From a post I did back in 2010:

“How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.”

– Suzanna Gratia-Hupp (survivor of the Luby’s cafeteria massacre)

More on Dr. Gratia-Hupp later.  Moms Demand Action, the astroturf group funded by former NYC Mayor Michael “I will tell you how to live better by MY rules” Bloomberg’s billions are all crowing about that Panera Bread has now been bullied by their Progressive actions.  Not content to let law abiding folks live their own lives peacefully, and knowing that getting the disarmament of civilians legislation will not happen, MAD (and they certainly seem to be just that), they are bullying private companies using Alinsky’s Rule #1 “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”  They can’t even PAY to have reasonable turnouts to their events but have touted “success” as they “persuaded” Target, Chili’s, and Starbucks to ask their patrons to leave their guns at home.  Low bar success – they have only asked politely and not outright bans (“don’t come in”) with only Jack in the Box actually prohibiting firearms (and then had the predictable results of the now “gun free zone”).

Now Panera Bread has done the same – their CEO announced on MSNBC that he was asking his customers to

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September 10th should henceforth be known as Obama’s Groundhog day.  A year ago he thought he saw his polling shadow and decided to give a speech on the immediate need to use military force against President Assad and Syria.  A year later, on September 10th, another polling shadow, and another speech, this time about how we (basically) need to use military force to attack the people Assad was attacking.

Jeanne Shaheen, always turning quickly to face the winds of progressive change, fired up a press release on both occasions, the most recent of which begs scrutiny.

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Over at Big Journalism was this headline:

WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN PRAISES ABC’S ANN COMPTON: ‘SHE IS EAGER TO SEE THE WHITE HOUSE SUCCEED’

Josh Earnest, President Obama’s Press Secretary said this upon the retirement of Ann Compton as part of the White House Press corps:

“What’s distinguishing about her is this inner spirit in which she is eager to see the White House succeed, and she does not view that as being at odds with her commitment to holding the administration accountable and insisting on transparency and access and telling the story about what is happening to the American people…She is able to better the way that she sort of wishes for and aspires to the success of this institution that is the White House, and that is a really classy thing. That’s the kind of thing you don’t learn by working every two or years, that’s the kind of thing you cultivate after years and years of experience,”

“Let’s be clear” (heh!) – when Earnest says “White House”, he’s talking about either The State or President Obama (or both).  Yet, the purpose of the Press was to act as a brake on The State, flashing the Big Flashlights into its deep dark corners – an adversarial relationship at its best and an objective relationship at its worst.  Neither of those encompass an attitude of “success eagerness” for that shows a predisposition of success of Government over that of those any journalist IS supposed to represent – the People. 

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

            – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09

With the Ebola epidemic in Africa (and only a couple of jet flights away from the US) and the respiratory illness now sweeping Midwest teens, is the Government (be it Federal or State) ready? Remember, the Progressive mantra (of which, President Obama is the pinnacle of that belief) is in the absolute power and goodness of Government (never mind the IRS scandals, the DOJ scandals, the ATF scandals, the DEA scandals, the Secret Service scandals, and the EPA scandals – that enough fer ya?).  So, with severe diseases that could burst out, how ready is the Government that Progressives keep harping “just trust us – we’ll make it all good”?  Er, not so much according to the Inspector General:(reformatted, emphasis mine)

The audit, conducted by the DHS Office of Inspector General, uncovered concerns about expiration of goods and lack of controls on inventory.

For example, of the 4,982 bottles of DHS-stockpiled hand sanitizer auditors examined, 4,184—or 84 percent—were expired (some by 4 years). The audit further found that 81 percent of antiviral medical countermeasures owned by DHS’s Office of Health Affairs are set to expire by the end of next year.

Well, that’s rather inspiring that “Government is working”, isn’t it?? 

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What is sadder is that Jim Foley, AFTER admitting to lie after lie after lie, disbarred, committed fraud about his Marine “career”, stole, and bullied people, won Derry and 27% of the vote in his race.  And unless he had been “outed”, he never would have ‘fessed up either.  Do Principles even matter anymore when folks reward people like that?  Sure, he “lost” his race but look at all the votes he “won”.  How can we have a functional Republic when the same mentality that permeates Louisiana and Illinois (and most of the MA Speakers of the House lately) now infects the public at large?  When malfeasance is rewarded like that, is there any wonder why government is one of the least trusted institutions nowadays?

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“Winning is only a precursor; it is what you do AFTERWARD that is important“

Steve had a good post on what drives us here at GraniteGrok – Principles.  It seems that popular culture, and the political culture, has lost sight that it was solid philosophical principles that guided our country to greatness – and great people are driven by rock-solid principles as well.  Yet, that whole notion and all that it encompasses, is seemingly of lower and lower repute.  Instead, we are drifting from Principle to mere celebrity hood and the notion that Famous for being Famous, that success is earned in an instant instead of perserverance, and that politics in nothing more than a Win…and nothing but NOTHING matters but the Win.  Only the Win.  What comes after – there never seems to be an answer.  So, a new commenter by the name of Chris Amino decided to try trotting out the same tired old song and dance that has “settle for anything that gives Republicans a win”:

If you spent half as much time fighting Democrats as you did fighting Republicans, not only would we win elections but we would be a center-right state again. Instead of taking aim at the Left, you turn the power of this media outlet against the Republican Party and then you wonder why the ship is sinking. It would be better if you stopped

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I want to thank everyone who put their heart and soul into our campaign for State Senate District 16. We had quite the battle. We fought not only my opponent’s huge money war chest, we also fought our own party who sought to involve themselves in the outcome of this race. Many entities were told to “sit out” supporting our candidacy. The fact that so many people in District 16 now understand Sen. Boutin’s past voting record gives hope that Sen. Boutin will endeavor to cast more appropriate REPUBLICAN votes should he win in the General election. Time will tell.

For me, if there is a message in this District 16 state senate race, it is NEVER give up! NEVER go along to get along, especially when you know your cause is just. President Reagan was right when he said we need BOLD colors rather than pale pastels. As we approach the general election in Nov., I hope we use this message going forth to talk about the importance of small government here in NH. We cannot expect to make effective change by ALWAYS reaching across the aisle. Sometimes, you just need to stand. And stand we did. We may not have won, but I like to think we have changed the trajectory of the debate. Now is not the time to sit down and give up!

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George Will…on the ‘Real’ extremists in American Politics, like NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen

The First Amendment as the First Congress passed it, and the states ratified it 223 years ago, says: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.”

The 48 senators understand that this is incompatible — by its plain text, and in light of numerous Supreme Court rulings — with their desire to empower Congress and state legislatures to determine the permissible quantity, content and timing of political speech. Including, of course, speech by and about members of Congress and their challengers — as well as persons seeking the presidency or state offices.

…

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Jeanne Shaheen the Voter Fraud Queen is going to run as negative a campaign as she can against the Independent she is going to face in November. Her little army of out of state supporters will kick into gear here in NH then slip away after the election, just like they always do.

Case in point: Double voter and Jeanne Shaheen campaign worker and proven vote thief, Caitlin Ann Legacki.

Here is Caitlin Ann Legacki’s background and how she and Jeanne Shaheen used the corrupt NH election process to steal a vote from real NH residents.

Caitlin Ann Legacki came to NH in 2008 to work for Jeanne Shaheen – much like Shaheen’s daughter left her California apartment to campaign and vote in NH for mom, but that is another story.

Caitlin Ann Legacki registered in NH in 2008, while temporarily campaigning here, and voted Democrat from voter fraud nest at 1200 Elm St. in Manchester .

Caitlin Ann Legacki then moved on after that election to North Carolina in 2010 where she registered to vote while working for US Senator Kay Hagen.

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From WMUR

Governor    249 of 301 Precincts Reporting    WMUR just called the race for Havenstein
Havenstein   56%
Hemingway     37%

US Senate Race   249 of 301 Precincts Reporting   WMUR has just called the race for Brown
Brown      50%
Rubens       23%
Smith         22%

NH CD-1   91 of 113 Precincts Reporting UR has just called the race for Guinta
Guinta    49%
Innis         41%
Kelly           8%

NH CD-2   156 of 188 Precincts Reporting WMUR has just called the race for Garcia
Garcia        50%
Lambert       26%
Lawrence     19%

Executive Council – District 4 (26/30)
Adams 41%
Burns  59%

Executive Council – District 5 (35/41)  Hattamer concedes to Wheeler
Hattamer 32%
Wheeler  68%

State Senate District 8 (22/24) WMUR has called the race for Little
Little 70%
Marzullo 30%

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