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.

NH Democrat State Senator Matthew Houde’s Conflict of Interest

NH State Senator Matthew Houde - Health care conflict of Interest
DHMC Lobbyist - Matt Houde

Nowhere on New Hampshire State Senator, Democrat Matt Houde’s Bio Page does it mention that he is employed as a Lobbyist for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) .  I guess they forgot to update it?

So when the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire (Disclosure- I am on the RLCNH board), asked Senator Houde to step down from the Joint Health Care Reform Oversight Committee (not knowing that he was a paid lobbyist), you might be surprised to learn why?

The problem is simple.  Decisions Houde will make on the committee will have a direct effect on his employer, Dartmouth-Hitchcock.   Decisions  that could result in a massive expansion of Medicare, which given DHMC’s near monopoly in the Granite State, would ensure it access to millions of taxpayer dollars, a fraction of which could then be used to continue to pay Houde between $76,482.00 dollars to as much as $104,957.00 dollars for being a senior community communications specialist with DHMC.

Read more

Revolution Foundation

Obamacare SEIU

The Daily Caller ran a story this weekend about a book set to come out tomorrow, by Mallory Factor, called “Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob taxpayers Blind“.

The premise of the book is that Obamacare was just a big ploy to unionize the estimated 16-17 million strong healthcare workforce (12.5% of US workers, 17% of US GDP/economy – projected to reach 20%), and that by proposing an acceptable plan for nationalized/unionized healthcare, the union got behind Obama in the election of 2008, helping him win the Presidency.

But by the looks of this, Obamacare wasn’t just about healthcare, in the same way that “sustainability” isn’t just about the environment…

Read more

Passing the Buck on Welfare Work Requirements

Waving the job requirement for welfare seems like a natural extension of the Obama Economic plan.  Make sure there are no jobs, keep people dependent on government.  And now he can blame the states…who are suffering under every other yoke he has placed upon them in three in half years. Hey, maybe he’ll send Biden … Read more

2016 – The Obama Movie

If you’ve never heard Dinesh D’Souza speak before, catch him here, speaking to CPAC 2012 (speech begins @ 2:00). He’s a brilliant, articulate author, President of The King’s College, and now his book, Obama’s America, has been made into a movie, that shows what America would look like, in 2016, in the fallout of a … Read more

NH Democrat Policies On Voter ID and Domicile Still Matter…Here’s Why. (Part 2)

Back in 2000, as many as 1700 UNH students illegally registered to vote in Durham, New Hampshire, and very likely voted here illegally as well.   We know this because in 2001 more than a few UNH students requested that they be removed from the voter checklist in writing, using uncharacteristically similar wording, as if prompted to do so by someone in New Hampshire who did not want to prosecute them, so they could “properly register in their own home towns.”  (Copies of these written requests are on file with the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, signed by each of the students who submitted them.)

So here we have admitted evidence of vote fraud in one college town in one year, but not prosecuted.   Just like Governor Lynch’s so-called awesome (and impossibly low) High School drop out rate, if you want to make something go away without actually doing anything about it, you ignore it, hide it, re-define it, or simply find enough people who might benefit from it to make it legal.

And while stuffing local ballot boxes with the votes of out of state residents was not new, making it legal made it easier for Democrats to continue to get the votes while reducing significant neck strain from state officials and Democrat party hacks having to look the other way.

Read more

Are You Better Off or “We are the 56%”

Gallup reports that 56% of Swing State voters do not believe they are better off than they were four years ago, rising from an Obama low of 54% but not yet nearing the Oct/Nov 2011 high of 60%.   A majority of those claiming they are not better off blame Mr. Obama, but not by a lot.  Plenty of blame for both Obama and Bush, with some still only blaming Bush.

So I guess we are the 56%.

better off- Are you better off than 3 years ago?
We are the 56%

Read more

On Not being California…

Tax Money down the toiletNew Hampshire is not California.  We are not California because with the exception of 2007-2010, we try to avoid letting Democrats run the entire state government.  (We’re also not Massachusetts for that same reason.)  And this is good, because while Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has now implemented “cost controls” for Healthcare providers in his state, guaranteeing(long term) less access, longer waits and poorer service, California is a bloody disaster.

The tax and spend, unsustainable pension and benefits, land of environmental extortion, saw sales tax revenue drop 33.5% last month.  While but one small part of the problem that is “California” all the problems can be linked directly to things that New Hampshire Democrats want you to experience right here in the Granite State.

Read more

The Human Cost of Plastic Bag Bans… (Updated – new link added)

What are the unidentified costs of banning disposable shopping bags?  I’ve been speculating for months. In this video PERC Lone Mountain Fellow Jonathan Klick argues that the presence of harmful bacteria (in reusable grocery bags whose use is mandated after plastic bag bans are put in place) creates a health cost that has not been considered.  (Hey…I know I’m just chopped liver but I considered it. a few months ago ‘What could go wrong- LA Set to Ban Paper and Plastic.’)

