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OK, I get distracted from time to time.  Sometimes, I get distracted a LOT!  I did say a while back:

…As my talk to the MCRC said (another part to go up tonite), their is an irreconcilable void between the two types of Republicans and the two types of philosophies…

And then I never did (Parts I and II here and here).  So, time to get back to work.  And post the video (again, I have to start practicing public speaking more).

 WHY IS THE GOP / NH GOP IN TROUBLE?

Let’s get to the Nitty Gritty of this “discussion”:  There is a tremendous split in the Republican Party – and especially in the NH GOP.  And for three extremely binary reasons – each this or that and never the twain they’ll meet.

1. Don’t Talk About it

And we never ever discuss it when we all get together in these groups or understand why it is there.  Oh, I do – very well.  After all, I have been thinking about this for a long time and writing about it for a long time.

It’s  like “Hey, we found this important tin can we’ve been looking for – but only keep scratching the surface – but thinking we’re done.  The can never gets opened to see the void inside, that dark place where few are fearless in treading.  Instead of trying to figure out “what is this chasm”, the can scratch seems to be enough and then victory is always declared and “We must unite because we’re Republicans!”

Ditto for the rest of the Groksters…but a lot of times, we are seen as the agitators…

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(emphasis mine, Ayotte’s Letter after the jump)

Senator Ayotte:

Thank you for taking time to reply.

A few questions, if I may:

1. Who shutdown the Government? The House sent over bills funding everything BUT discretionary spending on Obamacare. Senator Reid refused to bring any of them to the floor. What did you do to force a vote on anything sent over? The Democrats were not negotiating, they were bargaining in bad faith, something they have done since 2008. To me, one of your constituents, you hold responsibility for enabling them in this tactic.

2. How much of the government was actually shutdown? Reports ranged from 15% to 20% meaning that 80 to 85% was still open. Are you implying that the current size of the Federal Government can’t function on less than 100%?

3. Who’s money is it? My wife and I work hard for our paycheck, yet the current attitude in Washington is “I didn’t earn that” or “I have enough”. What gives the Government the right to decide that I have enough? It’s my money, my employer feels that I’ve earned it, why do I not get to keep more of it? This pertains directly to the debt ceiling; enough with continuing resolutions, force a budget talk. At this point in time I’d settle for a budget equal to the last budget passed by House and Senate. I have to live in a budget that gets smaller and smaller every day because you (Government) feel that you have more right to my income than I do.

4. Tying in with #3, do you honestly believe that the Federal Government cannot survive on a spending level of 95% of the last passed budget?

I will have more as I have more time to spend on your response; I need to go earn another dollar that I get to keep 50% of.

M. Remski

<redacted>

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That would be the GOP going after the TEA Party – how DARE you try to remove us from our Jr. Party seats?    The Washington Examiner has the take from a 42 year Senator that has no problem in being honest as to what he will be doing upon seeing “barbarians at his gate”.  Forty-two years – certainly long enough to have helped overseen the tremendous growth of the Welfare state.  Well, certainly long enough to have a hand on the lever of power that most TEA Partiers do not have: lots and lots of millions of dollars.  And to keep themselves in power, they are not afraid of using it (emphasis mine, reformatted):

The Republican Party of Iowa was blindsided by the Tea Party movement in the last presidential election, but party officials are already working hard to diminish the conservative movement’s influence by the time the next presidential primary rolls around in 2016, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa said.

“I think the Tea Party people in Iowa caught them off guard,” Grassley said of the state party in an interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”  Grassley said many Iowa Republicans “have been dissatisfied with the direction of the Republican Party in Iowa and are prepared to get more involved this time to counter the Tea Party influence.”

All Republicans, Mr. Grassley – or just YOUR wing of the party that are, well, feeling rather insecure?  Nice to see that “countering” the wing that has brought the energy and motivation to the Party is of more importance than “countering”, umm, those that are drifting us to a Socialist hellhole. 

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And they are SELLING these 1911s!  Figures – in Texas by Solid Concepts PR:

Austin, TX – Solid Concepts, one of the world leaders in 3D Printing services, has manufactured the world’s first 3D Printed Metal Gun using a laser sintering process and powdered metals. The gun, a 1911 classic design, functions beautifully and has already handled 50 rounds of successful firing. It is composed of 33 17-4 Stainless Steel and Inconel 625 components, and decked with a Selective Laser Sintered (SLS) carbon-fiber filled nylon hand grip. The successful production and functionality of the 1911 3D Printed metal gun proves the viability of 3D Printing for commercial applications.

“We’re proving this is possible, the technology is at a place now where we can manufacture a gun with 3D Metal Printing,” says Kent Firestone, Vice President of Additive Manufacturing at Solid Concepts. “And we’re doing this legally. In fact, as far as we know, we’re the only 3D Printing Service Provider with a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Now, if a qualifying customer needs a unique gun part in five days, we can deliver.”

Video after the jump:

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Even a casual reader of the ‘Grok knows that we have been writing about the Civil War now raging within the NH GOP and the GOP is general; the VA Governor race has brought that to the fore.  Nice to see, on the topic of expanding Medicaid here in NH, that former NH GOP Chair and current National Committeeman Steve Duprey decided to bring the gas and the match; good to know honesty when we hear it:

…just in time to hear an influential member of the board saying (I’m paraphrasing here) what a great plan it was and the only people who would not want to accept federal money for this program are, flat earth TEA partiers, and Ted Cruz fans who don’t want to pay taxes but still want their Social Security.

Sidenote: I guess Duprey missed this (and so much for his negative categorization of TEA Party folks – actually we are more educated than the general population and more affluent – and better read.  Really, no more listening to Harrel Kirstein or Chris Matthews please.):

that is, identifying with the Tea Party correlates positively (r = 0.05, p = 0.05) with scores on the science comprehension measure

My only regret in hearing about this is that when I “ran” for Committeeman at the last election, I did it more as a stunt than as a serious campaign (although I wanted to make a point and did – that just simply coming out of the stands, I (a TEA Partier, Conservative, Constitutionalist, and Evangelical Christan – “hated” categories not just for Democrats but for Establishment Republicans as well) garnered almost a third of the vote.  I toned down the “campaign” speech to be polite – a mistake I would not make again; nice to see that an Establishmentarian holds a large percentage of his Party in such high regard.

Duprey’s words, by the way, were said before the NH GOP Executive Board when it met with NH State Senators Jeb Bradley and Chuck Morse to hear how the Senate Republicans were going to approach Medicaid Expansion.  The reaction by the E-Board to Duprey’s words, were, well, illiminating:

judging by all the grins and giggling around the table I feel pretty confident saying this was the same position held by the majority.

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I AM one of the 93 million employer insured employees that Obamacare has come for now that it has all but killed off the private insurance marketplace – something that absolutely delights folks like NH Congressmen Annie Custer, Carol Shea-Porter, and NH’s US Senator Jeanne Shaheen.  They want as little capitalism left as possible: Shaheen has shown it by her disregard for citizen control by SB711 and Chief Cheerleader for Obamacare, CSP by her hucksterism for Obamacare in her town halls her first term, and Kuster’s “I’m more Progressive than everyone else” during her primary race.  For them, NH Citizens getting screwed over by Obamacare is a feature, not a bug (regardless of what they say – ALWAYS look to what their actions have been).

I work for a largish company and today, Obamacare walked up to me and smacked me.  The plan that my employer has been offering (among a small few) and that I had used for almost 15 years (with very small little changes) has been cancelled – Obamacare made it too expensive.  I now have to pick from an even smaller number of other plans but the one that I will be forced to pick that best matches my former plan will cost me 25% more,  double (more or less) my deductible, and more for drug prescriptions.  And God help me if there are no providers “in network” for me here in NH.

Don’t get me wrong – I have a job and I have coverage; I am thankful.  But

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Let’s see, My Government says what my insurance policy has to have – including substance abuse (I’m a teetotaler), pediatric care (my kids are grown and I’m not going to have any more), and maternity care (ditto).  Other stuff as well that I would never purchase if I  had my own way.

How am I in control of my healthcare?

I am limited by My Government as to who I can buy from.

How am I in control of my healthcare?