southbound stop, apparently the state assumes that we’ve wrung all of your tourist dollars out of you by that point, and you should just go home. For those who absolutely positively must empty their tourist bladders, porta-potties are provided at all of these sites. Nothing says “Welcome to NH, we value you” like a bank of porta potties at a closed rest area. Or, to use our sexy new slogan: “Live Free and Porta Potty!”

I learned a little about this first hand last week, as I drove to Concord, listening to the Exchange, hearing about closed rest areas. Being a female of middle age, drinking copious amounts of coffee, I elected to stop in Sanbornton as is my custom. I was surprised to discover the new hours, and the bank of porta potties lined up off to the side of the building. The building is in need of a new paint job, some of the shutters are broken, and the grounds are covered with dead leaves and litter. This is the NH idea of providing “services” to visitors and residents alike.

Tourism is our second largest industry. Hippo Press (a weekly NH paper) did a story called “Where NH Goes to Play” about our state parks. They interviewed interim Parks and Recreation Dept. director Gail Wolek. According to Ms. Wolek, outdoor recreation annually contributes $45 million directly to our state, and another $450 million indirectly – via restaurants, hotels, liquor stores, etc. That’s a big chunk of change for a small state.

NH is the only state in the union that funds its state park system solely by user fees. There’s a reason we’re the only one. It doesn’t work. The decision to fund the parks this way was enacted by the legislature in 1991. This means that for 20 years, our state parks have been consistently under funded. Generally the parks are about $400,000 a year over budget, and that is without fixing most of what needs to be repaired. A 10-year plan for the parks was written up in 2009. Doing everything that needs doing in that 10 year plan (which is available online) would cost about $75 million, or approximately 2 years worth of the direct monies brought in by outdoor recreation. Like everything else requiring maintenance, NH has been kicking that can down the road for decades. Now the road is covered with potholes, the bridge is out, and the parks are in disrepair.

People who visit our state never speak eloquently of the natural beauty that drew them to visit Salem. Some 31% of visitor traffic (the lion’s share) to state parks is to the White Mountains. Cannon Mountain (which our legislature is dying to get rid of) is one of the most visited attractions in the state. NH legislature eliminated about $1 billion in revenue streams to our government, thereby ensuring that education, infrastructure, and maintenance of all kinds goes undone.

As of July 1, NH is losing its Poison Control Hotline, which for some years now has been funded by the Dept. of Homeland Security. The hotline costs about $600,000 a year to run. NH’s Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t have the money. Mothers, school nurses, babysitters, and all who rely on that service to be there, should it ever be necessary, are out of luck.

Worst of all, at least for me, is that we aren’t embarrassed by any of this. NH has never been a state that provided any sort of responsible level of services, but we’re living in the land of ridiculous now. Some money is needed to run this state. Despite the fact that tourism is our second biggest industry, we don’t bother with our state parks, we provide smelly porta potties to the folks who come here to spend money, and we expect them to be grateful and return with even more cash.

A reminder: NH is the wealthiest state in the union. Chew on that for a minute, as you consider the fact that we have the 11th worst infrastructure in the nation, and we rank 50th in the nation for state spending on post secondary education. We don’t pay our legislators. NH is home to over 27,000 millionaires. We have no excuse for our lack of concern for our natural resources (and 2nd biggest industry). We have no excuse for our bad roads, failing bridges, and completely inadequate telecommunications infrastructure.

There are no excuses, but there is one simple reason for all of it:

“NH isn’t a poor state. NH is a cheap state.” Gubernatorial candidate Jackie Cilley


© sbruce 2012
Published as an op-ed in the April 27, 2012 edition of the Conway Daily Sun

Ann Romney Visits the Let Them Eat Cake Bakery Again

Ann Romney, advisor-in-chief to her husband Willard on women's issues, steps in it again.From newstimes.com:

Romney, 63, still stinging from recent comments by Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen that she's never worked a day in her life, received a multiple standing ovations from a crowd of 800 Republicans at the party's annual Prescott Bush Awards Dinner.

Certainly one problem Mrs. Rmoney has is that she was speaking at a dinner celebrating Nazi collaborator Prescott Bush.

"I know what it's like to finish the laundry and to look in the basket five minutes later and it's full again," Romney said. "I know what it's like to pull all the groceries in and see the teenagers run through and then all of sudden all of the groceries you just bought a few hours ago are gone. I know what it's like to get up early in the morning and get them off to school. I know what it's like get up in the middle of the night when they're sick And I know what it's like to struggle and to have those concerns that all mothers have."

