A picture of Palin in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, from the current issue of Newsweek magazine:
Bob supported all the taxes, the wacky accounting, the bad revenue estimates, the overspending, the nanny state nonsense, even job killing taxes and bloated government spending during a recession. A vote for Bob is a vote for more taxes, more fees, less money in your wallet every year, and more bureaucracy and state control everywhere else.
A picture of Palin in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, from the current issue of Newsweek magazine:

The New Hampshire House Republican Alliance has released its July 2011 score card for the entire first session of the Republican House majority. NHHRA Score Card PDF file.
I’ve culled my reps from the list (Hills 19) below. I’ve also generated a list of the Republican bottom feeders for 2011. These are what we would call RINOs, moderate democrats who could never survive the bullying from the left, or might never get elected if they admitted that they have little or no interest in supporting the Republican party platform.
They are folks who are incapable of finding the 80/20 rule, or to be more precise the 70/30 rule, and in one instance (Ken Gould) we have a (r)epublican who only voted against the party 70% of the time.
The NHCP (formerly the NHDP) will call this a purity list, which is amusing when you consider how they treat their moderates, but let me assure you that it is no such thing. It is more like an intervention. Many of these troubled souls are in denial. Trapped in Republican leaning districts they are pretending to be something they are not. I’m just helping them (and their constituents) to accept that they may be democrats, actual independent moderates, or just missing the boat often enough to get lumped in with people who have little or no interest in the goals of the party.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s time to come out of the closet and stop pretending. To embrace your "independent" or democrat roots, and run as what you are instead of pretending to be something you are not.
Here is the Hills 19 list first (Merrimack). For the list of bottom feeders, just follow the jump.
| Last name | First name | County | Dist | % of Bills voted | HRRA Score |
| Peterson | Lynette | Hillsborough | 19 | 93% | 99% |
| Notter | Jeanine | Hillsborough | 19 | 97% | 98% |
| Barry | Richard | Hillsborough | 19 | 98% | 94% |
| Hinch | Richard | Hillsborough | 19 | 100% | 92% |
| Pellegrino | Tony | Hillsborough | 19 | 95% | 90% |
| Christensen | Chris | Hillsborough | 19 | 82% | 86% |
| Stroud | Kathleen | Hillsborough | 19 | 89% | 83% |
| Thomas | Joe | Hillsborough | 19 | 92% | 83% |
Back on July 7th I Tweeted an announcement that Democrat Mike Brunelle, Party XO and NH House rep was leaving for greener pastures. Money-green. He’s off to run the SEIU in Transylvania, um Pennsylvania.
There’s been a general uptick in interest in New Hampshire, I would say since late-February,” he said. Certainly more people are looking than last year.”
The Obama Mess: Mark these words: "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. It’s inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." — Winston Churchill
The chuckleheads in DC are talking about making a deal on the debt ceiling – $2 – 4 Trillion over 10 (or is it Obama’s 12) years. RIGHT, YOU SAPS, LIKE THAT’S GONNA WORK??? That’s in the range of $2-400 Billion / year. HEY, DING-DONGS, HOW’S THAT PLAY AGAINST EVEN THIS YEAR’S DEFICIT OF $1.6 … Read more
I have no end of respect for Firefighters and their commitment to others, but politically there is very little evidence that when they run as (r)epublicans in New Hampshire they have any intention of supporting the party or the platform.
The latest example is in Rockingham 14 where Veteran Firefighter Kevin Janvrin has won the low-turnout GOP primary for an upcoming special election. While I’d be more than happy to have Kevin working as an EMT in my town, I have serious doubts about him working for Republicans in Rock 14.
Mr. Janvrin’s reported largest primary contributor was David Lang, the President of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. Mr. Lang’s PAC, of which he is the chairman, has a very specific union agenda. It donates almost 100% of its campaign dollars exclusively to democrat committees and candidates. (Through the PFFNH PAC and another PAC the union runs, Middle Class NH PAC.) So why support Mr. Janvrin with a personal donation when the only other one I could find of similar value was to Democrat Jackie Cilley?
The answer is to try and make sure the outcome is irrelevant. That way the union gets its agenda addressed no matter which party wins. An agenda that aligns 99.9% of the time with big-government, nanny-state left wingers. So if PFFNH gives him money he looks like a connected union plant, but lets be honest, having it come from Lang is no different. Janvrin looks like another union lackey running as a (r)epublican.
It will be interesting to see the other finance reports for Rock 14. Maybe PFFNH or one of its officers is or has placed bets on the other side of the race as well. (Janvrin has reported only had three primary donations-Lang, a firefighter Frank Chase, and another from Jabe Felch.)
Another point of interest is Mr. Janvrin’s candidate blurb, the beauty queen contestant equivalent of "If I am lucky enough to win the pageant this is what I’d like to do" remarks. While these are intentionally ‘generic’ his does little to suggest he has been advised by anyone outside the union-left wing cabal. They are full of democrat pap, with little obvious difference from that of his "left wing" opponent.
Over the years, the Liberals have had this thing about spending on the military has always been put above that of helping the poor. During the last Presidential, we ran into "The Cookie Lady" (sponsored by NH Priorities who in turn, was funded by the ice cream barons, Ben and Jerry) who would hand out … Read more
…well, then, how do you expect to get treatment if your BMI is too high? (BMI is your "body mass index," designed to disclose how much body fat you have.) With Obamacare in place, people who stubbornly persist in eating unhealthy foods should expect to have medical care withheld. There’s just no way they can expect government … Read more
Audio:
Once again, the ‘Grok was on the Morning show from 6 – 6:30 with Jeff Chidester and crew to talk about what’s going on in the blogosphere.
