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.

GrokTALK! May 23rd, 2015

This week Doug Sachletben from Club for Growth takes issue with Gov. Huckabee’s record on Taxes.  We also talk about the NH AG arresting someone for vote suppression and the trail of evidence that follows the perp Carl Gibson. Some South Koreans visited NH to learn about Right to Know, the Boondoggle band plays on, … Read more

Hot Air – Senate Fails to Extend Patriot Act

And Thank You Senator Paul. (Hot Air) Rushing to beat a deadline, the Senate instead beat itself into paralysis over the Patriot Act. In an overnight session that ended up producing nothing but frustration, the upper chamber rejected the House’s reform bill for NSA surveillance, and then failed to move any extension for the existing … Read more

Quoting Professors About Law is Particularly Risky

When Courting opinion in the Free Speech Debate…. Quoting professors about law is particularly risky, if your aim is an accurate and informative discussion of free speech law. If you call a physics professor and ask them what will happen if you drop your pencil, and why, he or she will say “it will fall, … Read more

Don’t Blame Maggie, Blame AG Joe Foster

Joseph Foster nominated for NH AG
Image Credit – New Hampshire Union Leader

Drew Cline has an editorial in today’s Union Leader in which he “sets the record straight” regarding Maggie Hassan’s Union donation kerfuffle.

With calls for resignation over campaign finance violations in the news again of late, the suggestion is that Hassan should resign, too. They misremember the Hassan violation.

Speaking for myself, I never suggested Hassan resign.  I merely observed that there was an illegal contribution (which there was) and that no one (Democrats in particular) made any ‘resignation’ fuss about it.

Those reading between the lines will have noticed that my most recent gripe has nothing to do with Maggie or the Democrats.

Read more

Breaking News – Carl Gibson Arrested

The NH AG has arrested Carl Gibson for Vote Suppression. (Patch) “Mr. Gibson has been charged with voter suppression for knowingly attempting to induce voters to refrain from voting in this past Tuesday’s special election for state representative in Rockingham District 32,” according to a statement by Stephen LaBonte, the assistant attorney general. Voter suppression … Read more

PROHIBITING THE STATE FROM REQUIRING COMMON CORE:

From Doris Hohensee c/o Facebook SB 190 will be voted on in House Finance Exec Session on Tuesday, May 26 at 10:00 AM LOB 201. We’ve been told that the House Finance II work session members voted to REPLACE the entire bill (relative to payment of costs for career and technical education center programs and … Read more

Tomorrow on GrokTALK! May 23rd, 2015

This week on GrokTALK! May 23rd, 2015, 9am – 11 am EST Special Guest Doug Sachletben from Club for Growth takes issue with Gov. Huckabee’s record on Taxes. We’ve also got Jane Cormier, Kimberly Morin, Ed Naile and Mike Rogers in to discuss Yvonne Dean-Bailey’s  election win The gift that keeps on giving – Carl … Read more

RSA 91-A: Right to Know workshop with a South Korean contingent (Part 1)

Monday night I had the pleasure of meeting with a small contingent of five South Korean politicos (and two interpreters) at the offices of CNHT in Concord.  They are touring the United States in search of how we deal with government corruption; CNHT was chosen for our nationally known experience (and success) in ferreting out and stopping local government officials acting badly.  We were also selected because we help other volunteers in doing this and build up that expertise and institutional knowledge that can be shared.

This workshop revolved around NH’s Right To Know statute: RSA 91-a and how ordinary citizens can and do use it quite effectively in a variety of ways of keep a government entity that may be trying to become unaccountable highly accountable to its citizens. After, it IS Government that is supposed to report to us – not the other way around.

As Skip is always saying “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen”.  Being an aborist, think of RSA 91-a as the citizenry’s chainsaw (pruning government gone bad).

Parts 1 & 2 (3 and 4 later on today):

Read more

Parking Ticket

parking ticket

My wife and I went into town and visited a shop. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said,… “Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?” He just ignored us and continued writing the ticket.

I called him an “a**hole.” He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires.

Read more

GrokTALK! with Jazz Shaw from Hot Air Part II

In part II of our conversation with Jazz Shaw we continue with the pension problems in places like Illinois and how their influence and Democrat power politics can ruin an otherwise perfectly good state–making it almost economically uninhabitable.

If the Democrats Didn’t “Buy” the Election, Someone Else Must Have

Hassan has to return another illegal contribtionEvery time the Democrats blame out-of-state money for why they lost an election–aside from ignoring how they always have and spend more of same — they are insulting every voter in that district.

The assumption is that money is what bought your vote whether it was spent to get you to the polls or spent to get you stay home. Under no circumstance are you, regardless of your decision, voting based on your own free will.

But that makes sense coming from Democrats.

Read more

Where Did 11,440 NH Workers Go?

The New Hampshire Department of Employment Security (NHDES) released the April job numbers yesterday. New Hampshire’s unemployment rate is being reported as 3.8%.  (746,530 people in the NH labor force, 717,870 are employed, 28,660 listed as unemployed.) That sounds pretty good, but in July of 2008 there were 756,570 people in the NH labor force … Read more

GrokTALK! with Jazz Shaw from Hot Air Part II

In part II of our conversation with Jazz Shaw we continue with the pension problems in places like Illinois and how their influence and Democrat power politics can ruin an otherwise perfectly good state–making it almost economically uninhabitable. Part I with Jazz is Here   –   Listen to the entire podcast here Follow us on YouTube,USTREAM, … Read more

GrokTALK! – Jazz Shaw from Hot Air.

Jazz Shaw from Hot Air joins us to talk about Mitt and Evander fighting for charity, the Democrat primary Senate throw-down brewing in Illinois, why size matters (when it comes to cell phones), and unsustainable debt and pension distress were institutionalized in the land of Lincoln.  (Part I of II)  

Republicans – You Just Need to Show Up and Vote to Win

yvonne dean bailey
Nottingham, Northwood, Candia and Deerfield Vote for Yvonne Dean-Bailey Today

Today is the day to vote in the Rockingham 32 Special election (Nottingham, Northwood, Candia and Deerfield).

This is a Republican district so all the Republicans have to do to lose is stay home.

Given all the BS that has been heaped on Yvonne-Dean Baily by her Democrat opponent and the state parties paid out-of-state staffers, it is important for New Hampshire Republicans in this district to take a few minutes to stop at their polling place today to vote for Yvonne. She is an outstanding candidate who will serve your district well.

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing