Londonderry Times publisher Deb Paul has been dragged through the court system thanks to detractors around town who are less than enthusiastic about her refusal to toe their line. This Wednesday, a judge will decide how effective their campaign against her has been.

Deb has been found guilty of not knowing that while the words don’t explicitly make her responsible, she must ensure that politicians who advertise in her publication send her artwork and copy that satisfies state election law. The secretary of state does not pay Deb Paul. She is not on the payroll at the AG’s office or any other enforcement authority. Yet, according to a judge (to the applause of the scoundrels that reported her as the state does not police the practice unless notified), it is her job to know every nuance of this bit of election law text and enforce it – in her spare time.

The Union Leader Editorial Page put it like this.

She spent the day before Thanksgiving standing trial over political ads purchased in her newspaper. She will now spend a day the week before Christmas finding out her sentence for failing to use what reporter Damien Fisher, writing for InDepthNH, termed “the magic words.”

The New Hampshire campaign finance law specifies a number of requirements for political advertising. It does not say who is responsible for a failure to meet those requirements. Attorney General John Formella’s office insisted that Deb Paul was responsible and not the campaigns or candidates. Judge Kerry Steckowych, presented with a one plus one equals two case, decided that yes, the ads in question did not contain the “magic words.” Somehow, even without the magic words labeling the ads in question as “paid political advertisement,” witnesses in the case easily identified them as the political ads they obviously were.

The UL further suggests that Deb Paul has paid enough. A trip through the court system is not inexpensive in either time or actual money. She is not likely to make the same mistake again, and we agree. No one was harmed. Not even the detractors in the political cesspit of Londonderry on whom she reports. Individuals whose cabal deserves the appropriate and necessary sting of the free press.

Hers and ours.

Regardless of what punishment the judge decides is fair, and we think a warning will do, the free press and independent media are more important to the liberty of the nation, the state, and the town of Londonderry than the “magic words.” We feel obligated to rise in support of Deb Paul and her newspaper. To share more of its content with our audience who, and this may not come as a surprise, agree that the town has become a stink-hole of political insiders. A swamp of its own that needs draining.

We can’t promise anything will be drained. The kind of politicians who attack the media by any means necessary to silence them are not the sort to go quietly. The general public’s tendency to sit on their hands and ignore what goes on in plain sight is likewise a persistent problem, but they are the laxatives needed to move the bowels, so to speak. And quite often, you only need a hundred voters who never showed up to vote in a local election before to show up once. Sometimes fewer, and on occasion more.

Deb has been working on encouraging this for years, and we’d like to help.

Wouldn’t it be something if the attention brought upon the town by self-proclaimed doyens attempting to silence independent media was a breeze that brought much-needed winds of change?

It would.

The post Let Londonderry Times Publisher Deb Paul Go … With a Warning appeared first on Granite Grok.

There are questions about Hunter Biden and his prior acts in the public arena. To the extent his actions have a bearing on his dad, they may be worthy of note.  Those questions include but are not limited to:

·         Did the federal bureaucracy act differently in cases involving Hunter Biden than they otherwise would have?

·         Did Hunter Biden receive special treatment in interviewing?

·         Was he given preferential treatment in the form of alleged felonies being allowed to expire?

·         Did he receive warnings about planned federal raids?

·         Did he receive any sweetheart deals?

Something we know is that President Biden enlisted White House staff to push challenged accounts of Hunter’s conduct. Something else we know is the White House staff was used to attack the House Republicans’ investigative process.

It appears now that the White House may have given House Republicans another avenue of investigation. This time, it may bear on the formal impeachment inquiry into the President rather than the criminal charges against Hunter Biden.

We want to thank Marc Abear for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena. That act opens him up to another criminal prosecution. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the first son’s decision.  She told reporters President Biden “was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say.”

The comment suggests Mr. Joseph Biden knew in advance that his son would defy Congress.  It seems to imply father and son had discussed it beforehand.  Is that true?  And if that is true, it is almost certainly a mistake both legally and politically. Doesn’t it imply the President obstructed a Congressional investigation?

If it is true the president was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act, don’t we need to know how the president may have supported his son’s effort to commit a felony?

Jean-Pierre has since declined to clarify her remarks about what may have gone on between the Bidens, father and son.  Clearly, multiple sources reported Joe Biden knew about Hunter’s planned speech on Capitol Hill.

Will the Justice Department prosecute  Hunter Biden for contempt of Congress?  Merrick Garland and his DOJ had no issues prosecuting Steve Bannon when he defied a subpoena for the Jan. 6 committee two years ago.

President Biden has stated any individual who defies Congress should be criminally prosecuted.  We shall see if that applies to everyone.

Will House investigators probe Joe Biden’s role in Hunter’s defiance of a congressional investigation?  It seems like the White House has admitted to that.

Stay tuned for another episode of “As the Crackhead Turns.”  Who will he bring down with him?

The post How Will Hunter Bring Dad Down?  appeared first on Granite Grok.