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.
There are those, as we who watch politics know, who say they wish to do something but turn out later to be more in love with the title than with the doing. Face it, politicians have become, as one moves “up” the ladder to higher and higher office, our courtiers (harkening back to the Royal … Read more
Last night, it was a full house at the Granite State Institute of Politics Republican Gov. Debate hosted by John Burt. In fact – it was an overflow event; over 500 tickets sold when the event was estimated to pull in 400. It goes to show that the intensity is quite high on the Republican … Read more
We will be at the debate later on tonite and will be live streaming (Internet bandwidth and UStream servers , God willing) as well as recording it. Grokster Steve and I are planning on being there, and others may be as well. Certainly, we’ll be recording it for later posting and trying to get some … Read more
Well, it has been a few days since Question 1 (“Why are you running”) was asked of Susan Olsen (last Thursday). On the other hand, when starting this post, I thought it had been several days since Question 1 had posted (only yesterday). In some ways, this question is led from part of her answer … Read more
Gals, Guns, and Politics – a Trifecta of goodness! Really – what’s not to like about rugged ladies shooting guns and giving the latest rundown on what’s what in NH, National, or International politics. I am looking forward to going – and GraniteGrok will be covering the event. We’ll be live streaming the event, doing … Read more
Unlike most interviews that we do with candidates, which tend to just touch on philosophy, this one with Susan Olsen stayed mostly philosophical. Think about it – we have asked candidates all kinds of questions about all kinds of issues, and then we backtrack those answers to figure out what their foundations are. And where ever … Read more
Well, more than just the “top” positions in the State (e.g., NH Governor,NH Senate, NH House) are being sought here in New Hampshire – and a few of those candidates did show up at the CNHT Annual Picnic. In order of appearance:
Frank Szabo (Sheriff, Hillsboro) Michael Tierney (NH Exec. Council, District 2)
And we come to the end of the speakers at the CNHT Annual Picnic (“Old Home Day for Conservatives!”). Fittingly enough (although he spoke early in the agenda), we have the Speaker of the NH House of Representatives, Bill O’Brien:
The speech transcript:
Coalition of NH Taxpayers – July 7, 2012
“Will we continue to bring government back to essential purpose of protecting freedoms and not assuming that it must find a solution to every problem, real or imagined?“
In concluding his 3rd State of the Union Speech almost 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan left us a guide for the never-ending battle for freedom. He said,
Let us be sure that those who come after will say . . . that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
The Great Communicator also warned us that,
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
In our time – this legislative term in New Hampshire in Concord – there are those among us who did everything we could.
We cut state-funded spending by 18% because the over-spenders had left us almost a $900 million deficit.
From Business Insider (emphasis mine, reformatted): “He points to the ratio of household liquid assets to liabilities which has increased to 2.11 in the first quarter of 2012, from 1.99 in the fourth quarter of 2011, as a positive sign. The is the highest reading since Q1 2002. This ratio measures the health of consumers … Read more
Even with all of other events going on, there were enough folks running for the NH House of Representatives to take quite some time as well! In order of speaking appearance at the CNHT Picnic:
Bill Walker, Plainfield Susan Olsen, Warner / Webster
Well, you DIDN’T think that we’d leave the NH Senate out, didja? And yes, there were a number of candidates and incumbents running for the NH Senate. Once again, in order of the speaking order at the CNHT Annual
Yesterday was the annual CNHT picnic – a gathering that attracts right of center activists (Conservatives, Liberals, and fed-up Democrats) every year for the last 14 years. Well, we did try to live stream the CNHT (Coalition of NH Taxpayers) annual picnic but due to bandwith problems, the UStream servers kept complaining so I apologize … Read more
We are a busy bunch here at GraniteGrok – and sometimes we get behind in the post-production phase of one event because we have to go to yet another one – and such is the case here. This past Thursday, GraniteGrok took the opportunity to interview Susan Olsen who is running for the NH House … Read more
The second speaker of the afternoon was Jason Rink who Skyped in (via the technical abilities from Grokster Mike!). Associated with the Tenth Amendment movement, he directed and produced The Nullification Documentary – Nullification: The Rightful Remedy. What do we do when the Federal Government steps outside of it’s constitutional boundaries? Do we ask … Read more
When contemplating all of the videos, and doubtful that folks would want to see a post for each and every one, we’re going to follow a more functional approach. This post contains all of the folks that spoke for the various candidates for NH Governor on the Republican & Libertarian tickets. Sidenote: strange; I am … Read more
At yesterday’s CNHT Annual Picnic, there were a number of folks running for US Congress (both of NH’s Congressional Districts) that wanted to get their name out there and try to convince some of the activists there “Hey, look! You should back me!”.
In order of their speaking yesterday:
Congressman Charlie Bass (CD-2) Rick Parent (Candidate, CD-1)
I have watched US Rep (er, now Former US Rep) Thaddeus McCotter on Fox News’ RedEye show – not often but seeing that is is normally on at a 3am time frame, let’s phrase it “sufficiently often”. He certainly posses a very dry sense of humor and a very quick wit. He also came here to NH to speak at a few TEA Party events as well and other events (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here); I found him to be very cerebral, more of a philosopher style person who wished to understand the foundations of an issues as well as the nits concerning it. He did run this cycle for President but didn’t gain any traction and bowed out.
Unfortunately, not only did he not gain traction, but he’s now also lost his Congressional seat from Michigan – he failed to gather enough names on petitions to get on the ballot there and those that were turned in are being “examined” by the State Attorney General for validity (or not).
Harvard has appointed Vanidy “Van” Bailey as the College’s first permanent director of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, and queer student life. Bailey, the assistant director for education at the University of California, San Diego, will assume the new position on July 16.
Alas, this long overdue shattering of the BGLTQ ceiling was marred by The Harvard Crimson’s grossly insensitive coverage:
We are here at the Hillsborough American Legion hall for CNHT’s annual “Old Home Day” for Conservative / Libertarian / Right of Center activists. Full slate of folks will be speaking and we’ll be live streaming as long as no one kicks out the Ethernet wire! Live video from your Android device on Ustream Please … Read more