Mrs. Rmoney still doesn't get it. She may have been awfully busy and concerned raising five sons, but she did NOT have to deal with the concerns MOST mothers have. Concerns like how to pay the electric bill, how to stretch the contents of the refrigerator till payday, and how to pay for health insurance. This is the most irksome thing about Ann Rmoney - she absolutely refuses to acknowledge how much money has insulated her from the "same concerns" other mothers have. Then there's this:

"I love the fact that there are also women out there that don't have a choice, that they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids," Romney said. "Sometimes life isn't easy for any of us."

Mrs. Rmoney loves the fact that so many of us are struggling. Mr. Rmoney might be better off sending Marie Antoinette home to the palace.


The misspelling of Romney/Rmoney is intentional.

Let's Be Frank About Frank's Franking

Remember the Great Franking Outrage of 2010? Suddenly Guinta and the rest of the teanuts were everywhere, barking about Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter's abuse of the so-called franking system. This is the system (enacted in 1775) which allows members of Congress to send out mail under their signature, with no stamp or postage. Congress reimburses the Post Office for the franked mail that it handles.

In any case, the GFO of 2010 looked like this post from Guinta:

There must be a more efficient, and most importantly, less costly way to distribute these papers. Many of her points in the pamphlet include keeping taxpayers from "paying the price" for acts such as bailouts. In this case, because of her elaborate, expensive design and excessive distribution, the taxpayers did pay the price. How is this supposed to help our deficit?

One would expect, that given Frank's frank commentary about CSP's franking, he'd be mighty careful of his own.
I'm sure many of you got this recent mailer. A gaudy, multicolored mailing comes every week from Frank, the concerned franker:


The Bakersfield Californian had a story in their Sunday edition about how much members of Congress spend on franking privileges:

* Also among individual House members, Rep. Frank C. Guinta, R-N.H., spent the most on franked mail in 2011: $164,650.

After all that noise about franking during 2010, Frank goes on to distinguish himself by being the biggest franker. Does he think he gets a deal because the system is named after him??

No wonder our Frank earned a spot in CREW's list of most corrupt members of Congress.

Luckily, we have Carol Shea-Porter running against franking Frank - and we have the Credo Super Pac working to take down the
Tea Party Ten.

One of the 10 is our own Frank Guinta. So, that means 4 organizers in state, working on nothing but calling attention to what a lousy job Frank Guinta has done of representing our state and our country.

Check out their website, and friend 'em on Facebook
and find out what they're up to - and how you can help.


cross posted at Blue Hampshire

The Daddy State

From the Christian Science Monitor. What Hilary Rosen said:

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, 'Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.' Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.”

The Romney campaign pounced, with Ann Romney putting out her first-ever tweet: “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

Feminism is all about honoring choices. Ann Romney chose to be a stay at home(s) mother, and as any parent knows, it IS hard work taking care of a bunch of kids.

Ann Romney had the option of making that choice, which is something that most women do not have. Most women have to work outside the home, in order to help support the family. Very few women are married to men as wealthy or wealthier than Ann Romney's husband.

Ann Romney never had to worry about the electricity being shut off, how to stretch the food budget till payday, or how to juggle kids, work schedule, and day care. She never had to worry about being able to afford health insurance, or losing her job if she took a day or two off with a sick child. Ann Romney's wealth insulated her - then and now - from the kinds of harsh realities faced by working women every single day. If Ann Romney were given the same stipend a woman on TANF gets, would she be able to live within her means? She does have 2 Cadillacs, after all. We all know that welfare queens only get one.

Then there's the ironic aspect of the Romneys nattering on about choice - when he supports economic policies that would make life even harder for working women, especially the ones at the bottom of the wage scale. Not to mention that he wants to be in charge of women's reproductive choices.

Of course this whole tempest is really about income and class divisions. No one wants to admit that - including the ever spineless Democrats, who began apologizing for Hilary Rosen as soon as the opportunity provided itself. None of them were brave enough to admit that Rosen may not have said it well, but there are some kernels of truth in what she said.

At least now we know that the outraged Republicans value stay at home moms.
Except when they don't.

TPM

In January, Romney touted his proposal as governor of Massachusetts to raise the amount of work required of parents on welfare so that they could “have the dignity of work.”

and

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” said Romney in New Hampshire. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”

Because when rich white women stay home with the kids, that's hard work. When poor women stay home with the kids, they're lazy, and need to learn dignity.

Wealthy women aren't required to learn dignity - it comes with the silver spoon they're born with.

This is condescending, paternalistic, and elitist. Never mind the nanny state. Mitt wants to give us all the Daddy State.

Attacking Ann Romney isn't a good idea - but pointing out Mitt's hypocrisy is a very good idea. The Romney's level of wealth is a great insulator. The only way these two could be further removed from real people's lives would be if they lived on another planet. And for all practical purposes, they do.

New Hampshire Has a Revenue Problem

After fielding a team of abundantly mediocre primary candidates, the GOP finally has Mitt Romney as a presumptive nominee. Mitt seems to have been anointed because he’s the wealthiest of the mediocre, and the Republicans appear to be operating under the theory that if they can’t come up with a good candidate, they should at least be able to buy the office.

In 2011 the GOP took aim at women, and enacted 135 new laws governing female reproduction. Male reproduction, however, is still a bastion of liberty. The party of “less gubmint interference in the lives of individuals” showed us all that when they say “individuals” what they really mean is MEN. Wisconsin just repealed their equal pay enforcement act. GOP talking heads are telling us that women want to receive lower pay for equal work, because they go off and have babies. These are babies that the same party claims to worship and venerate so much that they would like to force women to involuntarily incubate them. In summary: the GOP would like to ensure that women have no affordable access to birth control, would force involuntary incubation, and will then punish women for having a baby by eliminating the safety net and eliminating equal pay laws. It’s guano squared.

This is proving to be a conundrum for Mediocre Mitt. He’s been in Wisconsin praising Governor Walker, who repealed the equal pay act. Mitt has made tepid claims of supporting equal pay, but has proven to be unable to answer questions about women and reproduction – preferring to leave those to his wife. Now that Mitt’s the probable nominee, he’s firing back, claiming that the REAL war on women is being waged by Obama, who has personally caused millions of women to lose their jobs, and not helped them get new ones.

The current recession/depression began during the Bush administration. The current crop of folks elected in 2010 was mostly Republicans. Republicans who slashed state budgets, and caused hundreds of thousands of public sector losses. The bulk of those jobs were held by women. Teachers, nurses, librarians – mostly women. The NH Freebaglican budget cost some 2,000 hospitals to lay off employees – mostly women. We have the GOP trying to legislate gynecological rape via transvaginal probe on the one hand, and claiming they’re not waging war on women on the other. It’s going to prove a hard sell. Women just aren’t dumb enough to buy the guano squared.

There is plenty of stupid to go around, however. This week, the NH House Criminal Justice and Safety Committee took up SB 274, a bill that would change some of the language in NH’s aggravated rape statute. This bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 5-0, but it’s run aground in the House. Some representatives argued against removing phrases like “mentally defective” from the language of the law. There are judges who feel that using that terminology to describe a rape victim is offensive. Representatives Jason Antosz and Ken Kreis disagree. Antosz referred to this as: “PC nonsense” and that words such as “defective” and “retarded” were “just words.” In looking at one particular case, Kreis commented that the woman in question was 29 years old and “had her entire life to get used to being called defective.” These two are right out of the Martin Harty School of Tact and Diplomacy. Martin Harty was the 90-year-old GOP freshman legislator who had to resign shortly after taking office, for telling a constituent that it was too bad we couldn’t send the mental defectives to Siberia.

It’s my experience that those who bang on the loudest about how they hate PC are people who bitterly resent the fact that racist and misogynist slurs are no longer considered acceptable in polite conversation. Rep. Antosz has attempted to defend himself by saying he’s “defective” because he has a bad knee. He is indeed defective, but his knee has nothing to do with it. As for Kreis, anyone who can say that the victim of an aggravated rape should be accustomed to being called defective is someone who is a disgrace to the People’s House and should resign immediately.

The arrogance visible in our current legislature is breathtaking. Not only are they arrogant, they take for granted that voters are not paying attention, and dumber than dirt. A recent story in the Conway Sun illustrates this phenomenon. Erik Eisele’s story about the condition of East Conway Road came with some quotes from our once and future Speaker of the NH House, Rep. Gene Chandler. East Conway Road is actually a state road, but it is designated as an unnumbered state highway, and is therefore at the bottom of the funding barrel. There is no money. Rep. Chandler said that not only is there no money to do the fixing, but, “there’s no place to get the money from.”

Chandler wrote editorials with Speaker O’Brien, defending the budget they passed last year. That budget cut state revenues. Of course there’s no money. They made sure that there wouldn’t be enough money. It was deliberate. We’ve been hearing for decades, “NH doesn’t have a revenue problem, NH has a spending problem.” As we can all see now, that is, and always has been a lie. Our roads and bridges are a disaster. Far from being ashamed, Chandler will tell you “this is what the taxpayers want.” That, dear readers, is a crock. It’s what the Free State/Tea Party/far right fringe of the Republican Party wants. These are people who are living in the 19th century, and prove every day that they lack any qualifications to move our state into the future.

NH is the seventh wealthiest state in the nation. We have 27,000 millionaires living here. Yet 15% of our bridges are structurally deficient. NH is in 11th place nationally for having the worst bridges.

This is the direct result of pledge politics. The Freebaglicans will continue to extol the virtues of what they call the NH Advantage. Strange as it may seem, businesses don’t seem to be falling all over themselves to move to a state where a broken infrastructure and lack of support for education are considered an advantage.


h/t to NH_GOP for the photo. Would you buy a used ear of corn from that man?

© sbruce 2012

this was published as an op-ed in the April 13, 2012 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

The Forced Birth Terrorists Lie

THIS is what an early abortion looks like:

I'm Supporting Jackie Cilley

I moved to North Conway in 1984. I've lived in northern Carroll County for most of the last 28 years. I've been here for the varying terms of six different governors. None of those who have served were from the North Country, or had ties to us. The northern part of the state is almost invariably treated like a pretty, yet redheaded stepchild. NH politicians love our hiking, skiing, fishing, and the beauty of our mountains. They ignore the economic devastation, the lack of infrastructure, the lack of telecommunications capability, the high unemployment and high rate of poverty and lack of health insurance. Instead, the north is a dumping ground for prisons, and other projects the rest of the state is too good for.

To be fair, both Jeanne Shaheen and John Lynch did a whole lot more than pay lip service to the north. Shaheen fought hard for the mill workers of Berlin. Governor Lynch was in a helicopter to Harts Location, to assess the damage to Rt. 302, as soon as the rains of Hurricane Irene stopped. He also helped facilitate the last sale of the mill in Gorham.

Jackie Cilley won't ever have to be reminded to care about the North Country. She's part of it. Jackie was born in Berlin. She grew up in a 3rd floor tenement, in a working class neighborhood. Her grandpa worked at the Brown Co. paper mill. Her mother worked in a factory, and her father was a truck driver. After graduating from Berlin High School, she moved to Manchester, where she moved in to the YWCA and went to work in a textile mill. After a brief marriage, as a single mother in her 20's, Jackie went to college at UNH, where she earned a BA in psychology. She was the first member of her family to graduate from college. Jackie went on to earn an MBA at the Whittemore School (at UNH) and became a member of the faculty. Jackie has been a successful small business owner, and she has served in both the NH House and Senate.

You may have heard this before. I repeat it, because it is important. Jackie Cilley is the embodiment of the American dream. No matter how modest our beginnings, we're all supposed to be able to grow up, work hard, get an education, and become a success. That's the promise of our nation.

It is a promise that is increasingly broken. NH has amongst the highest costs for in-state students of any state university system. NH ranks a firm 50th in the nation for state spending on post-secondary education. Our young people can't afford to get an education here, and if they go out of state to get one, they never come back - especially to the North Country.

We've all heard the NH GOP mantra: "New Hampshire doesn't have a revenue problem, New Hampshire has a spending problem." At this point in time, we all know that's a lie. NH doesn't have enough money to fix our ailing roads and bridges. Why not? Because we have an outdated tax structure, and because our current legislature has delighted in cutting revenue streams, as though businesses are just falling all over themselves to re-locate to a state that has a broken infrastructure and doesn't value education.

It's time for NH to stop kicking the can down the road. We must deal with the problems we have, and start building our future. Jackie's refusal to take the Loeb/Thomson pledge shows me that she won't march forward in mindless lockstep. Taking The Pledge means there is no discussion, just obedience. If those who want to lead are too afraid to even have the conversation, than how can we call them leaders? Jackie not only thinks for herself, she’s willing to stand up and be counted.

The current legislature is going to be leaving behind a mess comparable to what Hercules faced in the Augean Stables. We're going to need a tough leader to oversee the clean up. Someone who has a proven ability to work hard, and fight for what is right. Someone who loves every part of our state. I believe that leader is Jackie Cilley, and I'm proud to support her candidacy for governor of New Hampshire.

Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter

A recent letter in the Conway Sun comes from Jim Shuff, a Freedom resident who has, essentially, been writing the same letter to the editor about me for at least a decade.

His latest rantlet is at least humorous, though probably not in the way he intended:

I had to chuckle while reading the two letters in a recent paper concerning a letter from Bill Catalucci. While I missed Bill C's letter and do not know what it was about, I have to wonder if these same folks would go along with banning the offensive rants of Susan and Bill that are published weekly as Conway Daily Sun contributors?

Mr. Shuff admits rather blithely that he didn't even read the letter people complained about. Armed with absolutely no knowledge, he bravely goes forth to take potshots at other writers.

This is why the Republican Party is in trouble. Willful ignorance and stupidity can't sustain the conservative movement indefinitely.

New Jobs for Peons

The current NH legislature has been promising a "laser like focus on job creation," since 2010, when they were campaigning. Once ensconced in office, they've been far more interested in union busting, uterus policing, and marriage ending, along with a heaping helping of education stopping and gun promoting.

On Friday, an estimated 3000-4000 showed up at a job fair for a mall being built in Merrimack. NHRP:

Patrice Noelle from Wilton, New Hampshire has been out of work for almost two years. When asked what type of work she was looking for, Noelle said, "I’ll do basically anything. I’ll sweep floors. My degree is in business."

When the doors opened at 8 a.m., a legion of hungry applicants — with résumés in tow — flooded the large hall.

Representatives from big chain stores were ready to interview for positions ranging from custodians to customer service.

Governor Lynch stopped in to check out the action:

The Governor says New Hampshire’s unemployment rate is 40 percent below the 8.3 percent national average.

"But we still have over 30,000 people out of work. The outlet mall will end up creating a minimum of 800 jobs, which is very exciting, and it may end up being more jobs than that," said Lynch.

The possibility of 800 new jobs is nice,but it's a drop in the bucket, when one considers 30,000 out of work. And that's only the people who are out of work - it doesn't take into consideration the number of people who are underemployed.

Just as these people getting these new jobs will be underemployed. Retail jobs don't pay enough to actually live on in our state. Many retail jobs don't provide health insurance. And many will be part time.

The jobs being created in our new economy are largely low paying service jobs. The creation of a permanent poverty wage level underclass is something that should concern us all.

Santa Monica Community College Trying Tiered Fee System

Most colleges around the country have been hit hard by budget cuts. The California State University System has chosen to limit the number of admissions for next year because of budget cuts. Community colleges in CA have been especially hard hit by budget cuts, so much that most have eliminated their winter term.

Santa Monica College in California is trying something unprecedented. From the New York Times:

This summer it will offer some courses for a higher price, so that students who are eager to get into a particular class can do so if they pay more.

Community colleges have traditionally been the place where those without the financial resources to attend a 4 year college could obtain a relatively inexpensive education.

A financial squeeze since the recession led first to a reduction of federal and then state financing for colleges and universities. Since 2008, California’s community college system has lost $809 million in state aid, including $564 million in the most recent budget, even as more students than ever before try to enroll.

and

“Every year we look around and think about how we can serve more students, but what we have now is not working,” said Chui L. Tsang, the president of Santa Monica College. “Literally thousands of students are missing out on opportunities we want to give them and have the ability to give them if we just had the money.”

California community colleges do have low tuition costs, especially compared to the rest of the country. The reasoning has always been that those low fees meant greater access to college for more students. Budget cuts are causing that thinking to change:

There’s a sense that if the colleges can generate the adequate income themselves, they may no longer be struggling with the lack of resources, because there is certainly a tremendous level of demand,” Dr. Douglass said. “It’s a much-needed conversation that we need to have — is it possible our tuition is too low? This is a very important move to push the envelope.”

It's also possible that if community colleges are forced to become income generating machines, a college education will become increasingly out of reach for low income and immigrant students.

Senator Harkin's Rebuild America Plan

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin announced a new economic plan he's calling the "Rebuild America Plan." From The Nation:

The legislation is divided into three basic categories: the first is proactive federal spending an action meant to boost the flagging economy. It includes:

$300 billion for roads, bridges, energy efficiency systems and other infrastructure

$20 billion in school modernization funding

Boosting funding for agencies that regulate trade, to better enforce fair trade policies

Funding to states to hire teachers, public safety workers and other public employees.

To help workers and families:

Increased child care subsidies for working parents

Ensuring that workers, particularly white-collar workers categorized as independent contractors, earn time-and-a-half overtime pay

Raising the minimum wage

Strengthening the National Labor Relations Act, making it easier for workers to join unions and increasing penalties on employers for blocking unionization.

To pay for the increased spending:

Raising the capital gains rate and closing the carried interest loophole

A Wall Street speculators tax, of three basis points on common financial securities trades

Ending tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs.

Senator Harkin is aware that such a proposal wouldn't fly in the current Congress. He does think that we need to stop thinking in Paul Ryan terms:

“I firmly believe that anyone running for election this year to the House or the Senate—if they take up this bill, if they take up the direction of this bill… I believe that will be a winning formula,” he said. “I think the American people are hungry, looking for some way out of this mess that we’re in and I think they’re saturated [with] these sort of quick-fix type things—that we can’t be bold, we can’t grow, we’ve got to, as the Ryan budget says, just keep shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.”

There are some options here that would create jobs by investing in fixing our broken infrastructure. There are options that would help struggling families get back on track.

We certainly need to discuss choices other than the current menu of attempting to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class while continuing to shovel tax breaks at the wealthy.


Cross-posted at MainSt/workingamerica.org

So Much for Democracy

We’ve all been hearing a lot lately about a number of state laws that seem to have sprung up overnight. Suddenly, Voter ID laws are all the rage. Same for the so-called Stand Your Ground laws that enabled the murder of a teenager last month in Florida. Are all of our 50 states so in synch that miraculously the same laws are created, nearly at once?

Not even close. A group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC) created these laws, and a number of others. ALEC founded by Paul Weyrich, Henry Hyde and other swell guys like John Kasich, Jesse Helms, Jack Kemp, and Tommy Thompson. It is populated almost exclusively by right wing conservatives. ALEC is a group of 300 plus corporations who work together to create model legislation. They are funded by corporate donations. They pass the model legislation on to their 2,000 some odd state legislative puppets at their annual all-expenses-paid luxury retreat where the legislators can hang out with captains of industry, and prepare to move on into the lucrative world of lobbying. The puppets go back home and introduce the corporate written model legislation.

ALEC estimates it has over 1000 bills introduced in state legislatures each year, and that one in five of them pass. Naturally these are laws that benefit ALEC’s corporate members. One of ALEC’s big funders is the NRA, which is how the Stand Your Ground laws turned up in so many places, including NH. This is why, suddenly, Voter ID laws were turning up everywhere, including NH. NH has few documented cases of voter fraud, but suddenly, thanks to the 40+ ALEC puppets in the NH legislature, it was all the rage. As it happens, SB 318, the NH Senate voter ID law’s main sponsor, is Senator Sharon Carson. Carson is one of ALEC’s NH legislators, obediently doing the bidding of her corporate overlords.

A number of the Free State Project members, serving as GOP state representatives are also part of ALEC, which is more than a little hypocritical, given the philosophies they claim to espouse. State Representatives Jordan Ulery and Gary Johnson are the ALEC state chairmen for NH. The website: alecexposed.org will provide you with a great deal of information about ALEC, and what they’re up to, including a look at the thousands of pieces of ALEC model legislation. This is government for the corporations, by the corporations – but hey, corporations ARE people after all. Just ask Willard.

The right to work law that the O’Brien junta worked so hard to pass last year was not a NH bill. It came straight from a special interest group in Virginia. Despite the trouncing that O’Brien took on that last year, he brought it back again this year, only to be trounced again. In other words, the legislature wasted more of our tax dollars and their time, on a bill that wasn’t going anywhere. So much for that laser-like focus on job creation.

The laser is still broken. This week, the legislature interfered in the business of women’s bodily autonomy and medical privacy, by passing HB 1659. The initial bill required a 24-hour wait for women to receive dishonest propaganda from an abortion provider, before she was able to have the legal medical procedure known as abortion. The bill was yanked back into committee, when they realized that they had nebulous threats of penalties, but that in their haste to ensure a lack of liberty for women, these felony charges had not been examined for legality or constitutionality. The provision for forcing literature explaining the link between breast cancer and abortion was removed – probably because the idea that our state would force women to hear anti-science lies became national news. The newly retooled bill was passed, and it still forces a woman to wait 24 hours to undergo a legal medical procedure. This means a loss of (at least) two days pay, and a great deal of repetitive traveling for women who live in the far reaches of the state. It’s also worth pointing out that this bill will cost NH taxpayers over $100,000 each year. Rep. Sandra Kearns of Rochester, proposed expanding the bill to include men with erectile dysfunction, but the Speaker claimed that was not germane. No man should have to wait 24 hours in his pursuit of a drug induced erection. It’s not proper, you see, to get between a man and his doctor. It’s also worth noting that the Free Staters and other faux libertarians who bleat non-stop about personal liberty all vote against it at every opportunity, when that liberty involves women.

Last week, Governor Lynch vetoed the unconstitutional House plan for redistricting (gerrymandering) the state. This week, O’Brien violated the state constitution to override a bill that violates the state constitution. This was by far the most blatant power grab made (thus far) by the O’Brien junta. The events included a last minute secret GOP caucus where a legal opinion was allegedly presented that gave the Speaker permission to override the state constitution’s strictures on providing proper notice. This act also violated centuries of established tradition. The minority party leadership was never given a copy of this legal opinion. The minority party asked for 15 minutes to caucus, but the Speaker refused. The real outrage isn’t so much that legislators didn’t get proper notice or a copy of the legal opinion. The real outrage is that we the people didn’t get any of this. By strong-arming the cowardly majority party and overriding the Governor’s veto, it is we the people who didn’t get a chance to address OUR elected representatives on this matter.

Ask your representatives why they all voted to bypass the constitution to override the veto of an unconstitutional redistricting plan – and make no mistake, in Carroll County, they all voted for this.


"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." Abraham Lincoln


© sbruce 2012
published as an op-ed in the March 30, 2012 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.


h/t to World Fellowship for the graphic

Hiring Bias Against Long Term Unemployed Continues

Hiring biases are still in place when it comes to the long term unemployed. Some states are in the process of passing laws that would fine employers running help wanted ads that warn unemployed folks not to apply. That kind of overt action is increasingly difficult to get away with, but the same basic intent has moved underground. Recruiters and screeners who do the preliminary screenings for big companies are likely to screen the long term unemployed right out of the interview pile.

From the AP via Yahoo News:

Terri Michaels, who manages a Hartford employment firm that primarily staffs temporary employees, criticized hiring practices that screen out unemployed job seekers. Despite the policies of small staffing companies such as hers, some large employers have an unspoken policy against hiring applicants who've been out of work for two years or more because they want workers with a stable job history and recent references, she said.

and

Michaels said employers may use unemployment to weed out applicants for no other reason than to cut down a huge number of resumes for coveted job openings.

"When you have 14 million unemployed, everyone is applying for everything," she said. "You have to be somewhat discriminating."

and

A New Jersey lawmaker who co-sponsored the nation's only law barring ads that restrict applicants to those already with a job, agrees that job hunters need to show they've been active, even in unemployment.

"Don't sit at home. Make yourself available to your community," said Assemblywoman Celeste M. Riley.

That's the latest trend in advice for the long term unemployed. Do volunteer work. The jury is still out on whether that actually helps anyone get paying work.

Connecticut lawmakers are proposing legislation that would ban discriminatory job ads, but may back off from a more far-reaching provision that would permit unemployed job seekers who claim discrimination to file a complaint with the state's human rights commission or sue in court.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association hates the lawsuit part of the bill, and is pressuring lawmakers to remove that part of the bill. The state's human right's commission isn't sufficiently staffed or funded to deal with a glut of discrimination cases, which can be very difficult to prove.

The National Employment Law Project, based in New York, wants states to add laws that do more than ban discriminatory ads. Laws should explicitly prohibit employers and employment agencies from eliminating from consideration candidates who are unemployed, the advocacy group says.

That seems like sensible policy. We also need a shift in societal attitudes. As long as pundits and politicos continue to blame the unemployed for being out of work, the discrimination will continue.

The nation is slowly moving in the right direction, which we can certainly all feel good about, but we can't allow the millions who remain unemployed to be forgotten.


cross-posted at MainSt/workingamerica.org