Steve MacDonald

The operative word with regard to the recent ‘publicly funded community college’ (pre-State of the Union Speech) trial balloon floated by the Obama White House is ‘Funding.’

The official narrative is a 75% reimbursement from the feds for students who meet certain criteria while attending community colleges that meet certain criteria, up to a certain amount, all backed by the good faith of the liars in Washington and that New! “What Debt ceiling” smell.

Sure.  An institution with 18 trillion in debt and a twinkle in its eye wants to create a mandate for publicly funded community college.  Not to worry states.  We’re going to pass a law that only requires you to pay for 25% (wink-wink) of that annual tuition per student, and no–we have no idea who is really going to pay for the rest but as long as we say it’s free, we can call Republicans names when they try to explain why its a bad idea.

I wonder what the small print could look like on this deal?

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So, a fellow Republican, from your home town, attacks you on social media. He accuses you of being “a total Conservative fraud”, “working for Organizing for America”, being a “Conservative In Name Only”, and negatively equates you with “Obama’s second term”.

These attacks were not only baseless; they were foolish and immature.

These attacks were presumably made by the Chairman of my local Republican Committee on the morning of December 13, 2014.  This was the day our County Republican organization held its convention and elected its new State Committee Members.  Being a publicly elected Party delegate, I planned to attend the meeting and participate in this vote.  I also chose to add my name to the ballot, wanting to become a State Committee member myself.

However, this very-last-minute, half-baked attempt at casting me as a traitor to the party – with the intent of thwarting my quest to become a State Committee member – backfired, because I won my election that day.  I attribute my win to the personal and collegial relationships I have developed with many of the fine delegates who showed up that day and decided to put a check next my name.

But there’s more!

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There is talk in Washington of raising the federal gas tax to deal with our “crumbling infrastructure.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — As gasoline prices plunge to the lowest level in more than five years, some lawmakers see a golden opportunity to bump up taxes at the pump to help pay for the repair of crumbling roads and bridges.

Fuel taxes have been flat for more than 20 years, starving the Highway Trust Fund of revenue used for rising infrastructure repair costs. Lawmakers have fueled the fund with last-minute short-term injections of cash, but want to find a more permanent fix.

The feds have spent 22 trillion on the Federal ‘Government’ since 2009.  Given the obvious mismanagement of that sum, why would we allow them to take more?

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Bishop Peter A. Libasci, Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire took to the pages of the Concord Monitor yesterday to appeal to Governor Hassan and the NH State legislatures “better nature” on the matter of the budget.   The opening paragraph frames the context.  It is again time for a new state budget.  How will we measure whether they have succeeded in their work?

The overall thrust of ‘how’ turns to our shared journey and the obligation to care for each other and those most in need.  There is the obligation to family members, of citizens to their community, the need to apply justice, prudence, and sacrifice, and the general will to support public and private charities.

These are all ideas fundamental to Christianity and our personal responsibility as individuals of a community to emulate the life of Christ in our daily lives–something a Catholic Bishop has every right to profess.  But suggesting that temporal budget planning should begin there?  It almost sounds as if Bishop Libasci is preaching collective salvation.

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In the wake of yesterdays tragic terror attack in Paris, comes in-box material I had not expected.

This is a video from YouTube (No! Not a YouTube Video!?) in which a Paris police officer was reportedly “executed by a terrorist.”  Take a look and tell us what you see.

Note: Press reports identify him as “..Hero French police officer Ahmed Merabet, whose shocking execution at the hands of the Paris gunmen was yesterday caught on camera, was a married 42-year-old Muslim…”

Update…Video was pulled but I found another copy.  Have tried to download a local copy but I am suddenly having issues with that.  Feel free to do that for us if you can.

I moved the back up video to the jump in case this one gets pulled as well.

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