Steve MacDonald

Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, an award-winning blogger, and a member of the Board of Directors of The 603 Alliance and the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies. He is the owner of Grok Media LLC and the Managing Editor, Executive Editor, assistant editor, Editor, content curator, and more (yes, there's more) at GraniteGrok.com. Steve is also a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, the Republican Volunteer Coalition, and has worked for or with many state and local campaigns and grassroots groups, and is a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.

I Tried It At Home

I%20tried%20it%20at%20home.jpgFergus Cullen has some advice in his Union Leader column this morning.(print or e-edition) Resolutions that do not include exercise or dieting, to quote the author.  They are all of course political, the most entertaining of which is a suggestion that Carol Shea-Porter run for President.

But my favorite was this one.

For bloggers and online posters, man up and identify yourselves when you comment. There are too many anonymous cowards in the online world. Civility is more persuasive than angry rant. If you don’t have the courage to say who you are when taking a shot at someone, you probably shouldn’t say it.

I agree, mostly.

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What’s In Your Narrative?

Plenty of people who think they are quite attuned to the echo chamber are spending a good deal of time doing the progressives and RINO’s dirty work.  These are people on the right, so-called insiders who get how the game is played.  Yet again (and again) I find the chorus repeating the message which the left and the media have ingrained in them…every time they hear the bell ring.

"Sarah Palin." Ding!

Independents will never vote for her.  Her resignation as governor is a deal breaker.  You can’t bring social issues into the debate or Republican’s lose the center, she is stupid, inexperienced, too provocative, and on and on and on.

This is the message of the establishment elites on both sides.  It is the growl of a cornered animal that fears for its life.  A life dependent on the growth and power of government.  And it has been picked up and repeated by people who should know better.

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Hasbro Capitalizes on Beer Pong

"Cuponk! Beer pong without the beer.The Greatest Name in Games" has paved the pathway to future Beer Pong excellence with a series of "games" called Cuponk.  The object of Cuponk, a creation of Hasbro, is to get a ping-pong ball in a cup doing any number of special moves or trick shots using whatever surfaces are available.  The cup makes noise to reward you for your talents and if you actually use the cards provided, and complete the trick called for, you can get points and keep score.

Fortunately for us, you should not put beer in a Cuponk cup.  I suspect the electronics will not like it.  I can’t comment on whether the instructions warn against such amendments to the manufacturers guidelines, they seem to have gotten about as much attention as a 2000 page piece of legislation in the US House.  Or maybe I threw them out with the wrapping paper.

It’s a cup and a ball. How frikkin complex could it be? "Mind it I play through?"  ‘Oh by all means?’

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Low Road To China

Carol believes what she has been told by Nancy Pelosi and the influence peddlers in her own party, believes it so strongly that she could never be bothered to accept that the truth was anything more than the opposition “pushing back.”

Ancient Chinese Secret

In an amusing week for Carol Shea-Porter, in which she almost sounded McCarthyesque in her suspicions of Chinese communist cash infiltrations into the campaigns of domestic candidates, how long can it be before she blames her 2010 election loss on Global Warming?

You heard me right.

It’s been 57 days since Carol "I wasn’t saying the Chinese cost me my election" Shea-Porter lost and she has still not called the winner to congratulate him and concede the race personally.  This is a woman scorned, trapped in a world of denial, in which it is acceptable to ignore the big business, special interest international/domestic union machine that funded her own campaign while continuing to make offhand remarks about foreign and special interest money that doesn’t even exist as is she has to keep working off the same talking points palm card until the DNC sends her a new one.

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What Would We Do Without Studies Like These?

Riding in on the heels of the UNH/Hirshberg cow fart research we have other news from the research front of which is just begging to be made fun.

Someone has discovered that oral sex is a gateway drug to intercourse among teenagers. A three-year study determined that teens who have oral sex are more likely to have intercourse than teens who do not. And if you ask the Baptists they will tell you that intercourse leads to dancing, or was that the other way around?

“I see most of the health policies out there and guidelines for preventive services talking about sex generally, but they do not specify oral sex. That is an important distinction because teens don’t consider oral sex to be sex, and many are not aware of the risks involved,” Halpern-Felsher said.

So oral sex leads to intercourse and intercourse leads to unwanted pregnancy.  Who is surprised?  The experts, of course.

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Why I Need Your Tax Dollars, by Gary Hirshberg

Gary Hirshberg CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms wants you to know what he thinks about a recent taxpayer investment in organic farming. His editorial in this mornings Union Leader goes on at great length extolling the virtues and benefits of organic farming. It will create jobs, better food, help grow the organic farms footprint and provide fresh local dairy products.
He never mentions that his fresh local dairy farm is owned by a huge multinational French conglomerate of which he is a prominent international player. (Big Dairy!)

Merrimack County Republican Committee – An Evening with Gov. Tim Pawlenty

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Repost and reminder about this upcoming event…

On January 24, 2011, the MCRC is hosting an "Evening with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty" (click here for flyer).  Pawlenty is rumored to be a 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, to face-off against Barack Obama (or perhaps some other Democrat)?

Adding to the rumors, Gov. Pawlenty has spent quite a bit of time in Iowa and in New Hampshire over the past 6 months- and is planning to spend more time here.  While standing at the Milford polls on September’s primary day, I was offered coffee and donuts by a nice young lady who was wearing a yellow and blue "Freedom First" shirt; of course this is Pawlenty’s active Freedom First PAC.  I also saw Pawlenty speak at a Nashua reception for gubernatorial candidate John Stephen, and he took part in a number of other events that week, including an event for Congressman-elect Frank Guinta.

Pawlenty has been criticized for spending too much time out of his home state, during his final year as Governor, crisscrossing the United States assessing his support for a Presidential run.  A poll taken in September, 2010, shows that a majority of Minnesotans are against his candidacy.  Conversely, Minnesotans tend to favor Mitt Romney, the current front-runner of rumored Republican Presidential candidates.

Almost a prerequisite to running for President these days, Pawlenty has released a life-story and these are my principles book called "Courage to Stand" – and he is now spending quite a bit of time touring the nation on a book-signing tour.

Pawlenty attended law school, and served as vice-president of a software company, but his political resume is noteworthy.  He was elected as a MN State Representative in 1992 (serving 5 terms), becoming House Majority Leader in 1998.  He was elected governor of Minnesota in 2002, receiving %44.4 in a seven-party race (including a "Socialist-Workers" party) and 71% turnout, with the promise of "balancing the state budget, without raising taxes", as well as requiring visa expiration dates be shown on driver’s licenses, a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, and instituting a concealed-carry law. 

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Agenda…

Agenda.jpg

A good friend gave me a copy of a documentary a few weeks ago and asked me to watch it.  Based on my association with him, the title, and by the DVD cover, I knew it was a film related to Communism and the United States.  Not sure if it was some sort of far-fetched conspiracy theory movie, I gave this friend the benefit of the doubt, and I sat down to watch it with an open mind; I had no idea how powerful and compelling this movie would be. 

Whether or not you agree with and/or appreciate him, think of Glenn Beck at his very best.

The film is called Agenda: Grinding America Down”, by Curtis Bowers.

See the trailer for this documentary after the jump…

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How Do You Say “Klaatu barada nikto” In Chinese?

One source inside the Shea-Porter camp who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, admitted that the congresswoman was trying to learn to the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto” in Chinese. She claimed that if she spoke these words before the 2012 campaign that donations from the Chinese controlled conglomerates, to Caribbean front-companies, who would then move money into New Hampshire via a courier named “Falcon” traveling in a saucer shaped balloon, would stop and she would be able to win re-election.

Jefferson and the Koran…

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In 2007, newly elected US Representative Keith Ellison (DFL-MN), used a Koran in his swearing-in reenactment, instead of a Bible.  A classic Obama-adoring, Pelosi-Progressive minion, Ellison had once defended Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (even helping to organize the Minnesota contingent of the "Million Man March"), but later backtracked, was raised Catholic in Detroit, but converted to Islam while in college.

The Koran he took his oath of office on was borrowed from the Library of Congress, originally purchased and owned by Thomas Jefferson.  Ellison said, "It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Quran."

Sure, Jefferson gleaned wisdom from the Koran.  Read this article to understand better Jefferson’s dealing with Islam, during his time both before and during his Presidency.  US Marines, take note.

Complete article on this history after the jump…

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He Hasn’t Paid His Dues

It has come to my attention that sometimes having the qualities necessary to get the job done are irrelevant. And that seems to be the opinion of some establishment republicans who have admitted that while Jack Kimball would probably be a great party Chairmen, this sliver of old-guard regulars can’t cast a vote for him because he has not paid his dues.

And Let Me Add This…

Let me add this to Skips post just a short scroll below this one. State GOP candidate for Chairman Juliana Bergeron’s false grass roots mantle (and it is false) is not just an opportunistic stab at tapping populist enthusiasm, she could find herself left behind should she win by simply tilting at the TEA parties windmills.

Breaking The Addiction To Government

Image: thesassyminx.comThe December New Hampshire labor report, period ending October 2010, is not all that remarkable.  Coos County is still suffering while overall the state is hanging in at 5.4%.  This number is still reflective of issues with the size of the labor force versus mid 2009 numbers.  We have to watch that as we head through the November and December reports into January, where holiday hiring will add to the labor force, and then most likley drop off.

What may have been the most interesting aspect of the new report however, was this paragraph from the first page.

In New Hampshire private industry GDP growth was below that of government. The current dollar change in private industry between 2008 and 2009 was almost non-existent. less than a $1 million dollar difference.  When adjusted for inflation private GDP saw a 1.5% percent decrease.  Government however (this is New Hampshire State Government) saw a 4.6% increase in current dollars.

This is how Democrat-controlled states feign growth. 

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The True Meaning Of Christmas

Starting in 2011, public sector workers will no longer get days off related to any religious holiday, nor will they receive any compensation for these days unless they actually work. If as the liberals and secularists suggest, that we can’t have any God in government, then no one in government should get a paid day off as a result.

Jingle Bombs

Politically incorrect, and funny. ( And just a heads up…the words a*s and n*ts, are each used once further into the routine, relating to the puppet, which has neither.) Jeff Dunham Achmed's 'Jingle Bombs'Uploaded by benjam015. – Click for more funny videos.

Day 50

As the sun rises over New England on December 22nd, 2010, we will have begun the fiftieth day since the November 2nd Election. As it comes to a close, fifty full days will have passed. Fifty sunrises and sunsets. Fifty breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. And by some estimates, as many as 250 billion phone calls will have been made in that time period, and not one of them (to the best of my knowledge) was from Carol Shea-Porter to congratulate Frank Guinta on his victory over her in the the NH first congressional district race.

Little Footprints In The Digital Snow

someone-wrong-on-internet.pngSome of the establishment ‘insiders’ in the New Hampshire political news firmament are clinging to their status as the connected resource for information, defending their political crack house like some kind of punditry-pusher for the news junkies in the Granite state.

One of their weapons is the exclusive.  They need them to feel relevant.

Case in point, James Pindell, who unknown to most, had posted the news of Jack Kimball’s announcement to seek the state GOP chairmanship as a WMUR/Political Scoop exclusive.  But he did it after it had been posted by GraniteGrok, on GarniteGrok.com, the Grok’s facebook page, each of the Groksters facebook pages, at NH Insider.com, at the NHRVC web page, at my Live Free or Die WordPress page, and on several email lists like those of the NHRVC and RLCNH.

After a conversation with one of the Grok’s contributors, the word "exclusive" was reportedly removed from the Political Scoop post, but the act of trying to claim exclusivity still remains, embedded in the original web address to the article as posted.

http://politicalscoop.wmur.com/exclusive-kimball-to-run-for-nhgop-chair

[Emphasis mine]

It’s just like little foot prints in the digital snow, staggering away from the scene of a crime.

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