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.

Deceitful Claim: 97% of Climate Scientists Think Humans Contribute to Global Warming

97 percent- just dont lift the hat
Image Credit – jpopasia.com

After I posted a quote from the Economist regarding flat temperatures over the past 15 years, one of the commenters on that post went all 97% on me.  What is that?  It is the years old, pre-programmed,  AWG/Media narrative response to any challenger (see ‘denier’) of the so-called settled science of human driven climate change.

But the number is based on a bad survey, poorly employed, and aggressively tweaked, based on a sliver of respondents, from only a few countries, who just happened to pick the correct answers, to achieve a desired outcome– much like the so-called science of Global Warming itself.  (Delete the emails, hide the decline, block opposing research!).

Having invoked the 97% fraud discussion was no longer going to be an option.

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Is the NH Economy So Good That We Can Afford To Grow State Government by 16%?

NH Democrats cram 16% increases in budget down taxpayers throats

I know what you were thinking while you were paying almost four dollars a gallon for gas, or looking at your utility or cable bill, or thinking about how much more it costs to do the grocery shopping these days.  You were thinking, “Hey, times are so good, lets grow the size of the state government by 16%!”

You must have said that because someone in Concord seems to think they heard you say it.

What?  You weren’t thinking that?  Well you’d best get in touch with your legislator and tell them because the Democrat majority House is preparing to vote on a budget that will make your state government cost you 16% more.

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Portsmouth NH Lawyer Says “Let’s Socialize The Gun Industry”

obamadunce -Democrat says nationalize guns
Image credit: Sodahead

Terrie Harman, Democrat, a New Castle resident and  lawyer in Portsmouth, has an opinion letter published at Seacoast online today that is quite a winner.

Let’s nationalize the gun and ammunition industries. Those industries look for bottom-line profits. So, of course, they will advocate for sales of guns to teachers, to janitors, to cafeteria workers, to students, to anyone. A gun sold is a dollar made.

Imagine that.   A Democrat who is a lawyer wanting to socialize the gun industry.

Harman’s reason?  Our children are dead.  So the industry has to be nationalized cuz that’ll fix er.  Really?

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Carol Shea-RUNAWAY!

Rep-Carol-Shea-Porter - I missed voting with Pelosi 100% by this much
I came this close to having to answer a question no one had given me the answer to

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter continues to endear herself to her constituents by running away from questions she has not been taught how to answer.  Today’s example comes from Citizens for a Strong New Hampshire…

(Manchester – April 2, 2013)  Yesterday afternoon at a local senior center, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) repeatedly avoided questions on two important issues that, if implemented, would severely impact Granite Staters. 

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Will Al Gore Have To Cancel His Subscription Now?

The Economist is a highly regarded global news source, though with admittedly left leaning tendencies.  Its archives provide a global and international perspective on events here in America going back to before the American Civil War.  And until recently it has been a proud sponsor of the intellectual argument for Climate change, formerly known as global warming.  But their sensibility (at least on this issue) may have finally caught up with them.

OVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO2 put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.”

If the weather man says it is “raining” but no one bothers to look out a window….? So somebody looked out a “window” then, did they?

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Governor Maggie Hassan Nominates Joseph Foster for N.H. Attorney General

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

I guess the good news is that Governor Hassan did not nominate gambling Lobbyist Lucy Hodder.  Instead, the Union Leader reports today that Joseph Foster is her pick for NH Attorney General.

Foster is a former NH House rep 1994-1998, former State Senator from 2002 to 2008  (D- Nashua), in the employ of McLane law in Portsmouth.  (I’ve never heard of him so I have culled a few things from the Internet– but feel free to add anything in comments we should know or explore moving forward.)

Here is a quick overview of his personal details and professional experience, and here is a link to his large dollar political donation history.

The only details we have of his political preferences, short of digging through his legislative voting record, are his Liberty Ratings from 2006 to 2008 and a Project Vote Smart political survey completed in 2004.

State Senator Joseph Foster’s Liberty ratings…2006 D+, 2007 D, 2008 – Constitutional threat. (Well, isn’t that promising?)  Oh, and it does look like Foster has experience as a lobbyist, I’m just not sure representing whom exactly.

The complete Project Vote Survey is on the jump.

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Cesar Chavez…More Important than Easter?

Today is Easter Sunday.  Whether you are into the religious significance or not, it is a long celebrated holiday by a large number of people on the planet.  The Eggs and bunny thing is certainly a feature of the modern holiday and a noted aspect throughout Europe for centuries, with or without Jesus.  So why did Google, the most invasive Internet presence on the entire planet, decide to use their Google ‘Doodle’ to celebrate…the birth of Cesar Chavez?

Don’t they know about Easter?

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New Hampshire’s “No Information” Voter

Grok Friend Spec Bowers just posted this on facebook. (Talk about a bridge too far.) A friend was talking with a neighbor about the gas tax. The neighbor said, “Yeah, that’s what you get when you vote Republican.” My friend told him the bill is being pushed by the Democrats. His neighbor replied, “No the … Read more

Rules of Misconduct and Conflicts of Interest

On the matter of Governor Hassan considering Gambling Lobbyist Lucy Hodder as her next Attorney General, the indispensable Ed Mosca provides more fuel for that fire.

How would it not be a violation of at least the spirit of Professional Rule of Misconduct 1.11 for Hodder to be involved with Millennium Gambling as AG; as I read it the spirit of the rule suggests she shouldn’t even be involved as Hassan’s counsel:

(d) Except as law may otherwise expressly permit, a lawyer currently serving as a public officer or employee:
…
(2) shall not:
a. participate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or nongovernmental employment, unless the appropriate government agency gives its informed consent, confirmed in writing; or

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The Waste List

Courtesy of Twitter and the NRCC, we have a list of government spending defined as waste.  There is wasted regulatory spending, and then the plain old “why is the government paying for that” waste. Examples? Video game programs and studies.  Audit programs that cost more than they save. Sculpture gardens.  How about cash innovation awards … Read more

Where Todd I. Selig Admits to Some Heavy Lifting…But Not All.

Book of Bad Habiits-Cheating
Image credit – boysguidebooks.blogspot.com

Several of us writing here at GraniteGrok have taken to task Durham Town Administrator Todd I. Selig for both his position on the issue of raising the gas tax and how he went about showing his support for it.  Literally.  The letter he submitted to various publications around New Hampshire, explaining his support for the tax, included direct quotes from other sources–in some cases lifted in their entirety–without attribution.

In a recent comment to one of those posts Mr. Selig reiterates his position and admits the following.

In addition, I did quote heavily from TRIP in the paragraphs noted, in particular in the second to last paragraph without attribution. I view the TRIP overview of the deficiencies in NH roadways to be factual and accurate and fully consistent with my own understanding of the issue. The words used represent my perspective. I take full responsibility for them. Further, I did subsequently write to TRIP and the organization had no objection to the use of the material as utilized.

Subsequently?

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Guest Post by C.dog e.doG – “But a Mere Point of View on Plagiarized Platitudes”

(Note: I often cross-post content on NH Insider.  I appears that Mr. Selig had comments there as well.  C.dog found them, and here responds.)

But a Mere Point of View on Plagiarized Platitudes

Heeeeee’s back.  Some guys just don’t know when to shut up and crawl under a rock … thank Tod.  So, our dutiful town administrative hero, I. Toddius Selig, is plying his peculiar brand of apology over at NH Insider  for his gross acts of plagiarism in true Bill Clinton style: “I did not have sex with that source, not once … We just shared a special bond, ya, that’s it, a special bond involving me “lifting” huge amounts of text from their writings, ‘cuz we have one of those loving – those sharing – kinda relationships – group hugs!”  I guess ol’ Todd ain’t none too proud about whom he sleeps around with as he also kept the NH Municipal Association’s identity secret.  I guess they’re a real dog – perhaps coyote ugly?

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The Eleven Levels of Bacon

All that talk about New Hampshire School Boards banning dodge-ball and public servants plagiarizing the New Hampshire Municipal Association has made me hungry.  Hungry for Bacon.  But I don’t have any bacon on me so I’ll have to settle for this…as I ponder whether Spinal Tap would run right out and buy the eleventh level of bacon just because it … Read more

UNH Professor Arrested for Assault

A 67 year old professor of art history at UNH was arrested Saturday night after allegedly striking a “female live-in acquaintance with a cane,” as reported in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Smith’s address in the article is listed as 27 Elm Street, Newmarket, which is likley where the event took place, the address given … Read more

NH House Vote To Repeal Stand Your Ground (HB 135) is Today

Oh_No_Guns_White

Update [-Skip]:  The NH House just voted to pass HB135 which means that you must flee from danger instead of asserting your Right to Self-Defense.  From the House Republican Alliance:

“We are saddened but not surprised by the passage of HB135, which removes a person’s right to defend oneself. The passage of this politically motivated bill strips away the rights of citizens to stand their ground and protect themselves, others and their property if threatened where ever they have a right to be,” stated Representative Al Baldasaro, HRA co-chair. “Every citizen has a constitutional right to defend themselves and this blatant attempt at political correctness is a disservice to our constituents.”

*****

We’ve pretty much chopped down a digital forest discussing HB 135, the effort to solve a non-problem in pursuit of an ideological fear-campaign with no evidence to support it.  So much so that I can’t begin to find all of the articles and posts.  But here is a “short” list of content we’ve put out in the last two months on the bill, the idea, and the moonbat behind it all.  If you feel the need to find more just search HB135 (without a space between HB and 135), or search ‘Shurtleff’ or ‘Stephen Shurtleff,’ or even ‘Deputy Dawg.’

Get your fill of HB135 Shurtleff link juice on the jump.

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Dean Trefethen – Dover, Only NH Mayor To Stand with Nanny Bloomberg

First, thanks to Kathleen LaBonte, who pointed out in the comments for this post, ‘Legal Gun Owners Against Stupid Gun Grabbing Mayors,‘ that Dover, New Hampshire Mayor Dean Trefethen is the only mayor in all of New Hampshire to climb on board Mike ‘Buckshot’ Bloomberg’s anti-gun owner clown car.

Mayor dean Trefethen of Dover NH

Trefethen has signed on to “mayorsagainstillegalguns.org.”

Really?  Mayors Against Illegal Guns?  Illegal guns.  Bloomberg is such an arrogant ass.  Every law abiding gun owner is against illegal guns so I’m reasonably certain (reasonably) that every mayor is as well; except perhaps for Chicago’s  Rahm Emanuel of the ‘please just don’t touch the children fame,’ who may be the only U.S. mayor on public record for demonstrating that it is possible for a cities chief executive to couch gun related gang violence in terms of when he’s really really REALLY against illegal gun use.  Hey- No shooting at each other when there are kids around?  Got it?

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“Legal Gun Owners Against Stupid Gun-Grabbing Mayors”

Gun Rights win

Mike ‘Buckshot’ Bloomberg has an organization called Mayors Against Illegal Guns which just spent 12 million dollars of his money on ads in thirteen states–to pressure US Senators to pass some Bloomberg-esque law or other.  But what we really got from these ads was a lesson in how little the folks involved know about safely handling a firearm.

Katie Pavlich at Townhall.com gives us a link to Emily Miller at the Washington Times …

Mr. Bloomberg’s organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, produced two ads featuring a man holding a shotgun, wearing plaid flannel with a camouflage cap and sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck. While a child swings on a tire in the background, the man says, “I support comprehensive background checks so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can’t buy guns.”

Plaid flannel?  Camo hat?  Pick-up truck?  I don’t see his dog, did it run off with his banjo?

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Can They See Your Closed Airport Tower From There?

The Obama daughters are vacationing in the Bahama’s this week, complete with friends,  Secret Service, and court followers aplenty.    Last month Michelle lead an entourage that included both daughters on a Presidents day ski-weekend in Aspen, complete with private all-day lessons, Secret service and court followers as well.  (Mister Obama was busy playing golf with Tiger Woods, and the other entourage of … Read more

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