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Gallup: When you look at the most important non-economic issues identified by Americans….

 …ask yourself – who or what controls those first 4 items?  Yes, that would be politicians and Government.  Dissatisfaction comes from when expectations are not met or basic functions are not performed well.  Yet, we keep hearing from the Left that Government must keep doing more and more.

Really?  More does not equal better.  How about doing far less but do it exceedingly well and lwt we adults outside of government take care of ourselves – the Leave Us Alone coalition

Full results after the jump

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stark360 PAC announced its endorsement of Andrew Hemingway for Governor and Marilinda Garcia for US Congress in NH-2.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Stark360, a pro-liberty PAC dedicated to nominating and electing liberty-minded candidates for public office, announced today its endorsement of Andrew Hemingway for New Hampshire governor and Marilinda Garcia for New Hampshire congressional representative for district two.

“Both Andrew Hemingway and Marilinda Garcia bring an amazing combination of youth and experience rooted in the ‘Live free or die’ principles of limited government and liberty,” said Stark360 Chairman Aaron Day. “We need leaders, not administrators, bold solutions, not stale political rhetoric and the status quo. Hemingway and Garcia provide a stark contrast to both their primary and general election competitors.”

Both candidates have proven records of supporting individual freedom.

A lifelong resident of New Hampshire, Andrew Hemingway has created three successful small businesses, served as Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and worked with a state senator to overturn the LLC tax.

Marilinda Garcia, was a designated “Rising Star” by the Republican National Committee, and has worked tirelessly in the New Hampshire state legislature since 2012 to make New Hampshire a more prosperous and economically free state.

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 “a u-haul trailer of cash for a presidential nominee” that caused the party to atrophy everywhere but in a few swing states.”

Like NH.  Townhall reports an interview with national GOP Chair Reince Priebus on the overall problem with the GOP electorially – I think he is dead nuts on (reformatted, emphasis mine:

“We have a midterm party that doesn’t lose,” Priebus said, “and a presidential party that doesn’t win… you have to have a national party that gets its act together when it comes to the mechanics, when it comes to the ground game, when it comes to the data… this is 99% of my world every single day.”  Priebus said he’s trying to build “a national party that’s permanent, on the ground, all the time.”

In 2005, as the head of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean launched the “50 State Strategy,” which was an effort to build the Democratic Party in every state, on every level, in every precinct. Republicans mocked the Dean strategy – isn’t it a waste of money for the DNC to be spending in deep red counties in Alabama? – but now, staring at a Democratic party that has had two resounding Presidential victories, the RNC has undergone a transformation of its own.  And here is the money line: 

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“Budget writers did not anticipate that so many people would be added to Medicaid and that is one of the problems facing the department in trying to live within its budget this fiscal year”

NH Rogue Republicans: that would be NH State Senator Chuck Morse, NH State Senator Jeb Bradley, NH State Senator Bob Odell, and NH State Senator Nancy Stiles – funny, reality never seems to match the “Smart Peoples’ Planning”, does it?  Easy-Peezy, just pass Obama’s Medicaid Expansion and all will be well, right?  After all, the Federal Government is paying for it all – IT’S FREE MONEY (as they would have you believe that the vast majority of NH Taxpayers are not also Federal Taxpayers as well). From Gary Rayno at the UL (reformatted, emphasis mine):

After two years of wrangling, about 10,500 low-income adults began receiving health care insurance Friday under the state’s expanded Medicaid program or the New Hampshire Health Protection Program.  State officials believe eventually about 50,000 will have health insurance under the program, that uses the current Medicaid managed care and Health Insurance Premium Payment programs to cover the newly eligible until next year when private insurers through the state’s health exchange will provide the coverage.

Remember, insurance is one thing – actually getting in to see a doctor is another as many are refusing to take new Medicaid patients (if not outright retiring).  What a cruel lie these Rogue Republicans have foisted upon the poor.  But to that cost:

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“If there is a new, small government versus old big government guard in today’s Republican Party, the NH gubernatorial primary may be just the place to watch them face off.”

Not my words in the title, but the words over at Brietbart’s  Dan Riehl at “The Conversation” (Brietbart now being one of the largest sites on the Right of the Blogosphere”.  “Live Free or Die” where the People should be of more importance then government vs the meme of the tired outdated “Elect us – Republicans can run Big Government more efficiently”.  One advocates for government getting out of the way so you can do what you want for “the Pursuit of Happiness” (Hemingway) while the other (Havenstein) is merely “I make government better”.  Smaller, less intrusive and less bothersome government vs merely rearranging the deck chair on a Titanic that doesn’t realize it has hit the iceberg (“but I’ll keep the lights on!!”).  Asperational Freedom for the little guy and small business, or the traditional Republican politics per usual.  The new vision or the shopworn “process”?

Doesn’t hurt, either, that one of the most respected sites (Right OR Left) RealClearPoltics was quoted as well (emphasis mine):

Is Andrew Hemingway the New Face of a GOP with a Future?

A tech savvy accomplished entrepreneur with one foot in the Tea Party and the other in the so called GOP establishment, having run Newt Gingrich’s New Hampshire campaign in 2012, Andrew Hemingway is making noise in NH’s Republican gubernatorial primary – noise that even some oldsters seem to like, according to Scott Conroy at Real Clear Politics reporting on a recent debate.

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This just came in over the transom, and it is a very good question.  Where IS the “Open and Transparent” Government we were promised, Governor Maggie Hassan?  Can you explain (below: emphasis mine)?

Dear Governor Hassan,

On August 1^st, 2014 The Union Leader reported that the federal government dumped 13 unaccompanied non-citizen children in New Hampshire on January 1. Curiously, the year they were dumped was not transcribed in the article.

The following statement was attributed to you Governor Hassan by your press secretary William Hinkle;

“As a national issue, the governor believes that Congress should work together to find a bipartisan solution to America’s immigration issues and to ensure that no children are put in a dangerous situation.”

That’s it?  Your only statement published in the Union Leader on 8/11/2014;

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‘Grok friend John Hawkins (RightWingNews, Linkiest) has a column at Townhall in which he lists 15 things that he really hates about politics.  Here, I’ve listed a few of them that really caught my eye (emphasis mine, some items shortened) as well as some notes.  A smart guy, he’s spot on:

1) That American politicians have stopped asking the most basic questions about good governance. Does this program work at all or does it just sound good? … Would people choose to pay for this?

That latter one is VERY important; as a Budget Committee member in my town, I used to ask “If the town did not pay your dues for your professional association, would you pay for it yourself”?  The majority answered no – meaning that they saw enough benefit in it for them if someone else paid for it, it was good; if they had to pay for it personally, it was clear that it wasn’t worth it.  Yet, I could not persuade others, that even if the folks who directly benefitted saw no worth to pay for it themselves, to remove it from the budget.  Every dollar is sacred once it passes from an individual’s to Government’s hands – so who really owns the money?

3) The political obsession with trivia, when the whole country is falling apart. We can’t secure our borders, find jobs for people or get our spending under control, but the Senate has plenty of time to discuss the name of the Redskins.

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The New York Times has a cool map as to where “excess Military Equipment” has gone from the US Military to counties around the nation: Militarization of the Police

Given the images from Ferguson, MO that have gone up all over the blogosphere (yeah, I need to post up the ones I’ve bookmarked) during the rioting there, it is causing a national question to be asked: How militarized should our police forces really be”?  Have police forces gone overboard in the “it’s free so I gotta get mine – even if I’ll never use it”?  Do citizens, when seeing these images, think “this is my PEACE Officer or is this a junior version of Special Forces”?  The Youngest, upon glancing at some of the news clips, said “Heck, even *I* didn’t carry that amount of stuff while in Afghanistan”.

Do we, as a nation or even locally, need (or want) a police force or one that is transformed, permanently, into paramilitary units?  There is a difference – a big difference, not least of which is “Are the police one of us, or do they see us as an enemy to be contained, controlled, or crushed?

• Belknap County:  60 Assault Rifles, 30 pistols, 2 grenade launchers

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I just got a strange call – it seems that Jane’s husband was at their old home in Alton doing some “pre-sale” work now that they have moved to Bow Hooksett (my mistake – am ALWAYS geographically challenged).  He watched a maroon Ford SUV (not the Expedition size but more akin to an Explorer or Escape but I do have the license plate number) stop out side and then the lady in the car start taking pictures with a cell phone camera.  The car then went down to the local hardware store, the man got out, went inside, then came out and the car went back to the house where a few more pics seemed to be taken (being in his car, he followed them).  Then the car even made a THIRD swing by….

The man in the car was Alan Glassman, NH GOP Area Vice-Chair that includes Alton.  The ID is quite sure – anyone that goes to Republican events knows the slightly built man with the big 35mm camera.  The woman with him seen taking the pictures remains unidentified.

So, what is going on here?  

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Seriously – you watched the video and you can’t tell if you are plastered or not?  True, the first one, maybe not so much.  Second one – dude, you are seriously spinning (and it is SO obvious!) while praying to the political Gods (“Oh God, I promise, promise, promise that alcohol never touch my lips if I get out of this!!!”). S’alright – we got more videos; you’ll have a few more shots (heh!) to see if you were drunk or not.  Stay tuned for tomorrow morning – but I digress.

Playing stoopid is not a strategy – especially when you are saying that while on your knees.  Glad to see, however, that NH State Senator Dave Boutin agrees with me that his performance in the last video was “poor judgment”.  I’m just disappointed that he didn’t contact us at GraniteGrok to discuss – but running to the Establishment mouthpiece for Establishment Republicans makes sense.  Here’s a few snippets of what he said at NH Journal (reformatted a bit, emphasis mine):

CONCORD — State Sen. David Boutin on Wednesday apologized for using “poor judgment” at a local bar more than a year ago when he was captured on video making offensive remarks to other male patrons.

All I was trying to say in the videos so far posted is exactly that – poor judgment.  But he decides to keep on digging;

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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

Just thought I’d pass this by you all as great example of how Obama thinks his government works (emphasis mine):

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Drug Enforcement Administration paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 over nearly 20 years to obtain confidential information about train passengers, which the DEA could have lawfully obtained for free through a law enforcement network, The Associated Press has learned.

That’s a lot of money.  $42K per year extra for this Federal Govt employee for, effectively, spying on one government program’s customers to give to another government program.  Our money, too.  But wait, it gets worse….

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