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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.

Union Derangement Syndrome

Usually, BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) or PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) is actually describing those that pretty much go off the rails when either President Bush or Gov. Sarah Palin comes up.  Here, however, my fellow Samsphere blogger friend, Maggie Thurber (Thurber’s Thoughts) takes apart a local union VP of communication as he runs off the … Read more

OK, Kitch ALMOST got it all right….heh!

Links added:   From the Laconia Daily Sun (P 12):

GILFORD — Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Foundation has named David “Skip” Murphy of Gilford, who hosts the conservative political blog GraniteGrok and the radio talk show GrokTalk, as its “Activist of the Year” for 2011. The award was presented at the fourth annual RightOnline Conference in Minneapolis, which was attended by some 1,200 conservative and libertarian activists last week.

Each year AFP honors an individual for their effective use of online media to further personal liberty and economic freedom. GraniteGrok describes itself as “fire-breathing, Mtn Dew powered, extremist, right-wing, hard-charging, gun-toting, opinionated, outspoken, rabble rousing, letter writing, radio microphone stomping, buying ink electrons by the Gilford blogger honored by Americans for Prosperity barrel Conservatives and Rational Libertarians!”

A technical analyst for a software firm headquartered in California, Murphy was drawn to local politics by Doug Lambert, with whom he shared the blog and microphone until Lambert withdrew after intemperate insults about New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley reached the public. Murphy stayed the course, allying himself with the Tea Party and drawing contributors from the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, to become a strident voice in conservative circles.

Murphy has served on the Gilford Budget Committee since his election in 2006 and is the father of two sons serving in the United States armed forces.

— Michael Kitch

I humbly thank Americans for Prosperity for the unexpected honor given to this ordinary schlub from central New Hampsha.  If no one had mentioned it, I wasn’t going to either, but I felt that the error-prone article had to be corrected.

But really – strident?  The corrections:

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A Democrat quote about NH’s responsible budget

Gov. John "Can’t do nuttin’" Lynch bowed to reality and has decided to let the "controversial" new budget become law without vetoing or signing it – deciding to do nothing.  With veto-proof margins by Republicans in the House and Senate, there is nothing that he could do – and he could not muster sufficient courage to make a stand and even issue a symbolic message from the Democrat side.

So, once again, he has to rely on others to make that token attempt.  In Friday’s Laconia Sun (P 11), both Terrie Norelli and Lou D’Allesandro put up the obligatory taunts:

“Let it be known that today we traded the wellbeing of thousands of New Hampshire citizens for higher cigarette company profits,” objected House Democratic Leader Terie Norelli of Portsmouth.

Really, Terrie?  How hypocritical!  For the last four years, the Democrats could have done anything you wanted – especially you as the Speaker of the House!  You could have easily decided to run a bill through the House, throw it over the Democrat controlled Senate, and then on to Gov "Can’t do nuttin" to sign that would have said "Tobacco is illegal in NH".  Why not?  After all, there are ‘dry states" where the sale of alcohol is banned.  Failing that, you could have boosted the taxes so high so as to effectively do the same thing – except for the very rich.

Instead, you punted, knowing the real truth – you crave the money that comes with the taxes. You desired that money so as to grow the size of goverment and in concert, continue the march to demanding how citizens would live their lives (e.g., HassanCare and HassanSpeech being two prime examples). No, Terrie, the Republican controlled House and Senate did not trade the wellness of sovereign citizens for anything.  Unlike you, Republicans…

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Another Democrat Quote about NH’s Budget

Again, the Democrats here in NH are all squawking about the budget that is about to become law, based on veto-proof margins by the Legislature and Gov. "Can’t do Nuttin’" Lynch deciding to, once again, doing nothing.

While Terrie Norelli decided to make an ill-fated whiff of a quote, now we have NH State Senator Lou D’Allesandro making another "let’s change the language" statement in the same article (P. 11):

Besides criticizing Republicans for giving smokers a break while forcing college tuition hikes that could make higher education unaffordable for some, Democrats also pointed to other cuts with far-reaching impacts. For example, they pointed to a $1.5 million cut to help about 240 elderly people with housing services such as meals and light housekeeping to keep them independent and out of nursing homes. “Without these services many of these people will be relegated to nursing facilities at a cost greater than the appropriation,” said Democratic Sen. Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester.

Zero in on the word "independence". Once again, only in that rarefied atmosphere (think: lack of oxygen?) of the hallowed halls of the Legislature, can this kind of redefinition of a word be taken with straight faces of the denizens of those marble lined halls while the rest of us go "huh?".  As in the case during most budget seasons where a department asks for X amount above their current budget and then wails that their budget has gotten "cut" when they don’t get all that they wanted (but more than they did last year), we see another instance of a redefinition of yet another word.

Independence commonly means being able to function without input or assistance from others.  In this above instance, if these seniors have to rely on government to keep them in their homes, is that truly "independence"?  Instead of absconding the rightful use of the word, why can’t D’Allesandro (and all those that continue this misdirected meme) just say "to keep them dependent on Govt welfare to keep them in their homes"?  This is not independence, but dependence – not on family and friends but on the faceless visage of Government.  Sure,…

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Debt Ceiling: Vote for it, and we are your enemy

Erick Erickson of Redstate has thrown down the gauntlet over the upcoming national debt ceiling debate: I pledge that if any Republican votes to increase the debt ceiling without first cutting, capping, and balancing using Lee-Cornyn-Hatch, I will work like hell to beat the hell out of him/her in a primary, even if their election … Read more

Hey there, young lady, how about saying no?

Here in NH, the Executive Council refused to fund a $1.8 Million contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England on a 3-2 vote – Ray Burton and Chris Sunnunu decided to vote to give the money to the abortion providers. Indiana has also voted to follow suit; the complaints are already beginning to pour in: how dare you refuse to make me responsible for myself?  A court battle (seemingly similar to that levied by ACORN when the Feds cut off their funding – they lost) has been filed by PP and the Obama Administration and the sob stories are starting to be put out:

Nicole Robbins, a 31-year-old single mother who has been a Planned Parenthood client for six years, said she had intended to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis on Tuesday to pick up a 2-month supply of birth control pills. Then, the Medicaid recipient learned that the more than $100,000 in private donations the group had raised since May 10 had dried up.

The Ivy Tech Community College student from Indianapolis who is pursuing a physical therapy degree said she’s not sure how she’ll pay for her birth control.

“There are a lot of people who don’t have jobs, who don’t have income, and Medicaid is their only source of income as far as health insurance,” she said. “I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

I do not know if she was married or not.  If the former, I do not know if her husband left her or the other way around.  But the point that sticks out quickly is that she believes that others should be responsible for her sexuality, that any consequences from her personal behavior is not hers to bear.  Yes, I’m old school…

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An admission by Obama that Supply & Demand actually works? Or a crass political ploy?

You know, I haven’t quite figured this out.  I was emailing with a person from the American Petroleum Institute and she asked if I had seen the announcement of President Obama releasing 30 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ("The IEA said it would release 2 million barrels a day (bpd) over 30 days onto the world market to fill the gap in supplies left by the disruption to Libya’s output.", the US is supplying 1/2 of the 60M bbls total)?  I said yes, but that I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out what the actual dodge could be – it certainly is not Libyan oil "disruption" (what the official reason was).  Or is it being used as camouflage for some "other" action "over here" ("pay no attention to that man behind the curtains").

So, we have nations that have to import oil to meet their needs now selling oil to lower the overall price of oil – right!  Prices have been dropping here in the US for the last month – this is supposed to make a difference?  In the grand scheme of things, the 30 million bbls is a spit in the bucket – it will not make a difference AT ALL in the cost at the gas pump.  While it did drop the cost of a bbl by $5, it also sent the stock market down – way to go in messaging the message, dudes!

The SPR contains about 730M bbls and is supposed to be used ONLY in extreme conditions – a national disaster either naturally made (think Katrina shutting down the Gulf, a war cutting off our supplies, or OPEN repeating the ’70s).  While 30M bbls is only 4% of the reserve, is this the proper role of that resource?

No, it isn’t.  We have no shortages,…

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Which would you prefer: a S.S. check or working tax free?

Given the dismal state of entitlements at the Federal level where the trust fund is about to run out of the I.O.U.s (from OTHER Federal departments that took the money, spent it, and now have no way of returning that money – except by taxes) we’re at that "rock, meet hard place".  Given that the … Read more

GrokTV – RightOnline: Herman Cain presser

RightOnline – Herman Cain’s Blogger/Press avail post final session speech

Herman, of all of the current crop of candidates, knows how to bring a crowd to its feet – lustily and many times.  Afterward, he held a presser for bloggers and media to ask questions. I arrived late as I got stopped a couple of times right after the session ended.  Thus, I entered in as Herman was giving his explanation of why he hadn’t signed the Susan B Anthony anti-abortion pledge (he is pro-life but he has procedural reasons, separation of branches, for not signing it.  He also stated that if legislation came to him, he would sign it).

Anyways, here are the questions that were asked while I was present:

  • Abortion: (In process) Not signing the Susan B. Anthony pro-life pledge
  • Currency: On the Federal Reserve
  • Foreign Policy: What will President Cain do about Libya, Syria?
  • Cabinet: Appointing Muslims – special precautions?
  • Debt/Deficit: How reduce the $1.5 Trillion annual deficit / Paydown the $14 Trillion debt?
  • Media: don’t like your "biz" approach, want "better answers now.
  • Regulation: what to do about the 80K new Fed regulations this year w/a $1.75 Trillion compliance cost? 

Now, there is an ongoing kerfuffle over the Muslim question where Herman, well, raised his voice.  Some folks have called it screaming; having heard him when he has decided to be LOUD, I can tell you that he was FAR from being at that volume.

This whole thing started when Lee Fang of ThinkProgress (a George Soros financed entity – you know, that “international financier” whose hobby is crashing a country’s currency?) with what has turned out to be a gotcha meme – certainly one that has made an impact on the Left and has accomplished EXACTLY what he wanted by asking it – torpedoing a solid rival to Obama by using identity politics.  I have a video of Herman already confronting this issue here.

The guy here is just perpetuating the meme that Fang started and that is what Herman is objecting to.  As it came up during the NH Debate, I think that the issue is this: How does one prevent getting a militant Muslim that wishes to implement Shariah Law from getting into the Cabinet?  Newt got it exactly right by…

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Landrigan takes old news and wraps it in on a Progressive bow….

In talking with Jeff Chidester this morning on WGIR AM 610, he mentioned that a Lefty blog had decided to use one of my videos without attribution, spread it around to some of the Lefty vets groups, and slam Jack Kimball.  Here is the comment I left for both Bill Tucker of Miscellany Blue and … Read more

Watching something go BANG! really slowly!

OK, just a wee bit of a break from all things political (and there is plenty going on!). Tank.  Fire. FIRE! Boom! At 18,000 frames per second. OK, I thought different enough to play twice… (H/T: Gizmodo)

RightOnline vs Netroots Nation – guess who blinked?

One of the last items that happens at the last session of RightOnline is the announcement of where Netroot Nation is going to be next year.  Yes, I typed that right.  The reason for that is the Conservative conference, RightOnline, is held where Netroots Nation will be – Austin, TX and then Pittsburgh, PA followed … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview – RightOnline: Dr. Betsy McCaughey

I have been known to describe Michele Bachmann as a "machine gun" when she speaks – facts and events come fast and furious!  Well, at RightOnline, we ran into Dr. Betsy McCaughey – former Lt. Governor of NY, Constitutional historian, and an Obamacare Law expert.  Suffice it to say, she brought a similar velocity to … Read more

The video from the “Freedom in the 50 States”

This study came out a couple of weeks ago and NH was rated one of the best states to live in from an individual Freedom as well as for economic Freedom standpoint.  Here, the authors (Jason Sorens (SUNY Buffalo) and William Ruger (Texas State)) of the study talk about the study: The link to the … Read more

More Nannyists: “King County requires life vests for swimmers”

Do you know how hard it is to actually, you know, swim wearing a life vest?

This weekend at RightOnline, I kept having to use this line, reported by NH State Rep. Steve Vaillancourt (R-Manchester), from Kris Roberts (D-Keene):

"Government has to protect ourselves from our own stupidity"

I guess that our Founding Fathers were just absolutely cuckoo in Rep. Roberts eyes – imagine: letting people the freedom to succeed and reaping the  consequences of bad decisions by letting them decide for themselves.  When I said that this was from a state legislator from the "Live Free or Die" State, their eyes bugged out at first, and then, slowly, shook their heads back and forth.  This is the true guiding principle of Progressivism (mostly Democrats, but also some Republicans) – we mere citizens are incapable of fending or deciding for ourselves.  We are just not capable of making proper decisions or acting on our own, and thus, our freedoms must be curtailed so as to protect us.

Thus, this story from Colorado fits the bill:

People who hope to beat the summer heat by swimming, floating or boating on rivers in King County must wear a life vest or face an $86  fine.

A divided County Council on Monday passed a personal flotation device ordinance by a five to four vote. Opponents said it was an intrusive move by "big government."

"This Council sometimes thinks it’s everybody’s mom," said Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, who voted "no."

Supporters said the new rule will save lives.

The law appears to be the first of its kind in the state. Staff with the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington said Kitsap and Clark counties had rules about people wearing life vests while on sail boards, water scooters and other water craft, but it didn’t appear any other county required swimmers to wear the  devices.

…Authorities say there were 17 drowning deaths on major county rivers between 2005 and 2009.

…It applies to people intertubing, rafting, using a surfboard, canoe or kayak. Swimmers or people wading more than 5 feet from shore or in water more than 4 feet deep would also have to wear life vests…

…"I think it’s the beginning of the era of life jackets in King County," he said.

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Words for Concord

I just got home from a school board meeting and TMEW told me "hey, you HAVE to call <name here>; he’s an NH Rep?  OK, it’s 10:30pm but I’ll call. So, I did, and the question was "I am torn – vote yes, or vote no?" on several issues on which will be coming up … Read more

NH SB3 – pension reform

While I was at RightOnline, it looks like the House and the Senate agreed on how to fix the massive problem NH faces concerning paying for the retirements of public employees.  Why am I not surprised at this: The final deal, as of July 1, will increase what all non-state public employees have to contribute … Read more

RightOnline – some after thoughts

As Mike pointed out, we did a lot of yakking with guests Friday and Saturday.  For the most part, our video stream was there but even with the massive amount of bandwidth laid into the hotel for the weekend at the Hilton Minneapolis,  thousands of online activists at both RightOnline as well as from the Netroots Nation (think MoveOn.org) chewed it up pretty quickly.  To boot, RightOnline was streaming both Main Sessions and the Policy Track (click here to see). 

Why mention this? Given that I forgot a couple of cables, and the Radio Row noise, using our "recording" camera was out of the question so we had to rely on UStream.TV servers for recording.  Given that they are "touchy", some of the videos segments came out OK and others not so much (i.e., if you lose the connection, the recording gets corrupted).  I have a whole bunch to review to see what might be worthwhile to post, so that will happen over the next few days.

Thoughts – I guess that the highlights for me would be (in no particular order):

  • Getting to see a number of the Samsphere bloggers for the first time in a while.  Emails are great but seeing the face and talking was way better than typing.  These are all smart folks (including a couple that earned AFP Blogger of the Year awards: Bob Weeks and Maggie Thurber).
  • Big hotel: decent accommodations with prices to match.  Good food at the Lobby bar/grill!
  • Didn’t get to a single Track meeting or session, but given the rang of folks that strolled in, didn’t matter.  Both the RightOnline folks and ‘Grok friend Chris kept us well supplied.  Often, Mike and I would agree to take a break, start to stand up, and then yet another would plop themselves down in front of us, and off we’d go on another interview!
  • "Biggest" blogger interviewed: Michelle Malkin
  • Taxi rides – more expensive than parking my car in Manchester Airport.
  • Most intellectually stimulating interview to craft: 

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