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.
Two issues that have been at the forefront of the present Legislative session were pension reform (where NH has among the highest per capita public pension costs in the nation going forward) and perhaps unsustainable, and whether or not having the State of New Hampshire would participate in Obamacare via setting up a health insurance exchange and that huge cost upon NH citizens vs the resurgence of States’ sovereign Rights.
Question 11: Pension reform for NH Public Sector Unions?
Question 12: Obamacare – insurance exchanges. Outlook on the use of the 10th Amendment / States Rights?
This winds up our interview series with Jane Cormier (running for the NH House in Belknap 8 – Alton, Barnstead, and Gilmanton) against Peter Bolster (one of the worst RINOs in the NH House, IMHO, who boasts of being a Democrat who changed registration to Republican just to vote against the Republican Platform on many, many occasions).
Question 13: Expansion of Medicaid in NH as a result of Obamacare: take the money?
Question 14: What is your outlook on Founders version of the definition of “protect”?
Last night, the ‘Grok had been invited to cover the Congressional Forum sponsored by the Seacoast Republican Women – a well respected non-partisan (with respect to the Republican Party events) organization whose events are usually open and well attended as their execution in having an event is normally flawless. The event, held at the most beautiful Elks Lodge I have ever been in (on an inlet in Portsmouth, NH), had six four Candidate attendees:
NH First Congressional District – Rick Parent, Vern Clough
Incumbent Congressman Charlie Bass – who declared “I am not coming; it would be a waste of my time”
The videos of the Opening Ceremonies and Candidate Opening Remarks after the jump. There were six questions asked of the Candidates – they will be in subsequent posts.
The questions for the four Candidates at the Seacoast Republican Women Congressional Forum were contributed before and during the event duration by the actual attendees with the lone exception of the last Question by Stella Scamman, the moderator. The Candidates in attendance were: NH First Congressional District – Rick Parent, Vern Clough NH Second Congressional … Read more
This past weekend was the Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit; a gathering of free market and Liberty and Freedom loving activists who came to go to workshops to sharpen their skills and to listen to an impressive list of well known (and loved) Conservative and Liberty speakers. GraniteGrok was invited to come and spent the weekend on Radio Row where, obviously enough, radio talk hosts came in to do their shows remotely and to interview some of the speakers and notables that were at the event (we were the only blogsite allowed and the only ones doing live video of our interviewees!). So besides the first interview series (“What is your American Dream – and Obama’s?“), we had a fair number of folks to yak with. What was curious were the number of NH folks that came down from NH to attend the workshops, listen to the speakers, and of course, stop by Radio Row and yak with us! Imagine that – travel over 500 miles just to be with GraniteGrok!
And one of them was a surprise to see: NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien. Part 1 here, Parts 2 and 3 after the jump.
Interested in joining and helping to defend Free Markets, Economic Freedom, Individual Liberty and Freedom, and Constitutional values? Click here for the NH Chapter of AFP.
That quote is from former Democrat Tip O’Neal from Bawston, MA who served many years as the US Speaker of the House. He meant it that national political wars are waged locally. We took it sideways – our local politics are your’s where ever you are, albeit with different names and slightly different issues. That … Read more
This past weekend was the Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit; a gathering of free market and Liberty and Freedom loving activists who came to go to workshops to sharpen their skills and to listen to an impressive list of well known (and loved) speakers. GraniteGrok was invited to come and spent the weekend on Radio Row where, obviously enough, radio talk hosts came in to do their shows remotely and to interview some of the speakers and notables that were at the event (we were the only blogsite allowed and the only ones doing live video of our interviewees!). So besides the first interview series (“What is your American Dream – and Obama’s?“), we had a fair number of folks. Most notable was Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of Florida; I learned two things quickly:
Well, it has been a wee bit of time since the last post of our interview series with Jane Cormier (running for the NH House in Belknap 8 – Alton, Barnstead, and Gilmanton) as we spent half of last week / weekend in Washington DC at the Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream event. Thus, time to ramp it up again and finish up.
Question 9: can the NH Budget be further trimmed? How much if yes?
Question 10: Right To Know – For or Against?
Also after the jump, it turns out that Jane was also in DC for the AFP event (I did not know that she was going), so when she strolled by in Radio Row, I invited her to sit.
Updated and Bumped: Grok Reader Bob saw this and asked that I update this post given that it is out of date – Bolster quickly gave up his delusions of a NH Senate run and is now running to retain his seat in the NH House, I should make sure that folks knew if they came across this post. While what his sign says (NH District 6) is now out of date – given that he IS a former Democrat, and VOTES like a Democrat (another one of those that is using the Republicans to get elected), my little addition to his sign is STILL applicable.
Well, got home at about 2:15 am this morning. Am absolutely convinced that Washington DC is the pits to try to get out of when you are driving a car, don’t know the city, and the GPS is absolutely convinced that you HAVE to go up the street that the DC DPW folks have closed for repairs (3 times, in fact!). I consider it an hour stolen from the life.
I’ve mentioned on many occasions here that TMEW and I ran a daycare center for a few years; I also have stated that the folks that were almost always the folks that were the most appreciative of the care we gave to and around their most precious ones were those paying “full boat” prices. Yes, there were a few that were on State assistance that also in this category, but mighty few. For the majority, it was expected and sometimes, more was DEMANDED (and sometimes, got mad when we expected them to do something for themselves / kids). So, when this came in, a thank you, I decided to post it (emphasis mine, name redacted):
Title 2: This is not what Frank should be doing to impress his former core supporters for his upcoming US Senate run…
Yeah, really! Diane Bitter (Rye Republican Town Chair, NH GOP Area-Vice Chair, and NH Assistant Secretary, and MUCH more importantly, Conservative and TEA Party activist) reached out to Frank and his campaign LAST MARCH about attending this event (yes, yet another group she is involved with):
The Seacoast Republican Women is a well respected group all over the state on the Right side of the aisle. Diane is also well connected here in NH – and she is very experienced on putting on both large and small events all over the state. This is not a snafu on her part as from MY previous experience with her (and anyone that has worked with her can vouchsafe this), she does not leave important details to the last moment such as NOT giving a sitting Congressman a LONG lead on an event. She knows that to get a VIP, you ask early and stay on it. She did – again, the request went out in MARCH – 5 months ago. She was told soon after “No problem!”. Oh Wait!…
I’m a wee bit late but got into the booth later than I expected (had to wait for the previous occupants to clear out). Am lining up the guests and will be yakking live in a few minutes!
Well, I didn’t get the interviews I wanted to this morning at the Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit, so I changed gears and found a number of attendees just arriving that agreed to a quick Grok “micro-interview”. Two questions:
What is your version of the American Dream?
Contrast that with what you think the Obama Administration’s version of the American Dream is?
Short, simple, and to the point. Even two of my old Samsphere blogger buddies, Bob Weeks and Eric Telford, assented to answering my questions. So, what were the answers?
Heh! In the video, off camera, folks were telling me that they ARE the TEA Party, and they stopped protesting – and started putting their shoulders to the grindstones to change the system back to what it should be. (H/T: Legal Insurrection)
We always try to spend “a little time with GraniteGrok” and with Andy Sanborn (running for reelection to the NH Senate in District 9), we came to the realization that we had spent a lot more time than just a little. So, we decided to end our interrogation interview with him with this last question.
Question 8:
What things have you accomplished since our first interview last cycle? Not get done?
We did all agree that we needed to come back and yak with Andy strictly on some issues rather than on the concentration on how the State does what it does – but it is nice to know that SOMEBODY has this in their head that not only do Legislators create laws for the rest of us but also how the “back of the house” (as Andy the restauranteur would put it) is doing as well. After all, they ARE supposed to be serving us, the citizens.
#7 Are Government and Society interchangeable terms? #8 Should they be?
Continuing on with our questions for with Jane Cormier (running for the NH House in Belknap 8 – Alton, Barnstead, and Gilmanton), we wanted to know which should be the driving force in the land: Government or Society? Are they two different entities? If not, should they be looked upon as such? Jane did answer the question but we split the answer into the Federal level and then at the State level:
Question 7: Proper Role of Government-Progressive conflate Govt & Society; Conservatives split them. Your outlook?
Question 8: Same as Q7, but bring it to down from the Federal level to the State of NH.
Govt vs Society: Difference? Ditto, for State level?
I drove down here to DC yesterday for AFP’s Defending the American Dream Summit 2012. There’s a packed agenda for sure, and I have some slots tomorrow (10 – 2pm) and on Saturday ( 8 – 3pm) for the ‘Grok to be on Radio Row so am hoping nab some good interviews. I’ll put up “sticky posts” when we go live.
Given what is going on in NH on the Sustainable Communities Initiative (aka, Smart Growth, Granite State Future Plan, Water Sustainability Commission) that has been breaking here on the ‘Grok, and with…
Two days ago, we launched our newest Right To Know series concerning Gov. Lynch’s Water Sustainability Commission – that which was ordered into existence by Executive Order:
Good afternoon,
Having just taken your survey, I have a question: will you be publishing all of the surveys taken so as to validate the summary result? Like any good scientific OR Governmental process, it is always best, for openness and transparency, to publish all raw data.
If not, please consider this a Right To Know request under RSA 91-A for all of the filled out surveys that were received from SurveyMonkey (or by other means) on that survey, as shown by your page (http://www.nh.gov/water-sustainability/).
Update: Yes, for the hate filled rant below, Adam Smith is no longer the CFO at Vante. Thanks to the commentors for confirming it! “Always tastes better when it is full of hate!” All the way down to DC, I kept hearing how Conservative folks have been flocking (pun intended) to Chick-Fil-A outlets to support … Read more
