How about we amend HB 1704 to stifle some policial speech while we’re at it?

Will HB 1704 intimidate political speechI just shot off a quick email to my New Hampshire State Senator this morning.  I do not know his stance on this yet, but I have some questions about language added, via amendment, to HB 1704, regarding political speech.   I find the amendment language confusing.

I am not certain of the purpose, or if this amendment even achieves that purpose, whatever it is.  And most importantly, it sounds to me like an effort to stifle political speech by interjecting bureaucratic nonsense, while simultaneously encouraging speech intimidation through the implied threat of failing to comply.  This “threat” would come through the ever-present risk of third party complaints of potential violations that would keep people from speaking out for fear of having to lawyer up to defend their political speech against members of the General Court.

I was against it when Maggie ‘The Red” Hassan and Kathy ‘Lawsuit” Sullivan tried it.  I am going to simply state that I am against this becasue it looks like an effort to not just regulate but to complicate free speech, and I do not much care who is trying to do it.  I will do what I can to stop it.

(I will post an update when I have clarification from my State Senator on his position, and or explanation of this new language.)

Senator White,

I have a few questions about the amendment to HB 1704-FN.  It appears to me to include language that would make it difficult to engage in political speech about members or candidates to the General Court.

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GrokTV Event: Shades of Tyranny – Discussion on the NH Constitution

We are at the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH. As you can see by the announcement post, some of the best minds in NH are here to talk about the NH Constitution and specifically, Article 73. We join the event in progress (technical network blockage (site? protocol?) are the reason) … Read more

Smokes and Mirrors – What’s Up With Tobacco Taxes?

smoking - what about the tobacco taxes in New HampshireAll across the the Granite State Democrats have gathered in their secret underground lairs.  The unthinkable has happened.  Tobacco revenues were up last month.   (Audible Gasp!).  That’s right.  Revenues beat estimates.

This is, of course, a double edged sword for the liberal left.   When their grotesque estimates (overall) were forever coming in under target, how many times did they say, “it’s just one month, wait and see.  Give it time, they’ll come around.  We’re not that far off.” No such quarter for Republicans. ( Typical hypocrats.)   At the ugly end of the 2007 to 2010 Democrat “experiment” they were off by about a billion dollars which might suggest they have no clue what they are doing.

But when the Republican’s estimated revenues for their budget the Democrats cried and whined anyway as if they were suddenly experts; the religious left even gathered to pray for more spending.  I’m not kidding.  They prayed for more spending.  The left claimed repeatedly that Republican estimates were purposefully low to punish people.  That is what the left said.

But the overall estimates are close.  Very close.  This means the Democrats were wrong about Republicans underestimating revenue on purpose, which means they were themselves wrong about estimates again (no surprise there).  With revenue nearly in line with spending, bitching about it makes them look petty and just reminds everyone what wretched stewards they were of our tax dollars.

So left hanging without an economic axe to grind they have bet their rhetorical money on the cigarette tax cut.  But they may have lost that bet as well.

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BE BREITBART: DoIT/ DES Right To Know Request : A conversation with DES Commissioner Tom Burack

Well, DES Commissioner Tom Burack called in at noon this past Tuesday to have a conversation with a couple of we Groksters (Susan and me) concerning our Right To Know Requests that we have submitted to both his department and that of the Department of Information Technology.

Sidebar: we received the response to our Second RTK yesterday.  I have not had the chance to review it but will be posting it up later.  At first glance, however, it seems like they have decided that government records, if they exist, are for their eyes only.  If it seems that this first glance is true, we will be taking this up a level.

 Now, that call is not of the greatest audio quality; it seems I have a problem from phone line 1 into the soundboard that introduced a bunch of background noise.  Also, Commissioner Burack was on a speakerphone with one of his assistants which made him sound a bit distant.  I am going to post this audio up now, warts and all, but will continue to try to boost his end of the conversation and reduce the noise.  You can download the MP3 here (30 minutes, 30K) or listen to the conversation (about 30 minutes) using the online player:

Also, I have no intention of doing a complete transcription, but I will be grabbing a few highlights and will post them here:

(0:26) Skip: In accordance with New Hampshire state law, I do need to inform you that this conversation is going to be recorded
(1:10) Commissioner Burack: wishes to know where we live in NH
(1:34) Commissioner Burack: Thanked us for bringing Richard de Seve, his employee, to his attention
(2:29) Skip brings up oversight of government by the citizenry
(2:51) Purpose was not to talk about the RTKs directly, as the second two RTKs are addressed to DoIT and not DES
(3:11) Skip points out, however, that it is DES’s Gretchen Hamel (Administrator!) that is still handling the communications.
(4:15) Skip brings up an additional Letter to DoIT
(4:42) Skip asks: what is so hard about obtaining these Government records
(5:10) Skip informs Commissioner Burack about the new RTK – filtering requests
(6:06) Skip corrects Commissioner Burack on this new RTK – DES does have a part in it.

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The Avengers Movie – Frikkin Awesome!

Some people think too much when they review a movie.  Not so at GraniteGrok.  I just spent a few hours with my kids at the movies.  This is impressive because movies cost too damn much, I don’t make a lot of money, and my preference for Red Box is well documented.  For me to haul … Read more

The Coming War…Blood for Nothing.

No, I am not talking about the presidential campaign, though that will be similar to a war.  I am referring to what Mr. Obama will do if he feels he has to to get re-elected. Hold on to your peacenik badges lefties, because that hope and change you’ve been clinging to will take another hit … Read more

GrokTV Event: Live blogging at the Rye Republican Town Committee

There’s GOT to be a conservative TEA Party leaning person showing up for RRTC (Diane Bitter, Chair (and new NH GOP Assistant Secretary) at this event, so GraniteGrok is here.  We were asked if we could provide live stream and record the event by ‘Grok friend Diane, so we are attempting to oblige.  Unfortunately, the … Read more

Howard Dilworth – CNHT Vice Chairman

(Picked up and cross posted from CNHT) For those of you who have been asking about our Vice Chair, Howard Dilworth, we have some news… As you may know, our long time Director and friend at CNHT, Howard Dilworth, has recently had some serious medical issues, and was, for a time, in an induced comma … Read more

Data Point – Because “Obama isn’t working”, lots of Americans are not

(H/T: Business Insider) (H/T: CNN) NOTE: the economy has to grow by 250,000 to 300,00 jobs / month  just to stay even with population growth. “Obama – isn’t working” means Obama’s Administration has not put the right policies for the economy to achieve that – nor does it seem interested in doing that either. Unemployment … Read more

Notable Quote – Bob Dole

 The high office of the presidency requires not a continuous four-year campaign for re-election, but, rather, broad oversight and attention to three essential areas – the material, the moral, and the nation’s survival, in that ascending order of importance. And in the last presidential election, you, the people, were gravely insulted. You were told that … Read more

Have You Met Julia?

Have you met Julia?  She’s you under the eternal reign of Obamanomics–as viewed from within the left wing ghetto. From Red State Over at Human Events, my colleague David Harsanyi writes “Who the hell is ‘Julia,’ and why am I paying for her whole life?” It’s a fair question. According to Obama’s campaign website, someone … Read more

April Unemployment Rate Diverts Attention from Failing Obama Policies

The decline in the April unemployment rate from 8.2 to 8.1 percent is the result of President Obama’s policies which destroy rather than create jobs.  In April almost 3 times as many people got discouraged and left the labor force (342,000) as got jobs (115,000), this is nothing to celebrate. Two factors affect the unemployment … Read more

Sometimes, the Left’s “stretching” of words just snaps…

Instapundit: He’s a “white Hispanic” – never heard of it before Zimmerman either.  But she – how DARE we white dudes disagree with a womyn American Indian minority.  Only the Left will bend the meaning of Political Correctness in amazing ways so as to save a “favored” identity group (not so ignore the attempted cloaking … Read more

Question with respect to the proposed state constitution educational amendment

Damn. There is one hell of a row going on at the excellent RLCNH email discussion list over the proposed state constitutional amendment regarding education—CACR12—which, one way or another, will put the responsibility

It's about educating the next generation, not expanding government....

for implementing and funding a “state system” of education in the hands of the state legislature, not the towns (where it has traditionally and historically resided).

More importantly, the battle is heating up amongst the best, smartest, and most activist political players in the state, i.e. the movement conservatives, the libertarians, the Tea Partiers, the Constitutionalists, the libertarian-conservatives, and others.

Some are….

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GrokTV Special Interview: Rep. John Hikel for NH Senate – Question 1 – Has it been everything you thought in the House? glad you put the time in? Best part of being a Rep.?

GraniteGrok has known NH State Rep John Hikel for a couple of years now an have interviewed him on a number of occasions.  This time, it is a little bit different as he has decided to “up the ante” – last night at St. Anselm’s Institute of Politics, we had the chance to interview NH … Read more

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