Ah yes, Road Island … you know, one of the 57 states. Austrians there speak Austrian. The Intercontinental Railroad passes through Road Island before it crosses the Atlantic. It was 2011 in Road Island, but Obama thought it was 2008. They celebrate Cinco de Cuatro in Road Island. If you roll a gutter ball in Road Island, it’s like the Special Olympics. In Road Island, wheelchair-bound people can stand up and take a bow. Yep, Little Roady.

Now remember: conservatives are supposed to be the dumb ones.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 17, 2012

*WEEK AHEAD GUIDANCE FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT*

On Tuesday, the Vice President will deliver remarks at the State Department Global Business Conference.

On Thursday, the Vice President will travel to Boston, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire and Providence, Road Island to attend campaign events.

On Friday, the Vice President will travel to Davidson Community College near Greensboro, North Carolina to join Dr. Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on the final stop of their “Community College to Career” bus tour. Additional details are forthcoming.

###

But that’s exactly what happened to a trucker last December in Brentwood NH.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it? I mean, a pompous know-it-all limousine liberal senator with a history of military-bashing (and who’s never done an honest day’s work) would have the poor judgment to hire an ex-CIA guy with a warped, traitorous, anti-American bent? Boggles the mind.

Well, it won’t be long now before MSNBC and Olbermann and David Corn will be screaming for this Kiriakou guy to be tried and hung. And of course we have to assume Sean Penn is already in talks to play an outed spook’s spouse. I’m sure the first draft of the screenplay is in review as we speak.

John Kerry: hell of a guy.

One of the Monitor’s editorials this week calls for applying the NH rooms and meals tax to high-calorie soft drinks. Why? Because Americans are fat, that’s why. And then we can use the tax revenue “to promote healthy foods and subsidize efforts to make communities more walkable and bikeable.” I’m serious, that’s what they wrote. A failsafe plan if I ever heard one. It’ll work just like RGGI carbon taxes scrubbed CO2 out of the air over the northeast.

I will not link to the Monitor on principle, but if you read the op-ed you will be forgiven for thinking it ran originally on The Onion. It begins with a hypothetical story in which ferry passengers run to one side of the ship to see a pod of killer whales, and their huge reserves of blubber (the passengers’, not the whales’) cause the boat to capsize. Now granted, overloaded third-world ferries turn turtle whenever it gets breezy, but I’m sure the Monitor expects readers to picture something closer to home, like a booze cruise out of Portsmouth. Where there are no killer whales, which most everyone around here knows, but hey, I don’t expect the editorial writers to be cetologists. Then again, they might think it could happen on Winnipesaukee, given that most journalism jobs today do not require candidates who actually know, you know, stuff.

So, what was I talking about … oh yeah, so here’s the problem with the liberal utopian instinct: WHERE DO YOU STOP? Why not slap the rooms & meals tax on candy, cake, pie, doughnuts (mmmmm, doughnuts), cookies, crackers, milk, bread, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, deli foods, cured meats, chicken wings, fruit juices, oils, salad dressings, macadamia nuts, peanut butter and jelly, marshmallow Fluff, Count Chocula and everything else with more than 2 grams of sugar or 0 grams of fat. That should cover about 97% of the supermarket. Then we can all eat soy crackers, celery and air. Mmmmmm, air.

OK, we’re all fat slobs. Nobody argues that. But the libs believe they can and should change people’s behavior by using the power of the state to push the unenlightened toward choosing a beverage the libs approve of. Like maybe water distilled from treated sewage and packaged in sustainable recycled hemp containers. To their thinking, a soda tax will discourage people from chugging 2-liter Dr. Peppers and then we’ll all be skinny with protruding adam’s apples and look good in tight cycling shorts. Yeah, just like taxes on booze cure alcoholism. Can’t argue with that logic, can you?

As always, the political debate in this country boils down to a very simple but very serious choice: do we as Americans want utopia, or do we want freedom? Grab a Coke and think about it.

O’Keefe’s brand of journalism – sadly lacking most everywhere else in the media — would be hailed as fearless truth-seeking except for one thing: he targets left-wing groups and hypocrisies. So of course he and his organization are derided as criminals by the left, the news media and hack politicians. According to the Union Leader, Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas says the filmmakers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Apparently Gatsas, at least nominally a Republican, has lost his mind. Nashua’s City Clerk said “People who pull stunts like this should be prosecuted.” Ah, behold the power of the bureaucratic mind at work! Hey, instead of worrying about putting the people who embarrassed you in jail, how about FIXING THE DAMNED PROBLEM?

That idiocy aside, the video proves the simple point that Republicans apparently can’t beat through thick Democrat skulls: every fraudulent vote disenfranchises an honest voter. Period. Requiring voters to show ID is about keeping the voting system fair for everyone who votes. It’s certainly not about excluding all the mythical voters who apparently carry on their everyday lives year after year without once having to obtain or use an ID, and then wake up on election day and say “you know, I’m not convinced of  the Republican nominee’s proposed approach to monetary policy vis-a-vis the Fed’s interbank rates. I believe I’ll head down to the polling station and exercise my civic duty.”

Democrats fight voter-ID laws because voter fraud historically has worked to their advantage. They immediately stoop to the dirtiest trick in the book — crying racism — to protect that advantage, regardless of it’s gross illegality. Pathetic, but typical.

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Here’s the latest evidence: this week, the Monitor is outraged that the NH legislature is considering raising the speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph on stretches of interstate. Well, heavens to Betsy, the editors are having a spell of the vapors. I deduce they have fainting couches and handkerchiefs all around their offices.

First they lay out the numbers to bolster their argument against a 5-mph speed limit increase on safety grounds:

“At 65 miles per hour a motorist with average reaction time driving a vehicle with average performance and good tires can expect to stop 345 feet after perceiving danger. At 70 mph that distance increases to 388 feet. At 75 the distance becomes 433 feet.”

Ooooh, science! But the numbers sounded fishy to me, so I checked the web site of people who test this stuff every day. According to Car & Driver magazine, a 2012 Toyota Yaris brakes from 70–0 mph in 181 feet. Well, you might say, the Yaris is a small, light car. What about an SUV? Let’s say a big, heavy, gas-guzzling, environment-destroying 2007 GMC Yukon Denali like Al Gore gets chauffeured around in. That vehicle brakes from 70-0 mph in 187 ft.

Romney: 38%

Paul: 20%

Huntsman:14%

Santorum: 13%

Gingrich: 7%

Perry: 1%

She’s from Cape Elizabeth, one of the toniest addresses in Maine, and her father is a wealthy businessman. She sees her political foes as anti-government Tea Partiers and corporate special interests, and it’s clear she detests most things conservative and/or Republican. So chances are excellent we’re talking about a classic privileged, guilty liberal. Her blog posts betray a forced altruism and a heavy dose of Stonewall Kitchen-esque yuppie sensibility, along with run-of-the-mill big-government, tax-and-spend politics. Apparently she hopes to build a voting bloc from Maine’s committed left, public employee unions and women who see patriarchy around every corner.

Among her pearls of wisdom:

“Gridlock in Washington is robbing a generation.” Actually, if anything, it’s saving a generation. Gridlock is good, to modify a phrase from Wall Street (on which Dill apparently bases her view of the private sector). The less government does, the less it screws up and the less money it takes out of people’s pockets.

“The opposite of corporate greed is personal generosity.” No, the opposite is corporate generosity, of which countless billions of dollars in products, services and volunteer time are given each year. I’m getting a little tired of people who can only use the word corporate as a modifier for greed.

“”States rights” is the code word [sic] for extreme conservatism.” No, it was the rallying cry of segregationist Democrats of the ’50s and ’60s. Now the term is used when smearing as racist those who reject the liberal notion that the Constitution is a quaint, dead relic.

“We’re all alone together.” Um, what?

“Erosion of public institutions and parks will be the downfall of the American way of life.” Right. Only high taxes, bloated bureaucracies and national parks keep America from total collapse.

“The never ending hunt for market share, unchecked … can lead to exploitation.” So government needs to put checks on a business’ ability to grow its market share? Well, we wouldn’t more jobs and livelihoods for people, now would we? Wow. This is anti-business dogma taken to a vapid extreme.

“This party of “small government” wants a bureaucrat in every woman’s examination room, and a gun in every holster.” Bingo, she’s got us nailed. That’s exactly what we want — not an unborn’s opportunity for life or for the Second Amendment to be respected. Clearly this is a lawmaker who rejects hyperbole for reasoned debate.

The Tea Party is “the angry mob that’s crippling America.” Bingo again. Protest should only be allowed when it involves leftover hippies and weed-addled Phish fans clamoring for redistribution. When it involves taxpayers protesting (politely and cleanly) government waste and encroachment, it cripples the country.

Sorry Tea-Partiers, but with a Republican Senate within the realm of what’s possible in 2012, Snowe and her seat need to be protected. You want people like Dill in the US Senate just to make a point? Sorry, no sale.

(One good thing out of this exercise is Dill’s blog pointed me to Maine activist Mary Adams’ web site. Adams has been fighting for Maine taxpayers and against government overreach for years. She’s an inspiration.)

By the way, Dill asks in her most recent blog post, “Am I crazy?”  Hey, I report, you decide.

Here’s a picture of one of the turbines. Look at the scale and how it dwarfs the construction vehicles:

Now multiply this vertical football field by 33, and start spinning them all at once. Then, with a straight face, tell people that doing this in a wilderness area will have no impact on wildlife. And no impact on the outdoor resources and scenery that drives the largest industry in the state:

On top of that, you and I — and China — paid for most of it. Estimates are that up to 80% of the approximately $230 million required for the project came from federal funds. And oh, if you live in the area or elsewhere in New Hampshire, too bad: the power has already been purchased by Vermont utilities.

Economically, large-scale wind power has serious issues. Like, it can only survive in a government-dependent model. You know, wasting taxpayers’ dollars in a manner that invites — and practically requires — crony capitalism. Wind itself is an inefficient energy source, lacking the energy density of other sources. Wind-generated power delivers transient peaks and valleys, requiring unplanned cycles of coal- and gas- fired plant utilization, a practice that actually produces more carbon per megawatt.

Environmentally, large wind turbines are notorious bird killers. I’m not worried about sparrows that have an equal chance of being eaten by neighborhood cats — I’m worried about raptors and re-established eagle populations and the impact on migratory flyways. Ground, noise and visual pollution are other byproducts.

As a model of project management — less than one year from initial site clearing to commissioning — the Granite Reliable Power wind farm is remarkable. As a monument to short-sighted, destructive group-think, it will stand as a marker for a sorry period of history. A period in which media, academia and government all fell into a frenzied, irrational fear of fossil fuel-derived energy – to the point that the feds underwrote billions of dollars worth of poorly-conceived, uneconomic and environmentally destructive monstrosities. It’s Solyndra times 20, with immediate wilderness damage thrown in.

And it’s all being done in the name of politically-correct fealty to climate alarmism.

Any power-generating technology impacts the environment. But the sheer scale required to replace, or just largely reduce, mineral-based fuels with wind, solar and water means we’ll all be looking at huge and destructive wind farms, solar farms and hydro dams every time we turn around. It’s simply not feasible — it’s a pipe dream that ain’t gonna happen. Cleaner, low-carbon fossil fuels and technologies, along with nuclear, are the near- and medium-term steps in the evolution of real-world power generation. And I didn’t get a check from evil “Big Oil” to write this — I just used common sense.