OHHHHH yeah!

Remember the incessant attacks on President Geo. W. Bush: "Bush lied, people died!" Yeah, yeah, yeah…but that charge was obiously a typical political-class lie in its own right. But now…WELL…this is actually TRUE: "Obama lied, the economy died!"

NH Democrats Still Want To Limit Free Speech

What price for speech?In the waning days of New Hampshire’s leftist experiment of 2007-2010, in the months leading up to the crackling heat of the 2010 election, the Democrat-lead state legislature attempted to pass the Sullivan/Hassan speech intimidation amendment attached to NH HB1459 .

This kitchen-table Frankenstein was strung together by Democrat party Committee creature Kathy “Lawsuit” Sullivan and then Democrat state Senator Maggie “The Red” Hassan, from dead bits of left wing jack-booted policy dreams.  The goal was to quickly replace the gag that the Supreme Courts Citizens United v. FEC ruling had removed.  They would require businesses to get permission to engage in political speech if they intended to spend over a certain sum.

Assigning government regulated speech limitations based on some arbitrary, government defined value was hardly the worst of it. The democrats also wanted to empower third parties to intimidate political speech for them as well.  Anyone with the money and time could file a lawsuit against any business that it thought could have violated the law.  This would give every out of state funded left wing non-profit the ability to pay its left wing, democrat supporting lawyers, to cast a chilling anti-speech pall across the New Hampshire Landscape.   Fear of litigation would instantaneously exclude thousands of voices from the political debate simply because they could not risk the time and expense of being sued, even erroneously, should they fail to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s.

From square one this was a partisan, prejudicial and intentionally unconstitutional act.

Government can do nothing without first denying someone of their legally earned income, so this bill established that it was acceptable for 51% of those doing the taxing to define what constituted free speech.  When that happens free speech is no longer a protected right, it is a legislated privilege regulated by a democratic mobocracy.  It no longer mattered that every business pays some kind of tax, in most cases dozens of them, to finance government. It did not matter that the right to free association can take the form of a business or group that might have an interest in it’s relationship to how government exercises power in their name.  All that mattered to New Hampshire Democrats was that free speech continues to be a barrier to their political success, and if they could silence any class of persons they could find a way to silence any dissenter they chose.

Ask yourself, which party is forever trying to limit free speech and the answer is Democrats?  The war on business, the fairness doctrine, the war on new media and Fox news.  The insults and slurs hurled at the TEA party.  These are all efforts to intimidate or limit speech to which the left objects.  They have no interest in fairness or equality of message.  They seek to control the message.

The New Hampshire Democrat effort to complicate, regulate, and even intimidate anyone out of having free reign to speak about how or how often they are taxed, about how those taxes are used, and to actually sanction random intimidation by entities outside the government, should have immediately disqualified them from every holding another elected office.  We came just a few votes shy of passing a bill that Governor Lynch said he was prepared to sign.

This is not something we can forget.  It defines the character of everyone who voted for it, sanctioned it, or supported it.  This thinking permeates everything about their grasp of your relationship to government.  They still think this way, and they will continue to argue in support of it, even though their actual justifications for it, are fatally flawed.

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SB88 Opposition: Same Crowd, Same Tired Untruths

“Self-defense is the clearest of all laws, and for this reason: lawyers didn’t make it” ~Douglas William Jerrold Is the average citizen really not all that smart? Is the average citizen not capable of making competent decisions about self-defense? That is what seems to be conveyed in this latest political campaign of untruths from unelected … Read more

RGG-Die!

I’ve had a thing or two to say about RGGI.  Just drop my name and ‘RGGI’ into a search engine and start counting.  If you start reading you will notice a trend.  RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, is a broad based tax or fee on all energy and all persons who use it.  This tax could increase without anyone every holding a vote, or having a hearing. It was passed by the Democrat majority legislature with that in mind, during New Hampshire’s political experimentation years (democrats were left in charge of everything), and signed by then-and-God-only-knows-why-he-is-still-Governor John Lynch.

(I never call RGGI Reggie, by the way.  This makes me think of Reggie Mantle from The Archie’s, which makes me think of Veronica Lodge, who was kind of hot in a post-pre-pubescent animated sort of a way, which might explain my fondness for dark haired women, but probably not.   Maybe Isis from the Shazam Isis power hour, or how about Wonder Woman?  Did I mention that I don’t call it Reggie?)Reggies revenge

RGGI’s proponents claimed it would be good for the environment, which was only true if the "environment" was one littered with taxpayer financed slush funds whose purposes were as ephemeral as the lefts idea of rights or  justice.  And Carbon trading to reduce emissions was already a well known lie that ten years of cap and trade in Europe had already proved demonstrably false.  If we just assume the folks who claim to be the smartest people in every room had to know this–being so damn smart–then this was obviously meant to be yet another large slush fund to be raided by current and future Democrat majorities, all but for two fortuitous events that got in the way of pay day.

First, the left’s nationwide social engineering experiment with housing rights collapsed the economy before the program got up to steam, making the RGGI carbon credits worth progressively less until they are now almost completely worthless.  Second, we voted the left-wingers out of office for a ruinous spending agenda and their chronic inability to balance the books despite scores of new taxes and fees, and laying siege to every pile of money within view, public or private.

We wont even get into the left wing law firms that lined up to manage the grants and the distribution of funds for approved projects, or the list of Democrat friendly recipients.

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A Typical Day In Mr. Buckley’s Neighborhood

These folks have all insisted, in one way or another, that things like unemployment, food stamps, even destruction of public and private property, are good for the economy. So using their metrics, these are things Democrats should not complain about unless they are actually bad for the economy.

GrokTV Event: NH GOP Chair Jack Kimball resignation video

…and gets a round of applause (of relief?) from the Exec. Comm. members who were only seconds away from having to vote in front of the 100 or so Jack supporters that showed up before the meeting and filled the conference room: Tonite, it was expected that the NH GOP Executive Committee would vote to … Read more

Ray Buckley and his faux Mea Culpa

“Hypocrisy is great fodder for comedy.” ~Mo Rocca  The New Hampshire Democratic Party agreed to pony up  a $5,000 fine upon a finding of the Attorney General that the Democrats violated state law regarding its delivery of pre-recorded political message to 394 homes, presumably Republican, in House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s district on the eve of … Read more

Go Ahead Punk. Film that Police officer.

a citizen’s right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment.”

The First Circuit Videotape Opinion and House BIll 145

“In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.” ~Lenny Bruce 

little_brother_is_watching_back_GROK.jpg

On one October 2007 evening, Boston attorney Simon Glik, was walking past Boston Common where Boston police officers John Cunniffe, Peter Savalis and Jerome Brewster were effecting an arrest. Hearing a nearby person state, “Stop! You’re hurting him!” Glik began video recording the incident from approximately ten feet away, using his cell phone. Shortly thereafter, Glik was arrested and his cell phone confiscated.

Charged with violation of the Massachusetts wiretap statute(Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99(C)(1)), In February, 2008, the Boston Municipal Court summarily disposed of the wiretap charge, noting,  “the fact that the officers were unhappy they were being recorded during an arrest . . . does not make a lawful exercise of a First Amendment right a crime.” 

Glik filed a civil rights action against the officers and the City of Boston in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts when his internal affairs complaints were ignored. Summarily, The People’s Republik moved to dismiss Glik’s complaint asserting that his allegations failed to adequately support his claims and that officers were entitled to qualified immunity “because it is not well-settled that he had a constitutional right to record the officers.” The court denied the motion and the commonwealth’s interlocutory appeal followed in which they did not prevail.

In its opinion, the court stated, “Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting ‘the free discussion of governmental affairs.’” And the court ruled “a citizen’s right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment…”

In the wake of this opinion are the countless arrests in the Granite State for the very same activities, as detailed numerous times in the New Hampshire Union Leader.  The one incident that comes to mind is a Sheriff’s Deputy attempting to thwart Representative Gary Hopper from video-recording in the Legislative Office building back in 2010.  Finally, House Bill 145 , presently languishes in the Senate and has met with a great deal of resistance from Law Enforcement.  

Police are concerned that the bill fails to protect both their privacy and that of the public they serve. Privacy? What privacy? they are Public servants subject to the accountability to that same public they serve!

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Jennifer Horn and Kelly Ayotte got some ‘splaining to do!

Well, well, well.  Once in a while, the Concord Monitor can be useful (entire Letter after the jump):

Attack on Kimball is hypocritcal

By Howard Wilson / For the Monitor
August 31, 2011

There is wholesale hypocrisy among New Hampshire Republicans who want to dump Jack Kimball as their party chairman.

On Aug. 26, the Monitor reported that Kimball believed he was signing a Libertarian candidate petition, rather than a petition for the whole party he actually signed. That petition was returned to him, yet he is still castigated for his signature.

Now look back to 2010, when several prominent Republicans signed candidate petitions on behalf of the Libertarian Party. Some of these people are now calling for Kimball’s removal as state chairman because he signed a party-wide petition for that same Libertarian Party. Those signing individuals include Kelly Ayotte, Jennifer Horn, Jim Bender and Bill Binnie. How do I know? Easy, I asked and they said yes – for which I presented them the candidate petition in 2010.

                                    

Like I said, well, well, well.  Here are two folks openly advocating that Jack has done irreparable harm and that this "signing" is, in part,  a firing offense.  Yet, they both earlier signed a similar petition?  Really?  

Now, lest I be again accused of being sexist and a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal for offending delicate Political Correctness feelings (a supposedly derogatory status for which I have been accused in the past, but that is for another post about one of these names), yes, I did bold their names and not the two former male rivals of Kelly Ayotte – they are not the ones putting the hammer down for a dismissal.  Heck *I*’ve sign such a petition in the past (er, at least I think I did) as it is a philosophy of mine that unless you are a Communist or hard core socialist (there are places I refuse to go), I’d probably sign such a petition – if you cannot win in the arena of ideas, you deserve to lose against an opponent. 

Sidenote: that said, when I watched and listened to the candidate debate at the Word of Life Christian Fellowship last cycle [Yes, BRING back the Black Robed Regiment!], it was apparent why Libertarians generally lose.

At least I readily admit it – so where has their full disclosure been during all this?  So, I’m waiting to see what their consequence will be….and am betting it may well be a long wait.

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Legitimacy? No, you’re not the one the has the final say, ma’am.

I had originally come across this post at the WaPo as it seemed to want to pit the Tea Party Express folks against the FreedomWorks folks over whether or not to have Mitt Romney in for a speech (full disclosure: I have met and worked with folks in both groups): 

"FreedomWorks is pulling out of a nationwide bus tour led by Tea Party Express over the inclusion of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a speaker, saying the group cannot endorse any event where the former Massachusetts governor speaks…

…The split signifies a growing divide between two groups that represent the ‘establishment’ of the tea party movement.

FreedomWorks was founded by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) and Tea Party Express was launched by longtime California GOP operative Sal Russo. Neither group shied away from backing insurgent challengers against longtime Republicans in 2010.

But Tea Party Express is a more conventional political action committee. The group is co-sponsoring a debate with CNN; it held a town hall at the National Press Club earlier this year. FreedomWorks, however, has positioned itself as a member-driven organization that will not lend its clout to anyone grassroots supporters deem too moderate." 

While there is some delight, IMHO, amongst the MSM elite to watch the other side have their internal-to-the-TEA-Party discord (after all, food fights anywhere attract eyeballs, I’m thinking this is a wee tremble in a tea cup, myself.  Romney has stayed away from the TEA Party movement here in NH – and for good (and the right) reason: he’s not a TEA Party kind of guy, to put it bluntly.  It would be a mistake for him to now try to cozy up – he’d be laughed off the stage like this guy when he tried to coattail it.

Here in NH, some groups are choosing up sides:

A number of tea party groups are planning to join the Romney protest. According to New Hampshire Liberty Caucus Chairman Andrew Hemingway, the The Lakes Region Tea Party, the Raymond Tea Party, and the Granite State Patriots are all participating.

This caught my eye, however:

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Would You Suck Twice as Hard for Half as Much?

I appreciate it when democrats give you the rope with which to hang their half baked ideas.  Take Mark Fernald for example.  Mr. Fernald is a sometime New Hampshire Democrat candidate for this or that, and prominent member of the left wing Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC).  He recently (sorry, frequently) forwards  partisan, left wing economic spin, to justify his pet obsession with rising taxes and class warfare. 

This most recent email to the arm chair central planners in his fan base is just another in a string of left wing editorials that attempts to contrast democrat spending against that of our previous president. It is typical Fernald; an oranges to rotten apples comparison that uses incomplete data, wild assumptions (about Obama’s future affect in every case), misleading graphs, cherry picked data, and resulting percentages that stretch the fabric of reality so thin that you could easily pass into the alternate dimension in which Democrats and faeries dance widderershins around the deficit mound, as money appears out of nowhere to pay for whatever theirr tiny, narrow, Marxist minds can imagine.

donkey with hed up assThis particualr faerie story centers around three graphs from the Government Printing Office (GPO).  Not the fed, the treasury, or even some fruit-loop left wing think tank, but the GPO.  The GPO prints stuff, and answers to the Executive branch.  So right out of the toy-box we have to question these partisan stills, presented as they are in a partisan manner, bearing guestimated facts and assumptions, with no basis in reality any greater than anything that has ever escaped Mr. Obama’s teleprompter; you do recall all the Obama the non-partisan, deficit cutting, cost reducing, globe saving, health care giving, unifying, auto company saving, mortgage rescuing, goodness?  How about the transparent lobbyist-less,  open to ideas, new tone, we need to work together Obama?  No?  You probably remember the we won, closed door, partisan, hate those bankers, Tea Partiers are terrorists,  intimidation tactics, don’t interrupt my vacation, Arrest Ron Paul supporters, dozens of lobbyists, shadow cabinet, Attack Arizona, hunt down my enemies, anti-free speech, black panthers can scare away voters, give guns to Mexican drug lords, nohting is my fault Obama with the double action golf-club grip?  Well his printing office is the source.  Are we surprised it tries to make him look good?

So what can we glean that goes beyond the objective of showing your Republican friends that they are wrong about Obama?  How about using facts to show that those Republicans are actually right?

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So, whose fault (line) is it now?

Is there such a thing as a "double" of Geology / Poli-Sci at an advance degree level?   Frankly, I would it to map out all of the political faults put out by the Obama Administration. In mapping out all these faults, I notice, is nary a shake concerning responsibility for anything… (H/T: Hot Air)

Republikinz-R -Stoopid?

Michelle Malkin discusses the lefts age old narrative about Republicans being dumb, and the recent attacks on Rick Perry. The obvious comparison, and she says it herself, “Dumb compared to who?” Great point. We’ve got more University economic egg-heads roaming the White House than you can shake a ruler at and yet they have to the last come up with nothing but a series of failed polices that have a) failed to meet any of their own genius exclamations and expectations and b) made things worse. It’s fun all the way through so take six minutes out of your morning and watch Malkin work.

Stand with Israel – the Videos, Part 1

Last week, the ‘Grok was invited to the Stand With Israel rally held at Manchester’s Victory Park where a good sized crowd, advocacy groups, and vendors listened to music and and a mix of speakers (e.g., clergy, activists, politicians, and other notables). The original intention was to live stream the event but the WiFi signal that had been present during earlier checks of the location went somewhere into the ether…

So, we went into recording mode. Pretty much, here are the videos in chronological order – first four here and the rest after the jump:


 

Preliminary Music              National Anthems, Invocation, Clergy introductions, Gov. Lynch proclamation


 

Speaker of the NH House Bill O’Brien              Greg Salts for Congressman Frank Guinta

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