GraniteGrok

Grant Bosse, the NH Watchdog, on the issue of free speech and Internet anonymity:

Over at Blue Hampshire, JimC is upset at the radio host Howie Carr is trying to find out the identity of an anonymous critic, and has offered a $2,000 reward.

[snip]

JimC and I had a little colloquy about anonymity and the Internet back in August, but that case involved a court order in a possible defamation case.

There is no First Amendment issue here, because there is no government involvement. Whether this case is an attack of press freedom apart from the First Amendment is a separate question, but I still don't think it rises to a threat on journalism.

Read the rest here. As you might expect, Bosse quite ably explains himself...

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Big government healthcare, DMV style? COUNT ME IN! [not]

[H/T Lennie J]

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New Hampshire Republican Chairman John H. Sununu urged New England Republican activists to “rub [the Democrats’] noses in every trivial issue” during a GOP forum in Rhode Island this weekend.

Sununu also told Republicans “not to be polite,” according to the Providence Journal.
“Every time they burp,” Sununu said, “we explain why that burp is bad for America.”

Sununu’s comments come at a time when partisan conflict appears to be at an all time high in the Granite State.

Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes (NH-02), who is running for Senate, recently referred to opponents of President Obama’s health care reform plan “the Flat Earth Society.” Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) has referred to them as “tea-baggers” and has inaccurately accused Republicans of lying when they pointed out she was forcibly removed from a 2005 George W. Bush town hall meeting. A NowHampshire.com exclusive news report confirms she was removed by the local police. Shea-Porter has also falsely accused former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte of conspiring with “tea baggers” to protest a recent visit to Portsmouth.

Democratic State Chairman Ray Buckley has referred to tea party protesters as “an unhinged mob.”

Yeah, Democrats. YOU SUCK!!!! STOP RUINING MY STATE AND COUNTRY!!!

Heh! We DO like this chairman, who's unafraid to take it to the Dems and liberals in an effort to stop them. [Unlike the last person in that position, Fergus Cullen, who always reserves his greatest disdain for conservatives...]

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Diana West, writes in today's Washington Examiner on "how to 'lose' Afghanistan and win the war."

And what war would that be? Since 9/11, the answer to this question has eluded our leaders, but it remains the missing link to a cogent U.S. foreign policy.

It is not, as our presidents vaguely invoke, a war against "terrorism," "radicalism," or "extremism"; and it is not, as the current hearts-and-minds-obsessed Afghanistan commander calls it, "a struggle to gain the support of the [Afghan] people."

It is something more specific than presidents describe, and it is something larger than the outlines of Iraq or Afghanistan. The war that has fallen to our generation is to halt the spread of Islamic law (Shariah) in the West, whether driven by the explosive belts of violent jihad, the morality-laundering of petro-dollars, or decisive demographic shifts.

Read the entire piece here. She lays out the steps we MUST take if we're going to ultimately win this thing-- meaning the war against Sharia, not some nation-building stint in the Islamic World. What other choice do we have, but victory? The alternative is to submit... West lays out some hard realities and solutions. One wonders if our country can ever summon up the will... and the right leadership necessary to cary it out. I have my doubts.

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Parting thought: Does it make me a bad person to have felt an urge to celebrate when I found out Chicago DIDN'T land the '16 Olympics? Am I alone in this?