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This iconic picture of firefighters raising the stars and stripes in the rubble of Ground Zero was nearly excluded from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — because it was “rah-rah” American, a new book says.

Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director, was among staffers who considered the Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and “rah-rah America,” according to “Battle for Ground Zero” (St. Martin’s Press) by Elizabeth Greenspan, out next month.

“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Shulan said.

Sad, that.  We have been the greatest country in the world’s history and have most often been an agent for good than for bad.  I certainly disagree with this seemingly ‘blame America Firster”; I would hazard a guess that he’s of the same opinion as Obama – that America should not have the pre-eminence that it has historically had and still has.  The question to be asked, with Obama’s Determined Weakness strategy now in full bore, what will be left at the end of his term?  Will we have any social or financial capital left to pick ourselves up?  Or will the debt that Obama and the Democrats (with assists from Republicans), along with Obamacare and the other dependency programs that have been ridden hard lately (e.g., more people on food stamps than are earning a wage; the U6 unemployment rate approaching 15% (underemployed and those that have given up completely / no longer eligible for unemployment), forcing companies to be arms of the Government and crushed under more and more regulations instead of the wealth creators they should be.

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This week, both in posts and on GrokTALK!, I seem to be mentioning “language definition”.  Or, to be more precise, language REdefinition – especially by those on the Left in order to move a political agenda ahead.  They use common words and frequent phrases in what “seems” to be normal parlance – unless you listen and analyze their usage carefully.  “Abortion is “womens reproductive health”, “asking them to pay a little more” really means “The Democracy Mob is here to legislatively take your money – there is no asking”, and “judgementalism” simply means “how DARE you hold me accountable for my actions!”.

We’ve all heard about “food insecurity” – another manufactured crisis in which the Left defines this as “well, in the last year, if you had ANY concern about getting a meal during this past year, you are food insecure”.  Heck, that’s happened to me before – arrive late at an airport at night after a cross country flight and I have had “food insecurity” – as in “is there anyplace open here to get a meal before my next leg?”.  After all (to use another example of redefinition), if being Transgender is solely a manifestation of how one feels on a particular day with respect to school kids deciding which bathroom, locker room, or athletic team they will participate on (re: the “California Bathroom Bill”, or even the NH Bathroom Bill that was barely defeated a few years ago) – I may be a physical male but I’m opening that ladies room door right now.  After all, the end result of this perverse language redefinition will end up as “who are YOU to interpret or malign MY intentions?” and when applied to law and policy, it will come down to a Wonderland type definition: “a word means what I want it to mean – at least right now.  ‘Cause I can change my mind later and mean it to be something else later.”

As the AP is trying to do here.

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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

Sychophants of Obama and apologists for Obamacare came out of the gate swinging hard when companies started to announce that they were not hiring new people, especially if they were near the 50 person limit that would trigger the Obamacare Mandate fine (and dropping people if close).  They went ballistic as companies also started to slash the hours of their workers.  Again, the Obamacare Mandate was that all full time employees must be furnished with “affordable” health insurance or be fined – and then promptly redefined what a full time worker was (from 35-40 hours down to 30).  The Progressives went nuts as they realized that the Obama Administration was making us a nation of part time workers that had to work two jobs – and that people actually were reacting to the letter of the law?

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As Grokster Steve pointed out here:

When asked about the legitimacy of their domicile status, Clark said:

“By and large, the young people who stayed with me were committed to New Hampshire, but given their age, whether they intended to stay is impossible to predict.”

Talk about a total BS answer.  State Senator Clark was housing professional campaign workers who do not live here but voted here.  Who very likely voted for her and every other Democrat up and down that ticket.  Then they left because that is why they came.  To vote for Democrats.

When one looks at the Portsmouth check list / voting list, here is NH State Senator Martha Fuller Clark:  Martha Fuller Clark residence, 152 Middle St. Portsmouth.  Which is fine – that is her legal residence.

Sidenote: As opposed to a secondary or tertiary “Mobile Domicile”, brought to us courtesy of  Judge Lewis’s signature on the NH ACLU’s adaptation of Burger King’s “We want it our Progressive Voting way” DBZVV (“Drive By Zombie Voter Vehicle”) Title order put into Lewis’s seemingly willing hands.  That’s right, they wrote the hole into the Voting ID act that single handedly created these Zombie Voters: lumber in, drop a few body parts on a ballot, and lumber away, never to be seen again.).  It also seems that like every Progressive outfit in the State is as scared of people having to show ID to prove that they DO live here AND that they are who they say they are just about as much as Unions will do ANYTHING to ensure that there is a law forcing union members dues to be taken out of their pay before it goes into their bank accounts.  How is one like the other? They are the base of Power for each – Zombie Votes and forced dues; each is scared witless that their jigs are all but up.  So each supports the other in a stupendously incestuous Circle of Progressive-Back-Scratching-Progressive Life.

However, as Steve points out, there were a number of others that have been residing at the Martha Motel.   Or should we think of it as Martha’s Home for Wayward Progressive Voter Cheats? Either / Or – same deal.  And Steve already talked about Andrea Marie Riccio.  Well, here’s another of Martha Fuller Clark’s “special snowflakes” – meet  Bryan Gregory Griffith

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…The finance committee refuses to provide funds for the purchase of a chandelier because none of the members knows how to play one.

…People ask, when they learn that Jesus fed the 5,000, whether the two fish were bass or catfish, and what bait was used to catch ’em.

…When the pastor says, “I’d like to ask Bubba to help take up the offering” and five guys and two women stand up.

…Opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday.

…A member of the church requests to be buried in his 4-wheel-drive truck because “It ain’t never been in a hole it couldn’t get out of” (Love it!)

…The choir is known as the “OK Chorale”.

…In a congregation of 500 members, there are only seven last names in the church directory.

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What does that mean?  ‘Grok friend Warner Todd Huston has the news:

With the updating of the Smith-Mundt Act, some are criticizing the repeal of rules that banned certain government-sponsored news broadcasts–such as Voice of America–from being aired inside the USA.

John Hudson of Foreign Policy, for instance, calls the move a “repeal” of the ban on government propaganda and says it will unleash “thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption.”

“Until this month,” Hudson says, “a vast ocean of U.S. programming produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks could only be viewed or listened to at broadcast quality in foreign countries.”

But with new amendments to the Smith-Mundt Act, those broadcast outlets will for the first time be allowed to broadcast inside the USA programming meant to appeal to specific communities.

I agree with Warner with some of his observations – Big Deal?  When the Mainstream Media is not much more than a mouth-piece for the Obama Administration already and letting their own biases and Progressive advocacy fly, how much worse can it get?

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Still mad over Guinta’s failure to live up to his promise to cut spending when he was in the US House and did vote for the Continuing Resolutions that increased spending – and our debt.  He got cold feet – what, me voting in such a way that the Government might shutdown from a lack of increased debt?  And then losing my job here in Congress?  Enough people here in NH were infuriated over those votes so as to NOT vote for him this last time.  While all kinds of Establishment Republicans have excoriated me  for pointing that out over and over again, I don’t care.  I want Republicans that I can vote for that I can TRUST – that they will have the CONSISTENCY in their actions in DC that they said they’d have while they campaigned.  Mad?  Yeah, I spent a lot of “capital” fer nuttin.  Don’t lie to me – I don’t forget.

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Listen up, Mark MacKenzie and James Andrews (head AFL-CIO in NH and NC) – Right To Work is all about choice.  From the Milwaukee Journal -Sentinel via Hot Air, it shows that when Union Members can still work without having to be part of anti-choice unions, they voted with their feet and no longer paying their dues:

Wisconsin’s public employees are leaving their unions in droves, which should be no surprise: With passage of Act 10 in 2011, public unions in the Badger State lost many of their reasons for being. The “budget-repair bill” pushed through the Legislature by Republicans and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker limited bargaining to wages only, and then only up to the cost of living; it also required unions to recertify each year and barred the automatic collection of union dues. Relying on federal financial records, the Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice found union membership has declined by 50% or more at some unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 48, which represents Milwaukee city and county workers.

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The race in January for the NH GOP Chairmanship was one between the Establishment and the Grassroots (go figure) with Andrew Hemingway being the hands down favorite of the latter group.  His platform consisted of:

• A promise to be able to Unite the different factions of the Party

• A promise to be able to Fill the Coffers so as to prepare for next election cycles with getting more boots on the ground for votes

• A promise to completely revamp the NH GOP’s technology platform so as to compete with the Democrat Data Machine

Promises are to be kept (especially when they were promptly copied) – else there is no Consistency and where there is no Consistency of results, there can be no Trust going forward.  So how is Jennifer Horn doing?

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Still waiting to hear from you, good buddy!  After all, who can be FOR that War On Women you folks were all babbling about around the election – something about Republicans wanted women to go without contraception and  women in binders, or some such nonsense?  Like this:

Mayor Bob Filner’s former communications director filed a sexual harassment lawsuit on Monday against the leader of the nation’s eighth-largest city, alleging he asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses and dragged her around in a headlock while whispering sexual advances.

Is going without panties on in the office the same as denying them contraception in the bedroom, Harrell?  Didn’t know that you Democrats had a “go commando” clause as part of your Platform (or is that some unwritten rule)?  I think that most folks would agree that a headlock is some kind of binder, eh?

Oh Wait!  Isn’t that YOUR Party’s Mayor?  In San Diego?  Bob Filner, right?

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…The Left is always trying to trick us into forgetting about the rising tide that lifts all boats, so we’ll be content with the shallow water and damp sand of central planning.

– John Hayward, RedState

That’s right – be happy with what Govt gives you for crumbs.  Paragraph from whence that came from after the jump (GRTWT):

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As the sysadmin for GraniteGrok, that means I get (have ?) to review all the comments.  A relatively new commenter, Radical Moderate, has left a couple of serious questions for Steve on his post “The Public Unions vs. the Public — Prager University“.  I figured that even though Steve will have his own thoughts, they were certainly worth commenting on myself (e.g., GOOD questions!).  Don’t always get the chance to do so, but this is one of them:

Hi Steve,

This is where I take a different path from you guys at GG. Out of respect I will let you have at the unions unmolested. But I would just like to pose a couple of questions.

1. Prior to the massive influx of illegals and those that never put into the system taking out money we always had enough to pay for pensions of public workers. Why is the focus on public workers pensions and why have TPTB made only moves that take back public pensions and not the money illegals are sucking out of the system?

2. Is it possible that there has been an orchestrated global austerity movement and you are playing right into their hands by pushing the ‘blame the unions’ line?

My response:

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