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NH Republicans kill 4th graders' harmless school project bill

Michchamp

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2011
Messages
34,212
Because OF COURSE they would do something like that.

Link:
CONCORD - Fourth graders from Lincoln Akerman School in Hampton Falls received a warm welcome at the State House last Thursday. They and their teacher, James Cutting, were guests in the Gallery.

That reception quickly turned chilly as students got a glimpse of the cold, harsh realities of politics in the Granite State.
In the spirit of learning by doing, students drafted a bill to learn the process of how a bill becomes law. They proposed House Bill 373, an act establishing the Red Tail Hawk as the New Hampshire State Raptor. Even though it passed through the Environment and Agriculture committee with a majority vote, some representatives were far from receptive.

Rep. Warren Groen, a Republican from Rochester said, "It grasps them with its talons then uses its razor sharp beak to basically tear it apart limb by limb, and I guess the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood."

NH1 spoke with Groen over the phone on Thursday afternoon. Click here to listen to the interview with Groen.
That comment, considered offensive by many, was made while the fourth graders sat, watched and listened. The tough lesson didn't end there.

Rep. John Burt, a Republican from Goffstown said, "Bottom line, if we keep bringing more of these bills, and bills, and bills forward that really I think we shouldn't have in front of us, we'll be picking a state hot dog next."

In a 133-to-160 vote lawmakers killed the bill and perhaps the civic enthusiasm of some 9-and-10-year-olds.
 
If I were picking the state hot dog for New Hampshire - which I won't be - I would pick the Hebrew National all Beef 97% Fat Free hot dog.

The purple finch is the current New Hampshire state bird; and it's a fine bird; there is no need to replace the purple finch with the Red Tail Hawk. Representative Groen was perhaps a little more graphic than he needed to be in his defense of the purple finch; I don't know what his deal is.

It does appear that the Republicans are the majority party in the state house there in New Hampshire; that surprises me; New Hampshire has gone blue in five of the last six presidential elections.

Nevertheless, I doubt it was only the Republicans who came to the defense of retaining the purple finch against the Red Tail Hawk.

They could also show the kids this video clip that I saw when I was a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

EDIT: Oh, I see...the bill wasn't to replace the purple finch but establish an entirely new category for the Red Tail Hawk, the state raptor.

Never mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
 
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Too bad a couple of those kids didn't own fortune 500 companies, or know the Koch brothers.

Then it would have passed at warp speed.
 
Too bad a couple of those kids didn't own fortune 500 companies, or know the Koch brothers.

Then it would have passed at warp speed.

Maybe.

That said, it appears that no other state has a state raptor either.

No data found yet on how many fourth grade classes in any other state had ever introduced a bill to any state house to officially adopt a state raptor.

Also, no conclusive data so far as to whether or not the fourth grade class in question is the first ever to introduce a bill to adopt a state raptor in New Hampshire - nor can I find any data indicating whether not ANYBODY, fourth grade class or not, has ever introduced a bill in the New Hampshire State House to officially adopt a state raptor.
 
The Bald Eagle does the same thing to its prey, so maybe we should have adopted the Turkey for the US bird/symbol/emblem like Ben Franklin originally proposed.
 
The Bald Eagle does the same thing to its prey, so maybe we should have adopted the Turkey for the US bird/symbol/emblem like Ben Franklin originally proposed.

It would be fitting...our government is full of turkeys.
 
WTF? Of course that is how a raptor eats its prey...its called a raptor after all. So to deny it becoming the State Raptor is pretty fucking clueless if using that as a reason to not do it. As for the "not wanting all these bills and eventually having a state hot dog"...that is at least showing some responsibility in trying to streamline the workload and focusing on important issues. I'm not saying that was the real intent behind the comment, but it is at least a different take that has a small degree of merit.

Still, now it is time to teach those students the power of the constituency by voting all those who opposed the bill out of office. They would have a field day making those commercials! Don't end the lesson at this point, extend the learning process and get the kids to understand what it takes to overcome obstacles!!!!!
 
The Bald Eagle does the same thing to its prey, so maybe we should have adopted the Turkey for the US bird/symbol/emblem like Ben Franklin originally proposed.

