Boo hoo hoo!

Whoa! Mitt Romney had lunch with President Obama at the White House. This just shows that President Obama has real class.

>  John Boehner just loves his millionaire buddies so, so much that he cannot bear to raise their taxes (see TheGuardian). Boo hoo hoo!  I can't believe that poor pathetic millionaires will be obligated to cough up some extra tax money. Will millionaires be forced to sell one of their private jets, one of their beach homes, yachts, or cut back on the expensive French champagne they enjoy every night?  Oh, the injustice!!!!  The tragedy!!!!

What a bunch of b***s***!  John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and the rest of the Republicans\ buffoons don't really care about the middle class, retirees, college students, our men and women in uniform, or anyone that is looking for a job. The GOP just wants to keep the money flowing into their campaign treasuries from their deep-pocketed friends.

The Republicans signed loyalty oaths to Grover Norquist, but then somehow forgot about their oath to this country and the American people. The Republicans need to stop playing games and end the drama!!! Let the tax cuts expire on the millionaires.  It is simple and fair.

Those Republicans...

The Republican Party cannot understand how it seems unable to attract new members, women, Latinos, union workers, young people, etc.  Apparently, they haven't learned anything because their committee chairs for the U.S. House of Representatives all have something in common---- They are all white males.

HuffPost:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced who will chair all of the major House committees in the next Congress. And it turns out they all have something in common besides party affiliation: they're all white men.

There isn't a single woman or minority included in the mix of 19 House committee chairs announced Tuesday -- a stark reality for a party desperate to appeal to women and minorities after both groups overwhelmingly rejected Republicans just weeks ago in the presidential election. The one female committee chair that House Republicans currently have, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), is stepping down because her term is up. While there are still two lower-tier House committees awaiting a chair assignment -- the Ethics Committee and House Administration -- neither committee has any women or minority members......

No matter what, the Republican Party is still out of touch and out of date. 

>>>  TIME magazine will soon be out with "The Person of the Year."  However, I'd like to suggest that they also nominate Sen. John McCain as "The Crankiest Person of the Year" and Mitt Romney as "The Most Arrogant Rich Guy of the Year."

***  President Obama is seeking your input, according to USA Today:

President Obama's campaign for his "fiscal cliff" plan includes the Twitter-verse.

The White House has set up a new Twitter hashtag: "My2K," a reference to the extra $2,200 in taxes it says the average family will pay if all the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year.

As part of talks on a new debt reduction deal, Obama is asking Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle class Americans, while ending them for Americans who make more than $250,000......

Participate in this Twitter campaign: a new Twitter hashtag: "My2K"
 

Just Shameful

Sen. John McCain (AZ-R) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC-R) have gone way, way, way, overboard on their attacks against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. Why have they continued to smear her on what she said on Sunday talk shows when she only repeated information that had been given to her? Ambassador Rice did not make policy decisions about Benghazi. Are McCain and Lindsey Graham just trying to get their faces on TV?

An article at the Huffington Post raised some suspicions as to why McCain was on his very public crusade against Susan Rice.

HuffingtonPost:

Just four years ago, John McCain was the leader of the GOP. Today, he's the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, a perch from which the former fighter pilot is deeply engaged in the national conversation over war, terrorism and intelligence gathering.

But in January, the Arizona senator will lose his top-ranking committee seat due to term limits. The only ranking Republican spot available to him next session will be on the Indian Affairs Committee.

Unless, that is, the Senate creates a brand-new select committee. On Wednesday, McCain, flanked by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), proposed just that: a select committee with extensive authority to investigate the Benghazi, Libya, attack and the U.S. government's response....

Is it possible that McCain is going after Susan Rice just to boost his already dwindling importance in the Senate? While McCain tries to defame Ambassador Rice, is he really trying to capture the limelight for himself? Are there other reasons for the continuing punches being thrown at Ambassador Rice? Is it sexism? Is it racism? Is it the crankiness of a man trying to make himself relevant?

Lindsey Graham's tag along with McCain makes it look like he is going with McCain for the ride. With Democrats maintaining control of the Senate, Lindsey Graham and John McCain  are looking for a fight just to keep themselves in the spotlight.  Their attacks on Susan Rice are ridiculous, ugly, and shameful.

No Retreat...

* Rachel Maddow on MSNBC noted that Sen. John McCain has been on 21 Sunday news programs so far this year. OMG! Enough of McCain! Why do the Sunday news hosts/producers think that McCain has something to say? It is just the same old bitter words from McCain over and over again.

* I hope that President Obama holds firm on the "fiscal cliff" talks he has been having with John Boehner and Republicans. The President should just remember the words to Springsteen's song, "No Retreat, No Surrender," as he works with the GOP.

* U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH-Democrat) appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show. I'm sooooooooooooooo thankful that Ohio voters re-elected Sen. Sherrod Brown. He always has Ohio's working people in mind in everything he does. Sen. Brown also respects women to make their own decisions about their reproductive concerns.

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

* NYTimes:
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers staged angry protests on Monday, demanding justice after at least 112 people died over the weekend in a fire at a factory on the outskirts of Dhaka where labor advocates found the charred remains of clothing from brands sold at global retailers like Walmart....

...Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi labor leader, said she toured the factory after the fire was extinguished and found labels for a variety of global retailers, including Faded Glory, a brand she said was manufactured for Walmart. Ms. Akter said she also found labels for brands sold at leading European retailers....

This is very sad that people died while trying to support their families. I still remember the days when clothes for American stores were made in this country. Clothing is being manufactured in foreign countries where people are working in unhealthy, and dangerous conditions. Here is some information about these garment factories as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor:

....In its study of 143 garment factories in Bangladesh, the Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI) reported the salary range is 300 to 500 taka per month (about $7.69-$12.82), except for the case of sewing machine operators or ironers who were reportedly paid 750-1,800 taka per month ($19.23-$46.15), and that the children are generally paid less than adults.²⁰ In a recent visit to Bangladesh, a Department of Labor official spoke with children who reported receiving anywhere from 250 to 700 taka per month.²¹ Children also reported that, like adult workers, they are often paid two to four weeks late, and rarely paid extra for overtime.²² In some factories, the child workers are appointed as "apprentices" or "helpers" for months and are not issued identification/time cards even after completing their apprenticeship period.²³ In some factories, the child workers are appointed as "apprentices" or "helpers" for months and are not issued identification/time cards even after completing their apprenticeship period.²⁴ There is no paid leave for holidays, and salary is deducted if the child is absent, or for unproductive periods when the electricity in the factory temporarily goes out. Girls under 15 years of age are preferred in these factories, as they work for less, are more likely to be unmarried with no children or domestic responsibilities, and cause no labor problems...

This is the price of cheap clothing and the avarice of clothing lines and stores that choose to allow these horrible working conditions to continue.

No Punches

* We avoided any major political disasters over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Despite the fact that some of our dinner guests are practicing Republicans that watch Fox News, I didn't need to throw anyone out or throw any punches. Thank goodness. However, just before some of our Republican guests left, I had to show them a picture of me meeting President Obama----just to rub it in a little. 

* The weekend was even more successful with the huge win of the Buckeyes over that team from up north. It was very cold at the game, even with our hand warmers, fleece blankets, and extra gloves. The appearance of the 2002 National Championship Ohio State Football Team, Coach Tressel, and the win over those varmints from up north, made it all just wonderful.

* In case you missed it---- Another person hired by Gov. John Kasich is having some ethics problems. Plunderbund has all the details surrounding James Leftwich.

*How many Ohio 3rd graders will be retained at the end of the school year? The CoshoctonTribune suggests thousands of students will need to repeat the third grade.

CoshoctonTribune:

...Schools recently received the results from the fall Ohio Achievement Assessments, showing which students need assistance to pass the high-stakes exam....

....In Zanesville City Schools, 43 percent of the 250 third-graders did not receive a proficient score on the reading test.

The state’s third-grade reading guarantee requires students to meet certain proficiency levels on reading tests to advance to the fourth grade. Officials from numerous districts expressed concern that such hard lines don’t benefit students, while supporters said the focus is on intervention more than student retention....

We'll see what happens. When people that know nothing about education and learning try to use untried methods to measure learning, it will be the students, teachers, and parents that will suffer.  Kasich and the GOP will live to regret their third grade reading program, especially since they've cut so much from the budget for education.


>> If you live in central Ohio, you should not miss the exhibition of photographs by legendary Annie Leibovitz at the Wexner Center. The photographs span Leiboitz's long career and her wide variety of subjects.

A Fix?

* Was there some computer program that was to switch votes to Mitt Romney on election day?  Salon has an interesting article about how possible election stealing was prevented.

Salon:

On Election Night, viewers watched in shock as Karl Rove refused to accept the call, confirmed by Fox News analysts, that Ohio had gone to Obama.

A release claiming to be from hacker collective Anonymous alleges there was more behind Rove’s freak-out than first met the eye. The group says that it foiled Rove’s attempt to steal the election in Florida, Virginia and Ohio by using the GOP’s ORCA system.

Two weeks prior to Election Night, a typical Anonymous video was released warning Rove against rigging the election. “We want you to know that we are watching you, waiting for you to make this mistake of thinking you can rig this election to your favor,” Anonymous’ ubiquitous Guy Fawkes character warned....

Was there a plan to "fix" the election and was it prevented? Read the rest of Salon and decide.

> Was the move to de-fund Planned Parenthood in Ohio supported by Gov. John Kasich?
An article in the Dispatch suggests that Kasich has his fingerprints on the legislation. The Republican-controlled state legislature takes orders from Kasich. Those of us that remember SB 5 and his cheerleading for it, have no doubt about it. The Republicans don't move without an okay from Kasich.

John Kasich has never supported women making their own decisions about anything. At a campaign event in September, he told people at a rally that his wife, and the wives of other politicians were home doing the laundry (see Taylor Marsh 9/12/12).  Ohio women should NOT look to John Kasich or the Republican Party to stand up and work for them. Women helped win Ohio for President Obama and stood up for their own rights. We should not surrender to John Kasich and the pre-historic Ohio GOP. They are not interested in what women think. Kasich and the GOP believe that women are second class citizens and do not support equal pay for equal work. (Kasich pays the women in his cabinet less than their male counterparts.)

While Kasich and the Ohio GOP work to de-fund Planned Parenthood which provides needed care for over 100,000 Ohio women, we need to remind ourselves that Republicans haven't learned anything out of their recent election loss. Kasich and the GOP continue their war on women.

Just the Facts!

* Chris Redfern of the Ohio Democratic Party corrects the Ohio GOP claim.

PlainDealer:

...Rarified air: Chris Redfern said he laughs when he hears his Republican counterpart, GOP Chief Bob Bennett, call Ohio a "centrist-right" state, as he is frequently quoted as saying. The day after the election, Redfern told a news conference that Barack Obama's win says something about Ohio. 

Obama is "only the second Democrat in the last 75 years to win Ohio twice with more than 50 percent of the vote. There is nothing center-right about that." 

PolitiFact Ohio rated Redfern's claim True....

Don't tell the Ohio GOP, but Ohio is definitely more Democratic, and pro-workers' rights.

* There are plenty of jobs waiting for people with truck driving experience. The DaytonDailyNews has the information.

* Republicans like John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Peter King, and Dana Rohrbacher should wake up and stop attacking the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Why are Republicans trying to create a controversy that doesn't exist? The Republicans cut funding for security for U.S. embassies over the objections of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Republicans are to blame for what happens when our security is weakened.

>>>> Those that were supported "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" probably never imagined that the biggest scandal involving the military and CIA would have to do with heterosexual sex.

>>>The Republicans are looking to Jeb Bush for their future. We've had enough of that family. Enough!!!!

Other stories around the web:

••• Republican Rep. Dan Lundgren lost the election in his California district to Democrat Ami Bera. (See SacramentoBee)

•••• Some guy on Fox News claims Israel doesn't have a right to exist. OMG! How awful!
Raw Story has the quote and the name of the controversial Fox News guest: Here.

••••• Walmart is concerned that their underpaid, poorly treated employees will go on strike in time for Black Friday, according to the NYTimes. Why do so many of Walmart's employees have to turn to food stamps to survive?

•••••• Bloomberg is reporting good news about home sales--Bloomberg.

•••••••  Forbes notes that the big bosses at Hostess kept rewarding themselves with huge bonuses. Forbes:

...Hostess Brands’ management gave themselves several raises, all the while complaining that the workers who actually produced the products that made the firm what money it did earn were grossly overpaid relative to the company’s increasingly dismal financial position.....

Did executive greed destroy Hostess?

Republicans Continue Attacks on Women

> If you are an Ohio teacher, you might want to read a posting at Daily Kos on the latest Ohio Teacher Evaluation System. Kasich and the Republicans just don't understand what goes on in a classroom.

* The Ohio General Assembly introduced 908 bills last year, but only 54 became law. What the hell are they doing? The Ohio Republicans have an obsession with women reproductive parts. It is really as if they are trying their hardest to put women back in the kitchen with a dozen kids, and no rights. It is no wonder that Ohio women gave President Obama a large margin of victory in the election. Republicans just want to regulate women's bodies, birth control selection, when/where women go for gynecological care, and what is discussed between a woman and her doctor. It is really quite disgusting the Republican overreach into women's lives.

• The election is over, but apparently Mitt Romney and the Republicans haven't learned a thing.

Mitt Romney's latest was covered by the LA Times:

...The onetime private equity magnate would have an “optics” problem if he wanted  to run for office ever again. But since he’s done with politics, his latest moment of unintended public candor goes down, instead, as testament to how little Romney understood politics and the American people.

 “The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls, specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people,” Romney told hundreds of donors during a telephone town hall. “In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups.”

Romney went on to detail the particular “gifts” the president had spread around. Young people surely went for Obama because he offered a plan to partially forgive college loan interest. Latinos were bought off, of course, because Obama had approved “amnesty,” Romney's term for the the executive order that prevents deportation of some young people brought to the U.S. by their immigrant parents.  African Americans, and all the others, went with the president because he offered “free healthcare,” via Obamacare, “in perpetuity.”

Romney's true colors are showing. People pay into Social Security and Medicare and our government backs it. Mitt Romney doesn't support or care women's rights, African Americans, Hispanics, college students, and the elderly. Romney apparently believes that only the rich should have opportunities and freedom. Shame on Mitt Romney.

The Republicans are doing the same old dance and talking points on ending the tax cuts for the rich. The GOP didn't get the message from voters and we'll need to call offices and send emails to get our opinions to them.  The Republicans just won't learn.

>>>  Why won't the Republicans own up to the fact that they cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the funds that provide security for our embassies and diplomats around the world?  The attacks that Senators McCain and Lindsey Graham have made against the Obama administration and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Rice have been improper and unfair.  Sen. John McCain has just gotten so grumpy since he lost the 2008 election.

Ohio GOP's Back to Same Old Tricks

* Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted kept throwing wrenches into Ohio's election this year.  Husted's behavior was called into question by a federal judge. 
Plain Dealer:

A federal judge blasted Ohio’s elections chief on Tuesday, questioning his motives for setting new vote-counting rules that violated state law just days before the presidential election.

In a scathing 17-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley said a directive on counting provisional ballots that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued on Nov. 2 was "a flagrant violation of a state elections law" that could disenfranchise voters.

"The surreptitious manner in which the secretary went about implementing this last minute change to the election rules casts serious doubt on his protestations of good faith," Marbley wrote.....

Husted has other plans up his sleeve to change your vote and the way electoral votes are awarded. Keep an eye on him.


>  Ohio Gov. John Kasich appoints an unqualified person to the Ohio Medical Board.

Plunderbund:

For intelligence on Gov. Kasich’s view of Ohio’s nationally acclaimed medical community, look no further than the poor quality of his appointees to the State Medical Board of Ohio.

His latest consumer appointee is Michael L. Gonidakis who will serve through July of 2017. Mr. Gonidakis has zero medical credentials. He is a lawyer who is best known as head of Ohio Right to Life. Despite polling and election results showing that Ohio remains strongly pro-choice, our anti-choice governor continues to use his discretion to curry favor with extremist groups such as Right to Life.....

Appointing an unqualified person to the State Medical Board could open the door for lots of questions from any lawyer representing a client that goes before the board. Some lawyers in town would love to tangle with a board of unqualified, untrained appointees.

> Remember the election we had last week?  Apparently, the news has not reached Gov. John Kasich and some members of the Ohio Republican Party. Now the Republicans and Kasich on working on a more restrictive "heartbeat" bill (RH RealityCheck) and an attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Kasich, up for re-election, is apparently trying to lose more female voters than Romney did. 

Ohioans Would Pay the Price

Plunderbund has discovered that a reliably Republican ally of Gov. John Kasich's is opposed to the governor's latest privatization scheme----the leasing of the Ohio Turnpike.

Plunderbund:

The Ohio Farm Bureau issued an “Action Alert” to their members this week asking them to oppose any plan by the Governor or the legislature to privatize the Ohio Turnpike.

In a video distributed with the email, Lorain County Farm Bureau President and Christmas Tree Farmer Al Divencenzo describes how the Turnpike provides him an efficient and well-maintained route for move his products to and from the market....

Tolls have increased dramatically with the Indiana Turnpike lease, which has a term of 75 years.
The Journal Gazette:

....The consortium that leased the road for $3.8 billion has to make money, and that money comes from people who drive the Indiana Toll Road – many of them Hoosiers.

Already, for automobile drivers paying cash, the rate for the 157-mile length of the road has nearly doubled in six years, from $4.65 to $9. For a five-axle truck, the increase has been greater – from $14.55 when the lease was approved to $36.20 today....

Farmers have every right to worry about the possibility of rising tolls if the Ohio Turnpike is leased. All Ohioans must remember that Kasich may not have raised taxes, but has cut funding to schools, decreased funding to local governments, and increased fees. The fallout from Kasich's budget has resulted in school districts putting levies on the most recent election ballot, pink slips for teachers, layoffs of fire and police personnel in Ohio cities, less money going to the elderly in nursing homes, etc. 

The Kasich-loving Columbus Dispatch reported just yesterday of a new crippling fee planned for GED candidates.

Columbus Dispatch:

...The nonprofit American Council on Education, which owns the GED, has partnered with for-profit Pearson Vue Testing and will abandon its $40 paper test, according to the Ohio Department of Education. The state had no say in the matter....

...On top of the price increase, the switch will mean that the number of locations licensed to administer the test in Ohio will drop from 99 to about 40 when the paper test is completely phased out in December 2013, Bowman said.

Until budget cuts in 2010, Ohio paid the entire fee for most test-takers if they could pass a practice test. So in essence, the cost has gone from zero to $120. Meanwhile, many people without high-school diplomas work at lower-paying jobs that make the higher fee a hardship....

Somehow I cannot believe that with the millions of dollars coming in through the casinos that Kasich doesn't have the money to help out those trying to better themselves with taking the GED. Couldn't the state pay for at least half of the fee or completely reimburse those that pass the test?  The state should re-evaluate the fee structure.

Tens of millions of dollars comes into the Ohio Treasury every month from the casinos. Ohioans want the money to go to our public schools, lower tuition at state universities, help our elderly and veterans, and assist those seeking to improve themselves through the GED. Ohioans deserve an accounting of where the money is going.

More Election News....

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown had a few comments about Karl Rove's behavior on election night. The Hill:

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Sunday mocked GOP strategist Karl Rove, calling him “a bit pathetic on Election Night.”

Brown, who made the comments on MSNBC, was referring to Rove’s criticism of Fox News's electoral number crunchers for calling Ohio for President Obama. Rove had argued that the call was premature and that GOP nominee Mitt Romney still had a chance to win the state.....

....Rove, whose super-PAC American Crossroads and its nonprofit advocacy arm Crossroads GPS spent $300 million this election cycle, but failed to unseat Obama or take back the Senate....

Karl Rove demonstrated that a person can waste $300 million and still get nothing.

> Ohioans should be happy that Secretary of State Jon Husted untested computer software "patch" wasn't used to count votes. Bob Fritakis and a group of lawyers had to go to court to stop Husted from using it (Mother Nature News and BradBlog).

> I'm getting tired of seeing the yard signs of losing candidates like Romney and Mandel on/near our highways. Their political party should ask Karl Rove for some money to go collect the signs.

Speaking of Josh Mandel---- Most of us thought that we'd never see another dirty campaign from Mandel after he smeared Democrat Kevin Boyce. Wow. We were wrong. Josh Mandel and his supporters waged the absolutely worst campaign in Ohio's history. Mandel's punishment is that now he has to go to work as Ohio's Treasurer, a job he allegedly hated.

> While most of us are happy that President Obama won, there are some people that decided to Tweet their unhappy (and racist) response. Warning: The Atlantic and Jezebel have some of the sources of the racism found on Twitter.

President Obama's Mandate to Govern

• Final electoral numbers are in and President Obama totaled 332 to Romney's 206. In 2004, when then President George W. Bush claimed a "mandate," he had received only 286 electoral votes (archives.gov). In 2000, George W. Bush won the presidency with 271 electoral votes (archives.gov).

When Mitch McConnell and John Boehner refuse to cooperate, discuss, and work with the President, we have to have his back. We need to email, call, or march to get our point across to those standing in the way of progress. We will not be turned back in our move to help all Americans improve their lives.

• President Obama had a huge victory in Philadelphia, and the numbers don't lie.

Philly:

Some Philadelphia neighborhoods outdid themselves in Tuesday's presidential election....

In a city where President Obama received more than 85 percent of the votes, in some places he received almost every one. In 13 Philadelphia wards, Obama received 99 percent of the vote or more....

Nor was Philadelphia the only place in the region with such high numbers for Obama. Five Delaware County towns topped 90 percent, led by Yeadon at 96.3. Following were Chester City (94.8), Darby Borough (93.5), Chester Township (92.3), and Colwyn (90.3)....

Well done, Philly!

Women, Math vs Old GOP

Women clearly stood up and let their voices be heard in the Presidential election. When faced with the prospect of going back to some prehistoric time for women's health, working rights, and education, American women decided that they were going to move forward with President Obama and candidates that supported their agenda. While President Obama's campaign and Democrats worked with women, Latinos, LGBT groups, unions, college students, and seniors, the Republicans refused to acknowledge the changing demographics in the country.  As long as Republicans look to their playbook from Karl Rove's basement, they'll continue to lose.

Math was an important part of the Democratic strategy. Using their knowledge of the last census, changing populations, women in the workforce, scientific polls, and other data, they created a plan, and worked on it 24/7. On the other hand, Republicans totally dismissed facts, and fed their sheeple through their right wing cable "news" station.  Republicans allowed their supporters to believe that they were winning because they were relying on Karl Rove, false momentum, and a mistaken belief that people would buy what they were selling.

As long as there is a political party that embraces the rights of citizens, promotes education for everyone, and uses science and math, that party will attract citizens that want progress in their lives.

>>>>> President Obama and Vice President Biden are good people who are concerned for all Americans. We need to offer congratulations to President Obama, the Democratic Party, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and the thousands of volunteers that gave their time, money, and footwork to help Democratic candidates.

**** This goes out to those right wing people who think that the re-election of President Obama is a signal that the world will end soon: God is not a Democrat or a Republican!

Those of us who suffered through the administrations of Nixon, both Bushes, and Reagan, have some advice for you: Deal with it.


• They are still counting ballots in Florida!

 Hey, Florida!  
Stop electing people that try to stop you from voting. Going to the polls should not involve hours and threats to your right to vote.

Moving Forward for Everyone

* Thank you! Thank you to all those volunteers, the phone callers, door bell ringers, statisticians, and everyone that stood up for President Obama!

* Thank you, voters, for standing up for women, justice, fairness, voting rights, equality, President Obama, immigrants, the American auto workers, job safety, Pell grants, children, Social Security & Medicare, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, women's reproductive rights, and the Affordable Care Act, etc., etc.  Whatever RomneyRyan and the Neanderthals in the Republican Party were offering, voters were NOT buying it.

* At the Columbus Obama rally on Monday, former Gov. Ted Strickland said that at about 11:37pm, Ohio will put President Obama over the top for electoral votes. Thank you, Ted!

* Thank you, Ohio voters, for standing with President Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown!

> When I heard that people waited for hours to cast their vote in Florida, and around the country, I was reminded of that old folk song, "We Shall Not Be Moved." No matter how long it took, or what anyone said, they were not going to get out of line.

>>> To all the naysayers:

    Nate Silver of the NY Times/538 was right. Math works.

Vote!

We saw the President yesterday at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Over 15,500 people attended the rally to see President Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Jay Z. It was absolutely wonderful!

If you have not voted yet, or have an absentee ballot that you haven't filled out yet---- Get it done NOW!!!!!!  
{ Don't let me have to come over to your house! :) }

If anyone tries to stop you from voting, call  

1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has been taken to task by his wife's relatives who are upset with his far right agenda. Check it out at Raw Story.

 

Vote!

VOTE!  

See you today, Monday, at the rally for President Obama! Fired up!

 OHIO VOTERS:
If you have an absentee ballot at home, it must be mailed by TODAY Monday, November 5th. Be certain to sign it in the proper places, put the correct amount of postage on it, and mail it!

 If you have any difficulty voting, someone questions your right to vote, or you see someone hassling someone,
          (a) document the event,
          (b) call Election Protection (1-866-OUR VOTE)
           (c) get the Smartphone App                                     


>>> Early voting has been a success in Ohio, even with the lack of cooperation from Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and every Republican office holder in the state. The actions by Husted and those running elections in Florida are shameful. Long lines and obstructing voters cannot help democracy. Voting is a right.

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

Republicans are always talking about how they want to cut regulations. Regulations exist to protect the public.

Salon:

The fatal meningitis epidemic sweeping the United States can now be traced to the failure of then-Gov. Mitt Romney to adequately regulate the Massachusetts pharmaceutical company that is being blamed for the deaths.

At least 344 people in 18 states have been infected by the growing public health crisis and 25 have died so far.

But the epidemic may also play a role in the presidential campaign, now that state records reveal that a Massachusetts regulatory agency found that the New England Compounding Co., the pharmaceutical company tied to the epidemic, repeatedly failed to meet accepted standards in 2004 — but a reprimand was withdrawn by the Romney administration in apparent deference to the company’s business interests....

Read the entire article and you might learn how these companies got looser regulations under then Gov. Romney.

  ••••••••••••

*** Did you know that Republican special interests spent nearly one million dollars on a commercial to smear Democrat Maureen Reedy?  Maureen Reedy is a Democrat running for Ohio House District 24 and is very concerned about the recent cuts to education. 

Maureen Reedy's Republican opponent, Kunze, is supportive of Kasich's budget, and is being bankrolled by several right wing special interest groups that are for more tax cuts for the wealthy and for an expansion of charter schools. One of Kunze supporters is Michelle Rhee, the anti-public school, pro-corporate charter school, so-called education expert, that is worshipped by John Kasich. Kunze was also the subject of a newspaper article questioning her ethics. Plunderbund has boatloads of information on Kunze's big money supporters. Enough said.

Rallies, Polls, & Bruce! Oh, my!

* The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the latest jobs report:

October payroll employment rises (+171,000); jobless rate essentially unchanged (7.9%)

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent. Employment rose in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade. 

 .................

* President Obama will be in Hilliard, Ohio, at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. On Monday, President Obama will be back in the Columbus area with a rally with Bruce Springsteen and Jay-z. The location for Monday's event has not been released.

.......

* Bucyrustelegraphforum reports the latest poll on the race for U.S. Senate in Ohio:

Ohio’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race has tightened in recent weeks, with Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown snagging the support of 51 percent versus 47 percent for Republican state Treasurer Josh Mandel, according to a new Cincinnati Enquirer/Ohio News Organization Poll.....

“On the one hand, Mandel has not been able to secure a lead in publicly released polls up to this point and the hour is getting late,” said Eric W. Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Policy Research, which conducted the survey.....

....The poll results come as voting is well under way in Ohio; nearly 20 percent of the poll’s respondents said they had already cast their ballots. Within that group, 65 percent said they voted for Brown, compared to 34 percent who said they voted for Mandel.....

We'll see what happens.  Get out there and VOTE!

............

>>>> @fivethirtyeight (NY Times Nate Silver 538):

Nate Silver ‏@fivethirtyeight

Obama remains at ~80% to win in today's 538 forecast. (80.8% if you like decimal places.) http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com

Moving Forward

* Sen. Sherrod Brown (Democrat) was in Athens, Ohio, with his campaign. He reminded voters what we all should be fighting for and what he stands for in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Sherrod Brown explained why he has the canary pin.

AthensNews:

...He said the pin reminds him that today is a better time because of the progressive movement.
 
"It's Medicare and Social Security. It's minimum wage. It's workers compensation. It's safe drinking water. It's clean air. It's mine safety. It's women's rights. It's civil rights. It's activism for students," he said. "It's people working together to move this country forward."

And the country moves forward, he said, not because government takes it upon itself but because the people come together to push it forward.....

If you want to move forward, vote Democratic. If you enjoyed the Bush years of financial failures, endless wars, unfunded No Child Left Behind, restrictions on women's rights, etc., stick with Romney. 

*  *  *

NY Times 538 Nate Silver:

Five Thirty Eight Forecast:

President Barack Obama: 300.4

Mitt Romney: 237.6

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• Republicans have both Franklin County and Lucas County, Ohio, as targets. They are descending on us to try to encourage Democrats to switch their votes to Romney. If someone approaches you, ask which party or group they represent, then tell them you are a firm supporter of President Obama's and every Democrat. That should make them sad.

Most poll sites should have Obama's 'boots on the ground' for assistance to voters. If you have someone give you a hard time, or try to dissuade you from voting, look for these people outside the polling site.