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.

Is Kelly Ayotte…Lost?

Word is spreading around the globe that NH Senator Kelly Ayotte is likely to support the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” (UNCLOS, aka “LOST”) treaty that Hillary Clinton has been pushing for years, John Kerry (D-MA) is cheerleading, and President Obama has already pledged to sign.  This, in and of itself, is reason enough to look at this treaty askew.

Yet, apparently siding with the entire contingent of 53 Democrats in the Senate, along with a possible 17-19 other Republicans (not surprisingly including John McCain, Susan Collins, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, and Lindsey Graham), Ayotte has not yet signed a letter from a group of Senators who pledge to block the bill.

Note: This week, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) both went on the record opposing this treaty, adding their names to the letter.

Read more

Americans For Prosperity NH- 2011-2012 Legislative Score Card [Updated-Added A+’s]

[Updated and Bumped- I added the Republican House Rep A+ grades on the jump.  Grok Updates by county etc coming soon.]

AFP-NH has released its 2011-2012 Legislative scorecard for New Hampshire.  In my review of the score card results there is not much that will surprise anyone who makes it a habit of paying attention to what happens in Concord.   But not everyone lurks in the Political sausage factory so lets take a quick review.

NH House Score Card…

Every Democrat in the New Hampshire House received an ‘F’ except for Domingo Baldwin in Stafford County and John Gilmas in Hillsborough;  They both got a C.

Joining these two Democrats on the Republican side with a grade of “C” …

Randall Brownrigg (Hills-27), Patricia Dowling (Rock-05), Richard Drisko (Hills-05), Laura Gandia (Hills-27), David Knox (Carroll-04), Michael McCarthy (Hills-21), Herbert Richardson (Coos-02), Tony Soltani (Merr-08), Frankilin Sterling (Cheshire-07), and Steve Vallincourt (Hills-15).

NH House Republicans receiving a ‘D’ Include

Michael Buxton (Hills-24), Tim Copeland (Rock-13), Russell Day (Hills-07). Mark Proulx (Hills-15), David Robbins (Hills-26), Jeffery Shackett (Grafton-08), and James Waddell (Rock-15)

And the NH House Republicans who got an ‘F’ like the majority of Democrats…

Peter Bolster (Belknap-05), Julie Brown (Strafford-01), Susan Emerson (Cheshire-07), Carolyn Gargasz (Hills-05), Tim Hogan (Hills-23), Karen Hutchinson (Rock-03), Kevin Janvrin (Rock-14), David Kidder (Merr-01), Priscilla lockwood (Merr-06), Irene Messier (Hills-17), Alida Millham (Belknap-05), William Panek (Strafford-03), Amy & Lawrence Perkins (Rock-14), Marshall & Matt Quandt (Rock-13), and William Remick (Coos-02)

So who got an A or an A+?

Read more

NH Senator Gordon Humphrey Endorses Ovide Lamontagne for Governor

Manchester, NH – Two-term U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey today announced his support of Ovide Lamontagne for Governor. Sen. Humphrey represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1990.  He declined to run for reelection in 1990, fulfilling a campaign promise to limit himself to two terms.  He voted against the federal budget all … Read more

The Embrace of Administrative Despotism – A Notable Quote

Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free.  As they can not destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once.  They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful from of government, but … Read more

Manchester School District – Is this an Anti-School Choice Move?

Despite earlier promises the Manchester School district may now be refusing to bus charter school kids based on the argument that it will cost $82,000.00 in transportation costs to do so.  From what I’ve been told so far, the original plan was to have them ride on the existing Catholic school bus routes, which would … Read more

Manchester Democrat Peter Sullivan Admits He Is a Socialist

This has to be one of my favorite screen caps this year.  It is a facebook comment by Manchester Democrat Peter Sullivan.  In it, he is simultaneously suggesting that an admitted atheist has more doctrinally in common with the Catholic Church than “Anything you will see from those homophobic nuts at GraniteGrok.” That is so … Read more

Bring Out The Dead Vote

  Paul Westcott of WGIR and 90.7 The Wave has this excellent Kodak moment (below) posted at WGIR-AM.com. Yes, it’s a get out the dead voter drive.  You may recall that we’ve covered this kind of thing here in the past.  The New Hampshire Dead People Party (and here -NHDP), and here, and here, and … Read more

Carol SEIU-Porter And Ann McKluster’s Biggest 2012 Donor? Anti-Israel J Street PAC

JStreet The Anti-Israel Lobby and PAC supports NH DemocratsYou are who you take money from, so the narrative goes, which on a typical day makes Carol Shea-Porter (SEIU-Porter) a union thug and Ann McLane Kuster (The McKluster) and SEIU-Porter both the Bane of the Unborn (up to an including partial birth abortion), and meat puppets of left wing congressional leadership.

Ann McLane Kuster - Supported by Anti-Israel J Street
The McLuster ....

So how does the J Street PAC factor in?  J Street is currently the biggest individual donor to both New Hampshire Democrat congressional candidates SEIU-Porter and The McKluster.  NH CD-1 Candidate SEIU-Porter has received $10,950 dollars and CD-2 Candidate McKluster has pocketed over $30,000.00 from the group, putting J Street at the top of both fund-raising leader boards.  And who is J Street?

J Street is the offspring of gazillionaire George Soros largess, and funded by the Soros family (and other mysterious foreign donors).  It lists itself as a Pro-Israel group, but its primary purpose is to funnel money into Left wing candidates and to promote anti-Israeli policy.

To quote Elliot Jager at Jewish Ideas Daily…

Claiming to support Israel’s right to self-defense, J Street since its founding has opposed every measure Israel has taken to defend its citizens. It opposed military action to stop Hamas’s bombardment of the Negev. It abandoned Israel in the face of the Turkish flotilla frenzy. And it had to be dragged kicking and screaming to embrace even mild congressional sanctions against Iran.

Read more

CNHT Straw Poll

Todays annual CNHT Picnic (recorded and live streamed by GraniteGrok) comes complete with candidate speeches and a Straw Poll.  This years results are as follows. Governor Lamontagne 52% Smith 29% Babiarz 18% Others 0% NH CD-1 Guinta 57% Parent 28% Kelly 18% Others 0% NHCD-2 Bass 47% Lamare 31% Macia 13% Dziedzc 7% Dean 2%

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things…Obama Is Responsible For

This is too good not to borrow and re-post.  Dana Loesch–whom we saw at RightOnline this year–reports on the most recent Obama distraction–Romney..something something…and follows with a reminder that most of Obama’s defenders are funded by a guy with way more money (Soros) than Romney.  She then provides a list of links to things about … Read more

UN Calls For Tax on Wealthy to Help Poor – Still Wont Work

The UN want’s more money.  They are after the global wealth tax again, a tax favored by Obama, and the social/environmental justice movements who benefit from it.  But we know that the money will never actually get to the poor, not enough of it.  Nor will it alleviate anything but the misery of some NGO functionary or UN lackey paid to make sure pennies on every dollar end up in the hands of third world dictators.  So perhaps the UN could suggest a policy that will actually help the poor?

Instead of taxing people why not encourage things that actually reduce poverty.  Property rights and rule of law.  People who know that their labor will produce things that will not be seized or stolen by capricious warlords or uncontested acts of theft or intimidation, are more likley to work to improve their lives; because they know that the work may actually…you know…improve their lives.

Read more

I know I’m President, And This is Crazy…

The Song ‘Call me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen, has created quite a meme following.  I figured I’d add the noise. (Feel free to replace the word ‘Economy’ with any other suitable word.  And you could even change ‘Bush’ to ‘Romney’ depending on the day. I know I’m President And this is Crazy, But the … Read more

Happy “Dependence Day” Seattle – Your City Just Banned Plastic Bags

Nothing says freedom like telling your citizens or local businesses what to do.  But Seattle is not exactly a bastion of Freedom and liberty.  And today is no different.

The Seattle City Council has voted to ban plastic grocery bags.

This is another win by so-called environmental groups that claim the bags fill up landfills or in the case of Seattle, also end up in the water and threaten wildlife.  There is no concrete evidence that if the plastic gets in the water it does any actual harm, but nothing else about being an environmentalist is based on concrete anything (including concrete) so why let that deter the assumptions.  It’s for everyone’s good, right?

Wrong.

Take electric cars.  The process of making the batteries is such a strain on the environment that the average electric car would need to run well beyond its life expectancy for any perceived benefit to outweigh the environmental costs associated with its manufacture.  Wind and Solar farms likewise have costs (and this was before Democrats wasted trillions on failing companies that failed anyway) that seriously challenge the so-called benefits.  So is it any surprise that plastic shopping bag bans are no different?

Read more

RightOnline Bloggers – Write On-Line About Independence Day

RightOnline Bloggers share their Independence day postsThe bloggers of RightOnline 2012–sounds like a bad idea for a calendar–took to the internet yesterday to share some thoughts on the 236th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence.   And some of those shared  posts with each other.  I thought it would be helpful to compile a few here at GraniteGrok.

Where there was more than on post offered I selected a single article to feature here. This does not necessarily mean it was the best of the lot so I encourage you to browse for these and other excellent observations when you visit.  And feel free to add any or all of these folks to your on-line reading list.

Here are their thoughts or observations in particualr order.

Read more

If You Listen Closely You Will Hear The Sound of Creeping Tyranny

Any story like this has to begin with our hopes and prayers for all the injured.  A Fireworks accident at a private residence in Pelham New Hampshire resulted in 11 injuries, 5 of those being children, one as young as 8 month old–according to this morning’s Union Leader.  So please take a moment to offer your thoughts and prayers for their quick recovery.

Now, let us ready ourselves for the sound of creeping tyranny…

Read more

Tyranny Plain and Simple – Public Sector Unions

“Every lazy nation is grave; for those who do not work regard themselves as sovereigns of those who work.” – Montesquieu For those who do not work regard themselves as sovereigns of those who do work.  This could not be more true. It also occurs to me that this also applies to public sector union … Read more

A Patriotic “New Years” Resolution – Resolve To Be Free From Tyranny

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Independence day, which I did not in my previous post with the Declaration of Independence.  I also wanted to mention the strange feeling that I awoke with today.

I think I know what the second or third generations of conquered nations felt like; remembering the “old ways” out of deference to our ancestors or as a way of expressing defiance.  You can see the history in your own past, that of friends and neighbors, places and days, stories told, in objects and heirlooms.  You can even smell it and hear it.  But you can’t quite remember it.  That is how I felt when I woke up. Unfocused. Not certain of where the path was that I am looking for.

But I am not a “Sunshine Patriot.”  Most of my activism has occurred during these dark hours of the Obama years.  I didn’t have to be afraid of the Socialists hiding in the bushes.  They have been running my country under the cover of a propaganda media.   And despite these odds I am here, on the front line, every day, investing my own time and effort to promote a different message.   And I am not alone.  Everyone here at GraniteGrok is doing the same thing.  And at blogs all over the country.  And that is the message.  No matter what is set before us, we are not going quietly.  We will not just shout in the darkness.  We will instead light another candle to push back the infringing pall of tyranny just a little bit longer.  But we need your help.

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing