Good Stuff vs. Bad

First the good stuff-----

There was a great gathering today in Columbus to support of the re-election of Sen. Sherrod Brown. Sen. Sherrod Brown was joined by his wife, Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize winning  columnist.  Former Senator, astronaut, pilot, and all around American hero, John Glenn, his wife, Annie, and actor/activist, Martin Sheen, also made appearances and spoke in support of Sherrod Brown.

Before coming to the reception, Sen. Brown and Martin Sheen assisted volunteers at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, in Grove City.

•••• Here is the bad----
  OMG! Another company is sending jobs out of Ohio---- Bob Evans! Gov. John Kasich gladly gave companies tax incentives and millions of dollars and now they are leaving the state.

Plunderbund:

...It started back in February with American Greetings. After receiving roughly $93.5 million in aid, and rewarding their CEO with a huge raise, American Greetings announced it would begin laying off Ohioans as part of the “overall strategic focus of the company.”

Diebold was next. Kasich helped organize a package of state and local incentives totaling $100 million for Diebold, including $56 million from the State. And in mid-April we found out Diebold was shipping 200 Ohio jobs to India, and their total workforce in Ohio had already dropped by another 200.

And yesterday we heard Bob Evans is now planning to eliminate over 100 jobs in Ohio, sending them to Texas, after Kasich gave the company $8 Million to move their corporate headquarters a few miles down the road.....

Gov. John Kasich is a genius---in his own mind.  When Kasich worked at Lehman Brothers, he convinced Ohio's pension plans to invest with Lehman.  They lost money when Lehman collapsed.  Now, taxpayers are still losing money.

> Has anyone heard how that FBI investigation of the Kasich administration is going?????

Make A Note

•••••  UPDATE!!!!!
      •••  Tomorrow---   Thursday, May 31st, 10am, Grove City, Ohio:

      Sen. Sherrod Brown and actor/activist Martin Sheen will be at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, 3960 Brookham Drive, Grove City, Ohio.  Mr. Sheen is an Ohio native and has dedicated his life to many civil rights causes.  Sen. Brown and Mr. Sheen will be helping the volunteers pack food starting at 10am.

>>>  A big announcement has been made from the campaign of Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Laprensatoledo:

Lucas County Auditor Anita López will co-chair an effort to mobilize the Latino community in support of the re-election effort of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The other co-chair of the campaign is Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain).  

 

The pair will co-lead “Hispanics for Sherrod,” a group that will attempt to not only mobilize support for the incumbent Democratic senator’s race against Republican state treasurer Josh Mandel, but advise the campaign on issues critical to Ohio’s Latino population, and speak across the state about Brown’s work on behalf of the state’s Latino community.

 

“The Hispanic community has no greater friend than Senator Sherrod Brown,” said Ms. López in a written statement, citing his work on the auto industry bailout, his support of the DREAM Act, and efforts to freeze college tuition rates. “We are proud to have Sherrod represent the Hispanic community and will work from now until November to make sure he is re-elected.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown's long history of helping families, workers, teachers, our men and women in police and fire departments, veterans, college students, and his strong support of the rights of women, should encourage every voter to work to support him in the voting booth.

••••  Sen. Sherrod Brown will be in Dayton today. He will be accompanied by Actor/Activist Martin Sheen.  The Senator and Mr. Sheen will be at the Foodbank at 10am. (427 Washington Street, Dayton, OH).  Later, the Senator an Mr. Sheen will be at the Dayton Cultural Center (40 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd.), at 2pm, today.

John Glenn

Ohio's own John Glenn, former Senator, former astronaut, Marine pilot, was in attendance at the White House today for the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Here are the honorees, as listed at the White House website:
 Madeleine Albright, John Doar, Bob Dylan, William Foege, John Glenn, Gordon Hirabayashi, Dolores Huerta, Jan Karski, Juliette Gordon Low, Toni Morrison, Shimon Peres, John Paul Stevens, and Pat Summitt. To read a brief biography for each of the recipients, visit the White House website.

••••••  Mitt Romney's new BFF, Donald Trump, is absolutely disgusting and other people know it too.
WashingtonPost:

...All of this Trump talk begs a simple question: Why is Romney associating himself with a man who is the public face of the debunked idea that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States and, perhaps more importantly, a man whose sole principle in life is self-promotion?

The Obama campaign quickly sought to make political hay out of the Trump-Romney connection.

“Mitt Romney’s continued embrace of Donald Trump and refusal to condemn his disgraceful conspiracy theories demonstrates his complete lack of moral leadership,:” said deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter. .”If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump because he’s so concerned about lining his campaign’s pockets, what does that say about the kind of President he would be?”

Mitt Romney should be ashamed of himself.  Donald Trump should be fired from NBC. Please call/write NBC and let them know that Donald Trump's attacks on President Obama are wrong.  Why does Romney pal around with a person like Trump? 
It might be time for Donald Trump's Apprentice program to be over.  Contact NBC to offer your complaints about Donald Trump's ridiculous attacks on our President.

•••••  Where was Josh Mandel today?  In his office?  No.  Josh Mandel, Ohio's Treasurer, was on the campaign trail today.  Has he taken a leave of absence to campaign?  Does he still get paid even if he spends time out of the office campaigning for another job? 

Hometown TV Station Slams Josh Mandel Ad

Even Cleveland TV station, WKYC, notes Josh Mandel's recent political ad is far from the truth.



(Note:  In July 2011, Plunderbund had a post about the Ohio credit rating.  Now we see Kasich and Mandel taking credit for something they didn't do.)

Josh Mandel had previous problems with false statements in his last campaign for Ohio Treasurer.  Politifact had this on Mandel's ad in 2010:

In perhaps the most controversial political ad of this election season in Ohio, Republican treasurer candidate Josh Mandel mixes religious terms into an attack on opponent Kevin Boyce’s integrity.....

......The general principle of Mandel’s explanation – that Boyce should be held accountable for his deputy’s actions – is an acceptable standard against which to judge elected officials. But the ad plays loose with the facts to identify Boyce with a religion he doesn’t practice.

We find the statement False.

Josh Mandel's ad was despicable. You'd think that he would have cleaned up his act.  While Mandel continues to throw mud through every campaign, it is upsetting that Josh Mandel is clueless as to how much money is in the state pension funds.  Clueless.  This You Tube video shows how his lack of attention to his job has made him uninformed about those funds that he manages:  Josh Mandel's Biggest Flub

Sen. Sherrod Brown Continues to Help Our Veterans

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown  has put his ideas into action in helping our veterans.  He has been investigating the wait time that veterans are experiencing in getting assistance from the Veterans Administration.  Ohioans know that Sen. Sherrod Brown has worked hard for working people and veterans.

Springfield News-Sun:

For years, Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office has taken complaints from veterans about the Veterans Administration’s slow handling of disability claims. Finally, he asked staff members to call the VA. He found they had to wait anywhere between 28 minutes to nearly an hour....

Veterans “shouldn’t have to wait to see a doctor, they shouldn’t have to wait to get housing, they shouldn’t have to wait to have a claim processed,” he said.

Brown, D-Ohio, has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to notify Ohio veterans and their families of assistance available to them in filing for VA benefits electronically. The bill would require the VA to alert veterans about trusted third-party advocates that can help veterans efficiently assemble complete and accurate claims. The bill has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars....

Sen. Sherrod Brown continues to work for all of his constituents.

••••  What is a crowd????  Even though some posts said that a recent fundraiser at the Mon Ami restaurant drew a crowd for Josh Mandel and Joe (not really a licensed plumber)  Wurzelbacher, a little digging proves that to be false.  In the original post announcing the upcoming event, the Beacon noted:  ...Women, men and teens are welcome to the loft at Mon Ami Restaurant, 3845 E. Wine Cellar Road, Port Clinton....

According to Eventective, the Loft at MonAmi has a Max Capacity: 150.  That is not a crowd.  

>>>>>Plunderbund has a interesting post about Gov. John Kasich's "Cleveland Plan" and the lack of support it is getting in the General Assembly.

••••  President Obama has a message for Memorial Day:  YouTube

Josh Mandel's Lack of Interest in His Job and Your Life

Just before noon on Friday, May 25th, I saw Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel being dropped off outside Latitude 41 Restaurant (50 N. 3rd Street Columbus) with someone else.  I thought it was kind of odd that he was being driven to a restaurant that was just a short walk from his office. Mandel's office is located in Rhodes Tower, 30 East Broad Street, in downtown Columbus.  Then I realized that Ohio's roaming Treasurer, and Republican candidate for Senate, could have been coming from somewhere else other than his office.  Was Mandel just rolling in from his shindig on Thursday night at Mon Ami Restaurant in Port Clinton?

Why did it take the Josh Mandel campaign months to return that tainted campaign money?  Did the Mandel campaign ever return that donation from that Nazi re-enactor?  If I were a candidate, I would not want money from anyone that honored and idolized the Nazis.

FYI:  To those Tweeters that keep repeating the same lines "Mandel endorsed by Ohio right to life" and "Mandel endorsed by Chamber of Commerce":  We know that those groups have endorsed Josh Mandel.  We're not impressed.  Josh Mandel continues to demonstrate his lack of interest in the middle class, public schools, the rights of women, equality for everyone, fair pay, the re-birth of the American auto industry, and keeping our air and water free of mercury and other pollutants. We cannot forget that Josh Mandel supported SB 5 (Issue 2), and voiced support for the Ohio "heartbeat bill" when it was discussed in the General Assembly.

Josh Mandel is so wrong for Ohio.

Ohio's Best High Schools

Newsweek has just come out with their list of the best high schools in America.  You'll notice something immediately about Ohio's list.

Here are the names of the high schools in Ohio that made Newsweek's list, and posted at the DailyBeast:

Wyoming, Indian Hill, Walnut Hills, Chagrin Falls, Dublin Jerome, Ottawa Hills, Orange, Solon, Olentangy Liberty, Oakwood, Olentangy Orange, Dublin Coffman, Hudson,

Olentangy, Upper Arlington, Beachwood, Madeira, Kenston, Dublin Scioto, Turpin, Aurora, Columbus Alternative, New Albany, Shaker Heights, William Mason, Bellbrook, Mariemont, Hoover, Avon Lake, Sycamore, Kritland, North Royalton, Brecksville-Broadview Heights City, Worthington Kilbourne, Anderson.

If you haven't figured out the ranking of Ohio's high schools on this list, I can tell you that they are all public schools with open enrollment except for Columbus Alternative, which is a magnet school.


>>>  A letter to the editor of the Plain Dealer reveals how many Ohio college students feel about the race for U.S. Senate:

I never thought I'd see the day when politicians would attack a college education, yet Josh Mandel's refusal to support Sen. Sherrod Brown's bill to freeze Stafford loan interest rates shows that he truly does not value an education. 

Being a student at Ohio State University and relying heavily on the maximum Pell Grant, and having friends who are already burdened with student loans, I understand both the strong desire to obtain a college education and the struggles to afford it. 

Brown understands the importance of a college education in building a competitive, modern work force. Mandel told The Columbus Dispatch that college degrees were unnecessary and urged young people to pursue vocational degrees, clearly unaware that countless students use Stafford loans to pay for vocational and trade schools....

Josh Mandel is more concerned with himself, the cronies he hired, the wealthy special interest groups that are funding his campaign, and the anti-middle class business owners that supported SB 5 (Issue 2) and now support Mandel.  Josh Mandel opposes clean air/water regulations and believes his business pals should be able to dump whatever they please into our environment.  Mandel believes that the EPA's regulations kills jobs. Without those EPA regulations, children, women, men, livestock, and crops would be sick and possibly dead.  Why is Josh Mandel willing to protect polluters instead of families and farms?

Josh Mandel Courts Anti-Middle Class Businesses that Supported SB 5???

 My post over at Stubbornliberal was about how Josh Mandel appeared to be visiting businesses that supported SB 5 (Issue 2).

The MorningJournal noted another campaign stop by Ohio roaming Treasurer, Josh Mandel:

...Mandel visited Beckett Corp. in North Ridgeville and praised the third generation family-owned company as a business that embodies “the backbone of Ohio’s economy.”

In case you might not know, the Beckett family apparently contributes to the Republican Party.  Also a Kevin Beckett was a contributor to the pro-SB 5 campaign in Ohio (see page 22 at the StateImpact contributors to pro-SB 5 Building a Better Ohio group).

Josh Mandel visited Exhibit Concepts last week where he campaigned.  Interesting thing is, the president of Exhibit Concepts, Kelli Glasser, is also listed as a contributor to the
pro-SB 5/Building a Better Ohio (anti-labor) group. (See StateImpact list of the 996 people that donated to Building A Better Ohio.)

(Note:  The list of contributors to the Building a Better Ohio campaign (the anti-labor, anti-police, anti-teacher, anti-firefighter, anti-workers' rights, pro-SB 5) is posted at State Impact is arranged by alphabetical order of the first name of the contributor. You can also see the list of contributors HERE.)

•••  Update tonight:
In a Twitpic that Republican Josh Mandel posted while he toured businesses in Ohio, Mandel mentioned that he had visited the Shelly Co. in Copley, Ohio.  Shelly Co. is part of Oldcastle Materials. It just so happens that in a press release at Oldcastle Materials,

 Donald Holt is listed as a representative of Shelly Co. under a picture for a conservation award.   A "Donald Holt" is also listed as a contributor to the pro-SB 5 (Issue 2), Building A Better Ohio campaign (see State Impact for list of contributors).

Josh Mandel also visited Delta Systems on his tour (instead of going to work in the Treasurer's office).  Delta Systems is listed as a contributor to the pro-SB 5 (Issue 2).

It is pretty brave of Josh Mandel to go visit anti-middle class business owners, don't you think?

--------------------------------

***  ***  This just in from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, has returned $105,000 in campaign donations to 21 employees at a North Canton direct-marketing firm following reports that federal investigators sought records about contributions he and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci received from the company.....

....Justin Barasky, spokesman for Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, said he suspected all along there was something wrong with the donations. 

"Josh Mandel is a politician who can't be trusted," Barasky said, "and the fact he has been shamed into returning $105,000 in illegal contributions only after an FBI investigation became public goes right along with hiring unqualified political cronies and missing every single board of deposit meeting his first year in office." 

The election is months away but Josh Mandel just seems to keep getting into trouble.

The Mandel Controversies Keep Piling Up

Republican Josh Mandel's campaign for the Senate has had a lot of controversy and it just keeps piling up everyday. With all these problems, Ohioans are wondering if Mandel can even handle his current job, let alone run for another office.

1. Josh Mandel started running for his next office just 87 days after he was sworn in as Treasurer. 

2.  Mandel was accused of cronyism because he hired inexperienced, unqualified friends, school buddies, and frat friends as staff, and somehow is unable (or unwilling) to produce the resumes of 34 of those employees that have been part of a public records request.

3.  Josh Mandel has made over 30+ campaign fundraising trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas, California, New York, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Utah, the Bahamas, etc.  As a result of Mandel's out of state fundraising, he has collected a majority of his contributions from outside of Ohio, according to Open Secrets.

4.  Josh Mandel has missed meetings of the Board of Deposits----more than any other previous Ohio Treasurer.

5.  Now the campaigns of Josh Mandel and Republican Rep. Jim Renacci are being investigated concerning some questionable campaign funds.

6.  Josh Mandel was nearly six months late filing his personal financial disclosure that is required for his Senate candidacy.

••••  And the latest controversy involving Josh Mandel........
7. State employees, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and state nurses will be shocked to know that Josh Mandel doesn't even know how much in pension funds he is responsible for protecting.

HuffingtonPost:

....Democrats are pointing to a question a Dayton Daily News reporter asked Mandel at a press conference earlier this month about his position on a series of pension reform bills pending in the state Legislature. Mandel, who serves as the custodian of the pension funds, indicated that he had read the bills but that his office would not be offering a formal opinion to the Legislature. The bills passed last week. 

"I will be watching it closely as the custodian of the $100 billion in assets," Mandel said in the exchange, which was caught on video. 

The reporter quickly told Mandel that the pension fund had $165 billion in assets. Mandel smiled in the video and backed away from the podium....

YouTube


If Josh Mandel spent more time in his office doing his job instead of galavanting all over the country, and the state to collect campaign funds, he might know that he is the "custodian" of $165 billion pension funds. 

Obama's Spending: Never Happened

The Republicans have been spreading several lies about President Obama's spending.  Marketwatch has the truth:

Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree. 

As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.” 

Government spending under Obama, including his signature stimulus bill, is rising at a 1.4% annualized pace — slower than at any time in nearly 60 years.

 

Ed Schultz mentioned this chart this evening.  Read the entire Marketwatch article. 

Destroy Jobs & Business, Make Money????

Even though Republican Mitt Romney no longer actually works for Bain Capital, he still receives income from the company.

NY Times:

...In what would be the final deal of his private equity career, he negotiated a retirement agreement with his former partners that has paid him a share of Bain’s profits ever since, bringing the Romney family millions of dollars in income each year and bolstering the fortune that has helped finance Mr. Romney’s political aspirations.....

....During his political career, Mr. Romney has promoted his experience as a businessman while deflecting criticism of layoffs caused by private equity deals by noting that he left Bain in 1999. But records and interviews show that in the years since, he has benefited from at least a few Bain deals that resulted in upheaval for companies, workers and communities. 

One lucrative deal for Bain involved KB Toys, a company based in Pittsfield, Mass., which one of the firm’s partnerships bought in 2000. Three years later, when Mr. Romney was the governor of Massachusetts, the company began closing stores and laying off thousands of employees. More recently, Bain helped lead the private equity purchase of Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest radio station operator, which resulted in the loss of 2,500 jobs.....

Do you remember KB Toys?  KB Toys was once a well-known toy store, until Bain Capital got involved. Grantcart at Democratic Underground has the sad details:

3. Bain Capital 'purchased' KB for the respectable price of $ 305 million dollars on December 8, 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KB_Toys

4. Bain Capital only offered $ 18 million in cash, the rest was leaveraged debt put on the company.

5. "Sixteen months after the buyout, Bain Capital paid itself $85 million in dividends in early 2002."

6. "January 14, 2004, K·B Toys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed 365 stores."

7. Three years later the rest of the 156 stores were closed down....

Read the rest of the story of how Bain destroyed KB Toys at Democratic Underground.

>>>>  There is a new ad coming to a TV near you put out by the Karl Rove super pac. It involves a woman, in a kitchen, who ages before your eyes.  Even though the ad supposedly cost a lot of money to make and to place on the air, the woman's gray wig is a joke because it looks like it is made of plastic. Seriously, did they think we wouldn't notice?  

Besides, women aren't going to vote for Romney because his right wing policies will get rid of Planned Parenthood.

YouTube



Mitt Romney also says in his big ad that he will give tax cuts to the "job creators."  What about the rest of the Americans?  Do only the rich get tax cuts?  Hasn't Romney heard about the deficit?

News!

• It appears that Republicans Josh Mandel and Jim Renacci are in the news! 
TalkingPointsMemo:

The FBI is investigating campaign payments to two Ohio Republicans made by employees of the Suarez Corporation Industries, the New Republic reports.

The direct marketing company is owned by Benjamin Suarez, a major Republican donor. The Toledo Blade reported back in August that 17 employees of the company had given large sums of money to Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel and Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH). That raised suspicions that Suarez might have been illegally reimbursing the employees for their donations to the campaigns.

Alec MacGillis reports for the New Republic that the FBI is looking into it:

I visited the home of Michael Blubaugh, a copywriter at Suarez who had given $5,000 each to Renacci and Mandel last year—and whose wife, Donna, had done the same. They live in a modest subdivision, in a home valued by Zillow at about $142,000. When Donna came to the door, she said she had already been asked about the donations by the FBI. The inquiry had caught her by surprise, she said, “because I didn’t know about the rules, so I was like, ‘What?’” But she said the $20,000 had been given of her and her husband’s free wills. “Our house may not look it, because we’re saving for retirement, but my husband makes good money as a copywriter,” she said. But why give so much to the candidates? “My husband made the decision, not me,” she said.

There is more from the ToledoBlade:

....The investigation comes after The Blade reported in August that 17 employees of Canton-based direct marketing magnate Benjamin Suarez gave tens of thousands of dollars to the two candidates.

Each contributed $5,000, the maximum allowed by federal election law, to the campaigns of one or both candidates. Six of their spouses also made maximum contributions.

For some of the employees and their spouses, that adds up to $20,000. Many had never before given to federal campaigns. In all, Mr. Suarez, the 16 employees, and their spouses gave $100,000 to Mr. Mandel’s campaign and $100,000 to Mr. Renacci’s campaign, according to campaign filings....

Everyone will be watching what happens next.

•••   According to Josh Mandel, he tax cuts for residents of his small town of Lyndhurst.  The 2010 U.S. Census noted that Lyndhurst had a population of 14,001. 
I did some digging, and here is what I found.

The Plain Dealer, Cleveland.com, published the following story on January 27, 2005, when Josh Mandel was a city council member in Lyndhurst, Ohio.  The article was written by Thomas Ott:

.....Josh Mandel said the city could give out 6,300 tax rebates and still have nearly half of the $4.7 million surplus that it carried into this year. He said the remaining cushion in the city's $18 million budget would provide ample comfort.

Mandel,  a 27-year-old first-term councilman, announced the plan in a letter mailed to residents this week, paying the postage with nearly $1,800 from his campaign fund.  He said he is not worried about charges of grandstanding......

In 2005, Mandel sent letters to the homeowners in Lyndhurst and said that they should be able to get a tax rebate from the city.  At the time he sent out the letters to homeowners, members of the city council and the mayor allegedly knew nothing about his proposal until after the letters were sent out and Mandel told them.  Did Josh Mandel purposely go behind the backs of the city officials to get publicity? In 2006, he was a candidate for the Ohio House.

After going through their finances, Lyndhurst city officials came to the conclusion that Josh Mandel had overstated the city's finances.  In another article from the Plain Dealer, published March 4, 2005, and written by Tasha Flournoy, the decision was made to give a smaller tax rate rollback to homeowners, instead of the $400 cash proposed by Mandel.  The tax rate rollback was approximately $75.

It is apparent that Josh Mandel, the Republican Party, and Josh Mandel's Tea Party followers have inflated Mandel's role in a tax cut to Lyndhurst homeowners.

• If you know anything about the way that Josh Mandel campaigns, you are aware of how Politifact Ohio has ruled on Mandel's inability to tell the truth.  Those of us who witnessed the 2010 smear campaign Mandel used against Democrat Kevin Boyce, might not be aware that Josh Mandel used similar dirty politics in his campaign for the Ohio House in 2006.

On October 6, 2006, the Cleveland Plain Dealer (www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers) published this opinion by Brett Larkin:

...In his campaign against Democrat Roger Goudy, Mandel takes a cheap shot at his opponent, using grainy black-and-white video footage of the  Solon councilman and words that depict Goudy as a big taxer.

Mandel may indeed prove to be a new breed of officeholder, but his initial venture into the big-time world of television advertising is a disappointment.....

Doesn't the "...grainy black-and-white video footage..." sound familiar?   More recently, those promoting Josh Mandel used the same tactic in ads against Sen. Sherrod Brown.

>>>>  At least we know where Josh Mandel will be on Monday, June 18, 2012:  in Washington, DC at a fundraiser!!! (see Scribd and PoliticalPartyTime)

Martin Sheen and John Glenn??? Wow!

Sen. Sherrod Brown talked about his bill, Bring Jobs Home Act, which aims to close loopholes that some businesses got when they moved jobs overseas.  Sen. Sherrod Brown's legislation is described in the Mount Vernon News.

Actor Martin Sheen, will join American hero, John Glenn, in a special reception on May 31st. Visit Sen. Sherrod Brown's Facebook page for information.

>>>>>  A letter to the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer questions Josh Mandel's candidacy and trip out of the country for a fundraiser:

...Three months after being elected treasurer of the state of Ohio, Mandel began raising dollars for his Senate campaign. His recent fundraising foray took him to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas to raise money from payday lenders. 

In 2008, when Mandel served as a state lawmaker, it was decided to cap payday lending interest rates. The lenders soon found loopholes. The state House voted to eliminate the loopholes; Mandel voted to keep them. 

All of these shenanigans lead me to ask, "Is it legal to raise campaign funds outside of the United States, or have some loopholes been found to legitimize Mandel's latest fundraising caper?" 

I'd like to have an answer to that question too.  Is it legal to raise campaign money from outside the country????  Will the FEC rule on it?

Josh Mandel reminds me of the employee that gets hired and then immediately starts looking for his next job.  You know the type. They spend their time looking out for themselves, without investing their time, energy, and focus into their present position.

Ask Kasich about his failed jobs creation

Republican Gov. John Kasich, a former Vice President at Lehman Brothers, has really been failing at keeping jobs in Ohio.  It seems that the only companies that have gotten tax deals and incentives to stay in the state were those on a friendly basis with Kasich and the GOP.  Meanwhile, the job losses keep piling up in Ohio. The ODJFS (Ohio Dept. of Jobs and Family Services) has posted the latest Warn Notices:

5/18/2012

BioScrip, Inc

Columbus (Franklin)

189

06/25/2012

05/14/2012

Kerry Flavor Systems US, LLC

Cincinnati (Hamilton)

141

05/11/2012

SUPER VALU Ohio Valley Distriubution Center  *

Xenia (Greene)

123

Beginning 7/8/2012 through 9/30/2012

05/11/2012

Lipari Foods (I&K Distributors/Countryside Foods)

Delphos (Allen)

57

Beginning 7/1/2012

05/09/2012

MTD

Valley City (Medina)

152

07/09/2012

05/09/2012

Anda Inc. (Watson   Pharmaceuticals, Inc.)

Groveport (Franklin)

55

Between 07/05/2012 & 12/31/2012

05/02/2012

SFI of Ohio, LLC

New Boston (Scioto)

81

Between 07/03/2012 & 08/04/2012

(* Spelling errors on the part of the ODJFS)

I'm don't think that middle class people have gotten any good things out of the Kasich administration when you look at these job losses.  With over four thousand jobs just listed for 2012 on the ODJFS page, you wonder what other lost jobs have not been reported. While Kasich flies around the state in taxpayer owned planes as though he is still at Lehman Brothers, Ohioans are left to pick up the pieces of his failed economic policies. 

What does Mitt Romney promise?  Romney has promised tax cuts for "job creators" even though the Bush tax cuts have already provided cuts and they still did not create jobs.  The "job creators" are just sitting on their money doing nothing.

•••  Follow OSU Dems on Twitter:

Sherrod Brown ‏@SherrodBrown

.@OSUDems Pres: “I hope students remember this November that Sen. Brown voted for students..." http://ow.ly/aYxdg #dontdoublemyrate

Expand  

 

The Ohio State Lantern: 

....College Democrats of Ohio sent the letter to Portman on Monday, condemning him for voting against a Democratic proposal in Congress to freeze federal student loan interest rates.

The proposal was shot down May 8, which would have frozen Stafford loan interest rates at 3.4 percent by eliminating a tax break for wealthy citizens. If no action is taken in Congress, those interest rates will double to 6.8 percent on July 1.....

Shame on Portman.

Just Saying....

The right wing, anti-worker, and anti-women's rights groups are touting their support of Republican Josh Mandel. Which groups support Josh Mandel in his latest campaign?

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce
•   The Ohio Chamber of Commerce supported SB 5. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
•   The Ohio Chamber of Commerce was against the amendment to raise Ohio's minimum     wage. (Dayton Daily News)
•   The Ohio Chamber of Commerce endorsed John Kasich. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
•   The Ohio Chamber of Commerce was against the Healthy Families Act, which advocated paid sick days for full time employees. (Putnam Voice)

The Ohio Right to Life
•   The Ohio Right to Life advocated cuts to the Planned Parenthood organization, which provides pap smear, breast exams, and birth control to poor women across the state. (Life News)

The National Federation of Independent Business/Ohio (NFIB)
•   The NFIB supported Ohio's SB 5, the anti-worker, anti-teacher, anti-firefighter, anti-police officer, anti-nurse, anti-public worker legislation pushed through by Ohio Republicans. (Columbus Business First)

The Americans for Prosperity/Ohio
•  The AFP Ohio supported SB 5. (AFP)
•  The AFP Ohio supported John Kasich. (AFP)

When have any of these special interest groups cared about regular, average, working men and women?

Investigation

Plunderbund has breaking news:

Two months ago Portage County Republican Party Chairman Andrew Manning asked the FBI to look into allegations that Manning had been asked to withdraw as a candidate for the state Central Committee race and in return he would be “given influence” over state government appointments. Manning’s attorney just confirmed that the FBI is looking into the charges.

In an email received minutes ago, Attorney David R. Langdon released this statement on behalf of Manning:

“FBI agents interviewed Andrew Manning last week. He answered questions about the statements in his affidavit, which he sent to the Justice Department in March of this year, that top allies of Gov. John Kasich offered him special influence over gubernatorial appointments if he agreed not to run for the state GOP central committee.”

Follow the rest of the story at Plunderbund.

Lipstick on a Pig

Before you do anything today, go and read Josh Mandel's "Jobs Plan" because it will tell you a lot about him. I've read through the plan and it is devoid of anything that offers jobs for human beings in Ohio.  It is nothing more than a repeat of the same drivel that has been promoted by every Republican candidate in the country for the last thirty years.  Here are the usual Republican buzz words---- regulations are bad, the debt is bad (even though they won't admit that G.W. Bush created it), business creators pay too much in taxes, business owners should be able to do whatever they want (dump mercury, benzene, etc. in your water), and make cuts to everything but defense, etc., etc.

It appears that all Republican candidates, including John Boehner, have adopted the phrase "common sense" for use on the websites and speeches.  Even their buddies at ALEC, Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the National Republican Senate Committee, the Heritage Foundation, the National Republican Congressional Committee, Fox News, Americans for Tax Reform, and Mitt Romney, all use the words "common sense" in all communications.  When any of these people and their supporting right wing special interests don't like the way that a Democrat has voted, they say that the elected official "voted against common sense."

In case you are interested----
Absent Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel used "common sense" 10 times in his "Jobs Plan."
Pat Tiberi used it on his website.
Steve Stivers has it on his page.
Ohio Rep. Mike Duffey mentions "common sense" at his campaign site.


In the end, Republicans can call it a "common sense" agenda, but most people would say that the Republicans are just "putting lipstick on a pig."  It is the same old agenda.  Don't be fooled, even if you are hearing the words over, and over, and over again.

Mandel Plan: Pro-Business, Anti-Employees

While Josh Mandel takes a grand tour of Ohio to collect campaign money from business owners, Ohio's working men and women are wondering how he gets paid when he is clearly not at work!

Josh Mandel's jobs plan is a joke. I've read it and I was quite surprised at the frequency of certain words in the document.  Josh Mandel's "jobs" plan is not for people, but for businesses and business owners. Here are the number of times certain words are found within Josh Mandel's "jobs" plan:

worker: 1                women: 0            paycheck: 0          business/businesses: 19 

safety: 1         tax/taxes:  39        benefits: 0                   regulation/regulations: 18

 "...reduce capital gains and corporate taxes...": 1

  

Mandel also shows his anti-union view by speaking poorly of "union organizers" in this plan.

Any person reading Mandel's "jobs" document would realize that the only jobs Josh Mandel wants to create are jobs for business owners.  The entire plan is pro-business, and anti-worker.

Mandel's current "jobs tour" is a ruse.  He is speaking with business owners and covering 23-23 counties to get free newspaper publicity.  Meanwhile, his inexperienced, unqualified, buddies, friends, lobbyist relatives, and frat friends are protecting billions of dollars.  That is insane!

Strange, But True

In looking over information at OpenSecrets, I found something very interesting. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has collected more campaign cash from residents of Beachwood, Ohio (zip code 44122) than his opponent.  Republican Josh Mandel attended high school in Beachwood, but apparently not very popular.

Open Secrets
Beachwood, Ohio 44122...........Sen. Sherrod Brown...........$297,012 campaign total
Beachwood, Ohio 44122........Republican Josh Mandel......$ 64,979 campaign total

The FEC (Federal Elections Commission) has a similar imbalance for Lyndhurst, Ohio (zip code 44124).  Josh Mandel served on the Lyndhurst City Council (2003-2006) and he calls Lyndhurst his hometown.  Sen. Sherrod Brown has also outraised Mandel in Lyndhurst.

(Note:  I counted only contributions from human beings to the campaign committees of the candidates.  I did not include PACs, super PACs, or any other entity.)

Clearly, this shows that the people that really know Josh Mandel, don't appear impressed enough to support his candidacy.  On the other hand, voters that know Sen. Sherrod Brown, are willing to contribute to his campaign because they know he works for them.

When does Josh Mandel do his day job?

According to a "press release" on Republican Josh Mandel's website, he 

"....will visit small businesses in 22 of Ohio’s 88 counties..." this week. Hmmmm. Which unqualified, inexperienced staff members in the Ohio Treasurer's are doing his job? 

Why isn't Mandel speaking with and visiting voters?  Isn't he interested in their views and needs? Is he just visiting businesses because he is going after their campaign contributions? Why is he carrying the banner for business owners and not the men, women, and children of Ohio?  Why isn't he discussing college debt with college students?

It seems that Josh Mandel's priorities are in the wrong place.

ROFLOL at Mandel

The Josh Mandel campaign must be run by third graders.
The Youngstown Vindicator:

...Mandel said Brown and his “team have shown they’re willing to lie about a lot of things.”

Mandel pointed to The Plain Dealer’s PolitiFact Ohio, a political fact-checking organization, as proof.

Mandel said PolitiFact determined Brown was “false” when he said in June 2011 that a Republican plan would end Medicare. The senator has since amended the statement to include “as we know it.”

But when told that PolitiFact found several of his statements to be “false,” “mostly false,” or “pants in fire,” Mandel said: “I disagree with them. They’re wrong.”

Look at how Politifact has ruled on statements made by Sherrod Brown, and those made by Ohio's absent, Treasurer, Josh Mandel:

Politifact: Sherrod Brown--

Brown's statements by ruling

Click on the ruling to see all of Brown's statements for that ruling.

• True 9 (9)
• Mostly True 7 (7)
• Half True 2 (2)
• Mostly False 2 (2)
• False 2 (2)
• Pants on Fire 0 (0)

Sherrod Brown is a Democratic U.S. Senator representing Ohio.

                                                 ----------

Politifact: Josh Mandel--

Mandel's statements by ruling

Click on the ruling to see all of Mandel's statements for that ruling.

• True 3 (3)
• Mostly True 1 (1)
• Half True 4 (4)
• Mostly False 2 (2)
• False 2 (2)
• Pants on Fire 3 (3) 

You can see Josh Mandel's "Pants on Fire" statements here.

Of course, what else do you expect from any campaign involving Josh Mandel?  No one can forget the hateful campaign he put up against Kevin Boyce. Even Joe Hallett from the Dispatch called an ad by Josh Mandel in the 2010 campaign as "...one politician's ad as the scummiest so far...."  Hallett went on and wrote, "...Mandel apparently wants Boyce's job so badly that he is willing to resort to bigotry to get it....."

In refusing to discuss issues, lie about his hires, refuse to provide resumes for those hires, and campaign on work time, Mandel has shown himself to be less than honest and trustworthy.

The GOP Just Doesn't Care About You!

>>>  U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (OH-R) obviously doesn't care about the debt being faced by college students and their parents. 

CantonRep. has news about a vote that would have lowered college student low rates and increased taxes on some business owners:

....Senate Democrats are pushing a bill that also extends the rate for one year and pays for it by applying the payroll tax to certain owners of business entities known as S-Corporations, which Republicans say penalizes job creators. Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked the bill from getting the necessary 60 votes to advance on a 52 to 45 vote.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, voted “yes.” U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, voted, “No.”

Why do Republicans dislike college students so much?  

***********

•••  WYTV had some remarks made today by Republican Josh Mandel as he appeared in Lordstown.  Unfortunately, Josh Mandel just repeated the same talking points that he says at every stop. 
WYTV:

.....Mandel is promoting his jobs plan that hopes to help small businesses over come what he believes is over regulation and high taxation out of Washington.  

"We talk quite a bit about the need for getting Washington out of the way," said Mandel. "I also believe we need a good, strong trained workforce in this country. We need to do a better job in investing in vocational training and jobs that will put the tools in the tool belt for men and women in the Mahoning Valley and throughout the state."

Josh Mandel cannot have it both ways.  If the country stops investing in education and training, there will be no new talent or trained individuals to handle the challenges of the future.  Yet Josh Mandel wants the federal government out of the way.

It is sort of odd that Josh Mandel would go to an area that is increasing jobs because of President Obama's auto rescue program.  Josh Mandel was against the auto rescue  program, but now he basks in the economic development that is occurring because of it?

With Josh Mandel promoting trade school instead of college, is he trying to push students into a certain direction for a reason?  David Donofrio thinks so........

David Donofrio ‏ @davidtdonofrio

Translation: "Don't get a degree! Then I nor my wealthy contributors will ever have our power threatened!" -Josh Mandel http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/05/09/college-degree-isnt-necessary-mandel-says.html

>>>>>How is it that the big honcho at JP Morgan Chase still has a job???? Should the head of the organization/company take responsibility for this disaster?

Republicans Target Young Voters

••••  I saw a clip of Mitt Romney speaking at the right wing Liberty University.  I have two questions:  (1) Was Romney using a teleprompter?  (2) How many women were on that stage in front of the graduates?  I counted one.

••••  With the scandal surrounding the latest problems at JP Morgan Chase, why does Republican Rep. Steve Stivers continue to fight against safety regulations for consumers????  Steve Stivers has been chipping away at various parts of Dodd-Frank and other bank regulations.  Does Steve Stivers believe that banks should be allowed to gamble with your hard earned money????

•••  If you are interested in the type of people that Republican Josh Mandel is courting, all you need to do is see where he visits and campaigns.  Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has spent an incredible amount of time away from his office in Columbus to campaign.

An announcement about a campaign stop by Josh Mandel in April 2012 by  912 Project (Medina, Ohio) Meetup,  has this bit of information about the organization:

912 Project (Medina, OH):
...We're about:

United States Constitution · Tea Party · Conservatives · Glenn Beck · Liberty · Freedom · 9/12, We Surround Them, Tea Party, Liberty · The 912 Project · Constitutionalist · Right to Bear Arms · 9/12 Project · End The Fed · 10th Amendment · We Surround Them · Sarah Palin...

 

Since we are known by the company we keep, is it safe to assume that Josh Mandel supports all these same issues??????  Does Josh Mandel know that a Senator supports the Constitution?  

 

>>>>>>  WARNING!!!!  The Republicans want young voters!!!!

 

Dispatch:

President Barack Obama counted on the support of younger voters four years ago. Now, a new Republican-leaning "super" political committee wants to bring them to the GOP's side.

Crossroads Generation, a new super PAC formed with the help of a handful of established GOP groups, is tapping into the economic frustrations of under-30 voters facing dim job prospects, crippling student loans or the prospect of having to move back home with their parents.

Starting today, the PAC is launching a $50,000 social media ad campaign targeting younger voters in eight swing states, including Ohio and Virginia. Their ultimate goal: woo younger Americans to the Republican side, including some who supported Obama in 2008.....

 

According to the Dispatch, this Crossroads Generation group will use College Republicans to recruit young people to support Republican candidates. Seriously.  Since Ohio State and college campuses across the state have some of the largest College Democrats in the country, I'd say that most College Republican groups will have a hard time recruiting young people to their anti-gay, anti-women's rights, anti-reproductive freedom, anti-fair pay, anti-Social Security and Medicare for Grandma, anti-low interest student loans, anti-Pell grants, anti-immigrants agenda that Republicans promote.  Who'd want to join a group that supports corporations over people, and is anti-environment?????

Support for SB 5 was anti-veterans

A veteran's letter to the editor in the PlainDealer explains how Josh Mandel abandoned veterans and, in particular, has ignored violence against women in the military.

Plain Dealer:

....While I respect his service, we were not taught in the military to abandon our fellow citizens when we left active duty. Not only did Mandel support Senate Bill 5/Issue 2, which stripped veterans' preference for teachers, who are mostly women, he has not expressed his clear support for the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act......

......Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said violence against women is a serious problem that can't be ignored and that military leaders have a responsibility to address. Mandel is ignoring it.

Sen. Sherrod Brown led the fight in reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act in the Senate. He is a consistent advocate through legislation like the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and Hiring Heroes Act. That's why I will support Sherrod this fall. He has proven he will protect veterans and Ohio's women. 

When Josh Mandel and Ohio Republicans supported SB 5, they pushed for legislation that would have stripped veterans of their current rights.  Plunderbund provided this example of what SB 5 did to veterans that went into teaching:

We’ve been talking a great deal about SB5 lately and how this union-busting bill impacts Ohio’s middle class workers. But there’s another group of hard-working, dedicated and very deserving Ohioans who is also going to be hurt by Senate Bill 5: Veterans.....

.....And since SB5 completely does away with any kind of minimum salary requirements based on years of experience, if you want to go from defending our country to teaching our children, you might have to start right back at the bottom again.....

So, just to be clear, Ohio’s Republican state Senators just sent a bill over to the House that screws Ohio’s veterans who want to be teachers out of a well-deserved 20% salary increase based on their military service. 

In other supporting evidence on how military veterans would lose the bonus for jobs is presented at Ballotpedia.org, which shows, in Sec. 3317.13, the section that removes the bonus for veterans:

(d) All years of active military service in the armed forces of the United States, as defined in section 3307.75 of the Revised Code, to a maximum of five years. For purposes of this calculation, a partial year of active military service of eight continuous months or more in the armed forces shall be counted as a full year.


In supporting SB 5, Josh Mandel supported taking a bonus away from veterans. Yet Josh Mandel said that by taking away rights from veterans and workers, he was showing respect for them.  See YouTube.

Standing on prejudice....

*** Those people voicing their opposition to President Obama's support of marriage equality certainly are loud, but they are still wrong.  These same people against marriage equality are also against--- women's rights, voting rights, public schools, low interest rates for college loans, the separation of church and state, diversity, etc., etc. 

>>>>>  Republican candidate Josh Mandel, the nearly absent Ohio Treasurer, as a member of the Ohio House, voted against

H.B. 176 in 2009 that, according to the OLSC (Ohio Legislative Service Commission): Prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity

H.B. 108 in 2010, a bill that would make cockfighting a felony.  Even though Mandel voted against the legislation, the bill passed.  Is Mandel for animal cruelty?

••••  Gov. John Kasich had some sharp words for local governments, according to Cincinnati.com:

State money will not be restored for local governments, Gov. John R. Kasich told The Enquirer in a wide-ranging discussion with the newspaper’s editorial board and reporters.....

....Last summer, Kasich’s office announced cuts to the state’s local government fund – hundreds of millions of dollars divvied between the state’s cities, villages and townships each year, representing 3.68 percent of the state’s operating budget. Communities spend the money as they see fit.

Today, they get 75 percent of what they’ve traditionally received and in July they’ll lose another 25 percent. Kasich didn’t waffle on the topic, even in light of a predicted state surplus.....

I guess Kasich has to cover all those funds he gives to his cronies in tax cuts and incentives. Diebold received millions from Kasich, but as Plunderbund reported, they are eliminating jobs.  Cronyism is alive and well in Ohio----if you are friends with Kasich and Mandel.

Problems for Banks? Stivers Will Protect Them

Some bankers never learn!

ABC News:

J P Morgan Chase & Co. is rocking the financial markets with the disclosure that its in-house trading operating lost $2 billion in the past six weeks, raising new questions about whether the big banks that caused the financial meltdown have sufficiently changed their ways. 

Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the trading loss was an "egregious" failure in a unit managing risks, but he added in a call with analysts after the markets closed Thursday that just because the bank did something "stupid" that doesn't mean other firms are having such trouble. 

"There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment," Dimon said. "These were grievous mistakes, they were self-inflicted." 

With Republicans like Rep. Steve Stivers (OH-15) working hard to destroy the safeguards that President Obama and the Democratic Congress put in place, this kind of mess was inevitable.  Steve Stivers has said that these bank rules were too strict and inhibited banks.  Guess what?  Our money is in these banks and our tax money could be used to save this sloppy bankers.  Stivers and the rest of the Republicans should not support such poor business behavior.

BangorDailyNews:

....Stivers, a former banking lobbyist who was endorsed by tea party-affiliated group FreedomWorks, has received $28,000 from the political action committees of the five largest banks; Schweikert has collected $11,500.....

....Stivers sponsored a bill to ease Dodd-Frank’s swaps rules, which passed the House with bipartisan support, and New York Representatives Michael Grimm and Nan Hayworth have sponsored their own measures to reduce the reach of the derivatives regulations, each garnering bipartisan support, as well......

Stivers is gambling with your money and your peace of mind.

New Poll....

•••  A new Quinnipiac Poll in Ohio has lot of information, and the Toledo Blade has the details. According to the latest Quinnipiac Poll, the race is tightening up between President Barack Obama and Romney.  And, according to Quinnipiac, as published in the Toledo Blade:

....In the Brown-Mandel Senate race, Senator Brown leads among independent voters 42 percent to 38 percent. He leads among women 50–34 percent while Mr. Mandel leads among men 46–41.

Senator Brown has a 41-30 percent favorability rating. Mr. Mandel has a 30-18 percent favorability rating, with 51 percent not knowing enough to form opinion, compared with 71 percent in February. Mr. Mandel was elected to his first statewide office, treasurer, in 2010.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,069 registered voters May 2-7. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.....

In my humble opinion, all you need to know is this:
1.)   Sen. Sherrod Brown is the champion of the middle class, working families, civil rights, women's rights, workers' rights, public education, and supports a clean environment.

2.)   Josh Mandel hired unqualified, school friends, and his campaign workers to watch/invest your tax money in his capacity as Ohio Treasurer.  Josh Mandel supports the Paul Ryan budget which would raise interest rates on college loans, end Pell grants, give vouchers to the elderly instead of Medicare, give more tax cuts to corporate millionaires, and let companies pour pollutants like lead and mercury into our environment.  Josh Mandel did not support the Obama auto rescue plan, and Mandel also is against women's reproductive freedom. Mandel supports giving your tax money to poorly performing charter schools.  The often absent Josh Mandel, continues to fly around the country to collect campaign cash.  Mandel even went the The Atlantic in the Bahamas to collect campaign cash from members of a payday lenders convention.


•••  Once again Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH-Dem) has demonstrated his leadership in protecting our families and neighborhoods.  USA Today:

In a letter sent Wednesday to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the senators urged the EPA to "take immediate action" to review unassessed sites and to set priorities for remediation, such as sites near schools or playgrounds. "It is necessary to ensure that people living near these sites, especially children, are safe," the letter said.

The letter was organized by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and was also signed by Sens. Robert Casey, D-Pa.; Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; and Al Franken, D-Minn.

"These former lead smelter sites may no longer exist, but as USA Today has revealed, residual contamination continues to pervade many communities in Ohio and across America," Brown said in a statement, noting that several sites featured in the series were in Cleveland and Cincinnati. "The EPA must move quickly to ensure that Ohioans living near these sites are aware of the potential hazards, and to place these sites on a high priority list for remediation."

Ohioans can count on Sen. Sherrod Brown's vigilance in looking out for the health of our families.  The old empty factories are in need of testing and possible clean up because they pose threats to our drinking water, soil, and the air that we breathe.  Sen. Sherrod Brown has always spoken out to protect our safety.

On the other hand, Sen. Sherrod Brown's Republican opponent, the often absent Ohio Treasurer, Josh Mandel, would allow corporations and businesses to pour pollutants into our water, air, and soil.  Mandel just doesn't seem to care about people, but more for the corporate CEO's that support him.

From his own campaign website, Josh Mandel said:

"Anyone who is an auto manufacturer, a tire manufacturer, anyone who is making or transporting goods ... is going to be negatively impacted," Mandel said in a meeting with editors and reporters of The Courier and WFIN-WKXA.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency says its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will slash power plant emissions of mercury and arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide.

 

Mandel said it will slash 53,000 jobs in Ohio. 

 

"Overregulation ... is crushing manufacturing companies and job creators here in northwest Ohio," said Mandel, who is also the state treasurer. "Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown are not only on the wrong side of the issue but they are on the wrong side of history." 

I'm not exactly sure where Mandel got that "53,000 jobs" figure, but I think he pulled it off of some right wing, pro-corporate talking points he was given.  Mandel is getting support from the Chamber of Commerce, the Club for Growth, and Freedom Works-----all groups that support corporate greed.  The average citizen won't stand a chance with Mandel and his backers in charge.

What jobs have Stivers created????

>>>>  Republican Rep. Steve Stivers (OH-15th) just said, on Martin Bashir's MSNBC program,  that he believes that marriage is between one man and one woman. Stivers, a former bank lobbyist,bragged about his jobs bills (?).  Gee.  Has anyone seen any of the jobs Stivers has created?   Bashir just asked Stivers if the job growth in Ohio could be attributed to the President's auto emergency program. Stivers said that the bankruptcy program would have worked just fine if the American auto industry would have gone bankrupt.  Really?

>>>>  DailyKos has all the important information on the historic announcement today by President Obama's statement on marriage equality. 

>>>>>  On MSNBC TV (right now), Krystal Ball said that those that are pleased with President Obama's support of marriage equality should go out and work for him to get him re-elected.  Exactly.  Get off your sofa and visit BarackObama.com and contribute to the President's re-election by volunteering and/or writing a check. If you really want to move our country forward, instead of back to the policies that created this financial mess, you'll join with the President.

>>>>>  In an article in the Columbus Dispatch, Josh Mandel states that a college degree isn't necessary and that some people should go get a vocational education.  Unfortunately, it appears that Josh Mandel has been living in the past.  In the old days, there were "shop classes" for students but today they are called "industrial technology" because they involve technology.  Many schools have put away the lamp kits and book shelf lessons in favor of industrial design on computers.  That is the kind of education that is going on in our schools.  Just because Mandel's grandparents survived without an education beyond high school doesn't mean that young people today can do the same.  Everyone needs something more. Those that wish to go to college should have low interest student loans to assist them---- even if Josh Mandel is against them.  Josh Mandel and the Republicans don't want you to get college loans so that they can use that money to give more tax cuts to the rich.