Weirdness at Federal Hocking's graduation

One of the girls graduated yesterday. Attached to her diploma was something that was strange to me, as I've never seen anything like this before. Maybe this happens all the time, but I've never seen it before.

It was a letter from our State Representative Debbie Phillips. I didn't find it odd that Debbie Phillips would want to hand out "congrats" letters to all the graduates. It makes good political sense to congratulate them, especially since they are all, now, voting age.

What I found odd was that the school would do her bidding for her.

Then, I remembered that George Wood (the high school principal who handed out the actual diplomas attached to this letter after the ceremony was over) is (or at least was) a member of the Athens County democrat Central Committee.

Makes me wonder of Jimmy Stewart (our State Senator who happens to be a Republican) was offered the same deal as Debbie?

I've been around Athens County too long not to think something fishy is going on. Maybe not??

Then, once you get to the letter itself, you realize that Debbie doesn't do herself any good when she refers to the graduates in the manner that she does. Or, more importantly, how the graduates interpret the tone of her letter.

Here it is, the phrase that really turns off the young ladies that I'm sure she feels are her voters anyway.

"Being from Southeastern Ohio, you have confronted challenges, etc........"

So, the implication is, you are really dumb, you're a hillbilly from Appalachia and it's a real achievement that you even graduated........you know.

More than one of my daughter's friends noticed this slight of hand in this letter.

I know the young people around here don't like being labeled as stupid and needing "help" just because of where they live geographically in Ohio. They see this labeling as nothing more than Bolshevik's trying to get more tax money for their socialist programs.

Here's a message to the label making politicians:

1. We have high speed Internet already, we don't need your help. If you'd get out of the way, private businesses would have had DSL to all the folks in SE Ohio by now.
2. We have and know how to use cell phones.
3. We even have color TV!
   

We don't need or want your "help". But if Debbie Phillips wants to continue to insult our young people, that's OK with me, she's just helping the GOP candidate for the 92nd district.

Debbie Phillips under fire for supporting higher taxes

Dispatch story here.

"the Fund for Ohio's Future is firing away at Democrats for approving a version of the two-year budget that contained 150 fee hikes."

I love how when we take more money out of people's pockets, it's called a fee hike. I guess it's a way to campaign that you've never voted to increase "taxes", but you voted to take more money from taxpayers. Sounds like a tax increase to me.

".........Democratic-passed budget also cut charter-school funding."

This, of course, surprised no one. Charter schools are generally non-union and are not run by government employees. They are also successful. So, you can see why the democrats would oppose them.

"The ads equate the fees to tax increases by using a 2007 statement by Gov. Ted Strickland, who shortly after taking office said, "I think higher fees are higher taxes."

"These days, Strickland is no longer equating fee increases to tax hikes, and legislative Democrats say there is a distinction between raising fees for certain licenses and raising, say, the income tax rate.

"I know he rues the day he did that," Garland said of Strickland's fee statement.

"They're not a tax. They are applied to the people who are using that service, or it gives them the right to do whatever it is in the state.""

Ted Strickland was right when he (originally) said that fee increases are tax increases. If you increase money taken from tax payers, it's a tax increase, no matter how specific.

""I do believe the government is here as a safety net, and in these times you need that safety net more than ever before," she said."

Of course you do, more money for government, more money to dole out to your union supporters so they can give you more money to campaign with.

"This is not the time for partisan politics," Carney said. "We are supposed to be trying to resolve problems for the state of Ohio. I don't have time to run negative ad campaigns."

Hilarious! The dems are in constant campaign mode. But when a GOP leaning group campaigns it's, of course, outrageous. What's outrageous is the democrat's pension for raising taxes and punishing successful programs.

Debbie Phillips, she's here to "help" you

So, she thinks it's her job as state representative is to make sure tax payer funded "service providers" don't run into "bureaucratic issues". The state government creates programs and bureaucratic hurdles at the same time. Then we go to our State Representative to help us around these hurdles that the State Representative helped put up in the first place?

Debbie, how about stop providing "services" and just cut our taxes and spending. We'll take care of the rest and provide our own services with our own money that we don't send to Columbus.

By the way, where's her education funding plan? Why is she waiting for uncle Ted to produce his? I thought this was important and she was going to "fix" it for us.

Athens News story
As far as keeping her finger on the pulse of the district, Phillips said she plans to meet regularly with folks within the district who are implementing programs on the ground to make sure that she’s aware of the priorities and any bureaucratic issues that may be causing problems in program implementation. The 92nd House District includes Athens, Morgan and Meigs counties, and the western part of Washington County.
“I’ve already been talking with some of the local service providers and boards that implement state programs to get their side of the fence of the priorities as we head into the budget,” Phillips said. “People are already calling and e-mailing. My office is fully involved with reaching out to state agencies and helping people resolve problems.”

What a shame!

Phillips nets 514-vote victory margin

We've went from being represented by an Ohio right to life / NRA endorsed Jimmy Stewart to a dope smoking, coal hating (well she likes "clean coal if the technology allows it")....like I said, coal hating, Wal-Mart protesting liberal freak (is that too strong?).....Debbie Phillips.