Jeanne Shaheen the tax Machine

This, Courtesy of “Friends of the US chamber“ is a video from the US Chamber of commerce.  As Trex pointed out in his (her?) comment to an earlier post, its a great commercial.  Have a look.

More Morse Code: Whatever it is blame it on Republicans.

The letter below was submitted to the Cabinet Press on 9/27/08 in repsonse to a letter from Fred Morse: “Letter writer says don’t blame him; he didn’t vote republican.”  Fred, using his trademark incomplete facts and gross abuse of suppostion, takes the opportuntiy to blame Bush and Republicans for [insert issue here] the housing credit crisis. I don’t mean to keep picking on him, but he makes it too easy.  Fred is probably a great guy, and maybe someday we’ll have a beer together, but I can guarantee we won’t be talking politics.

 

To the Editor:

 

In the September 25^th Merrimack Journal Fred Morse states that “people paying attention know the origin of the sub-prime mortgage disaster.”  Well let’s hope so, because Mr. Morse would like you to believe that it was the “American Dream,” legislation passed by a ‘Republican controlled congress’ in 2003.  He claims they passed it because the “Bush GDP was sinking fast,” indicating that it provided free taxpayer money to people who couldn’t afford a down-payment on a home.  The assumption here is that increased home sales would drive up GDP.   But Mr. Morse was a bit thin on details so let me elaborate for him.

 

S.811 was passed in November of 2003 by the Senate of the 108^th congress, a senate with 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 1 independent.  If you are not overwhelmed by the 1% Republican majority in the Senate, the House had an enormous 2% Republican majority.   You might also want to know that the measure passed unanimously in the Senate, and skimmed straight through the House without objection.   

 

This “crisis creating” legislation included housing assistance for grandparents who are raising grandchildren, renewed ‘HOPE VI’ main street revitalization money, and included a maximum of 200 million annually for each of the following 5 years to provide down-payment assistance block grants to be administered by the States in amounts not to exceed 6% of cost or a maximum of $10,000 dollars per applicant. 

 

Money could also be allocated from the grant pool for low-income home improvement assistance at the States discretion so the money wasn’t all going to first time home buyers.  Mr. Morse rightly ignores all the other limitations because they just make his argument untenable.  

 

So how much impact do you think 200 million might have in a 12-14 trillion dollar economy? Not much.  Oh, and those of us paying attention also noticed that GDP grew steadily for 25 consecutive quarters, from July of 2001 until October of 2007, but then dropped a bit, but only for one quarter.   The only thing sinking fast here is Mr. Morse argument.

Is NH distracted by Cell phones?

The NH legislature, and Rep Richard Drisko, will be revisiting their efforts to write a new distracted driving law with features that prohibit driving with a pet on your lap, would require headlight use when its raining, and bans texting or cell phone use while driving.  On its face some of this this sounds sensible.  I happen to think headlight use is important when it’s raining, or at dawn and dusk, but I’m not sure I’d legislate it.  And these more reasonable assertions appear to me to be just fluff to finally get a cell phone ban on the books. 

Cell phones and particularly texting can be very distracting, distraction is the number one cause of crashes, and sometimes these collisions kill people other than those exhibiting the bad behavior, so the theory goes, we need a law to protect the innocent–let’s ban cell phone use in moving vehicles. (Hands free is not part of the restriction.)

 

But if you look at some of the numbers, the root cause of the problem doesn’t appear to be cell phones at all. 

 

An NHTSA study states that while cell phone use increases the odds of a crash by a factor of three, it is no more distracting to drivers than having a conversation with someone who is in the vehicle.   In fact it is less distracting than looking at objects outside the car, reaching for something in the car, reading something, or applying make up, none of which are on the docket for banning in the immediate future, nor should they be. 

 

National annual crash and fatality statistics over the past 10 years are stuck around 6.3 million and 42,000 respectively.  Despite a massive increase in cell phone use,  and increases in the opportunity for collisions—more cars on the road with more drivers, driving more miles –its clearly conversation that has been distracting us, and not just cell phones themselves.

 

Since we can’t ban conversation, and we are not about to ban looking, reaching, listening, or a host of other equally or more dangerous activities, should we waste the time and expense on enacting and enforcing a cell phone ban?  And can we even justify the object of additional legislation, removing peace officers from other tasks, and adding case loads to courthouses, simply because cell phones allow us to see conversation happening?   Is this going to require towns to add cops, judges and clerks, and the increased budgets they require for something that may not even solve the problem?

 

What say the NEA

My wife (she’s a part time teacher) got this nifty piece of NEA propaganda yesterday, (we actually get enough annually to clear a small Brazilian Rain Forrest–just in case you wondered where those dues went, other than to Democrat politicians) and in it we have comments from four Arizona Teachers, all claiming to be Republicans, and all pointing out how “disappointed they are with John Mc Cain.” (Oooh, act surprised!)

 First off, claiming to be a Republican does not make you one.  I present John Mc Cain as proof.  He’s not a democrat, but if he is such a great republican, what’s he need Palin for.  Anyway, while these “educators” (they are not necessarily teachers) may be registered as Republicans, their associations are primarily with organizations who promote democrat policies, and the lefts agenda. 

Kathy Ray of Mesa, AZ–she’s got an issue with Arizona’s per pupil funding (Arizona is 49^th), and because pay is performance-based test scores apparently “should not be the only measure of an ability to teach.”  

I suppose we could follow that logic down to, “why give tests at all.”  Maybe like-ability is a better measure.  Why don’t you guys go to school for 160 or 180 days— or whatever it is— and do nothing but recess, then promote everyone to the next grade.  That’s definitely not test-score based.  No homework, no tests, hey wait a minute.     What do we need you for at all?  Parents won’t even have to pay you.  I’m sure you can find another job where performance doesn’t matter.  Democratic presidential nominee comes to mind.

Middle-Class Biden

Snnator Joe Biden has been using the phrase “middle class” a lot.  More than Jeanne Shaheen.  You’d think they were getting a nickel every time they say it.  But what I find most amusing is that Joe—salt of the earth, blue-collar—Biden, has lived the life of a US Senator for 36 some odd years now.  And Mr. hair plug has Billy May’s glowing “trust me this stuff really works” smile.  Biden is about as in touch with the middle class as Bill Gates is with poverty.