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.

Will You Kneel Before The Government?

Kneel Before Zod!I was watching the online web cast of Hillsdale College’s commemoration of the Kirby Center (on Constitution Day) in Washington DC, and Dr. Charles Kessler of Claremont McKenna College.  Dr. Kessler is a constitutional scholar and early on in his speech he makes the following observation about the current clash between the government and the people, and the rise of the Tea Party

‘Either the government will have to kneel to the people….or the people will have to kneel to the government.’

We should think about that because Dr. Kessler is correct.

 

 

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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.

The Pledge To America

The Republicans have released their position paper for the 2010 election and the next congress.  I don’t have time to wade into now, but National Review Online has done the yoemans work already, and we can get into the specifics in the days to come–as in–after I’ve actually read the entire document.

NRO

Update–I’ve got the entire text, but still have not read it.  The graphs did not survive the copy so I’ll add those as images later, but all the text is there. Check it out on the jump.

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Hodes Dogs of Hypocrisy

For 2010, before "discovering" that he was against earmarks in an election year, Paul Hodes, democrat congressman and candidate for the US Senate requested over 51,000,000.00 million in appropriations.  That earned him the distinction of being ranked the 45th highest earmarker in the entire House of Representatives for 2010. That’s 45 out of 435 in … Read more

Has Hodes Joined The Party Of No?

Have you noticed that Paul Hodes is running on the things he voted against?  It’s a very short list and represents less than a fraction of 1% of his votes, but wouldn’t that mean he’s running as the party of no? I thought no was bad.  In fact, for the past two years, "no" has … Read more

Smacking Hodes On The Wiener

I Scooped this up from Matt over at Red Hampshire. American Crossroads is hitting Paul Hodes right in the…well… wiener.  Using the now laughably famous Hodes"Hot Dog" ad for context, they point out just a sliver of the waste Hodes voted for from a fraction of one spending bill out of many–the Porkulus. Give it … Read more

(D)i Fruscia Takes His Toys And Goes…

With any luck this will be the last time Tony (D)iFruscia leaves the republican party.  Kevin Landrigan reported yesterday that (D)iFrusica, who lost his seat in the primary last Tuesday has officially declared himself an independent.  Mr. (D)iFruscia–and oddly enough Harrel Kirkstein (spokesman for the New Hampshire democrat party) agree that this is another example … Read more

Mustache Love

Lyndon LaRouche democrats have been showing up at tea party events with the Obama Hilter-mustache signs and posters, and now we have Obama For America democrats–now Organizing For America–waving pictures of Republican candidates, or pundits like Glen Beck and Sarah Palin, with Hitler mustaches painted on them.

Do they have special markers for that at the DNC headquarters?

What is up with democrats and their obsession with Hitler? Methinks they doth protest to much.

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New Hampshire On The Potomac

Paul Hodes is trying desperately to change his image to that of a fiscal hawk and independent voice, but Paul has some monumental hurdles to get that line past the party base and into the general populace.  First, if he want’s anyone without Kool aid stained lips to buy into the fiscal song and dance … Read more

How To Save The World–Vote Out Democrats

The economic relationship between government, the private sector, and the people, has been the object of much debate as democrats try to convince people that spending trillions we don’t have has some kind of payoff at the other end. The fact that we can’t see that "end" and none of their predictions have come true fuels the fires of the opposition while encouraging proponents to claim we just need to wait a bit longer–or spend a few trillion more.

So here’s the rub.

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Carol’s New Groove..(same as the old groove)

Comrade Carol Seiu-Porter has a new video out spotlighting how good she is. It’s quite a piece of work, let me tell you.  My favorite part is at the end when the voice over says, "and whether it’s popular or not, she always fights for what she believes in."

Talk about irony?

Health Care?  Cap and Trade?  The stimulus?  Cash for Clunkers?  Home Affordable? The trillion dollar budgets?  Lip service to pay-go?  Carol?  What have you fought for that the people of New Hampshire would consider popular?  I can’t think of a single thing.  And no, we can’t just count the lumps of un-aborted tissue running the New Hampshire Democrat party, and their fellow travelers, I mean the entirety of your district.

So while I agree that that is the one true statement in your ad, its a bit misleading.  It should probably say..Carol knows that everything she believes in is unpopular, but she votes for it anyway.

And yeah, we could spend eternity covering the ins and outs, like how Carol can’t really even be voting based on what she believes in becasue you have to read the bills to know if what you believe is really in the bill.  That dissolves the context further to the point where Carol is voting for what she has been told is in the bill (that she believes in.)  And since Carol  only voted with Nancy Pelosi and the Party leadership 98% of the time because she missed 2% of the votes, we can further define the relationship as follows:  Carol votes for what Nancy Pelosi tells her she believes in.

That’s not a congressman from New Hampshire, that’s Nancy Pelosi’s Federal representative to New Hampshire.  She might as well be appointed as elected.

The Ad is on the Jump

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Meet RINOJOEL Maiola [updated]

Whatever credibility Joel Maiola may have had with actual Republicans should be dead now.  In this mornings Union Leader we are treated to RINOJOEL’s TM treatise on the Greatness that would be John Lynch (were greatness even a possibility).

When the recession hit, Lynch acted quickly and aggressively to cut state spending. He kept New Hampshire’s budget balanced and delivered a surplus. At the same, he kept state taxes the lowest in the nation and kept his promise to oppose an income or a sales tax.

Actually, Lynch grew the state budget during the entirely of the recession.  He spent more year on year in two successive budgets, increasing the cost to taxpayers about 23% while the cost of living barely moved, and while private sector employment dropped, and wages stagnated or declined–he added state employees.  Only in late 2009 when he began to smell the stink of a challenging re-election looming, did he even consider cutting back the public sector unions that donate so heavily to his party apparatus. 

RINOJOELTM would also like you to believe that bonding and debt, and relying on one time money from the federal government is ‘balancing’ the budget.  It’s actually a gross miscarriage of fiscal leadership to pass the costs of your government on to future leaders and the children of the electorate, but that is the hallmark of Lynch and his democrat majority legislature.  Remember what Rep Eaton said..and I paraphrase…  "You cant look for revenue until you know how much you are spending."

And Lynch let them spend.

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The Church Of Cheeseburgers And Fries

Does this come with Holy Wafers?There’s some dispute regarding appearance standards in which a young woman has insisted that her pierced nose is part of her religious beliefs.  Long story short–she does not want to remove the piercing on religious grounds because she is a member of the "Church of Body Modification." 

The Church of Body Modification espouses an open minded approach to what it calls ancient body modification rites that are essential to spirituality.  Funny, that’s what most ancient body modification cultures said to justify ritual human sacrifice.  You know, removing the heart, chopping off heads, that sort of thing.  Had to do it to appease the gods.  Millions ‘modified.’ 

And aren’t clitorectomies and ancient religious form of body modification?  I wonder if they are tolerant of those as well?  Stoning women is another winner–not so much spiritual, but a religiously motivated modification none the less.

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Constitution Day

 

 

 

On this day in 1787 the single greatest document in defense of liberty found life.  Take a moment to bask in its power and simplicity.

 

[Constitution for the United States of America]

 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

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