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Skip So, from the last exchange, we see that the Selectmen, a la Occupy Wall Street philosophy, have no problem in targeting a citizen just because they can classify that citizen as “part of the 1%). Certainly, we see this emanating from the Oval Office and from the Progressive Caucus in Congress – how DARE the successful not pay their fair share and how cold hearted they must be to want smaller government (which would be less expensive and cost them less in taxes). My response to that:
I have, over and over, had one major complaint about the MSM – I have no problem in them asking hard questions of Republicans. In fact, the harder the better; I only wish that they’d do the same to Democrats on a consistent basis. In that, I guess I’d be better off wishing to win Powerball – it happens occasionally but only in the little things, so it seems. And it seems less often still, that someone seen as a Conservative is allowed to best them, especially on TV (which is a reason why I tell people to always record any interview they get involved in, so as to “keep the record straight”).
Well, it happened yesterday as candidate for the Republican nomination for President, Rick Santorum, decided “not to be subservient to get face time”; he decided that when Gregory got in his face, he was going to return the dis-favor:
From almost a year ago: Oil is energy. No oil, no energy. No energy, no work. No work, no economy. No economy, we’re no longer the lone Superpower. Presto. Determined Weakness
Bumped and updated – an alert from the Southern NH 9.12 team: Skip, we’ve got a brand new, updated and cleansed version of the matrix online. We also have a condensed version, that focuses on just 19 issues, to make it easier for people to work with the document.
The last update was 01/01/12 at 8:30pm. There are two versions of the Presidential Matrix to choose from: Condensed (19 issues) Full Version (64 issues)
On the jump.
Well, it seems that the saga of officials from the Town of Gilford slagging a private citizen simply because she is holding them account and she has done well financially due to hard work, good ideas, and good decisions. From this post, let me remind of this from Town Administrator Scott Dunn (writing in his official capacity):
Fact # 9 — There are no town employees who own two homes on Governor’s Island with a total assessed value in excess of $2.6-million.
where he is trying to make an example and a target of derision. My response was “I am demanding a public apology to Ms. Aichinger for your lowbrow and low class tactic“. Well, I got a reply – and frankly, it was short, sweet, to the point, and is ready to double down:
Every Friday (pretty much), James Pindell at WMUR Political Scoop does his Up and Down for the past week; given that it’s New Year’s, he swapped the timeline for the year’s span; in his Down side, he had this:
Local political blogosphere: With Dean Barker no longer running the day to day of Blue Hampshire, and with Red Hampshire gone, the blogosphere is less robust, is not growing, and is not driving the conversation like they were. At least Granite Grok got a face lift.
Well, at least thanks for noticing! And I also note: we’re still here, we have no plans to go away, and RINOs and Statists will still hate us and get annoyed by us. Yes, like RH, many sites that started out around the same time we did have gone away or the passion has flamed out…..blogging takes a lot of passion to do well and it requires discipline to make it work. Unlike others that tried it simply as a way to earn a living, this is our avocation (serious obsession?), not our vocation. Being a full time political blogger is not easy to do, at least on the Right side of the blogosphere. Financially, all I hope to do is pay the server bill and acquire the technology that will allows us to extend into different areas – more podcasts, more live streaming, more video, and whatever the next big tech thing coming down the line that will enable us to get our message out there. And getting out the message transcends the technology – the goal is to influence people no matter the media.
Thus, I would tend to agree with the assessment, at least in part.
Yesterday, Grokster Mike and I had the opportunity to interview Stacy McCain (aka “the Other McCain”), an independent investigative reporter who travels the country reporting on the political issues of the day. While his main site is here, he also writes over at The American Spectator (and we discussed one of his posts located here). … Read more
From one of my TEA Party friends, a report concerning a gun dealer on the Southern border:
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011
Unfortunately, YES!!!! What is so damn frustrating is usually you see the ATF every 3 or 4 years for a visit. They come in and check your records. They have paid John a visit about 5 times in the last 18 months, nit picking on little things just looking for a reason to get him in trouble. They were definitely on a mission to close him down. Well, they finally succeeded. My brothers all told him we would pitch in to help him fight the bastards but he said its not worth it. As of the end of December he will no longer be selling guns and will have until the end of February to get all of his repairs out of his store and back to the owners.
See the below note. This just happened in Brenham, Tx. Our back yard! Coming to a town near you!
Instead of the +1 he got here, this is a -20 for a bad attempt at doing what Liberals do – redefining language for merely scoring political points. The Hill has a quote from Mitt Romney that I’ve been hearing for a while now, and I frankly think it’s a crock:
“I’m happy to stand by the things that I believe. I’m not going to change my positions by virtue of being in a presidential campaign,” Romney said. “What we did was right for the people of Massachusetts, the plan is still favored there by 3 to 1 and it is fundamentally a conservative principle to insist that people take personal responsibility as opposed to turning to government for giving out free care.”
Such a silver tongue. He’s been hit so hard on RomneyCare being the progenesis of ObamaCare he’s punch drunk. No one believes him when he said that just because he created an individual mandate at the State level, it doesn’t matter as it is different than the one in ObamaCare since the Constitution covers ObamaCare (a Federal action) but not Obamneycare (at the State level). Rubbish! While indeed Obamacare will (or should) be judged unconstitutional, philosophically, there is not a whit of difference with what Obama signed into law vs what Mitt signed into law. Philosophically, we have the State (be it at the Federal or State level) forcing people to buy something they otherwise would not. If these stand, we no longer have the limited government that the Founders wanted. And Mitt’s answer is a dodge, and a lame one at that.
A gem. Or rather, a gaffe (albeit, from the past)? Or evidence of pandering?
Once again, we see the disruptive technology that is the Internet on politics. What you say now will be known in the future. What you said in the past will generally be available now. And you have no control over it.
No, sir, no amount of verbiage or “flackage” is going to convince authentic Conservatives otherwise. Video of this after the jump
(H/T: Townhall)
“In his last Afterburner of 2011, Bill Whittle takes a look at the state of this country three years into Obama’s rule and has amassed a list of breathtaking failures bound to stun and/or depress champions of smaller government. Solyndra, Fast & Furious, the Keystone Pipeline and the deficit are just a handful of the … Read more
‘Grok reader John D (and being that I am on his email list, put up things that he sends around from time to time. This time, NH Rep. Horrigan decided to tangle with John concerning Voter ID:
Under existing NH law, the state would have to pay for the “free” voter IDs. NH’s proposed legislation (which is not identical to Indiana law) would cost millions of dollars to solve a problem which (going by the hard data) is almost nonexistent.
Now, given everything else that the State seems to pay for, I’d be more than willing to move budgetary priorities around such that other things would not paid for to ensure that the integrity of the vote, MY vote, would be protected. Fraudulent voting weakens not only the process but the whole idea of the right and responsibility of being a citizen. And knowing that my vote, as well as all other citizens’, would be protected, I (the normally tight fisted fiscal conservative) would grudgingly happily pay for that.
Well, John decided to take Timothy to task by listing a few “lesser priority” items for which photo ID is mandatory (both in the private AND public sectors):
Actually, they are referred to as a “Non-Driver ID”. Since all New Hampshire issued driver’s licenses include a photo, those who don’t or no longer drive have found a need for a phote ID:
Airports, Hospital, Pharmacy, Donating blood, Banks & Credit Unions, Gun Shop [to purchase a firearm -Skip], Writing a check, Adoption agency, Social Security office, Pawn shop, Jail, Using a credit card, Court
UNION ELECTIONS
In this past Saturday’s edition of the Laconia Daily Sun (pg. 4), the Gilford Town Administrator Scott Dunn decided that insulting a town taxpayer was well within his purview simply because she asks hard questions, demands answers, and is willing to go toe-to-toe on the discussions. The relevant part of his Letter to the Editor was to play the Class Card in an attempt to shut her up; to embarras her by belittling her success. This from a man whose compensation is $94,275 in wages and $134,731 in toto; not shabby at all. Anyways, the relevant part of the Letter is this (whole thing is after the jump):
Fact # 9 — There are no town employees who own two homes on Governor’s Island with a total assessed value in excess of $2.6-million.
And I laid into his absurd claim on “Fact” #8 that only the Public Sector has had to do more with less. As a blogger, a member of the Gilford Budget Committee, and a Gilford taxpayer, I could not let either go unchallenged (added emphasis now):
To Town Administrator Dunn and Selectmen Benevides, Hayes, and O’Brien,
To say that my ire was raised as I read your letter, Mr. Dunn, is an understatement. A citizen has the perfect right to address their concerns of their Town’s labor costs in a public forum as Ms. Aichinger has done. In fact, it is one that I share. Yes, factually, your Letter is correct, but it misses the mark in three very important areas.
None of your points address the relatively high unit labor cost that Gilford has overall compared to comparable towns (as my Salary Study showed a few years ago). Again, while your noting that several positions no longer exist on the Town payroll, they have done nothing to address this fundamental and structural problem. The cost of globalization has now reached the public sector – it is past time to recognize that simply cutting positions is the way to keep labor costs in line with what is happening with those that actually pay those high salaries – the taxpayers of Gilford. Continued on to its illogical end, we could end up with one very highly paid employee that would yield a still “lower labor cost than last year” but the necessary work would not be accomplished.
Which brings me to my second point. Your “Fact #8” is completely wrong (“Unlike the private sector”) – The private sector has dropped jobs far faster than the public sector, and because of the misdirected “Stimulus” monies that propped up Government spending, for a far longer period of time. I believe you have missed the chart outlining how much more productive the private sector has had to become – economic output has all but regained its previous recession levels but with millions of fewer workers. It has found a way to continue the same level of output, and more, with fewer hands to actually do the work because it HAD to – either they meet the constraints placed upon them by the Marketplace or they go went of business. You have a choice, Mr. Dunn – either more people at a lower cost to do the work or fewer number at higher costs – you have chosen the latter. Which, at some point, will become more and more untenable just as it became in the private sector.
The worst, however, is that you used your position to publicly humiliate a private citizen by using the property holdings of Ms. Aichinger as a club – how DARE you! Yes, assessments are public information but you have used that information to belittle someone that pays your salary (and, to keep in the same vein – BOTH of your retirement programs) and attempted to publicly discredit someone who is simply trying to advocate for taxpayers. Did the Selectmen approve a contract clause that permits that kind of activity? You already tried to do this with your comment of “no town employee owns two homes on Governor’s Island” in a lame attempt to play the Class Card – you have now done so again. That is NOT what I expect from Gilford’s Town Administrator – which is how you signed your Letter (and not as a private citizen).
I am demanding a public apology to Ms. Aichinger for your lowbrow and low class tactic. Failing that, I will not run for the School Board as originally planned but run for re-election for the Budget Committee instead and urge Ms. Aichinger to run for the Budget Committee as well. Then we can both “talk some facts” during the next budget cycle – I bet that would overjoy you.
Skip Murphy
From June OK, I have no idea how I got on NH Insider blogger (and NH House Rep ) Steve Vaillencourt’s email list, but I have. Mostly I read (even briefly) and sometimes I just delete (don’t be offended as I sometimes have to do it to LOTS of incoming email – I barely keep … Read more
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.” – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09 The question is not whether government works, the question … Read more
A line was emailed to me that is exactly spot on if you think in same vein of Big Liberal Governmentalists that are all about companies that are so big that the are a “systemic risk to the country”, they coined “too big to fail”. Problem is, it seems that the converse seems to hold … Read more
I saw this over at the Blaze, and thought it so good and tear-jerking, I needed to share: Note: while we at the ‘Grok appreciate our Vets, we also have admiration and respect for our British counterparts – and our own Mike (who served in His Majesty’s armed forces).
Heh! (BTW, who wants to bet on the over/under for time that Media Matters (that hack site funded by George Soros is going to call me racist and demand a take down (that’s where the image came from!)?) A spokesman for President Obama‘s re-election campaign blasted Mr. Romney and questioned whether he had something … Read more
Saw this on the morning news – I smiled. Those Mixed Martial artist folks – always at the ready! “If he wants money. Get a job. Work, like everybody else in this world.”
I spotted this earlier today, but this is the first chance to post it up as blogging during the work day is bad form:
Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, James Lileks, and other NR All-Stars will be in Manchester on Saturday, January 7, for an evening of ruminating, riffing, and debate-watching. And you’re invited! Did I mention the event is free? And that there will be free food?
Joining G, L, & L will be Rich Lowry, Ramesh Ponnuru, Bob Costa, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson, and others, all of whom will participate in a great program at the Radisson Hotel Manchester (700 Elm Street). Doors open at 6:00 p.m., and the event should end at approximately 11:45 p.m. Here’s the program:
- 6:30 to 7:35 p.m. — Rich Lowry moderates a panel discussion on the upcoming NH primaries, and more.
- 7:45 to 8:50 p.m. — Goldberg, Long, & Lileks spend an hour-plus reflecting wisely and wittily on current events.
- 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. — Join us as we watch (on a big honkin’ screen) the GOP candidates’ debate being broadcast from nearby St. Anselm College.
- 11:05 to 11:45 p.m. — G, L, & L regroup for an encore performance of pithy observations on the just-watched debate.
…How to reserve a spot? Simple: Email nhevent@nationalreview.com and tell us the name(s) of those who will be joining us on January 7.
I went to the same kind of presentation back in 2008 and came back with my tail between my legs knowing that I had just watched three virtuosos do something that I doubt I could ever do – and without evah breaking a sweat: