Guest post: “Our Elastic Constitution in Crisis and the GOP”

Guest post by ‘Grok friend, Matt Kittredge

Our Elastic Constitution in Crisis and the GOP

In 1803, after much thought, Jefferson signed a treaty with France, purchasing the Louisiana Territory without express Constitutional Authority. When he sent the treaty to the Senate, it was ratified. He later wrote, "[a] strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means."

I agree with Jefferson, especially in time of war, but with some caveats. Our elastic Constitution can and has been abused. And ‘justifying’ crises manufactured, as well.  Think about the internment of Japanese Americans without a shred of evidence in WW2 by FDR, who, among other assaults on our Constitution, seized monetary gold and devalued our currency by 43% and essentially destroyed the right of property. The bar seems to get lower and lower each time the ‘crisis’ passes, with Federal authority returning ever less and less to the ante pro ante limits of original wording and intent.

Jefferson’s reasoning is an underlying the premise of the…

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Nationwide Union Protest a Flop. But Not to the Lamestream Media

Failure. The rapacious, greedy, plundering unions failed. Good. From the excellent Legal Insurrection blog, a few words about the national protests that were supposed to occur in support of the public employee unions in Wisconsin: The 50-state protest was a failure, plain and simple, although the images from Madison may create the false impression of massive … Read more

The intersection of public employee unions and politics: We Win.

Something quite unusual is happening in New Hampshire. To coin a phrase, you could say that "a spectre is haunting New Hampshire—the spectre of freedom from the rapacious political classes." In politics, the conventional wisdom says that "the most organized group wins." That is, the group that can turn out the most warm bodies "on the street" will ultimately prevail. This is false: The ability to put bodies on the street…

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GrokTalk! Saturday February 26th, 2011

GrokTalk!Live Streaming local and National News with opinion you could only get from GraniteGrok.

It’s GrokTalk!

This Saturday from 9-11AM…

Ed Naile, the chairman of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers (CNHT), and Steve Mac Donald Grokster and vice-chair of the NHRVC help co-host as we cover a range of New Hampshire bills and issues.

John Kalb  will also be our guest filling us in on the status of Right To Work and Right to Work Legislation heading to the State Senate.

and Andrew Manuse, NH House Representative from Rockingham District 5

Learn More About Our Guests after the jump

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Testimony or Public Comment?

There were a lot of bills heard this week in Concord…. And there was much public comment that followed… Portions of which were outright lies and confabulation. To support, or not support the legislation at hand….a particular bill. I nearly always refer to any verbal address to committees as public comment, despite others who call … Read more

GrokTALK! – Podcast page for 02/26/11

GrokTALK!

Podcast – week of 02/26/11

GrokTALK!

Streaming Live! from GraniteGrok

To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you.

(Click here for the promo page)

Hour 1      Hour 2

Grokster Steve came up to Liberty Studio, bringing our first guest and…well, that person knows who…

Ed Naile, Chairman of the CNHT (Coalition of NH Taxpayers) came in studio to talk about the voter fraud bills now going through the NH Legislature as well as being a great raconteur of some of his first hand personal experience in sleuthing voter fraud cases here in NH (as opposed, seemingly, to the protestations of the NH Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the NH Democrat party).   Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4

Second guest of the day was John Kalb who does advocacy work on Right To Work issues.  A most timely issue – the Right To Work bill that was passed by the NH House and will now be debated in the NH Senate.  Given the furor in Wisconsin and the class warfare of what organized labor which is simply described at "the Haves and Have-Yours" (where the Haves are the taxpayers and the Have-your where the public sector unions want what you have).  Part 1   Part 2

Andrew Manuse (who is getting to be a frequent guest on GrokTALK!) talks about his experience as a freshman legislator, having his bill ITL (Inexpedient To Legislate), and the reaction of the NH House leadership to and with the Natural Rights Council. We also had a great laugh (at least, those of us in studio) that the Derry public union aren’t much liking Andrew (heh! This should give us some blogging fodder!).   Part 1   Part 2

Recorded live stream:

Note: We lost the live video stream during the broadcast (the camera went dark).  Thus, we resort to the backup cam for the first hour – and since the discussion was all in studio, it worked well.  Given that the second hour was mostly phone based, not so much – after the jump.

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If “Reproductive Rights” means…

Word games are fun so let’s play some…
If by “reproductive rights” the left means that a woman has the right to destroy a person just because it is still in her womb…

Second Amendment Bills: Invitations To Prevarication

HB 330 came before the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee yesterday. As expected both bills were opposed by law enforcement community and as often is, it’s reasonably predictable what the nature of those objections are.

New Hampshire State Police Capt. John Lalacheur told the committee that changes in the law will make it difficult for police to fight gang and drug violence. Lalacheur also citied issues with the Outlaw HB_330_Graphic.jpgMotorcycle group and an upcoming Hells Angels World meet slated for this summer. Captain Lalacheur also made another statement to the committee that caught my attention. In speaking of the current laws supposed limitations, he asserted to the committee that only felons are precluded from receiving a license so a person with a history of misdemeanor assaults can legally obtain (and must be issued) a New Hampshire Pistol Revolver License. We all know full well that simply isn’t true.

