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.

The ‘Atrocities Czar’

The Atrocities Czar?  Really? President Obama’s National Security Adviser Samantha Power will head the new White House Atrocities Prevention Board, which is tasked with formulating a response to war crimes, crimes against humanity and mass atrocities. When will he appoint the salty snacks Czar, the every other Tuesday Czar, or the how about the Polygamy … Read more

Mark Steyn again: On dog-eating, exploding cigars, and “self-loathing cultural relativism”….

Mark Steyn continues a recent rampage! And damn is he good. Freestater Mark Steyn (pace the Democrats: In New Hampshire we are all Freestaters now) is on a red-hot roll, if not a full-blown tantara! When it comes to Obama and the “We-Are-All-Socialists-Now” Democrats, Steyn’s newly re-energized acidulousness is bracing! Take no prisoners!  I mean…consider our President’s penchant for dog-eating: Steyn notes that it won’t hurt the President with certain Democrat voters, because “he knows that to the average upscale white liberal it has the electric frisson of the exotic other.”

“Exotic other”? “Electric frisson”? Oh yeah. Referencing other culinary choices from the “exotic other” that might give those Democrats electric frissons, Steyn writes: “I’m not suggesting that President Obama has eaten a human penis, because, if he had, he’d almost certainly have boasted about it to the impressionable NPR ninnies who gobbled up his memoirs. But I am suggesting…

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Blind fools, in the service of blind, enervated American elites….

Can extremely highly educated, very widely traveled and knowledgeable people be amazingly, obviously, exceptionally, absolutely blind to the lessons of history? Mark Steyn—who not incidentally lives in the Free State of New Hampshire—explains that, why yes, as a matter of fact they can be. In fact, there’s an example of one—well respected!—who recently wrote a … Read more

A would-be dictator

He doesn't like you donating money to the Romney campaign....

I swear. We’ve got a Presidency that is descending into a parody of a South American caudillo bidding for permanent power. Obama has put into operation a “public enemies list” where the President attacks wealthy donors to the Romney campaign. It serves to intimidate those people from donating any more, and it warns others who might otherwise consider donating to Romney…if they give money they may get put on the President’s “public enemies list.” According to Kimberley Strassel in today’s Wall Street Journal, the public enemies list…

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Too much information: Multicultural News You May Not Want to Use

Ahem. This from MailOnline.com: It is reported that under the new Egyptian Parliament, “[H]usbands will soon be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives – for up to six hours after their death. The controversial new law is part of a raft of measures being introduced by the Islamist-dominated parliament. It will also … Read more

New Hampshire Bureaucrats Behaving Badly? Introducing GrokWatch

No one respects found money, and there is nothing more abundantly “found” in its appearance than the millions and billions bilked from taxpayers every year to “run state and local government.”

In the midst of that relationship, between producers and their wallets, are the hordes of bureaucrats, too many of whom are taking advantage of every opportunity to justify their existence while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.  You know who you are and we know there is at least one other person in New Hampshire who knows as well, and wishes you’d stop it.

So we’re introducing GrokWatch.  Our goal?   To identify and investigate cases of New Hampshire Bureaucrats Behaving Badly and then announce awards of shame for the worst cases…but we need your help.

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Maryland – A US Senate Race to Watch

Maryland manages to suffer from its proximity to the bureaucratic beast that is Washington DC (and the Bos-Wash blue belt of the Atlantic coast), and as such is a place where Democrats just expect to get elected.  But Republican Dan Bongino is making an impression in his quest to challenge Maryland incumbent Senator Ben Cardin. … Read more

4.4 Million Reasons to Tell PPNNE to Kiss Off.

The next time some uninformed “women’s health rights” drone takes you to task over your defense of the idea that New Hampshire should not be funding abortion providers with taxpayer dollars (or that the people do not have the right to elect officials who will pass such laws for them), provide the following instruction on Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s Spending Priorities

“..PPNNE’s 2010 annual report indicates $3.1 million spent on administration; $822,000 on public policy, including the aforementioned lobbyist; $445,000 on marketing. And they warn of having to turn women away if HB 228 passes?

Thanks to Ellen Kolb (here) for this quote from her blog (which you should check out by the way). Ellen is referring, among other things, to a vote on HB 228 in the NH State Senate today, “AN ACT prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion services.”  The Senate should pass this bill, not just because I don’t want taxpayer dollars supporting them but because PPNNE obviously has plenty of money to waste on things other than the actual care, whatever that care may happen to be.

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Will Debbie Washerwoman Schultz Lose Her Re-Election?

Debbie Wasseman Schultz (DWS) is very busy being one of the worst DNC chairs ever.  (Not as easy as it may sound).  And we think that’s great.  In fact, we would like to help ensure that she has more time to pursue the disaster that is DNC chair DWS,  so please take a moment to … Read more

Kathy Sullivan and the Destructive Democrats

The rallying cry of the Destructive Democrats

The Union Leader today had a column by super-Democrat Kathy Sullivan (she’s a member of their national committee and is former chairman of the NH Democrat Party). In it she attacked a proposed refugee moratorium in Manchester, Mayor Gatsas, and those who support the idea.

All that is fine by me…but then the dishonest old socialist (is there any other kind?) went after the Freestaters.

And that got my hackles up….

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Concord Monitor Wont Cover it, But They’ll help Cover It up.

There is Free Press and then there is Free Speech.  And then there is The Concord Monitor.  The Concord Monitor would like you to believe that it is a defender of both Free Press and Free Speech.   But if that were true, they would not be deleting comments that include links to posts at GraniteGrok.  … Read more

Big win in federal court for jury nullification movement and activist

    This is big news for the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA.org), as well as its New Hampshire affiliate where FIJA activism has been energetic for years, and where the state legislature’s majority Republicans generally support the effort. Read this, from Newsday on April 19, 2012: “NY judge tosses out jury nullification charges” “NEW YORK – … Read more

(Repost-Flashback!) Seth Marshall Discovers Property Taxes

As part of Remembering Democrat Rule – another post from the past…

Seth Marshall Discovers Property Taxes

Originally posted Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 09:04PM

Hat tip out of the gate to fellow NHI front pager Richard Olsen Jr. for this fine bit or wordsmithing on Democrat Rep Seth Marshall’s brief letter to the Nashua Telegraph about a pamphlet on the burden of property taxes.  Mr. Marshall (it appears) feels blessed as if the contents of said pamphlet revealed the answer to a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma (which he discovered in the shadow of some penumbra no doubt.)  What’s the revelation?  That New Hampshire relies more heavily on property taxes.

That’s quite a discovery for a General Court lurker from the Fish and Game committee whose been a rep for four years.  Just figured that out Seth?  Oh, but not by himself–he’s got a pamphlet.  Hard to believe it hasn’t come to his attention sooner.  Seems to me it would be all the rage on the left wing.  So I guess Nashua Rep Brian Poznanski doesn’t invite him to the House parties–where it probably comes up all the time.  You know, the deal, drinking with minors, writing laws to get minors off if they get caught drinking, talking about property taxes.  Did you know New Hampshire apparently relies heavily on them?  (Property taxes, not drunk underage State Reps–well, actually have you seen the budget?) Did you also know that New Hampshire still has one of the lowest tax burdens in the country because it relies more heavily on property taxes?  It’s true.  That wasn’t in the pamphlet was it?

Want to know why?

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Long read regarding socialist statism and voting Democrat….

Kiddy Socialism: Obama Redistributes LegosI regularly get into political scrums with leftists in various venues.

What follows is one where I got set off enough to pen a major lecture to a local socialist (I’ll call him “Chuck”). He was going on about what a successful President Barack Obama is, and how he truly deserves to be re-elected, and how all the “minorities” and “groups” targeted by Obama will vote for him.

So it began like this. I told him….

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“Negros With Guns”

Ann Coulter relaxing on back porch....

Ann Coulter, despite her recent foolishness in attacking Newt Gingrich, is nearly always, ahem, “on target.”

As with her recent column, “Negros with Guns,” which starts out like this:

Liberals have leapt on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida to push for the repeal of “stand your ground” laws and to demand tighter gun control. (MSNBC’S Karen Finney blamed “the same people who stymied gun regulation at every point.”)

We don’t know the facts yet, but let’s assume the conclusion MSNBC is leaping to is accurate: George Zimmerman stalked a small black child and murdered him in cold blood, just because he was black. If that were true, every black person in America should get a gun and join the National Rifle Association…

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(US Senate) Democrats Still Running From The Budget

Hot Air: Only three Democrats bothered to show up at all, out of a dozen assigned to it.  Republicans showed up, prepared to cast votes to finally bring the ignominious streak of 1,085 days (as of yesterday) without a budget resolution to an end.  Sadly, Democrats — who control the committee, the chamber, and the … Read more

(Re-Post FlashBack!) Introducing Rep Kevin Hodges (D-Awesome Cool)

(Originally posted April 20th, 2010, this is–I think–one of my classic rants and worthy of a re-post)

Introducing Rep Kevin Hodges (D-Awesome Cool)

Ah, the arrogance of youth.  Not long ago it was Brian “I have an LSR to get minors off for getting busted for possession of alcohol” Poznanski who was the whelp–having then gotten himself busted as a minor in possession of alcohol in front of a house full of minors and his LSR subsequently pulled.  That was fun, and illegal, but so five months ago.  Now we have Kevin Hodges (Hillsborough7) who hasn’t done anything illegal that we know of, but based on a chance encounter documented below I think we can draw a pretty picture of Mr. Hodges.

I’m just guessing but I bet Kev-Bo is wicked sick when it comes to the general court, and he’ll probably tell you as much.  But when you look up his voting record, he’s really just another BORG wired into Norelli’s hive.  He’s a big spender (No spending caps HB 1522), wants to make sure he can tax you as much as he needs to after he spends your money (Killed CACR 26) he’s not interested in the constitutionality of the general courts activities (voted to ITL HB 1343), and he seems more than willing to let the facilities committee pass judgement on things of a decidedly constitutional nature like banning guns from places (voted to kill HB1693) even though when given the chance to ban them legislatively he voted against it. (HB 1654).  Afraid to vote for it, but you’ll let them paper push it into existence, I see how you are.  And I didn’t look, but I bet he’s against parental rights.  Most young healthy men his age are.

What attracted my interest in Kevin–if you are wondering–was a recent encounter between Mr. Hodges and a new voter, (She’ll be 18 before November) documented in a letter to the editor of the Goffstown News.

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