We talked a little about:
"The Left castigates capitalist for being greedy about profits, and breaking the law and cheating to get them? So, what’s the difference between that and teachers and administrators lusting after high test scores and breaking the law and cheating to get them?".
Students do not deserve a public education; students deserve a publicly funded education.
On top of the fact that the Stimulus saved jobs but at a cost of $278K, now we hear that some Montana residents have broadband hookups at $7M per household
Other stories I flooded Jeff with but we didn’t get to (the EPA ones are ones that I wish we had had time for) after the jump:
Obama and the democrats can let Iran build nukes because it is a no-lose situation for them. Inaction is action. If by chance Iran does not nuke up, they will take credit. If it does, and then kills millions, they will blame George Bush, or obstructionist Republicans.
Live Streaming local and National News with opinion you could only get from GraniteGrok. EMail: GrokTALK@GraniteGrok.com or Call us! 603-524-7478 This week, 9-11AM… Grokster Rick will be join Skip as co-host in Liberty Studios for the show. We’ll be talking about his latest issue of the RINO Report as well as the travesty in … Read more
Updated and Bumped: audio added:
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Was on with Jeff Chidester and his sidekick Justin McIsaac from 6 – 6:30 this morning (and will be again tomorrow morning) and we talked about the NH House passing SB 2 as elected politicians have lost the trust of the voters to do the right things in terms of spending. We also talked about OUR national debt and annual deficits, and how a few percentage points difference in the rates the US pays on our financial obligations would absolutely put a stop to social spending.
I mentioned that Portugal, as one of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain; the clump of Euro countries all in dire straits), is already showing what will happen to us if our politicians do not clamp down on the spending fiasco coming out of DC:
Our debt payment would easily go from number four on the list of largest US payment items (exceeded right now only by Social Security, Medicare, and Dod) to number two or first if the bond markets found that we, as a nation, just weren’t sufficiently trustworthy and presented a risk of default. As I said on the show, look what has happened to the price of money to Portugal:

Very steep, and very quickly. This, in financial terms, is a "cliff". Fear it.
Yes folks, if the chuckleheads in DC do not finally look disaster in the eye and make the hard decisions we sent them to do (and to which they have thus far punted on), this will be us. And while this is seen as a Conservative issue, this ought to be a Liberal concern as well, for if all the money is going to service the debt (because of your wastrel spending in the first place), you are going to have to wave your New Deal / Greatest Society dreams of the biggest welfare state in history goodbye.
Links on stories that we did NOT get to after the jump:
Both revenues and spending have trended upward over the last 50 years, but almost always, spending has risen faster than revenues. Much faster. We always seem to hear it’s a revenue problem – we just don’t have the revenue to support our spending (as one REPUBLICAN said, determining the Belknap County – which seems … Read more
As an elected Budget Committee member in my central New Hampshire hamlet, I have often been accused of having an agenda. To my critics, I say:
Yup, you’re right!
Certainly, as a Conservative, I do have a Right philosophy that frames my outlook when spending other peoples’ money. My agenda is simple:
Why should Government’s income grow faster than an average family’s?
I got tired of opening up that twice yearly delivered envelope that told me "Your town is about to get a raise from your money at twice to four times the raise that YOU got (you chump)!". Thus, when I saw this news on NH SB2 and what it meant, I went "YES!"
For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2011
Contact: 603-271-3665House Leaders Comment on New Law to Allow Tax, Spending Caps
CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered the following statements in response to the Governor signing Senate Bill 2, allowing local tax and spending caps.
House Speaker William O’Brien
“SB 2 gives cities and towns the tools to allow voters to rein in excessive spending. While we are working to ensure that we are keeping our limited government and low tax environment strong at the state level, this new law lets our communities do the same. This is a victory for keeping local property taxes low and demanding accountability from our elected officials.”
Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt
“First and foremost this shows that the voices of citizens in towns like Manchester, Laconia, Franklin, Dover and Nashua are not squelched. This is a victory for local control and the taxpayers.”
Tax Caps. Spending Caps. At the Local level. This is huge.
Too often I have seen people, even in my own town, run and campaign as "Conservatives" (like Tom Pauken writes about in his book) just to turn around and vote for just about spending item going (and arguing ad absurdeum that every dollar spent, (i.e., even for his wife the Librarian’s budget), is absolutely necessary and that utter destruction is imminent without it.
While…
To the Editor:
It is too bad that Rob Azevedo’s entertaining article in The Citizen on June 29th, “Getting it straight on Right to Work” misrepresents the proposed New Hampshire Right to Work law and vilifies the TEA Party people who support it.
Right to Work (RTW) is not about union busting, not about lowering wages, not about working hard, not about keeping people from forming or joining unions. RTW is about the same thing Americans fought the Revolutionary War for, Liberty.
The theme of this past election was "self-responsible" and "self-governing". Put the two together and it means that we can do with less government (and which of us doesn’t want that?). But as Kevin Smith of Cornerstone has rightfully pointed out, it means that we, all of us individuals, now have to do more. Now, … Read more
Here is what looks like a pretty run of the mill bullet list of Democrat talking points on taxes. This is the kind of stuff you find on the lefty candidates campaign sites, in emails from Democrat Mark Fernald month after month after month, or from the mouths of other lefties who run the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition.