As Tom Fahey reports in the August 22 edition of the NH Union Leader, the NH Government is taking the cash it seizes from us in gas taxes, and spending it on agencies that have nothing to do with the roads.

Not unexpected.

Here is a portion of the piece:

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Highway funding: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

CONCORD – As the state struggles to find money to fix bridges and highways, the equivalent of nearly two of each three cents in state gasoline taxes is diverted from road construction.

As expected, the NH House voted to pass HB 927.

Many thanks to everyone who fought this bill. Since the Republican Party leadership is now useless and feckless in defending individual liberty, it will be up to us to begin the work to expand the number of people who believe in our principles. This will take a massive effort in the media.

We will discuss this in more detail soon.

While we adhere to the principle that taxation is not morally supportable, and that taxation is legalized theft, we also recognize the importance of keeping politicians to their words, and every state representative and senator, as well as the Governor and the Executive Counselors swear an oath to uphold the NH Constitution. Far be it from us to point out that the NH Constitution does NOT specify a "right" to a state-funded "adequate education". In fact, it reserves to the TOWNS the power to make education decisions and finance them.

Today, fellow Conspirators and others from numerous pro-liberty, free-market organizations gathered on the State House steps to show their opposition to HB 927, which will take away this local control of education policy and hand it to the politicians in Concord.

The vote is tomorrow. We hope you can join us at 9 am! There is a strong chance that this noxious and anti-constitutional legislation could pass...

Here are some points to remember:

In the wording of HB 927, there is a mandated curriculum of seven subjects that MUST be taught, including 'information technology', plus mandated kindergarten. The conspiracy has it on good word that the Senators who put this together intentionally shoved mandates into it to jack up the price of an 'adequate' education, so that the towns, when they see the price tag, will start clamoring for 'relief', and you know where the leftists are going to take that.

In a blow to the primacy of private property, NH Governor John "Gosh, We're Bi-partisan!" Lynch yesterday signed into law a ban on smoking in all private restaurants and bars.

"I'm a fascist," he said... Just kidding. But technically speaking, what he has done IS fascistic, in the strict political definition. It also buys into the Marxist idea that the owners of the means of production EXPLOIT workers, which is baseless and false. Business people do not force anyone to work for them, and to have government step in to "protect workers" from the conditions which they VOLUNTARILY accept as part of their jobs is something Marx would have loved.

Here is the story, from Tom Fahey, of the Union Leader:

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Lynch launches last-minute rescue
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
16 hours, 11 minutes ago

CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch yesterday launched a rescue effort for a constitutional amendment on school funding.

Lynch persuaded members of the state Senate to suspend their rules so that an amendment can be introduced before the end of this month.

Lynch said shortly after a 17-7 vote in the Senate that he had spoken to Senate members about the importance of keeping a constitutional amendment alive.

Lynch has said he hopes to pass an amendment that would allow the state to more easily target aid to needy school districts at the same time it recognizes that the court has a role in school funding issues.

Many thanks to Ian and Mark of Free Talk Live (www.freetalklive.com) for asking Gard to fill in (tonight), Friday, and Saturday nights. He will be on with Free Stater Julia beginning at 7pm and will welcome Sheldon Richman, of the Foundation for Economic Education, to talk about the Republican Debates, energy policy, and even the travesty of US participation in World War I!

Check it out, and feel free to call!

As many Conspirators know, governor John Lynch's attempt to centralize education decision-making in NH by amending the NH Constitution was resoundingly defeated yesterday, June 6 (D-Day).

House Republican minority leader Mike Whalley believes this will lead us to an income tax, but, in fact, Lynch's amendment would have done that, and codified in the Constitution the destruction of local control. Whalley's alternative amendment would not have been any better, and would not have stopped future lawsuits, as he and his supporters claimed.

The best alternative is a proposal by Representative Paul Ingbretson to write into the NH Constitution explicit language that reiterates Section One Article Six, which gives the towns the power to contract with their teaching professionals and pay them according to their own plans. In Ingbretson's amendment, the State could provide supplimental funds when needed, and the court would be locked out.

In the Republican Debate at St. Anselm College in Goffstown (NOT MANCHESTER) NH, Rudy Giuliani emerged as strong on defense, devoted to the issue, and interested in gaining "energy independence" with an "Apollo-like" program to develop new sources of energy and increase refining. Increasing the number of refineries in the US is easily done -- simply lift the hand of government off the backs of the oil refiners, and LET THEM MAKE NEW REFINING PLANTS!

As far as developing government programs to "set us on a course for energy independence"? Bad idea. Let the market answer to the demands of consumers. Giuliani and his cohorts were all aglow over their supposed adoration of local control of education (nice, but let's see them back up those words rather than just talk). They didn't think Washington should be telling local parents and teachers how to run their schools. Yet they cannot see their inconsistency when they do not give the same trust to energy consumers and producers. Why not let them decide for themselves? Why, if these supposed defenders of freedom truly believe in freedom, don't they get the federal government out of energy regulation, the same way they would like to get the federal government out of education regulation?

Tonight Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, NH, will host the second Republican Debate, and it could prove to be a very important one for Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul.

Senator John McCain is done, and was done before he started, due to his own constitutional makeup (he seems to be out of steam for the contest) and his stance on immigration. The Republican roots are up in ARMS about the new McCain "remedy" to immigration. While we here at the Conspiracy take a stricter, pro-freedom economic and Constitutional view on immigration (controlling immigration is not a federally enumerated power), we recognize that many republicans are irate at the lack of "enforcement" on the borders. McCain's participation in the new federal plan has killed any chance he once had.

Here is the AP/Breitbart story on the posing of the Dems. Chris Dodd is particularly cute with his "restore the Constitution" blather. What a massive, deceptive, hypocritical squirrel this man sounds like. Bill (I guess I wasn't recruited by a pro baseball team when I was young) Richardson almost did him one better when he called for a federally mandated $40,000 per year minimum wage for teachers.

HAVE ANY OF THESE PEOPLE CONNECTED THE FREE MARKET, FREEDOM, and the LIMITATIONS PLACED ON THE FEDERAL GUB-MENT? ANY OF THEM?.... Hellooooooo?

Foul, sick, distasteful. But important to dissect. Listen to Free Talk Live tomorrow night (6-4-07) to get more. Gard will be with Ian and Mark to get deeper into it. For now, here is the piece on the wonderful saviors of the world in the Democrat party. Nice.

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

And That's the Way It Isn't: A Reference Guide to Media Bias

The Law

The NH Constitution states, in Section Two, Article 83, that the state may regulate monopolies and companies that are collusively pricing. This does not include restaurants does it... This does not include bars.

The legislators who voted in favor of this bill have broken their oath to uphold the NH Constitution. Never vote for them, oppose them with every ounce of strength you have, tell others about them. Affirm the sanctity of private contract, and private property.

Here is the story, by John diStaso, of the Union Leader:

Concord – The New Hampshire House today approved a ban on smoking in restaurants, cocktail lounges and some other public places, moving the bill to Gov. John Lynch, who is expected to sign it into law.

EXCELLENT! WELL DONE NHLA AND ALL WHO OPPOSED THIS INSANE BILL!

Here is the report, by John DiStaso, of the NH Union Leader:

Concord – The state Senate late this afternoon rejected mandatory seat belts for all ages, voting 16-8 against passage of House Bill 802.

The vote kept New Hampshire the only state in the country without such a requirement.

The bill had passed the House 153-140 on April 4.

Gov. John Lynch had not given his opinion of the bill, and the Senate vote today saved him from being forced to do so, at least for now.

Six of the 24-member Senate’s 14 Democrats joined all 10 Republicans in rejecting the bill.

As reported late yesterday by the Union Leader, health insurance price controls have been stopped in NH. They should never have been proposed. No free society can afford such irrational and destructive thinking to make its way into a governing body.

Here is the article:

(THANKS Joel Winters!)

IN AN astonishingly clear-headed report, the House Commerce Committee last week recommended killing Senate Bill 220, a bill to establish a committee to decide whether the state should create a commission to impose price controls on health insurance rates.

The Conspiracy will update later today with the result of the possibly disastrous vote on mandatory seatbelt legislation in the NH Senate. Given the makeup of the Senate, it will only be due to outcries from constituents that this piece of noxious regulation is defeated.

You might want to call your Senator's office before 9:30 am.

We will provide the information to you when it becomes available.

On Thursday, May 24, the NH Senate passed by a vote of 24-0 HB 685, which would pull NH out of the federal REAL ID act. This absolutely phenomenal move stands with the actions of a handful of other states that recognize as absurd the unconstitutional and economically backwards move by the federal government to force the states to adopt federal guidelines for their drivers' licenses. These guidelines would have included private data on the IDs, which would have been needed to board planes and/or trains, or enter federal buildings. The growing groundswell of opposition to this federal move -- the feral brainchild of Jim Sensenbrenner -- represents a push back against Sensenbrenner and people like US Senator Judd Gregg, who sent his acolytes to NH to lobby FOR REAL ID.

Dispensing with the Constitutional questions arising from a federal ban on state and local internet taxation (see cases such as the NY "Miln" case from the 19th century for an example of the byzantine nature of some commerce issues), the Conspiracy needs to draw your attention to the simple economic threat of possible state and local taxation on the internet and wireless devices. In NH, we are no longer immune to big spenders in our state capital. Note this article from CNET for more information, and then tell your US reps and senators what you think!!

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Politicians weigh renewal of Net access tax ban

We hope you can turn out to support the Granite State ID Coalition as it turns it up to ELEVEN to stop REAL ID in NH. Stop by, we would love to see fellow conspirators at the legislative office building at noon.

Governor Lynch’s Education Amendment Says Goodbye to Local Control
March 30, 2007
P. Gardner Goldsmith

When attending Governor John Lynch’s press conference announcing the “education adequacy” amendment he would like to insinuate into the NH Constitution, one was struck by two salient characteristics.
The first was how the verbiage of Governor Lynch’s announcement did not jibe with the content of his pet amendment. The second was that his amendment not only destroys local control of education, it stands in contravention of two long-held clauses of the NH Constitution that are already on the books.

This is a copy of an op-ed you may see in your local paper very soon:

HB 927: The Road to Serfdom
March, 2007
P. Gardner Goldsmith

One of the most popular political and economic treatises published in the 20th Century was a book called “The Road to Serfdom”, by Nobel Prize winning economist Frederick Hayek. In it, Hayek investigates the myriad avenues through which our economic well-being and rights are damaged by government intervention, and he shows how, when people are left to promote their own well-being and freely associate with others, they maximize prosperity and efficiency, and minimize waste.