Hillary should call her gay general to save the day. She already used him as a plant on a GOP debate and now she can use him for a real commando operation. Could make a hell of a statement for gays in the military.
Apparently the hostage taker is demanding to speak to Sen. Clinton personally. She has canceled a speech that she was scheduled to give in Virginia later.
Edwards and Obama just their campaign headquarters evacuated.
As usual, they’re just jealous that Hillary is getting all of the attention, and they’re saying “Ooh! We’re doing something, we’re doing something — look at us!”
My guess is, if he wants to personally speak to Clinton, he’s probably either a lunatic anti-War guy, or a fanatical Republican; it’s obviously some sort of politically motivated incident.
So the guy is demanding to speak to Hillary. Maybe it’s Bill. This is his way of finally getting Hillary to talk to him now that he is not the president anymore.
WMUR is being careful about revealing information that might cause problems as they’ve figured that the hostage taker is likely watching their coverage from inside. They just said a man walked in with a ‘bomb’ strapped to him, let a woman with a baby go and is now holding two hostages.
Geographically, it’s a bit of an odd choice of location. Manchester is where she (and I think all candidates) have their main office. Rochester is a significant city to the area, but not a large city. It’s about an hour from Manchester and probably 45 minutes from Portsmouth the two closest major NH cities.
I think I’d have rented a grinder to get the stump out. The lazy man always tries to find the easy way. Besides, it’s likely the chainsaw could hit a rock hidden in the roots, kick back hard, and you get to eat saw blade.
Good post. It’s a shame that the networks prefer to focus on Hillary’s hostage situation instead of reporting on stories like that. The beast was so eager to talk to terrorists on her first year in office that maybe they figured why wait. Nothing to see here. The perp is probably the Iranian ambassador.
That is just discraceful. It’s stories like this that perpetuate the true image of Mitt. I’m tired of it. Before long, more and more people will know of his intentions should he get in the white house.
Well its pretty much over since the hostages have been released.
Speaking of Romney, yesterday someone wanted an example of when he lied. Well, today I watched his townhall meeting in IA and he was talking about the budget deficit in MA when he was governor. He said something like, “a lot of other governors faced the same problem and decided to raise taxes. I didn’t. I went after spending.” And then he talked about combining a couple agencies. I know there was a discussion about whether the fees he raised were taxes, but is it not a lie for him to say he balanced the budget by spending cuts?
When just 38% of democrats reporting good mental health is not a surprise that this thing happen…. and Edward, Gore, Reed, scary Pelosi, Dean, Soros, etc., etc., etc.
Since the crisis is over, I think it’s fair to ask- if this is true- what Hillary’s attempted contact with the hostage taker says about her judgement. Contacting the hostage taker is the easy and politically safe route, but a good leader would recognize that giving in to this type of demand only encourages hostage taking, and would make the difficult decision.
Romney has often been very straightforward with the fact that he raised fees around $250 million. FYI, the other half of the $500 million fee raise was approved prior to his term, but he usually gets the credit anyway.
In any case, Romney’s budget approved fee hikes for government services that made up less than 10% of the budget shortfall. And in the end, if Romney HADN’T raised the fees, his budget would still have been in the black.
So I’m ok with him saying he balanced the budget by spending cuts. I’m also fine with people pointing out that fee hikes were a small part of the overall solution. But to say that this is a lie is a real stretch.
And for the rough numbers, I believe Romney raised service fees and fines by about $250 million, and cut spending by $1.7 billion.
Also, he reversed a $250 million retroactive capital gains tax (despite the legislature overriding his veto). There were other amaller targetted tax cuts as well. At the very least, you should be able to view the whole bag as a redistribution of money…cutting some general taxes, and making up for it with targetted service fees.
I have no doubts about the other steps he took to trim the deficit, but that isn’t what he said. He distinguished himself from other governors who raised taxes. To me, that is simply not true.
But that’s just it. Romney DIDN’T balance the budget by raising taxes.
His fee hike was completely offset by his reversal of the capital gains tax. The two were revenue neutral as far as the budget was concerned, and actually resulted in a far better distribution of costs. People using the services pay, instead of people earning capital gains.
I’m afraid you don’t have much to stand on here. Try something else.
Fees are not taxes. Fees put the cost on the user and lower the taxpayer subsidy. This is a good thing. Even if Romney has increased fees by the full $3 billion he’d still be correct in saying that he cut taxes (as long as the fees were not set higher than the cost of providing the services, and the fees were truly fees and not fines – I believe Romney increased a few fines as well).
“A survey of states found that Massachusetts imposed more fee hikes than any other state in the nation this year — at least $500 million, the Boston Globe reported. GOP Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature made it more expensive to get a marriage license or a divorce, file a court case, buy a house, renew a driver’s license, or tap into a host of other state services. The study by the National Conference of State Legislatures found that Massachusetts was one of 30 states that enacted fee increases this year.” [Congress Daily, 8/28/03]
Its my understanding that Romney did not propose a capital gains cut until 2005, so its impossible for it to have offset the tax and fee increases that came two years prior.
First, the mistakes. As I said before, Romney did not raise fees $500 million. The exact number is $260 million. The remainder were raised prior to his term. Also, Romney vetoed the legislative proposal to increase the cost of a marriage license from $4 to $50.
Also, and as an aside, I wonder if you don’t understand quite how beneficial fee hikes are compared to taxes. First, it is simply good conservative policy that the fees for a service be targeted toward the people incurring the cost, rather than paid through general taxes, which are far more socialistic in their scope. With few exceptions, I see no reason why the government should be taxing the general public to subsidize services below their actual cost. Second, fees for services provided lead to a more transparent government in terms of tracking the flow of tax dollars. Third, in some cases these service fees can make it painfully obvious to patrons of those services that privatization is more efficient. Don’t like the fee? Don’t use the service. You hardly get that luxury with general taxes.
Regarding the retroactive capital gains tax, I checked, and you’re right. The capital gains tax cuts came in 2005, so it would have merely offset HALF of Romney’s fee hikes. Consider some other tax cuts Romney pushed through which I didn’t bother mentioning. In 2003 he made the investment tax credit permanent. He signed property tax relief for senior citizens in 2005. He pushed through multiple sales tax holidays during his term which turned out record consumer spending. He pushed through tax cuts for medical manufacturing companies.
Now what we’re left with is a number that I’m uncertain of. The total fee hike was absolutely offset by HALF not counting the above tax cuts. I’m willing to bet that it was offset a lot more, if not eliminated entirely.
But you’re simply missing the point. You’re spending your time nickel and diming the man over petty numbers, and claiming he lied about balancing the budget through spending. His spending cuts were 20 times more than the uncompensated fee hikes, even under the most conservative estimates I can give you.
You are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and manufacture a lie.
One thing to note after having watched some of the post-event spin from the Hillary campaign, and Hillary herself. I saw her last night on a news snippet saying, “the same thing happened to then presidential candidate (pregnant pause) who then later went on to become President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.” What???? Did she just try and invoke the Reagan mantle??? Of all the posts on this site, of which I agree, that to politicize this event either for or against a political campaign is disgusting. Then leave it to Hillary to jump right in the mud and roll around in it. I had to rewind the TiVo to make sure that I heard what I did. She is disgusting, and I hope that whomever we choose to represent the GOP, if she is the Deomcratic candidate, that we can all align and keep her away from the mantle of power that POTUS carries. She would be an complete disaster.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Ron Paul’s finally gone over the edge!
November 30th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
It’s gotta be Bush’s fault.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Another clinton plant to generate sympathy for her?? This is probably going to help clinton, unfortunately.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I’m going to pray for her campaign workers’ safety. I hope no one is hurt.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
The dude probably just wants his testicles back from Hillary. She has a testicle lockbox you know?
But seriously, I’ll pray for the hostages safety, too.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
dblagent007,
Another clinton plant to generate sympathy for her??
That was a real low blow.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
A witness said he had a bomb strapped to him. Jeez, I hope that’s not true. I wonder why somebody would do this?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Does anyone know if this is an Asian dishwaher?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Hillary should call her gay general to save the day. She already used him as a plant on a GOP debate and now she can use him for a real commando operation. Could make a hell of a statement for gays in the military.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
LJ, okay that was in bad taste and of course I hope no one is hurt except for the perp.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
According to MSNBC,
Apparently the hostage taker is demanding to speak to Sen. Clinton personally. She has canceled a speech that she was scheduled to give in Virginia later.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I’m watching the news coverage in NH. From reports it’s in Rochester, the street is closed down and the building is surrounded by police.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Sheez. This looks pretty bad.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Carville and Begala are popping corks figuring out how to best exploit the situation. I guarantee Hillary will end up on site as the hero.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Edwards and Obama just their campaign headquarters evacuated.
As usual, they’re just jealous that Hillary is getting all of the attention, and they’re saying “Ooh! We’re doing something, we’re doing something — look at us!”
November 30th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Argamenon — We joke around but not at a time like this….
Come on, show some Humanity…..
November 30th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Argamenon, do you think that he spent 43 years military just so he could ask a youtube question for Clinton? Have you served in the military?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Any thoughts on culprits?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
My guess is, if he wants to personally speak to Clinton, he’s probably either a lunatic anti-War guy, or a fanatical Republican; it’s obviously some sort of politically motivated incident.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
LIVE VIDEO: Clinton Office Hostage Situation
http://www.wmur.com/video/14738085/index.html
November 30th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
So the guy is demanding to speak to Hillary. Maybe it’s Bill. This is his way of finally getting Hillary to talk to him now that he is not the president anymore.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
There’s a bomb strapped to him????
Great now the Dems will try and outlaw straps.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
WMUR is being careful about revealing information that might cause problems as they’ve figured that the hostage taker is likely watching their coverage from inside. They just said a man walked in with a ‘bomb’ strapped to him, let a woman with a baby go and is now holding two hostages.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I wonder if she would even agree to talk to him over the phone. It would be seen as willing to speak with terrorists.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
this is awful – I would not wish this upon anyone
November 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Good point Greg
November 30th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
i’m watching it on Fox – what are you all watching it on?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Geographically, it’s a bit of an odd choice of location. Manchester is where she (and I think all candidates) have their main office. Rochester is a significant city to the area, but not a large city. It’s about an hour from Manchester and probably 45 minutes from Portsmouth the two closest major NH cities.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
the SWAT team is advancing
November 30th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
The police/FBI would not let Clinton or anyone else speak to a hostage taker. It would promote the activity.
This is not a situation to make light of because there are two innocent lives at risk.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
what could the motive be?
November 30th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
UA Razorbacks, the motive is that the person is nuts. No sane person would do something like this.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
New story about Mitt Romney being Mitt Romney. Pretty classic.
http://confessionsofapoliticaljunkie.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-often-do-candidates-do-stuff-like.html
November 30th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
WMUR is reporting that the two hostages have been released.
Developing…
November 30th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Can I get directions to the Romney offices?
November 30th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
November 30th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Greg: Cool, good, and kudos to Mitt and Matt.
I think I’d have rented a grinder to get the stump out. The lazy man always tries to find the easy way.
Besides, it’s likely the chainsaw could hit a rock hidden in the roots, kick back hard, and you get to eat saw blade.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Off topic but this explain a lot:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/Republicans-Report-Much-Better-Mental-Health-Than-Others.aspx
November 30th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
#33
Good post. It’s a shame that the networks prefer to focus on Hillary’s hostage situation instead of reporting on stories like that. The beast was so eager to talk to terrorists on her first year in office that maybe they figured why wait. Nothing to see here. The perp is probably the Iranian ambassador.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Gallup says:Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others
November 30th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Argamenon: The beast was so eager to talk to terrorists on her first year in office that maybe they figured why wait.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Obama?
Romney’s quiet service in San Diego is great, and I’d love it if that were picked up…but a hostage situation kind of takes priority.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I’m sure Mitt will come and clear this situation up! This will be a chance for him to really shine. He’s amazing.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Can I get directions to the Romney offices?
Go right at the roundabout just as you’re leaving Massachusetts.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Some of the comments here are disgusting. I expected better.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Rick, I’m ashamed also. Very immature.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Why is everyone joking about this? I know everyone is really witty, funny, and popular, but I think now would be a time to sit your comments.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
It’s out of our hands, really.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
33 –
That is just discraceful. It’s stories like this that perpetuate the true image of Mitt. I’m tired of it. Before long, more and more people will know of his intentions should he get in the white house.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Well its pretty much over since the hostages have been released.
Speaking of Romney, yesterday someone wanted an example of when he lied. Well, today I watched his townhall meeting in IA and he was talking about the budget deficit in MA when he was governor. He said something like, “a lot of other governors faced the same problem and decided to raise taxes. I didn’t. I went after spending.” And then he talked about combining a couple agencies. I know there was a discussion about whether the fees he raised were taxes, but is it not a lie for him to say he balanced the budget by spending cuts?
November 30th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
When just 38% of democrats reporting good mental health is not a surprise that this thing happen…. and Edward, Gore, Reed, scary Pelosi, Dean, Soros, etc., etc., etc.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Thank God the hostages are okay.
Since the crisis is over, I think it’s fair to ask- if this is true- what Hillary’s attempted contact with the hostage taker says about her judgement. Contacting the hostage taker is the easy and politically safe route, but a good leader would recognize that giving in to this type of demand only encourages hostage taking, and would make the difficult decision.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
No, this isn’t a Hillary conspiracy cooked up by a desperate campaign. Why would anyone be so sick as to think that?
http://www.political-buzz.com/
November 30th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
There are more hostages
November 30th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Feltcher #49,
Romney has often been very straightforward with the fact that he raised fees around $250 million. FYI, the other half of the $500 million fee raise was approved prior to his term, but he usually gets the credit anyway.
In any case, Romney’s budget approved fee hikes for government services that made up less than 10% of the budget shortfall. And in the end, if Romney HADN’T raised the fees, his budget would still have been in the black.
So I’m ok with him saying he balanced the budget by spending cuts. I’m also fine with people pointing out that fee hikes were a small part of the overall solution. But to say that this is a lie is a real stretch.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Feltcher #49,
And for the rough numbers, I believe Romney raised service fees and fines by about $250 million, and cut spending by $1.7 billion.
Also, he reversed a $250 million retroactive capital gains tax (despite the legislature overriding his veto). There were other amaller targetted tax cuts as well. At the very least, you should be able to view the whole bag as a redistribution of money…cutting some general taxes, and making up for it with targetted service fees.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Murphy,
I have no doubts about the other steps he took to trim the deficit, but that isn’t what he said. He distinguished himself from other governors who raised taxes. To me, that is simply not true.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Feltcher,
But that’s just it. Romney DIDN’T balance the budget by raising taxes.
His fee hike was completely offset by his reversal of the capital gains tax. The two were revenue neutral as far as the budget was concerned, and actually resulted in a far better distribution of costs. People using the services pay, instead of people earning capital gains.
I’m afraid you don’t have much to stand on here. Try something else.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Feltcher,
Fees are not taxes. Fees put the cost on the user and lower the taxpayer subsidy. This is a good thing. Even if Romney has increased fees by the full $3 billion he’d still be correct in saying that he cut taxes (as long as the fees were not set higher than the cost of providing the services, and the fees were truly fees and not fines – I believe Romney increased a few fines as well).
November 30th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
You are going to hurt yourself spinning so hard.
“A survey of states found that Massachusetts imposed more fee hikes than any other state in the nation this year — at least $500 million, the Boston Globe reported. GOP Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature made it more expensive to get a marriage license or a divorce, file a court case, buy a house, renew a driver’s license, or tap into a host of other state services. The study by the National Conference of State Legislatures found that Massachusetts was one of 30 states that enacted fee increases this year.” [Congress Daily, 8/28/03]
Its my understanding that Romney did not propose a capital gains cut until 2005, so its impossible for it to have offset the tax and fee increases that came two years prior.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Feltcher,
First, the mistakes. As I said before, Romney did not raise fees $500 million. The exact number is $260 million. The remainder were raised prior to his term. Also, Romney vetoed the legislative proposal to increase the cost of a marriage license from $4 to $50.
Also, and as an aside, I wonder if you don’t understand quite how beneficial fee hikes are compared to taxes. First, it is simply good conservative policy that the fees for a service be targeted toward the people incurring the cost, rather than paid through general taxes, which are far more socialistic in their scope. With few exceptions, I see no reason why the government should be taxing the general public to subsidize services below their actual cost. Second, fees for services provided lead to a more transparent government in terms of tracking the flow of tax dollars. Third, in some cases these service fees can make it painfully obvious to patrons of those services that privatization is more efficient. Don’t like the fee? Don’t use the service. You hardly get that luxury with general taxes.
Regarding the retroactive capital gains tax, I checked, and you’re right. The capital gains tax cuts came in 2005, so it would have merely offset HALF of Romney’s fee hikes. Consider some other tax cuts Romney pushed through which I didn’t bother mentioning. In 2003 he made the investment tax credit permanent. He signed property tax relief for senior citizens in 2005. He pushed through multiple sales tax holidays during his term which turned out record consumer spending. He pushed through tax cuts for medical manufacturing companies.
Now what we’re left with is a number that I’m uncertain of. The total fee hike was absolutely offset by HALF not counting the above tax cuts. I’m willing to bet that it was offset a lot more, if not eliminated entirely.
But you’re simply missing the point. You’re spending your time nickel and diming the man over petty numbers, and claiming he lied about balancing the budget through spending. His spending cuts were 20 times more than the uncompensated fee hikes, even under the most conservative estimates I can give you.
You are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and manufacture a lie.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:18 am
One thing to note after having watched some of the post-event spin from the Hillary campaign, and Hillary herself. I saw her last night on a news snippet saying, “the same thing happened to then presidential candidate (pregnant pause) who then later went on to become President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.” What???? Did she just try and invoke the Reagan mantle??? Of all the posts on this site, of which I agree, that to politicize this event either for or against a political campaign is disgusting. Then leave it to Hillary to jump right in the mud and roll around in it. I had to rewind the TiVo to make sure that I heard what I did. She is disgusting, and I hope that whomever we choose to represent the GOP, if she is the Deomcratic candidate, that we can all align and keep her away from the mantle of power that POTUS carries. She would be an complete disaster.