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And the list of folks that came to speak continued at the event to honor Ambassador Joseph Patrone and his wife Augusta. This post has Congressman Frank Guinta (R, NH-CD1), former NH State Rep. Fran Wendelboe and former radio host Jennifer Horn:
Congressman Frank Guinta
Fran Wendelboe, Jennifer Horn after the jump
The list of luminaries that came to the Aviation Museum in Londonderry, NH (on the grounds of the Manchester-Boston Area Airport) to pay their respect to Ambassador Joseph and Augusta Petrone continued. Here are the videos of NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, Harvey Levine (who co-founded VictoryNH with the Ambassador) and NH GOP Chair Wayne McDonald.
NH Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien VictoryNH Co-Founder Harry Levine
There are two folks running in NH State Senate District 7 in which I reside: Republican Josh Youssef and Democrat Andrew Hosmer. We did endorse Josh in the Primary and believe him to be a better candidate still than Hosmer – a Progressive big-taxer centralizing-power Democrat.
While Josh is an entrepreneur, Hosmer married into the family that owns AutoServ – and is the General Manager there. Well, I got a call last night. Actually and to be truthful, TMEW got the call – she beat me to the phone so she had the opportunity to be the confused one – her brow furrowed.
“Who?”, she said. “Brittney Murphy? Are you sure….no, there is no Brittney that live here…..yes, I will be voting in the upcoming election. Um, no, I will not be voting for Andrew Hosmer…g’nite.”
“Skip, would you look at this number, please?”
‘Tis the season of political surveys coming in on the phone. Today, I think I got five, and a whole bunch of hangups which I take to be auto-dials by such companies looking for folks to call later or that with “predictive dialing”, there wasn’t an agent ready when “it” thought there would be when it dialed the number. It is also the time for “mailers”; candidates trying to sell their message like these four Democrat ProRegressives: Kate Miller, Bill Johnson, Sandy Mucci, and MY fav Lisa DiMartino (she of the “my house is in the flight path – there might be a crash” fame. More on that later).
They are running as a team. That’s fine – my pick are the four Conservatives (that happen to be running on the Republican ticket) Colette Worseman, Herb Vadney, Bob Greemore, and my personal friend Kevin Leandro.
Back to the Dems – remember, the electorate (that would be you, the voters) decided that the Democrats were the extremists in 2010 – and told them emphatically that their social issue voting and their absolutely crazy spending were no longer to be tolerated. So, what did these qwazy quad send as a message? That would be on the flip side of the card:
I have never understood why Bill Clinton kept helping out Obama (unless it was to pay off Hillary’s campaign debt) on the campaign trail. Starting today, I think the line of “revenge is a dish best served cold”. Or in this case – on the hot campaign trail. I’ve never understood the marriage that Bill … Read more
Yes, the polls are starting to show that the “Lady Parts” special interest group for Obama are starting their Preference Cascade as well. (H/T: Instapundit)
…Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad??? “How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?” he asked at a press conference with Kuwaiti media personnel. “The Americans have injected their paper wealth into the world economy and today the aftermaths and negative effects of their pseudo-wealth have plagued them.” Look, he … Read more
It seems that the Left is all a-giggle that when Romney became MA Guv, he asked for “binders full of women” when he was in the process of fulfilling a campaign process to have a larger-then-normal-number of women in his Cabinet. Is NOW screaming at the Obama campaign for making sport of Mitt for putting women at the same level as men when considering qualified employees? Nope (like, you really thought that was going to happen??). Look at their post – they’re all in for the Progressive in the campaign (er, that would be Obama). In fact, this is what they said:
…When an audience member asked about equality in the workplace, President Obama rightly pointed to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as one of his signature achievements;
…In fact, many of Romney’s budget policies are job killers for women…
All that LLFPA does (its main component) is do a reset of the statute of limitation and gives the aggrieved a longer time in which to file a claim – which may well be happening in Obama’s own employ! What Romney should have pointed out was this:
Female employees in the Obama White House make considerably less than their male colleagues, records show.
According to the 2011 annual report on White House staff, female employees earned a median annual salary of $60,000, which was about 18 percent less than the median salary for male employees ($71,000).
That article also had this line in it:
Although the ‘Grok is mostly a political / culture blog, I really am a nerd in real life (having spent 30 odd years in the computer industry) and my-now-outdated degrees are in STEM. I stand guilty of not posting this earlier (H/T: to MAKE for reminding me!): Happy Lady Ada day (in honor of the … Read more
(H/T: Instapundit)
Will be tweeting out observations and outraged comments as both the need and spirit strikes. Join us over at our feed; we’ll be using #GROK as our hashtag! Lots of tweets – my fingers hurt. So, who do you think did the best or best in the different topics?
From my friend (and loyal reader) out in Chicago Dayton, Ohio land:
Again, from ‘Grok Loyal reader in Dayton: Social Security benefits increase
Skip – how is it that benefits increase when Middle America has lost 20% of their income over the last 4 yrs? I would have expected benefits to decrease, or at least freeze.
Why should grandma & grandpa get a raise when I got a paycut, my 401K tanked, and my property lost 1/3 of its value? And we won’t mention my GM stock getting wiped out, or the pending tax and healthcare premium increases waiting for me in 2013. Starting to boil over….
As well he should. My response: “Ah yes, the generational redistribution plan!”
Obama – he’s managed the economy oh so well! (H/T: Powerline)
Yeah, I thought it was 82 but here is video:
Since the debate it is clear that there are two camps of different minds:
The insta-polls right after the debate showed the edge Ryan but most of the pundits pretty much said a draw. The question seems to be “battle or war”? Ryan made no major gaffes or mistakes while the optics for Biden, other than for his base, seemed troubling to the undecided – the very people who are being “politically stalked” right now with three weeks to go to Show Time. The polls are still going in the right direction for Romney/Ryan – tomorrow should start seeing the “rolling-averaged” polls showing their results. Then Tuesday – what will Obama do?
From InTrade: InTrade is where you can “bet” on events – this is the graph showing the participants guess that Obama will be re-elected. The uptick corresponds with the Democrat Convention, the downtick corresponds with the first debate with Romney. Mirror Images? (Blue is Obama, Red is Romney) Oh, the Preference Cascade definition? … Read more
This article is kinda / mostly straight up and down…OK, it’s not if you think about it hard. It tries hard to present an objective view but when I look at the examples given, the veil falls. In fact, the examples that are inserted to try to arouse a sympathetic aire concerning the safety net simply either doesn’t begin to think of the important unasked questions, or sweeps them under the rug. Like this one (reformatted):
Jasmine McIntyre is thankful for the social safety net supporting her and her unborn child at the Florence Crittenton home. Without the residential program for at-risk teen moms, she would have scant money, little education and a bleak future. Instead, she is pursuing a job and is ready to enroll in college courses…Living at Florence Crittenton in a sprawling, old house with a dozen other hormonal, pregnant teens is not how McIntyre imagined her life when her parents moved to South Carolina three years ago. She was a student at West Ashley High School when she was sexually assaulted and dropped out of school. However, she went on to earn her GED, and the man she alleges attacked her was arrested. Then she learned she was pregnant (though not from the assault).
She decided to have her baby girl. McIntyre sent the baby to live with her own mother, who had since moved to Ohio, and made plans to move there herself. She was working two jobs when she learned she was pregnant again. With little money and no higher education, McIntyre and her mother worried. What was her future? And what could she offer two small children? Again, McIntyre decided to have the baby. But this time, now 19, she moved into Florence Crittenton, a home for at-risk, unwed young women….Its clients are more likely to stay in school, learn life skills and give birth to healthy babies. For every $1 the program spends, it saves $4 in tax dollars, Executive Director Lisa Belton said.
OK, let’s be blunt – real blunt, because if we shy away from saying the obvious, from asking the hard questions that now are off limits (because of Political Correctness), we’re only dealing with results and not the root causes.
Previously I had chided Kate Miller, a Democrat from Meredith running for the NH House, for kvetching about Republicans and jobs all the while buying her campaign signs from a firm in Massachusetts. At the very end of the post, I linked a comment she made at this post at Politico that plainly told us how she felt about firearms (emphasis mine, reformatted for bloggishness):
He should reopen the debate on assault weapons and commit to leading the way toward their banishment from the hands of ordinary citizens. Here in New Hampshire, our Republican-controlled legislature has just allowed the public and elected officials alike to carry weapons in our state House, on the House floor and in the public gallery. At least one elected official carries a Glock, in fact a pink one, and many have asserted that our state House is now safer. One nine-year-old’s death is one too many. School districts across New Hampshire are considering shelving the state House visits by 4th graders that have been part of the curriculum for decades rather than risk the children getting caught in state House cross fire. President Obama can help us move forward, here in New Hampshire and across the country, by leading the way toward the banishment of these heinous weapons.
Right…”state House cross fire.” Fits in well with her running mate, Lisa DiMartino….but I digress. I got this in the email in-box:
On Friday, October 19, 2012, NRA National President David A. Keene will be at the Londonderry Fish & Game Club to greet fellow NRA Members and talk about the up and coming elections and NRA’s role in supporting candidates that are pro-second amendment.
I am also told there is a possibility that Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre may make an appearance, but there has been no hard commitment on that aspect of Mr. Keene’s visit.
“In effect, the Budget heads are saying “Screw you, Legislature!”
From NH Watchdog (emphasis mine):
(CONCORD) State agencies are hoping for a 19% increase in next year’s budget, according to the Agency Budget Submissions sent to the Governor’s Office this month. The wish lists from the heads of New Hampshire’s 47 Departments, Agencies, and Commissions total just under $12 billion for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015, up from the $10 billion in the state’s current two-year budget.
In addition to their requested budgets, each department head must also submit a “Maintenance Budget” designed to meet fund current programs. They must also submit a proposed budget at 90% of current authorized spending, but that isn’t due until November 15th.
Right. Most of us in the Private Sector (the REAL world) would look at 2% as OK (note to the Public sector – stop being greedy and masking it as “serving our constituents”). The economy still is in the dumpers and these folks think nothing of “hey, we NEED this” at best and “how come they AREN’T thinking of hard it is out here FIRST”? This is the thing about funding Government – unlike the Private Sector where consumers enforce efficiency via Profit / Loss pricing, there are no constraints on Government having to “prove” that they provide / fulfill needs at reasonable costs. Private sector with low or no profitability from not being able to prove that our service or products HELPS YOU? Bankruptcy. Public sector – just keep getting more and more into the hopper, hoping that “friendly” politicians just wave it by. Like these (reformatted from the post):