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“…but blankets them with so much regulation that they are no longer really independent operators..”

I’ve been saying this for a while: Dodd-Frank is the financial service industry version of Obamacare.  Well before  Scott Brown made a big deal about his vote against Obamacare (a good thing) in starting his run for US Senate from here in NH  but has tried to poo-poo his vote for Dodd-Frank. Certainly an unexplainable vote for him (“our system was in meltdown” said in a half-hearted way to me is NO explanation at all).  In effect, Dodd-Frank will as severely handcuff and nationalize control of our financial system by political hacks just like those same hacks have done to our healthcare system.  Thus, when I read this, my reaction was “well, boys, welcome to Club Obvious, late as you are” (reformatted, emphasis mine):

How ‘Dodd-Frank’ is becoming the new ‘Obamacare’

<snip>

If you don’t know what the Dodd-Frank Act is, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)told an audience last weekend, “it’s Obamacare for banks.” Ryan, outgoing chairman of the House Budget Committee, was echoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who’s been using that expression since at least April (and he used it again Wednesday night). Expect to hear the expression more, particularly once a new, probably-Republican-led Senate takes over on Capitol Hill in January.

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I thought that only stuff was called “pollution” is that made by Humankind, as the Enviros keep castigating us for “despoiling Nature”.  So who are they gonna legislate against when it is Nature “polluting” Nature?  Kindofa head scratching moment here – how are they gonna force a volcano to install a sulfer scrubber on itself?? Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Gas-Spewing Icelandic Volcano Stuns Scientists
The sulfur-rich eruption defied preparations for an ashy blast

Icelandic sunrises and sunsets have been tinged blood red, of late. Above the maritime bustle of Reykjavik’s harbour and the city’s towering concrete Hallgrímskirkja church, volcanic pollution gives the skies an eerie glow.  For eight weeks, lava has been spurting out of a fissure in the ground radiating from the Bárðarbunga volcano, about 250 kilometers from Reykjavik. Sulphur dioxide has been spurting too — 35,000 tons of it a day, more than twice the amount spewing from all of Europe’s smokestacks. The gas has spread across the Icelandic countryside, causing people to wheeze and trapping some indoors.

Isn’t this just Nature being, you know, Nature?  And if Nature is doing it, shouldn’t it be a good thing?   But I dryly take note of that bit that Nature is swamping the efforts of the developed world spending BILLIONS of bucks to get rid of their pollution in the EU while this volcano is “guilty” of this heinous crime against Nature.  Doesn’t it just about shines a flashlight, to a degree, on Man’s hubris that we can control climate affecting pollution just on our say-so.

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Tuesday is coming and there will be NO way that the NH GOP can blame the TEA Party for these actions – or their results.

From State House Dome, I’ve taken and bulletized how the NH GOP decided to assist their candidates for their NH State Senate seats – reformatted and emphasis mine:

If you want to know what the hot state Senate races are, all you have to do is follow the money the state GOP is dumping into mail, radio and digital ads in the last week.

• Andy Sanborn – incumbent: $37,000 (“including $15,000 for radio ads, $17,000 for mailers and more than $3,000 on digital ads”)
• Kathy Rago – newcomer: $34,000 (“$16,000 on radio ads, and the rest of mailers” ($18K) )
• Sam Cataldo – incumbent: $30,000 (“$15,000 in radio ads and $3,000 in digital ads in”)
• David “”I’m too drunk” Boutin – incumbent: $30,000
• Nancy Stiles – incumbent: $26,000
• Jerry Little – newcomer: $24,000

In his write up, I read this next bit and thought – big bucks must be here!

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During the show (Segment 1), I brought up a few headlines – here’s the links and a snippet from each

Kaci Hickox: Ebola’s Sandra Fluke

<snip> Fluke was unabashed in her demands, citing $3,000 in birth control expenses as one of the reasons Americans should be forced to finance contraception for women who feel others should fund their sex lives… After well-deserved criticism and much controversy, with the help of Democrat handlers, Sandra became the left’s spokeswoman in the fabricated “war on women” and was elevated to the status of patron saint of polycystic ovary disease awareness.  The epitome of liberal activism, Ms. Fluke made it quite clear that her desire for free birth control took precedence over the religious convictions of those she felt should be forced to foot the bill for her contraceptives.

<snip>Liberals like Kaci love for government oversight to be enforced on everyone else, but when government tries to dictate something they would rather not do, like pay for their own contraceptives or stay indoors for 21 days, liberals cry the loudest…

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In my mind, my vote is an endorsement.

Puts the act of voting in a whole new light, doesn’t it?  Think about that – we give endorsements here at the ‘Grok because we think those candidates believe as we do.  We want them to win by lending our voices to theirs.  We hope that the folks that read us and Trust us will consider our endorsement and vote for that person, or set of people, as well.  We have changed our endorsing paradigm.  It is not to just have a person win, but to say “we Trust this person – we don’t have to worry how they will vote on important issues”. Plainly said, “We can always count on that person”.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, then THIS was the next line:

My vote says nothing less than that “I trust this person with my life and the lives of my loved ones.”  

Oof.  Gut punch – and gut check, isn’t it?  Puts the act of voting in a whole new light, doesn’t it? Translation:

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That is the ENTIRE linchpin – to unhook the morality of their lifestyle from the Bible based morality that presents (to them) a huge barrier.  Houston Mayor Anise Parker does not want that juxtaposition to happen after the utter stupidity of believing that she could steamroll Houston’s Christian clergy over their resistance to her “Bathroom Bill” ordinance – allowing any gender into any bathroom based on “feelings” of the moment as to who they think they are.  Subpeonas were issued for five of the Pastors sermons, texts, postings; anything that mentioned LGBT, her, homosexuality, or the ordinance.  It was an act of intimidation.  Well, after the national brouhaha she caused by obviously putting that LGBT “rights” and her political authority over First Amendment Freedom of Expression, she backed down and recalled those subpoenas.  Curious, though, was her raison d’etre:

“That was the most persuasive argument, because to me it was, ‘What is the goal of the subpoenas?’ The goal of the subpoenas is to defend against a lawsuit, and not to provoke a public debate,” Parker said. “I don’t want to have a national debate about freedom of religion when my whole purpose is to defend a strong and wonderful and appropriate city ordinance against local attack, and by taking this step today we remove that discussion about freedom of religion.”

I think she realizes that for her to “win”, she must crimp the enumerated Right to worship, a Right of conscious (a TRUE Right as opposed to a mere ordinance) of those of faith.  While there are a lot of “mainstream” church denominations that have gone to a social gospel basis

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Yeah, James Pindell certainly made himself the story of the US Senate debate – and it went national – when he decided he knew NH’s geography better than Brown (e.g., Sullivan County).  But really, when the most Leftward leaning cable networks, MSNBC, goes after you with one of the most Leftward leaning “journalists”,  National Public Radio’s Cokie Roberts, there’s a BIG Problem:

Roberts said on MSNBC—after Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarboroughroundly criticized the moderators—that “this is why people hate the press.”

Well, then!  I could go and snark out “look in a mirror much, Roberts?” and go on and on that there’s a whole bunch of examples on which to rest that charge but that wouldn’t cover it much – poll after poll says that the average Joe has little regard at ALL for the media.  But this next bit – OUCH!

“Having that little guy just sort of ask that same little question over and over again like that and he was just trying to be so smart, and I think he [Scott Brown] handled very it well,” Roberts said. “He didn’t go the Christie route and say ‘enough with Sullivan County.’ He said ‘no, with all due respect,’ and he didn’t get flustered by it. That was the point—the point was to fluster him and show him as a carpetbagger. I think that is the biggest strike against him [Brown]. But it ended up being a much bigger strike against the member of my trade.”

Gee, lots of words that could be summarized by one 4 letter word:

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Is it the Party Elite and apparatchik that are the “life of the Party” or is it the actual candidates, their supporters, and the voters that are the most important?

I found this rather interesting from NHPR: New Players Shake Up The Campaign Ground Game In N.H. It goes into Big Data Democratization that is going on as a continuation of the Disruptive Technology that the Internet has become – no longer is data the monopoly domain of the two big Parties.  Anyone that is clever, technically oriented, and attract like minded political folks can be their own folks.  Decentralization, like a lot of other areas of our lives, has been making inroads into the political process.  And down near the end is this (reformatted, emphasis mine):

…“These groups have an interest in New Hampshire because of our unique role in the presidential primary,” said Karen Hicks, a Democratic strategist who helped pioneer the modern-era of data-driven voter contact when she directed Howard Dean’s New Hampshire primary campaign in 2004.  She says the outside groups can be most effective in motivating slices of the electorate that really matter in mid-term elections, and in crowded presidential primaries.

“Because if Americans for Prosperity or any of these other groups can help even at a marginal level being influential with three, four, five percent of the vote that makes a big difference when nobody’s walking out of here with more than 22 percent or something like that,” she said.

Years ago, my GraniteGrok co-founder said that there would come a time when the smaller outside-the-Parties groups would 

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Sorry, but Steve’s post title was too good to pass up on.  Yes, the truth wins out and Scott Brown was right and James Pindell was wrong about the geography of Sullivan County here in NH.  Or, the alternative view was that they are both right (Sullivan County is BOTH West and North of Concord, NH) but refused the fact that Northwest satisfies both conditions.  Any ways, James Pindell admits his mistake.

Here is where I’d ordinarily put up the video but I’m done wasting time dissecting WMUR’s code to yank it out, so I’m not even gonna bother  to link it (let them beat their own chests on it) but here is the transcript:

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I really like the one that Steve has up – a bit “non Halloween-ish” but if you have to go off topic, go patriotic!   However, once again deciding that political and government issues MUST be thrust into every area of our privates lives comes the US Department of Energy.  Never leave ANY occasion alone in which to push that Obama “fundamentally transforming” messaging in “here is how you SHOULD live your lives”. Your sense of a private life does not exist in the Progressive reality:

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Sad, very said, that a ragtag group of bloggers deal with video better than the NH Dem Party whose Chair, Ray Buckley, brings in millions.  Sad state of affairs indeed, except we are WAY more motivated than he is.  Got the following in the InnerTubes email:

Flip side after the jump.  But it wasn’t David Boutin’s mug shot that got me – it was the website – BoutinBarroomBreakdown.com!

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Just like the hue and cry, the sturm und drang that Republicans in both chambers that promised, over and over, that Obamacare would be repealed just as soon as they controlled the US House and Senate.  You surely must remember that back in 2010 and 2012, right?  Number one rally cry, number one campaign promise, number one fund raiser line (methinks in hindsight, only the last one was pertinent).  Now, what does “Maybe soon to be Senate Majority Leader” McConnell say about that repeal?

On Obamacare, McConnell stated “obviously, he’s [Obama’s] not going to sign a full repeal, but there are pieces of it that are extremely unpopular with the American public that the senate ought to have a chance to vote on, repealing the medical device tax, trying to restore the 40-hour workweek, voting on whether or not we should continue the individual mandate, which people hate, detest and despise.”

So, what’s this new shiny object?  From Brietbart TV:

MCCONNELL: WE’LL USE PURSE POWER TO ‘RESTRAIN’ EXECUTIVE AMNESTY

Does ANYONE that has had even a trifle more than an inkling of what has gone on the last few years really believe that?

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