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GraniteGrok

Data Point – Yeah, those Republicans have certainly slowed down spending, eh?

“What cannot go on, won’t” It shows that the Republican takeover in the House has not had a net downward trend – we still are spending too much as the deficit spending continues.  It also shows that Republicans have worked (effectively) alongside Democrats in never really slowing the rise of spending previous to 2010 either. … Read more

Glen Reynolds (“Instapundit”) interviews Mark Levin on his new book: Ameritopia

“Author and radio host Mark Levin joins Glenn Reynolds to discuss the utopian dystopia. Levin wants to know why students are learning about utopian beliefs and not about great philosophers like John Locke? Do utopian visions depend invariably on a totalitarian government? Could Obama’s rainbow to paradise really deliver a tyrannical state? Find out.”   … Read more

Brief thought on the opening of the CNN Prez Debate tonite

I haven’t looked for it yet, but I can guarantee that there will be clips aplenty of how Newt Gingrich unloaded on the prepared, “barely tabloid level” question that CNN host John King tried to bait him with the story / interview of his ex-wife and the subject of open marriage.  You just KNEW that … Read more

Phyllis Woods? Yeah, for sure. Too bad it isn’t going to happen…

I thought that Phyllis Woods might run for re-election as Republican Committeewoman from NH.  I guess not; she just announced that she will not be:

I’m writing today to let you know that I will not seek another term as National Committeewoman. I will, of course, continue to be active in this role for the remainder of my term which ends on September 1st.  Although I originally intended to only serve these five years, at the urging of others I carefully considered another run. While I have enjoyed serving as your representative on the Republican National Committee, in the end I decided to give someone else an opportunity to serve in this position.

It has been a pleasure to get to know volunteers, committee members, and grassroots activists throughout the state.  We have so many dedicated party members who work tirelessly to elect and support our Republican candidates and I have been proud to bring that message back to the RNC.

We continue to enjoy the special honor of holding the first in the nation primary; a process that allows our voters the exclusive benefit of meeting and vetting our candidates on a personal level as they engage in the retail politics that has served our candidates and our country so well. I will continue my work to preserve our primary as a member of the RNC Rules Committee until the end of my term.

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Data Point – Public vs Private pension contribution ratios

And the Public Sector union still haven’t a clue why taxpayers (the Private Sector) is upset at the lack of “equity” for retirement plans?  All one has to do is look at the absolute difference in the ratios.  They always yammer about “fairness”, except it seems, when the fairness tilts way to their side… (H/T: … Read more

Phyllis Woods? Yeah, for sure.

From Distaso: WILL PHYLLIS RUN? Long-time Republican National Committeewoman Phyllis Woods told the state Republican Party executive committee on Monday night that she’ll decide within the next several days whether to run for a second full-term in the post. Keene businesswoman and former Cheshire County Republican Chair Juliana Bergeron announced during the weekend that she … Read more

2012 Presidential Primary – Intensity, Part III

I’ve previously had Parts I and II, but now that the field has narrowed, we’ve gone from graphs to a simple chart.  To be honest, I was very surprised at the results – a couple of thoughts:

  • Very surprised that Mitt & Santorum are the highest rated for intensity.  That said, if you click on I & II above, their intensity scores have actually dropped a tad, but still equal with each other.
  • Huntsman – Given that he’s out (but that this poll was done before he dropped) shows that his support was, well, pretty bad.  And this does not signal good things for Rick Perry with a similar score.
  • Newt – as the Gallup post points out as well, his was the biggest drop since the last time I had looked.

However, all reports agreed that Newt, hands down, was the large winner in this last debate, it will be rather interesting to see if that changes anything here.  And of course, the poll that will mean the most will be Saturday when South Carolina heads to the polls.

Nope, not going to make any predictions.  Sure, it seems Romney like Romney and Santorum are leading right now, but this is why the game is played.

Still, the gap shows that when people pick, they stick for for the top two (mostly) which means there’s a whole of people who may be straying from the others…

(H/T: Gallup )

 

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GrokTV Event: NH Speaker Bill O’Brien Town Hall – Questions!

Quite a bit of the Town Hall was taken up by questions (some pre-written and some from the floor):

  • On Voter ID
  • Would Gov Lynch actually support on a Voter ID bill?
  • How can the private sector assist in the cost of Education?
  • How about Consolidates SAUs (School Administrative Units)?
  • More on Voter Fraud
  • School Vouchers a possibility?
  • Special Education funding (Federal, State)
  • In 40 years, why is Education costing 3 X more but results are worse?
  • The 10 Health Agencies are not working
  • Some House Reps had conflicts over Right To Work – but didn’t recuse themselves!
  • Right To Work “positives”
  • On that “Stealing $499 from your employer is not a crime” bill…
  • Closed Primaries – possibility?

Videos after the jump:

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And sometimes, Voter Fraud is committed not by voters but by Govt: Bedford School Board Lump at the Dump

Project Veritas showed the “seams” of the voting system here in NH could easily lead to Voter Fraud – and bloody hell broke out from the entrenched Political Class that for years sternly told us time after time after time that such a thing could not or would not happen (as if we were mere children sitting behind our wooden desks being given our lessons).

Well, that was for voters, but what about the flip side – those running the voting?

So, who is this guy and what is he trying to accomplish?  The answer is that this is the Bedford School District Clerk, 11/1/2003, who set up a polling place at the dump to give out absentee ballots to “enhance” the vote on a school bond.  Why the outpost at the dump?  In order to get the “privilege” of spending other peoples’ money, they needed > 50% of the voters to turn out to a special meeting so he was letting people “vote” at the dump.  He has a checklist on the table in front of him.

The AG “investigated” and said it was “highly irregular but not unlawful.”  Irregular, eh?  It violated multiple state statutes:

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GrokTV Event: Reception for Ovide Lamontagne (candidate for Republican nomination for NH Gov) – the video

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:

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GrokTV Event: NH Speaker Bill O’Brien Town Hall – Intro Remarks, NH House Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker.

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):

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TEA Party and the Presidential Election – the view should be “and a cherry on top”

I just discovered that a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, with whom I had an phone interview last week, actually used a quote from me in his piece “Front-runner Romney hardly a tea party favorite“:

“Was the tea party movement, if we don’t nominate a conservative tea party candidate, much of a success?” said Skip Murphy, a tea party activist in New Hampshire. “My main goal is to beat Obama. If we stop the progressive administration and start to move toward more conservative values in this government, that’s something. It’s taken years to get where we are, and it’s going to take years to turn this around.”

And he also quoted fellow TEA Party activists Jerry DeLemus, Jane Aitken, Ken Eyring, and Brad Winslow.  In fact, the quote from Brad reinforced what I had been trying to emphasize with the reporter, Wayne Slater :

Brad Winslow, a software designer from Salem, agreed that while the tea party might fall short in putting a staunchly conservative budget hawk in the White House, its impact would be felt in local and state politics.

“We’re changing school boards and we’re getting local officials elected. Certainly at the state level of New Hampshire, we’ve made gains,” he said. “Have we solved our problems with RINOs [Republicans in name only]? … It’s going to take a while to weed that out.”

Get that last part?  About “We’re changing school boards and we’re getting local officials elected.  So true.

The knock on the Presidential Primary campaign is “oh, the TEA Party is broken and old news” because there is no clearly identifiable TEA Party candidate in the running (a la Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).  The Republican Establishment is happy, the Left is saying ‘whew!” and the media is supporting both.  Yet, all three are missing the point of what the TEA Party is and what it is all about.

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