Video: Ronald Reagan from June 12th 1987
On this day 20 years ago
Editorial from the New Hampshire Union Leader
As a loving and nurturing father of three daughters, all born and raised in New Hampshire, the Legislature’s repeal of the state law requiring parental notification before a minor can get an abortion cannot be considered anything less than a brutal attack on the family values my wife and I and many members of our community and church have instilled in our children.
We did this so that they can grow up and be caring, loving adults one day. Lessons of love and caring for others and of giving back to our communities come from all variations of families that include one or two parent households and so on. However, when trust and communication are absent in any relationship, it breaks down. The repeal of this law fosters the breakdown of both these vital components.
New Hampshire has other laws, rules, regulations and measures that have been agreed to and put in place to protect our children, to keep them from harm, and from hurting themselves because they are not quite ready to make a decision of this magnitude given their lack of experience.
This repeal is counter to most all those protections because it virtually leaves our underage children on their own. We are their teachers as they grow to adulthood so that one day they are prepared to make these difficult decisions. Kids will still make bad choices in spite of this. This is why these laws to aid in their protection are in place.
The argument I’ve heard is that “judges will be able help these kids.” How in the world can a judge learn what he or she would need to know about my family and all concerns that led my daughter before him or her so that this child could abort a fetus in 48 hours?
Now there are certainly cases where the courts are needed because of abuse, rape and other hate-related assaults on children. Thank goodness that these are the minority of cases. The key word here is “minority.” The vast majority can rely on the parent or guardian, thank you very much, without needing the court. That is the political poison here and why I feel my rights as a parent are being obliterated.
My daughter at 17 could not get an X-ray of her upper back from the doctor until the hospital spoke with either my wife or me. True story; I got this call at work. Now at 17 she will be able to go to the same hospital and get an abortion with no call required to anyone who loves or cares for her?
A question for the governor who said he will sign this bill into law. What provision is made for the parent or guardian if this procedure goes terribly wrong, as they do more often than people are told? Let’s say the child dies and a call to tell the parents or guardian is placed? Does the state take the blame since it is allowing the parents to be cut out of the decision-making process?
This law absolutely needs to address this concern and someone needs to be held accountable before it is signed. Politics are being played with our children’s lives to push an agenda, and it is being cleverly masked.
An underage girl’s right to have an abortion should require the knowledge of the act’s entire meaning, both at present and its impact for the rest of her life. Our kids need us involved in that decision. Our kids’ futures and our “family values” are at stake.
John Jones of New Boston works for Hewlitt-Packard and is a Coast Guard reservist
Another case of government coming in and taking control away from the parents. Can you imagine any other invasive procedure that can be done on a minor without the parents knowing? I didn’t think so. This man’s daughter was not allowed to have an x-ray without his permission, but she can have an abortion without his knowledge. Please tell me how this makes any sense. The fact that a parent’s daughter can engage in sometimes dangerous behavior and when she has to pay for her actions her parents don’t have a right to know is beyond belief.
The real story with parental notification is that the pro-choice crowd is scared to death of any restrictions on abortions. They feel it will be the beginning of the end of abortion. The figure once one restriction is implemented it will lead to another restriction and another restriction. Why else would they be in favor of partially birthing a baby and then either sucking it’s brains out or crushing it’s skull?
Global Warming is Causing cats to Breed too Quickly
You can read the whole article here.
Global warming is causing the cat breeding season to be extended according to a group called Pets Across America. The more you read about global warming the sillier it gets. This is just the latest example of some of the lunacy that is out there on this issue. The list just keeps growing and growing.
According to the group’s president, Kathy Warnick, “many believe global warming is extending cat breeding seasons and causing the cat population to swell.”
“Cats are typically warm-weather, spring-time breeders,” said Warnick, who also serves as president of the Humane Society of Missouri. “However, states that typically experience primarily longer and colder winters are now seeing shorter, warmer winters, leading to year-round breeding.
“Basically, there is no longer a reproduction lull with cat breeding cycles and unfortunately, it seems more people are bringing boxes of kittens into our agencies during winter now.”
The earth’s temperature has warmed somewhere between .3 degrees and .6 degrees celsius since the late 19th century and .2 degrees and .3 degrees celsius since over the last 40 years. Someone please explain to me how such a small increase in temperature could possible lead to warmer, shorter Winters. This is a myth being perpertrated against the American people.
Denver to Implement Global Warming taxes and fees
Denver wants to lead the way in the fight against global warming. Guess who gets to pay the price for it. The residents of Denver, of course.
But the proposal also contains some ideas that may be unpopular, such as penalizing heavy users of electricity and natural gas and basing auto insurance premiums on the number of miles traveled.
This is another example of something I have been saying here for a while. Man-made global warming is a farce designed to raise additional revenue through environmental taxes. People need to start paying attention to this issue before it’s too late and the government is taxing your every move.
Denver may ask voters to approve higher rates for “excessive” use of electricity and natural gas. The plan also floats the idea of using insurance premiums to penalize people who drive long distances. “You can think of them as penalties or you can think of them as market signals,” said Conover. “There’s some choice involved.”
There is some choice involved alright, choice on how you decide to categorize your new taxes, not a choice on paying them. Politicians and the media are portraying global warming as fact while scientists have differing opinions. All this is happening while June in Denver hit a record LOW.
Residents of Colorado’s Front Range awoke Friday morning to frost-covered windshields as temperatures dropped to the lowest readings in over 50 years. The temperature at Denver International Airport fell to 31 degrees at 5:44 a.m. Friday, setting a new record low for the date. In addition to the new record low, the sub-freezing temperatures also became the latest freeze on record for the city of Denver and the second-coldest June temperature ever recorded. The previous date of latest freeze on record was June 2, 1951. Temperatures in Denver have only dropped below freezing two other times during the month of June; 32 degrees on June 1, 1919 and 30 degrees on June 2, 1951.
This is why they are starting to use the term climate change instead of global warming. This was any record high or low, any unusual storm can be portrayed as climate change. On top of that, nine out of the twelve warmest years in Denver were before 1955. But we can’t let the facts get in the way of this argument, Denver needs the tax money and this is a convenient way to get it. If this is allowed to happen it is only a matter of time before the environmental taxes come to a city near you.
From the New Hampshire Union Leader
According to a new CNN/WMUR poll released this afternoon by the cable network, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s lead among New Hampshire Democrats increased after last week’s debates, co-sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Clinton holds a 14-point lead over Barack Obama. John Edwards stumbled badly, losing almost half his support according to the survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
So this is what it comes down to? The Democrats knew all along that there was no wrong doing in this case, yet they are still trying to bring down Alberto Gonzalez. They tried holding hearings into this even though they knew he was innocent. This was just an attempt to see if they could catch him in a lie and take him down on a perjury charge. It worked in the Libby case, it didn’t work here.
Today they tried to hold a vote of no confidence on Alberto Gonzalez . This was just a silly, meaningless, waste of time and energy. This was an attempt to embarrass Gonzalez into resigning. They were not able to come up with any wrongdoing in which to take him down so they tried this little game.
Don’t you think their time could be better spent?
From the New Hampshire Union Leader:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean yesterday said the New Hampshire primary has retained its importance, despite attempts by other states to schedule their primaries or caucuses closer to or before New Hampshire.
Well that sounds great, he says New Hampshire is still important to the primary process. However in the next paragraph he lets the cat out of the bag concerning how we really feels.
“Because we now have four early states instead of two, they’re much more diverse both geographically and ethnically … so people who have to now run for President now have to run for President early on in front of those audiences which are much more likely to be the people who are going to elect them,” said Dean.
So what he is really saying is, hey New Hampshire we still love you but we need the candidates to campaign to the people who will really elect them. There you have it, you don’t count, New Hampshire voters.
This is also coming from the party who said they will pull New Hampshire delegates out of the Democrat National Convention if we schedule the primary before Nevada’s.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran’s involvement in Iraq.”I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Lieberman said. “And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”
This is one Democrat, sorry, former Democrat, now Independent, who understands what we are dealing with in the middle east. This man was the vice president nominee in 2000 but has since been shunned by his party for his hawkish attitude. Please Joe come to the RIGHT side. His victory as an Independent shows us that Americans don’t want to lose, they may want the war to end, but they don’t want to lose.
“We’ve said so publicly that the Iranians have a base in Iran at which they are training Iraqis who are coming in and killing Americans. By some estimates, they have killed as many as 200 American soldiers,” Lieberman said. “Well, we can tell them we want them to stop that. But if there’s any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can’t just talk to them.”
He added, “If they don’t play by the rules, we’ve got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they’re doing.”
Can you imagine any of the frontrunners of the Democrat party saying “we can’t just talk to them”? I can’t, their whole platform is built upon appeasing the terrorists, trying to understand why the hate us. We must change in order not to offend anyone, terrorists included. It is our fault they hate us.
In this time of war, at least one Democrat, sorry former Democrat, has the courage to stand up for what is right for this nation.
You can read the full article here.
From the Union Leader, to see my previous posts on this issue just search New Hampshire tax Protesters on my blog.
Despite the massive show of force authorities displayed last week when they seized the West Lebanon property of convicted tax evaders Edward and Elaine Brown, the avoidance of confrontation with the couple at their Plainfield home suggests law enforcement agencies have learned from mistakes made during earlier federal standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge, an expert who tracks militia and radical right-wing movements said.
U.S. marshals in New Hampshire appear to be pursuing tactics similar to those used in Montana in 1996, when federal agents successfully negotiated the peaceful surrender of the Montana Freeman after an 81-day standoff, said Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This was the lesson of Ruby Ridge and Waco. Those two standoffs not only left a great many dead people in their wake, but also helped create the militia movement,” Potok said.
The 51-day standoff in 1993 between federal agents and the Branch Davidians at their compound near Waco, Texas, ended in a fire that left 74 people dead. Four federal agents were killed in an earlier shootout with the Davidians.
In 1992, a confrontation between federal agents and white separatist Randy Weaver in northern Idaho’s Ruby Ridge resulted in the deaths of one federal agent and two members of Weaver’s family.
“It’s very easy to see one of these situations escalate into mass killings, and that, in turn, can set off very large and dangerous political movements,” said Potok, who reported on the Waco siege for USA Today and now tracks radical right and militia groups for the law center based in Montgomery, Ala.
Potok said Stephen Monier, the U.S. marshal in New Hampshire, has carefully avoided creating a standoff with the Browns while attempting to convince the couple to surrender.
“That seems like a good tactic,” he said.
Potok said the dozens of armed federal and state officials who rolled into Lebanon Thursday and set up surveillance at the end of the long driveway leading to the Browns’ rural home in nearby Plainfield was not an overreaction, given Edward Brown’s repeated threats to use force against authorities attempting to serve the couple with arrest warrants issued at their sentencing in April.
“If you were law enforcement and you were going to approach the Browns’ house, you are completely within your right to be ready for anything,” Potok said. “The man has repeatedly threatened violence and he has some friends who apparently agree with him.”
Monier said he had to take into account the history of the Browns’ case when he executed a federal court order to enter the West Lebanon property where Elaine Brown ran her dental practice.
Ed Brown has threatened violence against law enforcement, owns weapons, and said he would die defending himself and his property, Monier said. Brown also has had a number of supporters — some armed — at his home.
“We needed to have some real-time information about what was going on there and who might be leaving there when we were also in Lebanon,” Monier said of the surveillance teams set up at the driveway of the Browns’ house Thursday morning. “We had no intention of storming the house.”
Monier refused to discuss tactical details but said the overwhelming presence of state and federal officers — which included SWAT teams, and military and explosives vehicles — was necessary to ensure the safety of the officers and the public.
A federal jury convicted the Browns in January of plotting to hide their income and avoid federal income taxes on Elaine Brown’s income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003. The jury found they used $215,890 in postal money orders in amounts just below the tax-reporting threshhold to pay for their residence and Elaine Brown’s Lebanon dental office.
A judge sentenced the couple in abstentia to 63 months in federal prison and ordered them to forfeit the $215,890 to the federal government.
The court issued a preliminary order of forfeiture on both properties in February. This week the court issued a writ of entry on the Lebanon property only, a high-ranking official with the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The official would not comment on whether an order is forthcoming to enter the Plainfield property.
The Lebanon property was secured and posted Thursday.
“It was rendered safe and there were no hazardous materials,” Monier said, adding that reports of the dental office at Half Hollow Courtyard holding a network of underground tunnels and a bunker are unfounded.
“That’s another of those Internet legends,” Monier said, referring to the Browns’ heavy reliance on the Web to get their message out.
Federal authorities now would need to obtain a final order of forfeiture from the court to take ownership of the Lebanon property and use it to satisfy the forfeiture order, the federal source said. He said he did not know if the property is sufficient to meet the $215,890 judgment.
Monier still has to serve the Browns with arrest warrants that would immediately send them to prison to begin serving their 63-month sentences.
“We’ve said all along that we’re going to be deliberate, patient and calm in our approach to this,” Monier said of his efforts to persuade the Browns to surrender peacefully.
“We have no desire to see any harm come to the Browns,” he added.
Potok said this is a reasonable approach and one that has proven successful in other standoffs that lasted months and, in some cases, years. He pointed to an ongoing standoff between a Texas man and sheriff’s deputies that has gone on five years.
“If this is what this means, that the Browns will be locked up inside their house for the next three years or five years . . . that’s punishment all by itself,” Potok said.
“The problem is that that is expensive” for law enforcement charged with monitoring these situations and executing court orders as they did Thursday, he said.
Editorial from the New Hampshire Union Leader:
Lynch’s Party: The Headless Donkey
GOV. JOHN LYNCH exerted considerable energy in attempting to persuade legislators to pass a constitutional amendment that would restore legislative control of education funding. He might as well have tried to move Mount Washington.
For almost eight months Lynch worked legislators, particularly his fellow Democrats, to back an amendment that would allow the state to target education aid to less affluent school districts. On Thursday the House killed an amendment personally endorsed by Lynch, and Democrats made sure it stayed dead even after Lynch asked them to revive it.
Lynch first endorsed an amendment on Oct. 11 of last year. In his inaugural address on Jan. 4 he called on legislators to come together to pass an amendment. Since then he has worked with Democrats and Republicans to find a deal both sides could support. He made clear to Democrats that he wanted an amendment, and he pushed for one both privately and publicly.
But it was all for naught. Despite his best efforts, he could not persuade even half of House Democrats to support an amendment that allowed targeted aid, wrote the central premise of the Claremont rulings into the state constitution and left the courts with oversight of the issue.
It was the most important of two critical defeats legislative Democrats gave Lynch this session. The other was on the budget. The governor introduced a large state budget, but House Democrats immediately inflated it, ignoring his entreaties to budget more responsibly. Senate Democrats trimmed the House version, but not back to the level Lynch had proposed.
On easy, popular issues, the governor has had his way. The Legislature raised the high school dropout age to 18, banned smoking in bars and restaurants, rolled back some welfare reforms passed last year, and approved a renewable energy mandate — all items Lynch requested in his inaugural address and that had widespread backing within his party.
But when it came to controlling the Democratic Party’s insatiable appetite for new spending, Lynch was powerless. He could only watch as his party loaded up the budget and killed the last chance legislators would have this session to prevent a broadbased tax to finance public schools.
Legislative Democrats showed the governor this week that he might be the head of the party, but they are the ones in charge. The donkey is running around without direction from the top, kicking over all sorts of New Hampshire values and traditions.
Lynch calmly reassured voters last year that they could elect a Democratic Legislature without worry because he would keep spending under control and prevent lawmakers from imposing a sales or income tax. He has failed to do the former and now appears in danger of failing to do the latter.
The question now is not where will Gov. Lynch lead us. It is where will the liberal majority of his party drag us, with him helplessly in tow along with the rest of the state?
Governor Lynch claims to be a leader, a builder of consensus between Republicans and Democrats. If this is so, why wasn’t he able to get at least half of the Democrats to agree with him on his education amendment proposal?
The truth is, as this article says, that the governor has been able to pass popular, no brainer legislation to build his approval rating up, but when it comes to tough legislation he is has failed.
Governor Lynch’s legacy will be as the governor who turned New Hampshire into Massachusetts.
Isn’t that a great legacy to have? NOT.
