Yesterday, I had to go the State House on a personal matter. Seeing that I had to wait to complete that errand, why not spend the time wisely? With the coverage that the Grok has spent on the Voter ID / fraud issue here in NH since the James O’Keefe / Project Veritas video that … Read more
Last night, GraniteGrok went to the reception for Ovide Lamontagne. It is our understanding that about 80 odd folks had RSVP’d but by my count, over 160 were in the room as the evening’s proceedings played out. The downside to trying to live stream the event was that Windows 7 just would not attach to the WiFi at the hotel (as usual with all things Microsoft, reboots fixes most all ills). The upside is DaTechGuy showed up with his lovely bride so we were able to have some chit-chat in between everything (and we did a bit of a GrokTALK! commentary which I will post later once I process the audio from the evening. He also posted up some pictures and interviews here (even got my good side!).
Jeff Chidester served as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening – and given he is a political activist himself, he can always add “commentary quips” that most cannot. In this clip, NH State Senator Jim Luther gave the invocation, Di Lothrup lead us all in the Pledge, and the Peters children played their violins “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”:
One of the speakers in favor of Ovide’s candidacy was Sandra Ziehm – video after the jump:
Following on the heels of the Intro Ceremonies and speech by Sandra Zimm, ‘Grok (and personal) friend, Jack Kimball, was the Keynote speaker of the night. Previously having endorsed Ovide, he gave one of his classic stemwinder of a speech:
Well, if the reception was for Ovide Lamontagne (thrown by Grokster Mike and Mar-Mar Rogers), it would be great and fitting for Ovide to speak, and indeed, he did. Topics centered on his background, his guiding philosophies, and how he would carry out the duties and responsibilities of NH Governor:
Mike Rogers (Grokster!) decided that he also wanted to speak on Ovide’s behalf (and why not, it was his event!) and made it clear that Ovide is his choice for NH Governor:
There was also one other speaker at the event: Nancy Elliot (after the jump):
This past Saturday afternoon, GraniteGrok covered the New Boston Taxpayer’s Town Hall event, hosted by NH House Rep Pat Murphy and where NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker, Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt spoke on issues like the Budget, Voter Fraud, redistricting, traditional marriage, and education.
In this clip, Pat begins the meeting with some introductory remarks and the Pledge while Pam Tucker discusses the budget and voter fraud:
After the jump, NH House Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt gives his talk to the crowd at the Whipple Library (numbering about 100 folks):
Following Pam Tucker and DJ Bettencourt, Bill O’Brien spoke for about 30 minutes on the budget, jobs, creating a pro-business environment here in NH, reforming public pensions, the process of redistricting, and a new site, ConcordFactCheck.org:
Question 6 (which was asked by a young girl): you are going to abolish 3 Departments including the Department of Education; how are you going to replace them? I believe the underlying “gotcha” question was “and how will I get a decent education if the Feds are not involved?” (an adult formulated question, I presume):
Question 7: How will lowering corporate taxes bring back jobs to the US where many corporations already don’t pay [income] taxes?
And the “Press Gaggle” ( aka “press availability” or it can be called “the time when reporters and MSM Press can ask silly questions to show their Editors they are actually doing something to earn their expense accounts / salaries”) – added after the jump!
LAST OF THE QUESTIONS!
Question 11: What is your policy on Israel?
Question 12: Will my sick child have to stand in line at a charity hospital under your administration?
Given that it is the day before the NH First in the Nation Primary, that the ‘Grok is NH based, and the number of my recent Ron Paul posts, most of you are probably thinking that I am going to vote for Ron Paul. No, I am not (much to the dismay of my friends that are Ron Paul supporters).
In fact, I still don’t know who I am vote for – given that I originally was backing Herman Cain, I have not yet decided on a candidate (it still surprises me and a lot of my friends – WHAT? You?). I will admit that it will be either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich – but every time I think my thinking has settled down, it shakes again. Regardless of which it is, I am proud of the fact that in addition to the commentary, punditry, and all out bloggish snark we serve up here, we also do straight “citizen journalism” with the use of either recorded or live stream video. All I can hope for is that the hours and hours of time putting up entire events (vs the 30 second sound bite you get from most MSMers) helped you, our readers, to make your decisions based on what you thought of the candidates’ actual words vs the ‘filter’ inserted into the process by the MSM .
Here are some “after event” interviews right after Ron Paul finished his event. Sorry for the poor audio quality of my questions, but it was loud! Most of the interviews went like this: Ron supporter or undecided, domestic policy that attracts you to him, foreign policy item that attracts you. And yes, two of the folks there were undecided (and one from LA)!
First, Barbara (who lives in my home town, as you will see):
This afternoon, the 2012 Presidential Primary campaign came to Church Landing in Meredith, NH where a 500-600 strong contigent of Ron Paul supporters from all over (4 gentlemen standing next to me had come from Holland). TMEW and I arrived about 40 minutes before the start of the event and even at that, we were relegated to the back of the room, so good thing I had brought the “tall” tripod. It is a good thing that the Fire Marshall didn’t come strolling by -he would have shut down the event for overcapacity and when I realized that folks were still trying to come in, I was glad that the “back of the room” also meant “in the corner next to the double exit doors”.
The intensity level: high (is there anything other than that at a Ron Paul event)? The event was a bit different from the normal stump speech in that there was no stump speech from Dr. Paul – only introductions by NH State Senator Jim Forsythe (my state senator and the Ron Paul State Director) and Ron Paul’s son, US Senator Dr. Rand Paul (R-KY). Right after that, Jim started off with asking questions of Dr. Paul followed by questions from the crowd.
This clip is the intro ceremonies and the video of Question 1 is after the jump:
Q1: How has medical practice changed since you started, and how has that change affected your view of Government?
OK, still have this and one more video to put up after this – of Rand Paul who arrived later at the event than originally scheduled. But anyways…. Gov. Sununu spoke after Rick Santorum. Now, over the last three or four years, when Gov. Sununu spoke (like the old financial company ad said) “people listened”. … Read more
And the last of the videos from Friday nite: Senator Rand Paul spoke in his father’s (Congressman Ron Paul) stead: Notice: the cacophony that was in former NH Gov. Sununu’s clip disappeared as he began to speak…
While we tried to provide live video streaming of the event (during which, some member of the MSM kicked our power cord out as we were trying to interview Rick Santorum, and the Intertubes had some comms problems), we always try to back that up with recording video. Thus, I’ll put them up over the … Read more
In addition to Newt, there were plenty more speakers at the event last night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, NH held by the Hillborough County Republicans:
former LA Congressman and Governor Buddy Roemer
Mark Callahan
Fred Karger
Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH, CD2, and no, he is not running for Prez, merely spoke quickly)
Here is the video clip of former LA Congressman and Governor Buddy Roemer:
Former US Senator Rick Santorum was also present at the Hillsborough Republican event. Although the Press surrounding Newt slowed the beginning of the event, they literally SWARMED him afterwards, making it all but impossible for Chair Chadwick to continue with the proceedings. Through the ministrations of Stacy “the Other McCain” and my long term friendship … Read more
