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.

Sidecar buddies

How do you become a US Senator, then subsequently alienate the entire base of true conservatives in your home state? You do this… Disappointment at every turn.

Breaking! Coos County Republican Committee Approves ‘No Confidence’ Resolution

This just in: For Immediate Release: Contact – Eric Catman Email – eric.catman@gmail.com 603-348-1140 Coos County Republican Committee Approves ‘No Confidence’ Resolution This evening, the Coos County Republican Committee has approved, by a unanimous vote, a resolution expressing no confidence in New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn. The statement approved by the committee … Read more

Mayor Gatsas Goes after The “Benfit Plan One-Percenters” in Manchester

oil rig - theres another 'resource' we have to tap
There’s A Public Sector “Resource” That We Need to Tap…

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas is singing a tune we like to hear and one that I have advocated for myself.  What is it?  Hidden in the Cadillac plans of public sector employees is a revenue resource that must be tapped.

Gatsas is standing up for taxpayers, and defending the spending cap, in his negotiations with the Teachers union with regard to Manchester’s School budget.

He said teachers still enjoy plans with zero deductibles, $5 co-pays and $50 charges for emergency room visits, while the police union, among others, recently made concessions to avoid layoffs, shifting to a plan with higher co-pays, deductibles and $150 per emergency room visit.

“With the $3 million in savings, we hired more police officers,” Gatsas said.

So why can’t the teachers do the same thing?  It’s a great question.

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Mule Trading

Dead Mule

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily in Starkville , MS. and bought a mule for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said,”Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night.”

Curtis & Leroy replied,”Well, then just give us our money back.”

The farmer said,”Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”

They said, “OK then, just bring us the dead mule.”

The farmer asked, “What in the world ya’ll gonna do with a dead mule?”

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Palate Cleanser – Iron Man 3

This is a featurette that is making the rounds.  There’s some actor commentary, a few clips, things blow up….good stuff.  (And for my progressive ‘friends’  no–I do not require that you watch it.)  

Obama 2013 Budget InfoGraphic

Beer - QUARTER-BARREL

Heritage (The Foundry) has an infographic on the Obama budget.   The infographic is on the jump–waaaaayyyyyyyy….too big for the front page.

No! That is not it —————————>

Here is a review of the Obama budget from Heritage.  Grab a beer or two, six, quarter-barrel….this budget is crlpllphfffff.

The review is a long read.

But there is bi-partisan agreement; no one likes this budget.  Not left, not right.  It may be worse than his previous budget, as hard as that is to believe -all on purpose so that we can live under continuing resolutions forever–that’s how I see it.

There will, of course, be those who give the polite golf-clap and force themselves to smile about it the way parents smile and clap when the 4th grade orchestra gives its best rendition of  the Double Concerto for piano, harpsichord and 2 chamber orchestras, by Elliott Carter.

Carter’s work and Obama’s share a common descriptor, by the way — ‘dense.’   I’ll let you parse the connotations over that quarter-barrel.

 

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Millionaire Elizabeth Warren’s Brother Barely Gets By On Social Security

I get emails with transcripts to the Rush Limbaugh show which I rarely look at but this caught my eye.  Obama’s budget, the White House Budget, is using something called chained CPI, and Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren is upset about that.  She is upset because it could result in her brother getting less in Social Security from the government, which he relies on to live.

Senator Warren has a net worth of over 14 million dollars and she’s upset because Obama’s budget gimmick might cut into the $13,200.00 per year her brother has to get by on.  Compassionate Democrat Millionaire Senator, brother lives on $13,200 from taxpayers.

Here’s what Rush had to say.

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A List of 54 Anti Common Core Facebook Pages – By State

Laura Rambeau Lee from Right Reason.com has done us all a great service.  She has compiled a list of all the anti-common core facebook pages by state. There are 54 links (so far), three in New Hampshire, so feel free to check a few of them out.  And by all means, like these groups and … Read more

Best Headline from Today’s Union Leader: Loon Groups Push for bill…

Loon groups push for bill to ban lead fishing jigs in NH

heh!

By DAN SEUFERT 
Union Leader Correspondent

MOULTONBOROUGH — The Loon Preservation Committee and the New Hampshire Lakes Association are pushing hard for passage of a bill that would ban the use of lead sinkers and fishing jigs, which they say threaten the lives of loons.

Loon preservation.  Isn’t that the same thing as when the New Hampshire Democrat party tries to protect incumbents?

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Update: More Women Come Forward With Stories of Sexual Harassment by Police Chief

New london PD

A week ago we reported on the case of New London NH Police Chief David Seastrand. A young lady had told the NH AG’s office that Chief Seastrand had offered to drop the charges against her if she allowed him to take nude photos of her. The AG agreed to drop their investigation of the Police Chief in exchange for his resignation and relinquishing his certification to be a police officer. I observed that…

Seastrand has 27 years in.  What are the odds this is the first time he’s used his position of power for his personal advantage or pleasure?  And now he gets to retire at what, maybe 50 years of age?  So the AG just lets him walk away, no in depth investigation, and very likely with his full pension.   

Not exactly a punishment is it?  You get caught using your police powers to bully a woman and they make you quit without charging you and (assuming he’s keeping his pension) give you a big bag of money every year until you die.

Exit question:  Does anyone else come forward, Tiger Woods style, to start piling up accusations of improper conduct …

The answer to that part of my exit question is yes.

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Red Rover in Dover

In Norwegian, apparently, Røver means Pirate.  I won’t hold fast to that definition.  I just learned it on Wikipedia, which is about as reliable as a school board in Dover spending your tax dollars to pay lobbyists to push legislation you may not support.  Which is what I mean by pirate.  The Dover school board, like many similar cabals throughout the Granite State, spends your tax dollars on professional lobbyists to promote the “interests” of the “district” up in Concord over your own, though they will always insist these ideas have parity when they do not.

So follow the bouncing ball.

Schools, like any government agency, seek bigger budgets.  Those budgets are paid for with local and state taxes.  The folks who run the school–boards, committees, administrators, the unions and the teachers, want budgets to exapnd to protect their jobs and benefits.  To that end they are funding or promoting the funding of other professionals, with your tax dollars, to go before those with taxing power, including the state Legislature, to support laws and policies that will give them more of your money, and further secure their monopoly on education.

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The NH Tobacco Tax Increase is Not About Youth Smoking or Public Health…it is a Transfer of Wealth

Take some money and give it them

The Tobacco tax war is underway again, this time in the New Hampshire State Senate, as both sides debate the House passed 0.20 cent per pack tax hike before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.   Supporters of the tax point to potential health benefits and a reduction in youth smoking.  The Union Leader Article I draw this from is actually titled “Cigarette Tax Increase Seen as Deterrent to Youth Smoking,” but we already know that to be false.

According to the American Lung Associations own publications there has been absolutely no change in the middle-school smoking rate in New Hampshire since at least 2006, despite Democrats more than doubling the cigarette tax, taking it from 0.80/pack to 1.78/pack (plus a 65% wholesale price increase passed by Democrats in 2010).

The Lung Association’s reports for New Hampshire High School age smokers document the rate in 2006 at 20.5% (rising and falling) to settle in at 20.8% for 2010.

We also know that New Hampshire is consistently one of the healthiest states in the nation.

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A word about criticizing “our own”…

Yeah, you!

Call us honest. We criticize anyone, including “our own” in the New Hampshire GOP.  No wool over these eyes, no regrets, no guilt.  We sleep very well at night.

Our targets include anyone who directly, or indirectly, works against the founding Conservative principles we believe in – reverence of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the rule of law not men, small and sensible government, sound money, realistic budgeting, emphasis on individual liberties, and local control.  That pretty much defines us, regardless of what you read or have been told to think.

While all Democrats are virtually hopeless on these measures, too many Republicans these days are failing to stay in bounds, or are guilty by association.

Putting my money where my mouth is,

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Lean on Me.

I just can’t seem to help it.  (Maybe the next video could be Come on Eileen lean on me?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QPoTGyWT0Cg

The Paleo Party

Some say fire keep cave too warm. Some say fire make CO2-bad. Other say need permit to start fire.
Some say fire keep cave too warm. Some say fire make CO2-bad. Other say need permit to start fire.  No fire before certain time.  Can’t burn this in fire. Make sure fire 50 feet from cave.

The thing the Democrat Party wants the most is to convince us that it is in our best interest, regardless of the interest, to let the government manage as much of our community and our lives as possible.  Cost is, of course, no object (because it is not their money).  But this is the oldest idea of government known to man and the dominate feature of centuries of thugocracies where most of the people living in them lived in fear and poverty while a small select few lived safe and well.

This is not progress.  This is not forward. But it explains the modern Democrat disdain for the US Constitution, for that document was built for the sole purpose of creating a government that was not like any other in human history.  It suggested that while we do have some common interests, that we are far better at caring for and defending ourselves and each other, locally, than any centralized monarch, oligarchy, or puppet parliament.  And they were correct.

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Joe ‘Bear’den. “If it only saves One (Bears) Life…”

Progressives of all party stripes love to tell us from one side of their mouths that government needs to do these things for the good of the people while from the other side insisting that their detractors are insane fear-mongers for thinking it (whatever the thing we need to do is) will ever escalate to the absurdities opponents claim.

I'm here from Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Services to inspect your yard for bear bait. Please curl up into a ball on the ground.
I’m here from Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Services to inspect your yard for bear bait. Please curl up into a ball on the ground.

As proof that the progressives are full of whatever it is they are shoveling, I give you Massachusetts.

Seventy-six year old Richard Ahlstrand heard a disturbance in his yard at his home in Auburn Massachusetts.  His first mistake? He went to investigate…

Reason:  (c/o Hot Air)

Richard Ahlstrand, of Auburn, Massachusetts, faces criminal charges after encountering a bear in his back yard and shooting the damned thing to avoid being mauled or eaten. Specifically, as noted at Reason 24/7, he’s charged with “illegally killing a bear, illegally baiting a bear, illegal possession of a firearm and failure to secure a firearm.”  All of these charges, once translated from Massachusetts to American, seem to stack up to outrage that Ahlstrand didn’t make his yard completely inhospitable to animals that are rarely seen in the area, and then investigated a suspicious noise with a weapon in hand rather than cower under the bed. Worst of all, he actually defended himself when he encountered danger.

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“We have to fight back if they come for Jeanne. She shares our values and stands up for them,” -Senator Bob Menendez

Shaheen

It looks like Senator Robert ‘Bob’ Menendez is fundraising for New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.  Well, there’s a wise decision.  Robert has been  implicated in a number of suspect behaviors for a sitting US Senator, not the least of which was accusations of sex with underage Dominican prostitutes.

What are the Shaheen optics on that, “well, as long as they had free contraception and access to taxpayer funded abortions without interference from a parent or guardian it’s no big deal.”(?)

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State Senate Committee Votes to End NH Democrat Efforts at Repealing Education Equality

From Facebook:

Senator Andy Sanborn reports fabulous news!! –> the Senate Health, Education, and Human Services Committee voted to kill HB370, so that’s a win for parents and school choice!!!

The Senate will still have to vote on the recommendation to kill the repeal effort but this is a very positive signal.   And I I get to say ‘…Democrats attempt to repeal education equality.‘  That’ll have the leftocrats foaming at the mouth and spraying spittle on their keyboards as they attempt to translate their outrage into smears and slurs.

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What Is It That The NH-GOP Does?

It occurs to me that the town and county committee’s try to do quite a lot to support local candidates and races.   But what exactly is it that the State party, via the Executive Committee and chairman, do for Republicans in the state, other than give them an excuse to eat popcorn? They don’t … Read more

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