One of the most bitter political battles this past legislative season was the repeal of the Parental Notification bill here in NH.  Passed by the Dems and a few RINOs, it basically said "the State knows better how to take care of your children; we believe that parents do not have to be notified when your female child wants an abortion".

Sure the Dems believe that government should stay out of personal lives - but not when it comes to killing unborn babies.  Or, as the story below shows, parents dealing with the aftermath of botched medical procedures that the State (in this case, Britain)

Yeah, sure thing Liberals - keep believing that that the US needs to be more like the Europeans!

From the Telegraph (England) (H/T: Ann Marie)

Schoolgirl dies two weeks after parents not told of school doctor treatment

Teachers did not inform a sixth form student's family that they had taken her to see a doctor two weeks before she died from heart failure.

The parents of Kasia Ber have instructed solicitors to bring a legal action against the school after her condition went undiagnosed and her death was triggered by her mobile phone alarm.

Kasia, 17, developed palpitations and shortness of breath during a class at Byron Sixth Form College, in Peterlee, Co Durham, on Dec 14 2005. Staff took her to see a GP who diagnosed her with stress and she told them not to tell her parents because she did not want to worry them. She returned to the doctor four days later to undergo an electrocardiogram (ECG) and it is claimed she was given no further treatment.

Kasia collapsed at home in Horden 14 days later and tests showed she had to genetic disorder Long QT syndrome, which can be treated with beta blockers. Her mother Diane, 44, who was later diagnosed with the same condition, said: "If we had known we could have done something. "How could they know our child was ill and not tell the people who were in the best position to care for her?"

The sixth form, part of St Bede's Comprehensive School, denied any wrongdoing and an internal inquiry found staff had acted appropriately.

[snip]

He said: "On each occasion the finding was that the school's actions were entirely correct and in accordance with the legal ruling known as the Gillick Principle."

The House of Lords established the Gillick Principle which means parents do not have to be informed about medical visits and health problems if a child does not want them to know.

In England, the Nanny-Knows-Better-State is much further along than here in the US and this should serve as a serious warning to those here in the US that believe that the State should have this kind of role.  I maintain that a parent (the vast majority and not the outliers that Liberals are always using in their stilted arguments) ALWAYS has their child's best interest at heart.

Now, the government workers may well have a twinge of guilt or sorrow about this sorry incident, but the parents will grieve forever.  And that is the difference - of being involved and feeling good about what you think you are doing vs having to suffer the consequences for a lifetime.

Involvment vs fully committed.

I cannot think of another way of saying it, for I never wish to see that day come, but I wonder how many Liberals WILL rue the day that they started the process and the law to classify 13 year old girls to be women just to keep the feminist ideal of "right to choose" alive.  To believe that government knows better, cares better, and can do better for most of society's children than their parents just boggles my mind.  Especially if and when it ever turns out to be that it is their child that suffers the consequence above.  And then they have to live the consequence of not only losing a daughter, but knowing full well that they, as legislators, may have set the stage for other parents to suffer the same fate.....I pray it never happens to ANYONE!

It may well be that some parents need help - it should be there for them upon asking.  But to freeze out the parents?

I think not.

Posted by Skip at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, Dean Barker from Blue Hampshire (who we had on MTNP a bit ago; promo here and podcast here; we had a pleasant time and we want to have him back on!) has seemingly put himself in the situation of "be careful for what you wish for". Why? Well, he "made nice" on Grant (and us) by writing this a while ago:

Grant Got Grokked

Believe it or not, I think this is good and healthy news for a few reasons.

First, Grant Bosse, from my perspective on the other side of the fence, has been working harder and more creatively than the others in the CD2 GOPer derby. Secondly, he has been much more policy specific than Horn and Clegg.  And finally, Bosse seems to get New Media better than the others, which makes the Granite Grok endorsement even more appropriate, since they are the only conservative blog worth reading in New Hampshire, imho.

Obviously we're all working hard for Paul Hodes here.  But he at least deserves an opponent with whom we can all disagree on issues, which would be something of a novelty these days.  Frankly, it's a little tiresome going up against a party that's long on corruption and empty rhetoric.  Going up proudly against the other side, and winning, because we believe our ideas are better than their ideas is much more satisfying than looking out in disgust at the wreckage the GOP has wrought these last eight years.

And we have to say that it was a fair estimation.  One does not have to agree with the guy's ideology in order to respect/like them (for instance, I think Dennis Kucinich seems to be a nice guy, but his ideas are absolutely loony-tunes - but I can still talk to the dude!).

Anyways, I digress. Well, this is part of a post that Dean just put up:

Oh Dear - Bosse Gets Monitor Endorsement

Could he actually win this primary?

I've had a few kind things to say about Bosse, mostly because I think Hodes deserves a candidate he will defeat soundly on the issues, instead of fluff. 

The 'Grok's answer is naturally - Yup!    And we absolutely believe this to be true - if voters evaluate his ideas and his stances, he's got a Real Good Shot at winning - that's why we endorsed Grant Bosse here! He never stops working, has thoughtful answers to almost everything policy wise, and IS a genuinely nice guy to boot!

So, why is Dean dazed?

Why this from the Concord Monitor, as they have just endorsed Grant too! (emphasis mine):

Four Republicans are vying for the chance to unseat Paul Hodes, the 2nd District's freshman Democratic congressman: state Sen. Bob Clegg, Grant Bosse, Jim Steiner and Jennifer Horn.

Elections are about ideas and resumes. The former is the strong suit of Bosse, the later is Clegg's forte. Our choice is Bosse.

[snip]

Republican voters will know exactly where Bosse stands on every issue. He has thought through all the basic policy questions. He's smart, well-informed and an extremely effective and genial advocate for his free-market, conservative positions.

He wants to shrink government, cut spending and look to private enterprise to solve the problems of health care.

Bosse would also work to privatize Social Security, but he realizes any change must protect the benefits of older workers and the transition to a different system would take a generation. Because he has spent five years in Washington as a member of Sen. John Sununu's staff with significant responsibilities, he knows what's doable and what isn't.

[snip]

Despite an ideology that is consistent and highly conservative, Bosse shows similar flexibility in his positions on energy. While he backs drilling for oil in Alaska and offshore and a resurrection of the nation's nuclear power industry, he supports tax incentives for alternative energy and a cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions.

[snip]

Bosse knows so well where he stands and why that he needs no filler. Because his positions are conservative and clear, he gives Republicans their best chance to replace Hodes.

As a result, Dean had a little more to say:

But make no mistake - if Bosse wins, we will show in no uncertain terms how his stridently conservative views are totally out of touch with the 2nd district's electorate. 

A challenge?  Really?  Heh!  I darn tootin' bet that Grant will rise to that challenge - and do very well.

Several times, Dean has said that the 'Grok is Blue Hampshire's worthy conservative adversary - we graciously accept and return the accolade to those Liberal dudes.  I've said several times that I like the odds - the 2 Groksters vs the 1500 Hampsters.  After all, the motto of the Texas Rangers is "One mob, one Ranger". To paraphrase Grant ("I may be outspent but I'll never be outworked"), I'll add this:

We may get out-posted, but we'll never get out-idea'd!

This is going to get good!

Load up yer six-shooter, Dean - we'll be a'waitin' fer ya at the GG / MTNP corral! 

Posted by Skip at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Change is what Obama is offering - Change is what Obama is mandating.  One of the things that he will mandate is that your time, your personal time, is no longer your own - it now belongs to the State.

Now, before the Obamanuts decend upon me in a fury, let me say that I have no problem with volunteering.  In fact, during high school, I spent hundreds of hours (I might say a couple thousand but the memory of the actual count has dimmed over the decades) of my own accord, serving as a volunteer at my local hospital working in Transport, Central Supply, Outpatient, and the Emergency Room as a "Candy Striper" and as a Medical Explorer Scout. As an adult, I spent hundreds of hours volunteering at a local Boys' Club for a swim team as a coach and as a meet official, again for a swim team in my local area, countless hours in church activities, and lots of time lately as an unpaid elected town official.  I know what volunteering is, the good it does, and the benefits it accrues to me and others.

The point is NOT that I have volunteered lots of my time.  The point IS, however, is that I, and I alone, decided that my precious time (precious as once it is spent can never be retrieved) here on this ball of mud was MINE to spend.  Unless there is a time of absolute national (or local) emergency, NO ONE should have the authority, in a free society, to mandate how I spend my time.

"They" certainly have the right to ask, to cajole, to beg, to persuade me of the valor, the need, the satisfaction, of doing one thing or another for any one reason or another.  But that cannot, and should not, force me to do ANYTHING if I so decide to sit in my chair and do nothing but veg out.

Yet, Obama believes that he, through the coercive power of the State, has that Right (OK, so where is THAT right enumerated in the Constitution?). Jim Lindgren over at the Volokh Conspiracy has a great write up on how Obama will tell our children (and YOU as parents will have no choice in the matter):

Community Service for all Middle and High School Children.

The most worrisome of Barack Obama’s proposals is his goal of bringing most charities under the federal umbrella in part by inducing all middle and high school children to do 50 hours of community service every year.

The details are on his campaign website and in his speeches calling Americans to service.

By requiring almost all public middle schoolers, starting at the age of 10 or 11, to join his new cadres of community service workers and become part of his “civilian national security force,” Barack Obama shows himself to be out of touch with American traditions of individual volunteerism.

There is nothing wrong with a family allowing a child to volunteer at a young age: in the summer when I was 11, I spent several nights a week working for free at a concession stand in a little league baseball park. My parents were comfortable with this community service because at all times I was under the supervision of my mother’s best friend. Parents then and parents today would like to choose whether their 11-year old child takes on even a part time job, and they would like to choose the job and judge for themselves whether the working conditions are suitable.

With his myriad proposals for new "Corps" and his proposal for universal service for all school children, Obama is trying to bring the charitable activities of 50 to 100 million people –- about half of them children –- under state control. That our government is even capable of running a service program on a scale never before attempted is a matter of faith, not evidence.

As with this post ("Democrats believe that charity is ONLY via taxes") concerning the Chair of the Ohio Democrats, it seems that the Liberals are absolutely convinced, unlike our Founding Fathers, that the State is preeminent and that we, the governed, are too dumb, lazy, or uncaring to give to charity or do volunteer work.

I would really like anyone on the Liberal side to defend this creeping Maoism policy other than "public service is great!". I agree, serving others is great - but only when it is given voluntarily and not mandatory.  Go ahead; tell me, persuade me that mandated volunteerism is not just another oxymoron!

The next part is EXACTLY what both Doug and I have discussed on MTNP and here and in our local papers for a while now:

Community organizing’s roots stretch back to the 1930s and Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky, founder of the Industrial Areas Foundation and author of Rules for Radicals. But it wasn’t until President Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious plan to end poverty through massive federal spending that the Alinsky model—grassroots organizing, neighborhood by neighborhood—really took off. Starting in the mid-1960s, the federal government directed billions of dollars to neighborhood groups, convinced that they knew better than Washington what their communities needed. The federal funds, eventually supplemented by state and local tax dollars, helped create a universe of government-funded community groups running everything from job-training programs to voter-registration drives—far beyond anything Alinsky could have imagined. Some 3,000 local social-services groups were soon receiving government funding in New York City alone. Many were new, but the money also helped turn traditional charities that had operated on private donations into government contractors.

Those who led these social-services groups became advocates, unsurprisingly, for government-funded solutions to social problems. To defend and expand their turf, organizers began heading into the political arena, wielding the power they had accumulated in neighborhoods to build a base of supporters. In New York, operators of huge social-services groups like Pedro Espada in the Bronx and Albert Vann in Brooklyn won election to state and federal posts after heading up large, powerful nonprofits. By the late 1980s, nearly 20 percent of New York City Council members were products of the government-funded nonprofit sector, and they were among the most strident advocates for higher taxes and more government spending.

We are seeing this take place here in the Lakes Region as some of the traditional charities are crying out for help as the government funded NGOs continue to expand.  It is sad to see that the very people who truly wish to help the needy, by the very manner of how their processes of funding and working now happen, are causing the following to happen:

"I give of my time and treasure" turned into "I gave at the office" and now it is "they force me to pay via my taxes".

As a young college graduate immersed in the world of tax-bankrolled activism, Obama adopted the big-government ethos that prevailed among neighborhood organizers who viewed attempts to reform poverty programs as attacks on the poor. Speaking to an alternative weekly on the eve of his 1995 run for state senate, Obama said . . . that “these are mean, cruel times . . . .” He derided the “old individualistic bootstrap myth” of American achievement that conservatives were touting. Self-help strategies “have become thinly veiled excuses for cutting back on social programs, which are anathema to a conservative agenda,” he wrote in a chapter that he contributed to a 1990 book, After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois. (He also depicted leftist community organizing as a harder task than similar efforts by the Christian Right, telling a reporter in 1995 that “it’s always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness and false nostalgia.”)

Nice to see that he hates people like me...yeah, his reaching out to the conservative Evangelical vote will work out REAL well as his Hope and Change campaign starts to get recognized, publicized, and exposed.  But only if people actually take the time to read it and contrast it to the real freedoms that we posses and should have been taught in school.

Oh yeah, right......panic time!!

Posted by Skip at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm wondering if this story is something that could only happen in Maine, and/or if it's a new twist on the "will work strip for food" offer...

GREENVILLE, Maine (AP) _ The Skinny Dip sandwich at Greenville's Black Frog Restaurant is free for customers willing to plunge naked from the restaurant into Moosehead Lake.

But three diners could soon learn that the fine for indecent conduct carries a cost.

Greenville police issued summons to three friends who took the plunge last weekend in return for a sliced prime rib sandwich.

Twenty-five-year-old Crystal Stilwell of Bath, 31-year-old Bernard Beckwith of Windham and 37-year-old Christian Simpson of Bethel have a Sept. 15 court date.

The trio dashed into the water at about 5 p.m. in full view of other diners. Restaurant owner Leigh Turner said all 40 to 50 patrons were asked in advance if they would be offended by the plunge, and nobody objected.

But Greenville Police Chief Scott MacMaster said a family standing nearby was offended and contacted police.

[H/T to Matt T. who wonders if this was a family of Democrats thinking it's only fair if EVERYONE eats for free.] 
 

Posted by Doug at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Meet the New Press Podcast 

            

To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you.
 

Hour 1                                        Hour 2

Hour One:

Opening Banter - we are the real deal for open and honest government like Sarah Palin! Skip and Doug discuss the Union Leader report on responses to Sarah Palin featuring Fran Wendelboe's reaction in the story.  Gov. Palin's mantra IS openness and transparency in government.  Gilford's Gus Benevides is leading the charge in Gilford at the Town level to make the Town's website to have more info on it concerning the Town's activities, budgets, and processes.  However, the Gilford School Board has said no along with the Belknap County Commission concerning theirs (but Tom Tardif, running for Belknap County Commission, has promised to do so - please vote for him if you live in Laconia).

Grant Bosse, running to win the NH-2 Republican Primary, calls in from Hillsboro (soon to be at the Hopkinton Fair) talks about Labor Day but wants an Entrepreneurs Day established.  He also wants everyone to vote on September 9 (and is asking for your vote if you live in NH CD-2).  Sarah Palin - he loves the conservative views she has ((guns, down home outlook, what she has done in elected office with cleaning up the Rs in Alaska).  Grant brings up the State Jet sale on eBay by Palin.  New blood -> go on principles and not there to get along. What is correct bipartisanship? Grant says it straight on contrasting himself with his competitors.

Holly Robichaud - the Lone Republican: "not having a good day unless she is making a big government Liberal miserable".  Stories about Sarah Palin as a result of doing training for Republican women.  She walks the Talk, recruits people, restores integrity - took on the good old boys. No RINO - called the earmarkers into her office to explain themselves. Obama's speech?  She stole the lime light.  Discusses when Dems attack her, they also attack Obama. Her ability to keep a secret (her vetting process).  Impact on the Hillary supporters or feminists. Sexism attacks - "she should be taking care of her baby."

Hour Two:

Opening banter - the listeners have made us #1.  UL article on SWAT.

Jeb Bradley, Republican candidate in NH CD-1, returns to talk about his race to win the Republican Primary and then face Carol Shea-Porter and win back his seat in Congress.  He discusses what Sarah Palin does for the ticket (Excellent choice and here's why: shaking up the race, accountability, outsider, smart, tough - debating with Biden).  Jeb's mailer - fiscal conservative on taxes.  Will always support the vets.  Energy (conserve, yes, but need MORE - do all!).  His experience.  Small business owner experience brings real world experience to Congress - brings the perspective that you have to earn your money instead of taking it in taxes. Effects of raising minimum wage (more teenage unemployment means less job training for later).  How about a "training wage"?  Why the US Chamber of Commerce endorsed Jeb.  Veteran affairs - we should not compromise.  Carol Shea-Porter has consistently voted against supporting the troops and what they need.

Soren Dayton from TheNextRight.com joins us to give us the scoop on the reaction of those gathering at the Republican Convention about Sarah Palin and the mood it will engender - her effects on the race; debating with Biden; attacking crooked Republicans. What are Obama's accomplishments vs Sarah Palin?  Her success in getting a new pipeline and beat the Oil companies.  She can talk Energy!  Her husband will help the appeal to the common folks.  What's the buzz at the RNC?  Why The Next Right and what is it supposed to do and be?  The news "suck away" from Obama to Palin.

No SchlubCam this week.

Posted by Skip at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Starting Saturday morning at 9 am!

....

As usual, this week's broadcast version of GraniteGrok and AnkleBitingPundits brings an array of items and guests for your consideration-- ALL STARTING AT 9AM! As always, thanks to the technical wizardry and analytical skills of Skip, if you are beyond the broadcast area of Newstalk 1490 WEMJ, simply click here for instructions on how to connect and listen on the Internet via livestream. (Podcasts here)

• Of course we'll be talking about POLITICS...

• 2nd Congressional GOP candidate Grant Bosse will discuss his ongoing campaign as it heads into the final stretch before the September 9th primary. Endorsed by the 'Grok, this not-so longshot candidate has left more than one person with a better than expected assessment following the chance to meet or hear him. "He's remarkably good on the stump," said one insider to me some time back during a phone conversation. In addition to his stances on all of the important issues of the day, Skip and I really like his embrace of the New Media and his ability to get the most bang for the campaign buck. "I might be outspent, but I won't be outworked," said Grant at the CNHT picnic in July. We'll get an update on his 50 Days, Fifty Ways to Cut Spending plan. The Union Leader, while not endorsing him, said "Grant Bosse, former aide to Sen. John Sununu, has an impressive political mind. He would make an excellent representative one day. " We disagree--- That day is NOW!

• Holly Robichaud, AKA The Lone Republican blogging at the Boston Herald, is a successful GOP political strategist who is known for speaking her mind. "Holly is not having a good day unless she is making a big government liberal miserable." And now, she's having an even better day, because somebody she knows has been picked to run as John McCain's Vice President. Holly met Mrs. Palin some time back and predicted her to be a rising star in Republican party and was among the early voices calling for McCain to consider her for the Veep slot...

• Jeb Bradley is working doubletime in his quest for the opportunity to run against Carol Shea Porter in the November election. The primary battle between him and his opponent has certainly been one to watch. With a series of debates, neither Republican candidate has shirked from the fight. Of course, Skip and I feel that at the end of the day, only Jeb Bradley has what it takes to defeat the cider-sipping, anti-war, peacenik-loving Shea Porter in November. Jeb will give us his thoughts on energy, events in Georgia and Russia, the economy, and anything else that comes up.

• The Next Right bills itself as "the place for wired activists to build a new Republican Party and conservative movement." A "community-driven grassroots action website for the right," featuring in-depth political analysis, on-the-ground reports, and strategic discussion and debate. Among the founding editors is Soren Dayton, who joins us from Minnesota to preview the Republican Convention and what we should expect. We'll discuss the ongoing successful use and managment of the media by the McCain campaign, as they seem to take a bit of wind out of Obama's sail at nearly every turn. Is it too early to note that Senator McCain has managed to surround himself with people that are really good at what they do? Will he end up, despite conventional wisdom that says otherwise, the "master" of the new media?

Wow! It all starts at 9AM EST Saturday. Tune in if you're in Central NH at NewsTalk 1490AM WEMJ or live on the 'Net here... The best radio (in our humble opinions) anywhere...
 

Posted by Doug at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're like me, you are most likely anxious to learn as much as possible about Senator McCain's exciting VP pick of AK Gov. Sarah Palin. Here is an exchange from the Glenn Beck Show that aired back in June:

Given the importance of energy and its bearing on the upcoming election, Mrs. Palin is obviously well "up to speed" on the issue of drilling and utilizing America's domestic sources. If this interview is any indication, she will do quite well on TV as she hits the road as part of the McCain/ Palin ticket. I like her repeated references to the "radical environmentalists", too. I have a friend that lives in Alaska. I can tell you that Alaskans aren't too keen on folks from Massachusetts and New Jersey telling them what they can and cannot do.

Posted by Doug at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Update:

Being a telecommuter, I got to watch the event where Senator McCain introduced Gov. Palin as his running mate.  After listening to her speak, my smile just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

One observation:

Last night, the Democrat crowd at Invesco Field were constantly shouting "Obama"

Just now, the Republican crowd were constantly shouting "U.S.A."

Difference noted - an emphasis on a person vs an emphasis on our country. 

Your mileage will vary.....

I'll second what Doug said!

Great move - She HAS to have some appeal to the female vote (think disaffected, moderate, Hillary supporters too!) and to the conservative base of the GOP. Tough, driven, smart (and needless to say, photogenic) - McCain may have just reinvigorated his campaign yet again with this pick!

I AM EXCITED!

You can be SURE that the Meet The New Press gang will be talking about this tomorrow (9-11am EDT, live streamed right here at GraniteGrok!)

Posted by Skip at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Don't know if this is 100% confirmed yet, but it looks like Senator McCain obviously read our post Wednesday calling for a woman Veep-- with Sarah Palin being our preference-- because Drudge is linking to a story claiming that indeed the Alaska Governor is it. I think this will, if not dramatically altering the election, at least make for an interesting time.

Who is Sarah Palin? Back in June, in a piece advocating for Mrs. Palin, Jack Kelly--writing at RealClearPolitics.com--gave us the basics:

At 44, Sarah Louise Heath Palin is both the youngest and the first female governor in Alaska's relatively brief history as a state. She's also the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating that has bounced around 90 percent.

This is due partly to her personal qualities. When she was leading her underdog Wasilla high school basketball team to the state championship in 1982, her teammates called her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her fierce competitiveness.

Two years later, when she won the "Miss Wasilla" beauty pageant, she was also voted "Miss Congeniality" by the other contestants.

Sarah Barracuda. Miss Congeniality. Fire and nice. A happily married mother of five who is still drop dead gorgeous. And smart to boot.

But it's mostly because she's been a crackerjack governor, a strong fiscal conservative and a ferocious fighter of corruption, especially in her own party.

I can really dig that last part-- while I expect bad things from the political opposition, I expect members of my own party to toe the line. This is an exciting and intriguing choice. It will be interesting to see if some of Hillary's supporters, feeling cast-off by Obama and his Democratic Party of "change", will find their way to a McCain/ Palin ticket...

“Alaskans deserve transparency and accountability from their leaders. It’s a philosophy
I will promote as Governor."
-Sarah Palin

Oh yeah!!!

Posted by Doug at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Oh yes:

Mrs. Treemont was walking by a pet store, when a parrot in the doorway called to her, "Hey lady, you are really ugly!".  She was furious and yelled at the store owner.  He promised it would never happen again.  

However, the next day she was walking past the pet store when again the parrot called to her, "Hey lady, you are really ugly!".  Mrs. Treemont was furious and told the store owner that if it happened again, she would sue him and have the bird taken away by the authorities.  The worried store manager promised the parrot would never say it again.  

The next time, Mrs. Treemont was walking past the store, the parrot said, "hey lady!"  She paused and said, "Yes?".

The parrot said, "You know".

(H/T: Wayne)

Yes, oh yes!  Reminds me how the 'Grok Stunt Guy (the Eldest) operates - ever since he started talking......still does, too!  Evaluate the system, find the loophole, and exploits it.

Posted by Skip at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got the following from our friends over at the Moultonboro Citizens Alliance concerning how the looming budget deficit in NH.  Given the rise of 17.5% in the overall budget that the newly empowered Democrats engineered at the last session in Concord, here are a few things that the MCA folks found that the Dems are now trying to use to close the budget gap.

Of all the issues facing NH, the loss of the "NH Advantage" due to fiscal irresponsibility, is one of the most pressing. Over the last two years, spending has increased by $475 Million or 17.5%. To defray the costs of this overspending, taxes and fees have been raised on 20 separate items.

Below, you can see all the 2007-2008 increases.

Home and Personal:

• Repealed communications tax exemption, increasing residential phone rates (HB 2)
• Increase in motorcycle registration fee by 25% (HB 2)
• Increase in registration fee for all automobiles of at least $6 per year (HB 2)
• Increase on the tax on both diesel and regular gasoline for cleanup fund (HB 1426)
• Increase in certain motor vehicle fees (HB 1596)
• HB 2 shifts to the county taxpayers all future responsibility for all nursing home and Medicaid costs
  

Tobacco/Gambling:

• Increase in tobacco tax by $.28 per pack (HB 2, 2007)
• Increase in tobacco tax by $.25 per pack (if $50M is not raised by Oct-SB 321)
• New tax on cigars (HB 1309)
• Increase in tobacco licensing fees (SB 317)
• New tax on charitable gaming (HB 1509)
  

Sportsmen:

• Increase in the wild turkey fee from $5 to $15 for residents, and $5 to $30 for nonresidents (HB 2)
• Increase in the nonresident fee for moose permits too $450 (HB 2)
  

Business/Real Estate:

• Increase in tractor trailer registrations (HB 2)
• New fee for meals and rentals licenses (HB 599)
• New $25 fee assessed on each property transaction recording for LCHIP (HB 2)
• Increase of registration fee for mortgage servicing companies (SB 162)

Environment:

• Increase of fees for reviewing terrain alterations from $500 to $1250 (HB 2)
• Increase of fees for shoreline structure application from $100 to $200, plus impact fee increase (HB 2)
• Increase of fees for impact dredge and fill projects application from $100 to $200 (HB 2)
• Increase of fees for hazardous waste management by $2500 (HB 472)
  

Access to Courts

• New fees for certain cases in the judicial family court (SB 350)
• New $25 filing fee for court proceedings (HB 2)

Moultonboro Citizens Alliance (MCA)
PO Box 678
Moultonboro, NH 03254
email: moultonborocitizensalliance@yahoo.com
website: www.moultonborocitizensalliance.org

Posted by Skip at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The 'Grok was chosen by National Journal to be part of a set of bloggers answering their questions concerning the Democrat and Republican Conventions. Normally, National Journal is "by subscription only" but they have opened the door here (go look down the page to the INSIDER POLL).

Here are the bloggers that were chosen:

Left of Center Bloggers:

Tom Oriel of 2008 Democratic Convention Watch, John Aravosis of AMERICAblog, Michael Shaw of BAGnewsNotes, Kari Chisholm of Blue Oregon, Brad Friedman of Brad Blog, Steve Benen of Carpetbagger Report, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, Brad DeLong, Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny!, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Digby of Hullabaloo, Cheryl Contee of Jack And Jill Politics, Steve Soto of Left Coaster, Barbara O'Brien of Mahablog, Taylor Marsh, News Hounds, Chris Bowers of Open Left, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, Tracy Viselli of Reno And Its Discontents, Lee Papa of Rude Pundit, Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerilla, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft, Sean-Paul Kelley of The Agonist, Mark A.R. Kleiman of The Reality Based Community, Meagan Ortiz of VivirLatino.com, Oliver Willis.

Right of Center:

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, Jim Hoeft of Bearing Drift, Betsy Newmark of Betsy's Page, Bob Parks of Bob Parks' Black & Right, Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee, Lucianne Goldberg, Skip Murphy and Doug Lambert of GraniteGrok, Ed Morrissey of Hot Air, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusters, Soren Dayton of The Next Right, James Joyner of Outside The Beltway, Walter Olson of Overlawyered, Patrick Frey of Patterico, Steven Taylor of PoliBlog, Michael van der Galien of PoliGazette, Scott Johnson of Power Line, Jon Henke of QandO, John Hawkins of Right Wing News, Rob Port of Say Anything, Debbie Schlussel, David Gerstman of Soccer Dad, Jay Stephenson of Stop The ACLU, Jonathan Adler of Volokh Conspiracy, Susan Duclos of Wake Up America, Steve Clemons of The Washington Note.

Here's what the questions were. Note: I've given my answer (Bolded selections below); go to the link to see the aggregated answers.  The neat thing about this poll is that we were invited to also give comments - go ahead, click and smile!

================================= 

Batch 3

1. What would you most like to see Obama accomplish in his acceptance speech?

Establish that he’s ready to be commander-in-chief
Show he grasps Americans’ economic problems
Make the sale with Clinton’s supporters

I didn't like the choices so I created my own: Accomplish absolutely  nothing!

No comment was asked for, but seeing that we're bloggers, I have one anyways! 

Being a conservative and a partisan, I wish him good health, a nice life, and a great retirement (but not a Presidency).

National Journal Result 

2. How big of a bounce -- if any -- will his convention give Obama? 

15 or more points
10-to-14 points
7-to-9 points
4-to-6 points
1-to-3 points
No bounce

No comment was asked for, but seeing that we're bloggers, I have one anyways! 

Given what is going on right now, with the "Biden dip", I doubt much of an upswing for at least a while (if ever).

National Journal Result 

=================================

Batch 2

1. Which Clinton, Bill or Hillary, will make the stronger case for Obama in their convention speeches?

Bill
Hillary

Comment:

It is obvious that there is no love lost between Bill and Obama.  After all, Obama is blocking Bill's attempt to get back into the White House!

National Journal Result 

2. Who is Obama most like—John F. Kennedy, Jackie Robinson, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, or Colin Powell?

Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton
John F. Kennedy
Colin Powell
Jackie Robinson

Comment:

He is as much a political animal as Clinton (but not as good at it). I think he will be as effective as Jimmy Carter, especially if the Dems fail to gain the Senate's 60 seats they need to pass what they want.

National Journal Result 

3. What should be the focus of Biden’s acceptance speech? 

Tying McCain to the Bush administration
Boosting Obama’s national security credentials
Criticizing the Bush administration
Criticizing McCain on national security

Comment:

It may be fun to see Biden twisting himself into knots in taking on "my good friend", Senator McCain, and keep a straight face....and keeping it short.

National Journal Result 

=================================

Batch 1

1) Pick the demographic group that Obama most needs to sway during the convention:   

Women

Whites over 45

Blue-collar workers

Comment:

(None from me this on this question)

National Journal Result

2) Do you think Michelle Obama will help or hurt her husband’s candidacy in the general election? 

Help
Hurt

Comment:

She really has come out with 'statements' that when strung together, do no help to cause with those that believe America really is a great place to be - has been, is, and will continue to be.  Her kvetching showed results as the campaign yanked her off the stage.  It will be amusing to see the makeover that is done but I think the damage is done.

National Journal Result 

3) What portion — if any — of the Democratic convention program should be devoted to tearing down John McCain and the Republican brand?

More than half
About half
About a third
About a quarter
Hardly any

Comment:

Too much and it will be a turn off (ditto for the Rs at their convention vs. Obama).  Of course, as a Conservative, if they say too much about what they really want to do, that might be a turnoff to moderates and people like me.

National Journal Result 

4) What do you expect Hillary Clinton will focus more on in her convention speech?

Attacking John McCain
Burnishing the Clintons’ image
Praising Barack Obama

Comment:

Priceless question - the Clintons.  It truely is all about them. 

Posted by Skip at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

This is very cool... McCain congratulates Barack Obama on what tryuly is a momentous milestone in race equalization on the 45th anniverasary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

Awesome!!

[OK. That's enough. Let's get back to degrading "the enemy"...]

Posted by Doug at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Recession - two succeeding quarters of negative growth.

We've been hearing that word, recession, over and over and over again from the media (once again, the mantra of feeling / emotions over facts - hey, it's an election year - should we expect otherwise from the MSM?).

Well, the economy did slow at the end of last year.  However, we have not slid into a recession, no matter the howling from the political classes.  Be that as it may, we've now had quarterly growth of 0.9%, followed by a quarter of 1.9% (a doubling in the percentage rise).  Not negative, positive (albeit small, but still > 0).

From SFgate:

The number of people signing up for jobless benefits declined last week, the third straight drop from a six-year high reached earlier this month, the government said Thursday.

Applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 425,000, down 10,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported. That was a slightly better figure than the 427,000 analysts expected.

The four-week moving average also improved to 440,250, down from 446,250 the previous week.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, faster than analysts expected.

Latest number:  3.3% (another doubling almost).  Not bad at all!  Now add the fact the number of people filing for unemployment went down says that we should not only dismissing the idea that we are in a recession, or that a recession is close, but dismissing those that say we are in one.

Unless facts don't matter...

Posted by Skip at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Liberals and Conservatives see the proper role of government from vastly different viewpoints.

Liberals see government as mere extension of their collectivist selfs - if something good can be done for someone down on their luck, then ALL of us have to contribute to sustaining that person.  If that means FORCING someone, against their will, to be "charitable" against their will be extracting that money via taxes, so be it.  For them, the State is of preeminence (e.g., China, the old Soviet Union, the old East Germany...) as it allows them the full legal force of government to do what they want to do.

Because their collective "sense of right" gets so bent out of shape when they hear "No, I do not wish to help cause XYZ".  Their world view demands this as it is their sense that only the State allows any one to succeed (regardless of what they see in the real world)

I as a Conservative, believe that the individual reigns supreme, that Government is there only to do the things that we as individuals (or in voluntary groups).  Thus, when I saw this over at The Next Right, I was gladdened, as it shows that SOMEbody gets it and is willing to base a group on it:

• The role of the federal government is limited to the powers given to it in our Constitution, and the bigger the government gets, the less competent it is to run our lives, and we must have leaders who understand that the market works best when it regulated and legislated least.
• A dollar belongs in the pocket of the person who earns it unless the government has a compelling reason why it can use it better
• We don’t spend money we don’t have or borrow money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back, and we must have leaders who understand this and will listen to the will of the people.

Ah, FRED PAC!

The Founders knew what they wanted to see in a Federal Government - limited.  Unfortunately, as time has passed (and lately, our failing education system that has become riddled with liberal pap, teaching social justice and multiculturalism instead of solid facts and the fundamentals).

As opposed to this nitwit who has no clue as to the proper role of government who (as WTH from NewsBusters put it so well, emphasis mine):

Secondly, it is clear that Redfern neither has an understanding of, nor any interest in, the Constitution of the United States. Someone needs to inform this addled pol that the "the military" is mandated by the Constitution. Charity work is not. The role of police and fire protection is truly a legitimate role of government. Charity is not. Contrary to Redfern's bald faced claims, there is NO "logic" or "consistency" that mandates charity work be done by government to the same extent as the military, police and fire protection. In fact, it is just a cynical warping of the truth used by Redfern to excuse his socialist theories and big government, nanny state policies. Our government was never intended to indulge in charity work. In fact, several presidents have been quoted exactly to that effect since the founding up until the socialist reengineering of government undertaken by FDR.

Posted by Skip at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Regular readers understand that one of the issues that drives me nuts are the Liberals that are slowly redefining the word charity (here and here for starters) . In their eyes, no longer is it the case that charity is an individual act of will and kindness that drives a person, or a voluntary grouping of people, to give of their time and / or money to help another person or a particular cause.  Charity is that I decide when I give to someone else - it is my decision and not dependent on anyone else.

Liberals love to do charity too. Problem, they have no moral problem in taking money from you and I involuntarily to give to others.  They believe that they have the moral mandate, via government taxes, to carry out their choice of charity work, regardless of my feelings towards their causes. 

Think I'm kidding?  Our friend Maggie over at Thurber's Thoughts has the scoop of a Democrat spilling the beans:

Redfern explained that America needs to tax people to provide charitable services through the government because, without forcing people through taxation, most Americans wouldn't help take care of the 'least among us.' When Fred pointed out that Don would be happy to help 'the least among us' if government weren't taking so much of his money first, Redfern said:

"I suspect Don would, but unfortunately, most Americans would not - and if we remove that kind of support, strategem, then you remove the entire reason for having any kind of projects, programs, initiatives..."

Got that?  The Chairman of the OHIO DEMOCRATS believes that Americans, the most generous people in the world, are skinflints.  He believes that Democrats have the moral right to force you, via taxes, to involuntarily give charity. Which, by definition, is no longer charity.  And that you should then feel good  about it.

And then let's slip that if "Don" was able to keep more of his money and donate it as he would want to, there'd be no need for government horning in on charitable organizations.

Listen to the clip here.

Go to Maggie's where she rightly castigates the moral equivalence of Redfern trying to compare the Constitutional mandate to keep the country safe militarily at the national level and local mandates to provide safety and infrastructure to all of the charitable actions he wants government to usurp.

And why Redfern is wrong.

Posted by Skip at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Given the chatter I'm hearing on the Internet, it's likely that before long, we'll have a pretty good idea of who Senator McCain will pick for Vice-President. Given the fact that there are many women out there that feel slighted over the passing-over of Hillary Clinton as both nominee and running mate, I think that McCain ought to seriously consider a suitable woman as his VP. Given his appeal to some Independents, the right choice on this could help garner enough support to ultimately prevail in November. One of the more intriguing suggestions floating around is the current governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. I’m ready for such a move on McCain’s part. I’m ready to have the right woman in such a position of importance. Are you?

Oh, and whoever's managing the McCain media machine is doing a great job at seeing to it that the Dems aren't hogging the entire news spectrum-- in fact, it seems that the Arizona Republican is as much in the news as what's his name... you know-- "the One". The Obamessiah.

Posted by Doug at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I'll git you my little pretties! Heheheheeeeee! (pic by 'Grok reader Steve L.)

From the NHGOP:

CONCORD - As Jeanne Shaheen ditches the Granite State this evening to address the Democratic National Convention, the New Hampshire Republican Party brings you the Top 10 things she won’t mention as she panders to the left-wing activists and tries to impress political insiders gathered in Denver, Colorado:

10.  The Record Drop-Out Rates That Occurred During Her Watch: During the first four years of Shaheen’s administration more than 25% of New Hampshire’s high school students dropped out (New Hampshire Center For Public Policy, June 2002).

9.      Her Shifting Energy Rhetoric: In May 2007 Shaheen declared her opposition to new any new domestic drilling and bluntly stated that “More drilling is the answer the oil companies are looking for, not the answer New Hampshire families are looking for,” (Shaheen Campaign Press Release, 5/13/08). Now with gas prices at record levels, Shaheen has shifted her campaign energy rhetoric and is trying to run from her previous comments about drilling.

8.      Her Position On Second Amendment Rights: Shaheen refuses to talk about her position on the recent landmark Supreme Court ruling on Second Amendment Rights. The Eagle Tribune (The Eagle Tribune, 6/27/08) reports that “Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen did not return calls asking for a comment,” about the ruling and The Keene Sentinel said they “didn’t hear” from her either when they asked her for comment on the same topic (The Keene Sentinel, 6/30/08).

7.      Her Position On Major National Security Legislation: The Nashua Telegraph asked Shaheen how she would have voted on the critical Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). “We’re still waiting for an answer to that question,” reports the Telegraph. (The Nashua Telegraph, 7/13/08)

6.      Her Legislation That Increased Health Care Costs For New Hampshire Families: As a state senator, Shaheen authored SB 711, a disastrous bill that increased government mandates and drove 6 out of 10 health insurance companies out of New Hampshire. Her legislation resulted in fewer choices and higher insurance premiums for all Granite Staters. (Council for Affordable Health Insurance, “Destroying Insurance Markets” 2005)

5.      Her Abysmal Tax Record:  As Governor, Jeanne Shaheen signed the state’s first statewide property tax and proposed a capital gains tax and a 2.5 %sales tax that would have devastated New Hampshire’s economy.

4.      Her Previous Support For The Bush Tax Cuts: Jeanne Shaheen doesn’t want her union buddies and liberal backers to know that in 2002 she was an unabashed supporter of the 2001 Bush tax cuts – clearly stating that “I supported the Bush tax cuts” and “I would have voted for the Bush tax cut had I been in the Senate.” (Associated Press, 10/25/2002). In 2007 Shaheen flip-flopped on her previous position and now wants to raise taxes on working families and shamelessly criticizes the very same tax cuts she once supported.

3.      Her Record Of Failed Leadership: While Jeanne Shaheen will try to portray herself as a successful Governor, the reality is that she failed to provide leadership on the major issues she encountered during her six years in the corner office. Shaheen left New Hampshire’s school funding system in crisis, proposed new taxes as her “solution” to virtually every problem, and doubled state spending. Shaheen recently admitted in an interview with the Concord Monitor that she lost her 2002 Senate race because of “the job that I did as Governor.” (Concord Monitor, 7/2/2008)

2.      Her Previous Support For The War In Iraq: In 2008, Jeanne Shaheen panders to the liberal MoveOn.org crowd by portraying herself as a consistent critic of the mission in Iraq. But, what she doesn’t want her radical, left wing supporters to know is that she is a blatant flip-flopper, and in 2002 she strongly supported President Bush’s “goals for regime change in Iraq,” (Union Leader, 10/3/2002). Shaheen actually bragged that she “came out very early in support of the president on Iraq,” and she “came out very early the day the White House and the House leadership negotiated the resolution on Iraq,” (Associated Press, 10/25/2002).  

Watch Shaheen In 2002 Support “Regime Change” In Iraq: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Ts4HTG570

1.      Her Commitment To “Stand With President Bush”: She wasn’t afraid to say it in 2002 (Click Here For Video) while campaigning in New Hampshire - but something tells us she won’t use that line this year in front of tens of thousands of liberal activists in Colorado. (UNH/NHPTV Debate, October 2002)

Posted by Doug at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In this recent post, I noted that

Barack Obama has no intention of defending this country against the very real, very big threats we face.

I included a YouTube we made from video shot at a summer '07 primary campaign event in Laconia, NH in which Barck Obama downplayed the threats posed us by our enemies. In it, he tells the crowd that the present danger we face from players like Iran is nothing like what we faced during the cold war. (Message to Barack: you're NOT supposed to acknowledge THAT threat was ever real, either. You need to bone up on Lib 101!) Of course, when you look at the Iranian Islamic regime in context with what's happening in many other places throughout the world, one can see the problem is every bit as grave.

John McCain recognizes the dangers in the world, and points out his opponent does not in yet another hard-hitting TV ad that captures the same point I did in my earlier video. From the McCain campaign:

How DOES Obama defend against this stuff?

Posted by Doug at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mohammed Khatami

by Amil Imani

In order to understand the clerical rulers of Iran, we need to learn about the genesis of their religious faith, Shi’a Islam, and the pivotal place of the Mahdi. Examination of the vast Islamic literature shows that the present sect of Shi’a Islam has evolved from a mix of cultural, political, economic and religious influences. I shall outline, in a summary form, how the belief in the Mahdi, the revered Imam whose advent is expected by the Shi’a faithful, crystallized over time. The Mahdi is expected to appear and save the world when it has reached the depth of degradation and despair. Below is a brief chronological account of how Shiism and the belief in the Mahdi as its pivotal figure were formed.

* Muhammad ruled with an iron fist while alive and no one contested his authority. He designated no heir, and left no will, oral or written, and had no male issues from any of his wives and slave women to inherit the office. Some believers, however, felt that the prophet wished for Ali, his cousin’s and son-in-law, to assume the Ummah’s leadership while a vast majority opted for the Arab’s traditional patriarchal seniority-based practice by choosing Abu-Bakr as the Caliph.

* Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s oldest high disciple and the father of Muhammad’s nine-year-old child-bride Ayesha, assumed the position of the first Caliph and died shortly thereafter. He was followed by Umar ibn al-Khattāb, Uthman ibn Affan became the third Caliph, and finally by Ali ibn Abu Talib.

* Ali was considered by his admirers to be the greatest Muslim warrior and by his detractors as a vicious killer. Two of Ali’s sons, Hassan and Hussein were viewed similarly. Ali was murdered, according to one version, by one of his own followers who resented Ali’s capitulation to the Caliphate hierarchy. That is, the assassin and his like-minded Muslims felt that Ali betrayed Muhammad by not fighting to be his immediate successor and by consenting to be the fourth Caliph. Another version of his death is that a Persian warrior by the name of Brahman Jazyyeh killed Ali, avenging the death of numberless Persians that Ali and his people had slaughtered.

* Ali reportedly killed untold numbers of Islam’s enemies, including Persians, with his much-feared sword that had its own name: Zulfiqar. He was addressed by his followers as Amir-ul-Momeneen (Commander of the Faithful).

* The death of Ali transformed the feuding among the various Muslim factions into open warfare. Some decided to follow Ali’s son Hassan who was soon killed by contenders, then the faction adopted another son of Ali Hussein as their Imam. Hence, to these people, Ali was the first Imam; an appointee of Allah, without a firm basis for this belief. Ali was considered sinless and pure (taher) and immune from error. Over time, eleven males from Ali’s line were taken in succession as Pure Imams.

Thus, the 12-Imamate Shi’a originated with Ali as the first, Hassan as the second, and his brother Hussein as the third Imam.

* Hussein was killed in a fierce lopsided battle with Muslim opponents of the Imamate (those who opposed the system of Imamate leadership which is based on the hereditary succession of leaders from the line of Ali.) The two major divisions in Islam diverged with Sunnis opting for the elective Caliphate and Shiites for the hereditary Imamate.

* After Hussein’s death, some of his followers claimed that he had not died and that he would return. Others took to his brother Muhammad, and then later many took to Hussein’s son Zayn al-Abidin, as their Imam; and when he died, many followed his son, Muhammad Al-Baqir .

* Starting with the death of Ali, a strong belief began to form among his grieving followers that he had not died and that he would return to assume his rule. This belief in the return continued and eventually metamorphosed into the notion of Mahdi, or the Sahib-ul- Zaman (the Lord of the Age.)

* When al-Baqir died, there were once again elements from among the Shi’a who denied his death and claimed that he would return one day, while others settled on his son Ja'far al-Sadiq as their Imam.

* When Ja'far al-Sadiq died, there was mass splintering among the Shi’a. Each of his sons Isma'il, Abdullah, Muhammad, Zakariyya, Ishaq and Musa Al Kazem was claimed by various groups to be their Imam. Also a faction believed that Jaa'far did not die, he had simply disappeared from view, and that he would return one day.

* The same splintering and confusion happened after the death of Moosa. Some denied his death, believing that he will return, some following his son Ahmad as their Imam, while others chose his other son Ali al-Rida .

* After al-Rida, many took his son Muhammad al-Jawwad , also known as al-Taqi, and after him his son Ali al-Hadi -, or an-Naqi. At the death of Ali al-Hadi, they adopted his son Hassan al-Askari  as their new- and 11th- Imam.

The above is a very brief synopsis of a tumultuous genesis of the Shi’a adoption of the Imamate belief which climaxed at year 254 AH: the time when a major section of the Shi'a accepted as their Imam the 22-year old Hassan, son of Ali al-Hadi, and 10th lineal descendant of Ali and his wife Fatima (Muhammad’s daughter). Six years later, Hassan al-Askari is lying on his deathbed, but unlike any of his forefathers he leaves no offspring, no one to whom the Shi’a might turn to as their new Imam.

The Shiites, who had been regarding Hassan al-Askari as their Imam, were thrown into mass disarray. Does this mean the end of the Imamate? The end of the Imamate, they felt would mean the end of Shiism. They were not prepared for that.

The confusion that reigned among the Shi'a after the death of Hassan al-Askari is recorded by his contemporary Shi'a writer, Hassan ibn Moosa an-Nawbakhti, who reports the emergence of at least 14 sects among the followers of Hassan al-Askari, each one with a different view of the future of the Imamate and the identity of the next Imam. Another contemporary Shi’a writer, Sa'd ibn Abdullah al-Qummi, records 15 sects, and a century later the historian al-Mas'udi lists 20 separate sects.

At least four major divisions of belief emerged to deal with the crisis of not having a legitimate male from the line of Muhammad to turn to as Imam. One group accepted the death of Hassan al-Askari and the fact that he left no offspring. To them Imamate had ended in like manner that Nubuwat (mission of Muhammad himself) had ended with his death. Yet, some in this group retained hope for the advent of a new Imam.

Another group refused to accept the death of Hassan al- Askari, and claimed that he would return in the future to establish justice upon earth. The refusal to accept the death of an Imam and retain the belief in his future return goes back to the very early days of the Imamate line.

Yet another group bestowed the mantle of Imamate to Hassan’s brother Jaa'far.

The final major group headed by Uthman ibn Sa'id al-'Amri claimed that Hassan al-Askari did in fact have a son, Muhammad, who had gone into hiding at the age of four for reasons of safety and no one but himself could have any contact with him.  Uthman ibn Sa'id al-'Amri further claimed that as Wakeel (representative) of the Imam he was the one to collect money in the name of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (descendents of Muhammad).

Hassan al-Askari's own family denied the existence of any child of his, and divided his estate between his brother Jaa'far and his mother. Yet Uthman ibn Sa'id and his gang won the allegiance of the masses of the believers by denouncing Jaa'far as al-Kadhdhab (the Liar).

This school of thought ultimately became the dominant view in Shiism with a new Wakeel following the death of a previous one.

With the passage of time, in-fighting among the various claimants for being the Wakeel exposed the scheme for nothing more than a way of extracting money from the gullible faithful. Yet, the belief in the Hidden Imam and his return remains a fundamental belief of Shiites.

To this day, the ever-supplicated cry of the Shi’a faithful is Ya Saheb-ul-Zaman (Lord of the Age Mahdi) hasten your return. Who is the much prayed for Mahdi? The four-year old who never was? The four-year old who went into hiding in a well, as some Shiites believe to this day—the well in Iran’s Jamkaran where president Ahmadinejad frequently visits, submits his written requests, and receives his marching orders from the Hidden Imam to whom he claims he is accountable?

Debunking the belief in the Hidden Imam and his return is pivotal to the falsifying of Shiism and helping the long-deluded Muslims in abandoning a fiction that has ruled and ruined their lives for far too long.

Original post here.

Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He and his family escaped Iran after the radical Islamic revolution. His observations on the growing Islamo-fascist threat need to be heard and understood by as many people as possible if we are going to stem the tide.

NOTE: Mr. Imani recently appeared on our radio program, "Meet the New Press" . Click here to download the podcast.

 

Posted by Amil at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hate political correctness - as I said in my recent Letter to the Editor in one of the local papers:

Political Correctness is the last vestige of the insufferable who cannot win on merit.

As Doug pointed out (Negro 101 Part 1 and Negro 101 Part 2), the PC Po-lice were out in full force this past week - all over the use of the word "negro" by a senior citizen's in a Letter to the Editor.  Never mind that he, after voting for Obama, called Obama's ideas all but nutzy - that was left totally alone (imagine that, no defending of the indefensible by the committed!).  No, the "we want everyone to be tolerant NOW" crowd certainly had a certain, shall we say, lack of tolerance themselves and went after the use of a single word.

Thus, when I saw this by Glen Reynolds of Instapundit (hey, he's linked to us in the past - we're just returning the favor!), I had to put it up - a great summary:

JAMES KIRCHICK: Jonathan Crutchley discovers how intolerant the gay community can be.

Money line from Glenn:

Is it just me, or does it seem that the people who are the most demanding of tolerance tend to be those least likely to display it themselves?

Indeed!

Posted by Skip at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it is nice to see, here in NH, the Republicans starting to get it into gear!  Locally, the Republicans have just opened up their campaign office (you know, the one that the Obama campaign called the best site in town when they had it!).  Although I had nothing to do with obtaining and provisioning it, it was quite pleasing to see that the office was PACKED as Senator Sununu and former (and future) Congressman Jeb Bradley showed up to help christen the office.

Of course, the normal Democrat trackers showed up.  It was rather amusing to see them on the outside trying to film through the plate glass window - bet that sound of Sununu was REAL high quality too (while sound CAN be picked up through glass, probably not so much with the rig you got)!  Camera dud didn't seem to be happy to have to talk to me (although he did say he reads the 'Grok - Hi Guy!) instead of focusing on Sununu.  I just thought that one tracker might wanna talk shop with another....naw, not so much.  All I was trying to do was be polite....

And his compadre - look dude, you just gotta get a better class of tailor for that ersatz gas pump you were wearing.  Remember, this was a FORMAL opening - that shade of green didn't become you all that well and because of your poor tailoring, you really reminded me of a 30 year old BP station that had been abandoned for, say, 29 years.

Just think - all that money your parents are spending on you for college and you parade around as a sandwich board?

Anyways, from the Citizen:

Republicans talk about victory as they open Laconia headquarters

New Hampshire Republicans spoke confidently of making a political comeback as they officially opened their Lakes Region office Monday in downtown Laconia.

 Sen. John Sununu who is up for re-election and 1st District congressional candidate Jeb Bradley made a guest appearance at the grand opening for the Lakes Region's headquarters at 664 Main St. for Republican John McCain's campaign for President. The facility will serve Belknap and Carroll counties.

"This is going to be a team effort." said Peter Spaulding, a former executive councilor who was representing presumptive presidential candidate John McCain. "We have great volunteers throughout New Hampshire."

There are five other Republican offices in New Hampshire, located in Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Stratham and Lebanon.                       

Sununu was excited about the facility. He exclaimed that the New Hampshire GOP is an outstanding organization and he thinks the volunteers will "get out the vote, get out the message."

The senator claims that Republicans understand the issues and challenges today such as energy conservation and rising taxes. He wants to open up offshore drilling, produce more oil and energy alternatives at home and "keep the money in the United States." "We're going to win because we've got the best candidates," Sununu said.  

Jeb Bradley, who held the 1st District seat in Congress for two terms before he was defeated two years ago by Democrat Carol Shea-Porter, also made an appearance at the opening and said that "Democrats are after our pocketbooks" and that Shea-Porter promoted multiple tax increases because she wants to spend all our money.

Bradley said he is "ready to take back our state and turn it around and make it red again."

Posted by Skip at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As the Clintons prepare to overshadow the Democratic National Convention, thanks to Obama inexplicably ceding major parts of the affair to his vanquished foe (much like he'll deal with America's enemies, no doubt, should he win the presidency) and her followers, one wonders how certain past utterances and primary "potshots" will be dealt with.

A good example is the famed "It's 3 AM..." TV ad, portraying the ringing telephone indicating a world crisis might be at hand. Most folks at the time agreed that, despite the potential comedic value of where her philandering husband might be at 3 in the morning, it scored a devestating bullseye on Obama's number one weakness as a presidential candidate: inexperience.

Team McCain again shows their willingness to take full advantage of the "weapons" at their disposal, using Hillary's ad to land another one right between the eyes.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt, eh Barry?

Posted by Doug at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night on O'Reilly, it was mentioned that the McCain campaign has been quite proficient at creating and delivering effective TV and YouTube ads answering or attacking Obama on a wide variety of issues. Regular readers of the 'Grok have seen a fair number of these, as we have been posting them on a pretty steady basis. Here is one that seems particularly biting. Check out the look on Obamessiah's face as Senator Biden is speaking...

Isn't it precious? How dare he criticize "the One". I have to agree. Seems pretty racist to me... 

Posted by Doug at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...and why they are famous....and infamous for what activities for which they are unrepetetant - nice shot of Bill Ayer's (BFOO) radical wife:

Nice lady....blowing up police stations and other people....wonder what Senator Biden's response will be about Ayers and Dohrn, eh?

(H/T: Little Green Footballs)

Posted by Skip at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our friend Pat (and co-host of Meet The New Press and owner of AnkleBitingPundits) has a new venture that has been open for a while: Now!Hampshire.  News of all sorts from NH can be seen there (and if you are interested, you too can do reporting!).

And now it looks like past news as well - as I have written and said before, woe to the old fashioned politicians that are going to be caught by the Internet - think of it as society's memory bank.  If someone said it and if someone recorded it, someone will post it. Like this:

Biden, known for his caustic, shoot-from-the-hip style, had a nasty run-in with a New Hampshire voter during his 1988 presidential campaign, which Biden was later forced to abandon due to a plagiarism scandal.

“I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do,” Biden barked at his citizen inquisitor at a typical New Hampshire house party. He then proceeded to recite his entire curriculum vitae in painful detail.

Looks like Biden didn't like my home state all that well in campaigning as well.....and the votes he received it because of it shows that if you ignore us, we ignore you.  Is this setting the stage for November?

Posted by Skip at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Meet the New Press Podcast 

            

To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you.
 

Hour 1                                        Hour 2

Hour One:

Opening Banter and Dean Barker BlueHampshire - Olympics; we're too old and the wrong shape! Our good friend in both the cyber and real worlds, Chan from Weekend Pundit guests co-hosts once again!   Dean Barker from BlueHampshire.com (our "loyal" opposition and the leading Liberal NH blog) calls in and we talk about the role of the New Media on both the Right and Left, the perceived "arms" race and acceptance of the blogosphere in the old world of politics and idea dissemination.  Grant Bosse (his ears must have been burning) calls in.  Of COURSE, the gang talks about the Obama / Biden ticket news.

Jeb Bradley vying return to the US House of Representatives from NH CD-1's Congressman calls in from the road of a day full of events.  Second Amendment rights were upfront as we talked about the Heller vs DC gun lawsuit, settled by the Supreme Court (5-4, showing that Prez races count).  We also mentioned the Laconia (NH) opening of the Republican office. 

He'll be with us again next week.

Former Massachusetts Governor Paul Celluci calls in to talk about Senator McCain's energy and economic plans ("do everything") vs Obama's ("the second coming of Jimmy Carter - we can't do").  Chan mentions that his son has the best line of the day concerning concern about Obama's tax plan: "Rich - is that anyone with a job?"!

Hour Two: 

Opening Banter: More commentary on the Olympics (the shape we're not in, Chinese female ages scandal possibly broken by a blogger using Google cache forcing the IOC to investigate).

Tom Tardif, Republican candidate for Belknap County Republicans comes in to talk about his race vs. Frank Tilton.  The discussion includes the flaws in the budget process, the flaws in appointment processes, effect of unconstrained spending (8.8% rise!) on property taxes because "revenues are not meeting expenditures".  He is the Right change!

Ramesh Ponuru, Sr. Editor of National Review comes on to discuss the problem that Obama has gotten himself into with waffling over his failure to protect babies born alive (and viable) during botched abortions.  The gang agrees that his campaign staff, in trying to cover it up, has not helped and that his stance seems to be that a woman's right to choose trumps that of a living human being outside of her womb (and a doctor's right to choose as well).

Note: As noted with our time with Tom, Meet The New Press has offered to host an hour long debate between Tom Tardif (former Laconia Mayor) and his Republican Primary opposition, Frank Tilton (member of the NH House of Representatives and Chair of the Belknap County Republican Committee).  Tom has said yes - Frank has been called and emailed (we await his reply).

Doug has agreed to recuse himself from the debate due to the strained relationship between the two.

SchlubCam coming.

Posted by Skip at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

No, I haven't gone away - just doing LOTS of things in a lot of different areas.  So, in the spirit of not having any time lately but feel still in the spirit that I still have a bit of a mind to share...

*****

Sometime, we write Really Really Good Stuff!  Sometimes, it is Really Really Deep Thought type stuff.  Some of it even gets read.

And sometimes, some of the posts that have gotten the most hits since we've been open have been posts that could be classified as "eh, what the heck?" or "my brain is tired, this is quick" or  "man, this is fluff - let's see what happens".  And people just keep coming back and back and back.  Mine was this (scroll down - you'll know it when you see the bare midriffs).

Well, time for an update:

Same statement - must not stimulate Muslims?

"Malaysian authorities fined organizers of a concert by the chart-topping Pussycat Dolls for allowing the singers to wear skimpy costumes and for their "sexually suggestive routines," a news report said Wednesday." Source

Except for the very few miscreant guys among us in the West, things like this story always have me asking myself - What's the matter, can't Muslim men control themselves?

Yeah, I can be shallow from time to time (but am really wondering how many hits it will get becasue of the subjects).

The question, however, remains valid - how come Muslim men continue to hold the WOMEN accountable but not themselves?  Hey, N.O.W. - how come you continue to NOT demonstrate against this in front of mosques?  I guess it's only OK to demonstrate at country clubs.....

*****

Stupid politicians!  when are they going to learn that the game has changed with the Internet - you cannot hide, you cannot run, and you just can't make stuff disappear without somebody noticing!

Let the Obama - Biden campaign whitewashing stupid explanations begin!

The Friday evening version of Joe Biden's Wikipedia entry remains firmly ensconced in a Firefox tab on my desktop, so it can be compared to its current form as Obama-Biden's busy bees brush it up. I'm doing comparisons as time allows, and there isn't much of it at the moment.

One thing is quickly obvious -- a whole year has disappeared:

You'll just loooooove what got deleted:

Ha!  Go to the link and see what got deleted!

***** 

Bishop: ICE Agents Can Claim Conscientious Objector Status When Refusing to Participate in Worksite Immigration Raids

Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is calling on U.S. authorities to halt mass immigration raids and says agents who refuse to participate in such raids on moral grounds deserve to be treated as conscientious objectors.

Let me see if I understand this - agents voluntarily sign up to enforce our nation's immigration laws.  Those laws, like them or not, detail how one comes to live here in the USA (after all, we ARE allowed to make the laws that govern ourselves, right)? 

Don't like them?  Change them.  Until then, follow them.  And if you voluntarily joined ICE to enforce the immigration laws and no longer can support them, there is something that you can do:

QUIT.

This Bishop is just, plain, wrong.

"We believe that raids on the immigrant community are unjust, unnecessary, and counterproductive," the bishop's letter says. It urges individual federal agents to consider the morality of their actions and refuse to participate if their conscience dictates.

A spokeswoman for ICE, Paula Grenier, said she could not comment.

Well, I CERTAINLY can!  So, Bishop, is it unjust on the part of the illegal alien to break our laws?  The Bible is quite clear that governments are appointed by God and therefore, failing to follow (provided the laws do not break His law), is disobedience to God, right?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called U.S. immigration policies "morally unacceptable," saying they keep families divided and encourage the exploitation of migrants.

So, Bishops, does this mean that we are to ignore the actions and decisions of parents that put their children at risk? Let's take your argument to one more illogical step - does that mean that I can break another law, desecrating a church (as was recently done to a local Catholic church) - is still be morally acceptable?  

No, I didn't think so.

*****

Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the California Legislature says they're bad for the blind.

It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street.

The measure would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise.

Hmm, by expending less energy, we do better.  Now, we have to pipe some of that savings into sounding like a regular car?  I KNOW!  Let's make it a law that all of the Priuses have to sound like the old tyme Ice Cream Trucks with that little jingle they always played in the neighborhoods that thrilled all the kids and made the Moms groan....

The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don't keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.

Right, let's make a law to raise taxpayer costs before we know if it is problem....just another reason why all State's ought to make their Legislators' pay the same as it is here in NH - $100 / year.  Maybe some of the loony ideas would never get hatched.

Oh yeah, that worked well...leave it to politicians who just cannot stop meddling....

*****

And some times, it is just the stupidity of over-nuanced, moral relativistic journalists that cannot (or refuse to recognize) evil:

Asked what was missing in British coverage, she added: "It may sound odd but the humanity of the Taliban, because the Taliban are a wide, very diverse group of people. 

Absurd.  Just remember that picture of a woman in a burka that was shot in the back of the head in the soccer field when she was accused of adultery.

Humanity?

Are the Dems getting to repeat the lessons of the Republicans?  A condensed version of just a few problems that caused the Great Depression and made it longer and harder.

And it sounds like the Obamessiah is going to show again that he "don't know history" and isn't  going to learn:

Lessons Of The Great Depression

Perverse monetary policy was the greatest cause of the Great Depression. But non-monetary missteps were important in making the Depression great, and the same missteps damaged the global economy as well. While many are thinking about the Depression, few seem concerned about replicating these mistakes today. Among them:

• Giving in to protectionism...

Yet again, one party - the Democrats, this time - is cavalier. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blocking passage of these bilateral agreements. And another ambivalent politician - Sen. Barack Obama - has sent mixed messages to Canada about just how much he wants to roll back the North American Free Trade Agreement.

• Blaming the messenger. Punishing the stock market for the 1929 crash was popular in Washington in the early 1930s...

Today, too, a "Blame the Street" mood prevails. SEC Chairman Chris Cox has criticized "naked shorts," an attack with a legitimate anti-fraud component. But targeting short-selling also generates uncertainty. The investigations of Bear Stearns and Freddie Mac are just the beginning; more prosecutions are likely. Like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which followed Enron's accounting meltdown, this cleanup will send companies and jobs abroad.

• Increasing taxes in a downturn.

Today, Democrats are planning tax increases that make Bill Clinton's hike look mild. The proposals start with lifting the cap on Social Security payroll taxes - an effective increase in the top marginal tax rate of 6.2 percent, or for some 12.4 percent, all by itself. Add in the promised repeal of the Bush tax cuts and you have an additional 4.6 percent increase. Effective top rates approach 50 percent. There are also proposed increases for dividends and capital gains. Taken together, these will make the U.S. economy sluggish and more like that of Europe.

• Assuming bigger government will bring back growth. seemed the only way to sustain America's promise.

New Deal programs did much to alleviate the pain month to month - many found dignity in six months of work at the Works Progress Administration, the Public Works Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps. But economics is a competition for scarce capital. Such state solutions tended to suppress the creation of long-term private-sector jobs, as did the aggressive Wagner Act for organized labor.

Amity Shlaes is the author of "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

*****

Posted by Skip at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Following up on this previous posting, in which the local Democrats here in Central NH have decided to take a local letter-writer "to task" for daring to be critical of the latest version of Barack Obama and, more importantly to local and state level Dems, daring to use the word "negro". As I noted in the first post, the local Dem chair put out the call, and several people dutifully responded, and the local papers have carried letters in which the original letter-writer, Mr. Jack Stephenson-- who voted for Obama in the NH primary, by the way-- has been trashed and berated for having the audacity to speak his mind in a way that the thought-police have deemed politically incorrect. Recall the Polidoro letter in the first post where he writes,

Stephenson shows his implied bigotry and ignorance

This is pretty much the tack taken by the Dems as they continue to beat this drum. Thankfully, there are other locals (myself included) that know Mr. Stephenson and can attest he is neither a bigot nor is he ignorant. Several people, knowing he was getting a bum rap, stepped up and defended him with letters of their own, and Stephenson wrote another letter rather ably defending himself as well. In the end, we all know this was nothing more than a tempest in a teapot, with the local Dems hoping to gin up emotion as they seek to promote their candidate, whose lack of experience and new ideas dictates voters must be distracted from that fact if he is to have a chance at victory in November...

To the Editor,

Once again Jack Polidoro proves that a good education can give a person intelligence but does very little to reduce ignorance. His supportive opinions of Obama are properly placed in an “opinion” column even though Obama’s recent appearance at California’s Saddleback Church proves that the man is an empty suit and without a scripted speech he can’t answer “real” questions on “real issues. Mr. Polidoro’s ignorance comes to light when he provides an irrelevant history on the term “Negro”.  This, of course, is from the Obama supporters’ play book on racial accusations against anyone who points out Obama’s ineptness.

For the most part, only the hypersensitive “PC” American culture has shunned the word Negro. When you travel to most any other part of the planet, people of color aren’t offended when referred to as a Negro, which of course is the Spanish word for “black”. Obviously, everyone is aware that the really bad “N” word is unacceptable in any culture. The term “African American” is completely inaccurate because not all people of color are from Africa. In fact, most of the people of color that I’ve met are actually from America and proud of it.

During my travels through Europe, Mexico, South America and Asia I wanted to be very careful to learn such nuances while conducting business and socializing with the various cultures. I actually found most Europeans to be more “crass” when discussing other ethnic groups, including Caucasians living elsewhere in the world. I was mostly referred to as the American, White guy or in Latin America, the “Gringo”. 

In general, most of the people I meet throughout my travels posses a great sense of humor - which is something that Mr. Polidoro’s high intellect has difficulty understanding.

I’m positive that Mr. Polidoro will respond with another irrelevant “put us to sleep” tome on Black history but as usual it won’t square with the reality of every day life, no matter how many times he says it. Much like his “opinions” of Obama!

Terry Stewart
Gilford, NH

Next came one from our very own Skip, also taking the Dems to task. Keep in mind through all of this that there are two "Jacks" involved here-- one, Mr. Jack Stephenson, the original letter writer, and Jack Politboro Polidoro, the consummate liberal blowhard that fancies himself an intellectual. Here, Skip starts out addressing Jack STEPHENSON, who he defends quite nicely as well:

Great Scott, Jack, what the heck were you a'thinkin? You've gone and riled up them there Political Correctness Po-lice led by all those high falutin' Democrat fellers like NH State Democrat Chair, Mr. Buckley and Democrat Laconia Town Chair, Mr. Tunning and that other-whats-his-name-the-Ph.D-guy! All because you hadta go an say an old word that they think is “oh, so insensitive” an don' like (Jack, have you told that there Ph.Der that you really are a rocket scientist? After all, we're both so anti-edumacation?). Hey, lookie - they're all Democrats – that tell yer sometin? You old codger – you go guy! You've got all their knickers in a knot!

Notice one other important fact – they attacked the ONLY item on which they believe that they could win – the use of an “old” word. Not a word from them on what really counts – like Obama's stances or votes that offered no protection for babies of botched abortions, no increases in energy supplies to lower our costs, raising taxes on all of us ($42K/yr is rich?), and the rest (all pretty much being hope-lessly indefensible). I must admit, I did like the cue card one!

All that angst because of a word they want off limits just because they say so (First Amendment, anyone?). Instead of debating the real issues, they're doing the old “discredit stomp”. They want to silence you by embarrassment and discredit you from their “higher moral ground”.

If you using the word “negro” (heavens to Mergatroid, you didn't even capitalize it!) is bad, what about others that come and go? Which brings us to another problem as the Identity Politics loving types do from time to time – they want to be called something else later. Will I get in dutch for expanding the acronym NAACP – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - because they deem “Colored” to be a bad word (Ha! is “dutch” a prohibited word too?)? Or “black”? Can I use “bro'” or “sistah” even if I'm white? I'm not even sure that African-American is the latest monniker to use anymore either – how DOES a middle aged white Protestant guy like me keep up? Face it Jack, we're all always in trouble – just because they say we are.

Sadly, I used to think that we were all Americans; now to Liberals, you are only what your group is. Political Correctness bred Identity Politics which does nothing but separate Americans into groups with lots of hypens (Swedish-American, anyone?) instead bringing us together. Frankly, I call that racism by PCism.

Face it, Jack, you ARE old (rejoice, the rest of us are catching up quick!). They fail to realize that sometimes as you get old, your words are like your clothes; you no longer care about staying in style, you just keep wearing what you have. Regardless of intent, those PC types just see offensive in every nook and cranny. They ought to accept that sometimes, it's merely a bad choice of words and get ovre themselves.

Political Correctness is useful for only one thing – stopping debate by limiting what they allow to be “reasonable” speech; all other areas are deemed “unspeakable”. This serves only one purpose – to control an argument on terms by which they will win and the rest of us lose. Time to fight back against this stupidity; the answer to offensive speech is more speech, not less speech.

Take heart, Jack - Political Correctness is the last vestige of the insufferable who cannot win on merit. Most of us who are sick of Political Correctness are on your side.

Skip Murphy

And then Mr. Stephenson himself, never at a loss for words, and not one that's easily intimidated, stepped up and offered another letter-- again printed in the local papers-- in his own defense:

Reply to Raymond Buckley, Ron Tunning,  Jack Polidoro, re use of the well known, dictionary supported word Negro.   Below Is a current, website definition.  It is NEVER insulting, and to many, highly complimentary.

Negro

A black man; especially, one of a race of black or very dark persons who inhabit the greater part of tropical Africa, and are distinguished by crisped or curly hair, flat noses, and thick protruding lips; also, any black person of unmixed African blood, wherever found.

Of or pertaining to negroes; black.

    I grew up in Lakewood NJ, about 25% Negro, 45% Jewish, and others (us).  I learned then that we (others) could learn much from those who might be a bit different, but were often better.  Joe Neal, Valdictorian of my high school class, was a very close friend, absolutely superior person: worked to help support his family, taught Sunday school, was outstanding in sports and music.  He went on to college @ Rutgers, then to dental school & very successful life.  Oh, by the way, he was a Negro, same as many other friends I had then and since.

    Since I admire my MANY Negro friends, I could never adapt to the current put down terms of "Blacks" (which actually means exactly the same as Negro), or "Afro-Americans":  they are Americans, not semi Americans.  Do you "whiteys" go by "English-American", "Irish- American", "Italian-American", "Scotch-American (like me)",  "Chinese American",  or any of the many other Americans?   I accept all as Americans when they are citizens here.   Why do YOU discriminate against any of them just because of their country of origin?

    Yes, it is obvious that I love NH and Gilford, and strongly object to government and energy waste, which raises intolerable tax increases.  Part of my Scotch heritage, maybe.

    Raymond Buckley, I thank you for your excellent, informative letter.  Proof of my reference about our great successful Negros in the USA.  We NEED a LOT more great people like you, to prove that origin (or race) can NOT be a hinderance to success.

    A special aside, sympathy to Ron Tunning, who I always thought was extra friendly because he always published my letters, unchanged, when the Citizen often edited them.  Thanks Ron, for recognizing that I am conventional!   I'm sorry for you that you missed all the humor in many of my letters!  Yes I'm getting too old & tired, but even when the body gets weak (can't climb those mountains any more), my concern for economic safety and tax reduction continues.   How many of you are really happy about the outrageous cost of heating & cooling our schools and Gov. buildings?  How many of you have ever tried to do anything about it?  OK, so I'm an old curmudgeon,  opposed to government waste & stealing.  Does that thus mean that Ron Tunning is in favor of Gov WASTE?

    As everyone who knows me knows, I've been blessed with a wonderful wife and family, and we have likely had more fun in life than most.  I can't recall a day that didn't have more miracles and fun than problems (altho several times I did say "I would have no luck if I didn't have bad luck").  I still want to win the Mega Bucks,  but friends insist I have to buy a ticket first.

    To be fair and honest:  I voted for Obama in the primary, based on his early talks, and on my admiration of Joe Neal, which I related to him.  Since then Obama has disapointed me greatly.

    Last, and least important, is Jack Polidoro's comments.  He has never shown any sign of intelligence, and has gone downhill on this.  Can anyone logically interpret his nonsense?

Jack Stephenson,  in honesty and full humor (the only way we can tolerate politics).
Gilford   

Posted by Doug at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a fun video we made after Joe Biden visited us here in the Lakes Region back in April of '07:

Originally posted here, it was a lighthearted piece of shameless self-promotion that we put together with parts of this exchange in which I asked him his thoughts on NH's "First in the Nation" primary:

.

Posted by Doug at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the leadup to the NH primary, we got to see almost every candidate on both sides of the aisle, Joe Biden being no exception. As we cull through hours of videotape shot during the event for something that might be newsworthy given his selection as Barack Obama's running mate, we figured some readers might be interested in our thoughts of the event back at that time. Originally posted here, this is what we had to say back in April of 2007:

Joe Biden: All about the war

Delaware Senator Joe Biden, seeking the Democratic presidential

nomination paid a visit to Laconia, NH on April 14th, 2007.

.

Joe Biden brought his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination to Laconia Saturday afternoon. Hosted by the Belknap County Democrats, the event had, at its peak, somewhere around 100 or so people. The energy level of those in the room, certainly high at the start, seemed to wane as the day wore on. By the time the Delaware Senator ended his appearance, it seemed just himself and a small handful of attendees (including me) had any left. And that's too bad, because Biden had an awful lot to say.

.

Indeed, Joe Biden lived up to his reputation as a policy wonk always able to give the long answer to a simple question. While that works for political junkies like me, it tends to drag for more normal people. By the end of the event (which started some 45 minutes late to begin with) the hundred people had dwindled to no more than thirty diehards. It wasn't because Biden isn't a good speaker, or lacking energy himself, it was just the content and specificity of what he was saying probably flew over the heads of those in the room. And, while he did a fair amount of Bush-bashing, it was delivered in a polite and measured fashion-- not what the base of the Democrats is desirous of these days. These people want Bush's head on a platter, and Senator Biden is, in my opinion, too much the long-time Senator type to deliver- to his credit, I'd say.

.

If you believe, as I do, that the most important issue we face as a nation today is the war, then  you would have found Senator Biden's remarks, as I did, interesting and relevant. While I do not agree with many of his points about the need for the Iraq war, or about how he views the President's prosecution of it, Senator Biden is at least taking a serious and realistic approach. To me, he is the old school politician in the opposition-- harsh, yet measured, and he does accept reality as it presents itself. There is no "bring the troops home NOW, stop the funding" mantra coming from this particular candidate. This separates him from the rest. That I like. Unfortunately, I don't think the base of his party, primary voters, agrees.

.

Joe Biden makes a point to local Democrats during a campaign stop .

.

The thing that really struck me during Biden's presentation and the Q & A that followed was the fact that it was all about the war and the state of the world at large. Calling himself an "internationalist," the long-time senator laid out elaborate and detailed plans and ideas for ending the Iraq war, while still (if you read between the lines) recognizing that we are going to have to stay involved in the region for a long time. Drawing the contrast between him and the rest of the Democratic field, he notes that while they say "end it now. Come home now," he is the only candidate that asks "then what?" While I disagree with his solution-- a partition of Iraq with input and grand dialogue from all in the area, friend or foe, I give him credit for asking the question.

.

It becomes quite obvious that Senator Biden is a serious guy. So serious, in fact, that I believe he is that rarest of Democrats in that he DOES see the gravity of the threat we face. One almost gets the feeling that some of his anti-Bush rhetoric is simply added to satisfy Democratic voters he needs to win the primary. I don't see that happening, which is really too bad. Joe Biden is one Democrat on my very short list of those I could live with if I have to accept one as the next president. Joe is a realist, and that beats the heated rhetoric and platitudes offered by most of the rest of the pack. Given the current state of the activists who will decide the nominee, while Joe Biden gets a fairly positive reception from people like me, a conservative Republican, it won't get him the votes he'll need to win.

.

Sen Biden in an elevated exchange with an activist.

His message doesn't seem to wash with the far left.

.

Oh well-- at least there's the Sunday talking heads shows.

It will be interesting to see what has changed since that time. He really was, when you looked across the field of candidates, the "un-Obama".

He had a rather heated exchange, as I recall, with some of the local far-lefties. I'll bet some of them are none too happy today. I'll see if I caught that on video...

Posted by Doug at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Turn to stone. Like as in "Granite", maybe? Heh!

Starting Saturday morning at 9 am!

....

As usual, this week's broadcast version of GraniteGrok and AnkleBitingPundits brings an array of items and guests for your consideration-- ALL STARTING AT 9AM! As always, thanks to the technical wizardry and analytical skills of Skip, if you are beyond the broadcast area of Newstalk 1490 WEMJ, simply click here for instructions on how to connect and listen on the Internet via livestream. (Podcasts here)

• While we normally don't like to blow our own horn, we have been told on many occasions that when it comes to political blogs in the Granite State, the conservative GraniteGrok and its liberal counterpart, BlueHampshire are pretty much the two leaders of their respective Internet niches. We are pleased to welcome into our Saturday morning right-wing radio domain, the leader of the opposition at Blue Hampshire: Dean Barker! Yes indeed-- he has been gracious enough to accept our invitation for a robust, yet polite, discussion of the issues. First we'll discuss (briefly) "e-activism" and its present state and influence on politics. Will it engage more people and actually lure them to the voting booth come election day? Following that, we'll talk about Shea Porter, Bradley, and Stephen in the 1st CD, with Hodes, and our favorite 2nd CD Republican (Dean's too!), Grant Bosse. Then we'll walk the Shaheen/Sununu minefield, which, should we get through, will lead us to some prez stuff- specifically, some Democrat Veep talk. Indeed-- with GraniteGrok versus Blue Hampshire, it will be the Clash of the NH Blog Titans! Should be great sport... Dean and his collection of contributors have always been worthy adversaries in our minds-- someone to always keep an eye on

• Jeb Bradley phones in from the campaign trail. With the September 9th primary only a few short weeks away, the pace is nothing less than fast and furious. We'll get an update. I plan on asking him about the Second Amendment, which could be in some jeopardy in the very near future, should the election go bad for the GOP. (Read the 'Grok endorsement here.)

•  A. Paul Cellucci, former MA Gov. and Ambassador to Canada joins us to chat up energy and the economy-- two areas where McCain should carry the day when compared to Obama.

• Former Laconia Mayor Thomas A Tardif stops by the studio to discuss his candidacy for Belknap County Commissioner. Facing a well-known GOP insider and party boss in the September 9th primary, Tom is asking everybody in Laconia that wants an honest, open government that follows the rules and keeps its fiscal house in order to PLEASE turn out on Tuesday, September 9th and cast a vote on the Republican ballot for him. We'll run down the list of troubles Tom has brought to light in the last couple of years, and his plans to increase citizen access and involvement in county government. Oh, and should we have time, there's some new news regarding our ongoing Right to Know law case which reached a new milestone this past week.

• Once again, NRO Senior Editor Ramesh Ponuru joins us to talk about the life issue. It has been in the news again this week, with new revelations of Senator Obama's going to the mat to defeat a bill requiring life saving techniques applied to babies that survive an abortion. We'll discuss his recent NRO post, Fathering more lies, Obama's latest spin on 'Born Alive'. We'll also ask Ramesh to play the 'veepstakes' game with us as well. Mr. Ponuru is the author of The Party of Death.

Wow! It all starts at 9AM EST Saturday. Tune in if you're in Central NH at NewsTalk 1490AM WEMJ or live on the 'Net here... The best radio (in our humble opinions) anywhere...

Posted by Doug at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WHAP!!!

The McCain campaign releases ANOTHER TV ad. This is getting to be fun!

Taxes... This is an issue, too. People are maxxed out and cannot do without an even larger slice of the pie in order to give it to government. If enough voters can understand this, maybe they'll do the right thing and choose McCain in November.

Posted by Doug at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An elderly man on a Moped, looking about 100 years old, pulls up next to a doctor at a street light. The old man looks over at the sleek shiny car and asks, 'What kind of car ya got there, sonny ?'

The doctor replies, 'A Ferrari GTO. It cost half a million dollars!'

'That's a lot of money,' says the old man. 'Why does it cost so much?'

'Because this car can do up to 320 miles an hour !' states the doctor proudly.

The Moped driver asks, 'Mind if I take a look inside ?'

'No problem,' replies the doctor. So the old man pokes his head in the window and looks around. Then, sitting back on his Moped, the old man says, 'That's a pretty nice car, all right... but I'll stick with my Moped!'

Just then the light changes, so the doctor decides to show the old man just what his car can do.
He floors it, and within 30 seconds the speedometer reads 160 mph. Suddenly, he notices a dot in his rear view mirror. It seems to be getting closer!

He slows down to see what it could be and suddenly WHOOOOSSSHHH !  Something whips
by him going much faster!  'What on earth could be going faster than my Ferrari ?' the doctor asks himself.  He presses harder on the accelerator and takes the Ferrari up to 250 mph.  Then, up ahead of him, he sees that it's the old man on the Moped!

Amazed that the Moped could pass his Ferrari, He gives it more gas and passes the Moped at 275 mph. He was feeling pretty good until he looked in his mirror and saw the old man gaining on him AGAIN !

Astounded by the speed of this old guy, he floors the gas pedal and takes the Ferrari all the way up to 320 mph.  Not ten seconds later, he sees the Moped bearing down on him again! The Ferrari is flat out, and there's nothing he can do!

Suddenly, the Moped plows into the back of his Ferrari, demolishing the rear end.

The doctor stops and jumps out and unbelievably The old man is still alive.

He runs up to the banged-up old guy and says, 'I'm a doctor.... Is there anything I can do for you?'

The old man whispers,

'Unhook my suspenders from your side view mirror'.

(H/T: Sue)

Posted by Skip at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The ever nimble McCain campaign releases a new TV ad:

Perhaps Mr. Obama will figure out at some point that people in glass houses ought not throw stones...

Posted by Doug at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An interesting debate about the "presumptive" Democratic nominee taking place here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire in our local papers and in cyberspace has escalated into a full blown debate over race, language, and political correctness. It all started when one of the local wags-- a Democrat "seasoned citizen"-- submitted a letter to several local papers. It's author, Mr. Jack Stephenson, is well known to me and is someone I've always found thoughtful, humorous, and honest almost to a fault-- he speaks his mind, and makes no apologies. Well, except when he puts forth his thoughts and later concludes he was mistaken... then, unlike most, he goes out of his way to admit it, and lets everyone know he was wrong with whatever previous mistaken position.

Here's what Jack had to say in the letter printed in the Citizen and Laconia Daily Sun newspapers earlier this week. Keep in mind, he has long been known for his not-always PC, but truthful letters, always with a touch of Yankee humor:

To The Editor,

It is clear that IF we all had the knowledge about Obama which we have heard since he got the "nomination" (not confirmed until their convention), Hillary would be the Democrat candidate. But back then we didn't know that brilliant Obama could not speak intelligently without his staff prepared cue cards. Back then we didn't know that he opposed any increase in safe, clean, cheap energy sources (long proven nuclear, wind, solar and clean coal). Back then we didn't know that he would propose the biggest tax increase ever in the US! Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negros, but he is NOT, and he has become a total insult to our great successful negros in the USA. Back then we didn't know that he was both against the Iraq war and for it, both against battles in Afganistan and for it, and wants to greatly increase number of our troops in Afganistan (the most dangerous place on earth). He is totally for WAR and totally against war, totally for outrageous taxes and totally against taxes, totally for 100% control of all medical care, and totally oppossed to government control of health care.

It is absolutely clear that Obama is totally for and totally against every issue which Americans are concerned with. IE, he is the ultimate politician, as his Church Pastor long ago told us!

Honesty, practicallity, need, usefulness, has nothing to do with Obama. Clearly, Obama is trying to steal from Clinton the title of the world's best LIAR! Hillary tried that, but Obama beat her out for that title.

We must encourage Hillary to take the nomination away from misleading Obama, and give the nation a chance for a fair election. It can happen, and if it doesn't, we are in for a "Hollywood style" president!

Jack Stephenson

Gilford

Well... You just know that that letter certainly caught the eye of the readers locally, including that of the local Democrat Party leaders, most of whom, like their hero Obama, cannot accept the slightest bit of criticism, and immediately cry foul when it occurs. Call Obama unfit to lead? Bigotry! Question his qualifications? How dare we doubt his patriotism! Note his liberal record? Racist! The chair of the Laconia, NH Democrats sounded the alarm in the daily emailed communiqué:

By the way, I don't know how many of you saw the letter to the editor in the Laconia Citizen yesterday from Gilford's Jack Stephenson complaining about Obama.  An excerpt:  Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negros, but he is NOT, and he has become a total insult to our great successful negros in the USA.  Personally, I find that extremely offensive and I'm writing a letter in response.  I encourage each of you to do the same.

This was followed by a later email and blog post reiterating his request to take "Mr. Stephenson to task." And so they did, including none other than NH Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley. But first out of the gate was another local lib (known to 'Grok readers, perhaps) who fancies himself intellectually superior  to most folks, once again seeking first to dazzle readers with his "vast knowledge" of matters of great importance, in the hopes they'll believe his recollection of history and culture. This week, he gave us HIS version of history-- "Negro 101", if you will:

To The Editor,

Jack Stephenson's letter of 8/18 ("For it and against it") about Obama smacks of antiquated and current racism as well as ignorance of ethnic history. He claims that Obama needs "cue cards" to speak, cue cards being a semi-antiquated term (the other being Negro — fully antiquated) he uses in his letter.

On the contrary Obama has proven to be the most extemporaneous (and exceptional on his feet) candidate speaker in 2008, unwavering and beyond eloquent without a teleprompter most of the time. I have yet to see him use "cue cards" on any political issue, important to Americans. (When thanking local advocates he uses cards to remember hundreds of names in hundreds of towns). But that's about it!

Beyond belief, however, is Stephenson's use of the term "Negro" twice in his letter, in the year 2008 as a term for an African-American, (albeit he's one-half by DNA). One would think Stephenson's last book he read was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee in 1960 instead of "The Name Negro — Its Origin and Evil Use" by Richard B. Moore of the same year (1960). Since Senator Obama's mother was white (S. Ann Durham) and from the flatlands of Kansas, Stephenson might be expected to have used the outdated term "mulatto" since Mr. Obama's father was Kenyan making Obama biracial. He is only half-black (or half-white) so why would Stephenson call him a "Negro."

The term "Negro" in 2008 is generally used today for black Spanish olives, not African Blacks, and the oppression of black slaves and their culture has resulted in an evolution of more modern terms of respect for a substantial portion of our nation's citizenry and voting public. The root of the word, Negro, means "black" in all European and African cultures. Admittedly in previous letters to the editor, Stephenson has acknowledged his age as in the mid-70s. He must surely realize by now that the term, Negro is obsolete.

Disparaging terms had their evolution from the 1830s to the mid-1890s when Blacks were called "colored" or even "Colored-American." At the beginning of the 20th century and by 1920, the term Negro was born. From the 1930s on, to the 1960s with the Black Power movement, there was dissatisfaction in general with the Negro term. There was a cultural movement of more respect for Blacks and their heritage/ culture, which was designed to remove "a host of other slurs" that will not be mentioned here. During this cultural nationalism, terms evolved; with "Black" or "African-American" the latter moniker predominating since the 1980s until now. The term, African-American highlights both "historical lineage and ethnogeographic origins" and not skin color, as in the older terms.

Stephenson shows his implied bigotry and ignorance when he says (in referencing Cbama), "Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA Negros, but he is NOT and he has become an insult to our great successful Negros in the USA." Is Stephenson thinking MLK, Jr here? Might Stephenson be thinking MLK was the "Numero Uno Negro?" Mea culpa, mea culpa!

Obama is no "insult" to intelligent life on this earth, Mr. Stevenson, and he does speak "for all people" and is far from "Hollywood" in style. One last point. The New York Times began capitalizing the word, Negro (as in African-American history) in 1930, should you wish to use the quasi-racist term again for relevant historical purposes. You didn't capitalize it as a former ethnicity in your last letter and yet "spell check," alerts you. Typewriters don't however.

Jack Polidoro

Laconia

"Colored-American"? "Negro" is "obsolete"? Please. I looked up an organization that used to advertise on television fairly regularly. Remember these guys?

"Born from the long-standing traditions of the United Negro College Fund, Inc., UNCFSP was established on April 1, 2000 as an independent 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization with the broad mandate of supporting all Minority Serving Institutions, both domestic and international, including..."

Across the very top of the main page is the group's name, spelled out in full:

United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation

With this at the bottom of the page:

©2005-2008 United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation

Gasp! Could this be a racist organization? Somebody get ahold of Mr. Politboro Polidoro! He needs to phone these guys and tell them that unless they're selling olives, they MUST change their name!!!

Anyway, as mentioned above, here's Party Chair Buckley's letter, also published in the two papers:

To the editors,

I know that most read Mr. Stephenson's letter of the other day and dismissed him as an oddball or was offended by his inappropriate language.

For me, I want to thank him for it. It gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on why I chose to be in public life. There is nothing about my life story that is special but it does remind me how alive the American Dream is today.

When I was three, because my Dad was looking for work, my young parents and I packed up and left New Hampshire for Detroit, Michigan We happened to find an apartment in an area where my school, my church and my neighborhood were all integrated. Skin color meant nothing to me in nursery school, kindegarten, first grade, the playground or in Sunday school.

We returned the summer of 1966 and in second grade I learned of Abe Lincoln, slavery and the Civil War. I was stunned and horrified to learn that my former friends' great grandparents were slaves. Lincoln's childhood of poverty, commitment to justice and willingness to put his values into action inspired me to find a way to make a difference too. In the next election, just months after the assassination of Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy, I organized my friends to help with Democratic candidates and I haven't stopped since.

This week I, just a kid from a poor family without any ties to power or wealth, will travel to Denver, Colorado to lead New Hampshire's delegation to the 2008 Democratic National Convention where, forty five years to the exact date of Dr. King's "I have a Dream" speech, Senator Barack Obama will be nominated to be the next president of the United States.

Forty five years ago when Dr. King said "let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire" little did he know that a little boy of a Kansan mother and Kenyan dad would grow up and mark his historic anniversary with such a significant history making occurrence. Nor did he know of the young poor kid from NH who would grow up to join 80,000 other proud Americans to witness the event or the estimated billion across the planet witness his dream come true.

When Dr. King dreamed of a day where people were judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. He was dreaming of 2008 America. Dr. King's Dream is truly the American Dream. A dream for all Americans and for all members of the human race.

I am sure Mr. Stephenson wanted to inspire animosity and divide but for me, he reminded me of how lucky, and how proud I am to be an American. Let freedom ring indeed.

Sincerely,
Raymond Buckley, State Chair
NH Democratic Party

I don't know... it sounds like pap to me. I think he missed Mr. Stephenson's point. And this lady doesn't think Mr. Stephenson's really a Democrat:

To the Editor,

I read Jack Stephenson's recent letter with great interest, but I confess, I'm having a hard time understanding why he's pretending to be a Democrat.

If he really were a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, he'd be supporting Senator Obama, since that's what she asked her supporters to do.

It seems far more likely that Mr. Stephenson is trying, not too cleverly, to create division and dissent within the ranks of Democrats.

Mr. Stephenson, I think you're confused about some of the issues you mentioned. I've seen Senator Obama speak in public, with nary a "cue card" in sight. He wasn't using the 21st century version of the cue card, the Teleprompter, either. It's actually Senator McCain who relies on notes and Teleprompters.

When McCain spoke in front of the great wall of cheese last month, he needed to look at his notes in order to find out the price of a gallon of milk! I guess we can't expect a guy who has a private jet, 8 homes, $100 million, and wears $500 loafers to remember silly things like the cost of milk. After all, it's not as if he ever has to shop, like the rest of us do.

As for energy, Senator Obama is, regrettably, in favor of nuclear power. Fox News keeps saying he is anti-nuke, which is probably why you're so woefully uninformed. Nuclear power is NOT a cheap, or a clean energy source, which explains why no nuclear plants are being built. Uranium (a finite resource) mining requires huge outputs of energy and water. The radioactive tailings left behind are quite dangerous, and seldom cleaned up. Most uranium mining in the US takes place on Indian reservations, where mining companies destroy the land and water, and leave the mess behind.

Given your rather racist commentary about "negros", I'm suspecting you don't care too much about the polluting of Indian lands. I'm not sure who the "successful USA negros" you mention are, but one thing is certain, I bet they'd appreciate it if you at least spelled the plural term for negro correctly. It's Negroes, Mr. Stephenson, a term that hasn't seen popular usage since 1962. You need to update your vocabulary.

I am shocked to hear that you're concerned about having a "Hollywood style" president, since I'd bet my life's savings that you voted for Ronald Reagan.

Try harder next time, Jack. You don't write like a Democrat.

Susan Bruce
Jackson

At least she attempted to take him on regarding some actual issues, rather than just playing the race card out of the gate. This lady thinks Stephenson is the absolute worst:

To the editor,

Clearly, Mr Stephenson has been living under a rock for years. I suggest he crawl back under it and keep his racist, small minded, uninformed views to himself. He is spreading hate and he is spreading lies.

Betsey Phillips
Franconia

I know Stephenson well, and I can attest he doesn't live under a rock. On the side of a mountain in central NH? Yes. But under a rock? Absolutely not. He happens to be an extremely intelligent rocket scientist... a REAL one! Jack Stephenson spreading HATE? No way. This is what the Chair of the Laconia City Dems, the one that initially started the ball rolling on the counter-attack to Mr. Stephenson's lamentation of Obama's newly discovered flaws, had to say:

To the Editor,

Jack Stephenson of Gilford has tragically revealed himself to be beyond hope. One would have thought that his 75 years of living would have taught him something about decency and civility. Clearly it has not.

Stephenson wrote a letter to the editor that was published Monday in both the Laconia Citizen and the Laconia Daily Sun that was offensive and provokes pity. In it he said, referring to Barack Obama, “Back then some of us thought that he was the same as most USA negroes, but he is not, and he has become a total insult to our great successful negroes in the USA.”

Left to the reader’s imagination is how Stephenson defines most “USA negroes“, or “great successful negroes in the USA”. One can only assume that the aging curmudgeon believes such a definition would be superfluous given that clearly his views must be conventional. Perhaps they were five or six decades ago, but the world has moved beyond such uncomfortable and unsavory stereotypes.

Sadly, Jack hasn’t. Somehow he’s avoided any evolutionary thought.

That doesn’t come as a surprise. Having read his letters over the years, a number of which I refused to publish when I was an editor at the Daily Sun, I’ve always been struck by how miserable Mr. Stephenson is. Seventy-five years of life and all he does is complain.

That’s tragic, and deserves pity. If after 75 years one hasn’t found at least a modicum of happiness and good cheer one’s life must seem a complete waste.

Ron Tunning
Laconia

Certainly Mr. Tunning may be accurate as to some of Mr. Stephenson's exercise of his First Amendment rights being, shall we say, "on the edge," but I can testify that Mr. Stephenson is NOT generally miserable, and his life has certainly NOT been a waste. I view him to be a renaissance man, in a way, as he has designed and implemented many interesting and useful ideas-- many to do with energy creation and savings-- in his own personal environment. And I can attest that Mr. Stephenson is NOT a bigot or racist in the slightest way. I wonder if his detractors recall his letters of support for Obama in the local papers during primary season? His distress is based on the facts he has learned since Obama gained the presumptive nominee position. I took his letter to mean he was disappointed that Obama turns out to be no different than politicians using the race card to come before him.

Stay tuned for part 2: More than one person responded in defense of Mr. Stephenson, and took Mr. Politboro Polidoro to task for his crazy version of PC "Negro history". Also, we'll post the very well written letter by Mr. Stephenson rather ably answering his not-so adoring "fans" and putting them back in their place.

Could this be a microcosm of the debate raging nationally? Many have asked which party is REALLY racist, in the fact it sees EVERYTHING in terms of race and color, and which one more truly strives for a "colorblind society."

Posted by Doug at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

From our friend Karen Thurston:

The New Hampshire Blue Stars have recently joined with New Hampshire Veteran’s groups and many other donors to complete the final steps in erecting a Reflection Fountain on the Memorial Walkway at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen.  The Reflection Fountain will be dedicated by the generosity of many donors to the NH Blue Star, NH Gold Star and POW/MIA Families. 

The Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen is the final resting place for many Veterans and conveys peace through its natural beauty and is the source of pride to all the Veteran's families.  Many ceremonies throughout the year are held here to acknowledge all Veterans, even those not interred here.  All these veterans, by their service, gave the title of "Blue Star Families" to their loved ones.  It is so fitting that the bonds that military service creates will be reflected in this fountain. 

The area with the fountain will provide a place for all families, Blue, Gold and POW/MIA, to sit and reflect on the great sacrifice that has been made by our Veterans. You may ask, "Am I part of this family?" ~ Yes, if you have had someone in your family who has served or is currently serving in any branch of our military.

The Reflection Fountain belongs to all of us ~ a place where spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts and uncles, and fellow veterans will find a source of comfort.
 
The funding for the first phase of the fountain is complete.  The final phase of funding will cover the site preparation for the fountain, the addition of granite benches, granite pavers, a plaque for dedication of the Fountain to New Hampshire Blue Star, Gold Star and POW/MIA Families. Any additional monies will be held for the maintenance of this fountain, as well as offsetting an outstanding balance on the Prisoner of War Monument that is located on the Memorial Walkway. 

Our fund raising goal is $15,000, to cover these additional costs. The dedication of the Reflection Fountain will be held at a date to be determined.

Will you join us in making this a reality for our Blue Star, Gold Star, POW/MIA families and Veterans?  The citizens, businesses, and organizations within NH have always answered the call when asked to support our military. No monetary donation is too small or too big. You may ask, "how much would a dollar or two help in reaching the goal?"

With over 100,000 Veterans in the state, if each Blue Star, Gold Star and POW/MIA family made a donation of $1.00 or $2.00 the goal would be reached quickly. Your donation can be made in "Honor of".... or in "Memory of"... a loved one. Your name along with the name you're honoring will be listed on the tribute page.

Soon we will hear the calming sound of water flowing over granite pillars falling softly into a pool, surrounded by the presence of those who answered our country's call.... wouldn’t it be great to know that your contribution helped to create such a place?

Your charitable donation [tax ID # available upon request] may be mailed to: Blue Star Mother c/o Sue Peterson, PO Box 73, Weare, NH 03281 or You can learn more about the Reflection Fountain and watch the progress of the project by visiting the www.bluestarmothersofnh.org or http://www.geocities.com/reflectionfountain. Download a PDF of the donation form here.

Checks should be made payable to: "The Reflection Fountain"

Thank you, 
Karen Thurston
President Blue Star Mothers of NH

Progress as of August 21...

Posted by Doug at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

.

But his is bigger than mine!

It seems as though the Democrats are on a new tack seeking to portray Senator McCain as something most people most likely already knew: he's (gasp!) rich. Unless you didn't know that the Senator is married to the heiress of a large Arizona beer distributorship company, this is not really newsworthy. Nobody questions the fact that, yes, indeed, there are many wealthy politicians in DC. My thing is, I want them wealthy BEFORE they get there, not BECAUSE they're there. Such is the case with McCain. What's Obama and his wife ever done other than public or non-profit "service"? And yet, they're rich too.

Anyway, the Dems, including Barack Obama, have decided to try to make hay of the fact that Senator McCain flubbed a question during an interview with the Politico regarding how many houses he owns.

At a campaign appearance in Chester, Va., on Thursday morning, Obama said: "Somebody asked John McCain, 'How many houses do you have?’ And he said, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with my staff. True quote: I’m not sure, I’ll have to check with my staff. So they asked his staff and he said, at least four. At least four! ...

This is what McCain spokesman Brian Rogers had to say, in response:

“Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people “cling” to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?

 “The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.”

You'd think the Obamessiah would avoid confrontations over who's more in touch with ordinary America. I'd say Senator McCain is more "in touch" with what I need as an ordinary American than Obama, much like an Obama supporter would say the same. I want substantive debate over issues and solutions-- something thus far Barack Obama has avoided whenever possible... so he's left with arguments designed to distract attention to that fact. This is one example...

Posted by Doug at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is how Muslims try to frustrate us, the infidels...

.

Posted by Amil at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

from Dean Dexter:

The Empire Center for New York State Policy has loaded the salaries of all NY state employees on the web...
 
For years all state department head salaries were published by name in the Red Book every biennium, but that ceased in the 1970's...only the names appear (commissioner, deputiy commissioner, etc.). What a great idea it would be to set up a website dedicated to New Hampshire public salaries like this one. Unfortunately, however, due to the immense resources required to do it for all public workers (town, city, county state) it might be difficult, at first, to do here. Still, a good start could be to put up a website for state department heads in the spirit of the old Red Books...
 
It also might be a worthy project for local taxpayers groups and activists to put up such websites in their locales: town by town, city by city...
 
The importance, of course, is to keep it current...

Here's a story about the new New York site:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/383701
 
Here's the site itself:
http://www.seethroughny.net/

[Ed. note] Of course, regular readers know that in our little corner of the universe, this is being tried at the county and at the town level-- and is actually happening in some places here in the state. Several towns, such as Loudon still print them in the annual report, and elsewhere, like in Dover, there are websites much like Dean notes above. It has been said that the "transparency movement is sweeping the country." Perhaps this is further evidence of that. Thanks Dean...

Dean Dexter has long been active in local and state politics, having served in various elected positions. Visit his website, NHCommentary.com.

Posted by Doug at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Again, I'm still new to the election cycle stuff as I really only started to get involved after the 2006 Republican decapitation here in NH.  The only major offices that the Republicans still hold are the US Senate ones (and they were not up for re-election back then - but Senator Sununu is and I urge you to go visit his site, TeamSununu, and see what's up with his campaign).

Well, it seems that the politicos announce everything nowadays.  Well, Grant Bosse is no different - having been all over the State seemingly in all places at all times (you know that you're doing something right when even Blue Hampshire gives grudging approval to him!), he's now going to invade the "radiosphere"!

You can listen to / download his ad here . OR, just watch the montage below.

As always, we wish him well (and we kinda think he'll pop up on Meet The New Press this Saturday - but we'll never know from where).  

You know, it might have been fun to have him tailed with a GPS and plotted his movements - instead of "Where's Waldo?", we all could have played "Where's Grant now?"

I almost forgot, the name of this 60 second ad is "Broken" and launches tomorrow morning. You will be able to listen on a number of radio shows in NH-CD 2 between now and September 9 - Primary Voting day.

Posted by Skip at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past Saturday on Meet The New Press, Doug and I talked about a Republican fundraiser that is certainly "out of the box" thinking for Republicans (who are often categorized as staid and boring) whose strategy is simply "Vote for me 'cause I'm better than the Dems". Yeah, that's a sure fire way to whip up excitement!

Turns out that Andy Sanborn, running for NH State Senate in District 7 has decided that

RACE CARS

are a great way to raise money!  I've taken the flyer for it (with some reformatting) to show what he's thinking:    

                                                

Sure, golf tournaments may be fun, but wouldn’t you rather experience the thrill of riding around NH Motor Speedway in a fast, exotic race car?

Your $200.00 contribution includes:

Admission to NH Motor Speedway, home to NASCAR twice a year, with full paddock access

Check out exotic cars – Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Lotus, Porsche and more Mingle with professional race car drivers and track-driving enthusiasts.  Snacks and drinks served in a comfortable, tented VIP lounge area. Belt in for some hot laps in exotic sports and race cars!!

RSVP:  Due to the unique nature of this event, spaces are very limited – and over half are reserved already!!  Please let us know you’re coming, and we’ll reserve you a space, either via Andy4senate@gmail.com or call (603) 682-1557 or (603) 682-1165.

To learn more about our campaign to end politics as usual in NH, please visit  www.Andy4Senate.com. 

Neat!  If I wasn't a working stiff, I'd be over there in a flash.....sure beats "buying" the standard rubber chicken dinner style fundraiser!  Vroom-Vroom!

You know, I could like collecting "different" ideas on fundraising - if you know of someone who is doing something out of the ordinary, let me know!

Posted by Skip at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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The following remarks were made by John McCain on an oil rig platform in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, August 19, 2008: 

Americans across our country are hurting because of the cost of energy.  Gas prices are through the roof.  Energy costs have seeped into our grocery bills, making it more expensive to feed our families.  And now, as people prepare for the winter, they are going to be hit with higher costs for home heating oil.  It is time for America to get serious about energy independence, and that means we need to start drilling offshore at advanced oil rigs like this.

Two decades ago, this rig would not have been possible.  But since then, technology has enabled us to drill further offshore with even greater efficiency and environmental safety.  

Senator Obama opposes new drilling.  He has said it will not "solve our problem" and that "it's not real."  He's wrong, and the American people know it.  This platform we are at today sits above a field of 160 million barrels of oil, and is capable of producing on a daily basis 55,000 barrels of oil and 72 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Our nation is sending $700 billion overseas every year to countries that don't like us very much.  When I'm president that's going to stop.  We're going to achieve energy independence, and we're going to do it by using every resource at our disposal to get the job done, including new off shore drilling. 

New drilling has to be part of our energy solution.  It will not solve this problem alone.  Alternative energy will not solve this problem alone.  Conservation will not solve this problem alone.  Solving our energy crisis requires an "all of the above" approach.  It will require aggressive development of alternative energies like wind, solar, tidal and bio-fuels.  It also requires expanding traditional sources of energy like clean coal, nuclear power, and off shore drilling like that done on this rig.

Posted by Doug at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Amil Imani

Across our great nation, there are hotspots of Islamist hatred.  Beautiful Boca Raton happens to be one of them. The starting point is at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). 

It was there that the Muslim Student Organization (MSO) decided to establish two Islamic centers, each appropriately within arms length of the school. Three FAU professors would take key roles in the creation process.  Imad Mahgoub would become president of the Assalam Center, and Khalid Hamza and Bassem Alhalabi would be co-founders of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR). Today, both Islamic centers are looking to expand and have purchased large tracts of land to this effect.

If they get what they want, they will have two multi-faceted mosques, in the heart of Boca Raton, within blocks of each other… and of course, the university.  One will be a huge 27 thousand square foot facility;  the other will be built to resemble the Al-Aqsa mosque which sits on top of Judaism’s holiest site in Jerusalem, a city that the ICBR says on its website Jews have no right to and prays Allah will cleanse it of its Jewish inhabitants immediately.Local residents have questioned why there is a need for two mosques of near identical backgrounds in such close vicinity to one another. 

That’s certainly a good question, but when you look at several of the people involved in the undertaking of these centers, and when you look at some of the individuals that they have associated with, this question becomes one of many.Khalid Hamza, who was an advisor to the Muslim Student Organization at FAU, not too long ago used a Texas A & M University internet forum to defend Sami Al Arian, a Tampa professor that was recently taken into custody for his involvement as a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

I used the term “was an advisor to the MSO,” because FAU has told him that they don’t want him to return to his teaching duties, and because the Islamic Center of Boca Raton sent out an e-mail announcing that he was leaving the South Florida community.Aside from his involvement with the Islamic Center of Boca Raton and the Muslim Student Organization, Khalid Hamza is also an author.  He recently wrote a novel entitled ‘The Veil,’ which is being promoted on the MSO’s website, www.msofau.org.

The book is about a Muslim family living in Boca Raton.  The first member of the family, as listed in the forward, is fittingly named Jihad. While Hamza was with the MSO, the student group brought a couple of key radicals to speak at the university.  On April 21, 2001, the MSO’s second annual Scholars’ Night featured Rafil Dhafir, a man that now sits behind bars for raising millions of dollars for terrorist organizations in the guise of an Iraqi children’s charity called ‘Help the Needy.’

Dhafir has also given lectures on why Muslims must not befriend Jews or Christians and how The United States and England have had a “vicious” war on Iraq.  The contact for this event was MSO president, David Johnson, who now holds a position in the FAU student government.  [On November 16, 2002, the ICBR also hosted Rafil Dhafir, in a fundraiser for the new mosque.]The MSO’s fourth annual Scholars’ Night, on the date of April 21, 2003, featured Siraj Wahhaj, a man who was named as one of the potential unindicted co-conspirators of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and someone that sits on the Advisory Board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that is a spin-off of a front for the terrorist group Hamas.

The contact for this event was Khalid Hamza.Bassem Alhalabi, the other co-founder (and treasurer) of the ICBR, was a colleague of Sami Al Arian’s at the University of South Florida, and according to his resume, wrote various publications with Al Arian around the time that Al Arian was beginning to set the groundwork for the PIJ in America.  One of the publications was even featured at a conference in Damascus, the headquarters of the PIJ and the home of Alhalabi Industries, where Alhalabi was employed prior to becoming a research assistant to Al Arian.  Alhalabi gave Al Arian as a reference, when he sought employment at FAU.

Another person that Bassem Alhalabi wrote publications with is Hussam Jubara.  Along with Al Arian, Jubara co-founded the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP), a think tank that solicited funds for the express purpose of assisting families of suicide bombers.  Alhalabi admits to having worked for Jubara and states that he is a “close friend.”  Jubara was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of lying on immigration forms.In addition, Alhalabi recently got into hot water for his negotiated shipment of a $13,000 thermal imaging device to Syria.

The Commerce Department restricts the export of the device to foreign countries.  In a recent news report concerning Alhalabi’s transaction, it was stated that this machine is “normally used by fire departments, military units, law enforcement and government agencies, including NASA, to produce heat-sensitive images of buildings, landscapes and ground areas.”  Alhalabi claims that his brother wanted it, so that he could search for gold.Imad Mahgoub, who was an advisor to the MSO prior to Hamza, was featured on a panel discussion with Alhalabi and Raed Awad, the former fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a terrorist charity that was closed down by the United States government.  Awad is also said to be the imam responsible for dirty bomber Jose Padilla’s conversion to Islam.

The video of this panel event is found at – where else – FAU!At a fundraiser for the Assalam Center, to which Mahgoub is associated, on October 25, 2002, there was featured an individual by the name of Abdalla Idris Ali.  Ali sits on the board of the American Muslim Council, an organization whose leaders have openly supported terrorist groups, such as Hamas. 

And from the years 1992 through 1997, Ali was president of the Islamic Society of North America, an umbrella group for hundreds of Islamic organizations, which conducts conferences and publishes a magazine featuring a number of Islamist militants spewing hateful and sometimes violent rhetoric.Ibrahim Dremali is the imam of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton.  Questions have been raised as to a possible association of his to a militant Islamic group.  On July 1, 1996, Dremali was detained by the Israeli Defense Force and told that he was not to leave Gaza indefinitely.  On July 5, 1996, at 10 pm, he would set off for Cairo and was to arrive there within two hours.

How do I know this?  Because the information was posted to the internet by someone that signed it “LM Hashim.”  Keep that in mind, as you read on.In October of 2000, Dremali spoke at a rally where Israeli flags were burned and slogans, such as “With jihad we'll claim our land, Zionist blood will wet the sand,” were shouted.  Dremali told the crowd “not to be sad for those who were martyred and to not be afraid to die for what they believe in”… obvious allusions to suicide bombers. 

Dremali now claims that he did not make the statement, and the 50 word paragraph that contains this information (and the picture accompanying the paragraph) has now mysteriously disappeared from the article on the website that it was written for (www.islam-online.net), though it can still be accessed via archives.  The author of the article is “Um Ahmad.”Lamyaa Hashim, or Um Ahmad as she often goes by, is a well known Islamic poet.  Her poetry, including one poem which seems to be about a suicide bomber (‘My Beloved Left for Palestine’), can be seen on such radical sights as palestine4ever.net.  The site belongs to the medical director for the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, Rosemary Davis (Shadya Hantouli), and features a picture gallery of past suicide bombers.

Hashim gave permission to put her poetry on the site. You can also access more of Hashim’s poetry on her personal website, ‘Struggle in Palestine,’ which contains on its homepage a picture of someone burning an effigy that says on his (the effigy’s) chest, “WAR IS HELL, BUSH IS SATAN.”  In addition, there is a link on her site to an organization associated with the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a link to a site praising Abdullah Azzam, the founder of the organization that became Al Qaida.Lamyaa Hashim is also important, because she ran a Deerfield Beach, Florida charity called the Health Resourch Center for Palestine (HRCP), which as of late has closed down.

Deerfield Beach is located just south of Boca Raton.  Ibrahim Dremali’s brother, Ishaq, was the Gaza operations coordinator for it.While the HRCP may be “closed for business,” as the site has stated, the website for the charity is still up, though (www.hrcp.org).  The webmaster of the site is Syed Ahmad.  On his personal site, he states he is an FAU student.  On his personal site, he also has a homepage to the Islamic Association for Palestine, a front group for Hamas.  In addition, his site sports the homepage for the Sanabel Charitable Society, what seems to be the Gaza affiliate to the HRCP;  it lists Lamyaa Hashim as its United States representative.

The HRCP is interesting, because on its website, it openly claims to raise money for “shuhada” or martyrs.  One can also take this term to mean suicide bombers.  With this in mind, the HRCP – from June 25 through July 25, 2000 – put on a summer camp for children in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, featuring two lectures by the Grand Imam Sheikh of Al-Azhar University (Ibrahim Dremali’s alma matter), Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, someone that has announced his support (issued a fatwa) for intensified suicide bombing efforts against civilians.  He has also labeled Jews “the descendants of apes and pigs,” he has said (issued a fatwa) that any Palestinian who sells land to Israelis should get the death penalty, and he has called (issued a fatwa) for an Islamic Jihad against American targets in Iraq.  At FAU, there is a video of Tantawi called ‘What is a Fatwa?’Also interesting is that the HRCP’s vice president’s name was the only name missing from the website’s list of those involved in the charity.

It just said the words “Vice President” and left a blank.  [Actually, now none of the names exist on the site, as much of the site has been deleted, including the page that featured the Woodcrest Bruderhof, located in Upstate New York, as a “partner.”  Many claim the Bruderhof, which has met with the likes of Louis Farrakhan, is a fringe religious cult.]  When you go back into the website’s archives, you find that the vice president was none other than Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, the director of the Miami-based American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA) and an appointee to the Florida Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.One would think that a group affiliated with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an organization whose main goal is to fight against discrimination, would be free from hate, but in this case, that’s just not the case. 

On the AMANA website, there are a number of inflammatory articles, including one telling Muslims to reject interfaith events.  It states, “The Christians and Jews want the Muslims to be like them. That is why they support this deceptive call for ‘unity.’”  There is also another article entitled ‘Homosexuality is Not O.K.’ that calls homosexuality an “abnormal human act.”Rounding out the people involved in the Islamic Center of Boca Raton are the two spokesmen for the center, Hassan Shareef and Dan McBride.  Actually, it’s only McBride now, because Shareef, who has called the United States government illegitimate, has now relocated to Saudi Arabia.McBride converted to Islam not too long ago.

When an antisemitic article entitled “Why can’t the Jews and Muslims live together in peace?” was taken off of the ICBR website (www.icbr.org) due to outside pressure, McBride said they took it off their site because they received some complaints, but he also said he agreed with everything written in the article.  The article called Jews “usurpers and aggressors” and “people of treachery and betrayal.”

The article also contained this oft used Islamic quote:  “You will fight the Jews and will prevail over them, so that a rock will say, ‘O Muslim! There is Jew behind me, kill him!’”Ibrahim Dremali claimed that the article was caused by hackers.  Yet the article was taken from the same place that the majority of the other ICBR website articles are found, www.islam-qa.com.  In fact, they’re all written by the same person, Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, including the one about how the Jews have no claim to Jerusalem. Sheikh Al-Munajjid lives in Saudi Arabia, but up until recently the technical contact for his website for some reason was located in Boca Raton.

In addition, the service provider for his site was Infocom, a company that has been raided by the United States for allegedly providing “material support” for Hamas.  Al-Munajjid’s name and a link to his website (which includes a link to the Hamas web site) are currently found on the ICBR site.

In addition, a link to an organization that raised millions of dollars for the terrorist group Al Qaida, Al Haramain, is also found on the Islamic Center of Boca Raton website. Dremali has also appeared in court as an expert/character witness for Adham Hassoun, an individual that was arrested in part for raising thousands of dollars for the Benevolence Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation, two terrorist charities shut down by the United States on the same day.

You can judge a person by the company they keep.The Islamic Center of Boca Raton has admitted to giving nearly 17 thousand dollars to the Global Relief Foundation.  What they haven’t admitted, however, is that they received 600 thousand dollars from that same Global Relief Foundation for a Boca Raton masjid (mosque), which as of yet does not exist.

In fact, according to the Global Relief Foundation website, which has since been shut down, significantly more money is listed as having been given towards a mosque in Boca than any other American city. This was confirmed, when I went on a radio show to debate Hassan Sabri, the imam of the Islamic Center of South Florida located in Pompano Beach, concerning the building of this new mosque.  Sabri stated that he heard from someone that the ICBR received 600 thousand dollars from a group to go towards the building of the new mosque.  Furthermore, one of the featured speakers at an ICBR mosque fundraiser held on May 10, 2003, was Khaled Smaili, a past representative for the Global Relief Foundation.

All of this put together says to me, and I believe to you as well, that there is a problem here.  Not a small problem, but a big one… and one that is happening not just in Boca Raton, but in major cities all over our country.

Will our government sit back and let things happen, or will it begin to take action, so that the next 9/11 never becomes reality? According to the Palm Beach Post, Ibrahim Dremali’s eldest son pled guilty to stabbing a fellow student repeatedly – in the back, neck and arm – with a scissors.  He is now attending an Islamic school in Broward County. 

With regard to this, Dremali stated, “People say ‘Go back to where you came from,’ but we have no place to go back to. 

"We are Americans.”  Yet, our good imam is building a dream home in Gaza… a five-story house, complete with an elevator and polished wood trim.  Of it, he states, “It's where my heart is, where I spent my childhood, where I want to return some day, G-d willing.  It’s why I don’t live so well here.  I’m putting all my money there.” 

One quote was from December 9, 2002, and one quote was from February 27, 2003.  What a difference less than two months makes! Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Citizens Against Hate and the co-founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of South Florida.  You could visit Joe Kaufman’s interactive website, at joe4rep.com. Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate, the founder of CAIR Watch, and the spokesman for Terror-Free Oil Initiative.

Posted by Amil at 4:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Cutter Mitchell was a reporter for the Laconia Citizen for a number of years. One of his last series stories before leaving was about the coal tar deposits in Gilford, the town's efforts to have it removed because of cancer scares by the citizenry, and the seeming lack of enthusiasm of the State to have KeySpan (who inherited the problem via acquisitions) remove the deposits.

Even though Cutter is no longer with the Citizen (we wish him well in his new venture - we'll tell you about it when it pops out of "stealth" mode), he has yet another episode in this never ending saga of government, money, and pollution:

Campaign Contributions

by Cutter Mitchell

During the 2006 election, just as the public was learning about coal tar contamination on Liberty Hill in Gilford, the company that would be responsible for its cleanup made a total of $7,500 worth of campaign contributions to Democratic Governor John Lynch.

A few months later, Lynch removed Michael Nolin as director of the N.H. Department of Environmental Services, appointing Thomas Burack to lead the agency that would have to approve any cleanup plans offered by KeySpan Energy Delivery.

Under Burack’s lead, the DES preliminary approved KeySpan’s proposal, calling for only partial removal of the contamination, over the objections of town officials and residents worried about the health effects of leaving the coal tar in place.

The estimated 93,500 tons of contamination remaining would be contained by a slurry wall. This technology has never been tested in such an application in the Granite State.

This solution saved KeySpan more than $7 million, sparing KeySpan the full cost of $15.9 million for total clean up.

And most recently, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has chosen not to pursue legal action against KeySpan for failing to report the Liberty Hill site when they first had knowledge of it. The stance remains, even though “KeySpan had, prior to October 2004, knowledge of the most likely location of the 1952 discharge.”

During the three years Liberty Hill has graced the news, the site has generated a fair amount of controversy and commentary. The Citizen's investigation into the story even elicited a response from Burack, defending KeySpan and the DES.

Last year, Burack took the unprecedented step of defending his agency and KeySpan in an editorial commentary issued while the agency was still weighing public testimony on proposal, before issuing a formal decision.

According to DES spokesman Jim Martin, this was only the second time Burack responded to a newspaper article and, after a search of the department’s press releases, was the first time he had done so on an open case with a decision still pending.

“I think it’s preposterous,” said Gov. Lynch’s press secretary, Colin Manning, of the suggestion that KeySpan’s donations to the governor’s campaign had anything to do with the favorable rulings on the coal tar cleanup. “This is a matter still pending before the Department [of Environmental Services] and all the Governor has done is encourage that the public safety is looked after, which he has.”

Still, Lynch has yet to offer a hard stance on the Liberty Hill cleanup issue one way or the other. Though through Manning, he has had a continual statement of confidence in the DES.

“If anything, KeySpan is having more trouble than ever before trying to deal with the cleanup. So there certainly is not any indication that they are getting favorable treatment,” said Evan Carlson, spokesman for the Lynch campaign.

However, KeySpan paid funds to The Lynch Committee, the Governor's fundraising organization, through both the corporation directly and through its Political Action Committee, KeySpan Federal Political Action Committee. A total of three $2,500 payments were made throughout the 2006 campaign season.

According to the Secretary of State's office, individual contributions are limited to a total of $5,000. It should be noted that no one individual or corporate entity, other than KeySpan, gave over $5,000 to Lynch in 2006, based on what is on file with the state.

KeySpan made the first payment of $2,500 to Lynch's campaign on December 1, 2005. This was followed by another $2,500 payment through KeySpan's PAC on May 30, 2006 and then a final contribution by the corporation of $2,500 June 12, 2006.

KeySpan did not make any campaign donations to Lynch's rival in the 2006 election, James Coburn.

Debra Hale is listed as the KeySpan PAC treasurer for 2006. Hale has been intimately involved with the Liberty Hill site since it was disclosed to the Department of Environmental Services in 2004, several days after information about the location was brought up in a federal trial. She works as the manager of New England Government and Community Relations for KeySpan.

Political Action Committees can be formed at the Secretary of State's office for a fee of $50. PACs must be reregistered each year for the same fee.
KeySpan formed a PAC in 2004, though, according to state documents, no contributions were made to any candidate in that election year.

Lynch Campaign Spokesman Evan Carlson explained the $2,500 given by the Political Action Committee was paid to Lynch’s inaugural committee, while the $5,000 from the KeySpan corporation went to Lynch’s PAC.

All this information can all be found by combing through the thousands of pages of donation records available at the Secretary of State's office.

Charles Arlinghaus, President of the non-partisan think tank the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, explained that, while wealthier contributors tend to donate an average of $1,000, and the less wealthy give about $200, corporations tend not to make political contributions.

Until a few years ago, when a court ruling clarified the issue, corporate donations directly to candidates were considered illegal. Arlinghaus says it still is unusual for corporations to make donation because it tends to "raise eyebrows."

This particularly applies to utilities that regularly conduct business before the state.   The occasional exception to this, explained Arlinghaus, is if there is a personal relationship with a candidate or if the candidate has been supportive of the company.

"I think it would be unusual for them to pick sides in an election," said Arlinghaus.

This is a statement that New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission employee Steve Frink might agree with. In his capacity at the state, Frink reviews rates from numerous utilities doing business in the Granite State.

However, Frink himself has never seen a utility make a contribution to a candidate in a state election. This may, at least in part, be because it is not something these companies are allowed to build into their rates.

“It’s not something I see happening. It maybe happening but it’s nothing I see,” said Frink.

According to the auditing department at the PUC, while utilities do make political donations on occasion it is somewhat of a rarity.

Spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire, Martin Murray, said PSNH has never in the past made any kind of political donations to a candidate. However, with the 2008 state elections upcoming the company has formed an employee funded PAC.

Murray said the PAC came about after many employees expressed an interest in advocating for candidates that supports the most beneficial policy outcomes for their company.

While Lynch received the largest donation made by KeySpan that year, the KeySpan Federal PAC also made donations to some other lower level state legislative hopefuls.

"We have not found it necessary to contribute directly, as a company, to a candidate for office - but believe that our employee PAC will be an effective method, going forward, to support candidates who best reflect our collective view on how to best serve our customers," explained Murray.

At the same times as these contributions were being doled out, things were heating up on Liberty Hill.

Coal tar contamination that still exists under the Liberty Hill neighborhood today is the result of dumping that took place in the spring of 1952. At the time the manufactured gas plan was operated by Gas Service Inc, KeySpan's predecessor. When the plant exploded in 1952, the coal tar byproduct was hauled to Liberty Hill by the truckload and poured into an old gravel pit.

DES spokesman Jim Martin said Burack's three-page commentary on the Liberty Hill site was only the second time the director has responded to newspaper articles. A search of the DES press page reveals it is the only time Burack has made comments on an open case before the department made a ruling.

Even today, Lynch has yet to offer a hard stance on the Liberty Hill clean up issue one-way or the other. He has had a continual statement of confidence in the Department of Environmental Services, relayed through Press Secretary Colin Manning.

Neither National Grid nor KeySpan returned several calls and emails seeking comment on the political contributions made for the 2006 election.

Posted by Skip at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Bosse: Fresh face. Hard worker. Knows the issues...

We have made no secret of the fact that, over in NH's Second Congressional District, Grant Bosse has caught our attention and has us rather excited over his candidacy. We like him so much, we have endorsed his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the upcoming September 9th primary in order to take on the Democratic incumbent Paul Hodes in the November election.

Today's Concord Monitor carried an extensive piece reporting on Bosse's campaign that included words from two Granite State blogs you might have heard of before:

"In general, Grant Bosse seems to be hustling a little more than the rest," said Dean Barker, co-founder of the liberal blog Blue Hampshire, which supports Hodes.

[snip]

Bosse picked up the endorsement of the conservative blog Granite Grok because of his strong internet presence, combined with his constant presence on the campaign trail and his conservative ideas.

Doug Lambert, co-founder of Granite Grok, said although all the candidates have websites and e-mail blasts, Bosse caught his eye because of his blog and web videos. "They're using technology that's able to upload quickly and make real time responses to their opponents, which is something we feel is lacking among many politicians, especially on the Republican side," Lambert said. "Grant truly has the ability and makeup to actually be a blogger."

Lambert believes Bosse will reach younger voters. "It's like when you're a kid and did science projects, there were one or two that had a laptop and did a multimedia presentation," he said. "Grant is that kid."

Even the liberal Barker praised Bosse on his blog. Barker wrote that Bosse "has been working harder and more creatively" than the other Republicans and "seems to get New Media" better than them.

Heh! This is probably one of the very few times we'll ever agree with Dean and the gang at Blue Hampshire. Click here to read the whole report as written by reporter Shira Shoenberg.

Even those who disagree with his platform admit that Bosse is everywhere - first in line to file with the secretary of state, and present at press conferences, parades and campaign office openings.

That's Grant... working to earn those votes. Other Republicans should take notice at what he's doing.

Posted by Doug at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As certain people remain unsure about voting for John McCain, asserting that he is somehow not conservative enough for their liking, they MUST take a serious look at the alternative, and the consequences of a Barack Obama presidency. In addition to what will most likely still be a Democratic-controlled US Congress, classic anti-gun rights liberal Obama won't stand as a bulwark against a sudden erosion of Second Amendment Rights.

Additionally, while it was certainly an excellent and correct ruling issued by the US Supreme Court in the landmark Heller Case, the reality is that it was a 5-4 decision. Any guesses as to what a Court comprised of a few Obama nominees might hand down for opinions in the future? Here's a hint about what types we WON'T see, from the Rick Warren "Saddleback Civil Forum" held this past Saturday, as Pastor Rick asks Senator Obama a question on that specific topic:

Q: Which existing  Supreme Court justice would you not have nominated?

Obama:  That's a good one. That's a good one. I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution. I would not nominate Justice Scalia although I don't think there's any doubt about his intellectual brilliance because he and I just disagree.

Q.  How about John Roberts?

Obama: ... I find him to be a very compelling person, you know, in services individually. He's clearly smart, very thoughtful. I will tell you that how I've seen him operate since he went to the bench confirms the suspicions that I had and the reason that I voted against him.

Of course, we all know where the three mentioned came down on Heller.

If you doubt the gun grabbers are on the move, consider this press release we just received, from the group Stop Handgun Violence. Is this not deja-vue? Are the antigunners in a stronger, or weaker position since the last time the so-called "gun show loophole" meme was attempted? And what will be their strength should Obama win this November?

Stop Handgun Violence to Unveil Dramatic New Billboard Calling on Congress to Close the Gun Show Loophole that Gives Criminals and Terrorists Easy Access to Guns

(BOSTON) John Rosenthal, Founder and Chairman of Stop Handgun Violence, along with Mayor Thomas Menino; Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke; Mass. State Police Commander Colonel Mark Delaney and Boston Police Superintendent Bruce Holloway, will hold a Press Conference on Tuesday, August 19 to unveil Boston's newest campaign to reduce gun violence and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.

America's largest billboard, a 252-foot long sign along the Massachusetts Turnpike next to Fenway Park, will be unveiled with a new powerful and provocative call- to-action message to close the "gun show loophole" in federal gun laws that allows terrorists and criminals to purchase firearms at gun shows "no questions asked" without a criminal background check or ID. This new message will be seen by more than 250,000 people every day. The billboard unveiling marks the kick-off of a national public awareness campaign by Stop Handgun Violence to pressure Congress to act on this critical public safety issue.

 

WHEN: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:00 A.M.

WHAT: Stop Handgun Violence - "We Sell Guns!" Mass Pike Billboard Unveiling and Press Conference

WHO: Stop Handgun Violence Chair John Rosenthal; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Mass. Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke; Mass. State Police Commander Colonel Mark Delaney; Boston Police Superintendent Bruce Holloway. Confiscated Guns: Provided by BPD and MA State Police

WHERE: 601 Newbury Street /Art Institute of Boston, Room 320

WHY: Gun sales at gun shows have become a major threat to public safety and national security. An ATF study found that 30% of guns involved in its illegal trafficking investigations were connected to gun shows. One example of the public safety threat is the Columbine High School shooting, where all four guns used in the massacre were bought at gun shows without background checks.

Doesn't this all sound so familiar? Another thing I don't like is the fact that the cops are in on this, too. These would be members of the same profession that reserve the right to bear and use arms for themselves, agents of the government... Yikes!!

Here's McCain on the same question about Supreme Court justices:

Q: Which existing Supreme Court justices would you NOT have nominated?

McCain: With all due respect, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Souter, and Justice Stevens.

Need I  say more?

Here are some prior billboards erected in this same Boston location:

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Posted by Doug at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The following is a guest post by Mr. Amil Imani. It contains some rather informative historical information that must be understood in order to get the full context of events happening today. Once again, we thank Mr. Imani for sharing his inciteful thoughts with 'Grok readers...

It is a fundamental human trait to locate the source of anything bad happening and try to neutralize it. There are, however, times that the source of the harm cannot be pinpointed or when successfully recognized it cannot be eliminated. Failure to recognize the source or neutralize it is frustrating. And frustration triggers a variety of emotions and reactions. The feeling of victimization is one possible reaction that frequently goes hand-in-hand with displaced aggression on a convenient safe target. The aggression can be verbal, physical, or a combination of the two.

The Mullahs presently ruling Iran are faced with monumental threats. Internally, the great majority of the populace is against their misrule. Labor unions, teachers associations, student groups, religious and ethnic minorities, journalists and many others have suffered and continue to suffer inordinate hardship under the heavy-handed Mullahs and their front-men. Externally, they are engaged in brinksmanship with the United States and Israel, while trying to wrestle the mantle of Islamic leadership from the Sunni Saudis and their Wahhabi cabal.

The Mullahs deflect responsibility for the mess they have made of Iran by skillfully playing the blame game. Blaming others for our problems seems to have become part of our national character, dating some 1400 years to the time when an army of bloodthirsty savages lofting the banner of Islam invaded our country. These barbarians hailed out of the Arabian Peninsula, heartlessly slaughtered innocent people, burned libraries, and took whatever they wanted, including women and children, as booty of war.

My country, the present Iran, a cradle of civilization, the land of Cyrus the Great—the first author of the Human Rights Charter—was ravaged by the Muslim killers. The upstanding Iranian people who lived by the Great Zoroaster’s triad of Goodly Thoughts, Goodly Speech, and Goodly Deeds stood no chance against the Muslim beasts who had been promised by Muhammad: if you kill, or you get killed, either way you will be admitted to Allah’s gloriously lush paradise for eternity in compensation. This pie-in-the-sky paradise of Allah, Muhammad intimated, includes among other things, rivers of milk and honey as well as 72 virgins for every male.

The invasion of my country was only the start of the tenacious scourge of Islam. Slaughtering people by hundreds of thousands at the time left the remainder of the Iranians little choice but to convert to the creed of this cult of violence. Choiceless millions converted to Islam and a few hundred thousand brave souls circled the wagon, so to speak, and held firm to their creed of light—the Zoroastrian faith. For centuries, the Zoroastrians paid heavily in all manners of ways under the rule of the converted Muslims; many were forced to leave for other lands such as India, while others were driven out of their habitats to marginal parts of the land.

Yet, all along many Iranians revered the religion of their ancestors and resented the Arab-imposed creed. Nonetheless, the virus of Islam had taken deep roots. As a result a compromise evolved. The overwhelming majority of the Iranians, who had become some sort of generic Muslims, parted company with the original line of Sunni-Caliphate and adopted Shiism. The tragic history of Shiism appealed to the Iranians who felt great affinity, consciously or unconsciously, with the tragic suffering of the Imamate line at the hand of the mainstream Sunni Muslims.

Switching allegiance from one sect of the cult of death to another did little more than provide a venting opportunity to the victimized Iranians. They could not find it in themselves to get rid of the Islamic virus while it offered them a degree of relief, enabling them to vilify the mainstream Sunnis for inflicting them with the Islamic disease in the first place.

Fourteen hundred years of suffering is far too long for any people, although the Jews hold the record for that misfortune. The Jews have at long last returned to their homeland even though they are still encircled by the vicious Arab Islamists who would like nothing better than to drown every last one of them in the sea, similar to the way the Islamists forced our Zoroastrian people out of the country or the remaining few to the edges of inhospitable desert.

With the passage of time, blaming the historical foreign invaders for our sorry plight failed as explanation. Re-playing the long-ago tragic drama of the Imams’ sufferings did little more than supply a superficial psychological relief. Real new enemy-making was in order to keep the victimization mentality alive and prevent the people from self-examination to find the true culprit for their misery.

The search for new culprits was a success story. The creative minds of the politicians and the Mullahs found grains of truth here and there and made mountains of molehills. Tsarist Russia to the north was seen as dead set to annex much of what has remained of Iran and aimed to expand itself all the way to the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Then there were the British who had colonized Indian Subcontinent and dominated much of the Middle Eastern Arab lands. Iran was next in their hairline. The demise of the Tsarist Russia gave birth to yet a more virulent threat of the Soviet Union. Of more recent time, the United States and its support of the Shah, who had an amicable relationship with Israel, made the U.S. and Israel perfect targets of blame.

No matter how loudly and frequently Ahmadinejad brays about eliminating Israel and chasing the U.S. to its corner of the world, Iran’s problems will remain and the Iranian people will continue to suffer. Please, my people, don’t let this end-of-the-worlder homicidal-suicidal man and his gang of frauds take you on a certain death ride. Let us, once and for all, purge ourselves of the deadly disease of victimization and join the world in a multilateral live-and-let-live relationship. America is not our enemy, neither is Israel. We are our own worst enemy by remaining chained to the victimization mentality, buying the Mullahs’ blame game, and following the ruling Islamists who are either crooks, mentally disturbed or both.

Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He and his family escaped Iran after the radical Islamic revolution. His observations on the growing Islamo-fascist threat need to be heard and understood by as many people as possible if we are going to stem the tide.

NOTE: Mr. Imani recently appeared on our radio program, "Meet the New Press" . Click here to download the podcast.

Posted by Doug at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You know, I liked Spock - unemotional (except at the end of that one episode when he realized that Kirk was not dead), ready to confound all of the other crewmembers (especially Dr. McCoy) in his pursuit and application of a life of pure logic:

This Vulcan - not so much:

A Happy Vulcan?  Isn't that a signature of an unwell Vulcan?

Ears kinda fit though....

(H/T: Steve)

Posted by Skip at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I must admit for our "out of NH, out of Belknap County" readers, some of the NH politics that we've been into may be a bit of the "inside baseball" style - don't worry!  The primary will be over Sept 9th and then Nov. will soon be upon us...until then, bear with us!

That said, we do believe that what is going on in politics here is, more than likely, also happening in your local area in some guise as well.  Here in NH, there is a battle going on with respect to who is at fault at which level of government for keeping their budget down while raising someone else's (frankly, the easy answer is for ALL politicians to cut ALL governmental budgets some, but you know how successful THAT wish is going to be....).

Well, as a local town Budget Committee member, I know first hand what the County budget does to our property taxes (as they failed to cut their budget) as they push their costs down to us hapless taxpayers.  In turn, they blame the State for pushing cost down to them (and not cutting their budget in response).  In turn, the State says that they, by law, have to balance their budget - so, once again, instead of really cutting their budget, they pass the cost down to the Counties.

Yeah, hapless taxpayers still at the bottom of the pile, but do the pols care?  But the latter get to crow "I fixed the budget crisis" and taxpayers still get hammered.

In yesterday's Union Leader, the local county commissioners decided to hammer back at one of the CD-1 Congressional candidates who is one that is a "I fixed the budget crisis" crower.

Christopher Boothby: John Stephen cut aid to nursing homes, raising your taxes

By CHRISTOPHER BOOTHBY

Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

As July property tax bills are being mailed to residents across the state, their immediate reaction is likely to be, why has the county portion of the bill skyrocketed? The answer is simple. The Department of Health and Human Services -- when led by former Commissioner John Stephen -- decided to pay significantly less than the 25 percent share of nursing home costs the state is required to pay to the counties by law. Now the local property tax payers are required to pick up the tab.

Many may wonder how this could happen with the protections included in our state constitution that expressly prohibit such blatant shifting of costs to local property tax payers. A little history is in order.

In 2006, Commissioner Stephen was summoned to testify before the Legislature about why his department had discounted the state's share of nursing home costs for several years. Stephen admitted, under the guise of "budget neutrality," that his department had underpaid nursing homes by some $20 million.

At about the same time, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that Stephen's "budget neutrality" was invalid because it was authorized neither by law nor department rules. Stephen appealed the decision, which the Supreme Court denied.

Commissioner Stephen immediately filed an emergency rule for his department to continue this "budget neutrality" cost shift. The Legislature stepped in and passed House Bill 721 in 2007, which blocked Stephen's ability to perpetrate these costs shifts and ordered him to pay the nursing homes nearly $9 million.

Stephen quit his job as commissioner to run for Congress without paying this bill. To this day, the [County   -Skip] nursing homes have not been reimbursed, which is why the counties are charging citizens the payback through property tax bills.

Additionally, during his tenure as commissioner, Stephen teamed up with the Democrats in the Legislature to permanently shift New Hampshire's responsibility to pay 25 percent for nursing care for frail and destitute seniors.

The Association of Counties is suing the state of New Hampshire and the commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services over this illegal tax-shift maneuver. The net cost to property taxpayers will quickly exceed $30 million per year, and in future years, the tax increase will approach $60 million annually, according to documents filed in the court case.

This is why your property taxes are soaring. John Stephen quit his job to run for Congress while leaving behind an overwhelming tax burden on property owners. When questioned about this scheme at a recent debate, he said, "It's not my problem."

We find this disturbing and irresponsible, especially in light of Stephen's campaign platform as a fiscal conservative who saved the state money. The truth is Stephen simply transferred state responsibility to property taxpayers. It was a smoke and mirrors game to fool the public into believing he had cut spending when really he had just passed the buck.

Maybe Stephen is right -- it's not his problem anymore; he quit. But now it's a problem for all property tax payers.

With so many people struggling to remain in their homes, we are left to wonder why Commissioner Stephen would so dramatically increase the property tax burden on New Hampshire voters.

On the campaign trail, Stephen is fond of quoting his father, former state Sen. Bobby Stephen, who said that a statesman acts with the next generation in mind while a politician acts with the next election in mind.

It sounds as if politician John Stephen has ignored his father's sage advice. John Stephen appears to have one thing in mind: Dump state of New Hampshire costs onto property taxpayers so that he can manufacture artificial savings in his budget, then campaign as a conservative to win an election. His callous "not my problem" approach isn't exactly the change Washington needs.

Christopher Boothby is a Belknap County commissioner. This op-ed is co-signed by county Commissioners Bud Daigneault of Belknap County, David Sorensen and Marge Webster of Carroll County, J.D. Colcord and Bronwyn Asplund-Walsh of Merrimack County and Kate Pratt and Don Stritch of Rockingham County.

Ready to be served - crow, with Hollandaise sauce...

Posted by Skip at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just stumbled upon this Youtube. When one takes the present happenings around the world in places like Russia/ Georgia, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, etcetera, overlayed with the events on September 11th, 2001, and the radical Islamists' continued threats against us and our way of life, one finds it's not a pretty picture. I don't want some newbie in charge like Barack Obama, with a default reaction to everything being cave and compromise.

This video contains some very powerful images, and ends with some intense shots of the planes hitting the Twin Towers from various camera angles followed by the collapse. While horrific in nature, all Americans should rewatch them again and again as to not forget what was done to us and by whom...

Barack Obama has no intention of defending this country against the very real, very big threats we face. Here he is downplaying the threats during a visit here to our neck of the woods a little over a year ago:

The Russians are threatening Poland with nuclear weapons! They have laid waste to portions of a supposed sovereign nation. The Chinese... well, they're the Chinese, and they have the money, and the manpower (along with our military secrets passed along to them during the Clinton administration) to do who knows what in the coming years. The Islamists are still working feverishly to spread their ideology by all means possible, taking full advantage of our freedoms which, sadly, they are using to protect their twisted mission amongst us. It's my observation that Barack Obama has the worldview of an eight year old... you know, "wishing" for peace in the world. (With apologies to those eight year olds out there that DO get it...)

It's a nasty world out there, whether we want to believe it, or not...

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There has always been bad, evil people in the world, and chances are, that won't ever change. When they see opportunity, they go for it. I don't want to elect Obama and give them that window of chance.

Posted by Doug at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Meet the New Press Podcast 

            

To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you.
 

Hour 1                                        Hour 2

Hour One:

Opening Banter - With the Olympic games under way (and Skip marveling at the prowess of Michael Phelps in the pool), Doug and Skip notice that all is not as it seems as chinks appear in the facade that the Communist Chinese IOC's opening ceremonies (e.g., underage gymnasts, Internet blockages, journalists taken away, claims of all tickets sold but lots of empty seats, et al).  Also discussed is the Russian invastion of Georgia and implications of that thugocracy on the newly minted democracy and the role of energy / oil in this.

How come the Peaceniks that are so quick to hammer US policies so quiet over this?  (is there a connection?)

Grant Bosse has another repeat performance on MTNP as he continues to be the Energizer Bunny of the NH-2 Congressional Republican candidates (he was at the Chichester Old Home Day).  We talked about his plans to cut wasteful Federal programs (his opponents have come up with $0 of their own suggestions), why federal income taxes make no sense ("customers, shareholder, and employees pay taxes"), and get his take on the Russian gambit (paraphrased: a test - Obama failed, McCain passed - this Russian expansion cannot be allowed to swallow up new democracies).

Jeb Bradley also joins us for an extended segment and we talk about his being at Liberty House (a place for homeless vets), his intention to move POW/MIA status back into use instead of DUSTWIN (Duty Station Unknown).  We continued to also get his take on Putin trying to overthrow Georgia's democracy (we need to protect them if all possible diplomacy fails), the use of cyberwarfare and the need for the US to have both a credible defense and offensive capability there.  Poland's threat from Russia was touched upon ("in times like this, Shea-Porter wants to cut funding for missle defense"). Also, he brings up differences between him and John Stephen (including cost-shifting by his HHS onto the local property taxpayers). 

He also agrees to a radio / blog debate on Meet The New Press / GraniteGrok with Carol Shea-Porter if he is successful in winning the Republican Primary on September 9th!  Let's see if she is willing to agree!

Hour Two: snippets coming soon!

Mike Coutu also returns to MTNP to talk about the year's Live Free or Die Rally. Music, debate, food, speakers, cannons, and kegs of gunpowder - what more could you ask to see or hear in Jaffrey, NH next weekend? What IS neat is that someone thinks well enough of our state motto "Live Free or Die" and what it really means to produce an entire weekend's event to celebrate it.

Skip mentioned that Andy Sanborn (R-Henniker), who is running for NH Senate District 7 (web site is Andy4Senate.com) is having an unusual fundraiser - RACING CARS at NH Motor Speedway. This coming Thursday afternoon (call the campaign for details). This is the kind of fundraiser that is "out of the box" - now, how do I explain to my boss my absence (er, it'll be hard to type at 150 mph on the back straight...)

We also talk about the Central NH SWAT team and the family that had an up close and personal encounter with them.

Randall O'Toole ("the Anti-Planner"), also returns to talk about railroads and mass transit systems.  Planners love them, but they turn out to be a huge taxpayer bust - pretty much, they cannot support themselves.  Intentions are nice, but the financial and environmental results are lacking.  Cars and buses turn out to be a better answer. He has papers over at the Cato Institute (he is a Senior Fellow there) as well as the American Dream Coalition on these subjects.

No SchlubCam this week.

Posted by Skip at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Starting Saturday morning at 9 am!

....

As usual, this week's broadcast version of GraniteGrok and AnkleBitingPundits brings an array of items and guests for your consideration-- ALL STARTING AT 9AM! As always, thanks to the technical wizardry and analytical skills of Skip, if you are beyond the broadcast area of Newstalk 1490 WEMJ, simply click here for instructions on how to connect and listen on the Internet via livestream. (Podcasts here)

• 2nd CD Republican hopeful Grant Bosse checks in. Endorsed by the 'Grok, this not-so longshot candidate has left more than one person with a better than expected assessment following the chance to meet or hear him. "He's remarkably good on the stump," said one insider to me some time back during a phone conversation. In addition to his stances on all of the important issues of the day, Skip and I really like his embrace of the New Media and his ability to get the most bang for the campaign buck. "I might be outspent, but I won't be outworked," said Grant at the CNHT picnic last month. We'll get an update on his 50 Days, Fifty Ways to Cut Spending plan. The Union Leader, while not endorsing him, said "Grant Bosse, former aide to Sen. John Sununu, has an impressive political mind. He would make an excellent representative one day. " We disagree--- That day is NOW!
  
• 1st CD Republican Jeb Bradley-- also endorsed by the 'Grok-- reports on the home stretch of the primary season. Despite repeated attempts at distorting his record while in Congress by his Republican opponent, Jeb soldiers on and is looking like the closest thing to a sure bet at recovering the House seat presently held by ultra-liberal, Democrat Carol Shea Porter...
• Jean "Mike" Coutu joins us one more time to preview this year's Live Free or Die Rally which features, among other things, live music, camping, cannon blasts and, of course, political discourse-- you know, our kind of event. Mike is a member of Citizens Alliance Against Creepy Government (CAACP) and is active in local government and promoting the use of the Right to Know law.
• Randal O'Toole, AKA the "Anti-Planner", is author of The Best Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future. In his second appearance on MTNP radio, Mr. O'Toole will discuss, among several items, the latest push to use taxpayer $$ to subsidize commuter rail here in the Granite State. Are we going to get "core pedestrian zones" here? Unlike Michael Dukakis, who claims "roads don't work," the AntiPlanner believes the answer to transportation needs is MORE lanes of highway. We LIKE that! 
• Time permitting, we'll discuss the concept of regional law enforcement groups trending paramilitary, with some even wearing masks during the conduct of duty. This might wash in Putin's Russia, but not here...

Wow! It all starts at 9AM EST Saturday. Tune in if you're in Central NH at NewsTalk 1490AM WEMJ or live on the 'Net here... The best radio (in our humble opinions) anywhere...

[ * SUMMER BONUS: Click the "continue reading..." link at the bottom of this post to view the alternative promo photo originally planned for this week's program. Much like the famed Beatles "butcher alblum" cover, banned by the powers that be due to the sensibilities of the time, we decided the pic was just too much for some of "The One's" adoring fans-- you know, a safety issue. Because this is the age of the Internet, that doesn't mean you can't see the good stuff, however -- should you choose. So click on, and view the MTNP "dog days of summer" promo pic deemed too "racy" for our times... sure to be legend like like the Fab Four's "Yesterday and Today".]

Heh. Looks like them dog days ain't so bad after all!

Posted by Doug at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

New ad by the McCain campaign aimed at Ohio voters in particular (running in that market) is nonetheless applicable to somebody somewhere in America.

I wonder what Mr. Obama thinks about when admiring himself in the mirror?

Posted by Doug at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Late yesterday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) released a letter from their President and CEO, Red Cavaney, that was sent to Capitol Hill about the Group of Ten proposal.  As readers most likely know, the Group of Ten includes five Republican and five Democrat senators who have reached across the aisle to develop a compromise energy bill. It is our opinion here at the 'Grok that this proposal does little to solve the rising costs of energy in the here and now while providing cover for politicians who might otherwise be held accountable to an electorate that want more domestic exploration and supply.

Here's Mr. Cavaney's letter as delivered:

The bipartisan "Group of 10" senators recently released a summary of their proposed energy plan.  Like many others, API was hopeful that a new proposal would show the way to break the current deadlock in Congress.  Our view is that the next step on energy policy should be to expand access to vital domestic oil and natural gas resources as a complement to the measures Congress approved last year on efficiency, technology and alternative fuels.

API must express its opposition to the approach outlined by the Group of 10 because it falls far short of what is needed.

Unfortunately, the proposal appears to be a classic case of one step forward, two steps back -- or in this instance "light on new production/heavy on new taxes".  Current world events only reinforce the critical importance of ensuring that our nation develop the full range of its domestic energy resources for economic competitiveness and national security reasons.

The proposal's approach to access to federal oil and natural gas resources is far too limited in its scope.  And, it is unfortunately paired with the imposition of at least $30 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry that would have the effect of limiting needed oil and gas investment.  A lesson learned well in the 1970-80 period.  These measures create an environment that will virtually assure a future with less, not more, domestic production. 

 

While this new proposal would expand access in the waters of the Outer Continental Shelf, it unfortunately limits any expansion over current law to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and waters off four Atlantic Coast states in the South.  Even in these areas, development in federal waters less than 50 miles offshore would be banned - despite the fact that offshore facilities would need to be 12 or fewer miles from shore to be visible from land. Leasing in the North Atlantic and off the Pacific Coast would be banned and plentiful hydrocarbon resources in Alaska would remain off limits.

Significant regulatory burdens on new development would remain in place. The imposition of $30 billion in clearly discriminatory new taxes, to pay for federal investment in alternatives and renewables, ignores the fact that the industry already provides more than 70 percent of all North American investment in research and development in emerging energy technologies.

Americans today are calling for Congress to do much more to supply their needs for additional energy.  Our companies are supplying more energy - and more kinds of energy - to meet this growing demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration continues to point out that oil and natural gas will be an essential part of this nation's energy future for decades to come. Opening all available domestic resources to safe and environmentally responsible development would significantly boost U.S. supplies of oil and natural gas; increase the nation's energy security; add more well-paying American jobs; help with our balance of payments and economic growth during a time of recessionary fears and bring billions of dollars into the Treasury instead of sending them abroad.

Huge and discriminatory new taxes on the U.S. oil and gas industry make no sense.  The only beneficiaries of such an ill-advised approach would be international competitors in the global oil markets, who would benefit as US companies were made less competitive in the quest to find and develop global energy supplies.  Already, the top 27 U.S. energy-producing companies have seen their annual tax liability rise to more than $100 billion, an 80 percent increase from 2004 to 2006.  New taxes on these U.S.-based energy companies would drastically cut capital that otherwise could be invested in domestic oil and natural gas production and expanded refining capacity.  The net result could be to stifle high-risk, capital-intensive projects in the U.S., leaving Americans more dependent on foreign sources of energy, while jeopardizing U.S. jobs and economic growth.

We commend the "Group of 10" for its bipartisan effort to seek solutions to the nation's growing energy challenge.  Americans have responded to the increased costs of energy by changing their habits and reducing demand, but a large majority also want expanded access to and development of US energy reserves. We urge Members of Congress to carefully consider the way forward on energy and aggressively pursue policies that make greater supplies of oil and gas available to American consumers, while avoiding changes that run counter to that goal.  API stands ready to work with policymakers to promote the economic and energy security of every American.

Sincerely,

Red Cavaney

President and Chief Executive Officer

American Petroleum Institute

Posted by Doug at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A redneck family from the hills of Arkansas was visiting the city and they were in a mall for the first time in their lives.

The father and son were strolling around while the wife shopped.

They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.

The boy asked, 'Paw, what's at?'

The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, 'Son, I dunno. I ain't never seen anything like that in my entire life, I ain't got no idea'r what it is".

While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a fat old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small circular number above the walls light up sequentially.

They continued to watch until it reached the last number and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order.

Then the walls opened up again and a gorgeous, voluptuous 24 year-old blonde woman stepped out.

The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son, 'Boy.................go gitcha momma."

(H/T: Sue)

Posted by Skip at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy go lucky, that fellow Obama!  See?

Now, if we were to translate that to the canine world, would this be appropriate?

Then we come to Putin (welcome to what a REAL Imperialist looks like):

Canine Translation:

 'Nuff said.

Questions?

(H/T: Karen for the dog pics)

Posted by Skip at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Sent to me by a retired Marine Corp Colonel (with a Ph.D!) that I respect greatly!  I looked at these, looked at the Eldest Son (did a hitch in the Marines and went "Yup - it fits":

Marine Corps Rules:

1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite.  Be professional.  But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a '4.
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice.  Ammo is cheap.  Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker.  Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary when possible.  Protect yours
11. Always cheat; always win.  The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics.  They will only  remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.
    

Navy SEAL's Rules:

1. Look very cool in sunglasses.
2. Kill every living thing within view.
3. Adjust Speedo.
4. Check hair in mirror.
   

US Army Rangers Rules:

1. Walk in 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.
2. Locate individuals requiring killing.
3. Request permission via radio from 'Higher' to perform killing.
4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving.
   

US Army Rules:

1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.
2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.
3. Curse bitterly.
4. Curse bitterly.
5. Do not listen to 2nd LTs; it can get you killed.
6. Curse bitterly.
   

US Air Force Rules:

1. Have a cocktail.
2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner.
3. See what's on HBO.
4. Ask "What is a gunfight?"
5. Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' Power Point presentation.
6. Wine & dine ''key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.
7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.
8. Declare the assets 'strategic' and never deploy them operationally.
9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.
10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.

US Navy Rules:

1. Go to Sea.
2. Drink Coffee.
3. Deploy the Marines.

(H/T: Richard)

Posted by Skip at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

To protect and serve?

For many years, visitors to my former business location might have noticed a picture on the wall-- torn from a newspaper-- of a “police” checkpoint in Serbia. What captured my interest was the caption telling the reader that the picture was of a “police volunteer” manning an urban checkpoint in the early days of the gradual anarchy that was to come in that country. It always struck me that this so-called policeman, finger on trigger, had an AK47 in the nostril of some hapless guy at the wheel of his Honda Civic, and was, according to the caption, checking his identification papers.

The poor fellow in the car, aside from the fact he had the muzzle of a machine gun literally stuck in his face, looked like he could have been your average American thirty-something on his way to work at the office. In fact, the background of the photo looked like it could have been downtown Anywhere, USA, even including a uniformed police officer in the square directing traffic. Except, more striking than all of the elements of the scene, was the fact that this “policeman,” dressed entirely in black, was wearing a ski mask. “Not good,” I always thought, when looking at the picture.

That picture hung stapled to the old shop wall for years, and many conversations were held about it. When events like the Elian Gonzalez seizure and the Branch Davidian raid took place, parallels were drawn. As it turned out, most that viewed the old picture agreed, if we ever come to a point when the police here in the States were to start wearing ski masks to hide their identities during the conduct of their duties, things would be getting pretty bad. Thankfully though, we were in America, where such things could never happen, right?

According to documents filed at the U.S. District Court in Concord, NH at the end of July, a family from Grafton County is suing for a series of civil rights violations that allegedly occurred during an early morning raid of their Bristol apartment.

“On August 2, 2006, twenty (20) members of the CNHSOU”

(Central NH Special Operations Unit) and three members of

“the Bristol Police Department, executed an arrest and search warrant at 36 South Main Street, Bristol, New Hampshire. The residence was occupied by Thomas Mlodzinski, his wife Tina Mlodzinski, their 15 year old daughter JM, Tina Mlodzinski’s son, Michael Rothman, and Michael’s girlfriend Amy Furmanic and their two week old daughter.”

The filing states,

“Police were seeking to arrest Michael Rothman, who was then 17 years old, for assault and were looking for a baton (night stick) allegedly used in the assault. The warrants authorized the arrest of Michael Rothman only and the search of the residence and the person of  Michael Rothman only.”

If you’re like me, you should be wondering why it would take TWENTY-THREE law enforcement officers to arrest a seventeen year old. He must have been heavily armed or something, right? Apparently not— nor were any of those sleeping in the apartment, either.

The lawsuit details the events as they unfolded just before 4 in the morning two years ago:

“The entire Mlodzinski family was in bed and asleep just prior to police officers executing the warrants at approximately 3:54 a.m. Thomas Mlodzinski was awakened by shouting and loud banging. In fact, police officers had broken down the entry door to the apartment. When Tom Mlodzinski opened his bedroom door into the central hallway, he was confronted by several masked persons who were pointing assault rifles at his face and ordering him to get down on the floor. Tom Mlodzinski was forced face down to the floor, knee in the back, and handcuffed.”

Did you catch that? “Masked persons.” In Bristol, NH, no less.

It doesn’t end there. Keep in mind that there were TWENTY masked law enforcement personnel involved... As Mr. Mlodzinski laid on the floor, he watched officers pointing firearms at his daughter and

“screaming at her to get down on the floor and place her palms in the air.”

The girl,

“who was attired only in thong underwear and a tee-shirt was forcibly pushed to the floor, striking and injuring her left knee and right wrist. Police officers then handcuffed the 15 year old.”

Are you getting the picture here? One wonders if the poor family even knew, at this point, whether these were policemen, or some sort of terror attack.

The wife was still in the bed

“when police officers first came in. Several police officers pointed guns at her head and she was ordered to lay face down on the bed, palms in the air.”

The woman,

“who was clad only in bikini bottoms, complied and was handcuffed.”

Officers then apparently went upstairs and arrested their intended suspect, in bed with his girlfriend and two week old child, without incident. And yet, for those left at the house after the removal of the wanted subject, the ordeal was STILL not ended. Instead, they were all herded, still scantily clad in bedding attire, into the living room where they were

“then held against their will, three of them handcuffed, and interrogated, for approximately one and one-half hours. The family was threatened repeatedly with being taken to jail and having the infant child taken from them if they did not cooperate.”

As the group sat handcuffed,

“all in their own home, Sgt. Michael F. Lewis of the Bristol Police Department strutted about the room, threatening repeatedly ‘I am not leaving without the stick’. Police officers searched the residence and did not find a night stick.”

After approximately an hour and a half, the family members were released and police officers left. One wonders if they wished them a good day as they withdrew.

Last month in Charlestown, NH, a man was shot and killed by members of the Western New Hampshire Special Operations Team and the New Hampshire State Police during a raid in which the man’s son was arrested in a next-door residence. It has been said that officials thought the man might be armed, so they stormed his trailer and ended up killing him. Yesterday’s Union Leader reported,

“Authorities have not said whether Anthony Jarvis, a convicted felon, was in fact armed.”

His death was caused by “multiple gunshot wounds.” No word whether these were in fact the masked kind of police, or otherwise. But hey, at least they didn’t kill any dogs like the SWAT team in Maryland did a couple of weeks back in a botched raid on a mayor’s house.

I’m glad we still live in Amerika, a free country that protects its citizens against an encroaching government and its legions…

..
 

Posted by Doug at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The following was submitted by Gary Hoffman, who ran against Jeb Bradley and the rest in the 2002 1st Congressional District Republican primary...

Summer Blockbuster

by Gary Hoffman

A blockbuster race for the Republican Nomination in the First Congressional District is shaping up this summer. Jeb Bradley is working hard to return to Congress and John Stephen is again challenging him in the Republican primary.  I have a unique perspective on this race, as I ran against them both in the 8-way 2002 primary that Bradley won.

Jeb, a former small business owner, did a great job for New Hampshire in Congress. He supported tax relief, border security, and spending restraint. New Hampshire veterans saw in Jeb a champion who fought for more funding for veterans healthcare and to keep the emergency room at the Manchester VA Medical Center open. He worked to keep the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open, protecting 5000 jobs and preserving the most efficient center of service for our submarine fleet. Jeb has been unwavering in is his support for American troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.  When many politicians in Washington were heading for the hills, Jeb did not abandon our troops. But, Jeb's biggest attributes are his honor, integrity and work ethic.  It's why we can trust Jeb Bradley.

Stephen has gone on the attack. But as is always the case, there is the rest of the story: John Stephen is not the conservative he claims to be, has changed his mind on big issues, and dodged others. 

Exhibit 1: John Stephen, as Commissioner of NH Health and Human Services, prepared a budget with a whopping $438 million (13%) increase. New Hampshire is now facing a $200 deficit, in part because of his mammoth spending increase. 

 

Exhibit 2: Stephen claims to be a budget hawk and promises to reduce the federal deficit. However, at HHS, John inflated state Medicaid costs which simply shifts costs to Washington and increases the federal deficit. Stephen may have believed he was clever shifting these costs to make his budgets appear balanced. However, a federal audit has already ordered NH to re-pay $35 million and that could end up as high as $87million.

Exhibit 3: According to State Representative Jessie Osborne, writing in the Concord Monitor, Stephen "devised" a plan to shift state costs for caring for seniors in nursing homes to NH Counties. Naturally, the Counties sued claiming this violates Article 28-a of the NH Constitution because within a few years, property taxes will climb nearly $30 million according to County lawsuit! What was Stephen’s role in this tax hike, as the Commissioner of Health and Human Services is specifically cited as a defendant in the lawsuit?  When the Legislature debated this provision added by committee of conference Stephen was a “no show” according to the Nashua Telegraph. Less than two months later he quit his job. Now voters should reward this performance with a seat in Congress?

Exhibit 4: Stephen had his hand out for federal earmarks, which he now condemns. After receiving a $250,000 earmark to help police monitor juvenile offenders Stephen said, "I want to thank our Congressional Delegation for their tremendous efforts to help protect the citizens of New Hampshire."

Three short years later, when Stephen changed hats from government bureaucrat to political candidate, he calls earmarks "taxpayer subsidized campaigning".  Bradley, on the other hand, makes no apologies about requesting earmark funding that sent enhanced night vision equipment to Marines in Iraq, to help them identify roadside bombs that have killed and injured many of our brave troops. I will take Bradley's commitment to our troops vs. Stephen's political pandering for votes any day.

John Stephen is not only flip-flopping positions for political convenience but hiding his big spending habits as a life-long bureaucrat. On the most important issue of the day-protecting our nation--Jeb Bradley has been there for us. We need Jeb back in Washington and John needs to see what a private sector job is like.

[Click here to read the 'Grok endorsement of Jeb Bradley. Click here to read his answers to our Q&A series and here to visit his website.]

Posted by Doug at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

..

.

I think about the 9/11 hijackers. Why? I ponder the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the "hostage crisis." Why? What did we do? The images of the several more famous (and videotaped) beheadings remain seared in my memory. How is this even possible? Several nights ago, I watched a Fox News report that reviewed the facts surrounding the possible "honor killing" of two Texas girls by their Muslim father and included audio of the 911 recording made in the moments the two were riddled with bullets. I can't get the horror out of my mind of hearing the exact instant a father-- A FATHER!!!-- murdered his own flesh and blood... in the name of a supposed religion.   How could a human be so cruel? Someone from PELHAM, NH found committing "terrorist acts" while in Somalia. Huh? How does THAT happen? 

Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He and his family escaped Iran after the radical Islamic revolution. His observations on the growing Islamo-fascist threat need to be heard and understood by as many people as possible if we are going to stem the rising tide of murder and mayhem. I have often written of the danger I perceive we face by allowing the construction of mosques here in this country. Mr. Imani has graciously allowed us to post several of his writings here on the 'Grok which delve into some of the facts demonstrating why my fear is not off-base.

Here, he has the answers to my questions posed above:

It is Islam, dummy

by Amil Imani

The terror and death inflicted on humanity is not the work of radical Islam, neither the political Islam, nor the militant Islam. It is Islam, period. Get it? And the perpetrators are not fringe elements confined to brainwashed Saudis, loony Taliban, or some know--nothing Pakistanis who have hijacked Islam and are now in the business of mass murder. The latest project of the practitioners of the “religion of peace,” aimed to blowing planeloads of innocent civilians to smithereens in midair over the Atlantic, - ought to finally drive the point home: It is Islam, dummy. Get it?

How could people calling themselves sincere God-fearing religionists bring themselves to even think of acts of such barbarity, yet plan them methodically and cold-bloodedly proceed to execute them?

The answer is Islam. The life manual of Islam, the Quran, is a document of exclusion, hatred and violence that shapes the Muslims’ thinking and behaving. This stone-age document is optimally suited for people of stunted development; people who prefer to follow than to think for themselves, to hate than to love, and to seek death rather than to celebrate life.

Sadly, Muslims themselves are the ones who are most victimized by Islam. They have inherited this viral psychological disease of hate and violence; they live by it, and transmit it to their children as well as to receptive others.

 

A puzzle to non-Muslims: why any intelligent and reasonably sane person would live his life by the dogma of Islam? It is particularly disconcerting when this Muslim lives in a secular non-Islamic society. The befuddlement becomes mind-boggling when seemingly educated women in free societies voluntarily submit to the yoke of Islamic misogyny.

There are a number of possible explanations to the enigma of believing in Islam and even propagating it with zeal and violence. Some possible explanations are treated here.

For one, Islam is stamped on the impressionable mind of the child from birth. The parents and immediate members of the family are the ones who make the very first impressions on the tabula rasa of the young mind. These early impressions are the grid-work for further formation of the person’s mind and belief system. It is by far easier, as life goes on, to incorporate “items” that readily fit into the grid-work, than to modify it or dismantle it altogether and begin anew. It is in recognition of the importance of early training and education that people such as Saint Augustine and Freud considered the first few years of life as critical for molding the person. “Teaching the very young is like etching upon my youth is when your stones in the stone,” says an Eastern proverb.

Another reason is the herd mentality—stay with the group, be one of them, and don't strike out on your own. This strong disposition to belong is reinforced by privileges that the group bestows; social pressure, as well as the fear of castigation by the wielders of power. There is security and power in numbers—in any numbers.

Islam is also appealing for giving purpose and order to the person’s life—both the life on earth as well as an immortal life after death. Islam is an omnipresent and omniscient father figure who draws the boundaries, points out the path, dictates the terms, holds the carrots and the sticks. It absolves the person, for most parts, from the often demanding tasks of dealing with difficult questions and choosing what to do with oneself—a highly attractive trade off for many. Accept Islam as your guide, follow its path and you will never have to suffer the agony of not knowing and having to make decisions by yourself; you will be guided along the path of eternal happiness and salvation. Just follow the unerring guide given to mankind by the seal of the prophet, Muhammad.

An elaborate package of mostly illogical and bizarre prescriptions and proscriptions comes with the Islamic offer, covering every imaginable aspect of life. In the matter of being a good Muslim, nothing is left to chance that one needs to figure out for himself. “I think, therefore I am” said Rene Descartes in substantiating his claim to existence as a conscious being. “I don't think, I have faith; therefore I am an automaton,” says the Muslim in absolving himself of the need for independent thinking.

Even the minutest detail of the Muslim’s life is rigidly structured. He is to perform the obligatory prayer, for instance, five times a day at the exact appointed times. He must drop everything and go through the prescribed gesticulation and recitation of the verses while facing Mecca. Before saying his prayer, however, he must perform ablution. The Ablution, using water, must be carried out in a precise manner and sequence. In the absence of water, the faithful can substitute soil for water and go through the practice of “purifying” himself by running soil over his hands, arms, face and feet. After completion of ablution, as prescribed, he may proceed to say his prayer unless he commits flatulence. In that case, he must re-perform the ablution all over again.

Being a good Muslim, particularly a good male Muslim, is indeed a full time job. Male Muslims are obligated to go for Hajj—women don't have to do so. Islam is a man’s religion, through and through. Women are to please men erotically, to attend to them like chattel, and birth them boys. Going on Hajj and accumulating merit points for admission to Allah’s paradise is reserved for men. Women may also go to Hajj, if they are lucky enough to afford the journey or allowed by their owners, men, to do so. For women, there are no promises that by going on Hajj and paying tribute to the house of Allah they endear themselves to him. “Women are calamities, but no home should be without one,” is an old Islamic characterization of women. Hence, a woman is a necessity and not much more.

In short, Islam treats its believers as children irrespective of age. An extensive cadre of mullahs and imams, who themselves are thoroughly indoctrinated, minister to the children. These professional leeches—the mullahs and imams—systematically program the minds of their charges through liberal use of fear, threats of hell, and occasional promises of eternal life of bliss in Allah’s paradise if they be obedient good children.

A Muslim is born Muslim, yet he acts as if he independently and through his own labor has discovered the great find; he clings to it as his cherished security blanket; and, would part with his life, rather than give it up. It is, therefore, understandable what a recent poll has found. Fully 81% of British Muslims consider themselves Muslims first and British second. The 81% know full well that there is absolutely no chance of being harassed, much less persecuted, in Britain for professing their highest loyalty to Islam. So, they come out and admit it. The other 19% are even more Muslim. They are practicing what the Quran teaches—dissimulation. Muslims are taught to lie. They lie when they have to and they lie when they don't have to, just to stay in practice.

The bottom-line is that the non-Islamic world has a huge problem on its hands—the ever-encroaching Islam. For as long as there are mosques, madrasehs, and Islamic centers; as long as vast cadres of well-paid, highly indoctrinated and strategically placed mullahs and imams; and, as long as there are people who prefer to be treated as children, Islam will flourish anywhere and will pose an existential threat to unbelievers. All the excuses, grievances and reasons given for savagery of the jihadists and Islamofascists are side issues. It is Islam, dummy. It is Islam itself. Get it?

This article, originally published in 2006 , was posted here on the 'Grok with permission of its author, Mr. Amil Imani. Visit his blog here. Writes Imani, a native born Iranian, "I am speaking up and urging others to raise their resonant voices and act while they can before they are brutally silenced and annihilated by the ever-creeping Islamofascism." 

NOTE: Mr. Imani appeared on our radio program, "Meet the New Press" this past Saturday. Click here to download the podcast.

Posted by Doug at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ah, yes - NRO comes through again with a bit of humor:

You're unlikely to vote for Obama if you.....

1. aren't registered to vote in France or Germany.
2. believe Gen. Petraeus is more important than Al Gore.
   
3. nod every time you read a Thomas Sowell column.
4. have ever caught yourself humming the theme from" The Green Berets."
5. have gotten your pants dirty in the last week.
6. kinda like a good steak once in a while.
7. have accidentally discharged your gun during church services in a bitter fit of antipathy over people who aren't like you.
8. wouldn't mind knowing if your 14 year old daughter was being taken by a non-family member to Toledo for an abortion.
9. prefer the Super Bowl to the World Cup.
10. know Sig Sauer isn't the name of Obama's domestic policy advisor.
11. are certain Obama would've taken the tank ride if Dukakis hadn't beaten him to it.
12. can't describe Obama's position on the surge without using the word "incoherent."
13. don't think having a baby is "punishment.".
14. have heard about Obama's vote against the Induced Birth Infant Liability Act.
15. tend to giggle whenever Nancy Pelosi talks energy policy.
16. think your taxes are plenty high already, thank you very much.
17. prefer legislation come from Congress, not the Supreme Court
18. believe we'd be in a world of hurt if we'd followed Obama's advice on Iraq last year.
19. resent the suggestion you're a racist for treating Obama like a serious presidential candidate.
20. hear the name "Osama Bin Laden" and words other than "habeas corpus" come to mind.
21. were to meet William Ayers, you'd be more likely to bop him in the nose than join his board.
22. list either Patton, Braveheart or 300 among your favorite movies.
23. realize that Obama's Speech of the Century on race was, in hindsight, a crock.
24. wonder which government agency is in charge of healing the planet.
25. personally know somebody who packs his passport whenever traveling to San Francisco... just in case.

Posted by Skip at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The latest video from the McCaign campaign. You can really get a feel for the "depth" of the Obama voter in this one...

Heh. "We're not worthy!" At least in his eyes...

Posted by Doug at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The 'Grok endorsed Grant Bosse in NH's CD-2 a little while ago as he showed us what a model Republican should be - articulately expressing Conservative values and the Republican Platform, hard working, use of the new media, and knowing how to stretch a dime into a dollar.  We continue to wish him well!

He has a program, "50 Days, 50 Ways" that outlines how he will save NH taxpayers money.  He's done of bunch of these but I think, thus far, he's been on a bunch of periphery type issues (but as is well known, take them all together, and they start adding up to real money).

However, this next one is what engineers call "a root cause" - he goes right to the central heart of THE feedback loop - those that feed our dollars outbound:

Bosse: No Pay Raises Until Congress Balances the Budget

“50 Days, 50 Ways” Targets Congressional Pay Raises

(Hillsboro)  Republican Grant Bosse today proposed new legislation that would block Congressional pay raises unless Congress balances the federal budget.  Blocking Congressional pay raises would save taxpayers $2 million a year.

“Until Congress gets a handle on federal spending, balances the budget, and addresses the long-term liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, how can it possibly justify giving itself a raise?’ Bosse asked.  “Not only will I refuse any raise until the budget is balanced, I’ll fight to end the automatic pay raises that Congress has guaranteed itself.”

Under current law, Congress received an automatic increase in pay every two years, unless it votes to block that raise.  Both Republican and Democratic leadership have repeatedly blocked open votes on Congressional pay in the past.  This is the 22nd budget cut Bosse has proposed since launching his “50 Days, 50 Ways to Cut Federal Spending” Initiative.

“It’s only $2 million a year, but maybe if Congress had to earn a raise like American workers, it would be a little more responsible with our money,” Bosse added.  “Until they balance the federal budget, they haven’t earned it, and I won’t take it if elected.”

To date, Bosse has proposed more than $10.2 billion in taxpayer savings by eliminating unnecessary federal programs.  To learn more about Bosse’s aggressive grassroots campaign, go to www.Bosse2008.com.

I think that this is a great idea!  After all, don't we often hear the Liberals in Congress wailing about the high salaries and perks of corporate CEOs that don't really deserve all that money?  Especially when their companies are not doing all that well?  After all, those bad meanies are doing nothing but ripping off the little people.  Well...

Goose, meet gander.

Frankly, Grant get to the heart of the matter, the place where the decision to spend is made, but doesn't expand outward enough.  Not only should the members of the US House of Representatitives be put on a fiscal diet (as they advocate for the same for CEOs), Senators, too, should be on the hook.

Now, here's the kicker.  Not only are the Elected get on the fiscal wagon, but also their staffers.  It is they, the folks that make the paper fly, the schedules made and kept, and answer the phones, that often create the bills that spend the money and then advise the Elected how to vote on them.  Thus, let's give them an incentive as well to be frugal too - THEY, too, only a get a raise when our pockets stopped being picked. And being the modern equivalent of "flappers", they have the power to have a material effect on the process.

After all, we are the little people....and they have raised their salaries over the years whereby THEY are among the most highly compensated "workers" (cough, cough) in the country (and the world) - and look at the deficit they have put us in!

Posted by Skip at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For all those who seem to think that raising taxes will not alter behavior, they should pay attention to what happens in states that try to fund health plans by taxing cigarettes.

I have always thought it was a dumb extremely stupid idea to tax something that you wish to get rid of but target that tax to fund a high priority "something" (like healthcare).  PERHAPS, decent social policy, but rotten fiscal policy as sooner or later, that-which-is-taxed runs out, along with its tax money. 

If Nanny-State / Fascist politicians actually believed what they say they do ("we know what is best for you so we will force you to stop smoking"), they should just outright make it illegal (uh-huh that's not going to happen; maybe they haven't forgotten lesson is that was Prohibition). 

But, the taxers forgot that there are alternative reactions to high taxation on things like tobacco - not only might they get some cessation of the behavior ("too expensive for me!") such as this:

Guess what people do? As the WSJ writes today, they try to evade the tax. In Maryland they raised the tax to $2 a pack to fund health care plans and found that cigarette sales have fallen 25%.

Ah, people decided to quit the habit? Good news socially, but not fiscally, right? Er, not so fast.

People travel to Virginia to buy cigarettes.

Oh, those pesky citizens that just don't want to pay their fair share!  How DARE they?  So, what are we going to do?

And so Maryland politicians are trying to outlaw the free travel of consumers to buy a product in a different state.

The Maryland pols are so afraid this is true that they've made it a crime for residents to carry two packs of cigarettes that weren't purchased in the state. In other words, the state says it's legal to smoke, so long as you use cigarettes that the government can tax and thus become a financial partner in your bad habit. But if you dare to buy smokes across state lines, you can be fined.

Good luck with enforcing that law. Are they going to set up police barricades at the state border to make sure that no one is bringing back two packs? I thought that one of the motivations for our federal Constitution was to prevent one state from taxing another state's imports into that state. Barring those purchases entirely is an astounding reach of state power.

Betsy (and all good liberty minded people) rightly treat this idea with derision.  Problem is, it already is happening.  Like I said above, NH has no sales or income taxes.  Thus, no tax on alcohol or tobacco products.  If you travel north from MA, you can see the state owned "packies" at "rest areas" along Rt 93 so you see lots of MA license plates.

Problem is, not all of them are just MA citizens.  The Peoples' Republic of MA has state law enforcement has agents (think up to a couple of HOURS travel north) in these parking lots busily scribbling down plate numbers of cars going south.

For later inspection.  Which they will do.  In MA.

They do fine these rotten, miserable, unwilling-to-pay-their-fair-share citizens whose only crime is really to avoid paying confiscatory taxes set by politicians that can't keep their own hands in their own pants.

Posted by Skip at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I expect, as an ordinary citizen of the United States, that our Supreme Court would see everything through the lens of the US Constitution.  That is the ultimate standard, and all decisions should be measured against magnificent document.  In its few brief pages, it has help to guide and nourish a fledgling young nation to the richest, most powerful, and most importantly, freest nation in the history of the world.

This I expect to hear, that a US Supreme Court Justice believes that the US Constitution comes first:

"(N)ot all international law obligations automatically constitute binding federal law enforceable in the United State courts," Roberts wrote. He noted that giving "the judgments of an international tribunal a higher status than that enjoyed by many of our most fundamental constitutional protections" was never a consideration of those who wrote the U.S. Constitution.

I expect much - I did not expect this

In a speech in South Africa recently, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that if judges can consult law review articles and such in the U.S., "why not the analysis of a question similar to the one we confront contained in an opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the German Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights?"

Justice Stephen Breyer, another citizen of the world, recently said: "We see all the time . . . how the world really — it's trite but it's true — is growing together. The challenge (will be) whether our Constitution . . . fits into the governing documents of other nations."

This is why Presidential elections matter.  This is why conservatives, even if McCain is not your first, second, third, or even fourth choice.  He has said that he will appoint judges of the Roberts and Alito caliber and mold. 

The problem is

Justice, American-Style

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, August 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Jurisprudence: Over international objections, a foreign-born killer of American citizens is executed in Texas. Would this be allowed to happen in the administration of "citizen of the world" Barack Obama?

It took 15 years, but Mexican-born Jose Medellin, who confessed to and was convicted of participating in the rape and murder of two Houston teenagers in 1993, was executed Tuesday after a four-hour delay while the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal based on the alleged denial of his right to contact the Mexican consulate for legal assistance under a 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention.

In 1993, Medellin confessed to participating in the rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, who were sodomized and strangled with their own shoelaces. Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime. He and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row.

The International Court of Justice, formerly the World Court, ruled in 2004 that U.S. courts should review the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners on death row because of the alleged treaty violation. The ICJ ordered — yes, ordered — the U.S. to "provide, by means of its own choosing, review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Medellin and the others."

Texas authorities argued that Medellin never sought Mexican consular protections until four years after he was arrested. By then, he had already been tried for capital murder and rape, convicted and condemned. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals upheld the conviction on the grounds that Medellin hadn't complained of any violation of his consular rights under the treaty, and therefore had waived them.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave the final word on Medellin's appeal. Writing the 6-3 majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts, whose confirmation Sen. Obama voted against, said that a Texas court, or any American court, is not under any obligation to obey and be subservient to any foreign court.

"(N)ot all international law obligations automatically constitute binding federal law enforceable in the United State courts," Roberts wrote. He noted that giving "the judgments of an international tribunal a higher status than that enjoyed by many of our most fundamental constitutional protections" was never a consideration of those who wrote the U.S. Constitution.

Ted Cruz, solicitor general of Texas, applauded the high court's decision. "The United States Constitution vests sovereignty in the Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the president, the 50 states, and ultimately, in We the People," he said. "Had Medellin prevailed, American sovereignty and independence would have been gravely undermined."

The type of justices a President Obama might nominate would defer to the ICJ and welcome the intrusion of foreign law and foreign entities into U.S. jurisprudence.

In a speech in South Africa recently, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that if judges can consult law review articles and such in the U.S., "why not the analysis of a question similar to the one we confront contained in an opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the German Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights?"

Justice Stephen Breyer, another citizen of the world, recently said: "We see all the time . . . how the world really — it's trite but it's true — is growing together. The challenge (will be) whether our Constitution . . . fits into the governing documents of other nations."

Whether our Constitution fits?

For our part, we think that the Constitution and our laws belong to the American people, to be changed through and by our elected legislatures. And we think that those who assault, rape and murder American citizens should be tried in American courts under American laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court rightly decided that Medellin received full due process under American law for the rape and murder of these young Americans. But one or two Obama appointees to the Supreme Court and we could have a situation where the American criminal justice system becomes subject to an international veto.

 

Posted by Skip at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here in the West, we are taught to tolerate pretty much anything nowadays...including intolerance.  Let's say that was me, a white middle aged Protestant male saying this:

Homosexuality - punishable by death?

Yeah, I'd be toast.  Homophobia, Islamophobia, incitement to commit violence - I bet the list would go on and on as far as charges (public, blogosphere, media, legal) would be leveled at me.

Muslim leaders?  Not so much.  Did ANY of you hear about this?  Yet, as soon as Muslims are being "discriminated against", our friend CAIR is right there with the PR and Legal teams to take on anyone (they learned well from the other race-mongers, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton), didn't they?

Anyways, that's the dilemma?

The Norwegian Islamic Council is still waiting for a reply from the European Fatwa Council before it decides whether or not it is in favour of the death penalty for homosexuality. "Unacceptable," says lesbian Sara Asmeh Rasmussen.

Last November the Norwegian Islamic Council asked the European fatwa council what attitude it should have to homosexuals.

The fatwa council, which debates questions of Muslim faith and doctrine, had its annual meeting in Paris three weeks ago, but did not discuss the subject, according to daily newspaper Dagsavisen.

Anyone else getting this?  Asking permission to kill someone for their sexual orientation!  Where the LGBT (am I forgetting a letter somewhere)? army?  Ah, the joys of when competing protected minorities clash...at least one person spoke up!

But is anyone else even wondering "why the heck is that question even coming up in the first place?" - in one of the most PC places in the world (yes folks, Norway is still what we may become in that respect).   Is this a question that YOUR religious leaders are pondering about?

Much less have to ask for guidance for to figure out a correct answer?

Have we succumbed, as an entire culture, to the squishy and wrong headed multiculturalism of the Left that we can't even stand up and shriek "This isn't even a question that you should be asking"!  Have we become so mired in social and moral relativism that we cannot stand up and say "THIS is wrong - STOP IT as we do not allow this in our society"?

"It's wrong of the Islamic Council to wait for the "verdict" from the fatwa council in such an important case. By not saying 'no' to death penalties for gays, it shows attitudes that conflict with both democratic and humanitarian values," says Sara Azmeh Rasmussen. She is the only openly lesbian Muslim in Norway.

And why aren't others in her own country defending her?  Or the other "human rights" organizations that are so quick to pounce on the slights done here in the US - why are they not up in arms about this?

The head of the Norwegian Islamic Council, Senaid Kobilica, is not worried that the fatwa council will decide in favour of the death penalty. "I'm 100 percent certain that the fatwa council will not come out in favour something which conflicts with European law. The council wasn't able to deal with the question of homosexuality this time, but it thinks that subject is quite relevant and wants to look at the matter more," says Kobilica.

I highly doubt that.  The fact that the question was formulated, that it was asked, that an answer is requested, and that it is not being condemned by other Muslims should show us in the West of something - yet another nudge in the Culturefare warfare.  Using the same tactics as others, a slow nudge here, another push there, the subjects become numbed and finally accept ideas that would have been anathema years ago.  Why fight a war militarily when you can win culturally?

The Islamic Council, which represents 60,000 Muslims in Norway, is still not willing to say whether it is for or against the death penalty for homosexuals, until the fatwa council has spoken.

Sheesh......

"It's very important to have the European fatwa council with us in difficult matters like this. I am not in favour of the death penalty, but there are Islamic texts that various people understand differently. This is why we need to know the attitude of the authority before we make a decision," says Kobilica.

So much for right and wrong, eh?  I'm not in favor of homosexual marriage or civil unions, or a lot of the gay agenda.  But killing people for that is wrong.  Plain, absolute, religiously, culturally, politically wrong.

But I bet some will call me a Muslim-basher for posting this....

Posted by Skip at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Given the massive shortfalls in their State budget, you'd think that CA would be happy to have a new business that would provide for more jobs, right?  After all, new businesses and employees all pay taxes that can help out their self-made fiscal crisis.

Naw!  From NRO:

California, The Nanny State, continues to trail-blaze America’s Green future with carbon caps, fuel-economy laws, even a South L.A. ban on new fast-food restaurants (to force residents to lead a healthier lifestyle). Now comes Attorney General Jerry Brown’s threat this week to block a proposed water-bottling plant in Northern California unless its effects on global warming are evaluated.

Well, I can tell you without an expensive survey (which is probably more to the point - not so much pro-environment but anti-business which, after all is said and done, the same thing).

According to AP’s report, Brown said the plant “failed to include an examination of whether the operation will contribute to global warming through the production of plastic bottles, the operation's electrical demands and the diesel soot and greenhouse gas emissions produced by trucks traveling to and from the plant.”

If you are asking the question, I can give you the answer from 3,500 miles away - it will have an impact, one that you will not approve of no matter how much money the company spends.  Making things costs energy and uses other materials.  The people who would be employed there would exude CO2 as a matter of living (and a fair amount of methane from time to impolite time too!).  Moving that product will add to emission as its consumers are probably not going to travel there to personally pick up such water containing bottles.

Of course, AG Moonbeam’s criteria would kill all new manufacturing business in the state, but I suppose we should be used to such lunacy by now. 

Thank God that they haven't gotten to the worst question with regards of eliminating CO2 emissions - "are you breathing"?

In time, they will.  CA leads the country in this kind of nuttiness. They have yet to learn that decisions have consequences and so do idiotic ideologies (like carbon emission is the worst sin in the world).

Posted by Skip at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Meet the New Press Podcast 

            

To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you.
 

Hour 1                                        Hour 2

Snippets coming soon! 

Hour One:

Opening Banter - Doug and Skip talk about the opening Olympic Ceremony and with things underway, a Czech shooter had already won the first Gold medal.  The pollution levels in Bejing are also quite evident, and they guys asked the question "so, why are the enviro-wackos complaning" (and of course, knew the reason why).  They also noted, with sorrow, the death of the little girl up in Ashland due to the flash flooding that swept the family car away.

We talked with Matt Murphy of the Granite State Employee Freedom Coalition to see where the gang discussed that Shaheen was spending the weekend with the AFL-CIO hoy-paloi - in other words, Big Union.  Shaheen refuses to discuss the issue of Employee Free Choice Act-- EFCA (secret ballot voting for unionization)-- and discussed former Presidential Democrat George McGovern's opposition to it.  Our friend Chan from Weekend Pundit calls in from the live stream with his observations as a long term union guy.

We talked with one of our favorite guests, Liz Mair who is now with with RNC as Director in the eCampaign Division of the RNC.  Mostly, we talked about the number one issue of the campaign - energy and the differences between McCain and Obama in this regard.  We also discussed McCain's Lexington Program.  Also, we talked gas prices and that the expectation that lower gas prices in the future will (and has) lower current prices.  We also expounded on the fact that Americans do not like to be told they can and have to be content with less - we want and can do more!  Nukes - yeah, we like'em!

Ending Banter - The Obama Sign and the fact that nuke power could very well result in higher employment in the Lakes Region.

Hour Two:

Quick Banter - a bit more on nukes, jobs, safety, and why do the opponents believe that future generations are going to be stupider than now?

We had a wonderful time with Amil Imani discussing "useful idiots" and the process of how fundamentalist Islamism (mostly fueled with petro-dollars from the Saudis are planting mosques as part of their "soft jihad" of cultural, religious, and legal warfare.  As he grew up in Iran, he knows first hand the danger that the West is facing.  We discuss some of the problems we see here in the US and in the West, the small little incidents, when connecting all the dots, show that Islam may well be using the openness of the West against it.

Lastly, James Pindell from PolitickerNH.com (THE place on the 'Net for dishing inside politics in NH) was our last guest and the topic was the Congressional and Senatorial races here in NH: the primary with Jeb Bradley (who the 'Grok has endorsed!) and John Stephen (we discussed the recent UNH polling data) in NH CD-1 and the general election with Carol Shea-Porter.  We also touched on the Sununu / Shaheen matchup.

No SchlubCam this week.

Posted by Skip at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We hear so much that the US is the enemy when it comes to global warming.  Listening to the true believers would have you think that we are JUST.BAD.PEOPLE.AND.BUSH.IS.EVIL. All the time forgetting that it was Clinton that failed to get that Kyoto treaty ratified (as Congress refused to vote for it, killing it 98-2, or so).

If you listened to the Europeans who have flapped their gums incessantly over the last few of years (not to mention our own homegrown "environment before humans" environmentalists), you'd think that they'd be pretty much emission free, right?  So, this must mean that the US has been chugging up a disaster - all the signatories of Kyoto must really be lowering their levels of the dreaded greenhouse gases, right?

Not so much! (H/T: RedState)

As this shows, we're not doing so bad.  More doers than talkers.  And that's the way it should be - less hot air....more results.  We do- they don't.  

So let's try this - how about the Kyoto signatories paying US for missing their targets?  After all, they'd certainly be trying the same if we were held accountable, right?