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I have been commenting about this kind of stuff for years now: journalists that aren’t.  Members of the MainStream Media (MSM) that have “progressed” past the traditional “who, what, when, why, and how”, past the “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” to “make the world a better place”.

The first is reporting the news – straight up and down and as unbiased as possible.

The second started the trot towards advocacy and away from what most want – a faithful reporting of the news.

And now for the last few decades, we have seen the bias in the MSM to the point where it is rather antagonistic towards the half of the US population that is not Liberal (much to the profit of Fox News that was built to service this “under-served” market sector – and has gone on to clean the other MSM outlets’ collective clocks). And now, we see one of the Liberal uber-start, Chuck Todd (newly anointed to ascend to the MSM’s version of Nirvana: host of Meet The Press) perhaps now figuring that out:

In his “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit on Friday, Todd seemed to realize the disconnect between Boomtown and the rest of the America.

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Well, that would be a good start.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be controversial – this should be a given for pretty much the Republican President next elected in 2016 given how much Obama has pushed the boundaries of Executive Imperialship (putting both Bush II and Nixon to shame). 

Roll it back should be heard in a constant din from November 7th onward in the process of making government smaller and Citizens Larger.  You know, the way it used to be (and the way it was supposed to be). 

Big Government talks about US Senator Rand Paul coming to NH and who talked with the NH Chapter of Generation Opportunity (Twitter: @GenOppNH) (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Paul’s comments came to the New Hampshire chapter of Generation Opportunity, a national grassroots conservative group with a libertarian appeal with thousands of young liberty-minded activists nationwide engaged through it.  Paul focused much of his remarks on executive overreach by President Barack Obama, saving some of his most interesting points for a question-and-answer session at the end….“I know, it’s crazy,” the young man followed up. “You spoke for a bit on the executive orders tonight. If you were to receive the presidency would you repeal previous executive orders and restrain the power of the presidency?”

“I think the first executive order that I would issue would be to repeal all previous executive orders,” Paul replied to resounding cheers

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(H/T: AEIdeas)

“Every year the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) publicizes its “Equal Pay Day” to bring public attention to the gender pay gap. “Equal Pay Day” this year fell on April 14, and allegedly represents how far into 2014 the average woman had to continue working to earn the same income that the average man earned last year. Inspired by Equal Pay Day, Iintroduced “Equal Occupational Fatality Day” in 2010 to bring public attention to the huge gender disparity in work-related deaths every year in the United States. “Equal Occupational Fatality Day” tells us how many years into the future women would have to work before they would experience the same number of occupational fatalities that occurred in the previous year for men.“

It does show that talking about equal pay often doesn’t take into account the danger factor of the jobs that the different sex gravitate to.  And while most people will agree that equal skills, equal experience, and equal education should receive equal pay, what is not oft discussed is the differences in motivation, drive, and persistence.  Why?  IMHO, those things are much harder to quantify and thus, harder to compare.  Yet, they do have much to do with the compensation that one receives – not matter what the “least common denominator” arguers want to say. And another is the relative danger of a given job and the risk that someone is willing to accept.  Thus, the data tends to show the difference – will the equal pay folks start to demand not that women get paid more but that they take on more risk and put themselves into more dangerous positions and earn the same as the men in those riskier careers? Courtesy of CNN, is a list of the jobs with the biggest risk of fatalities (job, median pay, deaths / 100,000 workers):

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Oh yeah, let’s also add “Free Stater” to that list, too!  Take those words out of their lexicon, all you’d have left would be jaws going up and down.  Without those adjectives (hurled as epithats), they’d have nothing to say and no one to excoriate.  And that would suck for them.  Listen to Ray Buckley, the head of the NH Dem Party – stripped of the ability to go ad hominem, what would he have left?  Or Zandra Rice-Hawkins?  Or Silver Spoon Harrel Kirstein, for that matter (just for a few).

Drew Cline, the Editorial Editor of the Union Leader has a great piece on this topic demonstrating exactly that (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Ironically, in trying to portray Republican primary winners as bought-and-paid for, New Hampshire’s top Democratic elected officials on Tuesday exposed themselves as party-controlled tools. Behold the hackery.  Annie Kuster (to WMUR-TV): “It is clear that voters are going to have a choice in the 2nd Congressional District for the election between a right-wing, Tea Party opponent and myself.”

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Over at Big Journalism was this headline:

WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN PRAISES ABC’S ANN COMPTON: ‘SHE IS EAGER TO SEE THE WHITE HOUSE SUCCEED’

Josh Earnest, President Obama’s Press Secretary said this upon the retirement of Ann Compton as part of the White House Press corps:

“What’s distinguishing about her is this inner spirit in which she is eager to see the White House succeed, and she does not view that as being at odds with her commitment to holding the administration accountable and insisting on transparency and access and telling the story about what is happening to the American people…She is able to better the way that she sort of wishes for and aspires to the success of this institution that is the White House, and that is a really classy thing. That’s the kind of thing you don’t learn by working every two or years, that’s the kind of thing you cultivate after years and years of experience,”

“Let’s be clear” (heh!) – when Earnest says “White House”, he’s talking about either The State or President Obama (or both).  Yet, the purpose of the Press was to act as a brake on The State, flashing the Big Flashlights into its deep dark corners – an adversarial relationship at its best and an objective relationship at its worst.  Neither of those encompass an attitude of “success eagerness” for that shows a predisposition of success of Government over that of those any journalist IS supposed to represent – the People. 

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“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

With the Ebola epidemic in Africa (and only a couple of jet flights away from the US) and the respiratory illness now sweeping Midwest teens, is the Government (be it Federal or State) ready? Remember, the Progressive mantra (of which, President Obama is the pinnacle of that belief) is in the absolute power and goodness of Government (never mind the IRS scandals, the DOJ scandals, the ATF scandals, the DEA scandals, the Secret Service scandals, and the EPA scandals – that enough fer ya?).  So, with severe diseases that could burst out, how ready is the Government that Progressives keep harping “just trust us – we’ll make it all good”?  Er, not so much according to the Inspector General:(reformatted, emphasis mine)

The audit, conducted by the DHS Office of Inspector General, uncovered concerns about expiration of goods and lack of controls on inventory.

For example, of the 4,982 bottles of DHS-stockpiled hand sanitizer auditors examined, 4,184—or 84 percent—were expired (some by 4 years). The audit further found that 81 percent of antiviral medical countermeasures owned by DHS’s Office of Health Affairs are set to expire by the end of next year.

Well, that’s rather inspiring that “Government is working”, isn’t it?? 

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What is sadder is that Jim Foley, AFTER admitting to lie after lie after lie, disbarred, committed fraud about his Marine “career”, stole, and bullied people, won Derry and 27% of the vote in his race.  And unless he had been “outed”, he never would have ‘fessed up either.  Do Principles even matter anymore when folks reward people like that?  Sure, he “lost” his race but look at all the votes he “won”.  How can we have a functional Republic when the same mentality that permeates Louisiana and Illinois (and most of the MA Speakers of the House lately) now infects the public at large?  When malfeasance is rewarded like that, is there any wonder why government is one of the least trusted institutions nowadays?

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“Winning is only a precursor; it is what you do AFTERWARD that is important“

Steve had a good post on what drives us here at GraniteGrok – Principles.  It seems that popular culture, and the political culture, has lost sight that it was solid philosophical principles that guided our country to greatness – and great people are driven by rock-solid principles as well.  Yet, that whole notion and all that it encompasses, is seemingly of lower and lower repute.  Instead, we are drifting from Principle to mere celebrity hood and the notion that Famous for being Famous, that success is earned in an instant instead of perserverance, and that politics in nothing more than a Win…and nothing but NOTHING matters but the Win.  Only the Win.  What comes after – there never seems to be an answer.  So, a new commenter by the name of Chris Amino decided to try trotting out the same tired old song and dance that has “settle for anything that gives Republicans a win”:

If you spent half as much time fighting Democrats as you did fighting Republicans, not only would we win elections but we would be a center-right state again. Instead of taking aim at the Left, you turn the power of this media outlet against the Republican Party and then you wonder why the ship is sinking. It would be better if you stopped

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I want to thank everyone who put their heart and soul into our campaign for State Senate District 16. We had quite the battle. We fought not only my opponent’s huge money war chest, we also fought our own party who sought to involve themselves in the outcome of this race. Many entities were told to “sit out” supporting our candidacy. The fact that so many people in District 16 now understand Sen. Boutin’s past voting record gives hope that Sen. Boutin will endeavor to cast more appropriate REPUBLICAN votes should he win in the General election. Time will tell.

