Skip

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.

Larry Major, Pike Industries Governmental Rent-Seeker, is at it again.

Well, I already put up a post where Pike paid rent-seeker Larry Major, with the title of “Government Relations”, (would that be an incestuous one?) was flogging the independent truckers that haul for Pike to go roust their NH State Reps and Senators to urge passage of HB617 which would enrich Pike Industries’s coffers but would most likely deflate their wallets, along with the rest of non-truckers, via a huge uplift in NH’s gas tax.  At least there he made clear he was an employee.  Now he’s got Letters to the Editor out doing the same thing – but without letting people know that his company directly benefits from it and flogging them to support it is part of his job (after all, money grubbing from government generally takes a PAID hack to be successful).  My response that has been submitted to my local papers:

To the Editor,

Larry Major in his Letter submitted to you attempts to make the case that passage of HB617, that raises the gas tax ere in NH, is a thing of beauty.  After all, we here in NH have supposedly let our roads go to ruin from neglect.  Er, anyone else remember thinking “hey, didn’t they JUST repave Rt 106 by the track a couple of years ago when Obama’s Porkulus money did it again?  So, Larry, was that stretch in “ruinous shape” then? As opposed to repairing truly needy roads?  Was that such a good use of “free money from the Feds”?

But more importantly, Mr. Major simply signed his name to his Letter as “Larry Major, Loudon”.  Just a concerned Citizen that has taken little notice that the Highway Fund, which should be solely for paying for road repair,  has become a sieve of a leaky bucket.  Instead of demanding that politicians do the right thing and stop thieving from it for other purposes, or that HB617 be SOLELY dedicated to the roads (it is not), he simply want more taken out of our pockets.  After all,   I believe Pike did the work on Route 106.

Er, that would be Mr. Major’s employer where his title is “Government Relations” (see http://granitegrok.com/blog/2013/03/troopers-are-not-the-only-rent-seekers-so-is-pike-industries where he implores Pike’s contract truckers to advocate for higher taxes on the rest of us to inflate Pike’s coffers.

Nicely done, Mr. Major, on being so “open” and “transparent”.

Kindest regards,

Skip Murphy

His Letter after the jump

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Guest post by Penny Dean, Esq. – HB135 “Stand your ground” must be defeated

HB 135 NEEDS TO BE ITL’D

If the proposed changes to RSA 627:4 in the form of HB 135 are adopted (i.e. the return to the previous version of the law-see below), the affirmative defense will no longer be available to those who are forced to defend themselves or others at places other than their home. Nothing good will come from this. Innocent New Hampshire citizens are currently being regularly, unfairly and unreasonably charged for defending themselves and will have a greatly lessened chance at being found not guilty due to inadequate jury instructions if HB 135 passes, and thus less justice, the price for HB 135….potentially years of their life in prison.

If the accused in a self defense case “wins” as in is acquitted at trial, the price many pay is their job (in many instances a cash only bail is ordered, and many people cannot afford $10k or $25k cash bail, so are kept in jail and are fired from work because they cannot go to work). Ask yourself if you were absent from work for a month or two *(or longer) because you were in jail awaiting trial, would your boss keep your job open? What about those of you who might work for less than firearm friendly corporations? What is the likelihood you would HAVE a job after the charges against you were announced? Citizens who are forced to defend themselves while at the grocery store, walking home, leaving work, or anywhere they might be currently are NOT given a “free pass” by the very weak New Hampshire “stand your ground” affirmative defense law, but rather, after they are charged criminally, and then they may be allowed to raise the defenses found in RSA 627:4.

Many people do not understand what an affirmative defense is.

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Don’t pay your taxes – you can’t be part of Our Collective

If it was only that easy to get around these Freedom crushers!  Once in a while, I am directed to a site that is definitely NOT Right-of-Center and this time the tipster sent me to Miscellany: Blue, a rather progressive site.  The occasion was an interview done by Dave Ridley with Progressive NH State House Rep Raymond Gagnon who made a statement that enforces a stereotype of Progressives that Progressives themselves have given to the Right:

Ridley: Any vote for a government program is a vote for violence against your neighbor because you’re going to force them to pay for it through threat of violence.

Gagnon: Forcing people to pay for things is not aggression…. [But] if you continually choose to not pay your taxes, year after year after year, there will be a consequence to that action. Yes, that’s true.

Ridley: They will drag you out of your house. They will kill you if you fight back.

Gagnon: That’s because you’ve chosen not to pay your taxes…. You’ve chosen not to be part of the team, the collective.

Now, Dave is more the Libertarian and certainly makes sure that the Progressive he is interviewing know that his main stance is that Government IS Force.  I agree in principle but not in the intensity that Dave employs; it is not how I would put it.  However, Dave IS right in that at the end of the day, aggression will be used if payment to the Government is not made – no one can deny that either either one’s property is taken or one’s Liberty is taken (er, jail).

However, my eyes did a double take – Gagnon falls right into the moral pit.

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GrokTV: Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala – John O’Sullivan, Parts 1 & 2

The featured speaker for the Lincoln-Reagan Gala held last night at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua, NH was John O’Sullivan. During the Reagan era, he was a Special Advisor to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and currently is Editor-at-Large at National Review, and also is a noted Conservative columnist, author, and speaker.  Here are … Read more

GrokTV: Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala – John O’Sullivan, Parts 3, 4 & 5

John O’Sullivan (special assistant to PM Margaret Thatcher and National Review Editor-in-Large), spoke to the assembled Hillsborough County Republicans on the occasion of their Lincoln-Reagan Gala,as the featured speaker for the evening.  Here, he continues on his varying takes on the themes of “What now, GOP?” as well as reminiscing on what it was like working for Prime Minister Thatcher during that time well looked upon by Conservatives.

Part 3 is here; Parts 4 & 5 after the jump

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GrokTV: Micro-Interview with John O’Sullivan

At the end of the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala, we started to breakdown the livestreaming equipment pretty quickly – it was late, it would take a while, and then there was the long drive home (and the Mtn. Dew WAS failing me!).  However, John O’Sullivan did come over to our disheveled table (a prime scenario for a disorderly conduct citation, audio equipment wise!) so Grokster Mike and I quickly thanked him for his willingness to extend his already long evening and started the camera rolling:

Sidenote: “…camera rolling” – such a quaint old fashioned term for recording an event, being that there is no longer anything (i.e., tape) to be rolling when all goes onto a flat SDmicro chip….

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Guest Post by C.dog e. dog – “a touch of Bidenitus by I. Toddius!”

From his email:  Skip – Here’s a follow-up on poor ol’ Todd, born with a government degree in his mouth, and a touch of Bidenitus.

Plagiary, Thy Name is I. Toddius!

As originally hurled downfield by Scott from the 50 yard line, then caught and carried to the end zone by Steve, this football keeps scoring more points against Team Statist. I’m sure at this juncture the Liberatti are at this very moment circling their limousines to once again protect one of their own who has strayed into the land of e-lifting words others strung together and take credit as if these mighty prose (and by inference, thoughts) were their own. What’s the big deal? The Grate Senator from MA-MA Land had someone take his test. And the bumbling V.P. gaff machine down in D.C. just can’t keep himself from laddling out another heapin’ helpin’ of unattributed verbiage onto his plate marked: “Highest I.Q. in da House!” What does it matter? Aren’t we all supposed to share our stuff? So what if someone grinding the Big Government ax over at Trip Reports or New Hamster Municipal Association wrote the stuff first?

C’mon Steve! Aren’t they just one giant wriggling mass of community organizers, so what does it matter if it comes from the mouth of one worm or another? You’re sooooo picky. Besides, it’s entirely possible I. Toddius lifted his prescient prose from Daily Dirt (which is not related to the Daily KOS, but is related to Our Road Contractor’s Daily Bread – and lot’s of it – for construction company owners and the union bosses they feed) instead of Trip Reports.

But wait Steve and Scott, there’s more on our budding HI.Q. Joe Biden wannabee from Durham, New Hamster!

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GrokTV: Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala – Intro Ceremonies

Well, per our usual operating standards after livestreaming an event, we put up “smaller chunck” videos (and thanks to Grokster Mike for manning this camera).  For those of you that missed it: Last night was the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala where two Lincoln-Reagan Award winners were recognized: Former Congressman Charlie Bass and Former … Read more

GrokTV: Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala – Kelly Ayotte’s Letter and L-R Award Winners

Continuing with the agenda for the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala, the next two items: US Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) sent a Letter to be read to the Committee as she could not attend – Kevin Smith did the reading Lincoln-Reagan Award winners – Former Congressman Frank Guinta (unavailable due to a family emergency) and … Read more

Oh WHY did we think that this would be part of those FAA tower closures?

I learned to fly out of the Lawrence Airport in MA and part of the training was to fly in and out of smaller airports.  I learned the radio frequencies to use to announce my entry into the landing / takeoff patter and to toggle the runway lights.  Standard fare as most of the airports in the US are considered “general aviation” fields – small biz jets and prop planes – not having a Tower talk you in was no big deal.  So upon hearing that the FAA was going to close some of these towers of the mid size fields was not a big deal – pilots are trained to deal with this.  But like much of Obama’s response to his own sequester plan (for it was the White House that came up with it), instead of a corporate handling of a 2.4% lowered budget (where true non-essentials are cut out), his Administration has been intent on causing the taxpayers and citizens as much grief as possible (even as his Administration just caused all of us to live 2.4% less due to raising out taxes).  So closing FAA towers is part of that – but WHY these particular 149 Towers?  From Hot Air:

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday told 149 regional airports across the country it would begin closing their air traffic control towers in April, but said it would spare another 40 towers that had been on the chopping block.

As the post says, this is all about less than 2/3ds of a $Billion out of budget of $58 Billion – small change at the 50,000 foot level.  But take out paper pushers first?  But what is so special about those 40?  Oh, sure:

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Biden: “If it only saves ONE life!”. Yo, Joe? This count?

It also seems to reinforce the meme that those bad guys that use ILLEGAL weapons are often cowards when confronted by good guys standing up to them:

If you’re a woman, imagine being home alone in a rural area when you hear someone rattling your front door. You don’t recognize who they are. You call your husband just as the two teenaged boys break into your house and you see that they are armed. What do you do?

That’s exactly what happened to a woman in the small rural community of Maypearl, Texas, about 45 miles south of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It was Wednesday afternoon, she was home alone at their farmhouse when she heard her front door rattling. She looked out and saw two young men, one dressed in camouflage and had a gun strapped across his back.

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Live Blogging: John L O’Sullivan at the Hillsborough County Republican Committee Lincoln-Reagan Gala

GrokTV logoWe’ll be at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua tonite to livestream (as possible) and record the event for the Hillsborough Republicans as they are hosting John L. Sullivan (Editor-at-large of National Review, former Special Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, conservative author and columnist).  I expect to get a few interviews along the way.  Recording per normal so if you can’t be there, watch the live stream, we’ll get it up on the ‘Grok later on.

The reception starts at 5:30, the dinner an hour and a half later.  Livestream (the Ustream and Wifi Overlords permitting):

Update: arrived, set up, connected, and we will be live streaming – after the jump!

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So, Obama’s Dept of Homeland Security wants our Police Departments to be without ammo?

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

– President Obama, Colorado, July 2, 2008

When he first uttered those words, it seemed that only a few of us on the Right read those words and went “WHAT?”.  After all, we were starting to learn about his connections to the New Left and other people holding Progressive to Marxist philosophies (what, like there’s much of a difference?).  At the time, many on the Left, trying to be Obama apologists, went on and on about the intent was to increase programs like Vista and Americorps….and then it went dead.  Then Gabby Gifford, Aurora, and Sandy Hook hit.

For quite some time, civilian shooters were finding ammo and guns hard to get – first, thinking that an incipient gun ban was going to be pushed through during Obama’s first term and then again near and right after November’s election, with people truly believing that NOW he would start his ban.  After all, Progressives have this visceral hatred of both guns – and people who believe they have the right to defend themselves.  After all, their reasoning goes, we all give up certain Rights to Government to have a government and they believe that one of them is our fundamental Right to defend ourselves, families, and property.   As debra Saunders at Real Clear Politics puts it:

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Notable Quote – David Goodhart

For a democratic state to have any meaning, it must ‘belong’ to existing citizens. They must have special rights over non-citizens. Immigration must be managed with their interests in mind. – David Goodhart, British author

NHListens – the non-profit FOR the sustainable Granite State Future plan which HATES our NH environment!

Or for another take, this subtitle:                        NHListens – the “Run Away!” edition!

Gosh, and last week was JUST.SO.MUCH.FUN!  So this week was supposed to be the next one in the North Country series of “listening” sessions.  Get out of work on time (and an unexpected “happening”)?  Yup – Check!  Good weather?  Snow?  Rain?  Fire? Raining frogs (or other Biblical disasters)?  Nope – Check!  Heavy traffic, mechanical breakdown, gas in the tank and a Mikey D’s drive by?  GPS loaded and locked in?  Yup – Check!  Arrive on time?  Yup – Check!  Go to the door and let myself in?

SCREEETCH (think: fingernails on a blackboard)!  Er, nope.  Anyways, this is the notice they left on the door of the Littleton Senior Center.:

Well, it was supposed to be such – there was a sizable number of folks that drove up north – just THINK of all that horrible CO2 that was emitted by fossil fueled conveyances for naught simply because NHListens couldn’t, well, listen.  Isn’t that contrary to their whole notion of living ONLY in walkable cities – to NOT emit that evil gas that comes out of your mouth after every breath (btw, have you seen that the Earth is now the greenist in a long, long time with all of the new vegetation that is sprouting up?).

I guess that they weren’t all that happy that people showed up to their last session in Plymouth (and earlier) who expressed ideas contrary to the goals of the Granite State Future program (Heavens – people have been caught quoting the NH and US Constitutions!  Totally unfair of them to be quoting the REAL Social Contract(s) of America!).  Their actions (“La-La-La-La can’t hear you!”) reminded me of this:

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Did some of those HB617 Republicans not like that Flashlight that shined brightly? Good – Mission Accomplished

gas pump oldOK, I know this is a couple of days old, but still worth posting as an object lesson.  We here at the ‘Grok raised a fuss and a big ‘ole stinkeroonie as we figuratively shined our flashlight into a dark corner – the kind of one where taxpayers end up paying for the mistakes that Government makes, either in actuality or in priority (e.g., not doing what it should be).  We berated those Republicans that voted to raise the gas tax (that Pike Industries loves so much) that would hurt ordinary working folks.

Well, our motto is to “Spank’em when they’re wrong and Thank’em when they’re right”; we did the former and now time for the latter:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19th, 2013
Contact: 603-271-3665

House Republican Leaders Comment on Gas Tax Increase Bill

CONCORD – Today House Republican Leader Gene Chandler (R-Bartlett) and House Republican Policy Leader Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford) offered the following statements on the committee vote on HB617, a bill that would raise the gas tax. The House Ways and Means committee voted 11-7 to recommend the bill ought to pass with amendment. The committee amendment would raise the gas tax by 67%. Republicans on the committee were unanimous in their opposition to the bill.

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Guest Post by C.dog e.doG – “Gas Tax Lisping Fantasticos Just Give Me Gas”

C.dog e.dog is our most prolific commenters here on the ‘Grok who I first “met” over at TreeHugger (the Greenie Statist Enviro site that I go over to poke a stick into once in a while) – and he followed me “home”.  Located somewhere in this Live Free or Die State that we adore, he’s stayed around and brought his unique wordsmithing styling to the “Grok (to which we say “Thank you”):

Gas Tax Lisping Fantasticos Just Give Me Gas

After reading the latest download from New Hamster’s Democratic Machine to boost the “revenues” of the Grate State on the backs of those who reside and drive within its jurisdictional domain, once again I became flushed with questions.  But lo and behold, where I first read this boiler-plate proclamation at NH Insider – written by the esteemed Over-Lord who manages the town of Durham with mad skill –  there was no place to inquire of the mighty bureaucrat.  Evidently, Todd I. Selig considered his propaganda so invincible – so flawless – that he turned the comment feature off.  (“By order of the Royal Pompous Asses (clear throat) To all naives: There shall be no questioning of duly processed authority figures.  Pay the Man, take your seats, and shut up.”)  Now there’s a loud, a proud, and unquestionably, a correct-thinkin’ apparatchik.  I-Toddius reigns supreme!

First, order of business, Todd’s contribution to the “conversation” is really just recycled points from the Campbell playbook.  Reading over the pol megaphone snewspaper reports, which is repeated elsewhere and often by others on The Team, I-Toddius provides nothing new but more prattling – likely to score brownie points and get invites to swanky Liberatti festivities.

But I dither and linger.  On to the substance!

“This additional revenue would be placed in a separate fund within the constitutionally protected highway fund to be used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of state and municipal roads and bridges – investment that will equate to good jobs across New Hampshire, particularly within the construction, engineering, paving, and aggregate industries.”  “The increase would also fund an additional $8.5 million per year for municipal bridge and highway aid programs, fully fund the I-93 widening project …”

Hey Todd-o –

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