The NHRVC Merges with the RLCNH

Last Friday I announced that some changes were coming with the New Hampshire Republican Volunteer Coalition, the NHRVC.  Well, they are upon us.  Effective today, we have joined forces with the RLCNH, in an effort to create one of the largest Grass roots groups in the state dedicated to supporting and electing  principled conservative and pro-liberty Republicans to office in New Hampshire.

Every member of the NHRVC is welcome to participate in any capacity that suits them, just as it always was with the NHRVC.  And while I will be contacting everyone personally, I have provided links here to help you along.

For those interested in the joining the Facebook Group you can request to do that here.

Join the RLCNH Yahoo! Group here. (Much like the NHRVC Yahoo! Group but quite a bit more active.)

Please feel free to follow the RLCNH Twitter Feed here.

You can subscribe to the RLCNH Report and email updates here.  The sign up box is on the right.

You can provide contact info and sign up as a volunteer here, to do the kind of on the ground, hands on work the NHRVC was created for.

You can even become a full Dues paying member by signing up here.

You decide your level of involvement, from Facebook lurker, to comment junkie, to full membership or anything in between, just like before.  But whatever your speed is, I encourage you all to come an join us so that we may continue to find, support, and elect principled Republicans to office in New Hampshire.

[Updated – I added the RLCNH Yahoo! Email group]

The formal press release is on the jump.

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Dog Bite Politics

“Like a hand grenade, (Pit Bulls) are inert until you pull the pin. Once the pin is pulled, there is nothing you can do to stop the explosion.” —Gary Wilkes

3 year-old Natylee Murphy following the attack of her Aunt's Pit Bull in New Caney, Texas on September 11, 2009.

Last Wednesday, the front page of the Union leader featured Janis Milne who, while out walking her 8 year-old lab named Sue, Monday afternoon, was viciously attacked by what the article describes as a, “Pit Bull.” Milne’s Black lab named Sue suffered serious injuries , as did Milne.  This brought to the forefront for me some years ago being attacked by full-sized Collie, chewing me up pretty good. Minding my own business riding along the public street on my bicycle, I was knocked off my bike, and now being mauled by “Lassie.” Anybody who has suffered such an event will tell you it leaves you wincing.

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This is a defense of the NH GOP Party Platform? Oy vay!

Yes, the vote on HB 437 (the repeal of gay marriage) did not go the way that I would have hoped.  Yes, I agree that the primary concern of the NH GOP majority in the House and the Senate should be fiscal issues, fiscal issues, and more fiscal issues.  However, there is always a fiscal cost to social issues as well – every. single. one. of. them.  Sure, lots of  Rockefeller Repubs hate to see their hands get “dirty” in social issues, but they are always present.  Perhaps the fiscal issue may not be immediately observable on what seems to be a social primary issue, but when one rises up to the 10,000 foot level, the $ signs can be seen bobbing around the landscape.  And social issues are inescapable, as the Progressive movement has pushed politics and Government into almost all aspects of our lives.

I keep going back to when this WAS a big deal and a lot of outside money flowed into Democrat pockets to get it passed – certainly, the Dems thought this was a big social issue deal that had to be addressed. And now, they wanted it off the table (“hey, this isn’t a fiscal issue” – a use of “Use their own rule book against them”.).  Forget, for a moment, that this social issue was about gay marriage; should the NH GOP just let the Dems do any social issue they want?

And the NH GOP Party Platform has social issues in it that are major pillars: 

VIII. THE FAMILY

Preserving Marriage and Family

We realize that the family’s most important function is to raise the next generation of Americans. We place our highest priority on promoting and preserving the family as the most important institution of human development by:

  • Recognizing marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman

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The NH-D.E.S. Break Schedule, and Other Mysteries of The Known Universe

We have it on good authority that Richard de Seve, State employee over at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, only reads and comments on the articles at the Concord Monitor-online, during his breaks.  He did, after all, admit this too me, so what better authority can there be?  And who am I to doubt the “word “of a long time Public employee, part time UNH professor, and high ranking member of the SEIU/NH-SEA?

That question answers itself, yes?

So I did a little test.  I took another look at his last four years worth of comments at the Concord Monitor, and checked the posting times.

My conclusion?  That DES either offers its employes a very liberal rotating break schedule that occurs with greater frequency than J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbits stop to eat or Dick de Seve is simply giving himself a “break” to read and or respond to content at the Concord Monitor, on any given work day, whenever the mood strikes him, in any one of these potential time periods.

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GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker-Candidate RNC Committeewoman Candidate. Q5: What part of the NH GOP Platform is in danger and why should people rally around it?

More questions, and more answers.  I picked up on something that Pam had said earlier and bluntly asked – what needs to be protected in the NH GOP platform?  And here was her response: Note: Also, we have been getting some observations and questions in the previous posts’ comments, mostly from Commenter “C. dog e. … Read more

Candidate Gary Krupp for Merrimack Town School Board

Gary Krupp is a candidate for the School Board in the town of Merrimack, New Hampshire.  As a Major in the US Air Force, Gary has had extensive experience with contracts, budgets, and negotiations with contractors and unions.  He has also served on the Merrimack School board Budget Committee. I sat down with Gary to … Read more

WORTH READING: A rumination on government and the sociopathic personality.

This from Doug Casey at Casey Research: “The Ascendance of Sociopaths in U.S. Governance,” wherein Mr. Casey makes a number of trenchant observations. You need not agree with all of them to gain insight into a different way of thinking about the problems facing America. Here are some quotes from the article…food for thought:

  •  All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.
  •  Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to – not repelled by – a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.

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BE BREITBART: Update 2: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

Mr. Murphy,

As we discussed yesterday, I have mailed the Department of Environmental Services’ initial response to your request for records.  A courtesy copy is attached hereto as a PDF file.  Also attached is a PDF copy of DES’ Electronic Communications Policy.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you

(Emphasis mine, above)  I mentioned in my last post that instead of the IT policy that the Department of Information Technology follows, the Department of Environmental Services has a different one (and that was sent to me by DES’s “RTK dude and Legal Eagle”, after being informed that DES follows a different tune than what the IT folks do):

NH DES IT / ElectronicCommunicationsPolicy - HeaderThe full JPG that I created from the sent PDF is after the jump.  However, if you want to see the PDF, click here.  And of COURSE, I had questions; those are after the jump as well.  I will say that this policy is much weaker (from my techie eyes) than that of the actual IT’s policy.  It would probably be a good thing if each departmental policy (under the “if 1, then many” logic, if DES has one, am betting all of the other departments have their separate (and weaker) policies.  The IT dept certainly will know better the IT technical “problem areas” that span across the entire network far better than most other departments (although there are always “ringers” that do know more than some IT folks – motivation and curiosity can go way far) while being familiar for most of the biz scenarios that should / should not be allowable.

And I wonder how many of the departments don’t define their terms sufficiently well so that there is a lot of “grey area” in between the letters of the law (while ignoring the Spirit of the policy – and that of just doing a good honest day’s work for a honest day’s pay).  Maybe another ‘Grok project – or maybe the IT Dept should be doing that all on their own…

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BE BREITBART: Update 1: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

To recap, we caught wind that a NH Dept. Of Environmental Services employee, Richard de Seve (former lawyer, chapter VP in the NH SEIU), was politically blogging on the taxpayer dime and time.  So, we decided to find out what the State had to say about it and found this IT policy concerning the use of State paid computer / network resources.  Once that was posted, Mr. de Seve decided to write an email to Steve (posted here) in which he said he “sorry, won’t do it again) but also demanded that Steve apologize to his SEIU “brothers & sisters” (which Steve did in his usual great “Steve” fashion).

Well, that led to our next post in which we launched a Right To Know request (details here).  And we did get a response (after the jump).

RTK DES Receipt Of Request-Header

Along with it we received a different IT policy that is specific to the Departmental of Environmental Services – Apparently (as NH Rep. Seth Cohn informed me a while ago), when it comes to IT policies, there is a Balkanization that has happened: every man for himself!  Who knows, maybe this will lead to some other actions that were unintended from our original thoughts.

The problem, though, is that IT policy is the ONLY thing we have received at this point – not what we expected.  Well, we did copy some Legislators on our original request – and we heard back from several of them.  While I have had some pleasant conversations with the DES “RTK dude” Pete Demas concerning the request, we’ve not received ANY of the requested data as of yet.

We can be a patient lot here at GraniteGrok – but I’m figuring that perhaps it is time to talk to some of those Legislators again.

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Be Brietbart – taking it to Obama and Obamacare – cute Conservative tweets owning #ILikeObamacare

Heh!  Obama’s campaign, in addition to being “Captain Obama America” (need I say more: really, a comic book character??), has decided that “Obamacare” is no longer racist, no longer hate speech, and no longer to simply be uttered by birthers, fanatics, TEA Partiers, and extremists.  Now, the Obama campaign has decided to pull a page out of the SlutWalker movement (Really, you really are copying the SlutWalker movement? As in “Let’s take back SLUTS”)?  Really?  Rich…well, must be as Sandra Fluke is supporting Obama!  Anyways, “Obamacare” is to be embraced!

Well, in the tradition of AttackWatch, Conservatives sallied forth, joining with Progressives and Obamessiah accolytes, in preaching the worth of #ILikeObamacare:

10.) @jimmiebjr: #ILikeObamacare because I trust the same people who wrote the tax code to keep things simple, understandable, and transparent for me.

9.) @EWErickson: #ILikeObamacare because I think responsibility is giving free condoms to our kids while we bankrupt their future.

8.) @brostap: #ilikeobamacare because…oh wait it’s terrible…

7.) @joshgreenman: #ILikeObamacare because “love” is too strong a word.

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GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker-Candidate RNC Committeewoman Candidate. Q4 – Why should NH Committee members choose you over your opponent?

Ah yes, the second point – the pitch.  The first point is that every politician has to know why they are running.  The latter can be simple (“somebody asked me to, and I said ‘why not?’”)  involved (i.e., a whole series of either interlocked or random issues that finally, in toto, reached a tipping point), … Read more

The NHRVC Is On The Move

The New Hampshire Republican Volunteer Coalition (NHRVC) was founded in the wake of the November 2008 elections to recruit, train, and support GOP activists and campaign volunteers in New Hampshire.   Our mission was to build  a grassroots coalition of highly motivated activists working to elect principled Republicans who stand for low taxes, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise, individual liberty, and most importantly, the U.S. and NH Constitutions.

We grew from just a handful of people trading emails on a Yahoo group to over 4000 members of our Facebook Group, an accomplishment for which I take no credit myself.  But as we have grown, and each of our lives has changed, other factors have made it imperative that we find new and efficient ways to coordinate and consolidate these efforts.  It has also become apparent that we are duplicating work being done by other grassroots groups in New Hampshire.  So while the mission is still as relevant as ever, to continue that mission effectively the NHRVC must adapt.

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Yes, this image BY OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN shows his serious side – Seriously?

Seriously, Obama
Seriously, Obama

Seriously – the Obama Campaign put this up.  Really?  Captain America?  Doesn’t that helmet clash with the Mom Jeans?  The URL says how desperate they are to reproduce 2008:  http://barackobama.tumblr.com/post/19697699954/today-in-cool-the-obama-poster-project

Today in cool?  Really?  They REALLY think he looks cool in this “poster”?  Worse yet, does HE think he’s cool looking?

Yeah.  I remember another person who had a helmet on, too:

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GrokTV Special Interview: Pam Tucker – NH House Deputy Speaker, Candidate NH GOP RNC Committeewoman – Question 2

Continuing on with GraniteGrok’s interview with Pam Tucker (currently the Deputy Speaker of the NH House of Representatives) who is running to be the next RNC (Republican National Committee) Committeewoman from NH.  We have a series of questions that we asked; here is Question 2: Why should the ordinary Republican care who their RNC Committeewoman … Read more

New Hampshire Democrats Hate Poor People

Democrats are, as a party, against requiring an ID to vote.  Everyone knows that.  They argue that the poor, or minorities will be intimidated, or unable to engage in the electoral process if we expect them to have a photo ID. Not only do you need a picture ID to apply for Food Stamps in … Read more

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