Sunday, June 10, 2012

Losing Strategies?



>>>  Gov. John Kasich's approval rating is still in the toilet, and Plunderbund  has posted TPM's chart of Kasich's standing in Ohio.  It boils down to this, according to TPM:
   
 Kasich's disapproval is 55.6%  ......  Kasich approval is 39.4%

Gov. Kasich's cuts to education are starting to show.  Many districts have laid off teachers throughout Ohio and the rest of the country. 
USA Today:

President Obama urged Congress on Saturday to renew federal money for local governments so that they can avoid layoffs of teachers.....

"In Pennsylvania alone, there are 9,000 fewer educators in our schools today than just a year ago," Obama said. "In Ohio, the number is close to 7,000."

Of course, Mitt Romney doesn't see a problem with large class sizes.  Voters can see that President Obama is trying to get teachers back in the classroom, but Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Eric Cantor will work to block any chance of that happening.  While the Republicans sabotage the economy, they laugh, and joke, but in the end their disdain for the average American is showing.

•••••  Ohio State's Board of Trustees is moving toward privatizing the parking at the university.  Despite opposition from faculty, and students, it appears that the decision has been made for a 50 year agreement with an Australian company, QIC.  Here is a YOUTUBE video that explains the opposition to President Gee and the Board's plans:



Of course, no one can overlook the huge disaster Chicago has had with their privatization of their parking.  Time Magazine (5/11/12):

...So how did Chicago get itself into this situation? In 2008, Chicago’s then-mayor Richard M. Daley pushed through a $1 billion deal to lease Chicago’s parking meters to a private company for 75 years. A group of investors, led by Morgan Stanley, took over Chicago parking, ripping out old meters and replacing them with high-tech pay boxes. As Chicagoans adjusted themselves to the new technology, they also had to adjust themselves to new, much higher parking rates. Street parking in Chicago’s Loop now costs $5.75 an hour. Next year it will be $6.50.

As you might imagine, Daley’s little parting gift to Chicago has not been terribly popular amongst the city’s residents.

The Expired Meter, a blog devoted to chronicling what it sees as the failings of the parking deal, greeted the news with these three words: “Told ya so.”

It makes you wonder what parking fees and fines will be like in the future at Ohio State, especially since Morgan Stanley is also involved in the the deal here.

For news and views of the Chicago parking problems, visit TheExpiredMeter.

>>>>> It appears that Republican Josh Mandel's Democratic backers are really only
4 Democrats, according to information given by his campaign to the Dispatch:

.....Asked by The Dispatch for evidence of the backing Mandel says he is receiving from Democratic voters and groups, the Mandel campaign offered only the names of four registered Democrats willing to comment. But one of them actually is an independent who says she has supported candidates from both parties.

The issue of Democratic support has come to the fore because Mandel unfailingly brags about it in speeches and interviews. A May 10 Quinnipiac University poll showing Brown with a 6-point lead in the race found that only 5 percent of Democrats surveyed said they plan to vote for Mandel, compared with 10 percent of Republicans who indicated support for Brown.....

Josh Mandel's campaign has produced a continuing list of lies in their ads, speeches, and claims of bipartisan support. This just proves that Josh Mandel has nothing but the same old worn out right wing rhetoric we've heard thousands of times.  He has no new ideas. It might be a better idea for Josh Mandel to work at keeping his present job.

Why would anyone support a candidate that has lied continually, is against equal pay for women, is against a woman's reproductive freedom, is  against public schools, and was against President Obama's auto bailout that saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs?