Articles tagged as

GraniteGrok

First it didn’t work, then it did, then it didn’t….reliable?

Last weekend, I did a couple of forays from the Marriott Downtown where our event was being held over to the RI Convention Center where the NetRoots Nation event was being held.  Well, in registering, I got a “SWAG bag” – a canvas tote that was chock-a-block with Progressive “stuff”.  Well, earlier today, I desperately needed a pen to take a couple of notes with and I remembered that the bag had just the thing I needed.

Problem was, it acted like the title – and the folks that “supplied” it (heh!)!

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GrokTV Special Interview: Josh Youssef for NH State Senate. Question 5:If the State is determining Educational curriculum, how is that local control? Or should it be “suggest” vs “determine”?

It’s been a bit since I posted the last interview question I posed to Josh Youseff – but never fear, we have more to put up!  Here, Josh talks about the role of the State in eduction here in NH (especially with the failure of CACR 12).  The question is, where is the line between … Read more

GrokWatch: Are the Moultonborough Library Trustees shafting the Lakes Region TEA Party?

Incoming and developing: the Moultonboro Library trustees decide they can’t stand the heat – but are throwing out the kitchen instead of themselves?  From Moultonboro Speaks: Moultonboro Public Library Trustees to continue ban on political campaigning in library. At today’s Moultonboro Library Board of Trustees meeting, and without a vote or any discussion among the … Read more

GrokTV Event: Is the EPA / DoT / HUD “Sustainable Communities Initiative” a stealth way to Federalize local communities?

After all, that single piece of “non-binding” paper of extremely nice sounding verbiage is that quintessential “something for nothing” from a Government that is “here to help you”.

Problem is, after now being a political blogger and a (former) Budget Committee member, I have a very jaded eye when ANY level of Government says “we can help!”  as the unstated words are always “but with strings attached”.  Or with this “Sustainable Communities Initiative” that is being pushed onto local NH communities (and nationwide as well), those behind this Progressive Enviro’s wet dream, they are actually denying the depth of the “strings attached” (heh – more like string strung together like a net).

Now, after reading that above paragraph, some of you might be thinking “Yo, Skip, that tinfoil hat is reflecting too much sun into your eyes”.  In this case, however, I wish I was going off a bit half-cocked; I’ve heard of Agenda 21 and other similar stuff, but when Ken Eyring and Eileen of the Southern NH 912 Project were done with their presentation at the Rye Republican meeting, visions of snippets of stuff I’ve been reading for years all started to settle into place.  No longer random stuff – this is an attempt to start transforming how Americans live and work.  We all know the transformations of our energy industry that the EPA is now doing (regulating coal out of existence, demanding more of other sources), Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood has made no secret that his Federal Department programs are meant to decrease our use of mobility and instead, create “walkable” communities.   Sounds nice, but make no mistake – this is not to just make nice neighborhoods  – it is policy to get us out of and get rid of cars.  Remember: while Freedom can be measured by the choices we can make, they are all about the choices they will allow us.  And one they wish to deny us is mobility – “walkable” and public transportation will be the choices (I have another post from last weekend’s foray at  NetRoots Nation coming  soon exactly on this point).

But – I am getting ahead of myself.  Here is Ken and his presentation on this initiative known as the Granite State Future Plan – Part 1 of 3:

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Google Bombing Brett Kimberlin, aka “Velvet Revolution”

Mike has been doing yeoman’s work on keeping up on the Brett Kimberlin story (the “Speedway Bomber” that has been using his non-profits and Internet henchmen / minions to slag and harrass Conservative bloggers (like ‘Grok friend Stacy McCain and RedState’s Erik Erickson) to the point of driving them out of their houses, causing them … Read more

RightOnline 2012……Loading….

I am sitting in the Manchester Airport waiting to board a plane to RightOnline in Las Vegas.  Several other Groksters and NH bloggers are also sitting in airports, or will be, from various places, headed to the same destination.  So with any luck, we’ll have plenty of content coming your way throughout the Weekend. I’m … Read more

EMail Doodlings – “You all owe me”

There are a few people with whom I converse with a lot – some agree with me all of the time, and some agree with me most (but not all) of the time.  This is from a gentleman that used to agree with me hardly at all (in the beginning) but now keeps seeing the actions rather than just passively listening to the words.    He complains (rightfully!) (emphasis mine):

Skip – twice in the last week I’ve heard comments about Social Security that made me realize how far apart our perceptions are.

The first was from an 82 yr old nurse, who bemoaned the fact she wasn’t part of a union and didn’t have a pension, and she was living off of SS and it just wasn’t enough.
Now I realize nurses aren’t treated the best, but I don’t understand why she feels we owe her a pension.  Yeah, she’s a democrat.

The 2nd is from a pastor who wants to convert the amt a congregation pays into his synod mandated pension, into cash so he can pay down his student loans.
Sounds reasonable, except when he was asked about cleaning out his pension and the penalties incurred, he was ambivalent and said not to worry – SS would be there for him.  And he didn’t want it counted as income – he just wanted the congregation to pay down  his loan directly (tax avoidance).  Ambivalent I understand – it wasn’t his money in the pension plan, and he wasn’t going without to plan for his retirement.  Typical pastoral attitude – he expects to be taken care of.  But just how smart is someone with a master’s degree and over $100K in loans, taking a career that pays $1K/wk?  His wife also has a master’s with over $100K in loans, and stays home with a newborn.Yeah, he’s a democrat.

I am under the (misguided?) impression that SS is there to keep old folks out of the food pantry lines, and volunteering at the food pantry instead, for as long as possible.
Never did I suspect it was intended as a retirement or pension plan.  My parents had a different take on money – 10% went to the church, 10% went to their parents, 10% went to savings, and the rest is what they lived off of.  And my parents weren’t Rockerfellers – my dad never made more than the “average” annual income. And yet my parents sent 4 kids to college.  hmmm

thx for letting me vent.

A socialist society is a selfish society – and as Government does more and more (notice that I did not say Society!), people expect and then demand more and more.  And in the Pastor example above, the worth of other peoples’ money and contributions become meaningless and of little worth because, well, it is EXPECTED.  Think of it this way – which is more appreciated?  Something that you know should be part of life, that has become “the norm”?  Or something that someone gives you out of the blue for little reason at all (and for the trifecta – something that you have actually had to go out and earn)?  My response:

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Email Doodlings – on the “Modern” Episcopal Church

Last month, Steve wrote a post on the NH Diocese of the Episcopal Church as it was time to replace retiring Bishop Gene Robinson (the first openly gay Bishop whose ordination pretty much set afire the whole of the Anglican Church).  At the time, the choices were another gay man, a divorced woman, and a heterosexual man.  The post he linked to assured everyone that even the latter was “a friend of the LGBT movement”.

One of our loyal readers decided to take us to task for putting up such a post:

Skip – I’m calling you to task.  This is inappropriate.  But mentioning whether someone upholds all ten commandments would be nice.

I share your frustration – I just think there’s a better way to express it.

OK, confustion time on my part (not a hard state of being for me to be in, somehow):

You can call me to task any time you want – but I point out that I didn’t write the post.  To be honest, I haven’t figured out the conjunction of  your “This is inappropriate.” and “I share your frustration” – they seem to be diametrically opposed.  I get the second sentence (altho an Evangelical Christian, I am saddened by Churches that purport to be Christian but their leadership stray from Biblical teachings.  That’s why, when I was a Deacon in my church, I helped make the decision that we would withdraw from the American Baptist Convention because it was moving away from Biblical teachings to a more “social gospel” that was more in line with pop culture (in our estimation)).

But please explain your first sentence of “inappropriate”.

There are churches whose theology seems to reflect the Political Correctness of the Day.  Instead of using Biblical principles and interpret current events and issues through that lens of absolute standards, they twist those two things around and use that shifting sand of pop culture instead – after all, we can’t be hurting anyones’ feeling for telling them “er, that’s wrong”.  EVERYthing has become a target of the “non-judgmentalism movement”.  Problem is, then, what is right and what is wrong becomes entirely relative.  Is that anyway to deliver a Gospel message, when anything is permissible?

Skip – I mis-spoke – I meant that I wish to take GraniteGrok to task.  [It] seems inappropriate to mention someone’s sexual deviance…
Take the highroad and mention what they could have been measured against, or what they were measured by,  not what the media wishes to distract with.

Well, I was floored by this answer from this normally soberly outlooked friend.  In essence: “let’s not “see” the wrong in those that purport to be our spiritual Leaders and that are supposed to be the examples for their flocks; just see them as they are.  And besides, we can blame the media for this anyways.”  I am not a Calvinist in that I do not believe that everything in our lives is pre-ordained; we, given that we are created in the image of God, have Free Will – we can and do decide our own behaviors (all Progressive philosophy aside that holds that evil corporations and the dreaded 1% manipulate us all to make the decisions they want us to).

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Sometimes, a post needs to go up….and up….and up again. And then remind some that we didn’t think that they didn’t need them….at first.

From Steve’s post:

“They wont all need the Repair kit….but a few of them probably do…and we all know who they are.“

His minimalist Republican Repair kit really is all that is needed.  Really.  Two items.  The only thing I would add would be a STRONG Conservative outlook, demeanor, and action.  Oh yeah, one more thing that seems to be sorely lacking lately: Courage.  People will be willing to go to the mat for that person that embodies all that.  But that person, that singular personality, has to stand strong, stand up for the Right Principles, and when it counts, has made the decision to not compromise.  The example that lately comes to mind is WI Gov. Scott Walker – standing firm on Conservative principles, not backing down, and fighting the good fight.

This past Friday nite at the Future of Journalism weekend event was the first annual Brietbart Awards in honor of Andrew Breitbart who changed the outlook of the Right Blogosphere and was one of the most influential folks that helped to upset the balance between the MSM and the New Media.  He showed that simply showing up, and standing up, can change the direction of the political battles in which we find ourselves.  The first annual Award winners were:

Of course at such an awards night, there are others that are doing the introducing of the winners and such.  In each case, those that did were those that knew Andrew well or had touched their lives in a given way.  Dana Loesch, reporter for Breitbart and conservative radio talk host was one of the speakers and  made an impassioned, emotional speech (and yes, I have asked Erik Telford, VP at Franklin Center (along with the Heritage Foundaton, the hosts for the event) to see if there is video of it).  In it, she had two lines that meshed with the overall theme of the night, in which was that we are not just in a war of ideas, but in a Cold Civil War for the future of America just as real, just as deadly, and will have as much impact on our future that the actual Civil War had going forward.

  • You cannot win by running away
  • We cannot leave any warriors on the battlefield

Practical reasoning – practical advice. The following is not what Dana said, but what struck home as she uttered these principles.

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That WMUR mention last night? Enthusiasm Drop-down?

“I can tell you that there is an enthusiasm drop-down compared to last time around.  Now, what will happen as we get close to the race, who knows?”

In trying to get caught back up from the weekend in Providence, I failed to see this email when it first came in (reformatted here):

Skip —

Was hoping to run into you at tonight’s Guinta kick-off.  Just looking for some perspective on the Congressman from the GOP/Liberty side of things.  If you can give me a call tonight for a phone interview before 10pm, I’d greatly appreciate it.  Sorry for the short notice!  I’m at XXX-XXXX.  Thanks!

Adam Sexton
Reporter, WMUR-TV

To be honest, I knew that Frank’s office was opening, but given that I was away the entire weekend, I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to let TMEW know: “Oh, btw, I’ll be in Manchester tonite”.  There’s times when a man has to know his [wife’s] limits, but more realistically, it was that enthusiasm gap – I just could not pump myself up to overcome the inertia to just stay home.  Adam has proven himself to me to be a fair reporter so I called him up and chatted for a little while and then he recorded a couple of sound bites.  Yes, the one that went over air was indicative of my current outlook.  A lot of TEA Party type folks got behind him in the last cycle – and so did GraniteGrok.  Expectations were high when he took office – me, the other Groksters, and a lot of those Liberty and Freedom activists that worked their butts off to the point that Frank beat Carol Shea-Porter in her hometown.

We activists promised that even if he voted “wrong” according to the Dems and the Republican Leadership, we’d have his back.  Promised.

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WMUR Closeup for 6/10/2012: in which NH Rep David Hess decides to widen the chasm in the Republican Party by insulting it on TV

Unbelievable – do the Establishment Republicans feel THAT secure that Hess can openly insult NH Seth Cohn on TV – and all those that ascribe to many of the same stances?  I am sorely wishing to violate my own standards to use a four letter Yiddish word that ends in “z” – but I shan’t (cute way not to violate my “adult themes, kid friendly rule; maybe I should have Seth explain it to him).

One of the big problems within the NH GOP is this divide: why be a Republican when you won’t speak, act, or vote like one?  Given that the TEA Party / 9-12ers / Libertarian part of the Party gave new spirit in the last election and a new attitude, why are you going to take them publicly to task?  Do you REALLY think that you can “muscle” votes out of these folks just on your whim?  Are you nuts?  Or do you have so little sense of the movement that you have forgotten that the TEA Party started out hating the Republicans first because they thought you all knew better than what you showed?

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Dispatch from Future of Journalism Summit / NetRoots Nation foray – Obligatory rag-tag Occupy Providence post.

OK, OK, I know – from the postings thus far, it may seem that I went down for one event but spent my time over at the other: NetRoots Nation.  Non, mon freres!  Frankly, given the drubbing that the Democrats, theLeft, the Unions, and the rest of the associated fellow travelers, that yearly collection of collectivists was a dim bulb affair. Not so much that I am CALLING them dim bulbs (heh!) but that the overall “vibe” of the place (Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, RI) was not exactly joyous and effervescent. Sure, smiles could be seen (like when friends see friends after a space of time).  But dismal is a good word.  Downer is a better word.

Denial, in what happened and WHY, is probably the best descriptor of the overall mood (where as, Delight could be used for the attendees of the Franklin Center / Heritage Foundation event – but more on that actual set of activities later).

Back to adjectives: Dense.  Yeah, outside the RI Convention Center, across the street, was the most dejected bunch of dingleberries I’d seen in a long time; how the Occupy Wall Street movement has fallen.  Frankly, there is little difference from these folks and the typical Skid Row inhabitants.  And in their rally, it showed.

We had just finished with another activity (heh! In a later post!) when all of a sudden, we heard a lot of yelling, so the group of us quickly went to the front atrium.  Problem: by the time that we arrived, security had already removed them.  However, one of Jim Hoft’s (The Gateway Pundit) folks caught the “mic check” session of the OWS folks pleading with the rest of the NetRoots to come and join them in a march (“hey, we’re the 99% – and so are you!  You are us, and us is you” supplication):

Well, by that time, I got there, spun up the camera, and taped for a while (after the jump).  Two observations:

  • OWS has turned out to be nothing than the “storm troopers of the moment” for the Left.  Like Cindy Sheehan who protested President Bush, especially at his ranch in Texas), once their purpose was done, so was the Left with them.  Sadly, it seems like the OWS folks haven’t figured out that they’ve become mostly tools that have been left by the side of the sidewalk as the only folks that heeded the call of OWS Providence were folks like me with a camera.  I should have gone and spent my time elsewhere.
  • The last scene’s commentary seems appropriate for the entire movement.

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Dispatch from Future of Journalism Summit / NetRoots Nation foray – Van Jones Book Signing Part 2

Well, of COURSE I bought the book as well.  Why not?  Now, some might say “Hey, you’re funding the enemy!”  Yeah, a few shekels will make it into Van Jones’s wallet.  But I also read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals for TWO specific reasons:

  • Sun-Tze: know your enemy
  • I almost got Alinsky’d before I knew what it was (Hey, Zandra Rice-Hawkins -> #FAIL)

I have no intention of allowing myself to get “Jones’d” in the future; as my high school Principal said over and over and over (again) over the loudspeaker for the morning greeting: forewarned is forearmed (and in politics, that last word has multiple definitions).  He’s a major player in this engagement  between philosophies – and make NO mistake, we have been in a philosophical war here in the US for quite some time. His is an ideology, shared by much of the White House denizens and President Obam.  It is one that is an outlook that is more communism than individualistic, more Marx than Founding Fathers. In fact, I think it could be safe to say, as was discussed a lot at the Future of Journalism Summit dinners, workshops, and informal gatherings, that this struggle we are in IS a Cold Civil War.  Just was with the war with Communism (which, being between nation-states, did have a few “hot” proxy wars – more on this later.

In the mean time, here’s video of me getting the book signed:

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Dispatch from Future of Journalism Summit / NetRoots Nation foray – Van Jones Book Signing Part 1 – Update

When I put up the video of Dana Loesch and Jim Hoft, I totally forgot about a real important point until I went back to GatewayPundit to check on something (emphasis mine):

It seems like it was just yesterday that I broke the news here on Gateway Pundit that Van Jones signed 9-11 Truther documents blaming Bush for 9-11. This revelation forced Obama’s Green Czar to resign from his position in the Obama White House two days later. They talked about Van’s departure on FOX News at the time.

So it was a real pleasure to finally meet commie Van Jones.

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