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GraniteGrok

Obama’s move to a more Socialistic state – a warning from someone who grew up in a socialist state

“America’s wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive with badmouthing success and you take away the wealth that helps us take care of the needy. Yes, in socialism the rich will be poorer — but the poor will also be poorer. People will lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs.”

A refugee from socialistic Hungary during the Cold War, Thomas Peterffy knew not just the economic ills of such a system but the moral decay of the human spirit of such a system.  This is the system that Obama and the other Democrat Socialists of America wish to put upon this nation.  Equality is one thing – under the law as the Founders believed true Freedom must have.  But they are looking to have a forced material equality, a forced “opportunity” equality, which forces the State to not promote equality for some but rather, establishes a faux equality by removing that very same freedom from “those that do not deserve it” or from those “that are fortunate” or those “that have more”.  In short, taking from those that have actually used the opportunity that America (til now) has afforded to everyone.

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Data Point – Social Security is going in the dumper (Too many Boomers)

The old Blue Social model, based on Progressive philosophy that Government is best suited to take care of people (as opposed to family, neighbors, and friends), was built on two assumptions: Population growth would always continue (e.g., big families so as to tax Generation B for the benefits to be given to Generation A) The … Read more

Ford you say? All that talk about Obama saving the domestic car companies?

This caught my eye over at Instapundit:

FORD HELPED MOST BY GM, CHRYSLER BAILOUTS? Bet you didn’t see this coming! A new Rasmussen survey of consumer sentiment finds that a clear majority of those interviewed are more favorably disposed to buying a Ford product because the famous automaker did NOT go hat-in-hand to Washington for a bailout in 2008, as did General Motors and Chrysler. Since it’s about my two favorite issues, cars and politics, I, of course, have an opinion on these developments!

The Rasmussen poll is here.  I tend to agree.  My second car (but my first car love) was my ’67 Camaro.  My mom thought it was a “nice little car”; she had never heard the phrase “muscle cars” (or never let on that she did).  The new incarnation of it looks really nice but I’d never consider buying it new just on the idea that Obama, with his sham GM bankruptcy, gave the UAW lots of  $$ already (stiffing the Sr. Bondholders in what has turned out to be just the first onset of his “Rule of Lawlessness”) so why should I give them more?

Well, living where we do, on the side of a mountain here in central NH where it snows and ices up often, we really needed to go back to having at least one 4wd vehicle in the family. So I, like those in the poll, went to a Ford dealer to start looking at new cars – even though I had loved our Suburban (and for other reasons, kicking myself for having sold it off a year ago and downsized to one car, our Saab 9-5) and started looking seriously at a Ford Edge.

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View this from the phrase: “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen”; Democrats gunning for a Limited Government Warrior

It looks that ‘Grok friend, Mark Warden, has been put under the gun sights of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (from Blue Hampshire, emphasis mine), an out of state Democrat organization whose only purpose is to get BIG Govt Democrats elected to State Houses (gee, and I keep hearing that Democrats are forever railing against “outside money” – until it suits their purpose like all the gay money that came in to first get civil unions passed in NH and then had that replaced by gay marriage) :

New Hampshire House District 39 (Hillsborough)
Aaron Gill (Grassroots pick)
Status: Republican Incumbent

Why this Race Matters: Unlike the New Hampshire House’s many multi-member House races, Hillsborough District 39 is a one-on-one matchup featuring Democratic community banker and Deering Conservation Commission officer Aaron Gill, who faces an incumbent Republican who moved to the state as part of the so-called Free State Project, which encourages Libertarians to move to New Hampshire in order to remake that state’s government in the image of Libertarian Party ideology. (The project targets New Hampshire, specifically, because of its relatively small electorate.) The outcome of this race could show whether conservative-leaning districts like this one are “in play” for New Hampshire Democrats, as well as whether the Free State Project’s unique brand of conservatism has staying power among normal New Hampshire voters.

Well, well, well .  For all of the fulminations by the Democrats the last few years, railing against “the banksters” (remember, the Dems were all in for Occupy Wall Street bashing the banking 1% and have always blamed the banks for causing the financial crisis).

So, the DLCC (as well as the NH Dem Party) is setting this up as a Progressive / BIG Government candidate vs a Limited Govt / BIGGER Citizen legislator.  We continue to see the redefinition of the Proper Role of Government:

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As a counterbalance to the Entitlement mentality,

Yesterday I put up this post where a caller to a talk show made it clear that her expectation (demand?) is that others are responsible for taking care of her and her children.  There was no discussion of voluntarily helping her, only the vagueness of Hillary’s “it takes a village” – in this case, the village WILL pay for my family because I had more kids than I can support.

Therefore, a palate cleanser is in order – Senator Rand Paul addressed this mentality back when Obamacare was being debated and he went right to the heart of the matter:

Bonus: I STILL love the video of Rand giving the you know what to an Dept of Energy flack over toilets:

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Muslim Brotherhood: What does Maggie Hassan think of her husband’s Islamic radical friends that he brings to Philips Exeter Academy?

Update: Erik Erikson has absolutely lambasted and quartered the incestuous relationship that is the Mainstream Media and Democrat apparatchik within the DC beltway mentality.  The first post was a corker – the second has this devastating bit to it.  While he’s talking about the intersection of the Uppity Lefty Media and the Uppity Lefty Democrats, it outlines exactly the intent of the New Hampshire Herald’s intent:

Believe it or not, many Americans in this country would have a hard time believing that a person could be married to an abortion rights activist without being okay with that activism. And those Americans would more likely than not conclude that the reporter married to the abortion rights activist, the Democratic operative, the Joe Biden communications director, etc. share their spouse’s liberal world view. If we are honest about it, we’d have to admit that in most cases the Americans concluding that would be absolutely right.

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“Democrat Maggie Hassan is running for the most powerful office in New Hampshire. But there are emerging questions as to whether she’s got the right sense of judgment necessary for the office stemming from her husband’s ties with radical Islamists, many of whom belong to organizations with terrorist connections.

…Did Maggie Hassan know what her hubby was up to, and did she approve of it?  Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American Islamic Relations spoke to PEA assemblies in 2006 and 2009.  CAIR was created by the terror organization Hamas.  Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel.  CAIR has funneled large sums of money to Hamas.  Among those tied to CAIR are Ismail Royer, Bassem Khafagi, Ghassan Elashi, Musa Abu Marzook, Imam Siraj Wahaj and Rabih Haddad – all considered to be jihadist promoters.

For the record, CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation Trial, the largest terrorism trial in American history.  The Egyptian born Bedier has a longstanding history of demonizing Israel and making excuses for Hamas and Hezbollah.  Nancy Khalil of the Muslim American Society also spoke at PEA on March 16, 2010.  According to federal documents on terrorism, the MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.”

It is the Muslim Brotherhood that has now taken over power in Egypt.  It has advocated for a one world caliphate encompassing all countries and all people.  Advocates have stated that a Muslim flag will one day fly over the White House and that Shari’ah Law (the severely restrictive law governing all daily actions) will be the law of the United States.  It is antithetical to the US Constitution (we are judges to be infidels simply because we free people create our laws – blasphemy to true Islamists). In their world, our State Motto would be sorely tested “Live Free or Die” – the true believers would make that happen (just look at what the Taliban is now doing in both Pakistan and Afghanistan).

