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GraniteGrok

Hurricane Sandy – NH is out of power

Much worse in other states, to be sure.  But with 1.3 million people in the state, almost a quarter million customers are out of power.  Including many of the Groksters, so consider this your “blogging will be light today” notice. Just from PSNH, a map of their outages: Pray for the folks in along the … Read more

NH Guv race – what’s the polling saying?

There’s LOTS of folks doing polls this year. I know this personally as every day I am getting between 2 and 8 calls / day wanting to know what I think (silly people, asking this ordinary schlub from Central New Hampsha, as if it mattered – heh!).  Of all the polls, I generally trust Rassmussen the most as they consistently ask likely voters versus just adults or registered voters.  Likely voters are the important ones, as they, of the three groups, will actually get into the car, drive to the polls, and actually cast their opinions to be tallied – remember, our voting percentages are nothing to raise a “Huzzah!” about in the vast majority of elections.  So getting those that do so give more accurate results.  Not only that, the others often end up with likely voters in their “election season ending” polls but use the other groups earlier on (it’s cheaper). Thus that is why you start seeing all of the polls start to congregate around the same numbers a week or two before the election – like we are doing now.

So, here in NH, what does Rasmussen say about the top races?

  • Romney over Obama: 50% to 48% (500 Likely Voters on 10/23, with 95% confidence level).  Margin: +/- 4.5%
  • Ovide over Maggie The Red: 48% to 46% (500 Likely Voters on 10/23, with 95% confident level).  Margin: 4.5%

Disclosure – I got called for this poll.  Also, I notice that Rasmussen also has 1% choosing another candidate.  Given the large number of Libertarians and rabid Ron Paul supporters in NH, I have consistently raised an eyebrow as to this low number (which has varies 1 – 5%). That said, it’s a toss up.  I have not “gotten out” this season like I have in the recent past (for a number of personal reason), so I’m not so sure that I have a handle on this one.  Certainly the Margin of Error for both says “Toss Up!”.  Certainly the absolute blizzard of political ads by both sides has injected name recognition into peoples minds (conscious or not) so I don’t think that this will be THE factor.

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EPA and Hurricane Sandy – yeah, sure “they’re here to help” (Not!)

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

– President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09

In this case, Ronaldus Magnus’s words, with Hurricane Sandy about to make landfall, come to mind: “Government is not the solution to our problem, it IS the problem”.  He was talking about the Jimmy Carter “malaise” that permeated the American psyche at the time – I’m only talking about gas.  No, not the drilling, the refining part – more of the “how do they expect me to transfer gas with this stupid EPA Mandated gas container spout???  This is ‘helping’??”  Now, what are most people thinking about doing with gas containers right now?  Well, yesterday I saw a lot of folks leaf blowing and cutting their lawns – with gas power blowers and tractors.  My intent, however was different – having bought some new containers a bit ago and filled them up, it was time to top off the new 4X4 and get the new generator ready and then fill them back up again.  That part was fine – just take off the spouts and fill them up.

Sidenote:  sigh….I just turned the age where the pharmacy no longer puts the “kid-safe” tops on my med bottles.  Nice to see that the EPA decided that we’re never too old, and never responsible enough,  to be able to take the cover off of a commonly used liquid container in an easy fashion – they don’t trust us!

Life used to be easier, years ago.  If you needed to keep some gas on hand for the lawnmower, the leaf blower, the tractor, ( generator!!) and other misc. small gas engine powered implements, you used one of these.  Simple design – when not in use, the spout is kept inside.  Go to use it, reverse it AND undo the “air hole” at the back so that the gas doesn’t do the  “chug-lug” that makes it hard to pour that stuff out be eliminating the partial vacuum that happens. Then the EPA decided that they just HAD to “improve” our lives  in the name of our safety and to “protect the environment”.  And this ended up being the result:

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Once again, the Dems role out kids as Political Fodder

You can tell when the Dems are either at the top of their form or are scared out of the wits.  With either extreme, they go back to the old trick in their book – roll out “the kids”.  Now, the Adults in the Room (pretty much, Conservatives and Libertarians) are pretty much disgusted with this, but the Dems keep thinking that this is smart politics – playing on Society’s and parents’ emotions.  If “Forward!”doesn’t get to you …”It’s for the kids” should.  After all, they are our future (and paying for our Social Security checks and checking us into our final nursing homes, right?) as if that is supposed to cover all ills – and ideologies.  Sure, we want to protect our kids and provide for them, but for Dems, they often are just mere political props.

Sidenote: “FORWARD!”  –  The new Obama campaign “phrase” updated with “!” as if that is supposed to make it more imperative to vote for Obamessiah.  You know what it makes me think of immediately?

  • A military commander urging his troops onward to battle to protect the homeland.  Imagine that: voting for Obama is Patriotism itself!
  • Didn’t somebody back in 1917 start using that as well?

Like here:

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Now THIS is a true meaning of “Honor”

When your well being plays no role.  At all.  No Benghazi-Gate here.  (H/T: RedState) Update from Ace of Spades HQ comment:  “Think of this the next time we see a photo of Obama with his feet on the desk in the Oval office.”

Data Point – Free Trade effect on Economy, Hunger, Environment

“Contrary to the claims that “unfair” foreign competition hurts the jobs at home, the unemployment rate actually fares better in times of higher trade deficits. Bryan Riley and former Ambassador Terry Miller provide further clarification:  When the trade deficit increases, the unemployment rate decreases, and vice versa. For example, in 2009, the U.S. trade deficit … Read more

Data Point – Rasmussen

  Every day, Rasmussen has been polling likely voters (not just adults, not just registered, but LIKELY voters) as to their picks for Prez.  Now, like the stock market, today’s result is cannot be held to be tomorrow’s result.  However, when you start piling up all the other polls (but throwing those out that are … Read more

Data Point – 2012 Q3 GDP

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today that Q3 GDP ticked upward to 2.0 percent, after clocking in at 1.3 percent in Q2. But that headline number gives only limited amount of information. Here’s a more detailed breakdown from today’s BEA report. It could have been worse: Personal consumption improved to 2.0 percent in the … Read more

“Coquettish waif discussing electoral virginity” – the sequels are coming

That Steve – he certainly has his way with words, eh?  The video that Steve posted of Lena Dunham has received all kinds of attention today from the Right side of the blogosphere – and none of it positive.  Pretty much, it has made the faux Julia by the Obama campaign look tame by comparison.  For all of the sturm und drang by the Left about the War on Women by those of us on the Right, isn’t this much worse treatment?

Like many, when I first saw it, I was speechless – how much lower can these folks go?  Equating voting with sex?  Really?  I know that most would consider me to be a prude – no sex before marriage and only with your spouse.  So to listen to a young lady making double entendres in a loving voice towards Obama – and this is supposed to be Presidential?  Contrast that with George Bush who always wore a jacket and tie in honor of the Office.  Who really has the honor?

Obama saying that voting for him is like giving up one’s virginity? With him?  No, not all the words are there – but that is the intent, full on.

Hip, cool – and promiscuous with a married man.   I grew up before the “hook up” culture – I consider it part of the coarsening of the culture, an abandonment of most sense of morality, and a total lack of self-respect for oneself.  Really?  Sex for voting?  And this presents Obama….how?  And what about Michelle – his wife?  Will this go down as “I did not have sex with that woman” as part of his legacy?  The campaign set this table – and then invited everyone to have a seat.

Anyways, the parodies that you expected are now inbound (and frankly, Steve Crowder does a better than Lena at this…):

And this works well too(#ObamaAbstinence):

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Common Core won’t improve education

This is a letter I wrote to the Nashua Telegraph.  Their version was edited.   Here is the original.
When President Obama touts “education reform” as one of his accomplishments, most people do not realize that he is referring to the new Common Core State Standards being implemented nationwide, including in New Hampshire.

Governor Lynch and the New Hampshire Board of Education brought this Trojan horse to our public schools.

Common Core was supposed to raise academic standards. However, they are not world class standards but a race to mediocrity.

Under Common Core, by the end of eighth grade students will be two years behind their international counterparts in math. High school graduates will achieve only a seventh-grade reading level.

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Guest Post by NH House Rep. Greg Hill – “Dems misrepresent the education tax credit program.”

 Dems misrepresent the education tax credit program. I attended a candidates’ night last evening in Northfield and listened carefully to the Democratic candidates for state representative and senate. They all opposed the new education tax-credit program (and, oddly, spoke out against voucher programs as well, which aren’t even available to NH parents). The reason the … Read more

Once again, feckless GOPpers hand a Political Correctness club to Democrats and scream “BEAT ME WITH IT!”

So, wasn’t it a horror show when the Left decide to crucify Whoopie Goldberg for her “rape rape” comment – wasn’t that just so trivializing it?  Talk about a War on Women!

“I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and when they let him out he was like ‘You know what this guy’s going to give me a hundred years in jail I’m not staying, so that’s why he left.'”

Oh wait, Whoopie is not a Republican – she’s a protected minority with lots of cash, a huge platform, so the Left never even gave it a thought.  And she was talking about Roman Polanski – convicted girl-rapist (girl, being way underaged) – protecting one of the Left’s own.

Sidenote: Oh yeah, before I forget – just in the off case that the NH Democrat Party wants to accuse us again of violating the Left’s their double standard for enforcing Political Correctness?  With former NH Dem Presser Harrell gone home, I guess that leaves Collin Gately (FlapGummer’s replacement) if you want to start something, we’ll certainly oblige you.  In fact, we’d rather enjoy it.

Once again, Republicans have proven themselves to have spines of Silly Putty that have the property of bending backwards at the first sign of Lefty heat and mockery.  And I’m afraid, it’s epidemic amongst the Political Class on the supposed Right.  Stand up to the mullahs over them getting the Bomb?  Check.  Standup to Obama over the budget, sequestration, and cutting of the military?  Check.  Accused of being Politically Incorrect over Life issues by the MSM that hates their guts already?  They fold faster than a deck of cards thrown into acid.  These Political Cowards always seem to forget that the Dem Bullies (who, pretty much, only want to see these high level R Politicos do the Scared Chicken Dance faster than one of Obama imaginary High Speed Trains) do this for fun, for sport, and giggles.

Yeah.  Check.  Double time it if during election season.  Thy name is Cowardice.

“Leave a man behind on the battlefield”? Ask a Marine.  Ask a SEAL.  Ask a Green Beret. 101st / 82nd Airborne.  Ask any other elite military member.  Heck no. You don’t even need to ask the question – it’s embarrassing to even think of asking them.

But it’s easy for an Establishment Republican on the PR battlefield – they can run away faster than I can chug a can of Dew on a 110 degree day.  They act like they are cleaner than a bride in her white dress.  Heaven forbid that a spot of mud even think about staining it with even a spec of mud – after all, THEY are the center of the stage, right?  Like Kelly Ayotte (sigh, my Senator (R-NH), amongst others) are doing to US Senate candidate Richard Murdock.  So, what did he say that was so toxic to restart the herd of the helplessly incourageous (emphasis mine)?

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Paul Ryan on Poverty

“The mindset behind this approach is that a nation should measure compassion by the size of the federal government and how much it spends….The problem is, starting in the 1960s, this top-down approach created and perpetuated a debilitating culture of dependency, wrecking families and communities.”

“There’s a vast middle ground between the government and the individual.  Our families and our neighborhoods, the groups we join and our places of worship – this is where we live our lives.  They shape our character, give our lives direction, and help make us a self-governing people.”

From Paul Ryan’s speech of yesterday (courtesy of Washington Examiner via Heritage).

 I’ve listened, for years now, that we have to help the poor, the misfortunate, and those well off than ourselves.  Actually, I’ve heard that message almost since I became “self-aware” – time after time hearing that from my parents, my family, and in church.  According to them, it was a moral imperative.  And I still, to this day, agree with it wholeheartedly.  It was up to me – that *I* had to be the one to personally do the reaching out, to personally roll up the sleeves, to personally unload my wallet.

In other words – the message was one of personal responsibility – that the Sermon on the Mount was meant for ME; that Jesus’s admonish of “to the least” was directed to my heart, my compassion, and my willingness to put away my idea of what was important and to just go and do.  And “do” was not something to be outsourced to others – it was, and remains, a personal responsibility, an outgrowth of a Christian heart and a demonstration of obedience to His Commandments of a personal transformation and willingness to walk in His footsteps.

It was never a command to “outsource that responsibility to unknown people in Government to do it for me”.  Yet, that is what our current society has done – especially those Progressives who believe that ONLY government programs can suffice.  In fact, during a recent John Stossel program, the head of NYC’s Human Resources Administration Robert Doar openly and publicly stated that it was his determined opinion that charity could NEVER do what Government could.  And Big Govt folks, in area after area after area, have used the size, money, and coercion of the State to crowed out almost all of the formerly private charitable organizations and have co-opted many of those that remain with money – with strings attached (in essence, making them nothing more than a further outreach of governmental bodies and kingdoms).

And most Progressives agree – yet, even having spent over $20 Trillion on the “poor” since the War on Poverty began, and now almost $1 Trillion annually, is that really the solution?    I disagree vehemently – the Progressive intent, started in full measure by FDR, has not had the result of that intent.  In fact, it has been a failure by the easiest of measures – has all that money actually solved the problem?

The answer, plain and simple, is no.  And Progressives continue to shriek that decreasing Federal and State budgets “will hurt the poor” – a self-continuing circle (and one in which, if you simply look at Joe Biden’s charitable contributions on his tax returns as a typical example, show little personal concern in what used to be a personal responsibility).

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