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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.

The NoBrown / Second Amendment Rally: Scott Brown Campaign ignores its own strictures on others?

Last night, the Gun Owners of NH (“GONH”) had a meeting at the Holiday Inn in Concord, NH with their keynote speaker being former US Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) who is trying to become the next US Senator from NH.  Their rule, as been pointed out here and here, was that Scott Brown had insisted they they not allow:

  • Cameras or other recording devices
  • Media / reporters

We went down anyways (for nothing says New Media on the conservative side like GraniteGrok) with camera(s) in hand to see what was to be seen, get some interviews, and generally make an annoyance of our ourselves.  Last night, I am happy to report, we achieved all of those goals!  However, one of the things that most disturbs and annoys US are politicians and their coterie of campaign staffs that act contrary to their own request of others

AND LIE DOING IT!  ON TAPE!

Yup, that’s what they did.  WE can’t video them – but they can video others with impunity?  Er, no, not when we have our own camera ready! 

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NoBrown / Second Amendment Rally: So, Mitch Kopacz, the Concord Monitor is privileged?

So  Mitch Kopacz, President of Gun Owners of NH, what’s the deal?  You REALLY think that “Pravda on the Merrimack” (aka, the outpost of the liberal MSM called the Concord Monitor) is as supportive of the Second Amendment as GraniteGrok is?  And THEY, the reporter and photographer, were then allowed to breeze past the hotel manager at the front door and saunter right in?  And we were given the bum’s rush?

Now remember, we’ve already seen ONE stricture of “No Cameras / No Recording / No Media” broken by Scott Brown’s own campaign staff.  Now, a couple of videos showing that:

  • CONSERVATIVE media got restricted from entering the Holiday Inn (Concord, NH) and was told to leave the property.
  • LIBERAL media was allowed to walk right into the hotel – right past the “hotel manager” that kicked us off the property.

Again, this was at the behest of both Scott Brown and Gun Owners of NH (“GONH”).  So, first up for video is myself and Rick Olson (a GONH member, by the way) being told that we were persona non grata – and a bit of a back story to it as well… 

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NoBrown / Second Amendment Rally: Micro-Interviews with NH State Reps

OK, enough on the “other side of the street” – people were there to show their displeasure with Scott Brown (primarily) and with GONH for bowing down to Scott’s demands of No Cameras / No Recording / No Media / No Reporters (if ONLY he said NO to Democrat / Progressive legislation as emphatically!).  Even … Read more

NoBrown / Second Amendment Rally: a couple of the Groksters weigh in

Make no bones about it – we have opinions aplenty.  On everything.  Multiple opinions from each of us even.  But one thing is very Consistent – we ARE consistent on standing on bedrock Principles that are as durable as the stone in which the Live Free or Die State’s other nickname is: the Granite State.  Bedrock, … Read more

Moms Demand Action forced Jack In The Box to be a gun-free zone.

The wholly owned creature of former NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Moms Demand Action, is an organization whose intent is to rid guns from lawful Americans by any means possible.  One of their “victories” of creating yet another gun free zone, Jack In The Box restaurants, has kind of backfired on them. In fact, we can blame them entirely for creating another gun-free-zone victim!  First they rejoiced:

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is thanking Jack in the Box for its statement out today that it will begin enforcing the company’s no-firearms-in-stores policy. The company’s statement comes in response to a social media campaign and national petition launched just over 24 hours ago by Moms Demand Action to ask Jack in the Box to enforce its policy after last week’s semi-automatic rifle carrying demonstration at a Fort Worth Jack in the Box store that terrified employees so much that they locked themselves in the freezer, according to local police. The petition launched just yesterday has already received more than 5,000 signatures and social media hashtag #JackedUp in popular use.

A statement out today from Jack in the Box’s Vice President of Corporate Communications Brian Luscomb makes it clear the company is responding to pressure and acting on behalf of its corporate and franchise stores: “The presence of guns inside a restaurant could create an uncomfortable situation for our guests and employees and lead to unintended consequences.” According to Luscomb, copies of the company’s entire statement will be available in restaurants for employees to hand out to guests.

And then reality barged into their narrative:

Yesterday, a shooting occurred at the Jack in the Box restaurant at 1504 Hampton Street in Nashville, TN. Yes, you read this correctly. Jack in the Box! The same Jack in the Box that caved to pressure from Moms Demand Action asking them to ban guns less than 1 week ago! 

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Kevin Landrigan has got his “unbiased” panties in a bunch again

Really, can a single man, a town-level elected official, ruin an entire State’s reputation?  Or was this an excuse to list a bunch of Republican politicians again (with a single Democrat to be “fair and balanced”?).  Once again, star and ace political reporter, Kevin Landrigan goes uber-Collectivist in damning a whole state of 1.3 million people for the actions of a Senior Citizen (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Analysis: Wolfeboro official’s racist slur about Obama threatens state’s reputation

A Wolfeboro police commissioner’s use of a racial slur against President Barack Obama attracted nationwide attention, and the state’s political leaders joined local residents in calling for his resignation. But that doesn’t mean Robert Copeland, 82, will step down willingly. The longer he lingers, the more harm will be done to New Hampshire’s reputation as a family-friendly, politically savvy, well-educated state, an expert said.  “The problem with this kind of controversy is that once it becomes viral, it threatens to stick as a toxic narrative about what life is like where this man comes from whether it’s accurate or not,” said Dean Spiliotes, civics professor at Southern New Hampshire University and author of the blog nhpoliticalcapital.com.

Actually, at the time he wrote that, Copeland was not resigning.  Tonite, we know he has.  And I think that Spiliotes is off base as well.  Certainly Wolfeboro newbie Janet O’Toole took the opportunity to get her name out there (I wanted to find out where she traveled in from and such, but there were just pages and pages of the same story in Google and I didn’t bother to further bore myself) but that wasn’t the purpose of the hit piece. 

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NH GOP Annual Meeting – a couple of livestream interviews

I have been kinda swamped the last few weeks and I’ve been late on getting videos up.  In addition to recording all of the speeches, we had our livestreaming kit set up in the foyer hall to do some ad hoc interviews.  With all of the cellphones in use, even with Mike’s super-duper MiFi and … Read more

Workforce Housing – Bob Ward: “YOU HAVE YOUR FUTURES! YOU HAVE YOUR AGENDA 21s!!!”

That would be Bob Ward, the SanborntonTown Planner screaming those words at NH State Rep Jane Cormier when the Planning Board held an “information session” on May 1st on six amendments that wound themselves making more of the town open for workforce housing.  It was obvious that actually educating folks as to what was really below the surface Granite State Future / Sustainable Communities Initiative was really getting under his (and the other “urbanizers of NH” skin; the jig is up as the word is getting out.  As I said in the post, it was clear that there was an Agenda (that was just for you, Bob) that the board wanted these to pass and seemed to be rather annoyed that the townfolk assembled were not all that enthused.  And, as the post relates, all of the amendments that changes boundaries, changed terminologies, and changed the nuances went down for flaming defeats.

Perhaps this next meeting (without Bob Ward, the town lawyer and a few others)  had a bit to do with it:  Jane Cormier and Susan Olsen went back to talk about some of the items that the Board conveniently left out of their “information session” (as Mom always told me, there’s lying by commission and lying by omission).  Yes, some of these segments go for a while (the meeting went two hours plus) but are VERY much worth your time – especially in the reactions, the questions, and discussions of the residents that showed up. I am betting that no small amount of Trust evaporated that night.

Introduction to the paperwork, players, and their roles in why and how the Feds want to change your zoning laws & the Regional Planning Commissions’ legislative goals

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If rape is so endemic on college campuses, why is something missing?

NH, for its size, has a lot of colleges.  Certainly UNH and Dartmouth get a lot of attention but there are a bunch of colleges dotting the NH landscape.  I keep reading about the “rape epidemic” at our college campuses but I keep wondering: “If the stat is that 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted, where are all the watchdog reports on it??”.  Yes, tongue in my own cheek here – but where ARE all of the media reports (newspapers, TV, radio, blogs, social media) reporting them all.  C’mon, with college students making up an inordinate percentage of NH’s population, it should be “a standing head” (headline) that we see all the time – FAR more than what we do.

Well, it seems that “the truth” seems to be different than “conventional wisdom” as portrayed by some that would have us believe otherwise:

raperate-600x400Look, there are going to be those that will scream at me “how DARE you!” for even bringing it up.  Public policy cannot be done (GOOD public policy, that is, which should be what all of us that are not pursuing an ideological dogma should be about) just on the back of a few anecdotes.  Violent crimes have been falling for years now and this FBI stat shows that rape is no different.

“The chart above is based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports

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What DOES Scott Brown have to hide – or is it Fear?

I understand that a lot of folks are going to be showing up – and why the stricture when all of his rivals are MORE than happy to talk with the media.  That would also include us, GraniteGrok (emphasis mine, reformatted):

FRIDAY, MAY 16: BROWN AND GONH. It should be quite a meeting on Tuesday evening when Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown talks to the membership of one of the largest pro-Second Amendment groups in the state, the Gun Owners of New Hampshire.

The meeting of the GONH board of directors is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at the Concord Holiday Inn — and Brown should have some ‘splainin’ to do...GONH vice president Ralph DeMicco, owner of Riley’s Gun Shop in Hooksett, said of Brown, “He’s in a tenuous situation. He has a questionable voting record.”. …Brown and DeMicco spoke at the shop when Brown recently visited.  “I have told him that you’re not my first choice, but you’re obviously the party’s first choice,”

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Notable Quote – George Will on the Great Society

 …In 1964, 76 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing “just about always or most of the time”; today, 19 percent do. The former number is one reason Johnson did so much; the latter is one consequence of his doing so.

…When Johnson became president in 1963, Social Security was America’s only nationwide social program. His programs and those they subsequently legitimated put the nation on the path to the present, in which changed social norms — dependency on government has been destigmatized — have changed America’s national character. 

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Medicaid – Obama’s promise of Hope has turned out to be quite hollow

What good is having Medicaid if doctors won’t take a Medicaid patient? As a proud new beneficiary of the Affordable Health Care Act, I’d like to report that I am doctorless. Ninety-six. Ninety-six is the number of soul crushing rejections that greeted me as I attempted to find one. It’s the number of physicians whose … Read more

Operation American Spring – er, not so much

PFA-OAS-Header_jpg_pagespeed_ce_-svW2ZE8v7Operation American Spring was an event held this weekend in DC that was talking about having 10 – 30 million people show up to protest (Phase 1, below). What was its purpose?  From its website:

Mission: Restoration of Constitutional government, rule of law, freedom, liberty “of the people, by the people, for the people” from despotic and tyrannical federal leadership.

Assumptions: Millions of Americans will participate American veterans and patriots are energized to end the tyranny, lawlessness, and shredding of the US Constitution. Government is not the target, it is sound; corrupt and criminal leadership must be replaced. Those in power could use force against unarmed, peaceful patriots exercising their constitutional rights. Patriots could be harmed, but not expected. There is no hope given today’s technology of secrecy for the effort nor do we want it secret.

Concept of Operations:
Phase 1 – Field millions, as many as ten million, patriots who will assemble in a peaceful, non-violent, physically unarmed (Spiritually/Constitutionally armed), display of unswerving loyalty to the US Constitution and against the incumbent government leadership in Washington D.C., with the mission to replace with law abiding leadership. Go full-bore, no looking back, steadfast in the mission.

Unfortunately for the organizer, Col. Harry Riley, USA (Ret.), instead of a few million people that were expected to show up for this Phase 1 event, the report from Jack Kimball was that only a few hundred showed up yesterday. 

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NH GOP Meeting – Ruminations: Kelly Ayotte

Consistency breeds Trust which yields Votes.  The operative word is “Consistency” – is what you SAY congruent with what you DO?  Can we, as voters (notice I DIDN’T say “Members of the NH GOP State Committee” – at least, thus far) see that Consistency and can we depend upon it?  Are we so sure of it that, once elected, we no longer need to pay close attention because you will not violate our Trust (or is it the flip side: we kvetch because we can’t?)?  So during the recently held NH GOP Annual Meeting, I listened.  In fact, I listened hard – I wanted to hear Consistency.  I wanted to hear the words that matched their actions this past year.  Oh sure, I know these types of meetings are “rah-rah!” for the upcoming cycle – but I still tried to listen for the Consistency-to-come.  And then when I started to process the video, I listened again.  And then, transcribed certain speeches to ensure I WAS hearing things correctly.

And then I started to compare the spoken words to other words and to Actions.  First up was our junior US Senator, Kelly Ayotte.  So, what do you think I found?  Here is the video again:

Here is the transcript – with my commentary:

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And I thought the answer would have been obvious to the genius class!

WMURHe’s got questions, I’ve got answers!  I would have thought that this would have been self-evident:

“Why haven’t conservatives put Benghazi to the side for a moment and gone full bore into reported 40 deaths at VA hospitals that could immently take out a member of Obama’s cabinet?”

A number of reasons, James:

  • First off, the clamor and justified outrage is bi-partisan in nature – BOTH Republicans and Democrats in DC are either actually mad or need to appear to be such at the treatment of our veterans. If anyone needs to be stood up for, it is the veterans and public opinion means much. So why would Republicans not allow Democrats carry some of that political water instead of hoisting it all by themselves?  Also, it seems to be mushrooming in size and scope – once simply limited to the Phoenix VA, the tactic of the VA Managers to make themselves look good has spread system wide.  This will continue (and rightfully so) Congressional forays into what has happened – this story has legs all by itself. 

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Notable Quote – Glenn Reynolds

“If I lived in Venezuela, I’d find out where the guardsmen lived, and shoot them when they walked out the door in the morning. That is, of course, the proper response to dictators and their minions of every stripe, even Hollywood-backed socialists.” – Glenn Reynolds, law professor, proprietor of Instapundit, syndicated columnist, and prolific writer … Read more

Michelle, how’s ’bout you turning it over to the pros?

Michelle hashtag BringBackOurGirlsI know that Steve is having great sport (here, here, here, here, and here) with the utter stupidity that seems to inhabit both the White House (see left) and the upper echelon of the State Department; sorry but just “saying” it is insufficient to “doing it”.  After all, God can do that (did that!) but He refrained from imposing His version of Utopia upon us (Obama will be learning the meaning of the word hubris soon).

In the mean time, the adults over at Black Five decided to give the right answer: 

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Data Point – Net Oil Imports 1985 – 2014

From AEIdeas:

Net Oil ImportsI got my license right after OPEC declared war on the US with an oil embargo so I remember the outcry that the US had to become “Energy Independent”!  And for the last 50 years I have listened to politician after politician say “I WILL DO THAT!” during every election cycle – and all we ended up with was higher net oil imports from unfriendly countries and a Department of Energy that has failed its basic mission.  Instead, it has been the PRIVATE SECTOR that has created that downslope (via fracking on private lands).

“According to data recently released by the Energy Information Administration, America’s net petroleum imports fell to 28.4% during the first three months of 2014 (see chart above, data here). That’s the lowest dependence on foreign sources of petroleum since 1985,

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