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Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom and how the Government is taking that away. As an evangelical Christian and Conservative with small "L" libertarian leanings, my fight is with Progressives forcing a collectivized, secular humanistic future upon us. As a TEA Party activist, citizen journalist, and pundit!, my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture.

Unease and Anxiety walks upon the land – Has a Preference Cascade started? Part 2

The conversation I had with the clerk today (er, just looked at the clock – yesterday) about what might be just over the horizon?  What set me off on this topic was a post I read a bit ago on Patheos by The Anchoress – “I expect the crowd in power to destroy everything…“.  She starts off referencing a post from Instapundit:

GOING JEAN GALT? Patrick Carroll writes:

I decided to take six months off this year. I sold stock and did what I wanted for a blissful six months. I read books, drank good wine, watched my garden, got out my high-powered binocs and looked at the planets, hiked, cooked, ate well, just lived. I did so because I expect the crowd in power to destroy everything, so I thought I’d take a break before the deluge…I also bought guns (rifle, shotgun, pistol each for the wife and I), and have contracted with a local landscaping company to build a highly-defensible, nice-looking (fence/hedge combination) perimeter for my property.

Oh, and I bought water barrels. And a propane tank. And a generator.

And then adds (emphasis removed, and added by me):

What’s interesting is that I am hearing similarly discomfited talk around me, and seeing it in my emails. In the past few weeks I’ve heard some surprising people admit they’ve been arming themselves and purchasing ammunition — one such discussion happened all around me at the hairdresser’s while I sat and listened. The stylist and his boss, they’re storing food and arming themselves. The chiropractor who popped in to say hello while taking his afternoon stroll said he is armed, too: “never in my life thought I’d have a gun in the house, now we have two.”

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Obama, you’re no Margaret Thatcher when it comes to Free Speech

Glen Reynolds over at Instapundit is just.all.over.this Obama #FAIL and the way it illustrates the hypocrisy that ReProgressives and Socialists have between the words they speak and what they want you to believe about them, and the actions that belie those words and public beliefs, as he floats all over the blogosphere and reports back:

Compare Margaret Thatcher and Rushdie to Obama and Nakoula.

When Salman Rushdie had a death fatwa pronounced on him for a novel considered insulting to Islam, Margaret Thatcher immediately ordered a protective detail to be sent to Rushdie, who took him to an undisclosed secure location. They have been protecting him ever since. Bear in mind that Rushdie had been a severe and vocal critic and political opponent of Thatcher.

Compare and contrast to Obama and Holder’s treatment of Nakoula.

Indeed.  Margaret rushed not just to defend a private citizen and his thoughts / speech (Salmon Rushdie) but more importantly, one of the primary pillars of Classical Western Liberalism: Free Speech. Sadly, it seems since that time, Britain has come to embrace a perverse version of Political Correctness in its stead, but at that time, Thatcher understood the power of Free Speech.

Frankly, so does Obama – and fears it.

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The Press response to the Naked Emperor…cover-up and deflection

And it has been going on for a long time: “Let’s talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards …as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there’s going to be this glow about them that some, is … Read more

Data Point – Muslim Protests (iteration…oh heck, I give up)

The news du jour is that the phenomenon of the Islamic Rage Boy has returned.  Once again, we see that the “Religion of Peace” is really the Religion-that-can’t-keep-itself-in-check.  The Atlantic Wire (via InstaPundit) has a map it is updating – here is the latest:

If you can’t keep track of all the Muslim protests erupting across the globe, you’re not alone. The uproar over a 14-minute anti-Islam YouTube video has sparked furious protests from Somalia to Egypt to Sudan to Tunisia to Libya to Bangladesh to Indonesia to Pakistan. With new reports of protests surfacing every minute, we’ve compiled the latest reported incidents into this handy interactive Google Map. Click the locations and embedded links for more details about each incident.

 And remember, Obama said he could solve this problem: “The Day I’m Inaugurated Muslim Hostility Will Ease”:

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Disturbing – why is Obama and his Administration defending Appeasement more than Free Speech?

A pillar of American Exceptionalism is that of Free Speech.  ALL speech is protected (caveat: other than what the Supremes have deemed not – re: “Fire”).  Why is it, at the first scream of faux outrage that has been manufactured by the Muslim equivalent of Community Organizers, Western Leaders fall onto THEIR embroidered kneepads  and act like they have to outrun the bear (as in that old joke “All I have to do is outrun you when the bear comes after both of us”).

The question of the day: WHY is first response of Obama (President of the United States of America, Protector of the US Constitution) , his feckless Secretary of State Hillary (also sworn to uphold the Constitution), his mouthpiece Jay Carney, and a multitude of pusillanimous of other lesser actors (with a requisite even lesser quality of character and lesser fealty to the First Amendment) NOT a robust defense of that part of what makes American Exceptional?  Why is it looking like they ALL are apologizing (er, aGAIN??) for what America stands for?

  • They have little regard for the meaning and purpose of the First Amendment to begin with
  • As self-avowed ReProgressives, they have little need or love TO defend such – it conflicts with their march forward to their Socialist end-game.
  • As in everything else they do, re-election is everything; NOTHING is more important than that (including that American principle).
  • Blame, blame, blame, blame (hey, don’t look at ME!).  NOTHING is ever their fault (er, does that mean that they are NEVER in control of any event)?

Scott had part of what Chief Flacker Carney – here is the fuller version:

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Yeah, this fits

We’ve kinda left the Chicago Teacher strike alone thus far.  To be sure, I think it is rather emblematic of the Blue Social model – large public unions pulling more and more from the taxpayers via in-the-Union-Pocket elected officials.

In this case, we have the CTU members earning an average wage of approximately $71-76K / year where the average taxpayer earns around $46K / year.  The union has rejected a 16% raise by Rahm Emmanual, Obama’s former Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago.  What the Union is NOT accepting is the whole notion of teacher evaluations and other reforms.

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Data Point – The Single most Accurate Indicator of Labor Market Health

Unleashing Democrat policies and fomenting Obamanomics results in a plague like disease seizing upon the Labor Market. The symptoms are oozing unemployment and fetid labor participation (i.e., how many people are actually trying to get a job).  From the Mercatus Center, George Mason University: The release of the June labor market data marks the third … Read more

Reason 2,301,456 why the Media is in the Democrat tank for Obama

Like I said here, the Mainstream Media always picks side in the political battles and will pretty much sink to the occasion of “fair and balanced” when spinning what should be straight news.  The graphic is right: In LIBYA for gosh sakes, where they just fought a major civil war and things STILL haven’t calmed down, there was no Marine contingent to protect US officials ON US SOVEREIGN SOIL?  What first seemed to be a “protest” has turned out to be planned, coordinated Al Qaeda operation over multiple locations?

You know, why is the MSM so taken with what ended up with an accurate portrayal of actual events by Romney and NOT what is important – why was this missed, why weren’t adequate steps taken for contingency planning (if this happens, do this; if that, do plan B – you know, doing some rudimentary “planning?), where was the intel lapse, why was Obama skipping out on his intel meetings, and so on?

Instead of substance, it was ‘surface” – it has all been a cover for Obama via “attack the messenger”?  This is not just a #FAIL for the Obama Doctrine and his Administration, but for the MSM for not just doing basic journalism – instead, they go all “opinion” on Romney’s butt as if this was all his fault.

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Nanny Staters / Progressives really do believe this – you ARE incapable of making rational decisions!

And they are happy to fix that situation….and in fact, demand that they be allowed to meddle in our lives.  After all:

Democrat NH House Rep. Kris Roberts of Keene uttered on the floor of Representative Hall these fine words concerning Government and his fellow citizens:

“Government has to protect us from our own stupidity.”

Many of the delegates at the recently completed Democrat National Convention agreed with this – they have no problem believing that people have the freedom to choose for themselves but only if they make the right decisions:

(H/T: Reason TV )

“I’m pro-intervention.”

Q: So people should only be allowed to make “good” choices?

A: No, people should make choices that have good results

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Barack Carter on foreign policy deftness

When the 3am calls came in, Obama skips his intel briefing AND went to go collect more campaign dollars – Vegas, baby! Governing – why?  RUNNING for an office is so much more fun than dealing with, well, the real aftermath of my policies… (H/T: IBD)

Data Point – US median Household Income

Remember, the Obama Administration hailed the announcement that the US recession ended in 2009: Should it not have started back up by now? (H/T: Powerline )

So, Ed Mosca has a bug up his **s, eh?

Ed Mosca Blog LogoFull Disclosure #1: We endorsed Josh Youseff for NH State Senate District 7.

Full Disclosure #2: Ed Mosca, the lawyer for Josh Youseff’s ex-wife AND the Legal Counsel for Office of the NH Speaker of the House.

Full Disclosure #3: Ed used to write here at GraniteGrok.  Then he started his own site: The Ed Mosca Blog (and I was sorry to see him leave)

Full Whining Alert #1: STOP WHINING, Ed!  Pull on yer Big Boy pants and consider that you’ve put yourself into this situation.

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Where the Publisher of the Laconia Daily Sun has to apologize for his reporter, Mike Kitch

I do feel sorry for Ed Engler, publisher of the Laconia Daily Sun, up here in the Lakes Region; but he’s ultimately responsible for the quality and correctness of the reporting and writing of his reporters.  He knows this blog post is going up because I just got off the phone with him.

While Ed is going to check to make sure, it seems that, even with the lack of a byline, the article above was written by (OF COURSE!) Mike Kitch – the guy with whom I’ve had words, most famously when he called me cold-hearted.

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Jimmy Carter had the Iran Embassy fiasco – now Obama has his Libyan and Egyptian one

He now has his 3am wake up call on 9-11, a day that most Americans still consider a stain on our history as Islamic Fundamentalists attacked their “Great Satan”.  Those jetliner hijackings back in 2001 sent the country into shock – and then howling for righteous retribution against those that had given succor and aid (Afghani Taliban) to those that planned and carried out the plan (Osama Bin Laden and Al Queada).  Regardless of you view of the Iraq war, the process of taking out OBL and AQ began.

On 9-11.  And now, Islamic radicals have attacked our sovereign soil in Libya and Egypt.  In the former, A US Ambassador has been killed, Christopher Stevens, in the American Consulate in Benghazi.  Two US Marines gave their lives to protect the embassy and and another US American as well.  Again, sovereign soil has been attacked.

How’s that Arab Spring working out fer ya, that “soft power”, that “smart diplomacy”, Prez and Hillary, eh?

The embassy in Cairo puts out the equivalent to a “diplomatic bow” to the Egyptian mobs, riled over an anti-Mohammed movie.  Once again, the “religion of peace” goes on the attack – taking down our flag over our embassy, hoisting the AQ flag, and generally acting like the 3rd world country mobs they are.  US Embassy tweets out:

We condemn the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims

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Not zookeeper – that would have meant Gov. Lynch could actually do something other than just being in the Corner.

Blue Hampshire is really starting to moan and groan: We have seen over the past two years that the Governor’s role is often that of zookeeper The past two years: republican super-majority in the NH House.  Republican super-majority in the NH Senate.  Republican super-majority on the NH Executive Council.  Gov. John “Do Nuthin” Lynch only … Read more

Quick take – enthusiasm gap in Gilford

Turnout was actually pretty good in my town yesterday, Primary Day here in NH.  There was a contentious issue in this town of 7,400- the purchase of yet another fire truck, to replace an engine that seemed not to get the correct maintenance, at the cost of $500,000.  This was an issue that was voted down during the regular town meeting but the Spenders in town decided not only that a used truck was “just not good enough,” but that they weren’t going to listen to the will of the people, and got a judge to authorize a Special Town Meeting to vote on the issue again – the proverbial “second bite of the apple”.

It lost by 10 votes in reaching a 60% majority – so it is dead and gone until the next regular Town Meeting.  Good.  It may be nice to have the best of everything but there is a cost to be borne – and some in Town have no cares about those who cannot continue to match the taxes for their spending.

At the same time, however, it showed a real soft underbelly for the upcoming November election – at least in my town; there is an enthusiasm gap between the democrats and the Republicans. Here’s a quick chart of the races and a comparison of the turnout:

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Notable Quote – Jay Nordlinger

Years ago, when running for the U.S. House, and then the Senate, Phil Gramm would say something to voters, if he had just a second with them. This would be on the street or at a fair or what have you. He’d say, “Hi, I’m Phil Gramm, and I’ll try to keep the government out … Read more

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