It seems that Philips Exeter Academy likes playing host to these types of folks.  The New Hampshire Herald (written by Chris Anu) came out with this story on the 5th – well done with lots of references to Islamofascist groups and individuals and linkages between them all.  And all of them lead back to one NH point – Philips Exeter Academy where Maggie “The Red” Hassan’s husband is the headmaster there.  While there are a number of knocks on her about not knowing the tribulations that property tax paying folks, property owners trials, and the like (she and her husband live on campus thanks to Philips Exeter Academy), this is an article of another type – it raises a lot of questions in our minds “where does the loyalty lie“?  She certainly is a Progressive – while she may mention the Constitution, her values are not “strict Constitutionally” based (else, why would she even CONSIDER creating legislation dubbed MaggieCare (whereby all the hospitals in the state would effectively lose control to an unelected and unaccountable board that was also self-funding by taxing those it “oversees”) and MaggieSpeech (whereby any political speech effectively would have been strictly regulated by the State). Totalitarian – just like Shari’ah Law.  Read those names again

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THUD! – that’s the sound of the second shoe falling on Obama’s paid campaign minions…

Steve had the first one video here.  And now a second one has popped up from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas with more paid Democrats laughing (yes, laughing!) at folks talking about committing voter fraud (er, the operative word as to the attitude of Obama’s campaign operatives was “Sweet!”).  You see, making suggestions on how to accomplish this just never seems to enter the heads of these wondertwits that they are aiding and abetting a felony-in-the-making.

And it further proves the long standing allegations of the Right that voter fraud does exist and it mostly acts like an iceberg – very little of it is seen:

As opposed to the earlier type of simply voting in the stead of someone else at a given polling place, this is more insidious.  While here in NH there is a relatively new system that links towns together so that if someone moves into a “recipient” town the “donor” town gets a notification, it doesn’t talk all that well to other states.  Which, as we can see, is the type of voter fraud outlined in this video.

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So, how effective are Teachers of today vs Teachers of 1970?

Only the same (but paid a whole more) – one would have thought in 40 years, much better.  In the Wall Street Journal:

“Let’s hire another hundred thousand math and science teachers,” said President Obama…

…“For decades we have tried to boost academic outcomes by hiring more teachers, and we have essentially nothing to show for it. In 1970, public schools employed 2.06 million teachers, or one for every 22.3 students, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics. In 2012, we have 3.27 million teachers, one for every 15.2 students. Yet math and reading scores for 17-year-olds have remained virtually unchanged since 1970, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress. The federal estimate of high-school graduation rates also shows no progress (with about 75% of students completing high school then and now). Unless the next teacher-hiring binge produces something that the last several couldn’t, there is no reason to expect it to contribute to student outcomes. . . . Parents like the idea of smaller class sizes in the same way that people like the idea of having a personal chef. Parents imagine that their kids will have one of the Iron Chefs. But when you have to hire almost 3.3 million chefs, you’re liable to end up with something closer to the fry-guy from the local burger joint.”

Problem is, in this economy, not even the kids aren’t getting the jobs where the tail end sentence is “Want fries with that”? The emphasis has been wrong headed on focusing on just class sizes – and that meme aided and abetted by Teachers Unions everywhere (e.g., more teachers = more dues = more political power).  What the Unions DON’T want to take center stage is that a more primary determinant of student performance is actually the quality of the teacher in front of the class.  Yes, much more Political Correctness to deal with (and whose fault is THAT!) and regulations and paperwork (thanks, govt and busybodies everywhere!).

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Obama.com – ‘Made In China’ – Part 3

I did not know that Erik Erikson was Russian!  Heh!  But adding onto Steve and Mike’s posts about how the Obama campaign is deliberately allowing “holes” in credit card processing for donations.  Well, Erik of RedState decided to push the envelope on seeing if his “inner Russian” could help Obama to the wire (reformatted, emphasis … Read more

Can’t put your $$ where yer mouth is, eh Kate Miller (DEMOCRAT candidate for NH House, Belknap 2)??

Kate Miller 2012 campaign signEver since this uber-Progressive from Meredith, NH got the boot from the NH House two years ago, I have had to put up with her screeds in the local papers about how NH Republicans have abandoned NH Values, how everything that has been done the last two years, how they hate the poor, hate seniors, hate the disadvantaged, have cut the budget to where it hurts the disadvantaged, they hate education, and….well, you get the idea.  TEA Party, Free Staters….extremists all and none of them care about anyone else but themselves (those selfish bastards!).  Words that have warmed the cockles of NHDP Chair Buckles, I would presume.

Frankly, she’s come across as an angry, sore loser that hates the limitations of the NH Constitution as well as the US Constitution.  Your money is her money, and her interests in redistributing your formerly private property (the result of your labor) trumps your needs to provide for your family.  She’s all about pushing that 47% to nose bleed levels.   It has been a constant litany from this Progressive harpie on jobs – you know, the kind that the Dems weren’t interested: YOU Republicans promised us jobs!  What are you doing that social stuff – that’s not JOB related!!  Why are you cutting that tax – that’s not JOB related!!  Where’s the jobs, jobs, jobs!

Never mind that the Dems didn’t campaign on social issues, but they sure legislated on ’em.  Jobs became an afterthought.  But one would think that with so much emphasis on her delusional daydream that Dems would do FAR better on creating jobs, she’d, you know, actually put her words to effect and helping a NH company with a NH job?

Oh Wait – what’s in that lower right hand corner of her sign?

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Hypocrisy: Thy name be Al Gore (yet another Progressive)!

Since the Kyoto Climate Change treaty was rejected by the US Senate (and this uber-Progressive getting “the boot from the Oval Office” (losing his election)), we’ve had to put up with his (environmental) screeds in the national papers (and TV) about how Republicans (and Conservatives and Climate Deniers)  that if we all didn’t don his brand of hairshirt, drive electric Tonka trucks, use only 1 lightbulb, and the like, that the “planet’s fever” would destroy the planet.  Deniers: hate the poor, hate seniors, hate the disadvantaged, hate Bambi, and want the Greedy Capitalists to rule the world.  Profit is a dirty!

…Al Gore also talks to investors. Since 2007, the former Vice President in Bill Clinton’s administration has been preaching the benefits of putting your money where his mouth is: Alternative energy.

But if Al Gore has any message for investors today, it might very well be this: “Stay the hell away from alternative energy!”

 Not that he would say so. At least out loud.

Climate policy is still firmly on the political agenda and corporate climate-related activity is increasingly strategic. Innovation is driving costs down and improving the business case for low carbon and high efficiency solutions.

Oh…wait!  That’s what he says…..but what is his Venture Capital fund, Generation Investment, actually doing?

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Obamacare and the IRS – such a cute couple

So much for Democrats wanting to protect your privacy – I guess, like all of the anti-war protesters when Bush was President, the privacy advocates have all gone silent in support of The Won.  It just goes to show that for almost all Progressives, it’s all for show – if they truly believed in what they have told us, they’d be marching on DC.  Much time and energy has been spent on the Individual Mandate and the IPAB (aka “the death panels”).  Well, here’s a part that I didn’t know – or realize:

The IRS will also determine who is eligible for taxpayer-financed subsidies to purchase health care on the exchanges that will be set up in every state. Anytime anyone’s situation changes — a raise, a new job, a move to another state — that person will be required to report it to the IRS for the purpose of recalculating their eligibility.

Got that??  Generally when you have a serious change in life, and you have to report that event to…Mom.  Or Dad.  Or some other loved one or friends.

So, what have the Democrats wrought here?  That’s right – just ONE MORE STEP in having Government be your family (like it or not).  So, how’s that gonna feel – literally having a brand new Big Brother (again, brought to you by Democrats as not one Republican voted for this Liberty crushing, 2700 page fiasco.  Why is it beginning to feel like it should be called not Obamacare but ObamaBigBrother or ObamaJail ?  How’s it feel to now know that the IRS is now an intimate member of your family?  Now that you’ve gone “all growed up”, Democrats like President Obama and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)  and (at the time of Obamacare passage) Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) and Hodes(D-NH) decided that you STILL needed a set of parents – and they thought it just a dandy idea that it be the folks that “touch” you every April 15th (there has to be a Democrat joke in there somewhere…)

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