I just looked at list; I'm no ornithologist, but it seemed to me that no state or U.S territory has a raptor as it's bird.

So the nation itself stands alone with regard to that.
 
Perhaps if these grade-schoolers had couched their proposed bill with the Red Tailed Hawk being tougher, merciless & more warlike and could encourage young New Hampshirites to enlist in the Armed Forces, then these state Republicans might have tripped over each other attempting to be the first to vote for the change,
 
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Perhaps if these grade-schoolers had couched their proposed bill with the Red Tailed Hawk being tougher, merciless & more warlike and could encourage young New Hampshirites to enlist in the Armed Forces, then these state Republicans might have tripped over each other attempting to be the first to vote for the change,

Well, again, as I re-read the article, it didn't seem that they were attempting to replace the purple finch with the red tailed hawk as the state bird; but rather introduce an additional category of bird, specifically the raptor.

So the purple finch would have stayed as the state bird, while the red tailed hawk would have been specifically the state raptor.

But it is a slippery slope, as the one lawmaker points out; for example, if they tried to adopt a state hot dog, would they limit it to one kind of hot dog?

Or would they have official state hot dogs in a number of categories of hot dogs? Would they have an official state all beef hot dog, along with an official state kosher hot dog, and an official state turkey hot dog, an official state lower fat hot dog, an official state lower sodium hot dog, an official state tofu veggie hot dog?

Where does it end?
 
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Well, again, as I re-read the article, it didn't seem that they were attempting to replace the purple finch with the red tailed hawk as the state bird; but rather introduce an additional category of bird, specifically the raptor.

So the purple finch would have stayed as the state bird, while the red tailed hawk would have been specifically the state raptor.

But it is a slippery slope, as the one lawmaker points out; for example, if they tried to adopt a state hot dog, would they limit it to one kind of hot dog?

Or would they have official state hot dogs in a number of categories of hot dogs? Would they have an official state all beef hot dog, along with an official state kosher hot dog, and an official state turkey hot dog, an official state lower fat hot dog, an official state lower sodium hot dog, an official state tofu veggie hot dog?

Where does it end?


This is a legitimate argument made by 1 republican, and has some merit. The other dipshit used silly rhetoric to deflect the issue to being about pro-choice.

In any event, the proposal failed by 27 votes. I doubt most of those votes against were because of the slippery slope argument, but rather because they would not want to be seen as the people who supported abortions because of the stupid analogy tossed out there by some dickwad who wanted a little more attention.
 
Yeah who knows...next they might have to deal with all kinds of other bills for proposing many other "official"state animals, insects, reptiles, crustaceans and minerals...for example making NH's state fish the Halibut and naming it Eric:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnq96W9jtuw
 
This is a legitimate argument made by 1 republican, and has some merit. The other dipshit used silly rhetoric to deflect the issue to being about pro-choice.

In any event, the proposal failed by 27 votes. I doubt most of those votes against were because of the slippery slope argument, but rather because they would not want to be seen as the people who supported abortions because of the stupid analogy tossed out there by some dickwad who wanted a little more attention.

Well, what Groen said was stupid and kind of gross, seems to me like the kind of thing Sarah Palin might say.

That said, I doubt most of the elected officials in either party viewed the adopting or not adopting of an official state raptor as being a referendum on ones stance on the pro-choice/pro-life issue just because some doofus made a crass gross - it seemed to me like he was trying to make a joke - about it.
 
Perhaps if these grade-schoolers had couched their proposed bill with the Red Tailed Hawk being tougher, merciless & more warlike and could encourage young New Hampshirites to enlist in the Armed Forces, then these state Republicans might have tripped over each other attempting to be the first to vote for the change,

but then the dems would have voted it down and introduced a raptor control bill banning open carry of raptors in public, creating raptor free zones and limiting raptor magazine capacity immediately after...
 
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They are trying to take our raptors away!

The Right to Bear Raptors??

Bear Raptors?
 
Manbearpig is not a raptor. I believe he is part man, part bear and part pig but that's just a guess - it's hard to say for sure as he's rather elusive. What we do know for certain is manbearpig is no part raptor.
 
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I bet Obama wants to let Iran get the raptor - probably the Bear Raptor too...
 
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