For me, if there is a message in this District 16 state senate race, it is NEVER give up! NEVER go along to get along, especially when you know your cause is just. President Reagan was right when he said we need BOLD colors rather than pale pastels. As we approach the general election in Nov., I hope we use this message going forth to talk about the importance of small government here in NH. We cannot expect to make effective change by ALWAYS reaching across the aisle. Sometimes, you just need to stand. And stand we did. We may not have won, but I like to think we have changed the trajectory of the debate. Now is not the time to sit down and give up!

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Shades of Barbara (“Please call me Senator; I worked so hard for that title”) Boxer in browbeating a US Military General who used the honorific “Ma’am”:

Senator Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) is scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to finding ways to portray her Republican opponent, House speaker Thom Tillis, as anti-woman.  Following the two Senate candidates’ first debate, Hagan’s team is complaining thatTillis called his former colleague by her first name.  “We saw women on social media in particular who were bothered by his tone and more than anything they were bothered by his record,” Hagan spokeswoman Sadie Weiner told Politico.

Yeah, these nitwits wouldn’t stand a chance here in NH where I can walk down the street and either congratulate or berate my NH House rep.  The gubernatorial candidates know me by sight.  Ditto the congressional and senatorial candidates doing battle tomorrow in the Republican Primary.  My federal delegation?  Ditto.  We are that kind of a state – it IS about the retail politics.

And yes, I call them all by their FIRST names, and not

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Owner of Liberty Bell Cabs in New Orleans, Tony Makhoul, called Uber a “cyber terrorist organization.”

Liberty Bell – that artifact, that symbol, from our past – a symbol of our Independence and our Freedom.  Freedom for our lives and freedom in our marketplaces.  Or rather, the freedoms we used to have.  You see, Makhoul has a different idea about who gets to compete in which marketplace:

Makhoul previously showed his propensity for using words without regard for clarity or meaning in a statement made in July.“It’s hypocritical, preposterous and indeed disgusting that we are entertaining Uber in our market today.”

Uber, if you haven’t learned about it yet, is an app based taxi / ride sharing system – and a HUGE threat to Crony Capitalism.  In this case, it is the Crony Capitalism between city governments that restrict the taxi cab marketplace such that only so many taxis can service a given area – and keeps prices propped up for consumers.  Medallions, handed out by Government, can cost up (and over) a million dollars in an unregulated marketplace – per cab.  It is the ultimate collusion of politicians and the industry they “oversee” (in many cases, more like graft ridden) – for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

If Mr. Makhoul truly believed in Liberty, he would accept the new competition and 

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And depending on how you vote, for whom you vote, this can change.  Who will be the man or woman of the status quo, who will be the person that will continue the same-o, same-o under the rubric that Government should manage things for the rest of us?  Or, who is the person that has said “We in government should not decide the winners and losers – you should”?  Who are the folks that believe in Government should take care of others – because you won’t so it is forced to take more from you?  And who says “I trust you to make the right decisions – we in government need to stay out of the way.

After all, the State will depend on them – after all, do you see New Hampshire in this top ten?

No, you don’t.  I think you will be disappointed in where we stand – a continual slide due to the calcification of both the labor and business marketplaces by “those who know better than those that labor and run those businesses”:

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Here is the NH GOP response to journalists asking for comment on the Jim Foley information THAT THE MSM SAT ON but GraniteGrok’s Kimberly Morin broke over at the Examiner:

The NH GOP released the following statement: “I understand the concern expressed by so many of our good activists across the state. Party bylaws prohibit officers of the Republican State Committee from intervening in contested primaries. We trust grassroots activists and Republican primary voters will consider this new information as they select our District 19 state senate nominee on Tuesday.”

To describe this, all I could come up with was “mealy-mouthed” when I first read it – a complete dereliction of protecting The Brand – no interest in it at all.  Typical insider politics (H/T: Kimberly).  Once again, the top NH GOPpers couldn’t muster ANY indignation to say “this is bad, bad, bad”

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