Democrat Rep: Handgun Ban is Next

After the assault weapons ban, handguns are next.  That’s not just coming from some zany, paranoid, right wing kook like me. No, that’s coming from a Democrat crypto-fascist representative from Illinois. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

Jason Mattera: “The assault weapons ban is only just the beginning?”

Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL): ”Oh absolutely, I’m against handguns…”

And they go on.

Jason Mattera: “We’ll never get a handgun ban with the Second Amendment as stated.”

Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL): “I don’t know, I don’t know that we can’t… I don’t think it’s precluded”

(h/t BlackQuillAndInk, Jason Mattera)

Exactly what Constitution did Rep. Jan Schakowsky swear an oath to protect?

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GrokTV: NHListens / Granite State Future – Intro

Well, after running into Tim Carter at the Meredith (NH) Senior Center for the latest NHListens versioning of what our “collective future” is supposed to be with respect to the Granite State Future collectivist Utopia (after all, once taxes are used to socially engineer our behavior in our living conditions, our living standards, the modes of transportation that are allowed, we are no longer free but live solely at the mercy of others planning our lives – like that has worked out so well in other countries?).  Well, after I got done interviewing Tim, I went on inside.

Anyways, back to describing how this “listening” session would work:

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Support ‘Stand Your Ground’ In New Hampshire [Updated]

[Updated] For those who are not interested in using the original petition site reported below (SignOn.org), I have created a separate petition on a different site.  I used the exact same language as the original. 

 

New Hampshire Democrats have been doing their best to roll back, repeal, or undo anything and everything the last (Republican) legislature did.  The most recent effort is to repeal stand your ground (HB 135).  Stand your ground gives law abiding citizens the right to defend themselves, their friends, family, even total strangers, from a violent assault anywhere they have a right to be.

Democrats would rather you retreat “if you can,” presuming you have that option, are not responsible for the safety of your husband, wife, kids, friends, or a group of children, not all of whom may be able to retreat with you.

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Guest post by NH State Rep. Jane Cormier: Bad Bill of the Month (HB 617)

HB 617 – Gas Tax Bill “…The Gift That Keeps On Giving…”

Last Wednesday, the NH House approved the largest tax hike in state history by increasing New Hampshire’s Gas Tax by a BILLION dollars over the next four years. Basically, it means paying about $3.00 more at the pump EACH time you fill up! The bill’s primary sponsor, Democrat David Campbell, from Nashua, sounded the CRISIS alarm that our bridges are about ready to drop! FEAR – FEAR – FEAR – a great way to hike taxes and raise fees. Now, I am not saying we do not have work to do on our roads and bridges, but to cause such alarm and use it to raise gas taxes by a whopping 83% is beyond the pale.

In trying to answer the “concern” for our roads and bridges, Former Speaker of the House, Rep. William O’Brien offered an amendment to the bill which would “fix the leaky bucket” that is our Highway Fund. (This fund is historically raided to serve other budgetary priorities.) This amendment would have dedicated 100% of the highway funds directly to the New Hampshire roads and bridges infrastructure. O’Brien offered, “If we stop the leaks, we’ll have twice as much in this budget than if you pass the tax increase.” Of course, this amendment was voted down by the Democratic majority and the original bill was debated (over 2 hours – UGH) then finally passed. Commonsense did not prevail, sad to say. And unfortunately, 15 Republicans voted FOR this immense tax increase.

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Belknap County Republican Committee (3/13/13) – NH GOP Chair, Jennifer Horn

The featured speaker of last Wednesday night’s Belknap County Republican meeting was the new NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn.  She talked about some of the issues that confront the State Party and some of the ways she is going to try to mitigate them.

Please note that there is a section of her speech that I have deliberately not show dealing with fundraising.

Questions 1 & 2 after the jump

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GrokTV: NHListens / Granite State Future – Circle “BBBB” Parts 1, 2, & 3

After talking with Tim Carter of the Lakes Region TEA Party and listening to the Intro remarks by John Krebs and Molly Donovan, it was time to start observing “how” the “what” was going to happen.  As I said in the Intro post, I was not there to participate but to merely observe.  To recap some of what I had observed thus far:

  • A strictly controlled meeting agenda of questions and issues
  • A division of the prospective audience / attendees into “circles” consisting of about 10 people (remember that number)
  • Paid “Facilitators” and “Scribes that are to guide the “conversations” and to “take notes” – in this case, paper easels

The meeting lasted just about two hours so there is a lot of video.  Again, I apologize for the relatively low sound quality (even though I was using a shotgun mic that is supposed to mitigate that – sometimes room acoustics trump technology.  I’ll have a few more observations from observing NOT just the circle that I chose to record (circle “BBBB”), but another one as well (to be explained later).  Now to be sure, NONE of the segment / clips are NOT what I would call riveting and jaw dropping excitement video – in fact, they are rather boring if you are expecting “gotcha” moments.  However, I did see some rather interesting dynamics being played out – not only in how each small group was run (and make no mistake – by the end of the evening, it became VERY clear that these were not just simple listening session) but the dynamics between the two poles of the culture / political worlds too.  First Segment here with two more after the jump – and yes, there will be more posts with more later as well as a single post on the other circle I “observed after the fact”.  Each of these 3 three videos runs about 9 to 10 minutes; here is Part 1:

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GrokTV: NHListens / Granite State Future – Circle “BBBB” Parts 4 and 5

Continuing on from Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the NHListens “visioning” meeting at the Meredith Plymouth Senior Center (NH).  Thus far, the important takeaways that I have observed thus far:

  • A strictly controlled meeting agenda of questions and issues
  • A division of the prospective audience / attendees into “circles” consisting of about 10 people (remember that number)
  • Paid “Facilitators” and “Scribes that are to guide the “conversations” and to “take notes” – in this case, paper easels
  • The “Enforcer” – tasked with being the person who would argue with anyone that was challenging the narrative.

and a new one to add:

  • The Enabler(s) – those folks that dribble in “talking points” during the discussion usually at the most opportune times to be “slick and smooth”

This seemed to emerge in Part 3 (2 minute mark) when Susan started in on talking about Smart Growth principles, caught herself, and started to label them as if they were traditional New Hamspshire ones (instead of being cooked up by “Planners” that know better then we how and where we should live – certainly NOT a Live Free or Die Sentiment, or a Liberty & Freedom one either).  So, let’s return to my phrase: “and remember that number 10!“.  Next up is Part 4 which starts to show another dynamic right off the bat – those that are perfectly fine with a forced collectivism concerning land use, community priorities, taxes, and services, and those that believe that the voters have things right:

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Calvin Coolidge Comes to Grafton, Part I

The Town Seal of Grafton, NH
To spend more, or not to spend more? That was the question in the town of Grafton

Calvin Coolidge, President from 1923 through 1928, was a famous skinflint from Vermont. He didn’t believe in today’s political-class sport of incessant taxing and spending to win elections (Grokster Steve MacDonald has recently highlighted this excellent president HERE). Coolidge was so adept at refusing the pigs at the political trough in his time that he insisted that “government employees were issued one pencil at a time, and the government purchased lighter, less expensive paper. The Weather Bureau stopped sending out postcard forecasts, since citizens now turned to their newspapers for that information; the post office made bags with new, cheaper material, and government-wide red tape was replaced with simple white string.” (This and much more is in a book review online at the City Journal about Amity Shlaes’ new biography entitled, simply, Coolidge.)

What does all this have to do with political piggery and push-back from small-government activists in the small town of Grafton, New Hampshire? I’ll tell you….

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Bobby Jindal at CPAC

Quite different from the average CPAC speech, but he makes some very important points about where our focus is and where it should be.

At least I use my real name….

All of us who blog at GraniteGrok expect comments on the things we write, hoping to engage folks in thinking, in discussion, in exchanging ideas.  There is only one rule at GG and that is whatever we write – and whatever commenters post – must be family friendly.  That means, if your children – or your mother, for that matter – came across GG, they should be able to read anything posted and not be offended.  Perhaps they might not agree with what each of us writes, but they should never be offended by bad language or offensive images.

So, as I’ve begun blogging with a bit more frequency, I seem to have caught the fancy of one of GG’s long-time commenters who goes by the handle  ‘IWKAGGP’, or as ‘he’ has come to be revealed, ‘Hunter Dan’ who purports to be a school teacher.  I’m taking him at his word that he is male but for whatever reason, he seems to have a real problem with me, and not just with what I write.  From “IWKAGGP –

“You can’t burp a zygote. You can’t put diapers on a zygote. You can’t breastfeed a zygote. You can’t potty train a zygote. Your comparison is “apples and oranges.”” To “IWKAGGP –  Her hair looks different in every picture”.

Thank the good Lord he didn’t pick up on my last year’s little Prada shoes!

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