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.

This is a defense of the NH GOP Party Platform? Oy vay!

Skip

Yes, the vote on HB 437 (the repeal of gay marriage) did not go the way that I would have hoped.  Yes, I agree that the primary concern of the NH GOP majority in the House and the Senate should be fiscal issues, fiscal issues, and more fiscal issues.  However, there is always a fiscal cost to social issues as well – every. single. one. of. them.  Sure, lots of  Rockefeller Repubs hate to see their hands get “dirty” in social issues, but they are always present.  Perhaps the fiscal issue may not be immediately observable on what seems to be a social primary issue, but when one rises up to the 10,000 foot level, the $ signs can be seen bobbing around the landscape.  And social issues are inescapable, as the Progressive movement has pushed politics and Government into almost all aspects of our lives.

I keep going back to when this WAS a big deal and a lot of outside money flowed into Democrat pockets to get it passed – certainly, the Dems thought this was a big social issue deal that had to be addressed. And now, they wanted it off the table (“hey, this isn’t a fiscal issue” – a use of “Use their own rule book against them”.).  Forget, for a moment, that this social issue was about gay marriage; should the NH GOP just let the Dems do any social issue they want?

And the NH GOP Party Platform has social issues in it that are major pillars: 

VIII. THE FAMILY

Preserving Marriage and Family

We realize that the family’s most important function is to raise the next generation of Americans. We place our highest priority on promoting and preserving the family as the most important institution of human development by:

  • Recognizing marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman

Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker-Candidate RNC Committeewoman Candidate. Q5: What part of the NH GOP Platform is in danger and why should people rally around it?

Skip

More questions, and more answers.  I picked up on something that Pam had said earlier and bluntly asked – what needs to be protected in the NH GOP platform?  And here was her response: Note: Also, we have been getting some observations and questions in the previous posts’ comments, mostly from Commenter “C. dog e. … Read more

BE BREITBART: Update 2: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

Skip

Mr. Murphy,

As we discussed yesterday, I have mailed the Department of Environmental Services’ initial response to your request for records.  A courtesy copy is attached hereto as a PDF file.  Also attached is a PDF copy of DES’ Electronic Communications Policy.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you

(Emphasis mine, above)  I mentioned in my last post that instead of the IT policy that the Department of Information Technology follows, the Department of Environmental Services has a different one (and that was sent to me by DES’s “RTK dude and Legal Eagle”, after being informed that DES follows a different tune than what the IT folks do):

NH DES IT / ElectronicCommunicationsPolicy - HeaderThe full JPG that I created from the sent PDF is after the jump.  However, if you want to see the PDF, click here.  And of COURSE, I had questions; those are after the jump as well.  I will say that this policy is much weaker (from my techie eyes) than that of the actual IT’s policy.  It would probably be a good thing if each departmental policy (under the “if 1, then many” logic, if DES has one, am betting all of the other departments have their separate (and weaker) policies.  The IT dept certainly will know better the IT technical “problem areas” that span across the entire network far better than most other departments (although there are always “ringers” that do know more than some IT folks – motivation and curiosity can go way far) while being familiar for most of the biz scenarios that should / should not be allowable.

And I wonder how many of the departments don’t define their terms sufficiently well so that there is a lot of “grey area” in between the letters of the law (while ignoring the Spirit of the policy – and that of just doing a good honest day’s work for a honest day’s pay).  Maybe another ‘Grok project – or maybe the IT Dept should be doing that all on their own…

Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker-Candidate RNC Committeewoman Candidate. Q4 – Why should NH Committee members choose you over your opponent?

Skip

Ah yes, the second point – the pitch.  The first point is that every politician has to know why they are running.  The latter can be simple (“somebody asked me to, and I said ‘why not?’”)  involved (i.e., a whole series of either interlocked or random issues that finally, in toto, reached a tipping point), … Read more

BE BREITBART: Update 1: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

Skip

To recap, we caught wind that a NH Dept. Of Environmental Services employee, Richard de Seve (former lawyer, chapter VP in the NH SEIU), was politically blogging on the taxpayer dime and time.  So, we decided to find out what the State had to say about it and found this IT policy concerning the use of State paid computer / network resources.  Once that was posted, Mr. de Seve decided to write an email to Steve (posted here) in which he said he “sorry, won’t do it again) but also demanded that Steve apologize to his SEIU “brothers & sisters” (which Steve did in his usual great “Steve” fashion).

Well, that led to our next post in which we launched a Right To Know request (details here).  And we did get a response (after the jump).

RTK DES Receipt Of Request-Header

Along with it we received a different IT policy that is specific to the Departmental of Environmental Services – Apparently (as NH Rep. Seth Cohn informed me a while ago), when it comes to IT policies, there is a Balkanization that has happened: every man for himself!  Who knows, maybe this will lead to some other actions that were unintended from our original thoughts.

The problem, though, is that IT policy is the ONLY thing we have received at this point – not what we expected.  Well, we did copy some Legislators on our original request – and we heard back from several of them.  While I have had some pleasant conversations with the DES “RTK dude” Pete Demas concerning the request, we’ve not received ANY of the requested data as of yet.

We can be a patient lot here at GraniteGrok – but I’m figuring that perhaps it is time to talk to some of those Legislators again.

Read more

Notable Quote – unknown

Skip

Via email, just in time for the Supreme Court oral arguments starting next week. “Fathom the Hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured… but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.”   (H/T: Jordon)  

Be Brietbart – taking it to Obama and Obamacare – cute Conservative tweets owning #ILikeObamacare

Skip

Heh!  Obama’s campaign, in addition to being “Captain Obama America” (need I say more: really, a comic book character??), has decided that “Obamacare” is no longer racist, no longer hate speech, and no longer to simply be uttered by birthers, fanatics, TEA Partiers, and extremists.  Now, the Obama campaign has decided to pull a page out of the SlutWalker movement (Really, you really are copying the SlutWalker movement? As in “Let’s take back SLUTS”)?  Really?  Rich…well, must be as Sandra Fluke is supporting Obama!  Anyways, “Obamacare” is to be embraced!

Well, in the tradition of AttackWatch, Conservatives sallied forth, joining with Progressives and Obamessiah accolytes, in preaching the worth of #ILikeObamacare:

10.) @jimmiebjr: #ILikeObamacare because I trust the same people who wrote the tax code to keep things simple, understandable, and transparent for me.

9.) @EWErickson: #ILikeObamacare because I think responsibility is giving free condoms to our kids while we bankrupt their future.

8.) @brostap: #ilikeobamacare because…oh wait it’s terrible…

7.) @joshgreenman: #ILikeObamacare because “love” is too strong a word.

Read more

Yes, this image BY OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN shows his serious side – Seriously?

Skip
Seriously, Obama
Seriously, Obama

Seriously – the Obama Campaign put this up.  Really?  Captain America?  Doesn’t that helmet clash with the Mom Jeans?  The URL says how desperate they are to reproduce 2008:  http://barackobama.tumblr.com/post/19697699954/today-in-cool-the-obama-poster-project

Today in cool?  Really?  They REALLY think he looks cool in this “poster”?  Worse yet, does HE think he’s cool looking?

Yeah.  I remember another person who had a helmet on, too:

Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker – NH House Deputy Speaker, Candidate NH GOP RNC Committeewoman – Question 2

Skip

Continuing on with GraniteGrok’s interview with Pam Tucker (currently the Deputy Speaker of the NH House of Representatives) who is running to be the next RNC (Republican National Committee) Committeewoman from NH.  We have a series of questions that we asked; here is Question 2: Why should the ordinary Republican care who their RNC Committeewoman … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker – NH House Deputy Speaker, Candidate NH GOP RNC Committeewoman – Question 3

Skip

Continuing on with our interview with Pam Tucker who is running to be the next RNC (Republican National Committee) Committeewoman from the NH Republican Party, we switched our emphasis to that of the Party platform.  This document represents the approved (by the State Committee in toto) philosophy and political stances of the NH GOP.  As … Read more

“Then Sarah Palin tweeted.”

Skip

Mini-whine: Well, I was out last nite acquiring another interview and will start processing that video tonite.  And I just completed an audio interview a little bit ago this evening, so I have that to do.  The whine?  Steve beat me to the post I wanted to do on the Bristol Palin post (good on him!) – but I found it via another source:  The Corner and David French, whose wife runs the Patheos website Steve quoted.  David relays a bit of the back story – showing the power of social media as well as the Palin name:

Last week she added a young, single-mother blogger to the site, a person who could reach a wide audience and was experiencing life as a mother in the glare of unusually harsh publicity: Bristol Palin.

As an editor, Nancy often lives in the more mundane world of Internet punditry — posting blogs, correcting typos, monitoring traffic, and managing a group of talented and eclectic writers. But some days are less mundane than others.

Over the weekend, Bristol wrote a post that asked a simple question: “Mr. President, When Should I Expect Your Call?” Noting that President Obama had called Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh’s now-famous insult, Bristol reminds the President that she’s been the target of much worse:

And he quotes what Bristol wrote, replicated in part by Steve’s post (yes, go read his and the actual post).  Then he adds this:

…After Bristol sent the post in, Nancy put it up shortly after midnight on Sunday night.

Nancy tweeted it to her few hundred followers (she and I have a rather pathetic contest for twitter followers; right now I’m barely in the lead with a whopping 776), and Bristol facebooked it. Within hours, it had been shared 8,000 times. Already it was taking off.

And then it exploded (emphasis mine):

Then Sarah Palin tweeted.

Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker – NH House Deputy Speaker, Candidate NH GOP RNC Committeewoman – Question 1: Why?

Skip

Last night, GraniteGrok interviewed Pam Tucker who is the Deputy Speaker of the NH House of Representatives.  She is also running to be the next RNC (Republican National Committee) Committeewoman from NH, as Phyllis Woods is not seeking another term.  Meeting at The Draft in Concord, NH, she graciously took our questions. This is Question … Read more

BE BREITBART: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

Skip

We’ve already posted a couple of times on the State employee Rickard “Dick” de Seve’ use of taxpayer paid time and computer services (Is A NH Public Employee Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?, So, what does the State of NH say about “Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?” and An Apology to the NH SEA/SEIU) on the subject, wondering about how a NH State employee (and former lawyer and present chapter VP in the NH SEIU [the Service Employees International Union, the union that represents most union employees employed by the State of NH]), could be posting so many political comments for such a long time on the NH taxpayer dime.

So last week we filed a NH RTK or Right To Know request,  identified in most other parts of the country as an FOIA or Freedom of Information Act request.   (Grokster Steve and I have been joined by Ed Naile of CNHT -the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers in the effort.) We asked for not only HR records (to establish when he was supposed to be working and if he had indeed read and signed the department internet use policy, and/or any warnings that were constructed based on his use of NH State Property.  But that’s not all we asked for…

Read more

Having a MAHVELOUS day of governance, eh sport?

Skip

I missed this on Friday, and although I generally don’t repost an entire post by someone else, it loses something if I don’t.  From The Campaign Spot (I have reformatted it slightly): Nearly one-third of the nation’s drivers now fork out $4 or more for a gallon of gasoline. The cost of living is suddenly … Read more

So, Obama wants to make fun of a dead war hero and a past President, Rutherford B. Hayes? And gets the quote wrong?

Skip

Obama said this about Civil War General (and hero) during a campaign speech: One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, ‘It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?‘ That’s why he’s not on Mount Rushmore. Reality? Stephen A. Hayes, a great-great-grandson of the former president and … Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXingYummly