News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
“Let the other guys do the crybaby stuff…Go for the laughs.” —Rip Torn
Yesterday Morning, two Concord Monitor Reporters, Ann Marie Yimmons and Matt Spolar, were excluded (Barred – their word, not mine) from a press conference held by House Speaker Bill O’Brien. The topic “de jour” was a discussion of reforms to the ebt system in the state.
So what does Felice Belman, Editor of the Monitor do? She makes speculative statements.
We are here at the Hillsborough American Legion hall for CNHT’s annual “Old Home Day” for Conservative / Libertarian / Right of Center activists. Full slate of folks will be speaking and we’ll be live streaming as long as no one kicks out the Ethernet wire! Live video from your Android device on Ustream Please … Read more
“I would rather have a competent extremist than an incompetent moderate.” —Leon Jaworski
Many of you know Marshall “Lee” Quandt? Rockingham District 13? We here at the Grok fancy him a RINO. Back in January of this year he went after Conservative Commentator Carolyn McKinney where he characterized the New Hampshire Republican Liberty Caucus as, “sickening.” Aside from grossly mischaracterizing McKinney, he unabashedly defends, supports and coddles the unions.
Make no mistake about it. Lee Quandt is a RINO…But then again Rockingham Districts, “have RINO written all over them.” So back in April, Quandt has a sit down with Ann Marie Timmons and Matt Spolar, two lib-scribes of the Concord “Fishwrapper” Monitor. Here’s how they play it:
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%
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
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.
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
First in Wisconsin and now in Colorado. In a post at Townhall:
The Douglas County School District, a suburban community south of Denver, Colorado, has decided to part ways with their teachers’ union in the absence of progress on a new contract which expired June 30th, 2012.
“The Board of Education finds and declares that the Collective Bargaining Agreements between the District and the Unions,” said the district on July 3rd in its formal resolution dissolving the bonds between the union and the district, “which had been effective from July 1, 2011 through and including June 30, 2012, are now expired and of no legal effect whatsoever.”
The dissolution between the district and the union is unprecedented and sources close to the union tell me that unions are pensively watching, worried that other districts around Colorado and the country could take the same action as Douglas County has.
We can only hope.
[Update: Event is from Noon to 2pm; Featured Speaker Jason Rink, Director of “Nullification, The Rightful Remedy”.] The Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers Annual Picnic is this Saturday from Noon to 2pm. You can still buy tickets on line, or pay a little extra at the door. The featured speaker Will Be Jason Rink of … Read more
OK, Steve beat me to it here, but I had my own thoughts of the accident in Pelham that I started on last night but as you will read, similar.
There will be those out there that will react in horror to what I am about to write ( “BUT CHILDREN GOT HURT – BADLY!”). The news is coming out from Pelham that 11 people were hurt when a years long homeowner’s fireworks tradition went awry. The latest from both NECN (New Englan Cable News) and WMUR says that two children were severely burnt and medflighted to Boston. Of COURSE this is a tragedy, but I grimaced when I heard the Fire Chief’s pronouncement:
I’m not a fan of fireworks. This is a perfect example [of] what can go wrong. Well meaning people trying to have fun and an accident happened and caused a great deal of injuries to children and adults.”
The NECN newscaster said what I expected about Chief Midgley of the Pelham Fire Department:
He wants to work with lawmakers to make sure this never happens again.
Of course he does. Again, this has been a long standing tradition of this homeowner, and thus far, no news accounts have brought up any earlier accidents. No one else in Pelham had any reported serious injuries anywhere else in town (not that I’ve looked, but on the idea of “IF 1, then the news will report it as “AND! over here”). But here it seems, the Chief has decided that it is his business to force all others to comply with his viewpoint and morality, and no longer let people decide for themselves. Is that the role of an Government employee (no matter how good he is in performing that role)? Is the purpose of an appointed employee to lobby the Legislature against what many voters want to be able to do? And do it on TAXPAYER funding (isn’t there a law against that)?
Freedom. Versus the Safety & Security (the first Commandment of the Nanny-Progressive State)
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?
The 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.
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…
“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
Listen to our national anthem by Madison Rising:
We at the ‘Grok are thankful for the blessings that God have given us – indeed, without our Creator who has watched over this nation ’til now, we’d just be yet another country. But He inspired, I believe, our Founders who laid the foundations of this great nation – and they freely acknowledged that Gift from Him: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Inalienable Rights. The radical idea that we were individuals, sovereign citizens, and not subjects.
We also thank those that have served our country in uniform, willing to put their lives on the line for hard work, no fame and little money. As a non-veteran (but double Blue Star Dad) I appreciate our veterans here at the ‘Grok more and more for not only their uniformed service:
But also for their continued allegiance to their oaths and their continued fight for the sake of Individual Liberty and Freedom. See a Vet? Give them a heartful “Thank You” – they have earned it.
We also remember on this Day in those that believed in that Founders Vision and in the principles on which it was grounded enough to give up their all on order to give us this day.
A rock version of the music video after the jump
(H/T: The Blaze)
Do you advocate for individual liberty, publicly or privately? Do you revere the U.S. Constitution as a barricade against a federal government metastacized into an enemy of freedom instead of its protector? Do you store food for emergencies? Do you own a gun? Are you a military veteran returned from a war zone assignment? Do you drive a van? Do you pay cash for some purchases? Are you “suspicious of federal government authority”?
According to a new study paid for by the federal Dept. of Homeland Security (“DHS”)…
It is a well reported truism that Independence day, the 4th of July, the day selected as the one on which we told our oppressors we’d take no more, that Republican’s and Conservatives, Libertarians as well, reap more significant social and political benefits than our Liberal and Democrat/Progressive opponents. The people who support the left are just not as in to it. Telling.
So this is not much different than the way many Democrats who run for elected office pander to their still-majority religious nation of ‘God-fearing’ peasants. The patriotism is an act. They pretend to admire the documents and ideas that, at their core, stand between them and the kind of government they prefer. They rearrange the words, and change the meanings to justify acts that reduce us to little more than slaves; either to finance their ambitions or as the impoverished recipients of them. Reduced to subsistence defined by a distant tyrant whose swarms of Officers harass our people, and eat out their substance.
What the left espouses as patriotism would more accurately be defined as Nationalism. The state and the party before all else. Not much different than having a king, something we said we didn’t want 236 years ago.
Which reminds us. It is one thing to declare Independence. It is another thing entirely to have it.
We live in a Republic. Your states are sovereign. Unshackle yourself from the distant tyrant. Just say No to Obama. And if we say no together, there is not much he or any progressive tyrant can do about it. Without us, they are nothing.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.
I am awaiting some important phone calls so today, no parades for me (and I do like parades!). However, Grokster Mike sends this one in from Amhearst:
I know the person that built this – Bill Tobin of Sanborton. A good man, proud of his country and proud of his state – representing the Great Seal of New Hampshire! (And, by the way, an Ovide supporter- that frame on the truck bed is about to sport a pair of Ovide signs) Oh, and Mike found the center of the Obama – Biden contingent: