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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.

Occuppy Wall Street – if you’ve lost Harvard….

Frankly, Occupy Wall Street has pretty much left Occupy Wall Street (with, perhaps, the lone exceptions being San Francisco and Oakland as the only sites still making national news once in a while).  This did catch my eye – as there was an abortive attempt at Hahvahd University to have an Occupy outpost there as … Read more

Racists you say? Who’s the racist??

  Again, Liberals / Progressives / Pragmatists have one huge, obvious failure: consistency across issues.  This shows it quite easily.   Oh yes,  note that new word – Pragmatist.  They wore out Progressive last century,  switched to Liberal (but keeping the same policies and stances) and are NOW trying to switch to another word to … Read more

The Left: if you do not agree with us, WE WILL BEAT YOU UP!

Gee, how often has this been happening in Wisconsin lately?  I caught wind of this from The Blaze: “Man Allegedly Beaten After Removing Democrat Political Signs Placed in His Yard Without Permission”  but my Samsphere blogger friend Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit (who The Blaze referenced), has a MUCH better description for the malfeasance:

Democrat Judicial candidate Ernestina CruzSupport Democrat Ernestina Cruz

Or get a concussion.

Your choice.

The story from Taos, NM:

 

Summary (Jim’s accounting after the jump):

  • Democrat supporters put their signs in a yard without asking permission from the homeowner
  • Homeowner comes home, removes signs from yard, tries to return them
  • Democrat supporters beat him up in front of wife and son for “removing THEIR signs”
  • Candidate Ernestina Cruz says it was ““unfortunate” that Cunnyngham removed signs that “did not belong to him.”

So, Private Property Rights ONLY accrue to the Democrats’ signs?  What about the yard?  Sure, the guy wasn’t home when they decided to “stick it to him” the first time – didn’t the thought of “maybe we ought not to do this?” go through their heads?  Sounds like, at the least, poor event planning – which these supporters decided to double down and just use this guy’s property to support their gal.

And even worse, when he politely tries to return the signs, beat him to a pulp?  Double down redux.

The worst part of this, however, is that this is someone running to BE A JUDGE and she zeros on “HOW DARE HE MOVE MY SIGNS”?  As US Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayer may have put it – another “wise Latina”.  Equity?  Equality?  Blind Justice?  No – selfishness and entitlement (as in “I get to use / take your stuff as long as I know I have a better use for it”).

In other words, if I have better use for your property, I’ll fight you for it without an apology.

A typical Democrat.

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Communism – alive and well in the US; the State of Connecticut is giving them money and the AFL-CIO SuperPAC uses one of their names

Updated and Bumped:   It seems that people in CT, especially Veterans Groups, were as upset with this as I was (reformatted for space, some emphasis mine):

Sen. Suzio Declares Victory for Vets & Taxpayers after Gov. Pulls Controversial New Haven Bond Item

State Sen. Len Suzio (R-Meriden) today issued the following statement after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pulled from the State Bond Commission’s agenda a controversial measure to give $300,000 in state money to a communist-led nonprofit in New Haven.  “When you push hard, fight for what’s right and keep the drumbeat going, you get results. “Earlier this year, we were told we would never be able to cap the state’s rising gas tax. Many thought we would give up, yet we made that happen. “Today’s action by the governor proves that when people are given leadership and a voice, they cannot be denied.  “To the scores of taxpayers – especially the many veterans groups – who spoke out against this bond item: Congratulations. Your voices were heard.  “You spoke out against giving $300,000 of your money to refurbish the headquarters for the Communist Party in Connecticut. You called the governor’s office. You wrote letters to the editor. You rallied in front of the organization, waving flags and patriotic signs.  “Without your voices, this item would have passed. You sent a message today. You got results. Thank you.”

*****

We fought the Cold War against this totalitarian ideology that killed between 50 and 75 million of their own citizens.   Yet, given the proclivities of Democrat Party to push this country away from our Founders vision and towards socialism anyways, why am I not surprised at the actions of the Democrat Governor of Connecticut is sending them taxpayer money (emphasis mine):

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College Kids – getting the first bruntal financial slap by Obamacare

Remember, the HHS mandate by Secretary Sebelius was that even the healthcare insurance at Catholic universities (Franciscan University and Ave Maria University) had to offer contraceptives, abortifacients, sterilizations, and abortions – after all, it wasn’t an abridgement of conscience that was being sundered but that if they didn’t, Catholics theology was waging “the war on women”.

However, this is the flip side of Obamacare “war on the young” – the young are going to start bearing the brunt of the costs as all of the “mandates needed for basic healthcare needs” start rearing their spikes (from the Wall Street Journal):

 Some colleges are dropping student health-insurance plans for the coming academic year and others are telling students to expect sharp premium increases because of a provision in the federal health law requiring plans to beef up coverage.

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Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Progressives – their newest GOTV: “Rock the Slut Vote”

You Might Be A Slut GirlOy vay! Sluts-o-rama time again!  We’ve previously posted about the word “sluts” for a bit here (here, here, here, here, here, here), ever since Sandra Fluke decided that having others pay for those items that give her “freedom” to exercise her sexual activities (other peoples’ freedom to conscience, religious liberty, and the Right to their own Private Property not withstanding).

Well, this post by Steve should set the table for this current post, as once again, it is about voting sluts.  No, not a Slut political Party trying to be formed, or that Conservatives should be scared that Sluts are being rounded up to vote against them.  Rather, it is an aging boomer, trying to rally “sluts” a la the tired MTV ever present “Rock the Vote,” to sign up college kids to go vote against their own interests (in the long run).  I present “Rock the Slut Vote” (note the URL: WarOnWomen – catchy, eh?) with the tag line of  “We believe women who unite and vote will rock the world.”

But only if you are a slut? After the jump is a list, a la Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if” on who is a slut.  Yikes!

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GrokTV Special Interview: Josh Youssef for NH State Senate. Question 4: Devolvement of power back to the local level from Concord? And unfunded mandates?

To a large degree, the voters kicked out the extreme spending Democrats in 2010 and decided that Republicans would be better at governing the State.  Part of what the Republicans have done is to try to return power, that the Democrats gathered into Concord, back to local communities.  I asked Josh about his stance on … Read more

I remember when….

Like all teenaged boys getting ready to get their license, I started to look at the costs of cars.  I know this will date me, but my high school days were the early ’70s.  This from Instapundit brought back a couple of memories: ALEX NUNEZ likes the Kia Rio. “Man, if you’re in the market … Read more

The unions have been defining “the Middle Class” as themselves – so what happens when members become UMINOs?

UMINOs – Union Members in Name Only (e.g., still belonging to the Union, but no longer paying the dues?)

I saw this a couple of days ago and didn’t blog it then because I got distracted.  However, I think it is a very important turning point in the Union political battles and that it shows a major chink in the vaunted “Solidarity Forever!” that is constantly blasted out in the political and cultural realms.  Frankly, this gives lie to the union yell of “Mighty, Mighty Union!” we hear at protests – the only takeaway from this news is now going to be “Mighty, Mighty Poorer!”.

I think this is rather amusing myself – after all the trouble and money spent by Unions all over the country as Right To Work efforts have become law in several states (alas, not here in NH because of some squishy Republicans not understanding that they were actually keeping their political foes strong and flush with political funds from their members’ dues by not following Gov. Scott Walker’s example in this).  And of course, the most well known state is that of Wisconsin where the Left is going all in AGAIN to try to stop “the destruction of the unions by Republicans!”.

This is just laughable – as they have a much more serious problem (as reported by the Wall Street Journal (paywall) via American Thinker).  Solidarity?  Not so much – given the chance, given the Freedom to Choose (after all, what IS freedom but the ability to choose among alternatives and letting someone choose something that satisfies their own needs and self-interests?), union members are choosing to not pay their union bills (emphasis mine):

Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-the state’s second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers-fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed AFSCME’s figures. A spokesman for AFSCME declined to comment.

Much of that decline came from AFSCMECouncil 24, which represents Wisconsin state workers, whose membership plunged by two-thirds to 7,100 from 22,300 last year.

A provision of the Walker law that eliminated automatic dues collection hurt union membership. When a public-sector contract expires the state now stops collecting dues from the affected workers’ paychecks unless they say they want the dues taken out, said Peter Davis, general counsel of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

In many cases, AFSCME dropped members from its rolls after it failed to get them to affirm they want dues collected, said a labor official familiar with AFSCME’s figures. In a smaller number of cases, membership losses were due to worker layoffs.

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I can agree with John Hawkins on these!

‘Grok friend John Hawkins from RightWingsNews has a list of 20 things that he, as a Conservative, believes in for his latest TownHall column.  Here’s a few of my Likes – but as always, GRTWT:

1) Any illegal alien caught in this country should be forever barred from legally visiting this country, working here, or becoming an American citizen.

18) The whole purpose of our immigration system should be to benefit the Americans who are already here. Therefore, we should favor the best and brightest emigrants from Western cultures. Other immigrants to this country who get in because of family ties should have someone who’s willing to vouch for them and take care of them if they have hard times. No naturalized American citizens should ever be eligible for food stamps, welfare, school lunches, or any other hand-outs from their fellow citizens.

I don’t care that the reason is to feed his family back home or to provide a better future for their kids (what father or mother wouldn’t if the DREAM act is codified into law?).  If the first act of coming to this country is to flagrantly flount our laws, you do not deserve to be here.  I know too many who have spent the time, money, and heartache to go through our LEGAL immigration system properly (including Grokster Mike who is getting close to being a naturalized citizen!!!) to EVER countenance illegal immigration.

We can thank Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy for changing the rules that Society became responsible for immigrants instead of sponsors or families.  We should go back to 1965 and revoke that change.

2) If you take welfare or food stamps or if your kids have to get free meals at school, you should be ashamed. Your kids should feel ashamed by your failure, too.

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Internet Doodlings – Once again, back at Treehugger…this time, Mayor Bloomberg soda ban

Ah yes, the Nanniest of them all, Mayor “Do as I say, not as I do” Bloomberg wants to ban large capacity soda servings.  One more thing that “It’s good for you to NOT drink all that” as if sugary water is the worst thing EVAH!   Hey Bloomberg – how about concentrating on stuff that Mayors are supposed to concentrate on that would be more important – like murders and crime?  Potholes?  What about your failing public school system – what was your graduation rate again? Oh yeah, a rate of 65% but not ready for college:

Sixty-one percent of city students who started high school in 2006 graduated on time in 2010, compared with 59 percent of those who started in 2005 and graduated in 2009.

But only 21.4 percent of those students earned high enough scores on their math and English state tests to be deemed prepared for college and well-paying careers.

That’s the [success] ticket!  If 78% of your grads can’t go directly to college, that’s not properly educating your students (a MAJOR part of your responsibility).  Yet, that is of lesser importance than grabbing big cups of soda out of the hands of folks in your city?

Anyways, back to the Treehugger post (which isn’t as bad as some of the pro-ban pandering I’ve read):

When if comes down to it, the ban would only be an inconvenience for the die-hard soda drinkers. If you really want to drink 32 ounces of Coke, no one is going to stop you from ordering two.

Your ability to choose what YOU want?  Not so much.  They don’t see it as individual freedom issue – rather, an infringement on the collective having to pay for the bad habits of all us fat people.  My response:

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GrokTV Special Interview: Josh Youssef for NH State Senate. Question 3: Philosophical: more in favor of self-governance vs the Progressive external governance?

Given Josh’s answer to the second question, I just had to ask the quintessential philosophical question that can go to the heart of “are you a Conservative or are you a Progressive?” – who controls you?  What governs your behavior?  And is one better than another? Previous Questions: Question 1: Why are you running? Question … Read more

Is this starting to show that Obama isn’t a good enough manager of the economy?

Obama-Unemployment May 2012As if we already didn’t know it.  He keeps blaming Bush for the economy he inherited; I remember the economy that Reagan inherited too.  Reagan merely said “let’s get down to working at making it work” and produced one of the (if not THE) largest recoveries ever in US history.  It did take a while, but he didn’t whine about things the way that Obama has.  In three and a half years, the only time he has acknowledged that he would be held accountable is when he said “If I don’t have this done in three years, there is going to be a one term proposition“.

They why does he keep insisting “HEY!  It’s NOT MY FAULT”?  It has been one excuse after another: Bush, Europe, the weather, a tsumani, Republicans (even as he “owned” Congress as Democrats controlled it before he was elected  and for his first two years) and at a cost of over $800 Billion.  Meanwhile, the latest jobs report yesterday shows his Administration’s continued ineptitude in setting up and implementing the policies in the best way to help American families: setting those conditions that make it easiest to get a job.

People don’t like whiners, Mr. President, they want results.  I understand that Government does not create jobs – it does, simply because of its size and its rule / law ability, set the environment that tells others the conditions under which they can operate and thus, decide to hire.  What the market is saying is “Mr President, we find your environment wanting, and wanting too much from us in believing you will do the right things.  Thus, we will wait”.  Now, one month upwards is not a trend, but it is indicative that even a President and all the smartest Progressive ideas can implement a command and control system that would truly meet the needs of the nation’s businesses that are, in turn,  supposed to meet the needs of over 300 million consumers.

I expect that soon, Mr. Obama will soon revert to bashing business for “not caring about American families” by hiring the unemployed” and continuing his class warfare scorched earth policies.  Bashing may indeed be a campaign strategy but it is not an economic one – too bad (for all of us) that Obama doesn’t understand the difference.

The problem is that there are just 6 months left in this campaign – while most people DON’T want to get involved in politics, they are paying attention to the economics coming up to the vote.  And they will do the one thing that often Liberals decry – they will vote their self-interest and their wallets.  Politics is fine but for most, taking care of their family is job one.  And they will ensure that the person best suited to enable that will get the nod.

And this above result is not going to cement the feeling that Obama is up to the job.

(H/T: Instapundit)

The hard data:

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