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Heh!  This ought to be fun.  First Jack Flanagan goes after an activist (and ‘Grok friend) by calling him a Democrat Lemming  (wrong thing to do, btw) and then decides to slag us at the same time.  Well, stay tuned as we can play this game all. day. long.  And Jack Flanagan? Is that REALLY how you treat your constituents?  Really?

From an email thread sent to me (mostly anonymized, emphasis mine).  It starts off with an activist telling their House Reps voting the right way by voting NO on the rule change that would have made it much harder to have roll call votes on motions / Amendments / Bills.  First to all

While roll call voting is not necessary for every single item that requires a vote, if someone in the legislature feels it is important or helpful or appropriate to have a roll call vote so WE can know how YOU are voting, it should not be made more difficult than the standard that is currently in place to do so. Voting to make it more difficult by increasing the number of people it takes to second the motion for a roll call  =  voting for secrecy, enabling yourself to “hide” from your constituents, dishonesty, non-transparency, distrust and division. Why would you want to do that unless you have something to hide. We have the absolute right to know what is going on up there and by whom.

VOTE NO ON THE RULES CHANGE. VOTE NO.

I agree whole heartedly – you REPRESENT us and if we can’t verify how you vote, we can’t know how well you are representing us.  If it all.  And then just to their reps:

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Remember, it was the erstwhile NH House “Majority” Leader Jack Flanagan who invited us to this game.   This was just sent in speaking to

I was on a committee where Flanagan was for a while. He is very “moderate,” i.e. squishy. He admits that his district doesn’t like conservative Republicans (I don’t buy it, but he justifies his big-government votes with that). He is no friend of Liberty. His idea of “Republican values” is far from mine, but that is the Big Tent for you.

Squishy.  Translation – will o’the wisp where ever the political winds blow.  Sticking a wet finger up into the political breeze is my visualization – not exactly a winning attribute for a Leader that folks actually look up to the position earned (remember, Jack Flanagan was NOT elected to the position – he had to be appointed by the Democrat appointed Speaker Jasper).

Big-government votes?  I Trust the person that sent this to me and their reputation as a Limited Govt personage is impeccable.  For him to say that has the alarm bells ringing. So gosh, what does the NH GOP Platform say about that?  Let’s see:

We, the people of the New Hampshire Republican Party, do stand united in our dedication to preserving freedom, limited government and unlimited opportunity for all.

We can through this one as well:

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More emailing today than postings, so a chance to combine the two.  And it comes up with a single “what if” supposition.  Again, reference back to my Pat Caddell “ready to quit” and the notices about the “3” and the “4” (slightly edited):

… the NH GOP just doesn’t get how close many of its activists are just ready to quit.  Yet, they just keep doing the same things. I can only surmise that they want a new GOP base – one that doesn’t complain and just votes the way they’re told.  They just don’t seem to want to play chess and look forward a few moves [if they got that base]…

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The problem is that the vast majority of politicians and those in Govt are often SO quick to start the groupthink of “hey, paid this off – that’s the signal to turn around and buy more debt!”.  It always seems to be the mindset that Govt should always be funding itself more INSTEAD of thinking “Hey, let’s give the taxpayers’ wallets a break by lowering taxes for a while”.  Saw it all the time when I was on my hamlet’s Budget Committee.  Thus, when I saw this, I kept marveling “wouldn’t this be nice if ALL levels of Government adopted this“?

Mishawaka is officially a debt-free city

Mishawaka now joins a seemingly small club of debt-free American cities, according to a release from the mayor’s office. This means some minor savings for homeowners come property tax time, and everyone is invited to a “Debt Retirement Party” on Friday.

Here is the full release:

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My previous post on Pat Caddell’s observation on the anger among the GOP grassroots (“up to one-third of Republicans are ready to call it quits as members of the GOP“) elicited an inbound email  directed towards the NH GOP (emphasis mine) – a real life example of calling it quits:

Just finished your article on Republicans having come to the end of their rope. My interpretation, not especially yours. I could not agree with you more. I worked very hard to get Republicans elected both in the state and on the national level.

I am a Fox News junkie and find Pat Caddell to be an honest observer of what is happening. Even though he is a Democrat, he is fair in his reporting. I cannot agree more with his assessments. After hard work to get our candidates elected for our district you can imagine how we felt when the NH House speakership was “stolen” from our candidate. Within 3 days I had emails from several of our members that they were going down to the town hall to register as an “undeclared” and to hell with our party…the NH GOP <will>be the big losers.

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An alternative title: REPUBLICAN Belanger adopts the Progressive view of that everyone must be punished for the sin of one (or a few).  It IS the Progressive modus operandi- we must INSTRUCT the people to behave correctly to achieve our Progressive “Heaven on Earth” (which is, pretty much, the Socialist one). After all, it wasn’t enough to have passed a law last session that requires hands free operation, forcing people to either buy a Bluetooth headset – or a new car with hands free capability.

And now having bought such with your hard earned money, NH State Rep. Belanger is going to waste your money by not allowing you to use those shiny new things.  His bill, HB103 is:

HOUSE BILL 103

AN ACT limiting the capabilities of wireless communication devices in motor vehicles.

SPONSORS: Rep. J. Belanger, Hills 27

COMMITTEE: Science, Technology and Energy

ANALYSIS

This bill requires the email and texting capabilities of a wireless communication device to be disabled if the device is moving more than 5 miles per hour. The restriction shall not take effect unless 2 New England states adopt similar legislation

For the almost non-existent driving sin of texting / emailing while driving, everyone else in the car must be punished as well (yeah, there is no “not driver” exception in this).  Let’s 

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…that the estimate that one-quarter to one-third are hanging on by a thread is a conservative one…

Once again, I bring up my little vignette:

Me: there are Republicans out there they are no longer voting nor donating to the Party.  They’ve quit.

She: Well, why ARE they doing that??  Don’t they realize that this will allow Democrats to be elected?

<snip>

She: They HAVE to care – Democrats will win if they just stay home.  Don’t they realize that?

Me: You’re not listening to me, and haven’t been for a while.  You have made them not care.  Why SHOULD they care when Republicans do things at cross-purposes to what they say they stand for?  Why should they support candidates that, in the end, don’t support their beliefs?  When they don’t see their beliefs being advanced?…

I have watched Democrat pollster Pat Caddell more then a few times over the last few years.  Yes, a Democrat but an HONEST one, so if he’s seeing this in his polling, it is confirmation of what I’ve been hearing from too many Republican promises made and then reneged on (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Fox News contributor and Democratic pollster Pat Caddell told Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that up to one-third of Republicans are ready to call it quits as members of the GOP.

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Much has been made of this current Congress not able to pass legislation – as if that was their major Constitutional mandate.  Certainly the media does believe that as well as Progressives and Big / Bigger Government lovers for it seems that “the masses” need to be controlled, that they are children that need direction from their betters.  So a chart like this:

…believes there is a lack of governance, that Government only works when “stuff gets done”.  It doesn’t for me because all it has become is a Money Transfer Mechanism – taking over $1 Trillion / year (when you look at the Federal budget) from some to give to others for “Social Justice” purposes that used to be called “the dole”.  It’s simply an expression of the Progressive “Freedom from need” – you cannot be free if you have worry (at all) about anything.  Freedom from need, freedom from want – let someone else provide for you.

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Recounted to me this weekend by the Eldest’s girlfriend (“the EG”) who has two children.  She’s been working on getting a degree in special education and a couple of other things on the side – she really does want to better herself.  Being a vet, she is unhappy that she has to be needy on the Feds – she wants to be independent and self-reliant.  She’s grateful for the assistance but REALLY want to provide for herself and her two little ones.

So she’s been working hard, being diligent, and yes, it’s hard juggling the kiddos, studying, and doing all the normal things in life including managing (juggling) grants and loans for school.  She had to go in and see her social worker, who answered that question in the image “Do Federal Social Programs Work?”

I think this response by her social worker says it all:

“Forget school – drop out and then you don’t have to struggle so hard.  Just stay on TANF – you’ll get more money, actually“

The EG was RIPPED. 

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Frank Guinta has a BIG decision to make this week – his vote for US House Speaker.  Yes, once again, politics turns to Speaker elections – Concord, Washington, same deal (sorta?  mostly?) .  Whose agenda will the next Speaker put forward – the majority Republican (which grew more conservative this election) or the Democrat one (re: all those waifish pleas for “compromise” now that the Dems (here in Concord and in DC) really find themselves in the legislative minorities).  Grokster Mike covered the US House Speaker election here:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) spoke to Tucker Carlson on Fox & Friends about the need for someone to step up and run against Speaker Boehner in this new Congress. He echoed what many House Members are saying that there needs to be new leadership, not just the status quo and he is happy to accept the challenge.

Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker has more on Gohmert (who I happen to have a favorable response to as well):

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Yup, the Left always complains about the amounts of money spent in political campaigns and that we HAVE to move to public financing of such, well, because MONEY! This is something that I abhor – why should MY tax monies be given to move forward an agenda that is antithetical to me (or visa versa, as the case may be)?  There is NO free speech in that, nor choice either.  Instead, like all things handed to the Govt, it will become all-about-the-politics because MONEY!  And influence, and power.  After the IRS targeting Conservative / TEA Party group scandal (that sought to limit free speech only on one side of the divide), WHY would I Trust my government to act differently now that it has become politically weaponized?

But for the record, here’s the money takes:

As you can see, the top two donors ponied up over $100 million and are on the Left.  My response? 

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Per usual, Steve has had the entire show’s audio podcast up for a while; keep watching as he breaks it out to each segment and I’m betting there’ll be a few GrokSHOTS! outa this one as well.  In the mean time, here’s the video from the show and as you can see, a new format for a new year:

• Segment 1: Right to the meat of things:
  • Legislative Update from the NH House from NH State Rep Guy Comtois – hijinks at play; are we seeing a stealth takeover by the Democrats from the Republican Majority running through the Democrat appointed Speaker Jasper ALREADY?  This will be a recurring segment on GrokTALK! this new year
  • Second Amendment Update from Grokster Susan Olsen – are the NH gun groups now presenting a united front on the gun bills moving through Concord?  Sacre bleu!

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