Willing to Help?

We can put aside our political differences for a few minutes to help a local family.

Dispatch:

...The McGhees knew they would struggle to afford an instant family of eight. He is a carpet- and upholstery-cleaner; she is leaving her job at JPMorgan Chase to care for the babies....

...Mr. McGhee, who is trying to grow his own carpet-cleaning business, said he doesn't like seeking help. But he knows that Rozonno Jr., Isaac, Josiah, Elijah, Madison and Olivia - who likely will begin leaving Ohio State University Medical Center in the next two weeks - don't care about pride.

He said a woman recently asked how his family was adjusting to all the attention. When he said there hadn't been any, "she cried," Mr. McGhee said. "She couldn't believe it."

Can you imagine bringing home six babies and know that you have just a few provisions for them?  Do you remember what it was like bringing home just one child?   I know these are tough times, but everyone can help a little.

 ****Here are some suggestions:

** Please contact the newspaper reporter, Rita Price (rprice@dispatch.com), to find out how you can help this family with needed diapers, clothing, and other necessities.  

> Columbus is the home of one of the largest baby formula manufacturers in the country, and I'm sure that they'd like to be able to help with formula for the infants. (Hint.)  

> Those right to life people out there should step up because (1) the mother refused to do "selective reduction" when told how many children she was carrying, (2) you should help these babies.

> Knitters, quilters, and grandmas with crochet needles, could all help with some blankets, hats, sweaters, and booties.

> Macy's and local baby stores, and department stores are needed to help fill the gap for this family.  How about some gift cards for baby clothing and baby gear?

> Church groups, clubs, Brownies & Girl Scout groups: Wouldn't it be great to have a few bake sales to help provide strollers, car seats, high chairs, diapers, and other necessities for these little ones?

Don't just sit there!!!!  Do something to help!

Read it!!!!

*  The Facebook page called "John Kasich Treated Me Like Crap," is very informative.  Read a few entries and you'll arrive at the same conclusion that I did:  Kasich is a pompous jerk.

Here is excerpt from "John Kasich Treated Me Like Crap" Facebook page:

I was a young 20-something working at the check-in desk at America West, making $6.75 an hour. Mr. Kasich arrived for a flight, and sent his aide to check in for him. I informed the aide that Mr. Kasich would have to come to the desk in person and show his ID in order to check in for his flight. Aide left, consulted with Mr. Kasich, and returned to try again. I once more informed the aide that Mr. Kasich would need to come to the desk and show his ID in order to get his boarding pass. At this point, the aide asked me if I could check with my superior to see if he could “override my authority,” and check Mr. Kasich in for his flight. I went back to explain the situation to my boss, and he said, “If it’s Jesus Christ himself, he is going to have to come to the desk to show ID in order to check in for his flight.”

That is the problem with Kasich and rich people like him-----  they think they are more important than anyone else.

************

***  Thank you, Rep. Anthony Weiner for standing up to the Republican obstructionists.  I appreciate the fact that you bravely stood up and told the Party of "NO!" that we are tired of their games and delays. Thank you, Rep. Weiner, for your courage.

*  Speaking of Republicans and their friends--  

Don't you think that the right wing group Americans for Prosperity should change their name to.....  Americans for Prosperity for the Rich?  It seems that many of their proposals would only benefit the wealthy, not middle class people.

*   Istockanalyst  has the truth about the stimulus:

.....Portman has taken to charging that the state has lost 150,000 jobs since passage of the federal stimulus package. What Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and Alan Blinder, a Princeton economist and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, explain in a new report is that the stimulus and other steps, including the bank bailouts, prevented a deeper recession. They argue that without these rescue measures, the country would have lost an additional 8.5 million jobs. 

Follow the Portman logic, and you are invited to think the stimulus was a mistake. Not so, starting with the teachers and police officers kept on the job. Of course, without the stimulus, Portman and Kasich could cite a larger number of Ohio jobs lost. That's what these ads are all about -- winning. 

Let me repeat---- "...the stimulus and other steps, including the bank bailouts, prevented a deeper recession...."

Trickle Down: Doesn't Work

According to the Public Integrity website, John Kasich was an overnight guest at the Texas Governor's Mansion when George W. Bush was governor.  How nice.

Kasich has always been of fan of the "trickle down" theory of economics.  He has tried it before when he was in Congress, but President Clinton stopped Kasich from making drastic cuts to schools, nutrition programs for children, and programs for the elderly.  As Republican candidate for governor, Kasich has been pushing his tax cuts for the rich again.  Kasich has failed to understand that his trickle down economic program DOES NOT WORK.  If he were quiet long enough, he might be able to hear someone other than himself.

BNET: (March 12, 1999)

....Congressman John Kasich, (R-Ohio), understands this. When he announced for president last month, he touted his 10-percent across-the-board tax cut not with investment models, but with an American tale of self-improvement. He did not deny the tax cut would be helpful to the rich. He did something unusual: He defended the rich. "You see," Kasich said in his folksy way, "I come from this little town called McKees Rocks, where, if the wind blew the wrong way, you'd find yourself out of work. But you'd know, there's one thing I found out there. The only people who hate rich people are guilty rich people.

"You see" - Kasich loves us to see - "the people who are struggling every day in America, they realize that if a rich guy takes his money, invests it, creates a job - that I get the job. Then I go to college and I get smart, then I buy him out and he works for me. That's the way we see it in middle America." Only rarely does the story turn out exactly as Kasich tells it. But that's irrelevant - this is a parable. Americans do believe in upward mobility, even if it often takes a couple of generations to get there....

....The facts, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, go like this: A 10-percent across-the-board tax cut is worth an average of $99 a year for taxpayers making less than $38,000, but $20,697 for the top 1 percent of taxpayers, who earn more than $301,000....

Short explanation:  "trickle down" does not work. 

****  There is a new Facebook page: John Kasich Treated Me Like Crap (h/t Plunderbund).  There are also some letters in this week's edition of The Other Paper which detail Kasich's unpleasant behavior.

Republican Tea Party: Loved the 1850's

* Did you catch President Obama on The View?  A comment that someone wrote about the President still sticks in my mind (I'm paraphrasing.):  'He is brilliant, good looking, and trying so hard to solve our nation's problems that were left by the previous administration.'  The President did a great job talking with the women on The View.

CBS News:


President Obama is less interested in whether people perceive him as black or multi-racial, he said on ABC's "The View" today, and more interested in seeing people treat each other with respect....

Unfortunately, the Republican Tea Party is unable and unwilling to move beyond racial labels.

While the President works to try to get the country moving, the Republicans and their leadership (Boehner and McConnell), sit on their hands, give a "NO!" when required to vote, and dream about returning the country back to the good old 1850's. (Yes, I said the 1850's.) The Republicans wish they could turn back the clock to before women and minorities had the right to vote, could own property, and were elected to office. 

Plunderbund notes:

The Ohio Highway Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association represents largely the uniformed officers of the Ohio Highway Patrol.  They announced this morning that they’re endorsing Governor Ted Strickland for re-election...

I wonder if they lost pension funds with Lehmans Brothers.

The Same

From Youtube:




The ad was produced by the DNC.

Voters should take a good look at what the Republican Tea Party wants to do.

Kasich and Lehman, continued....

 >>>  Looks like someone must have made a phone call to Texas Republican Rep. Kenny Marchant.

The Hill:

Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) this week withdrew his support for legislation to prevent paid medical debts from affecting consumers' credit scores.


Sponsored by Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio), the proposal would prohibit credit-rating agencies from considering paid medical debts when calculating those scores. 

"People shouldn’t have their credit worthiness suffer because they got sick or injured,” Kilroy said in introducing the bill last year....

Where does Marchant get a lot of his campaign contributions?  According to OpenSecrets, Republican Marchant has received contributions from Finance/Insur/RealEst in the amount of  $126,050 just for the 2010 election cycle. 


***  Ohioans know that Republican John Kasich, a candidate for governor, was an investment banker for Lehman Brothers.  While at Lehman, Kasich opened doors for Lehman to help them do business  with the Ohio pension funds.  The Ohio pension funds lost hundreds of millions of dollars with their investments with Lehman when it collapsed.  The Ohio pension funds and many retired people, lost their money when Lehman went bankrupt.  Even though Lehman knew that their company was failing, they continued to try to sell off toxic assets to private citizens and pension funds up to the final days of operating their business.

Has anyone found out how much of a bonus Kasich made when the pension funds invested with Lehman?  Has Kasich released those past income tax returns yet?

The Ohio Republican Party, mostly Kevin DeWine, are trying to equate political donations to the Strickland campaign with Kasich's work on Wall Street.  DeWine is really, really stretching it.

Dispatch:

"We don't know what's more amusing, that Ohio Republicans want to inject Lehman Brothers into the governor's race once again or that they are equating circuit-board producers in Canton with Wall Street tycoons like (former Lehman Chairman) Dick Fuld," Strickland campaign manager Aaron Pickrell said....

....But the Strickland campaign said it has focused its criticism on Wall Street banks "and the reckless practices on Wall Street, not the homegrown Ohio banks who are working with the governor to provide access to capital for small businesses."

The liberal group ProgressOhio has done an analysis of Kasich's contributions and determined that $998,000 came from investment banks, hedge funds and related entities, while $437,000 came from the insurance and real-estate sectors.

>>> Trouble for Republican leader John Boehner's caucus?  Salon has word that some Republican members of Congress have been involved in inappropriate relationships.

Salon:

...Lobbyist Glenn LeMunyon, a former Tom DeLay appropriations staffer, holds well-attended fundraisers and "after-hours parties" at his Capitol Hill row house. Missouri Republican Sam Graves was photographed dining at D.C.'s finest beer bar, Brickskeller, with a blond woman who turned out to be a lobbyist for the Patriot Group, where she "represents health care systems, financial institutions, utilities, technologists, tort reform coalitions, oil and gas interests, and human rights causes at the state and federal level."

...Being a congressman is like being in college, basically -- you're far from home with no parents, and a lot of free time -- so obviously members enjoy going out and getting drunk and "hooking up," like the kids do.

....But is the scandal that these guys are partying with -- and maybe even kissing! -- attractive women lobbyists, or that the only people members of Congress ever see socially while in Washington are paid representatives of various terrible and destructive industries? I mean, Boehner doesn't want it to look like the GOP is physically in bed with lobbyists, but that didn't stop him from inviting lobbyists to craft the GOP's future governing agenda.


Boehner is amazing.  By the way, did you know that if Boehner is elected Speaker of the House, he wants to adopt the same political agenda of the failed Bush administration?  Some people never learn.

* Did you know that John Kasich helped to set up the Ohio public pensions to meet with Lehman Brothers for the purposes of investment?  Did you know that hundreds of millions of dollars were lost when Lehman went bankrupt?  Did you know that Lehman Brothers continued to make calls to those public pension funds to get their money even weeks before the business collapsed?  Kasich's introductions and schmoozing enabled thousands of Ohio retirees and current state employees to watch their pensions lose money. Kasich and Lehman were motivated by greed and avarice.  They tried to get our pension funds to invest in toxic, worthless funds.  How disgusting!

(By the way, Kevin DeWine, of the Ohio Republican Party tried to compare Gov. Ted Strickland to John Kasich today because Strickland has received money from individuals employed by companies that are listed on the Stock Exchange.  Kevin DeWine is wrong to make such a comparison.  Kasich and Lehman went after the pension money even when they knew the investments were worthless.  Besides, if I'm looking for someone to discuss ethics, Kevin DeWine is one of the last people I'd consult.)

* Did you know that Steve Stivers, a former former bank lobbyist and State Senator, supports insurance companies paying for Viagra but not birth control pills?  As a woman, I am offended.  I believe that insurance companies should have to cover all or part of the cost of birth control pills.  I'd like to see someone ask him that question!!!!

* Has Kasich released his tax returns yet?

Stacking the Deck Against Consumers

Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, has always been a fierce advocate for corporations.  In pursuing his pro-business agenda, Stivers has allowed injured workers to be destined for failure in seeking compensation for their work related illnesses.

Here is an example of how Stivers stacked the cards against injured workers when he sponsored SB 80, a bill to limit the liability of businesses with regard to claims by workers of health-related illnesses caused by asbestos. 
Insurancejournal:

...In addition to its caps on non-economic and punitive damages, limits on attorney fees and a 10-year statute of repose for products and construction defects, SB 80 contains significant asbestos litigation reforms, including a requirement that plaintiffs meet certain medical criteria before they can sue for asbestos-related disease....

An editorial in the Dayton Daily News titled, "TAFT, SENATE ASSAULT COURTS, CONSUMERS," criticized then Gov. Taft and Steve Stivers, for pushing through the legislation:

...The first day of May had been set aside years before by President Dwight Eisenhower as "Law Day" - a time to celebrate the country's judicial institutions and equal justice under the law. But Gov. Taft and Sen. Stivers had other ideas on how to observe the day. They announced their legislative proposal - Senate Bill 80 - benignly describing it as a series of balanced reforms that would make Ohio more attractive to new and existing businesses. In fact, they launched a one-sided, cynical assault on the independence of the state's courts and the integrity of its legal profession - one that puts profit ahead of consumer protections and judicial independence.

The bill was put together behind closed doors. Then it was hustled through the Senate at record speed. Business lobbyists rode herd over all-too-compliant GOP state senators, who approved the bill in fewer than 45 days after it was introduced.

Business interests are put first And no wonder. The bill is so biased toward business interests and against public safety, proponents had to move quickly to keep the public from understanding what's at stake....

The editorial notes that there are "sweetheart provisions" for businesses. What kind of member of Congress would Stivers be?  Just look at his record.

Toxic?

Economy in Crisis has this about Republican Rob Portman:

...The Ohio Conference on Fair Trade said that during the Portman-era as U.S. Trade Rep., 17,000 Ohio jobs were outsourced while the trade deficit rose 6.5 percent.  Portman also allowed the U.S. trade deficit with China to swell to over $200 billion for the first time in history....

Rob Portman, where did our jobs go?




*  Things are heating up about Mary Taylor's announcement that, when she was a CPA, she advised her wealthy clients to move out of state to Florida.  Taylor, Kasich's running mate, might be personally responsible for the loss of thousands of Ohio jobs. Why would she brag about something that hurt the people and the state?

