A Justice Kennedy quote regarding rights for enemy combatants who choose not to put on a uniform when they kill people in their personal or religious “war” against America:

“The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force in extraordinary times,”

Lofty words indeed. (Gee, I wonder if they pertain to the Second Amendment as well according to Anthony?)

But where was Justice Kennedy’s adherence to the US Constitution during the Kelo Decision? Remember when he was all for taking private property to supposedly advance the economic condition of New London, Ct.?

How did that moonbat liberal interpretation of the US Constitution pan out?

Here is what was planned according to, Corcoran-Jennison, the developer who with Justice Kennedy’s help took private homes from US citizens on behalf of the New London Development Corp. Check this out:

“The Inn at Trumbull Cove in New London, CT, will feature 109 guest rooms and a 12,000 square foot executive conference facility. The Inn at Trumbull Cove will be part of a larger master plan that includes 300,000 square feet of office and commercial space, and a waterfront park. Trumbull Cove is the new headquarters of Pfizer's Global Research and Development Center.”

Well, this month Corcoran-Jennison has failed to get financing for its venture and the project sits in mud.

Tomorrow, June 23, is the anniversary of the 2005 Supreme Court Decision.

I have no doubt that just as has happened with Kelo, some 40 states stiffened eminent domain laws to protect private property from developers and the US Supreme Court, the backlash to the US Supreme Court giving terrorist enemies of the United States US Constitutional rights will splash back in the five stupid faces we have on the court. And hopefully not too many people will lose their lives in the process.

One of New Hampshire’s most incompetent selectmen, Jerry Needham of Windsor, has left the building.

By building I mean the 40’ x40’ Windsor Town Hall where even the Boston Globe reporter who did a front page news story back on March 28 of this year had to stand because there was not room enough for citizens to sit down at a selectmen’s meeting.

Funny the small town hall doesn’t have room for townspeople to watch the selectmen in action – they don’t keep any records of what they do or who pays taxes. That should free up enough room for at least two folding chairs.

News flash to Jerry: You will not be missed.

Here is why: That bantam weight rooster lawyer Needham hired from the Hatfield firm has been running the town since the taxpayers group beat him and you in Superior Court under The Right to Know Law.

So now its time to fill the empty selectman’s seat from among the short list of citizens the remaining Windsor Selectmen trust to keep up their agenda of municipal nincompoopery.

Send in the clowns.

Eugen Reed, CNHT Director, drops this bit of good news on taxpayers!

NH Board of Tax and Land Appeals Makes Unprecedented Decision

   Many Selectmen refuse to take an active role in determining the merits of a taxpayer’s abatement application. Some rely exclusively upon the “recommendations” of contract assessors. Many municipalities are short on information as to how property values are determined. The NH Assessing Standards Board has failed to provide standards or even guidelines for the Officials /Assessors to follow. A result of these state and municipal government actions and inactions is that taxpayers select one of next avenues for answers and judgment to their perception of being unfairly taxed. The Board of Tax and Land Appeals (BTLA) (http://www.nh.gov/btla/) is the path most property taxpayers take for appeal of property taxes once municipal officials deny an abatement request. (Superior Court is the other path.)

In the past few years, more and more frustrated taxpayers have elected to pay the filing fee and have the BTLA give them a fair hearing on the merits of their cases. The effect of numerous taxpayers from all over the state filing with the BTLA has caused hearing delays of up to 2 years for the Board. This case “backlog” has caused the BTLA concern as to the ability for them to dispense timely justice for the taxpayer.

Mr. Paul Franklin, Chairman of the Board of Tax and Appeals recently appeared before the Assessing Standards Board (ASB) to apprise the members on how the caseload is being managed to reduce the delay for the public. The Chairman stressed that cases should be heard in a timely manner.

According to Chairman Franklin, there has been an increase in caseload over the last few years, and starting with the 2005 tax year case numbers are close to 1000. Previously property tax appeals were in the 400 to 600 range and the BTLA was able to arrange to hear cases within a one year time frame. As case numbers increased the BTLA started to review their procedures to try and reduce the amount of wait time for taxpayers. Assessing is a local issue and is best resolved locally versus a hearing, as the local officials should be the most knowledgeable about local properties. Therefore, the BTLA made a decision to order the taxpayer and municipality to meet on pending cases before a case will be scheduled before the BTLA. The parties must submit a Report of Settlement Meeting and Order to document the actual meeting and indicate if a resolution (or partial resolution) has been reached.

The unprecedented BTLA action of issuing an “ORDER” to both the municipality and the taxpayer to meet and try to settle pending cases was a bold step by the BTLA.

This action should be a message to municipalities municipalities:

1. That historically don’t weigh the merits of a taxpayers’ property tax complaints.

2. Municipalities which plan on only a small percentage of those that file for abatements locally to pursuer the next step of appeal.

3. Municipalities that refuse to even meet with taxpayers to discuss their request.

4. Municipal Officials/Selectmen who don’t have time or desire understand the basics of property assessing and decide to let the BTLA sort it out.

The initial responsibility for fair and equitable assessing rests with local Officials, not “the State” and not the BTLA. The growth of caseload and the resulting “ORDERS” back to the Cities and Towns is recognition of assessing administration failures at the local level.

Eugene T. Reed

Public Member – Assessing Standards Board

They Do Bond Bond
(Spector/Grennwich/Barry/Naile)
There was a special session and they locked them in
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
The red ink’s a come'n and now we have to spin
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
Yeah, his name is Lynch, oh, he’s in a pinch
And he’s shopping for a loan, they do bond bond bond, they do bond bond

We’re pay’n off the school bonds with the MasterCard
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
Craig Benson’s on vacation and he’s laugh’n pretty hard
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
Yeah, $200 mill, wow, that’s quite a pill
Sooner or later the bills are coming due, they do bond bond bond, they do bond bond

The Democrats are acting just like they always do
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
They’re stomping through the pasture and they stepped in all the poo
They do bond bond, they do bond bond
Yeah, they tax and spend, yeah, to the bitter end
And until they can dock your pay, they do bond bond bond, they do bond bond

They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond
They do bond bond bond, they do bond bond

Persistence pays off.

Municipal activism heroes Doug Lambert and Tom Tardiff won a State Supreme Court case regarding the secret appointment of the new Belknap County Sheriff, Craig Wiggin.

The Belknap County Convention – that would be the State Representatives who live in that county, chose the easy route to fill an empty county sheriff seat – by secret vote. That was held as legal by Superior Court Judge Mohl but reversed with the following Supreme Court Order.

It is short and readable:

DUGGAN, J. In these consolidated appeals, the petitioners, Douglas Lambert and Thomas A. Tardif, challenge: (1) the failure of the Trial Court (Mohl, J.) to invalidate the appointment of Craig Wiggin to the office of Belknap County sheriff by respondent Belknap County Convention (Convention); and (2) the trial court’s denial of their request for documents from respondents Stephen H. Nedeau, the Convention’s chairperson, and Angela A. Bell, the Convention’s record keeper. See RSA ch. 91-A (2001 & Supp. 2007). We hold that the appointment of Wiggin must be invalidated because the Convention was required to fill the vacancy in public session rather than by secret ballot. See RSA 91-A:2, II, :8, II (Supp. 2007). We further hold that the petitioners must be afforded access to the documents relating to the candidates’ applications for the vacancy, see RSA 91-A:4, I (Supp. 2007), but remand for consideration of whether certain personal information that may be in those documents requires redaction. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

This is the best part:

"The purpose of the Right-to-Know Law is to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people." Id. (quotation omitted). The law "helps further our state constitutional requirement that the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted." Id. (quotation omitted); see also N.H. CONST. pt. I, art. 8.

Although the statute does not provide for unrestricted access to public records and proceedings, to best effectuate the statutory and constitutional objective of facilitating access to all public documents and proceedings, we resolve questions regarding the Right-to-Know Law with a view to providing the utmost information. Id.; Herron v. Northwood, 111 N.H. 324, 326 (1971).

Thus, we construe provisions favoring disclosure broadly, while construing exemptions narrowly.

Nice work Doug and Tom!!!

Now maybe the Supremes will stick with this language when we reverse what mischief the Right to Know Commission has done to the Right to Know Law under the guise of “updating” it.