This article from the Concord Monitor details the real problem very nicely. With all the passionate opinions regarding Common Core, we too often lose sight of the actual problem. While the standards were never imposed on any district, there was also no clear method for opting out, and the tests were still required. The issue is not Common Core, but rather whether local districts have the ability to choose. Kudos to rep. ladd for bringing forward a bill that attempts to solve the real problem.
Author: Rep. Steven Smith
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WNTK – Thank You
Big thanks to Ben Sarro for having me on this morning to talk about the Sullivan County Republican Committee. We are entering an exciting and busy two year cycle. 2015 will begin the NH Primary. Presidential candidates will be coming here, and we will have an opportunity to meet them. 2016 will have State Primaries for US Senate, US Congress, and Governor. This is a perfect time to get involved, meet candidates, and make a difference. To be a part of it, please contact me.
Rep. Steven Smith
nhfirst@gmail.com
603-826-5996 -
Join Us
This Saturday, 12/6, delegates will meet to elect a new Sullivan County Republican Committee. This is an exciting time to get involved. As we move into the NH Presidential Primary season, members typically have better access to candidates and more complete information. If you want great access to candidates and currently elected officials, and you want to help the Republican Party succeed over the next two years, please come. This meeting will be at the Fiske Free Library at 108 Broad St, Claremont, NH 03743 at 9AM on Saturday, December 6th. If you can not make this meeting, but would like to be a part of it, please contact us to submit your name to the vote. You can email nhrepublican@gmail.com, or call 603-826-5996
Rep. Steven Smith -
Veterans Day
Today is Veterans Day. We offer our deepest thanks to those have served, who are serving, and who will serve. The brave men and women of our armed services risk their lives to keep us safe, and free. Today, thank a Veteran. Don’t worry about eloquence. There are no words sufficient to be worthy of the sacrifice of our Veterans and their families. Here is some background regarding the origins of Veterans Day.From Wikipedia:
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday: “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the “Father of Veterans Day.”
U.S. Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.
Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans,” and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
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Meet the candidates, tonight
Tuesday October 28, 2014. 7:00pm – 9:00pm.Candidates Forum in New London. Candidates invited to participate are Executive Council Dist.1 (Joe Kenney, Michael Cryans), Senate Dist.8 ( Linda Tanner, Jerry Little), Merrimack Dist.4 (Tom Schamberg, Douglas Long), Merrimack Dist.5 (Karen Ebel, David Kidder) and Sullivan Dist.2 (Sue Gottling, Spec Bowers).Hosted and moderated by League of Women Voters of the Kearsarge/Sunapee Area. Whipple Hall, Main St. New London, NH 03255 -
Sen. Shaheen and your high energy costs
THE LATE, GREAT MARSHALL COBLEIGH ON JEANNE SHAHEEN’S OPPOSITION TO NUCLEAR POWER
Jeanne Shaheen’s actions don’t back up her rhetoric on energy
New Hampshire Union Leader
Marshall Cobleigh
July 3, 2008AS IS USUAL with poll-driven politicians, Jeanne Shaheen is running television commercials and writing op-ed pieces addressing the dominant problem facing America — skyrocketing gasoline prices — but providing no real solutions. Even worse, anyone who knows her history also knows that during her entire career she has been a big part of the problem.
Long-time New Hampshire residents know that she and I were weekly regulars on Channel 9’s “Close Up” program for 10 years (and I have many of the tapes of those programs). Those tapes show Shaheen fighting fiercely to hamstring nuclear licensing regulations. They also show her fighting against building an oil refinery in Rochester after the Durham location failed.
In today’s world, China is scheduled to build 50 nuclear reactors by the year 2020; Russia is scheduled to build 26 nuclear reactors; and India is scheduled to build enough nuclear reactors to meet one fourth of the electricity needs of its one billion people.
Meanwhile, thanks to the opposition of Shaheen and others, the United States has not built a nuclear plant in 31 years. Europe gets 35 percent of its electricity from nuclear power: France gets 78 percent, Lithuania gets 70 percent, and Slovakia gets 56 percent.
It’s the same story when it comes to building new, efficient refineries. Because Shaheen and others fought to hamstring refinery licensing, America last built a new refinery when Jerry Ford was President.
Jeanne Shaheen and the Democrats propose tighter regulation of illegal oil price manipulation, ending some speculation on oil futures, and imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Doesn’t Jeanne Shaheen remember that when Democratic President Jimmy Carter tried a windfall profits tax it was a miserable failure? Domestic oil production plunged by 795 million barrels. Carter and the Democrats predicted tax revenue from their windfall profits tax of $393 billion. It brought in $80 billion. The non-partisan Tax Foundation states that the oil industry since 1981 has had a cumulative $1.12 trillion in profits, but paid $1.65 trillion in taxes.
Shaheen, like a stopped clock, is often correct once or twice a day, and her call for an investigation of possible oil price manipulation makes some sense. However, her position on futures trading could penalize homeowners, farmers and all kinds of traders, as well as cripple our economy.
We do not need another Democrat in Washington. Lets look at the figures Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri put together. They clearly tell us who caused gasoline prices to skyrocket:
- Increased refinery capacity: 97 percent of House Republicans supported; 96 percent of Democrats opposed.
- Oil shale exploration: 90 percent of Republicans supported; 86 percent of Democrats opposed.
- Coal to liquid: 97 percent of Republicans supported; 78 percent of Democrats opposed.
- Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) exploration: 81 percent of Republicans supported; 83 percent of Democrats opposed.
- ANWR exploration: 91 percent of Republicans supported: 86 percent of Democrats opposed.
A few facts about these issues that Shaheen and the Democrats oppose:
ANWR is larger than the area of five states: Massachusetts, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. The drilling would be done in an area one-sixth the size of Dulles Airport.
Drilling is now being done 60 miles off of Florida, but that drilling is being done by Cuba. Meanwhile, Congress has a moratorium on offshore drilling, and we are at the mercy of the Mideast sheiks.
Louisiana has 3,200 oil rigs offshore and a flourishing fishing industry.
Does this record make you want to send Jeanne Shaheen to the Senate so that she can make it tougher to drill and refine oil and make gasoline prices continue to rise?
Yes, Jeanne Shaheen always addresses the big issues that her political polls show the American people care about, but her voting record clearly shows that she is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
When Jeanne Shaheen started in politics, we imported one third of our oil. Now we import two-thirds of our oil. Since she and other Democrats started fighting for tougher regulations on energy production, America’s domestic oil production has decreased from 9 billion barrels a day to 5 million barrels a day.
Jeanne Shaheen talks a good game about high gas prices and alternative energy sources. But her record shows clearly that she has done nothing constructive to solve the problem. Her television ad is a fraud. It’s what you do, not what you say, that pays off at the gas pump.
Marshall Cobleigh is a former speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the former state energy chief.
