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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.

Well, it looks like Teachers Unions are starting to lose more and more….

First in Wisconsin and now in Colorado.  In a post at Townhall:

The Douglas County School District, a suburban community south of Denver, Colorado, has decided to part ways with their teachers’ union in the absence of progress on a new contract which expired June 30th, 2012.

“The Board of Education finds and declares that the Collective Bargaining Agreements between the District and the Unions,” said the district on July 3rd in its formal resolution dissolving the bonds between the union and the district, “which had been effective from July 1, 2011 through and including June 30, 2012, are now expired and of no legal effect whatsoever.”

The dissolution between the district and the union is unprecedented  and sources close to the union tell me that unions are pensively watching, worried that other districts around Colorado and the country could take the same action as Douglas County has.

We can only hope.

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For the accident by a few, there will be those that will seek to punish us all

OK, Steve beat me to it here, but I had my own thoughts of the accident in Pelham that I started on last night but as you will read, similar.

There will be those out there that will react in horror to what I am about to write ( “BUT CHILDREN GOT HURT – BADLY!”).  The news is coming out from Pelham that 11 people were hurt when a years long homeowner’s fireworks tradition went awry.  The latest from both NECN (New Englan Cable News) and WMUR says that two children were severely burnt and medflighted to Boston.  Of COURSE this is a tragedy, but I grimaced when I heard the Fire Chief’s pronouncement:

I’m not a fan of fireworks.  This is a perfect example [of] what can go wrong.  Well meaning people trying to have fun and an accident happened and caused a great deal of injuries to children and adults.”

The NECN newscaster said what I expected about Chief Midgley of the Pelham Fire Department:

He wants to work with lawmakers to make sure this never happens again.

Of course he does.  Again, this has been a long standing tradition of this homeowner, and thus far, no news accounts have brought up any earlier accidents.  No one else in Pelham had any reported serious injuries anywhere else in town (not that I’ve looked, but on the idea of “IF 1, then the news will report it as “AND! over here”).  But here it seems, the Chief has decided that it is his business to force all others to comply with his viewpoint and morality, and no longer let people decide for themselves.  Is that the role of an Government employee (no matter how good he is in performing that role)?  Is the purpose of an appointed employee to lobby the Legislature against what many voters want to be able to do?  And do it on TAXPAYER funding (isn’t there a law against that)?

Freedom.    Versus the Safety & Security (the first Commandment of the Nanny-Progressive State)

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You know, if you’re gonna hold a protest sign…

…you ought to: Know what it says Know what it means Know how to explain it And when a guy with a camera asks you about all three, Know that keeping quiet makes you look stupid. My friend Tony Katz, from AllPatriotsMedia, was riding with the Americans for Prosperity bus tour called “Real Facts. Real … Read more

Fourth of July – celebrate the day that we declared our Independence from a King

Listen to our national anthem by Madison Rising:

We at the ‘Grok are thankful for the blessings that God have given us – indeed, without our Creator who has watched over this nation ’til now, we’d just be yet another country.  But He inspired, I believe, our Founders who laid the foundations of this great nation – and they freely acknowledged that Gift from Him: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  Inalienable Rights.  The radical idea that we were individuals, sovereign citizens, and not subjects.

We also thank those that have served our country in uniform, willing to put their lives on the line for hard work,  no fame and little money.  As a non-veteran (but double Blue Star Dad) I appreciate our veterans here at the ‘Grok more and more for not only their uniformed service:

  • Tim Condon (US Marines)
  • Rick Olsen (US Marines)
  • Mike Rogers (Royal Marines)
  • Don Ewing (Army)

But also for their continued allegiance to their oaths and their continued fight for the sake of Individual Liberty and Freedom.  See a Vet?  Give them a heartful “Thank You” – they have earned it.

We also remember on this Day in those that believed in that Founders Vision and in the principles on which it was grounded enough to give up their all on order to give us this day.

 

A rock version of the music video after the jump

(H/T: The Blaze)

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What’s a Fourth without parades?

I am awaiting some important phone calls so today, no parades for me (and I do like parades!).  However, Grokster Mike sends this one in from Amhearst:

Mike at Amhearst 4th of July parade 1

I know the person that built this – Bill Tobin of Sanborton.  A good man, proud of his country and proud of his state – representing the Great Seal of New Hampshire! (And, by the way, an Ovide supporter- that frame on the truck bed is about to sport a pair of Ovide signs)  Oh, and Mike found the center of the Obama – Biden contingent:

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A Fourth of July message to my fellow Groksters – and to our readers. And especially to those that just might be stopping by.

“I also wanted to mention the strange feeling that I awoke with today….and I share your sense of – not unease necessarily, but maybe  – resolve..?“

Words from my fellow Groksters that stirred me to write a message back:

My fellow Groksters,

There was a reason why each and everyone of you was chosen and asked to write for GraniteGrok.  I also believe that there was a reason why each and everyone of you said yes – you all realized that we ARE in a Cold Civil War, that “the strange feeling that I awoke with today” one that is “instinctive” and “palpable” are real.  I started this blogging schtick with Doug back in 2005 when it was just a novel way to get our rather opinionated opinions out there.  Now, I see that there was a Higher Purpose that yanked us into this place, and what we do now as the ‘Grok is probably far more important than what I ever thought.  Liberty and Freedom.

This July Fourth, we realize we are at a tipping point – a very important one.  We are in a fight for our Country’s future; the line has been drawn, and we either are those that just drift along or we respond that that “instinctive” and internal sense that something is awry.  If not us, then who?  Who will run to the ramparts to defend our Shining City on a Hill?  Who will stir themselves from the easy life and the easy way?  Who will say “I will put away the couch, the tv, the toys, and my family” and look deeper into their core to say “There is more; I am a descendent of our Minutemen – if not by blood but by that same love of country and Ideals”.  I will stand, not for the Old World based failed reasons that motivated my ancestors to leave the Old Country, but for the Rights given to me by my Creator.  I am that new Minuteman that refuses to give in to the Progressives that not only defend the Statism of that Old World but wish to entrench it here.  Millions have died to defend the philosophy expressed in the Declaration of Independence – yet, Progressives are fighting to redefine those words and ideas, turn them upside down, and say that they are the Patriots and we are the extremists.   They are the Fifth Column, the Trojan Horse, spreading rot within all of our institutions and Society.

But all of you Groksters and others that join with us in spirit (TEA Party, 9-12, constitutionally aware), are now are saying “You have gone far enough – and we will stop you”.  Some of you have already done your part; you took the oath, did the training, did the hard work, and literally fought for us.  We who stayed home did other things, vaguely aware that you were on the parapets standing guard and keeping us safe.  Yet, even with your tours long over, have come back to the fight once more.  Not with a gun (though you have such at the ready, with the spirit to lift it) but with keyboards, voices, and heart.  We who did not wear the uniform now join you in this different fight, side by side with you, ready to now do our part.

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What’s a Fourth without parades? Part 2

Mike, our intrepid “National Correspondent” (since he is constantly flying all over the country!) send in another pic, this time from the Merrimack Fourth of July parade:

Real cool antique truck –  Power Wagon!

He promises more to come – and here (Update) are some:

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Notable Quote – Frank Chodorov

On this day where we celebrate Freedom, a warning on those that would take it away: Perhaps it is an inner need that impels the socialist to his ideology, for I have never met an advocate of government intervention who did not admit, inadvertently, his own capacity for commissariat functions.  He always has a plan, … Read more

Obamacare – Unleash the IRS – Now it gets personal

Conservatives have often said that Obamacare will fundamentally change the relationship between citizens and their Government.  With it being now declared as Constitutional, we may well no longer be citizens that have a Federal Government; we are now subjects as the Feds with the new regulations decreed by the Progressives and the IRS deemed to be the cop (as I posted here).

And it just bit me in the butt.  And it will change not just the relationship between the Govt and me, but also between me and my son.  And you all had better read this – it may well affect you as well.  In that previous post there were a number of things that individuals will have to cough up and “share”.

Sidenote: yeah, “share”.  Brings up the insinuation that you get to decide to share or not – you know, voluntary.  Just like when Democrats talk about the rich and “asking” them to pay their fair share.  They already are, and there is no “asking” – asking means the willingness to take “no” for an answer.  For the naive, there is no way that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are “asking” – they are demanding.

I left out some really important information from that post concerning how the IRS would determine if YOU had to pay a penalty, as I thought it really needed it’s own post and an extremely personal touch on my life that it will now place.  From the Fox Biz post (reformatted and emphasis mine):

And it’s the intrusiveness of the health reform law that has raised eyebrows. What does the IRS base your mandate penalty on? This is where it gets nutty.

… that the “IRS will need to determine a taxpayer’s compliance with the individual [insurance] mandate and assess a penalty if coverage is inadequate.”  However, the penalty isn’t based on just your personal net income. The penalty will be based on an entirely different number that is more than just your paycheck earnings — your ‘household income.’  “This determination is based on a concept of ‘household income,’” TAO has said, adding, “this may differ from the income reported on the taxpayer’s return, because it is a composite of all of the income reported by members of a taxpayer’s household — information that may not be readily accessible to the IRS.”

Or me.  Again, the concept of “household income” absolutely turns the former relationship between me and the IRS.  My info was the IRS’s info – they’d look at it, see if I did all the right things, if I paid the right amount of tax,and would let me know if they had decided if I was right or if they were right.  But it was just me and just them – a singly based relationship.

No more:

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Obamacare – Unleash the IRS!

(H/T: cartoon from Lucianne)

Well, does Nancy P. remind you of the Wicked Witch?  Well, now that Obamacare has been judged constitutional, we all are going to be meeting up real closer now with our friendly neighborhood IRS dudes (reformatted and emphasis mine):

  •  The IRS now gets to know about a small business’s:
  • entire payroll
  • the level of their insurance coverage
  • Whether small businesses provide “affordable” coverage to workers as determined by Big Govt.
  • A “shared responsibility requirement” fines up to $2,000 per worker after the 50th person if insurance is deemed inadequate (which means you may have to tell your employer a lot of  personal / family info you never had to before
  • It gets to know information about you and your family:
  • the income of the primary breadwinner in your house
  • and your entire family’s income
  • Determining whether individuals buy “adequate” health coverage
  • Insurance plan information, including who is covered under the plan and the dates of coverage
  • The costs of your family’s health insurance plans
  • Whether a taxpayer had an offer of employer-sponsored health insurance;
  • The cost of employer-sponsored insurance
  • Whether you have received a premium tax credit
  • Whether you have an exemption from the individual responsibility requirement.
  • Whether or not you are subject to the Mandate / Tax penalty is based not on your income, but your household income.

GrokTV Event: GSPLPAC presents Rosa Koire on Agenda 21 – Parts 6 and 7

I’ll tell you, the more I hear about the subject, the thoughts of “are you serious”?  Yet, when I look at the example in Portland, Oregon where “sustainable development” is the end-all-be-all of urban planning, I start to think “mmmm, maybe there is something to this” (here, here, here, and here).  Skyrocketing housing costs have … Read more

Book Review – Rebuild the Dream by Van Jones – Part 1: Lie 1

Rebuild The Dream by Van JonesAs I posted here, I purchased a copy of Van Jones’ new book and had it signed by Van himself.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a shot to start reading it.  Until today.

There’s been a lot of stuff going on, both in my blogging life as well as in the life outside of the laptop (little as it might be) and I just needed to switch gears for a bit.  So, I started to read some of the books that have been sitting on the shelf for a while – and realized how much I’ve missed holding a book in my hands!  So I as said earlier, it was time to read this book by one of the biggest cheerleaders for a “government centered life” for us all – and basically, someone who has no problem in slagging folks like TEA Partier me.  After all, I’m not someone who studied Marx as a political way to follow and have little truck with Communitarianism – a word that you’ll be seeing more often here on the ‘Grok.  Essentially, the emphasis is on “the community” and while the Wiki definition makes it seem benign, read the section on Positive Rights:

Central to the communitarian philosophy is the concept of positive rights, which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include state subsidized education, state subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.

A common objection is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to not have something done for you. For example, taxation to pay for such programs as described above dispossesses individuals of property. Proponents of positive rights, by attributing the protection of negative rights to the society rather than the government, respond that individuals would not have any rights in the absence of societies—a central tenet of communitarianism—and thus have a personal responsibility to give something back to it.

I digress in a small part -but make no mistake in that in many cases, the emphasis is always that the individual Rights must be subsumed to the need of the Collective.  With these watermelon environmentalists, there will be more and more emphasis that we need to give up stuff and Rights “for the common good” – at and by their command.  The problem is that ” the needs for the Common Good”, just like the vaunted “social contract” that Leftists accuse Conservatives of violating, there is never a sheet of paper that lay out what the “Common Good”‘s needs are, or the boundaries vis-a-vis our Individual rights.  All there is seems to be a never ending, vaporous commentary of “we more, you less”.  How do you defend yourself against what is basically vaporware?  (er, easy: start asking them the hard questions of “what?”, starting writing them down, and don’t take “no” when they say “er, later – we have to go over this other stuff” or “I’ll get back to you”.

Thus, this fits in both with Van Jones as an environmentalist and with the Granite State Future Plan / Sustainable Communities Initiative posts I’ve been putting up lately. So, back to the review – I haven’t even made it to Chapter 1 yet – the Prologue is 35 pages long.  In it, two things struck me:

  • He shoulda listen harder to his Dad; he comes around to believe him but missed the most important point
  • He lies

About what?  “Of course, President Obma had no intention of closing America’s coal mines.” (page xxvii).  Just one big lie through that nice big smile he has!

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GrokTV Event: GSPLPAC presents Rosa Koire on Agenda 21 – Parts 3, 4, and 5

Rosa Koire continued to talk this past Tuesday night about how the UN Agenda 21 program has made its way into the Federal bureaucracy and what it means for New Hampshire citizens, their private property, and the traditional NH town life.  She outlined how representatives from the EPA, DOT, and HUD are out to change … Read more

I just couldn’t stop coming back to this headline:

Over at Fox:

Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare and Americans have lost the right to be left alone

Regardless of what I wrote here concerning the Commerce Clause (it is now longer unlimited) and that Federalism has been strengthened (roping in Federal coercion of the States by  ransoming monies that came from the States in exchange for meeting certain mandates), the above hit home – hard.  When I heard that inactivity cannot be regulated via the Commerce Clause, I went YES!  When I heard no more coercion by the Feds, I went YES!  And then what Roberts said about taxation and individual choice, my heart dropped.  The headline had it right – they just won’t leave me alone.

One of my regular Internet Doodlings come from TreeHugger.  It’s a great site for a Conservative to visit (as loyal ‘Grok commenter C. dog e. dog now frequents those haunts, howling at the entrenched denizens, has learned).  They now combine an absolute faith that there is a future of  “no future” for any of us unless their Green vision is realized in how we all should live in their Utopia of a pre-modern civilization / Gaia dystopia of a low energy world (and a low level of life to boot).  There is that loud stream of “all in for one vision” and we all should have no choice in it. “You cannot live your life your way because if we let you, the planet will die.”  Thus, they will do and support anything that will force the rest of us to change our behavior – for them, keeping the planet alive trumps the Rights and philosophy of the Constitution.  They will not stop until we live the way they want and as you have seen with some of my recent posts (here and here), they are on the march to make that happen, forcibly if necessary.

From the political side, Obama and his fellow Progressives are also convinced they can create a Utopia here on Earth – and as Obama has said:

“my individual salvation is not going to come about without a collective salvation for the country.”

Translation:

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Former Obama Appointee that wanted to crucify energy companies, expectedly turns up at Sierra Club (who wishes to do the same)

A while ago, Al Armendariz (an Obama recruit / appointee), a high level EPA district administrator for the oil areas of the South and Southwest regions got caught in a 2010 video admitting that his style of environmental overwatch was akin to the Roman soldiers (video after the jump) (emphasis mine):

“But as I said, oil and gas is an enforcement priority, it’s one of seven, so we are going to spend a fair amount of time looking at oil and gas production. And I gave, I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said. It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law. Find people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them, and there is a deterrent effect there. And, companies that are smart see that, they don’t want to play that game, and they decide at that point that it’s time to clean up. And, that won’t happen unless you have somebody out there making examples of people. So you go out, you look at an industry, you find people violating the law, you go aggressively after them. And we do have some pretty effective enforcement tools. Compliance can get very high, very, very quickly. That’s what these companies respond to is both their public image but also financial pressure. So you put some financial pressure on a company, you get other people in that industry to clean up very quickly. So, that’s our general philosophy.”

Of course, the whitewash machinery went to to work right away to disavow his actions and words and to make him out to be an outlier and not typical of the outlook of the EPA itself.

Yeah, like anybody believed that – and with this news as to where he landed after he resigned (just before he was to go before a Congressional hearing), does anyone believe that the Obama Administration WASN’T out to get the oil companies (disbelieve me?  See after the jump for a reminder)?  The Hill reports:

A former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official who resigned earlier this year for comparing his work to crucifixion has found new employment with a leading green group.

The Sierra Club on Friday announced that Al Armendariz would be joining the group’s “Beyond Coal” campaign next month as a senior representative:

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A new name for Obamacare? And other Obamacare random thoughts

A little thing, perhaps, but this caught my eye over at Betsy’s Page:

Now that Obamacare has become Obamatax…

After all, the Supremes (a la Chief Justice Roberts made it so) have made it simply a taxing offense (“According to the CBO, the Obamatax may amount to $1.7 trillion over a decade.”)…

*******

A friend of mine asked:

Now that Obamacare has been ruled valid, are Republicans ready for Tenth Amendment solutions like the Health Care Compact?

My response :

Wrong first question.

First Question: are Republicans willing to man up sufficiently to grow TWO pair each first???

*******

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