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Skip Continuing in our interview with Laurie and Andy Sanborn (running for the NH House and NH Senate, respectively).
Question 3:
Government is ever encroaching into biz and personal lives; the Progressives see that as necessary and good governance. Your thoughts and what will you do to combat that mindset?
Question 4:
Why is this a very important time politically? What are the driving factors?
Part 1 is here. Continuing with the reporting from the Rochester / Dover 9-12 Liberty Picnic, here are two more clips. THis clip is of Diane Gilbert of the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies – she describes how she and her group have waited YEARS for this explosion of interest in the Constitution; she … Read more
Part 1 and Part 2 In Part 3, the Honorable Dan Itse (who Jeff calls a Defending Father since he’s a tad late for being a Founding Father), gives an exemplary discourse for the folks in attendance. There is no doubt that Dan knows his history, knows the philosophy of why and how things were … Read more
Certainly, RedHampshire has the Letter from Uncle John NH GOP Chair John Sununu: The first issue is to remember the value of winning the primary in a manner that makes the primary worth winning…Thus, the temptation to go negative is irresistible. It may seem to be advantageous to go negative to win the primary, but … Read more
I think that if George would watch this, he might agree: time, perhaps, to contemplate getting another spokesman"
Suffice to say that the Lakes Region Rigor Mortis Conservative doesn’t exactly have me on his "A" party list so when I watched this clip that was sent to me, I figured I’d put it up. Please remember, however, that these are not my words – they are his.
This video can be hard to listen to – outdoor, near a road with traffic, and on a phone cam; you may need to listen to it a couple of times.
Now, let’s be fair; the full clip (unedited by me) IS after the jump and is 4:24 in length; this "abstract" is 2:47.
Watch both and decide for yourself – endorsement…for who?
A guest post by Jim Splaine (D-Portsmouth), member, NH House of Representatives:
"Once upon a time there was something called ‘The New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary.’"
Hopefully that line won’t be written in a future history book, relating a long-lost election process that kicked off with our Presidential Primary. We have had our "first" status for decades only because we vigorously defend it when it is threatened. When we begin to negotiate it away, we stumble down the path toward losing it. Our Primary itself can become past history if we let some politicians put their interests ahead of the interests of democracy.
I go back a long way on this cause. As a little pup in 1960 I passed out brochures in my neighborhood for a young presidential candidate from a next-door state who seemed to talk to my generation, although he seemed mighty old. In 1968 I supported his younger brother because a needless war was killing my college friends. In that election, I saw first-hand the importance of our Primary.
So in 1975, when our lead-off status was being widely threatened, I sponsored a bill in the NH Legislature that wrote into law that our Primary would be scheduled by the Secretary of State "…7 days or more…" before others. Through the years I sponsored four updates to that law to protect our tradition, including most recently this past June, to guarantee that we will hold the first primary AND that it would not be followed within a week by any state.
Our state law mandates…
Normally, the ‘Grok interviews have been "micro" – a couple of questions and up to 5 minutes. Given this election cycle, given this time in that cycle, we’re switching a couple of gears.
I got to know Andy a couple of years ago and have categorized him as gentle giant of a man – and a Happy Warrior style campaigner. Stolidly conservative, he is running for the NH Senate in District 7. His wife, Laurie, is also of the conservative persuasion. Together, they are small (serial) business owners that understand all too well how NH Government has become something out of control under the Progressive / Democrat control of the House, the Senate, the Governorship, and the Executive Council.
In this clip, we ask
Question 1:
Why are you both running?
Over the next few days, we’ll have a bunch more of these as we ask more and more questions.
But for tonight, we have one additional question and answer after the jump (and yes, one of the Groksters decided to practice with his new camera..):
Jointly sponsored by the Rochester and Dover 9-12 groups, this past Saturday the ‘Grok was in Dover at NH’s Olympian Swimmer namesake outdoor complex, the Jenny Thompson Outdoor Pool. While the crowd was a bit sparser than I had expected, we still had a good time – and a goodly number of speakers (including, as Jeff Chidester labeled it: "Candidate Kareoka").
This clip is of ; introductory ceremonies: Pledge of Allegiance, Invocation (by The Patriot Pastor, Garrett Lear), and opening remarks by Jeff Chidester and Jerry Delemus.
The introductory ceremonies:
The Patriot Pastor, Garrett Lear, then addressed the participants:
From a letter written by Economics (and political philosopher) Professor, Dan Boudreaux (emphasis mine): All income is earned by individuals. It originates as their property and not that of any government or of some collective ‘us.’ Even if this money is deemed necessary to keep Uncle Sam solvent, remember that this government was created to … Read more
Not far from the house – check! A good conservative, Liberty loving candidate – check! Open mic – che….uh-oh….not. on. your. life. Thankfully, being a teetotaler, I can’t be persuaded THAT way. However, Skip, Remember – you’re working on saying "no" to challenges…. Hunch over the keyboard, look busy, and maybe they’ll think you’re doing … Read more
Yeah, I know ONE campaign that wouldn’t bother to ask…. Just putting my head up for a bit since I’ve been trying to play catch up on processing video to post (when you get 4 events behind….)…and came across two different posts (Hot Air, RingWingNews) referencing this at the Daily Caller: Katie Couric once described … Read more
Back on Aug 8th, Mike Rodgers and Chris Henegan had an event for Jack Kimball (running for the Republican nomination for NH Governor) in which they had planned on having Mike Boldin from the Tenth Amendment Center come in and speak. Unfortunately, he was unable to be there in person but was able to participate … Read more
At the event for Jack Kimball for NH Governor, hosted by Mike Rodgers and Chris Henegan, Mike Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center gave his remarks to the crowd by a double live stream set up (from / to California & NH) as he was unable to make it personally. He spoke of the importance … Read more
Part 3: At the event for Jack Kimball for NH Governor, hosted by Mike Rodgers and Chris Henegan, Mike Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center gave his remarks to the crowd by a double live stream set up (from / to California & NH) as he was unable to make it personally. He spoke of … Read more
OK, ALMOST caught up from last Wednesday’s event with the Seacoast ladies! I had the chance to only do a couple of Micro Interviews. The serious one was with Nancy Stiles who was the moderator ( and is currently in the NH House of Representatives is now running for NH Senate): The other short (but fun) … Read more
Tongue-in-cheek awards!
I can be a long patient person – as shown by my willingness to endure endless hours of drab, humorless blither and blather by office-holder-wannabees, I crave moments of either absolute absurdity or stunning brilliance in the art and execution in the rhetorical arts.
Well, Wednesday nite at the Seacoast Republican Women Senatorial Debate, there were three responses that I decided deserved a wee bit more attention than the rest of the rather drab (but important!) questions and answers – because they made us laugh. They are:
Thus, let us render the prizes!
GraniteGrok Award – "The Tweaking Award"
The Tweaking Award, was earned by Jim Bender for cheekily taking advantage of the very public and blunderbuss carrying party that Bill Binnie and Kelly Ayotte are sharing.
GraniteGrok Award – "Best One Word Answer In A Foreign Language"
Gerard Beloin truly earned this honor with his answer to the question "Would you vote yes to make English to be the official language of the United States?"
GraniteGrok Award – "Best Non-verbal Response Award"
Once again,
At the last meeting of the Belknap County Republicans (8/11/10), Bill O’Brien, a NH House Representative and Chair of the NH GOP Platform Committee, gave a brief talk to the assembled crowd (full house!) on some of the changes to the Republican Platform that have been proposed.
Most of them center around an enhanced adherence to the Constitution and the philosophy of a limited government – putting in items to slow down or reverse the growth of Government that has been put on steroids by Democrats since 2006.
Does Bill believe in them? So much so that he is running to be the next Speaker of House; confident that Republicans will take back the House and the Senate here in NH, he believes that he is part of the new Vanguard of Republicans – a renewed and robust leadership that will do more than just give mere lip service to the words: Constitution, limited government, individual liberty and freedom.
Past Republican stewardship talked the talk but reaped the rewards of not doing the walk; Bill intends on leading the pack down Liberty way.
Q & A session that he shared with Jack Kimball after the jump:
It almost goes without saying that there were no Liberals there, no Progressives there, that would have been participating in the event (the speakers, the food, the talking with Liberty minded people) on their own. Again, the movement is oriented (along with the TEA Party folks) in a "back to the future" manner, that we have to go back and reclaim our Rights regarding individual freedoms simply enumerated in the Constitution. Unless that happens, the forces of Progressivism will continue to march us, to "progress" us, to nothing more to what is incremental socialism and then on to totalitarianism. Self-governance (and I’m not just talking about casting a vote) is anathema to these "smarter / holier than thou" folks (like Zandra Rice Hawkins of Granite State Progress).
Anyways, I digress. On the way home, I saw this car and immediately thought "kismet!" and the bumper sticker:
Problem was, I kept wishing for a red light so I could snap the picture at a close enough range to be readable here. Well, for once, I hit every single green light from Dover up to Alton on Rt 16. Darn.
Well, there’s always Google, and with a bit of finagling of search terms, I found it:
Part 1 and Part 2 have already been posted… …here’s the final one – Part 3: Once again, thanks to Diane Bitter and Sue Polidura from the Seacoast Republican Women for the invite!
These are not always the Senior Advisor types, or the Strategies folks, but the folks I consider to be the shock troops – the folks that, day in and day out, just do all of the lowest level stuff that has to be done during a campaign – coordinating other volunteers, planting signs, calling people, and doing the setup and take down work for each and every event that a candidate goes to.
I love talking to these folks – the "blue collar" workers. They are often a tad leery to talk to me, for obvious reasons – and I will walk up "to the line" but don’t wish to cross it. Why? Mostly, these are good folk – YOU may not like the candidate (or I, for that matter) that they are working for, but for many, this is how they feed themselves and their families – cut’em a break. Sure, the Lakes Region Rigor Mortis Conservative has a high level of disdain for them that almost matches that of his hatred of the Candidates for which they work or volunteer (like getting into a screaming match with some volunteers that were trying to put up campaign signs near his home that were NOT for HIS candidates – a couple of them thought he was going to stroke out, he went so livid!).
Anyways, back to the campaign workers. This one I had the chance to yak with before going into the hall to set up. He smilingly said "You won’t get one of me!"
Silly person – challenging me to do something? He was actually smiling when I took the pic – THEN I reminded him of his challenge that I wouldn’t be able to get his picture…smile went to ‘downcast’ in a femtosecond.
A couple of others: