Update: this will be topmost for a while – newer posts after this one

Nice.  As Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit says – punch back twice as hard.  Here is the video:

Here is the background:  I am a co-founding member of the NH TEA Party Coalition and I believe in the TEA Party’s three (and ONLY three regardless of what the Left, the Democrats, or the Establishment wing of the Republican Party says) Principles:  Constitutional bounds for Government, Fiscal Frugality, and Free Markets. 

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Just as in the Senatorial race, more people are in the race than who showed up this past Saturday at the CNHT Annual Picnic – in the First District, only Everett Jabour (Barrington) did not make an appearance and speak to the activist crowds.  Here are the speeches by the others:

Frank Guinta                                                                 Dan Innis

Brendan Kelly

Previous Videos:   

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What should be next up would be the Congressional Candidates in NH’s Second District – Marilinda Garcia and Gary Lambert.  Unfortunately, we had a malfunction with the camera, so no video of their speeches – my apologies (its time to put it on the list for a replacement – DANG, that list keeps getting longer).

The only primary on the Republican side in the NH Executive Council District 5 race.  Those that have signed up are former Exec. Councilor Dave Wheeler and his opponent, Steve Hattamer (they also were the only Exec. Council candidates that spoke):

Steve Hattamer                                                       Dave Wheeler

Previous Videos:   

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The CNHT Annual Picnic also had time for those running for the US Senate to speak.  I bet you only thought that 4 people were running for the NH GOP nomination for US Senate from NH (and give Jeanne Shaheen her retirement):

• Scott P. Brown
• Jim Rubens
• Bob Smith
• Karen Testerman (who has retired from the race and thrown her support to Bob Smith)

And you would be wrong.  There are a lot more: Gerard Beloin, Robert D’Arcy, Miro Dziedzic, Mark W. Farnham, Bob Heghmann, Walter W. Kelly, Andy Martin.  So, how many of you know much of at all of this second set of folks?  How many of you  Of all of these people, only Bob Heghmann, Jim Rubens, and Bob Smith showed up to speak; in alphabetical order:

Bob Heghmann                                                        Jim Rubens

Bob Smith

Did you notice who also was NOT present?

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As for all of the posts from the CNHT Annual Picnic, anytime you see the word “primary”, think “Republican Primary” – again, this is Old Home Day for Conservative Activists.  That said, at some point there might be a Democrat that would come to speak (and might actually get a bit more attention at the podium as someone willing to come into their version of the lion’s den).  After all, Ed Naile, Chair of CNHT, is a registered Democrat!

Although a post has already been put up for the ‘Grok Endorsement for Andrew Hemingway in this race, here are both in order of speaking:

Walt Havenstein                                                     Andrew Hemingway

Previous Video: 

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We at GraniteGrok are going to be exceedingly stingy with endorsements this year.  It isn’t because of poor candidate quality – indeed, there are some very good candidates that have decided that they have positive things to offer to NH citizens that want a limited government.  One that will stop overreaching and spending their money “on stuff” simply because somebody else believes that “Government is the thing we all do together” and leaves no choice to opt out of those actions that more rightly belong to a vibrant and large Civil Society.  We simply are going to set our bar very high.

Our first endorsement was in the NH State Senate Republican Primary in District 16, announced at the CNHT Annual Picnic, was for former NH State Representative Jane Cormier and now running for the NH GOP nomination in the NH State Senate’s District 16.  Ever since she appeared on the scene, she has been a stalwart defender of, and advocate for, Conservative values and leading the charge on several issues such as the Life issue and the Federalization of local zoning issues due to the EPA / DOT / HUD pushing of “Sustainable Communities Initiative”. Here she gives her speech and then gets surprised by our endorsement:

Her competition has not, Dave Boutin, has been

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At the end of the event, as I said here, Marilinda did give us a few minutes to do one of our “patented” Micro-Intervews.  Given the news of Friday from the Supreme Court as well as in anticipation of today’s decisions, those result served as the basis of the quick questions:

Also, one of the coolest things that I have ever had the chance to do at a political event was to take a few laps around the mile oval in one of the track’s Pace Cars:

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To recap:

As we mentioned (here, here, here, and here), NH State Rep Marilinda Garcia’s campaign (for US Congress, NH CD-2) had an event named “Race to Congress” to which it donated two Gold VIP passes to the event that we tried to raffle off during GrokTALK!.  Unfortunately, I think our normal Saturday 9-11am listeners took one look skyward, saw the sun, saw no clouds, felt the warmth, felt no humidity, and vamoosed outside without setting their smartphones to listen in.  So, I took advantage of the tickets and TMEW and I headed down to the NH Motorspeedway for last night’s event.

When we arrived, a Mustang car club was doing “hot laps” so TMEW and I knew we were in the right spot: roaring exhausts and the whine of superchargers spinning up.  The Peter Parcel Band out of Boston provided the background music (for ONCE! a band that understood that political people not only want talk, they want to hear what their conversation partners are saying back) and then Jerry Gappens of the NH Motorspeedway arrived and in addition helping to set up “the accoutrements”, he introduced Marilinda Garcia (I had the chance to chat with him briefly – he is rightly proud of what goes on there starting in April all the way through racing season – and that the track distributes over $200K / year on causes for children).  Marilinda then presented a quick talk on why running is important and why she should be the candidate as she wanted the attendees to enjoy getting on the track before dark (more on that later):

She did grant us time at the end of the event for a micro-interview (which will be posted tomorrow).  Also, a bit more of the band after the jump:

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I have always maintained that we at GraniteGrok always put up the complete video such that if we use an abstract from an event, especially where there might be some controversy, people can check the complete context of what was said (or what we say in response).  When I went to the last Gilford School Board meeting and Kurt Weber attempted to give “a civics lesson” and then the Board decided to go and codify EXACTLY what I was accusing them of (that of elected officials working hard to insulate themselves from the redress of grievances by those that had elected them, a Board that believes it is above criticism from the voting public).  I had put up a series of videos (here, here, here  and here) but failed to put up “the back context” – so here they are.

First is an amalgam of the excerpts linked to above:

An edited down version of the longer School Board meeting where only the Board’s spoken words served as the impetus of my comments during the two Public Input sessions (re: “go ahead and flap er gums ’cause we ain’t listening anyways”) during the meeting.

The full meeting video (sliced simply into smaller time slots) after the jump:

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Granite State Futures (the US Federal Govt HUD/EPA/DOT “Sustainable Communities Initiative” here in NH):  Identifying and Overcoming Barriers – One of the steps in the visioning and planning process to be used by each region will be to identify existing and potential barriers to ensuring sustainable communities and to articulate the strategies the regions will use to mitigate or overcome each barrier. Anticipated barriers include NH’s strong tradition of individual property rights and resultant resistance to planning and zoning…Tim Carter:  “There is absolutely no uncertainty in those above statements. Translated: Private property rights are under attack by Granite State Future.”  (Progressives and The Proper Role of Government)

Previous video of Bernie Waugh’s presentation here.  The second lawyer making his presentation to this rather sparsely attended event was Daniel Crean.  Part 1 here, Parts 2 & 3 after the jump:

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