Kasich and Taylor make a great combination----- he enabled Ohio's state pensions to lose hundreds of millions of dollars and she sent people, businesses, and jobs out of state.  This Republican duo is toxic.

Ohiodems has this wonderful Youtube video that shows Kasich and his buddy:



Pretty frightening, isn't it?

Is Kasich Afraid of the Facts?

It seems that more and more information is becoming available regarding Republican John Kasich's Lehman Brothers career, his colleagues, and their work with Ohio pension funds.  As you know, Ohio's  public employee pension plans lost hundreds of millions of dollars when Lehman went bankrupt in 2008.  Here are several articles that show how Kasich, and Lehman went after the pension fund money.

abc6onyourside.com:  


...Kasich admits that one of his roles at Lehman Brothers was to make introductions and create the potential for future business for the firm. One of the men Kasich introduced to Ohio pensions in 2002 was John Dwyer, a member of Lehman's private equity team headed by Kevin Newman and James Swindell (who also met with the pensions).

Public records requests indicate Dwyer continued to try to pitch the pensions for years after the initial meeting. On August 25, 2008 - 21 days before the Lehman bankruptcy - Dwyer tried to sell OPERS on investing in several funds managed by Lehman. Many of the products Dwyer tried to sell involved real estate assets, but standing out from the others was a product Dwyer was personally working on - Lehman's Distressed Structured Credit Fund, which intended to invest heavily in collateralized loan obligations and collateralized debt obligations.

These toxic instruments are widely credited with bringing down Lehman in 2008, as they consistently downplayed the losses associated with their products. As such, according to his own account, Kasich "opened the door" for Ohio's pensions exposure to many of these products. Ohio Pensions owned other Lehman mortgage-backed securities and it is still unclear what Kasich's role was with these products....


Do you think that the people at Lehman Brothers knew that what they were "pitching" was completely worthless?  With just 21 day before they collapsed, the Lehman people were still trying to sell their products to the pension funds.  I wonder how many other states had similar experiences with Lehman and lost comparable money.


myfox28columbus.com:


Kasich Campaign States There Was No Contact Of "Any Other Ohio Governmental Entity About Doing Business With Lehman." According to the Columbus Dispatch, "Kasich campaign officials acknowledged that the former congressman helped arrange the two meetings between Lehman officials and representatives of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, known as OPERS... Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman, the campaign said." [Columbus Dispatch 5/12/2010]


....But STRS Records Showed Kasich Contacted Them

STRS Public Records Response: John Kasich Contacted STRS. In response to a public records request STRS employee Alan Muench wrote in an email, "John Kasich called me to try to pitch Lehman's brokerage services to sell our mall portfolio in mid 2002. It was less than a 10 min conversation. We elected to use Eastdil and not Lehman." [Alan Muench email 6/22/2010]...

Kasich said he never "pitched" but it appears he did.

Sunday

* Looks like the Toledo Blade has all the news today:  Lee Fisher never said the quote about gun control ('I never met a gun control bill I didn't like.') that Portman quotes. From the Toledo Blade:

...Mr. Fisher never said it, according to spokesman John Collins. We have searched and asked around and find nothing that contradicts him nor did the Buckeye Firearms Association, which turned to its own sources and traced its usage to at least 1994.

So where did it originate?

That's not entirely clear, but a 1989 column in the Columbus Dispatch sheds some light. Mr. Fisher was a state senator then, trying for the fifth time to pass a state gun-control law. This time, Mr. Fisher's proposal was getting a second look, and then-state Sen. Paul Pfeifer, the Republican who chaired the Judiciary Committee, indicated he would give Mr. Fisher a hearing. Mr. Pfeifer told the Dispatch then that Mr. Fisher had a reputation of having "never met a gun-control bill he didn't like." Those were Mr. Pfeifer's words, however...

Pfeifer said it.


*  Oh, no.  We do not need another Republican person named Damschroder as an elected official. (see Toledo Blade) We certainly do not need the Ohio House to gain any additional Republicans.  People, just vote for Democrats. 

Whoa!!!!

Those bankers love Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, in his attempt to run for Congress for Ohio's 15th district.  Stivers has become the "golden child" for bankers, financial firms, and lobbyists.  Stivers is their man to protect them from the awful consumers.


Plunderbund has this about the Stivers campaign money:

Much has been made of Steve Stivers recent FEC report, but not much has been written about where Stivers is getting his money.  According to Stivers’ report 40% of his donations were from business PACs.  In fairness, though, Kilroy accepted a similar ratio from mostly union PACs.
Stivers accepted so much special interest money, though, he likely violated federal campaign finance laws.  My understanding is that a PAC can only donate $10,000  and individuals can only donate up to $4,800 to a congressional campaign in a single cycle.  Another federal political candidate’s campaign may only donate up to $4,000 a cycle.
Stivers’ FEC reports in several instances in which his campaign accepted more than the maximum permitted donations......

Wow.  Wouldn't that be interesting?

* Lakegop is offering some real trashy prizes for their phone bank workers:
"...The prizes are 1.a signed copy of Karl Roves’ book, 2.a Kasich hat, 3.a Portman hat...."  It is sad that they have to bribe people to work for Republican candidates.

Millions

Even the Canadian business people are following the John Kasich/Lehman Brothers story.
Canadian Business:


New records show Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich had business dealings with three Ohio pension funds while at Lehman Brothers in 2002, contrary to campaign statements he had dealt with only two.


State Teacher Retirement System employee Alan Muench revealed the telephone pitch, made directly by Kasich, in an e-mail provided to Ohio Democrats after a public records request. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland's re-election campaign released the e-mail Thursday, continuing to criticize the former congressman's years as a managing director at the collapsed Wall Street investment bank....

....Pickrell said Thursday that one of the Lehman executives introduced to Ohio pension officials by Kasich - John Dwyer of the firm's Chicago private equity office - pitched the type of risky and underleveraged "toxic" assets that sparked the national financial crisis to the state teachers' fund just ahead of Lehman's bankruptcy. The historic fall in October 2008 was the largest in U.S. history.... 

I wonder if any public employee or teacher, active or retired, will vote for Kasich.  Would you vote for someone that may have had a hand in your pension fund losing millions of dollars?

Kasich's Rudeness is Chronicled in The Other Paper

John Kasich, egomaniac and candidate for Ohio governor has a secret.  He is a rude, and obnoxious man.  I cannot imagine him in negotiations with labor unions, teachers, or state legislators. 

The Other Paper has revealed  what many of us already knew--- Kasich is not a nice man, especially if you an ordinary human being:

...Kasich’s victims apparently number beyond the common grocery schlep or inattentive food service employee, however. In fact, the Washington Post documented one of the more colorful Kasich temper tantrums circulating in political circles today: About the time, in 1991, when Kasich tried to join the Grateful Dead onstage, much to the chagrin of tour organizers.

“As the Ohio Republican was being urged off the stage, a witness reports, he was considerate enough to yell out his name several times, so those who didn't recognize him would know that he was a congressman,” the paper reported....

 
...Still, a trail of Kasich-inspired tears can seemingly be traced through the Heartland, including a now-infamous anecdote claiming Kasich, then a presidential hopeful, reportedly became so enraged at his Iowa campaign manager that he threw—or some say maliciously spilled—a cup of coffee on her...


John Kasich's rudeness would be a nice match with Jon Husted's.  Husted has been known to yell at state employees when he didn't get his way.  Husted's wrath has also been directed to other people in state agencies.  I don't think we need either of them.

Lovefest

The only way to describe the fundraiser Republican Steve Stivers had with bank lobbyists and lobbyists for financial firms would be a lovefest.  Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, was part of a large money grab funding fest with big shot Republican, Spencer Bachus.

Modern Esquire at Plunderbund, says it best:

....The Columbus Dispatch notes that while Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy was at the White House to witness the President’s signing the historic Wall Street reform bill into law that she helped to shape, her opponent, Steve Stivers, former bank lobbyist, was in D.C. hosting a fundraiser with the reform bill’s opponents....

.....Here’s a protip from me to the Stivers campaign:  If you’re already saddled with the fact that your candidate used to (and I mean, fairly recently) be a bank lobbyist, don’t attack your opponent’s Wall Street reform while still wiping the shrimp cocktail sauce off over your $1,000 a plate fundraiser packed with Wall Street lobbyists.  Cause what you did today, was just ballsy stupid.

Exactly!!!!

If you are looking to get  some fair and square treatment from the banking industry, you shouldn't vote for a banking insider and former bank lobbyist, Steve Stivers.  Stivers seems to be embracing his inner bank lobbyist self.  Stivers and his like-minded bank lobbyists in Washington, DC, are waiting for him to win election.

Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15-Democrat) represents people, not banks.

We cannot allow that to happen.

Short and Sweet....

*  Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, Mary Ellen O'Shaughnessy, has received the endorsement of the  Ohio FOP. 

*  Have you figured out which Republican congressional candidate has received traffic tickets in Franklin County, Brown County, and Madison County?  Go visit the websites and do some searches.

* Do you know why Republicans dislike labor unions and teachers' unions?  Republicans are for cheap labor.  When their big corporate contributors and friends use cheap labor, they make more profits.  When John Kasich talks about "special interests" in the state, he isn't talking about his friends who are corporate lobbyists for banks, insurance firms, or coal companies. 

*  Congratulations to the Democrats for passing the unemployment compensation yesterday.  Republicans had used a filibuster to block the measure.  Did you know that the Republicans never stopped the extension of unemployment compensation under the Bush administration?

*  Have you looked at the chart for the Presidential Debt?  The administration of George W. Bush really increased the debt tremendously.  Check it out here.

*  By now you realize that Fox News and their right wing friends created a controversy where there was none.  They manufactured the charges against Shirley Sherrod.  I hope she gets her job back.

Party Like a Bank Lobbyist w/Stivers!!!!

****This is the news we've all been waiting for about Steve Stivers.  I hope we get to see some pictures!!!!!!!

The Hill:

Financial services lobbyists are holding a Washington fundraiser this week for Ohio House candidate Steve Stivers.

The Republican's bid to unseat Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) is one of the most competitive races in the country. It pits Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, against Kilroy, a freshman member who has campaigned, in part, on her work to overhaul financial regulations.....

I'm sure those bank lobbyists just love, love, love Stivers, a former corporate bank lobbyist. Stivers and those bank lobbyists have so much in common:
---  They're anti-consumer protection.
---  They're against government regulations for banks and financial firms.
---  They believe that businesses/corporations/banks have more rights than individual citizens.

If he worked as a bank lobbyist...
If he still talks like a bank lobbyist....
If he still thinks like a bank lobbyist...
If he parties like a bank lobbyist....
He is still a bank lobbyist.

 While Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15th-Democrat) has worked to protect consumers, Stivers continues to have the mindset of a bank lobbyist.  People in Ohio's 15th have a real choice---- 

Kilroy, who has and will continue to work for people

or

Stivers, who will work for banks/bank lobbyists.

__________________________ 

*** Even though Republican candidate for governor, John Kasich, says he wasn't that big of a deal at Lehman, there is some evidence that he is understating his job at Lehman Brothers.  A biography of Kasich's that was posted prior to his speaking engagement at the University of Kansas, paints an entirely different picture of his responsibilities.



University of Kansas (April 9, 2007):

John Kasich, former Ohio Republican congressman and best-selling author and businessman, will give the 2007 J.A. Vickers Sr. and Robert F. Vickers Sr. Memorial Lecture. The event is sponsored by the School of Business.....

....Today, Kasich is an investment banker on Wall Street. He maintains responsibilities across a range of industry groups including retail, power and utilities, technology, media and communications, industrial and financial institutions.... 

This bio makes Kasich look like a big deal--- "...an investment banker on Wall Street..."   I'm sure he supplied this info to them in order to publicize his talk.  Kasich was a managing director and an investment banker.  He was paid big money and got big bonuses.  When he got people to invest in Lehman Brothers' products and people lost money, he still got paid and received bonuses.


--There is this bit of news about Kasich trying to expand the state government.

BusinessWeek:

Ohio Republican governor hopeful John Kasich says he would put a small business representative on his cabinet if elected....
.....Strickland campaign spokeswoman Allison Kolodziej said Strickland has worked to help small businesses grow and add capital as governor. She noted Ohio's climate for small business was ranked No. 1 in the Midwest in 2009 by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.

If Kasich would add to the state government, isn't that a flip flop?
 

A Place to Start

If you are looking for a job, or need some assistance, here are some resources to check out:

U.S. Department of Labor: Job Seekers/Unemployed

http://www.careeronestop.org/   or   1-877-872-5627

Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services  (collection of resources)

USA Jobs

Ohio Hiring Management System

Jobs at Ohio State


Jobs at Columbus State Community College

Don't bank on former corporate bank lobbyists to work for consumers.

Once a corporate bank lobbyist....

Republican Steve Stivers, a former corporate bank lobbyist, has been milking his banking and financial contacts to get his campaign donations.  More than anything, those in banking and finance, want to regain the power and return to those  loosey, goosey, unregulated days that their industry had during the previous administration.  Because of that goal, banks and financial firms have been giving boatloads of campaign contributions to one of their own------- Republican congressional candidate, Stivers, former corporate bank lobbyist.

Progressohio has more:

On the same day that Wall Street reform passed the Senate en route to becoming law, career banking lobbyist Steve Stivers reported raising $116,175 from the financial sector and lobbyists. So far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and FEC filings, Stivers has taken $254,805 this cycle from the financial services sector.

“While Mary Jo Kilroy is holding Wall Street accountable for taking taxpayer bailouts after gambling with our money, banking lobbyist Steve Stivers has been schmoozing in private clubs collecting big checks from Wall Street fat cats,” said Josh Levin, Campaign Manager for Kilroy. “If Stivers went to Washington, he’d try to gut Wall Street reform so his big banking friends could continue to gamble with our pensions and retirement savings.”

Over the past year, Mary Jo Kilroy has proven herself to be one of the most effective freshmen in Congress. She authored major portions of the Wall Street reform bill to strengthen investor protection by establishing the Investor Advisory Committee, ensure credit rating agencies will be held accountable for sloppy performance and increase transparency on corporate shareholder votes. Her expertise and work on the bill led to Mary Jo being named to the conference committee where she served as a negotiator with the U.S. Senate on a final bill....

With Kilroy, those of us in Ohio's 15th district, know she is working for us (real people----not corporations). 

Stivers has always kept those bank/corporate/lobbyist friends in mind in his work.  Protect consumers????  Nah!  Stivers would rather protect banks and lobbyists!

The following photoshop pic is from Freakingnews:

First You Have It, Then.....

*  Corporate bank lobbyist, Steve Stivers, a Republican, has made it no secret that he wants to repeal the health care reform law if he is elected to Congress.  What will he offer in its place?  Are people with pre-existing conditions to have health care one day and then, it would be taken away? That would be heartless and cruel to deny someone the lifeline they might need.  That is what Stivers and his banking buddies, lobbyists, and oil PACs, want a member of Congress to do--kowtow to big business.  If Steve Stivers is elected as the representative for Ohio's 15th congressional district, he'll owe those bankers, oil executives, and corporate lobbyists big time.  As a member of the Ohio Senate, Stivers always helped his moneyed friends survive against the attacks from consumers.

*  Have you seen the newest Kasich ad?  It is a little scary!  If the Kasich campaign  has so much campaign money, why didn't they spend it on a better location?  It looks like it was done in a basement.  Why does Kasich look so bad?  I don't even recall exactly what he said because I was floored by how disheveled he looked.

Top Secret Republican Agenda!!!

TOP  SECRET

Republican Agenda

Rep. Peter King has an idea that should be well received by the American people. (Not!)

RawStory:

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told a radio show Thursday that the GOP should focus on its strategy of being against President Barack Obama's policies, but shouldn't give too many specifics on its own policies -- or those policies could be used against them.

GOP strategy should be "a combination of being against what Obama is for, and also giving certain specifics of what we are for," King told the Bill Bennett Radio Show. "Having said that, I don’t think we have to lay out a complete agenda, from top to bottom, because then we would have the national mainstream media jumping on every point trying to make that a campaign issue."

....."Deliberately hiding one's ideas for fear of examination is not only cowardice, it's indicative of a party that suspects its own beliefs would be rejected by the public," writes Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly..... 

These Republicans must be out of their minds.  Do they think people will vote for them without knowing what they plan to do?  I can just hear Republicans saying, "Vote for me.  I'm going to do stuff, but I can't tell you because Peter King and the Republican leadership won't tell you until after election day."


Would you buy a house without seeing it?  Would you buy a car without checking it out and driving it?  If Republicans offer you leadership, you better find out exactly what that means.  Buyer beware!

Stivers and Kasich: Willing to Help Banks and Corporations

With Republican congressional candidate Steve Stivers having a financial interest in BP, Stivers has been mum about the BP oil spill in the gulf.  He doesn't want to risk alienating those nice oil and energy campaign contributors or say/do something that would cause his portfolio to lose its worth.  Stivers has supported his banking lobbyist buddies while he was in the State Senate by voting against any legislation which might  hurt their feelings or their profits.  Must be nice to have elected officials watching out for your corporate interests.

BP might have some other problems.  Open Secrets has this:

The four Democratic senators from New York and New Jersey came out with strong criticism of BP this week for its alleged role in the release from prison of the only person convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing over Scotland.

The release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was originally part of a prisoner transfer with the Libyan government that BP promoted to protect its $900 million investment in an offshore oil and gas exploration deal off Libya's Mediterranean coast. BP insists it did not lobby U.K. authorities specifically on al-Megrahi's release but the larger prisoner transfer issue.....

If BP was found to have been involved with the release of the PAN AM bomber, would Stivers get rid of his stock?  I'm just asking.

>>>  Did you know that Republican John Kasich voted against raising the minimum wage in 1996?
Project Vote Smart has this: 
HR 1227: Minimum Wage Increase
  H Amdt 1085: Fair Labor Standards Act Amendment
  H Amdt 1084

Project Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to adopt an amendment that increases the minimum wage by 90 cents from $4.25 to $5.15 by July 1, 1997.

It passed without Kasich's vote.  Kasich just wants to keep the disadvantaged poor, and help the rich get richer.  What a guy.

Votes

*Yesterday, Republican Representatives John Boehner and Bob Latta,  had the ability and concern to update their Twitter accounts, but they voted against a bill on flood insurance (see Clerk of the House-Final Vote Results-Roll Call 447). I guess they'd rather text and play on Twitter than do anything that might help any constituents.  In case you are interested, Jean Schmidt and Jim Jordan also voted against the flood insurance bill.

*  John Kasich brags about his plan to fix education in Ohio.  When he had the chance to help school children in 1994, Kasich voted against Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1994/roll456.xml). Kasich voted against the Radon Awareness and Disclosure Act on July 28, 1994  probably because he doesn't think you ought to know if radon is evident in your home or office  (see http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1994/roll361.xml).

Boehner's Agenda Is Based on Repealing

Republican leader, John Boehner, has already expressed his plan to repeal the health care law.  Today, Boehner announced his plan to repeal Wall Street reform law, if it passes (see TPMDC).  Boehner and his Republican  Party of "NO!"  have nothing to offer Americans except to undo any progress that we've made.  Boehner, who hopes to be Speaker of the House if the Republicans regain control of the House, seems hell-bent on creating chaos and disaster.  Just a few weeks ago Boehner said we should cut Social Security so that we can pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars (see ProgressOhio).  Is Boehner spending too much time in the sun/tanning bed?  Has he lost all common sense?

Boehner, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and other Republicans want to have more tax cuts.  Obviously, they still refuse to understand the fact that our financial problems started with the Bush tax cuts and two wars. 

A new Time Poll has this:

....The survey contained a batch of good news for both the President and Congressional Democrats, however. Asked to assign blame for the balky economy, 61% point to the Bush Administration, while 27% fault Obama. The President notched a favorable 31%-26% split between voters who believe his economic policies have helped and those who think they hurt, while nearly 80% believe the economy is stable or heading in the right direction. And despite the economic upheaval and political acrimony that have marked his term thus far, voters aren't pining for Obama's predecessor; they tapped Obama over George W. Bush by a 53%-33% margin. Nor are they convinced that Sarah Palin is up to the challenges of the Oval Office. Obama clobbered Palin, 55%-34%, in a hypothetical 2012 matchup that should have Democrats salivating.... 

Even a majority of the American people blame Bush for the economic mess.

No More "Unaffordable Tax Cuts"

I saw this on Keith Olbermann's program and at DailyKos.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has this nifty chart with an explanation:







CBPP:


A number of policymakers and pundits — most recently House Minority Leader John Boehner — blame Obama Administration policies for the large deficits we confront.  But the numbers tell a very different story.

As my colleague Jim Horney and I have explained, the causes of today’s large deficits lie largely outside the Administration’s control.  Two weeks before President Obama took office, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the 2009 deficit would exceed $1 trillion.  CBO also warned that if we continued the policies the Obama Administration inherited, including the Bush tax cuts and funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, deficits would average over $1 trillion a year in 2010-2019.....

(Did you see that word "inherited" in the text from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities?)

.... Rep. Boehner and others are wrong to let the Bush Administration off the hook.  If we hadn’t enacted unaffordable tax cuts, fought two wars on borrowed money, and created an expensive new drug benefit as part of Medicare without paying for it, we’d be in much better shape.

Note to Republicans interested in more tax cuts:  

      Haven't you and your party created enough damage???????? 

I'd suggest that everyone read the article at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (see link above) and send it to your Republican members of Congress.  You might also want to send the article to any obnoxious Republican relatives/neighbors. 

Free Screenings? Bad for Business?

Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist and current BP stockholder, has been very vocal about his intentions to work to repeal the health care law.  Stivers, who has received contributions from the Texas Freedom Fund, Joe "I Apologize"  Barton's leadership PAC, wants to take away the benefits that people will already start having with the new law.  According to USA Today, many services that are preventive will be free:

....Among the services that qualify: Breast and colon cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, cholesterol and blood pressure tests, tobacco cessation and tetanus shots. For children, the change will apply to regular pediatrician visits, vision and hearing screening, developmental assessments, immunizations and screening for obesity.

That is a lot to take away. Stivers probably has been told by his lobbyist and banking friends that giving free health screenings and immunizations to people is just downright bad business.

By the way, we still haven't heard a comment from Steve Stivers about his opinion of the gulf oil spill.  I guess he doesn't want to say anything that would offend his oil  company contributors.  If Stivers wins, he won't be working for people.  He'll  be taking orders from just lobbyists, bankers, insurance companies, oil companies, and their PACS.

The Ties That Bind

Why has Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, received contributions from Rep. Joe Barton's PAC, the Texas Freedom Fund? 

According to Sourcewatch, Joe Barton's PAC is called Texas Freedom Fund.  You do remember Rep. Joe Barton's apology to the BP CEO?  Sourcewatch has the text:


"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) during a hearing on Thursday morning with BP's CEO Tony Hayward." I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown -- with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, which has no legal standing, which I think sets a terrible precedent for our nation's future. I'm only speaking for myself. I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize," Barton added. "I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown." <sup>[1]

Source Watch provides this information:</sup>

...Joe Barton has voted for Big Oil Companies 100% of the time based on important oil-related bills. These include Iraq War Funding, Cutting Oil Subsides, Clean Energy, and Climate Studies.....

.....In the 2007-2008 period of the 110th Congress, Joe Barton has accepted $196,040 from oil companies and $135,549 of those dollars were from industry political action committees. In addition to that, he has accepted $834,386 from oil companies between 2000 and 2007. Also, he has accepted $121,050 from the coal industry, and $119,800 of those dollars were from industry PACS....



Joe Barton's PAC, Texas Freedom Fund, has very generously contributed to the Stivers campaign.  The FEC reports that Stivers received $1,000 on 3/4/08,
$1,500 on 6/27/08, $2,000 on 7/25/08, and $1,000 on 3/3/10 from Barton's Texas Freedom Fund. Stivers must be just like Barton------ pro- big oil, anti-environment, pro-business.

We know that Stivers is a BP stockholder.  Stivers also noted that he doesn't believe in global warming (see 912 group survey.)

Over the years, other Ohio Republicans have also gotten political contributions from the Texas Freedom Fund.  The list includes Bob Ney ($5000 in 2005), Pat Tiberi ($2000 in 2000, $1000 in 2009), Jean Schmidt ($5000 in 2006, $2500 in 2008), Steve Chabot ($3000 in 2006, $3904 in 2006, $2000 in 2007, $2500 in 2008, $5000 in 2009, $1000 in 2010), Steve LaTourette ($2500 in 2004), Bob Latta ($2000 in 2007).

We are known by the company we keep.

Kilroy Supports Our Military- ---Kasich, Not So Much

Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15th) has kept her promises to help our service members.  ProgressOhio:

U.S. Representative Mary Jo Kilroy today announced an easier process for Veterans seeking health care and disability compensation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), with the publication of a final regulation in the Federal Register by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki....


....Under the new rule, VA would not require corroboration of a stressor related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity if a VA doctor confirms that the stressful experience recalled by a Veteran adequately supports a diagnosis of PTSD and the Veteran's symptoms are related to the claimed stressor.  This science-based regulation relies on evidence that concluded that a Veteran’s deployment to a war zone is linked to an increased risk of PTSD.....


.....Kilroy’s bills include:

• Sponsor of H.R. 5056, which would authorize and request the President to award the Medal of Honor posthumously to central Ohioan Major Dominic S. Gentile for acts of valor during the World War II.

• Cosponsor of HR 333, the Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act

• Cosponsor of H.R.1308, Veterans Mental Health Screening and Assessment Act

• Cosponsor of H.R.270, the TRICARE Continuity of Coverage for National Guard and Reserve Families Act of 2009

• Cosponsor of H.R.775, Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act

• Cosponsor of H.R.2583, the Women Veterans Access to Care Act

• Cosponsor of H.R.3441, which would provide for automatic enrollment of veterans returning from combat zones into the VA medical system

Thank you, Mary Jo, for keeping your promises to our military.


Then, we have the voting record of John Kasich.  Have you looked at some of the previous votes of John Kasich?  When he was in  Congress,  (see Dispatch 7/7/10) Kasich:

• Voted against raising the minimum wage, and his budget plan would have slashed food stamps and children's nutrition programs.
• "Fought to reduce the Earned Income Tax Credit ...a tax rebate for people who punch in, work hard and don't hide their assets in tax shelters and offshore accounts."
• Supported a 1990s "tax loophole that allowed American billionaires and other really wealthy people to evade taxes by renouncing their American citizenship."
• "Voted repeatedly to increase the cost of college loans ... He wanted to gut the Small Business Administration, with his budget seeking billions in cuts to programs that help fuel the growth and job creation of small businesses."
• Proposed cutting $7 billion from veterans programs, quadrupling veterans' prescription costs, and "cutting benefits for veterans who suffered head wounds and mental traumas and could no longer care for themselves independently."


Kasich had big plans in the 1990's when he was in Congress.  He wanted to provide tax cuts for the wealthy, at the expense of poor women and children. For example, Kasich wanted to slash the WIC program (the federal program for Women Infants and Children), which helps provide poor women with formula for infants, and nutritious, healthy food for young children. Luckily, Kasich's cuts did not get through and pass because President Clinton and many Republicans thought Kasich was being too harsh.

Those Archives Are Handy

Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, has sponsored lots of pro-business legislation when he was in the state senate.  The sad part is he has very little pro-consumer legislation in his list of sponsored bills.

Dayton Daily News and Newsbank:

(May 18, 2003)
...Sen. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, this month introduced another business-backed bill to limit monetary awards in personal lawsuits, put time constraints on filing some claims and establish medical standards for filing claims based on exposure to asbestos....

....Stivers' bill follows enactment last year of medical malpractice legislation that limits damages for pain and suffering based on medical claims.
The medical malpractice bill and Stivers' "tort reform" proposal might face legal challenges and eventually could end up before the Supreme Court....

Even though those asbestos illnesses might not show up for years, Stivers apparently wanted to make sure that you don't get the full compensation you should receive from a previous employer.  Stivers wants to protect those poor business people who made millions of dollars of profits while workers were exposed to the dangers of asbestos.  Once again, Stivers has sided with business against Ohio's workers.

*** In 1995, John Kasich, former investment banker with the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers, was in the House of Representatives. Kasich proposed a massive tax cut for the wealthy, while cutting programs for the poor and low income workers.

Kasich continues to idolize Ronald Reagan and the "trickle down" economics that did not work.  During the Reagan administration, the GOP and the Reagan White House, wanted to cut the lunch program for poor children, and save money by designating ketchup as a vegetable. Once again, the Republicans demonstrated their love of money, their loyalty to their wealthy contributors, and their disdain for school children and average American workers.  Kasich remains a disciple of the failed policy of "trickle down" economics.

> I just had to stop myself the other day from running inside one of those check cashing  places. I wanted to stop a young family from signing their lives away.  Those check cashing places really entice people to come in and get money.  They put out toys, crayons with coloring books, and candy for the children. It just makes me upset that people fall prey for these check cashing places and stay in a revolving circle of poverty.  After all we know about these check cashing places, it is hard to believe that Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, supports their existence.  Stivers even voted against lowering the interest rates of these businesses from over 300% to 28%.  What kind of a person would vote against lowering interest rates on businesses that prey on the poor? Steve Stivers.

*  Republican leader John Boehner has called in big business (lobbyists) to help him write the GOP policy agenda (The Hill).  I can see it all now.  If Boehner becomes Speaker of the House, he'll call in insurance lobbyists to write insurance legislation, bank lobbyists to write bank laws, Joe Barton and his oil tycoon friends to write the energy bills, etc., etc., etc.  Boehner plays golf with his lobbyist friends on a regular basis.  I'm sure that Boehner and his lobbyist pals are just excited with the possibility of screwing over the American people again with a pro-business, anti-worker legislative agenda.

Anyone who has ever worked should thank labor unions for the gifts they've given the American worker:  weekends, fair pay for fair work, safe work places, lunch time, breaks, overtime pay, and other benefits too numerous to mention. 


*  I wonder how the people of Ohio's 12th district are feeling about their member of Congress, Pat Tiberi.  Tiberi, a Republican puppet of Boehner's, doesn't do a thing without Boehner's permission. I've seen Boehner and Tiberi at the Columbus airport-----  an overly-tanned Boehner with Tiberi, following close behind.   Don't the people of Ohio's 12th district want someone who represents their wishes and doesn't have to consult with Boehner before opening his/her mouth?

Kasich and the cuts in programs for poor disabled kids

Republican John Kasich has always made it a priority to make the first budget cuts in those areas impacting children and the poor.  Here is a blast from the past concerning Kasich's planned cuts in 1995. 

In the May 26,1995 Dispatch,  we are reminded that Kasich wanted to cut the Supplemental Security Income by $1.4 billion.  The program serves poor disabled children.  I guess Kasich was willing to sacrifice them to give the rich tax cuts.

It is just like what President Obama said.  We already know how the Republicans will govern, if elected, because we are still cleaning up their messes.

Stivers and the No Bid Contracts----

If you live in Lake County Ohio, especially Mentor, I have a word of warning:  Kasich and the Republicans will be out in force this weekend.  According to the Lakegop website, they are meeting out of a private company's office.  Doesn't Kasich have a statewide organization with office locations?  Oh, wait----that would mean that Kasich would have plans and we know that Kasich still has no plans on how he'd like to fix Ohio.  He'll announce all that when he thinks you are paying attention.  If you see Kasich, ask him if he feels personally responsible for the loss of over $480 million in the state pension funds that were invested with Lehman.


*  We still haven't heard any comments from Republican congressional candidate, Steve Stivers, about the BP oil spill in the gulf!!!!!  Stivers, a former bank lobbyist and current BP stockholder, apparently doesn't want to say anything to harm any of his profits from his investments.  He probably wants to stay on friendly terms with all those oil companies, lobbyists, bankers, and financial services people so that they continue to contribute to his campaign.


***  Speaking of lobbyists.......

Dispatch:

A handful of Statehouse lobbyists are under investigation by the state attorney general for what Ohio's legislative inspector general calls a "pattern of disregard for lobbying laws."


Ohio lobbyists are required to register each year and report three times a year whom they represent, what bills they worked on and whether they spent any money in their efforts.

"We have a few folks out there who know just how far they can push things before they provide information, and when they do file their reports, they are noticeable for their lack of information," said Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe.....

It never ends.


*****  Speaking of Stivers------

Here is part of my blog post from Feb. 15, 2010:


\\   ....There is even more from this cached page from Zoominfo:

Steve Stivers approved over $7,000,000 in taxpayer giveaways to Buckeye Check Cashing during his first day on the controlling board. [Ohio Controlling Board Minutes 1/9/06].

Not surprisingly, the payday lending industry has given $6,000 in contributions to Stivers so far.....

...Steve Stivers was also lobbyist for Bank One, which was bought by JP Morgan Chase......

...That inconvenient fact didn't stop him from giving $173,902 in no-bid contracts to JP Morgan Chase while serving on the powerful Ohio Controlling Board [Ohio Controlling Board Minutes]. Stivers happens to hold significant investments in JP Morgan Chase stock. [2007 Personal Financial Disclosure Form]...

Sometimes when we look at the past, we have a clearer picture of what someone would do in the future.  //



Steve Stivers just loves those banking friends, doesn't he?  He always seems to try to help them out a little.  How sweet!

Speaking of Money.....

Republican candidate for Ohio Auditor, David "Big Spender" Yost, has a lot of people questioning his budget problems.  Although Yost claims to be a fiscal conservative, he isn't.  Citizens for Pepper has the details:

....compare the statement to Yost's own spending record.  He first came to the Delaware Prosecutor's office in February 2003; each year until 2010, he spent well more than the year before, usually with increases far greater than inflation:

2003: 53% increase 2004: 25% 2005: 7.6% 2006: 8.4% 2007: 7.7% 2008: 5% 2009: 2.6%

Overall, spending is up 150% from 2002 -- far outpacing both inflation and population growth in Delaware County....

That is very dramatic.  Yost certainly likes to spend that money.

David Pepper is the Democratic candidate for Ohio Auditor.  He has done a great job saving money in a county with a larger population than Yost's.  Check out David Pepper's graphs that compare their budgets at Pepper's Graphs.


**** Plunderbund wrote a post about some recent criticism by the NCSL leveled at Republican John Kasich's cockamamie plan to eliminate the state income tax. 

Kasich wants to "improve the attitudes" of state workers....

I saw this posting by Scott Pullins----

From twitter.com/scottpullins:  What in the heck is John Kasich thinking? He's spending today doing an interview on a Dallas based conservative radio show? Huh?


Is Kasich trying to sell books or devote himself to a campaign?

 Kasich was part of a blog radio program from a group called "Taking Back America."  If you want to force yourself to listen to it (Blogtalkradio), be my guest.  Kasich talked about his book (He went on, and on, and on...) and his goals if elected governor. He did say that his goals were to lower taxes, remove barriers to businesses (like regulations), and to "improve the attitudes" of state workers. He also bragged about his business experience (but he did not mention the name of the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers).

How do you improve the "attitudes" of state workers?  How will state workers feel about someone who (a) wants to fix their attitudes, (b) helped pave the way for their pension funds to invest with Lehman Brothers (and lose millions of dollars), and (c) has made it no secret that he wants to fire thousands of them. 

When Kasich says he wants to get rid of regulations, does he mean the kind of regulations that have to do with safety, security, and health issues?  IF Kasich would actually face the press instead of hiding out on his book tour, perhaps we'd get some answers.

Kasich does not do well in an unscripted setting.  Do you remember when he appeared on Hardball a few weeks ago?  He was reduced to a blubbering idiot.  His strategy of staying away from the press does not serve the public well.  It makes him  seem aloof.  His aloofness is confirmed when one hears that he attended all these GOP county dinner-meetings but demanded to speak before the dinner, and then left.  He just doesn't seem interested in the little things that make a campaign important to the voters------meeting and talking with the candidate, reading interviews from newspapers, and watching the candidate speak and conduct himself/herself through the rigors of a campaign.  Kasich is trying to play a game of  "keep away" ------ keep away from the media, keep away from interacting with the public, keep away from open forums, and keep away from Ohio. 

Kasich and Stivers: Protecting the Rich

The Hill has an article about Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy's work on helping her constituents and her participation on the banking regulations:


....Kilroy, a freshman congresswoman from Columbus, Ohio, is making financial legislation a mainstay of her 2010 reelection bid in one of the country’s most competitive races.

The race is rematch of the 2008 nail-biter between Kilroy, the former Franklin County commissioner, and Steve Stivers, a seven-year bank lobbyist and six-year state senator. Stivers lost by just 2,300 votes last time.

“They have a choice here between somebody who is going to have the outlook of the banking community and someone who is going to stand up for homeowners, small business, merchants,” Kilroy said in an interview in her Washington office on the eve of the House passing the bill. Stivers, she said, “is part of a culture” that pushed deregulation before the financial crisis and hurt Main Street to the benefit of Wall Street.....

Stivers has been getting boatloads of campaign money from his constituents ----- bankers, bank PACs, financial services PACs, insurance PACs, etc.

By the way, some people have actually removed their Stivers campaign signs from their yards because of his mixed message on abortion.  It is possible that some people who are anti-abortion will not vote or vote for someone else other than Stivers because he still supports the right to an abortion under certain circumstances.


******  Gov. Ted Strickland gave a campaign speech today that provided information on how Republican candidate, John Kasich, voted to protect the wealthy when he was in Congress. 

He is part of what Gov. Ted Strickland talked about today.
Cleveland.com:


In a campaign speech, the Democratic leader continued to paint his challenger as a rich outsider whose view of the world was shaped by Wall Street greed. 

"Congressman Kasich voted to let really rich people turn their backs on our country and renounce their American citizenship just so that they could avoid paying taxes like the rest of us," Strickland said during a speech at Democratic party headquarters.


"Then he voted a second time to allow the billionaires' loophole to continue," Strickland said. "Then a third time. Then a fourth time. It's not like he didn't have a chance to think about this." 

 Wow!  The article notes that this legislation that Kasich voted for 4 times "...cost taxpayers an estimated $3.6 billion between 1996 and 2005...."
 
Kasich won't tell you this stuff because he has been very much uninvolved in the entire political process.  He still has not revealed which parts of the state government and how many state employees will be cut to be able to let the state survive under his plan to repeal the the state income tax.

(pic from Swamppolitics.com)

Stivers---- For or Against Reproductive Choice

*  Republican John Kasich has always been a proponent of the "trickle down economics" theory-------- give tax cuts to the rich and that the remaining money will trickle down to the middle class and poor.  Unfortunately,  the remaining money, if it exists, would only be pennies.  Kasich has never really worked for the middle class  or the working poor.  He has always been the darling of the rich, fiscal conservatives. 

Kasich seems to be trying to attack public schools and those on state pensions. With the help of the right wing conservative newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, Kasich, and the Ohio Republicans, public employees pension funds seem to be targets. (Does anyone else think it is a little suspicious that Kasich's former employer, Lehman Brothers caused the loss of millions of dollars from the Ohio pension funds?)  I am a retired teacher and I have no money in Social Security.  Why are Kasich, and the rest of his ilk trying to take away my pension? 


***  There seems to be some confusion on the support being provided by the Ohio Right to Life/anti-choice/anti-reproductive freedom to Steve Stivers.  Some people are visibly upset because the group in central Ohio has endorsed Republican Steve Stivers, a former bank lobbyist.  Individuals within the group are not willing to support a candidate like Stivers who still supports abortions in some cases.

Dispatch (11/06/07):

...Both Kilroy and Stivers support abortion rights, although Stivers said he also supports requiring pregnant teens to get their parents' consent before getting an abortion. He also supports a ban on so-called partial-birth abortions....

and this------

In the January 11, 2010 post from The Hill, Stivers is described this way:


.....The pro-abortion-rights, centrist Republican....

It is no wonder the right wing is so confused about whether or not to support Stivers.

>>>>>  Do you know how much money Republican Rep. John Boehner has received from PACS representing banks, insurance, financial companies, etc. 

OpenSecrets: (John Boehner, career profile)

Campaign Finance Cycle: 2010200820062004200220001998Career

Industry	Total
Insurance	$1,000,996
Securities & Investment	$777,086
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$684,466
Retired	$561,634
Commercial Banks	$556,319
Health Professionals	$537,411
Real Estate	$482,948
Lawyers/Law Firms	$444,291
Electric Utilities	$437,530
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$421,480
Automotive	$320,167
General Contractors	$307,852
Food Processing & Sales	$307,015
Lobbyists	$299,390
Food & Beverage	$265,358
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$264,425
Retail Sales	$263,457
Oil & Gas	$263,350
Beer, Wine & Liquor	$254,225
Accountants	$253,575

I guess we know Boehner's real constituents.

We know that Boehner represents Ohio's 8th district, but he seems to have demonstrated little concern for those people living in his district.  

Happy Independence Day!

Hope you are having a wonderful time with family and friends on this July 4th.


We are currently stuck in an airport waiting for our flight.  We have already been delayed several times and are still hopeful that we will make our event this evening.  I'm not sure what the delays have been, but it appears that no one seems to be in a hurry to get us to our destination. 

After reading an article about the safety of airline food, you wonder if you should get something from one of the restaurants.  However, they don't appear to be offering anything that looks good or remotely healthy.


 I'm amazed at the amount of electronic equipment that people bring with them when they travel--- computers, hand-held games, IPods, etc.  We've moved to the point where we all become very attached to our gear and have withdrawal symptoms if we are unable to check our email.  When you travel, you notice that every place does not have internet access.


Last year, when we visited Assisi, Italy, our hotel did not have internet access.  I was in a panic.  By then, our rented cell phone wasn't working (I'll never do that overseas cell rental again!), and we certainly did not want to use a standard telephone in our hotel room.  After checking Rick Steves' book on Italy, I found a small shop in Assisi that allowed internet time for a small fee.  Once again, Rick Steves came through and saved us!

More later.....