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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.

Data Point – cash for for Medicare and S.S.

From the same post as below (see #9); It just looks better shown separately as a chart: Sure, a growing economy will help.  But it will not solve.  Neither will "just taxing the rich" – you REALLY think that you can raise taxes on "just the rich" to the tune of $900 Billion?  Ain’t happenin… … Read more

So, if you are a frequent flier, or a voyeur

It was only a matter of time: The TSA Abuse Blog.  A couple of stories: Mother harassed over breast milk screening Stalking conviction not disqualifying for TSA position  This says a lot: Honestly, this new TSA genital-feeling stuff goes further than I’ve ever had to go through to even go into a *prison.* I’ve been … Read more

GrokTALK! – Podcast page for 11/27/10

Podcast – week of 11/27/10   GrokTALK! Streaming Live!from GraniteGrok To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you. (Click here for the promo page) Only "snippets" this week – no "Hours" … Read more

Data Points – Welfare spending

From National Review Online: The District of Columbia was one of the few jurisdictions that chose to extend welfare benefits far beyond the Federal time limit of 5 years. DC residents on welfare > 5 years: 40% DC residents on welfare > 8 years : nearly 33% DC’s poorest ward family makeup: 66% are unmarried … Read more

Data point – Green House Gas emissions

So, the EPA wants to effectively shut down the US economy by using regulatory means, simply because those now in charge think they will save the world on the backs of working Americans?  Once again, we see the lunacy of Progressives believing that they can make changes and have them stick.  Their fallacy, akin to … Read more

Talk about redistribution of wealth? Seems like Obama talked “Truth to Dollars” to Joe the Plumber!

Obama famously quipped (a gaffe: a moment of real truth telling by a politician) that it was better when the wealth is spread around.  He wasn’t kidding.

Folks, this chart from ZeroHedge is absolutely stunning – the State (er, government) has now broken both the stigma and the moral hazard to "why NOT not work?".  At this point, why shouldn’t I just throw myself onto the kindly arms of the bureaucrats and make myself totally dependent upon the taxpayers (those schmucks that are still working, that is).  Just THINK of the blog posts I could churn out if I didn’t have to worry about a roof over my head and food on my table?

Sure, it would come with strings attached and hoops to jump through.  But hey, I’m reasonably intelligent – it shouldn’t take THAT long to fill out the forms.  I also remember the folks that had my State paying their bills for their kids at my Daycare center years ago.  Certainly, one the topics was always "where to get the free stuff" as the boyfriends were literally at home in the garage drinking beers.  Dependent on Government?  Yes they can!  Were they trying to work their way off it?  In many cases, I can tell you "no they weren’t"!

Why?  As you can see below, Government programs "trapped them" by setting incentives in such a way that it was in their best interest NOT to find work.

From the post:

In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Year

My chart tells the story. It is pretty much self-explanatory.

As you read this, keep this in mind:

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Follow on from this morning: Patriotic Millionaire – and the Agenda Project?

My, how connections can be made!  So, what’s the connection with this T-Shirt and the "Patriotic Millionaires" that Jeff Chidester and I discussed this morning on WGIR?

You know how I can tell this is a Progressive idea, vs just "Patriotic Millionaires"?  First, just look at some of the names on their list:

  • Michael Steinhardt
  • Gail Furman
  • Guy Saperstein,
  • Ben & Jerry Ice Cream co-founder, Ben Cohen

Not exactly rock-ribbed conservatives in this bunch, eh?  Also, the tactics:

  • A collective mentality with an insistence that ALL pay – not just the willing. As Chris over at RightWingNews put it in playing at being a liberal: "Why should I pay more unless they force me to pay more?".  They simply wish to achieve the Progressive ideal of the top paying the entire freight for society’s bill of Government.
  • No indication that the other side of the equation, spending, be addressed.
  • An unwillingness to "just do it" and send a check if they really felt this strongly about "be Patriotic – send money!". 

And the most stunning part – who was doing the organizing of these folks: "The Patriotic Millionaires campaign, pulled together quickly by the Agenda Project in New York City,".  Once again, we meet up with Erica Payne (who said "This is not an orchestrated campaign").

Yeah, totally believable, that.  Let’s see what she says about herself – not exactly all that altruistic in my reading:

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Data Point – fiscally unsustainable

In their headlong rush to jack up spending, Progressives on both sides of the aisle have ignore the actual cost – on that can actually be calculated.  Sure, they THINK they may be helping "the oppressed"; but what will happen when the money runs out?  Sure, I may be accused of viewing this as a … Read more

Topics from this morning

Jeff Chedster was filling in for Charlie Sherman yesterday and today on the early morning show on 610 WGIR-AM here in NH and asked if I’d represent GraniteGrok in a "lightning round" format.  Here are the topics we touched upon and a couple of the links so you can read more for yourself! Patriotic Millionaires … Read more

CAIR and the Muslims are always kvetching about hate crimes….

Does a Progressive group calling Cornerstone Action akin to being the Taliban a hate crime?  Certainly, Blue Hamphire doesn’t think so.  But I digress…the latest FBI numbers are out.  In order of incidence in 2009: 8,336 victims of hate crimes: 48.8 percent of those victims were targeted because of a racial bias (4,057 victims of … Read more

Raising taxes to shrink the deficit? Sure: “Our research indicates this is a sucker play”

Most of us on the Right have known this innately for years – how?  Just look at budgets.  At the town level, at the city level, at the county, or State or Federal level – how often have you ever seen a budget DECREASE?  Even a slowing of rises are decried by those whose favorite program is "a cut".

Now, from the Wall Street Journal, some research shows what we have known all the time; my paraphrase is this:

A raising of an existing tax, or the birth of a new tax revenue stream is like a hit of crack to the vast majority of politicians and Progressives; it is never enough and they only want more and more to support their spending habit. 

Higher Taxes Won’t Reduce the Deficit (emphasis mine):

The claim here, echoed by endless purveyors of conventional wisdom in Washington, is that these added revenues—potentially a half-trillion dollars a year—will be used to reduce the $8 trillion to $10 trillion deficits in the coming decade. If history is any guide, however, that won’t happen. Instead, Congress will simply spend the money.

In the late 1980s, one of us, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored a often-cited research paper for the congressional Joint Economic Committee (known as the $1.58 study) that found that every new dollar of new taxes led to more than one dollar of new spending by Congress. Subsequent revisions of the study over the next decade found similar results.

We’ve updated the research. Using standard statistical analyses that introduce variables to control for business-cycle fluctuations, wars and inflation, we found that over the entire post World War II era through 2009 each dollar of new tax revenue was associated with $1.17 of new spending…

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George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States … Read more

Notable Quote – Kenneth P. Green

This is an eternal blind spot for environmentalists: people respond to incentives, and they won’t necessarily respond to regulations in the way that regulators think they will. That’s how the Endangered Species Act led landowners to destroy habitat to prevent the government from making their land worthless. That’s how incentives for electric cars wound up … Read more

MythBuster vs the TSA. Yeah, we know who won…

I am a fan of MythBusters.  The combo of the over-the-top Adam Savage and the unflappable former SEAL Jamie Hyneman just works –  the ADHD / Brainiac duopoly and their slapdash to meticulous style just works for me.  What Rush and Beck do for politics, these two do for urban myths and science – make … Read more

“In most states, the budget process is dysfunctional. In New Hampshire it has turned into a farce”

Charlie Arlinghous is the head of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and is one of the most respected authorities on NH’s budgets and the process by which it is assembled ("crafted"?  No, we shall not sully that word here).  Over at NH Watchdog, he has let loose:

In most states, the budget process is dysfunctional. In New Hampshire it has turned into a farce. The state budget process has officially begun with two days of hearings over department submissions that increase spending 32% when every reality-based human knows the budget will have to be cut not increased.

Officially, the budget process began on October 1. At that time, each department head is required by law to submit a so-called maintenance budget – its estimate of what it would spend if it didn’t change anything it did or the way it did it. This submission, while required by law, has never born any relation to the reality of crafting a budget…

…Interestingly, the budget submitted for the governor’s office itself was a decrease of 9%. He’s right but everyone who works for him is living in the clouds. Their combined submissions were a 31% increase in the first year and an additional 4% in the second. In total, they ask for $3.9 billion, an increase of more than a billion over the baseline of the current spending level.

And here is the money paragraph:

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You know, they ran roughshod over most of us. Now, they’re whining about possible repercussions…

Well funded groups with wholesome sounding names like "Cornerstone" are preparing to attack marriage, to overturn established law, to revoke civil rights, to rip families apart.

Yeah, that would be the Democrats here in NH; specifically Dean over at his Den of Progressivism, Blue Hampshire.  He’s all aghast that since the voters completely dissed his Progressives friends and voted in (gasp!) Republicans, he’s all afire as he just can’t believe that elections have consequences (ok, this was written last Friday; I don’t visit all that often):

Today we learned that majority will be led by a radical. 

Sure, the Republicans have taken over the majority – and with good reason!  Dean is absolutely apoplectic that majority of the voters rose up and gave the Democrats, because of their Progressive ways, the heave ho.  The Progressives ran the spending past the max and ran the social issues to the max as well – Hard Left.  And then some more.  For this, Dean didn’t expect that the majority of folks would genuflect in their Leftward position and re-elect them?  Now, Dean wants to blame the elected Republicans – he doesn’t get it that it was the majority of the voters that rejected his Liberal philosophy.

Blaming the voters – works wonders for the soul, doesn’t it?

The radical of which he speaks is Bill O’Brien (who probably will be the next Speaker of the House).  Remember, he was set up to be the Democrats’ Most Extreme winner (remember?  LOTS of conservatives were very upset over this website – no, not because they were on it but because they WEREN’T!).

You know, I was asked during the NECN interview, what I thought of being called a radical?  Remember my answer?  Effectively: "my, how times have changed!  For simply standing on and standing up for the values and philosophy expressed by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution, I’m branded a radical?  So be it – I gladly accept that title".  And I know that Bill gladly wears that title as well.

As to the majority of which Dean speaks: much to their utter disbelief, the vast majority of citizens of NH voted for candidates who openly ran conservatively.  To be sure, their campaigns were run primarily on fiscal issues: Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue #3, and Issue #4.  Then, and only then, did the the social issues weigh in.  Be very sure, however, that unlike most of the Democrats in 2006 and 2008 when Democrats hid their Progressive Liberal agenda, most Republicans honestly answered their opposition to what the Democrats had imposed on the State. Voters still voted for them. But will Dean acknowledge that the voters were right?  Hardly.

Dean also wants to blame conservative groups such as Cornerstone (Kevin Smith, with his partners like the National Organization of Marriage) and…

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