On March 31, 2006 Dover Police Chief William Fenniman sent a letter to Edward J. Bleiler, notifying him that his New Hampshire Pistol Revolver License was revoked citing that Bleiler was, “not a suitable person at this time.” Bleiler appealed the revocation in District court as prescribed by statute and the District Court upheld the action by the Dover Police Chief. This case was heard in the New Hampshire Supreme Court which upheld the District court’s affirmation of Bleiler’s revocation.

It is important to point out that Bleiler was never charged with a crime. The Dover Police Department revoked his license on the basis that his haughty, raucous behavior was such that he has caused several people to be alarmed by his inappropriate firearms handling, silly statements, and refusal to address them when asked to do so. (It doesn’t matter whether one agrees or disagrees with the court’s holding in this case. All who possess, handle and carry guns know there are things one simply does not say or do when exercising constitutional rights)

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The Weare Secret Police

Officers of the Weare Police Department do not like to be video-recorded, audio-recorded or photographed. In fact if recorded, they will arrest those who do without permission.

Since October of 2010, three people have been arrested by the Weare Police on felony wiretapping charges because individuals did not obtain consent from officers being videotaped. Do people ever ask for permission? Yes, in fact they do. Do police officers consent? I know of no instance. copwatchGranGrok.jpg

Police Cruisers, Booking Areas and the appurtenances of Police buildings often have video equipment installed and operating. Irony. Looking at 570-A:2, II (j), there is a legal exception for a, “uniformed law enforcement officer to make an audio recording in conjunction with a video recording of a routine stop performed in the ordinary course of patrol duties on any way as defined by RSA 259:125, provided that the officer shall first give notification of such recording to the party to the communication.”

So, the law states that police can video traffic stops and no consent is required, but a mere giving of notice to the person being stopped. But, it seems that some discretion is afforded as to video or not to video.

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Kathy Sullivan Likes Midget Wrestling? [Updated]

It has come to our attention that the July Fourth Forum Twitter account mentioned below may not belong to Kathy Sullivan or the July Fourth Forum. Ms. Sullivan has denied the twitter account is hers and we take her at her word. So at this point we have no way of knowing whether she actually likes midgets or wrestling, or any combination of either. But we will leave the post up as that is a matter of policy. But it is not at this point–to the best of our knowledge–reflective of Ms. Sullivan’s opinion about Republicans or midgets. Until further notice we will have to resort to past comments about Republicans made by Ms. Sullivan as a gauge of her opinion about them.

 

KSullivan%20likes%20this.jpg

 

Must be a slow day if I’m lurking on left wing twitter pages.  Actually it’s not.  Kathy Sullivan’s ‘July Fourth Forum’ is now following me on twitter so I figured I would pay the page a visit and this was the first thing I saw.

If you follow the video you get to watch some midget wrestling, during which the diminutive wrestler is drop kicked off the edge the ring. It’s actually one midget wrestler getting wrecked by some huge guy.

I guess it’s supposed to be funny.  Kathy seems to think it is.  And not just that, suitable treatment for Republicans. Not exactly civil.

The video and the most popular comments on the video–Kathy’s like minded brethren I suspect–are on the jump.

Caution: F-bomb alert in the comments.

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The NH Rail Transit Authority: LET’S GET RID OF IT!

Why? Lots of reasons. But let me let State Rep. John Hikel explain why. As vice chairman of the State House Transportation Committee, no one explains it better than Rep. Hikel:

Passenger rail a boondoggle for New Hampshire taxpayers

By Rep. John Hikel

As a candidate for State Representative, I joined many who were elected in promising to be more careful with taxpayer money than our predecessors, who managed to grow government by 25 percent in just four years.  As a legislature, we have taken numerous steps to ensure that we watch every tax dollar that the state will spend to make sure it is delivering value.

For this reason, it is critical that we abolish the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority (NHRTA) before it can…

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#1 Semi-Occasional Quote: We are our own fiscal disease….

The excellent Kevin Williamson, from "Travails, Chinese and American" in the pages of National Review Online, March 7, 2011. Notes Williamson (picture on right): "Our worst problem is that democratic governments lack the kind of robust fiscal controls that prevent the political class from pillaging the productive economy to feather the nests of its own members … Read more

And they think that Rail Service in NH would be profitable??

Bumped: Given that Tim’s post is saying that the NHRTA (NH Rail Transit Authority) should be ridden out of NH out on a rail (pun intended), I decided to highlight the cost of the Downeaster – the most popular rail in NH could not exist without huge taxpayer subsidies. Avg % Fare per Subsidy / … Read more

GrokTALK! – Podcast page for 02/19/11

Podcast – week of 02/19/11 GrokTALK! Streaming Live! from GraniteGrok To play (or "stream") a clip now, just click on it.  To download it to your PC, right click on it and tell the process where to save the file for you. (Click here for the promo page) Hour 1      Hour 2 NH … Read more

Wisconsin Gold

In just a few days the unions and democrats gathering in Wisconsin have provided us with a treasure trove. They have bussed in AstroTurf with connections to the White House, backing the big business unions, bearing more Hitler signs in a few miles than since Hilter was alive.

Union Thug assaults 5’1″ female from Freedomworks….

If the SEIU or any other union thug protesters are out there at the state Capitol on Saturday, be careful. Read all about it HERE. There is further further information about this particular assault, and the apparent racism and anti-semitism of this particular union thug HERE. Note that a Massachusetts politician is cheering on the unions, saying it’s okay to … Read more

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