And here, and here, and here, and here…

Mr. Klick points out that about half the reusable bags of shoppers heading in for more groceries have some form of contamination, and that the human cost could be a doubling in the number of cases of food borne illness in humans and even death as a result.

Read more

Is Biden Out! (Updated and Bumped)

Joe Biden- is he off the 2012 ticket?

From the Weekly Standard– amidst speculation that Joe “Gaffe Machine” Biden has been having far too many Joe-moments, we bring you today’s schedule. (on the jump…)

We know Biden is not doing the ticket any favors.

So is it time to bring on Hillary–though she and Bill can’t stand the Obama’s and the Obama’s can’t stand the Clinton’s either…but for the sake of power a Democrat will do just about anything.   Or is this just a sit down and straighten out Joe kind of a day?

[Update on the jump]

Read more

Creeping Enviro-Tyranny…this time in Utah

Garden Police State

If you read part-1 of “Following the Trail from Sustainability to Tyranny“, you would have seen a list of “What If?” questions.  The third question reads: “What If you could not grow a vegetable garden without a permit?“.  Some people might say these are pie-in-the-sky questions, or conspiracy notions, simply because they are not necessarily happening today.  Well, you’ve been warned!

Read more

NH Democrat Policies On Voter ID and Domicile Still Matter…Here’s Why. (Part 1)

More than a few folks are probably wondering why I keep talking about vote fraud and photo ID.  TEA Party Republicans more or less plugged up the domicile loophole that invited out of state influence in our local New Hampshire elections, and even passed a voter ID requirement.  So where’s the fire?

Democrats are still lying about the issue, and if permitted any kind of majority in state government will do everything in their power to reverse the protections we’ve managed to gain.  So it is essential that we reveal the half-truths and outright lies they will continue to peddle all the way to November and beyond.

Read more

The Natural Escalation of Leftism’s Evolution

In a post of mine a few weeks back, when Captain Psycho P.h.d Orange Hair shot up a movie theater and ABC News then reflexively exhorted, “Tea Party! Tea Party! Tea Party!” with Tourette-like self control, I touched on something that I’ve been observing most of my life and only realized what it was and have been able to recognize it these past few years.  It is that the core of leftist, or liberal, ideology consists of the belief that everything is open to and subject to politics. Everything can, should, and, eventually, must be politicized.  Once something becomes political, it’s open to debate and thus can be modified.  This is what drives them “Forward,” as Lenin and Obama would say.

Read more

Shooting in DC – Lefty Media in No Particular Rush to Cover It.

Family Research Council in the cross-hairsFloyd Corkins II, of Hendron Virgina, walked in to the Family Rights Council offices in Washington DC and proceeded to shoot a security guard before the same guard subdued him (some reports say with help), preventing him from getting past the lobby of the building.

Corkins  “had been volunteering at a community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people,” according to AP and CBS news.  He is also reported to have shouted disagreements with the work the Christian group does before opening fire.

To their credit, Glaad, representing several gay rights groups, quickly released a statement condemning the shooting.  The shooter is in custody, and no one was seriously injured in the incident, so the bigger story is the lack of wall to wall media coverage of a shooting in the heart of Washington DC.

Read more

When Can We Cut the Other 50%?

University of NewHampshire SealThere is a lovely new candidate survey being mailed out to New Hampshire candidates from the Concord Monitor.  While most of the questions are loaded to demarcate the right left divide in state politics–have to make sure we know who the “TEA Party Extremists” are–one question in particular stood out.

“Do you support last year’s 50% cut in university Funding…”

Read more

Is the GOP Headed for Implosion?

Boehner The Clown

House Speaker John Boehner took part in an interview with Fox News this week and one of the topics, invariably, was VP-pick, Paul Ryan.  During the interview, Greta Van Susteren challenged Boehner about Ryan’s votes for TARP, the auto bailouts, and two 2008 stimulus programs, asking how, as a Conservative, he politically “sells that”.

Boehner responded with just about the stupidest, yet telling, remark possible…

Read more

The Delphi Technique

As we find ourselves more and more exposed to committee meetings, public meetings, and even private ones, particularly with bureaucrats, paper pushers, or local or state level government officials, this bit of news might come in handy.

It’s about the Delphi Technique. From Informed Citizens United

In group settings, the Delphi Technique is an unethical method of achieving consensus on controversial topics.  It requires well-trained professionals, known as “facilitators” or “change agents” who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against another to make a preordained viewpoint appear “sensible,” while making opposing views appear ridiculous.

Read more

How To Keep An Economy Down..

It is hard to beat the annual burden of government regulation for keeping the economy down.  It’s also a great way to keep unemployment up.  If Businesses have to spend more money to comply with regulations there is less to invest in the business or more employees.  And what’s even better is that this…(see chart on the jump)…is something the government did create.  Forty-six billion dollars ($46,000,000,000.00) in new additional regulatory costs per year!, heaped on business owners–during a recession– thanks to Barry “Big Bureaucracy” Obama…in just three years.

(I wonder if the idea came out of one of those job summit break-out session?)

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing