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.

Not A Good Sign For Carol SEIU-Porter

  Can’t Carol find five people to show up to support her that at least drive a New Hampshire rental?  That can’t be a good sign. Notice the Carol Shea Porter signs in the back and the NY tags?  This was driven by one of the five or six CSP debate boosters who showed up … Read more

Just Another Load Of Bull from Buckley [updated 2.0]

The NH GOP had a convention Saturday to get all rah-rah and make decisions about the party platform.  They were hoping for at least 400 of the states 725 delegates but only 294 delegates made the event. That is not unusual but there are some who think it is in indicative of waning in enthusiasm. … Read more

The Left’s Mugging of “Free Speech”

The left has oft times suggested that we need transparency in political advertising.  That people deserve to know who is paying for a political ad.  While this sounds like a good idea on its surface the legislative remedies the pro-government elites tend to propose turn out to be the equivalent of using a sledge hammer to hit a thumbtack.  And their obsessive desire to protect and defend the government from the enemy that is the Constitution (I really think they should just change their oath of office to reflect that truth) will forever produce restrictions on speech that are unacceptable to anyone who understands the first amendment in even its most un-convoluted context.

 

 

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Speaker Of The House

Photo Credit: Vote SmartGranite Grok has already endorsed Bill O’Brien for Speaker of the House, and you can see our video interview of Bill to get some idea of his priorities.  But since we happen to be here at the NHGOP convention we have the opportunity to find out what the other candidates for speaker deem as priorities for the next session.

I’ve grabbed some of their literature–everyone is in the convention at the moment–to get a taste of their priorities and one in particular caught my attention–and not in the most flattering way.  Susan Emerson’s hand out to the GOP delegates includes the following bullet points which I have taken to be so important to her in her quest to get the job that they have received this much prominence.

I would…like to continue establishing bipartisan relationships to work collectively on bills that will include the following.

-To provide equal opportunities for students.

-To provide access to adequate health care

-To create and promote tax relief incentives for businesses.

Given the wide range of damage done by liberals this is the best we can expect from Susan Emerson as Speaker of the House?  Given her otherwise impressive voting history, this is not impressive at all.

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Tax Cuts For The “Insert name here”

Don’t expect ShaHodeSheaPorter to wrestle with this conundrum; while running for office in 2008 they insisted that the Bush Tax cuts were "for the rich," or "the wealthiest Americans."  The class warfare rhetoric made the case that Republicans didn’t provide tax relief for anyone else, and the democrats promised to remedy this the moment they were elected.  The result was to embark on a multi-trillion dollar spending binge that cannot possibly be paid for without taxes on everyone and everything–though they still insist otherwise.

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Passing Thought

If Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s teenage brush with witchcraft had included human sacrifices (up to and including third trimester and born alive infants who somehow survived the sacrificial antics) would the left be remotely interested in this issue at all?  And Would EMILY’s list have to give her a campaign contribution? Just wondering.

The Real Racists

The Democrats are so desperate that they have decided that the best way to win is to call up residents and tell them that the local Republican candidates are racists.  Racism is not the only charge but we don’t need them because we can work with what we have. The standard rule when dealing with … Read more

“Republicans Against Parental Rights”

There’s no point in denying it.  If you are a republican for Lynch, you might as well just call yourself the ‘Republicans Against Parental Rights.’  It’s a hallmark of the Lynch legacy and one which cannot be properly corrected for as long as he sits in the Governor’s chair.  By supporting him you are stating … Read more

I say Go Ahead–Run on that.

Democrats are trying to frighten people by insisting that we can’t go back to how things were when Republicans were running things.  And I can see their point.  They will certainly need to do better. But how wise is it to frighten people with the risk of 5% unemployment and budget deficits under 500 Billion … Read more

Voting Rights Testimony

Pajamas Media has the text of Christopher Coats testimony regarding the dismissal of the Black Panther Party voter intimidation case.  It is well worth the time to read all 19 pages.  You can’t help but come away with the impression that white voter intimidation was never a big priority for this division, but that under … Read more

Jack’s PAC…

Jack Kimball, former candidate for NH Governor, is not planning to "go silently into the night". According to an email he sent out to supporters and friends, he has decided to form "The Granite State Liberty PAC".  His core team will be meeting next week to outline their plans. Jack came from the Tea Party … Read more

Hodespocrisy Flashback- Why I Call Him Paul “Sugar Daddy” Hodes

Photo Credit 'TopNews.in'A few months back I discovered that Paul Hodes had received a one time $10,000.00 donation from American Crystal Sugar (A major US Sugar conglomerate), at about the same time as the 288 billion dollar 2007/2008 Farm bill was being pushed through congress, and vetoes overrode.  US Sugar is a protected industry with a good amount of political influence.  American Crystal Sugar wanted to get into the ethanol industry but could not justify the up front costs.  Hodes and the farm billed solved that problem with your money. 

Here’s the original piece I wrote on the relationship.

 

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010

Paul Hodes has a dirty little secret.  His ‘commitment’ to green energy has strings attached that lead directly to the sugar industry and a significant campaign cash “Thank You.” 

Back in 2007 and 2008 Congress waged an epic battle over the Farm Bill.  They didn’t call it the farm bill they called it the Food Nutrition and Bio-Energy Act.  What it was (or became) was a 288 billion dollar sop to the agriculture industry with a focus on approving billions into ethanol subsidies for the farm belt before the 2008 elections. 

To muddy up the real purpose the democrat majority in congress tossed in money for food stamps and school lunches so that any effort to kill it could be spun as evil Republicans starving the poor and denying underprivileged students a hot nutritious lunch.   When some republicans balked, the left jumped.  And when George Bush, who was still friendly to the idea of ethanol mandates, vetoed both the bill (HR 2419) and the supplement that added in some items left out of the original (HR 6124) the democrat majority House overturned both vetoes. (Both henceforth to be referred to simply as the “farm bill”) 

So Paul Hodes not only voted for the hand outs, he voted for them four times: twice to pass the original bills and twice to overturn the vetoes. Does that show commitment?  I think it does.

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Obama and the SEIU

This Jan Brewer campaign video reminds us of the relationship between Obama and SEIU, and what their plan is.  To convert millions of illegal immigrants into dues paying pro democrat union voters. It is instructive.  (And Union meat-puppet Carol Seiu-Porter has to support this.)      

Hey, Did He Learn This From Carol Seiu-Porter? Runaway!

Keeping with the promise of Obama and the congress for openness and transparency, Human Events (HE) brings us Donald Berwick.  Berwick is Mr. Obama’s recess appointment to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and according to Jason Mattera at HE he’s been less than accessible, refusing interviews and avoiding public comment in the three months since his ascension to the office, despite claims that he would address concerns that would have derailed any effort to get him there through the usual Senate confirmation process.

Derailed indeed.

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Obama’s Big Boehner

There are very few people who still believe the House will not flip–it is mostly a matter of how many seats. But the people who will make this shift possible are not entirely enamored of Boehner who is a career politician and whom many suspect will sell them out to make deals if given the opportunity. If the latter is accurate, given the odds that the new wave of Republicans will be less inclined to make deals, Boehner is the best hope Obama has, given a bad situation, of having any leverage whatsoever with that caucus.

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