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.

“Pew Research Center survey finds declining support for government safety nets” – Well, yes!

This article is kinda / mostly straight up and down…OK, it’s not if you think about it hard.  It tries hard to present an objective view but when I look at the examples given, the veil falls.  In fact, the examples that are inserted to try to arouse a sympathetic aire concerning the safety net simply either doesn’t begin to think of the important unasked questions, or sweeps them under the rug.  Like this one (reformatted):

Jasmine McIntyre is thankful for the social safety net supporting her and her unborn child at the Florence Crittenton home.  Without the residential program for at-risk teen moms, she would have scant money, little education and a bleak future.  Instead, she is pursuing a job and is ready to enroll in college courses…Living at Florence Crittenton in a sprawling, old house with a dozen other hormonal, pregnant teens is not how McIntyre imagined her life when her parents moved to South Carolina three years ago. She was a student at West Ashley High School when she was sexually assaulted and dropped out of school. However, she went on to earn her GED, and the man she alleges attacked her was arrested.  Then she learned she was pregnant (though not from the assault).

She decided to have her baby girl. McIntyre sent the baby to live with her own mother, who had since moved to Ohio, and made plans to move there herself. She was working two jobs when she learned she was pregnant again.  With little money and no higher education, McIntyre and her mother worried. What was her future? And what could she offer two small children?  Again, McIntyre decided to have the baby. But this time, now 19, she moved into Florence Crittenton, a home for at-risk, unwed young women….Its clients are more likely to stay in school, learn life skills and give birth to healthy babies. For every $1 the program spends, it saves $4 in tax dollars, Executive Director Lisa Belton said.

OK, let’s be blunt – real blunt, because if we shy away from saying the obvious, from asking the hard questions that now  are off limits (because of Political Correctness), we’re only dealing with results and not the root causes.

Read more

Notable Quote – John Wallis

Any growth theory where government investment plays a crucial role in stimulating growth immediately runs afoul of the historical record, however.  The first countries to industrialize did not require extensive government involvement to make these investments.  In England, it was apparent that neither early capital accumulation nor social overhead investment depended heavily on the public … Read more

On the lighter side: this child is a Numerologist’s delight!

From CNSNews comes this: The Des Moines Register reports  that Laila Fitzgerald weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces when she was born. She came into the world on Thursday, which, numerically speaking, was 10/11/12. She arrived, militarily speaking, at 1314, which would be 1:14 p.m. for civilians. So the numbers associated with her birth are 8-9-10-11-12-13-14. … Read more

Have I got a political / gun invite for Kate Miller – an NRA event here in NH!

Previously I had chided Kate Miller, a Democrat from Meredith running for the NH House, for kvetching about Republicans and jobs all the while buying her campaign signs from a firm in Massachusetts.  At the very end of the post, I linked a comment she made at this post at Politico that plainly told us how she felt about firearms (emphasis mine, reformatted for bloggishness):

He should reopen the debate on assault weapons and commit to leading the way toward their banishment from the hands of ordinary citizens. Here in New Hampshire, our Republican-controlled legislature has just allowed the public and elected officials alike to carry weapons in our state House, on the House floor and in the public gallery. At least one elected official carries a Glock, in fact a pink one, and many have asserted that our state House is now safer. One nine-year-old’s death is one too many. School districts across New Hampshire are considering shelving the state House visits by 4th graders that have been part of the curriculum for decades rather than risk the children getting caught in state House cross fire. President Obama can help us move forward, here in New Hampshire and across the country, by leading the way toward the banishment of these heinous weapons.

Right…”state House cross fire.”  Fits in well with her running mate, Lisa DiMartino….but I digress.  I got this in the email in-box:

Londonderry Fish And Game LogoOn Friday, October 19, 2012, NRA National President David A. Keene will be at the Londonderry Fish & Game Club to greet fellow NRA Members and talk about the up and coming elections and NRA’s role in supporting candidates that are pro-second amendment. 

I am also told there is a possibility that Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre may make an appearance, but there has been no hard commitment on that aspect of Mr. Keene’s visit.

Read more

State of NH Budget Season – Do the Departments REALLY think we’re made of gold? They must (or stupid)

“In effect, the Budget heads are saying “Screw you, Legislature!”

From NH Watchdog (emphasis mine):

(CONCORD) State agencies are hoping for a 19% increase in next year’s budget, according to the Agency Budget Submissions sent to the Governor’s Office this month. The wish lists from the heads of New Hampshire’s 47 Departments, Agencies, and Commissions total just under $12 billion for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015, up from the $10 billion in the state’s current two-year budget.

In addition to their requested budgets, each department head must also submit a “Maintenance Budget” designed to meet fund current programs. They must also submit a proposed budget at 90% of current authorized spending, but that isn’t due until November 15th.

Right.  Most of us in the Private Sector (the REAL world) would look at 2% as OK (note to the Public sector – stop being greedy and masking it as “serving our constituents”).  The economy still is in the dumpers and these folks think nothing of “hey, we NEED this” at best and “how come they AREN’T thinking of hard it is out here FIRST”?  This is the thing about funding Government – unlike the Private Sector where consumers enforce efficiency via Profit / Loss pricing, there are no constraints on Government having to “prove” that they provide / fulfill needs at reasonable costs.  Private sector with low or no profitability from not being able to prove that our service or products HELPS YOU?  Bankruptcy.  Public sector – just keep getting more and more into the hopper, hoping that “friendly” politicians just wave it by.  Like these (reformatted from the post):

Read more

Obama’s move to a more Socialistic state – a warning from someone who grew up in a socialist state

“America’s wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive with badmouthing success and you take away the wealth that helps us take care of the needy. Yes, in socialism the rich will be poorer — but the poor will also be poorer. People will lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs.”

A refugee from socialistic Hungary during the Cold War, Thomas Peterffy knew not just the economic ills of such a system but the moral decay of the human spirit of such a system.  This is the system that Obama and the other Democrat Socialists of America wish to put upon this nation.  Equality is one thing – under the law as the Founders believed true Freedom must have.  But they are looking to have a forced material equality, a forced “opportunity” equality, which forces the State to not promote equality for some but rather, establishes a faux equality by removing that very same freedom from “those that do not deserve it” or from those “that are fortunate” or those “that have more”.  In short, taking from those that have actually used the opportunity that America (til now) has afforded to everyone.

Read more

Debate: this was not the dessert I wished for

“The instant polls: CNBC had it Ryan 56%-36%, CBS Biden 50%-31%, CNN Ryan 48%-44%, AP Ryan 51%-43%.” I and TMEW met another couple for dinner at one of the Darden (you know, the chains that Obamacare has hit) restaurants  (Olive Garden – TMEW’s favorite!) to talk over some things and I was hoping to get … Read more

Data Point – Social Security is going in the dumper (Too many Boomers)

The old Blue Social model, based on Progressive philosophy that Government is best suited to take care of people (as opposed to family, neighbors, and friends), was built on two assumptions: Population growth would always continue (e.g., big families so as to tax Generation B for the benefits to be given to Generation A) The … Read more

Ford you say? All that talk about Obama saving the domestic car companies?

This caught my eye over at Instapundit:

FORD HELPED MOST BY GM, CHRYSLER BAILOUTS? Bet you didn’t see this coming! A new Rasmussen survey of consumer sentiment finds that a clear majority of those interviewed are more favorably disposed to buying a Ford product because the famous automaker did NOT go hat-in-hand to Washington for a bailout in 2008, as did General Motors and Chrysler. Since it’s about my two favorite issues, cars and politics, I, of course, have an opinion on these developments!

The Rasmussen poll is here.  I tend to agree.  My second car (but my first car love) was my ’67 Camaro.  My mom thought it was a “nice little car”; she had never heard the phrase “muscle cars” (or never let on that she did).  The new incarnation of it looks really nice but I’d never consider buying it new just on the idea that Obama, with his sham GM bankruptcy, gave the UAW lots of  $$ already (stiffing the Sr. Bondholders in what has turned out to be just the first onset of his “Rule of Lawlessness”) so why should I give them more?

Well, living where we do, on the side of a mountain here in central NH where it snows and ices up often, we really needed to go back to having at least one 4wd vehicle in the family. So I, like those in the poll, went to a Ford dealer to start looking at new cars – even though I had loved our Suburban (and for other reasons, kicking myself for having sold it off a year ago and downsized to one car, our Saab 9-5) and started looking seriously at a Ford Edge.

Read more

View this from the phrase: “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen”; Democrats gunning for a Limited Government Warrior

It looks that ‘Grok friend, Mark Warden, has been put under the gun sights of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (from Blue Hampshire, emphasis mine), an out of state Democrat organization whose only purpose is to get BIG Govt Democrats elected to State Houses (gee, and I keep hearing that Democrats are forever railing against “outside money” – until it suits their purpose like all the gay money that came in to first get civil unions passed in NH and then had that replaced by gay marriage) :

New Hampshire House District 39 (Hillsborough)
Aaron Gill (Grassroots pick)
Status: Republican Incumbent

Why this Race Matters: Unlike the New Hampshire House’s many multi-member House races, Hillsborough District 39 is a one-on-one matchup featuring Democratic community banker and Deering Conservation Commission officer Aaron Gill, who faces an incumbent Republican who moved to the state as part of the so-called Free State Project, which encourages Libertarians to move to New Hampshire in order to remake that state’s government in the image of Libertarian Party ideology. (The project targets New Hampshire, specifically, because of its relatively small electorate.) The outcome of this race could show whether conservative-leaning districts like this one are “in play” for New Hampshire Democrats, as well as whether the Free State Project’s unique brand of conservatism has staying power among normal New Hampshire voters.

Well, well, well .  For all of the fulminations by the Democrats the last few years, railing against “the banksters” (remember, the Dems were all in for Occupy Wall Street bashing the banking 1% and have always blamed the banks for causing the financial crisis).

So, the DLCC (as well as the NH Dem Party) is setting this up as a Progressive / BIG Government candidate vs a Limited Govt / BIGGER Citizen legislator.  We continue to see the redefinition of the Proper Role of Government:

Read more

As a counterbalance to the Entitlement mentality,

Yesterday I put up this post where a caller to a talk show made it clear that her expectation (demand?) is that others are responsible for taking care of her and her children.  There was no discussion of voluntarily helping her, only the vagueness of Hillary’s “it takes a village” – in this case, the village WILL pay for my family because I had more kids than I can support.

Therefore, a palate cleanser is in order – Senator Rand Paul addressed this mentality back when Obamacare was being debated and he went right to the heart of the matter:

Bonus: I STILL love the video of Rand giving the you know what to an Dept of Energy flack over toilets:

Read more

Muslim Brotherhood: What does Maggie Hassan think of her husband’s Islamic radical friends that he brings to Philips Exeter Academy?

Update: Erik Erikson has absolutely lambasted and quartered the incestuous relationship that is the Mainstream Media and Democrat apparatchik within the DC beltway mentality.  The first post was a corker – the second has this devastating bit to it.  While he’s talking about the intersection of the Uppity Lefty Media and the Uppity Lefty Democrats, it outlines exactly the intent of the New Hampshire Herald’s intent:

Believe it or not, many Americans in this country would have a hard time believing that a person could be married to an abortion rights activist without being okay with that activism. And those Americans would more likely than not conclude that the reporter married to the abortion rights activist, the Democratic operative, the Joe Biden communications director, etc. share their spouse’s liberal world view. If we are honest about it, we’d have to admit that in most cases the Americans concluding that would be absolutely right.

**********************

“Democrat Maggie Hassan is running for the most powerful office in New Hampshire. But there are emerging questions as to whether she’s got the right sense of judgment necessary for the office stemming from her husband’s ties with radical Islamists, many of whom belong to organizations with terrorist connections.

…Did Maggie Hassan know what her hubby was up to, and did she approve of it?  Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American Islamic Relations spoke to PEA assemblies in 2006 and 2009.  CAIR was created by the terror organization Hamas.  Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel.  CAIR has funneled large sums of money to Hamas.  Among those tied to CAIR are Ismail Royer, Bassem Khafagi, Ghassan Elashi, Musa Abu Marzook, Imam Siraj Wahaj and Rabih Haddad – all considered to be jihadist promoters.

For the record, CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation Trial, the largest terrorism trial in American history.  The Egyptian born Bedier has a longstanding history of demonizing Israel and making excuses for Hamas and Hezbollah.  Nancy Khalil of the Muslim American Society also spoke at PEA on March 16, 2010.  According to federal documents on terrorism, the MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.”

It is the Muslim Brotherhood that has now taken over power in Egypt.  It has advocated for a one world caliphate encompassing all countries and all people.  Advocates have stated that a Muslim flag will one day fly over the White House and that Shari’ah Law (the severely restrictive law governing all daily actions) will be the law of the United States.  It is antithetical to the US Constitution (we are judges to be infidels simply because we free people create our laws – blasphemy to true Islamists). In their world, our State Motto would be sorely tested “Live Free or Die” – the true believers would make that happen (just look at what the Taliban is now doing in both Pakistan and Afghanistan).

It seems that Philips Exeter Academy likes playing host to these types of folks.  The New Hampshire Herald (written by Chris Anu) came out with this story on the 5th – well done with lots of references to Islamofascist groups and individuals and linkages between them all.  And all of them lead back to one NH point – Philips Exeter Academy where Maggie “The Red” Hassan’s husband is the headmaster there.  While there are a number of knocks on her about not knowing the tribulations that property tax paying folks, property owners trials, and the like (she and her husband live on campus thanks to Philips Exeter Academy), this is an article of another type – it raises a lot of questions in our minds “where does the loyalty lie“?  She certainly is a Progressive – while she may mention the Constitution, her values are not “strict Constitutionally” based (else, why would she even CONSIDER creating legislation dubbed MaggieCare (whereby all the hospitals in the state would effectively lose control to an unelected and unaccountable board that was also self-funding by taxing those it “oversees”) and MaggieSpeech (whereby any political speech effectively would have been strictly regulated by the State). Totalitarian – just like Shari’ah Law.  Read those names again

Read more

THUD! – that’s the sound of the second shoe falling on Obama’s paid campaign minions…

Steve had the first one video here.  And now a second one has popped up from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas with more paid Democrats laughing (yes, laughing!) at folks talking about committing voter fraud (er, the operative word as to the attitude of Obama’s campaign operatives was “Sweet!”).  You see, making suggestions on how to accomplish this just never seems to enter the heads of these wondertwits that they are aiding and abetting a felony-in-the-making.

And it further proves the long standing allegations of the Right that voter fraud does exist and it mostly acts like an iceberg – very little of it is seen:

As opposed to the earlier type of simply voting in the stead of someone else at a given polling place, this is more insidious.  While here in NH there is a relatively new system that links towns together so that if someone moves into a “recipient” town the “donor” town gets a notification, it doesn’t talk all that well to other states.  Which, as we can see, is the type of voter fraud outlined in this video.

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing