New Hampshire Scores A Big Win!

State rep holds her horse bill
Sponsor changes course on $25 fee for licensing

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff
January 28, 2009 - 12:00 am

Facing a flurry of opposition to her proposal to require licensing of horses, Rep. Carla Skinder rescinded her support for the bill yesterday, according to people who saw her speak.

Skinder's bill, which was discussed at the House Local and Regulated Revenues Committee yesterday, called for a $25 licensing fee for each horse in the state along with proof that the animal had been vaccinated for rabies. Skinder, a Democrat from Cornish, said Monday that the bill was designed to improve the health of the state's horses and to give some money to towns and the state that might help protect equine health.

But the bill met with sharp opposition from organized horse groups, many of whom wrote letters, sent e-mails and placed phone calls to legislators. Organizers said Monday that more than 100 people would attend yesterday's meeting, but Skinder put out an e-mail at 6:30 yesterday morning forecasting her reversal so angry horse owners would not have to make the trip to Concord. [read the rest here]

So, that means, we, The People, can make a difference. We just need to be more vocal than we have been. Having said that, have YOU made your comments on Regulations.gov about the Official Animal Identificaction Numbering Systems that USDA is trying to implement? Very important that there are more than 50 comments. The comment period ends March 15th.

Before you click away, please, buy my book. It is called First They Came for the Cows - An Activist's Story. It is a fictionalized account about the fight against NAIS. Some of it is true, names changed, of course, and some is fully fiction. It is Christian fiction, and you know how hard good Christian fiction is to come by. Here is the link to my e-store. Eventually it will be available on Amazon, but I don't know when. If you'd like to read a preview, select the nanowritmo link to previous posts. If you'd like to buy copies for resale, let me know. Some church groups are using it for book clubs.

Get fired up! Watch this!

So Much for Live Free New Hampshire

Mandatory Equine Licenses Enacted

by Darol Dickinson~~ 1-26-09

The New Hampshire Municipal Association proudly touts a new special "equine" tax that will increase jobs and create new state income from the estimated 24,000 equine in New Hampshire. A licensing of each and every equine is proposed to be effective July 1, 2009. This is a tax of $25 per horse (equine) and in cases of refusal to comply, the state adds another $50 to slap the cowboys in line. It isn't a smoke screen about export, food safety or disease, it is just a new state income.

Beyond the state lines of New Hampshire, the USDA has been at war with livestock owners to coerce enrollment in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a multi-billion dollar scheme to computerize, number and create a permanent surveillance system on all US livestock. This plot is the mother of all numbering scenarios. With the commerce of all US livestock, at the end of three years the total computer movements recorded, and paid for by animal owners, would eclipse the number of the earth's human population.

These draconian sounding tax collection schemes, although totally putrid to animal lovers, are completely sane to bureau-rats who's salary increases, retirement and weekly sustenance depend on innovative ways to transfer wealth from the regulated to the regulators.

Just down the trail to New York 88 new taxes have been deviously hatched by the lowly staff of Governor David Paterson to help pay for his flawed $15.4 billion budget gap. Hookers who have enjoyed a tax break on work clothes worth less than $110, won't any more. An 18% increase on sodas is proposed; higher gas tax, increased taxi tax, boats, cars, rental car taxes, cigars, iPods, etc. Plush governmental cubicles high in the New York sky are filled with think-tank devious minds searching the alleys for a new tax source to increase the regulator's revenue. New York Conservative Party Chairman, Michael Long says, "You're (Gov. Paterson) sending notice to the people of New York that we really don't want you here."

Tribute ideas like the USDA's NAIS, horse licensing and the New York taxationists search the world over to locate new and innovative collection methods. It is one thing to develop a new tax and another to collect it. That is where enforcements are enacted with fines, late penalties, and refusal-to-comply fees.

In Australia a tax called the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) has been operational for several years. Herds of computer toting Biosecurity Officers now stalk the Outback to locate animal owners out of compliance; conviction is up to a $4000 fine for not registering a livestock premises.

The love of companion animals is multiplying in affection world wide. What a sadistic way to create funding, to assess a new tribute for pets, livestock and beloved family animals. Animal licensing is the contemporary government way to tax not just the animal, but the joy and profit of livestock ownership.

In New Hampshire it starts out,

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine, and then explains for Equine Licenses. Amend RSA 435, Sec 41, etc. In a scoop shovel it is proposed, $25 per year, every year, and each animal must have a number. The number process approved by the USDA is a computer chip, surgically injected under the skin by a USDA licensed veterinarian at a fee of $75 to $125 per equine, depending on how many in the remuda.

The Fiscal Impact: "The Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food and the New Hampshire Municipal Association estimates this bill will increase state and local revenue, and increase local expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2010 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on county revenue or state and county expenditures."

On July 1, will the horse owners of New Hampshire migrate to other states or will a large population of equine feces machines establish residence on the Concord State Capitol lawn?

This may be the time and place to rethink the New Hampshire motto: "LIVE FREE OR DIE."

First Australia, the NAIS, the New Hampshire Equine Licenses----all innovations of hostage taxation, which is a spreading livestock disease in itself. The mystery of expanding government is not how it works, but how in the world to make it stop!

More info

www.naisSTINKS.com, Australian Biosecurity, www.dpi.qld.gov.au.

More info on the proposed Equine license law in NH:

HB 427 would require all owners of equines older than 4 months to annually license their animals with the town/city clerk for $25 upon proof that the animal had been vaccinated for rabies. The hearing is set for Tuesday, January 27 th at 1:45 pm before the House Local and Regulated Revenues Committee in Room 303 of the Legislative Office Building

I hope the public descends on that hearing like a plague of locusts!

Welcome Community Spin Listeners

The links mentioned on Al Huey's show are here:

Nonais.org
NAIS Info Central

Please, get yourself a cuppa and take some time to read through my blog.

Thanks for dropping by.

Honest to God, who is in control in the government?

There are a ton of things going on right now. Is the old administration running like mad to dump a bunch of programs and rules in the road so that the new administration can inherit this stuff and deny they had anything to do with it?

The first thing I should mention is this. NoNAIS has the full article here.

From Mary Zanoni:

On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, the USDA published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that would make two elements of NAIS — NAIS Premises ID and NAIS individual animal ID — effectively mandatory in several USDA animal disease programs.

This rule, if it goes into effect, would be an enormous step toward creating a fully mandatory NAIS for all U.S. livestock.

The proposed rule directly affects cattle, bison, sheep, goats, and swine. However, it will also bring a full NAIS closer for all species. Therefore, all owners of horses, poultry, and other species should also submit comments and urge their livestock/farming organizations to submit comments. [read the rest of it at NoNAIS. Use the link above. - Hen]

Next to tell you about is this smart decision by Homeland Security and USDA to move Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is off Long Island, NY, way out in the water, off the mainland, to Manhattan, Kansas, in the middle of cow country. Is there anyone who can't see that this is an - ahem - 'accident' waiting to happen? I am so sorry for our country. It is being led by mad men. It probably has been this way for some long while, but I was not engaged in politics when Bush came to power the first time.

Please don't forget to read a preview of my upcoming novel, First They Came for the Cows. I am still taking pre-orders for this, the first novel written about NAIS.

Lastly, pray to God that he moves to protect us.

Big Problem with Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Oh boy. We have pinned some hopes on the FTCLDF to stop NAIS, but now they have messed up again and in a huge way. Follows is what I understand the situation is.

#1: FTCLDF said they filed the suit against the USDA, when they actually hadn't filed it but rather simply mailed it without having an attorney admitted to the bar in the district, District of Columbia, in which they were filing. They made a big press release and request for donations, and then went about getting their ducks in a row so they could actually file the suit. That resulted in about two months delay in getting the suit filed.

#2: When the expected motion for dismissal was sent by the USDA, they requested an extension for filing, including the date they wanted to have to file response against the motion to dismiss. They requested January 2nd, and were awarded that date. However, somehow, they totally blanked on it, and then on January 10th, effectively told the court that the 'dog ate their homework' and they misread the date as January 12th, so they would like it very much if the court would
allow them to amend their original suit so that they can continue against the USDA and Michigan Dept of Agriculture.

I am not an attorney and I do not know anything about legal procedure. That's WHY anyone hires an attorney in the first place. If it were simply a matter of standing up and arguing your case, there would be little to no need for attorneys at all. Procedure and filings are what they are supposed to know and why they can put the title 'esquire' behind their names. I do know that when you cite a date for an extension of time and are granted it, you look pretty stupid for missing it.

So we are still in the very early stages of this suit, and the FTCLDF has screwed it up tremendously on basic procedure. Right now it is entirely up to the judge if she allows them to file the motion to amend the suit. It could be a done deal and need to start over from square one because of all the screw ups.

Basically, they are throwing up a Hail Mary pass and hoping the judge will let them proceed to amend the original suit.

Also, it doesn't look very good to amend the suit after the first motion to dismiss. It's like when you are playing chess and see that your first move put you in immediate jeopardy of getting in check.

The bottom line is this; FTCLDF has made two mistakes and they both make us, the anti-NAIS folks, look like total blooming idiots. The first impressions having to do with the competence of the lawyers will stick in the judge's mind. Procedural errors so early on in the process make us look like what they described us in the NAIS How-To Handbook, as having no more than a 6th grade education.

If you'd like to see pdf copies of the documents that have to do with the suit, the extension request, or more aptly, the excuse, let me know.


Don't forget to read an excerpt from my novel, First They Came for the Cows. I am taking pre-orders for signed copies.

Now taking pre-orders for First They Came for the Cows

The response to the announcement that First They Came for the Cows will be available for purchase in the next few weeks has been humbling. I am now offering pre-orders for signed books. The price is $19.99 which includes shipping for signed copies. Use the Paypal button below. You do not need a Paypal account to complete the transaction.

Please note: If you think the book would be helpful to your church or organization to use as a fund raiser, please contact me using the comment form below. I will offer multiple books at a lower rate.

You can view another preview of the book here.

First They Came for the Cows

In 2007 I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and won by writing 50,000 words in that month of November. A book was born! First They Came for the Cows is a fictionalized account of the fight against NAIS, and the first novel about NAIS.

I invite you to the first preview of the book, which will be published and available on Amazon sometime this month.

You'll need a PDF reader.

https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1052903

Please feel free to use the reviewing features. I hope you will because I'd like the feedback.