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.

Vanity Polling

The recent bit of ‘internal polling’ conjured up by the Mahoney campaign might better be described as vanity polling.  It’s like asking Burger King customers whether they prefer the Whopper of the Big Mac.  You’re guaranteed to get good numbers. Of course the last time I checked with the FEC Mahoney only had 134 donors … Read more

The Boyd’s Go To Court

Duhhhhh...Jon Wesley and Theonia Boyd were in court to face charges related to an underage drinking party in Weare at which they were the "grown ups.".  As professors of Psychiatry and Pathology, there innocence hinges on their claim that they were "unaware any teenagers were drinking" the night of June 6th, this according to statements by Theonia Boyd.

I’d like to suggest that they ask for a refund on their, what must have been very expensive educations.

Here we have two Harvard medical professors having at least some familiarity with the college culture, from both personal experience and professional exposure, claiming expertise in the fields of Psychiatry and pathology, and yet it never occurred to them that people under the legal drinking age, congregated enmasse at a graduation party, at a private residence, might consume alcohol?

Let me guess.  College age kids don’t have sex either?

Morons.

 

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The GOP Civil War, Part Deux

Hip, hip, HOORAY! Joe Miller pulls it out in the Alaska senatorial primary against the chosen (and some say corrupt) choice of the hacks at the Republican National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NSRC) led by Mitch McConnell.

The civil war going on right now within the Republican Party is good for us. "Why?" you ask?

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Another Amended Filing in CD-1

Is it absurd to think that a guy who earned almost $400,000.00 last year, and probably something similar in preceding years, would have no additional income to declare to the Federal election Commission.  No savings accounts, no IRA’s no investments of any kind?

How about a guy who was also a lobbyist at least somewhat familiar with the election laws about money in politics?

Well don’t act surprised because NH-01 candidate Rich Ashooh will have to amend his FEC filing.  It appears he failed to list all his "secret" bank accounts on his original filing.  In fact, the filing fails to list any accounts, no investments, funds, savings, nothing–just his salary income, his mortgage, and the boards and committees on which he sits.  Rich Ashooh has no savings or investments? Where’s the false outrage?

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Murkowski Concedes

The larger message is that the right is taking the job of Senator a bit more seriously this cycle. I can only wonder if they will do the same thing here in New Hampshire.

Making Excuses For Mahoney

The Mahoney supporters seem unwilling to answer to the charge that Sean is playing games with his principles. 

Let me break down the problem as quickly as I can.

Mr. Mahoney is on the board of a foundation that has recently (as in since 2008) given upwards of $160,000.00 dollars to pro-abortion groups and abortion advocates.  But Mr. Mahoney is pro-life.  So to address this contradiction we shouldn’t really address it at all.

My favorite excuse so far is that Sean never inhaled.  That is to say that some supporters claim he may not have known or did not approve that spending personally.  Maybe, but he never approved the spending in the GOP that drove him to abandon his position as a committeeman on principle.  Why hold the GOP leadership to one standard, and the New Hampshire Charitable foundation (NHCF) leadership to another?  And more importantly, if Sean did not know about all that abortion money, despite his position on the board, how can we in good conscience send a guy to DC to look out for us when he can’t even smell the blood in the water at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation?

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Mr. Mahoney’s Contradiction On The Right To Life

Ronald Reagan believed in the right to life.  Sean Mahoney, who makes the claim that he came to the Republican Party under Ronald Reagan (before he and his checkbook flirted with the democrat party) has this to say about life on his campaign site.

Sean Mahoney is pro-life and will work to protect the lives of the unborn when he is in Congress. In addition, Sean Mahoney will work to promote healthy, pro-life option to abortion, like adoption. Sean Mahoney believes every human life is sacred and that the federal government has a responsibility to protect those lives.

This seems like a solid enough statement, and Sean seems proud of this position but that’s all he has to say.  So can he back it up in principle?  Principle, if you remember was part of what he claims drove him to abandon his GOP committeeman position a few weeks before announcing his run for Senate–no wait, Governor–no that’s not it, I mean congress.  So can his pro-life claims be backed up on principle?

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Let’s Regulate Barney Frank’s Pay

Posted by David Boaz “Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday that he will hold a hearing this fall to examine whether regulators are being tough enough in curbing pay practices at Wall Street firms that can lead to excessively risky practices,” writes Zachary Goldfarb in the Washington Post. Hmmm. “Pay practices that can … Read more

John Lynch Gets What’s Been Coming

Blogging can be a weird hobby.  You never know when something you’ve planted will grow and bear fruit.  But back on May 28th of 2010 I planted this seed. It was about Mr. Lynch going to the Political OutGiving conference. In the intervening months I planted a few more, here, and here, and here. There … Read more

Spam

My email filter automatically puts any emails from the Binnie Campaign into my Spam folder.  That’s just hilarious.

Obamaturism Of The Day (From Hot Air)

 

Obamamturism of the day

Hot Air has an Obamaturism of the day, an example of how or why on the job training is probably a bad idea for POTUS, and I’d suggest also, how the training isn’t working.  Ed Morrissey posts these on Hot Air and at the end of every week you can vote on a weekly winner.  This weeks is here.

There is also list of past winners of the week, which provides an interesting time line of Obama actions destined to make a few of you shake your heads.  I was just scrolling through it, and figured you might find it amusing.

 

See the list…on the jump.

 

 

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Can decline and collapse be avoided? Or are we too far gone?

Victor Davis Hanson thinks it’s a "maybe," and makes a few simple suggestions. It all depends upon the emerging Republican majority in Washington, DC, and whether they have the cojones to proceed…or will crumple and flee, as they usually have in the past. This from Pajamas Media:

We Are Not Greece
Posted By Victor Davis Hanson On August 26, 2010

Decline is a Choice.

As the summer winds down, there is more and more talk of decline in the air. Some of it comes from the left, as a sort of giddy notion that we are now, at best, devolving into what the Greeks called prôtos metaksu isôn, first among equals, enjoying traditional prestige but otherwise nothing much special in comparison to the Europeans, India, and China.

In the age of Obama, the notion of not being exceptional or preeminent comes as a relief to millions on the left who pretty much are in sync with the protocols of the United Nations. On the right, there is a sense that Obama is the ultimate expression of downfall; given the wild spending, the iconic efforts abroad at apology, and the rampant entitlements we simply aren’t what we once were. In between, most aren’t quite sure—but sure are worried that we may never climb out of our self-created indebtedness crater, and that the culture’s education, the nation’s borders, and the civilization’s values are eroding.

I agree with the latter take, but see decline in history as largely psychological. After all, a Rome that was little more than 4 million and half of Italy almost simultaneously fought both Hannibal and Philip V and ploughed on after losing over 100,000 dead between 219-216 BC to victory, while by AD 450-80 an empire of 70 million, with a million square miles of territory, could not thwart thuggish tribes across the Rhine and Danube.

A very poor United States in 1941 defeated imperial Japan and helped to defeat Nazi Germany in less than four years. A few hundred thousand immigrants between 1870 and 1960 took a godforsaken desert in California’s central valley and turned it into an oasis of agriculture, for nearly half a century with no more than muscle and mule power.

And in the Plus Side….

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How Not To File With The FEC

ADR 107               RESPONDENTS: Sean Mahoney for Congress, James McKay, assistant treasurer SOURCE:              FEC Initiated (RAD) SUBJECT:             Failure to accurately disclose loans NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT:         Respondents, in an effort to resolve this matter and avoid similar errors in the future agree to amend reports previously filed with the Commission and to put in place procedures to avoid … Read more

Pension Bomb

Skip posted this video last month for fun.  Well now, someone has had some fun with it.  The Brick is labeld ‘Pensions’ and the Washing Machine is labeled ‘State Budget.’  Watch it again, it’s less than 30 seconds, and enjoy the reality of it all.   People on State pensions take particular note.  If there … Read more

Will the EPA Ban Lead Ammunition? [Updated]

Hot Air has the link from Mark Hemingway.  EPA has opened up a public comment period on the non-issue of lead ammunition and the environment.  Just another stupid idea courtesy of democrat leadership and all its ugly bureaucratic side effects. [Updated]   After two days of comment, the EPA decided that it did not in … Read more

Yes Virgina, There Is A Tax Man

Hodes Will Shake You DownThe first thing you have to understand is that to support Mr. Hodes position on letting tax cuts expire you have to be of the opinion that your property is only yours because the government allows you to keep it.   This is a pillar of democrat fiscal policy.  It explains why they berate anyone who dares allow a disfavored class to keep their own earnings.  The phrase "irresponsible tax cuts" or any similar rhetoric, proliferate throughout the lefts discourse.   So at its core the Hodes position is that the legal acquisition of wealth is little more than a royal indulgence that could expire at any moment.  Put more simply, democrats cannot believe in individual property rights which should be a problem for anyone running for elected office in a constitutional republic but for some reason has not been a significant impediment.

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Reagan Republican?

Sean Mahoney's Secret Identity

Sean Mahoney has a serious integrity problem.  He’s got this idea in his head that he can call himself a Reagan Republican.

"You know I first came to this party under Ronald Reagan."

Sean might have a hard time selling himself as a politically active teenager "to come to the party with Reagan" because unless I’m mistaken he wasn’t even old enough to vote until 1984, and by all accounts didn’t vote much after.  His voting history is rather spotty in the early years (and even the middle years), as is his political history, but I’m not sure it would matter.  If he ever came to the party of Reagan it was a one night stand because by 1990 he abruptly left all those principles he would like us to believe he still carries with him for the party of Kennedy, Kerry, Gore, and Clinton and stayed there.

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