Reason #973, 526 You Should Vote on November 2nd

IS THIS THE AMERICA YOU WANT?

SEND THE SOCIALISTS A MESSAGE

ON NOVEMBER 2ND

Kucinich Wants to Cut Funding for our Troops in Afghanistan

The former boy Mayor of Cleveland who wanted to be President wants to cut funding for our troops in Afghanistan....

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who previously forced a vote in the House to stop the war in Afghanistan from spilling over the border into Pakistan, today renewed his calls for Congress to explicitly cut off funding in the region after the Associated Press (AP) reported that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) helicopters attacked Pakistani troops at a border crossing. The Pakistani troops, who were in uniforms similar to the local civilian population, are among the same troops being trained by the United States. According to the AP, they were ordered to stop supply trucks attempting to cross the Torkham border post.

“NATO troops have attacked Pakistan, attacked an ally for the simple offense of refusing NATO forces to expand the war into their sovereign nation,” said Kucinich. “Last night, in the middle of the night, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution that included Pakistan counterinsurgency funds. Those funds are for our troops to operate in Pakistan, and to train Pakistan’s military and Pakistan’s Frontier Corps. We are killing the same troops we claim to be helping.

“We cannot afford to continue the status quo in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Our counterinsurgency strategy places our troops and our national security in great peril. The truth is that we cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford an open-ended commitment to wars that have done nothing to further our security or moral standing in the world. The American people cannot afford to have Congress allocate vital resources under the façade of nation-building overseas, especially while people here at home have such urgent unmet economic needs. Congress must take its Congressional responsibility seriously. We have not declared war on Pakistan and we must cut off military funding immediately,” said Kucinich.

Knowing Kucinich has no problem selling out our troops in harms way, should we have been surprised when he flip-flopped and voted for the Heatlh Care bill selling out the people in District 10 for a bag of peanuts and a ride on Air Force One?

Kucinich is facing Peter J. Corrigan in his bid for reelection. 

Will OH House Candidate Kelli Perk be charged in Cuyahoga County Corruption Probe?

While Kelli Perk claims she was only playing by the rules -- one has to wonder exactly "what" rules Perk played by and if they were legal.


From The Plain Dealer --

A lawyer in Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's office was hired three weeks after she withdrew from a Parma judicial race in 2007, clearing the path to public office for the candidate Mason supported.

Mason gave a job to Kelli Perk weeks after she dropped out as a candidate for Parma municipal judge. Perk, who works as an assistant county prosecutor in Mason's civil division, said nobody ever asked her to drop out of the contest. A spokesman for Mason said in a written statement that Perk was hired based on her job qualifications.

"In my heart and mind, I did everything for the right reasons," Perk said in a telephone interview. "I played by the rules."

A timeline of the Perk's interactions with Mason's office, gleaned from public records, has raised questions from a Republican lawmaker about whether Mason used his influence to shape the 2007 race for Parma Municipal Court judge. If so, it would resemble at least two similar cases involving other officials that are detailed in the federal probe of Cuyahoga County government corruption.

Perk, 47, is running this November for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives against Republican Walton Hills Mayor Marlene Anielski. State Rep. Josh Mandel, who is running for state treasurer, currently represents the cluster of suburbs that make up the House district. More...

The right reasons in your heart & mind?  Maybe Joseph Gallucci, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery for doing the same thing Perk & Mason have done during his bid for Cuyahoga County Auditor in 2006, should have used the same excuse.

The Plain Dealer Endorses Rob Portman for U.S. Senate

In the race for OH's next U.S. Senator the Plain Dealer has endorsed Rob Portman over Lee Fisher, Ohio's current Lt. Governor. With Fisher being Lt. Governor, he shares half the responsibility for the failed policies of the Strickland Adminstration.

From the PD --

One of the state's most important contests this fall turns out to be an easy call: Rob Portman ought to be Ohio's next U.S. senator.

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, Portman's Democratic opponent in the contest to replace the retiring George Voinovich, is a talented and smart public servant who's long appeared to have a clear compass about Northeast Ohio's needs and the state's economic development agenda in general. Yet after listening to both candidates for months now and watching how each man has conducted his campaign, there is no doubt that Republican Portman, 54, is better prepared to represent these interests as well as to tackle the weighty national issues that will come before the Senate.

Campaigning seriously since last year, Portman has devoted large chunks of time to doing what all politicians claim to do -- and what serious policymakers really do: listening. That has given him an impressive understanding of the issues, especially those related to the economy, that trouble Ohioans.

In branching out beyond the comfort zone of his old congressional district and his party's southern Ohio stronghold, Portman has in many ways duplicated what Ohio's soon-to-be senior senator, Sherrod Brown, did four years ago in his return to the statewide stage.

The comparison to Brown may unsettle admirers of both men. Portman's approach to most issues is as predictably conservative as Brown's is liberal. But for all the focus on Capitol Hill ideological gridlock, a lot of a senator's work involves seeking practical solutions to specific local concerns. That starts with listening. If Brown and Portman can put their partisan differences aside -- and Portman's House record and temperament suggest he can -- they could be useful allies to advance Ohio interests.

Portman also would serve the state well if he resists -- as Voinovich sometimes did -- the siren call of blind party loyalty. Simply opposing every idea from the Obama White House or its Democratic allies is no way to govern. If elected, Portman needs to be a responsible critic -- one who offers meaningful alternatives and tries to discover common ground on issues such as containing health care costs or trimming the federal deficit. The way he has run his campaign -- in an old-school "senatorial" fashion -- offers hope that he would do just that.

Even a few months ago, we might have said the same about Fisher. But Fisher's campaign for the Senate -- an effort we supported in his primary against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner -- has been a profound disappointment.

In the 1990s, Fisher was an advocate of Bill Clinton's "third way" approach and campaigned as a moderate New Democrat. As Gov. Ted Strickland's development director until he surrendered that hat to run for the Senate, Fisher cultivated a pro-business image. That's why we have so much trouble recognizing the candidate who's running for the Senate by bashing foreign trade and clinging to the party line at every turn. It's a cookie-cutter approach Democrats around the country are using. It not only doesn't fit Fisher very well, it also revives the old criticism that he is a political chameleon.

Portman for his part takes a few raps from some quarters for having served as President George W. Bush's trade representative and budget director, resigning in the summer of 2007 -- when the storm clouds of recession were just gathering. But instead of being a handicap, his economic experience has become a plus -- as have his years of being a policy wonk in the first Bush White House and earlier and as a member of the House of Representatives from suburban Cincinnati for 12 years.

The best choice for Ohio is to elect Rob Portman to the Senate.

While considering the above PD endorsement of Portman, please be mindful that Lee Fisher, at a recent fundraiser, stated he supports the DREAM Act and Immigration Reform (AKA: Amnesty).

Plus, while many of us were honoring the fallen from the terrorist attacks on 9/11 -- candidate Fisher was out hosting a fundraiser instead of remembering this fateful day in our country's history.

This post is not a CTPP endorsement of any candidate.

We encourage everyone to be a free-thinking, sovereign-minded & educated voter.

The Plain Dealer Endorses John Kasich for OH Governor

Seeing that current Governor of OH, Ted Strickland, has delivered us a +10% unemployment rate in OH, a State Budget that has an estimated $8 Billion bust and, in his own words, described his 4 year term as Governor as a failure for not fixing school funding in Ohio, should we be shocked to see the PD endorse John Kasich for OH's next Governor?

From the PD --

Ohio voters face a daunting choice on Nov. 2: Who should lead this recession-battered state for the next four years?

Incumbent Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is a decent and honorable son of Appalachian Ohio who promises a steady, if unspectacular, course through the rough seas ahead. He is clearly the safe bet, unlikely to either make a big mistake or bring about big change.

His Republican challenger, John Kasich, is a former congressman from suburban Columbus given to Reagan-style optimism and bold, sometimes questionable, ideas. He is just as clearly the wild card, eager to shake up the status quo and even challenge his own party, but also capable of talking himself right off a cliff.

The easy option would be to endorse Strickland, a dutiful caretaker steeped in public policy minutiae. At least you know what you'd get. But therein lies the problem.

Strickland, 69, suffers from limited imagination and political timidity; at times, he seems almost shellshocked by the loss of 400,000 jobs on his watch. He told The Toledo Blade last week that his administration should have moved faster to prevent Ohio businesses from fleeing to other states. He has consistently mistaken talk for action, produced budgets held together with bubble gum and twine and allowed his team to adopt a siege mentality. He stumbled badly on gambling, treated Ohio's cities as stepchildren and, in a shameful kowtow to his union allies, waged war on effective charter schools.

Even when his heart and mind are in the right place, Strickland can't or won't be daring. He ran for governor in 2006 -- with this editorial page's support -- promising to overhaul public education. After more than two years of study, he unveiled a blueprint for Ohio's classrooms that fobbed off many of the toughest decisions, including how to pay for it all, on some future administration.

Add to those disappointments Strickland's relentlessly negative campaign, his inability to articulate a vision for the state and the ennui that overtakes most lame-duck administrations, and there's little reason for excitement about Ohio's future under his leadership.

Kasich, 58, offers Ohio something it hasn't felt from its governor since the early days of Richard Celeste: a quickened pulse. Alternately arrogant and charming, Kasich can make a not-terribly-unconventional idea such as privatizing parts of the Department of Development -- it's been done elsewhere without triggering either a gold rush or a plague of locusts -- sound like a call to revolution.

But here's what's scary about Kasich: With his Red Bull style, it is sometimes hard to tell what's core belief, what's hot air and whether even he knows the difference. When Kasich praises Ohio's innovative Third Frontier effort, he still says things that suggest he doesn't understand or care how it works. Or listen to him talk about phasing out Ohio's income tax, reducing the state's commitment to public schools or even making university professors work harder. Does he understand that being a Fox News provocateur is not the same as being the leader of a diverse, complex state?

But then consider the needs of this state. Ohio needs to jumpstart an economy that was struggling even before the Great Recession. It needs to convince skeptical investors that its many assets -- top-shelf colleges and research institutions, solid transportation infrastructure, abundant freshwater, a Midwestern work ethic and a revamped tax code -- matter more than its reputation for stodginess and conflict. It needs to convince its ambitious young people that this is a great place to dream, innovate and achieve. And, for now anyway, it needs to do it all while digging out of a giant budget hole.

A can-do, roll-the-dice mindset just might enable Ohio to regain its self-confidence and sell itself to the world. Kasich has it; nice guy Ted Strickland never will.

Kasich showed, as House Budget chair the last time Washington used black ink, that he could cross partisan lines and get results. He also showed in Congress that although he is personally conservative, he has no time for divisive hot-button tactics; Ohio doesn't, either.

So we recommend John Richard Kasich for governor. With trepidation to be sure, but also with a belief that Ohio must take a risk to reap the rewards its citizens sorely need.

With Kasich having former OH Auditor Mary Taylor as his running mate, if elected, fiscal responsibilty should be a cornerstone of their term.  In her term as State Auditor, Taylor saved OH untold amounts of money.

This post is not an endorsement of any candidate. 

We encourage everyone to be a free-thinking, sovereign-minded & educated voter.

Strickland Supporter Dumps Hot Coffee On Iraqi War Veteran

When Ohio Democrat Party Chairman Chris Redfern calls Tea Party people "F******" & Ted Strickland goes off on a Howard Dean type rant against the Tea Parties for highlighting his failures as Governor, does it surprise you one of their supporters would attack an Iraqi War Veteran?

From Right Ohio --

Yesterday, we saw a Democrat take the extreme, us-vs.-them rhetoric of of President Obama and Gov. Strickland and dump scalding hot coffee down the back of an Iraq war veteran working for the Republican Governors Association as a video tracker:

Strickland & Redfern have yet to denounce this behavior from their supporters.  But notice Lee Fisher in the background of the above video.  Lee Fisher, the Lt. Governor who is running for the U.S. Senate against Rob Portman, has yet to come out against this attack on an Iraqi War Veteran.

But Fisher's silence on this attack should come as no surprise... as instead of honoring the fallen of the World Trade Center, Pentagon & Flight 193 terrorist attack, Lee Fisher held a fundraiser on 9/11.  So for Fisher... what is a little cup of hot coffee on an American hero.

Dust Bunnies Be Warned -- the EPA is coming after you!

Again acting as the Secret Police for the Administration' agenda, the out-of-control goose-stepper's at the EPA (or ADA -- American Destruction Agency) are launching another attack through nanny state regulation.  This time the target is the farmers & ranchers....

Today, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), along with the support of 74 bipartisan colleagues, sent a letter urging Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to refrain from imposing burdensome farm dust regulations on America’s farmers and ranchers. Lummis released the following statement regarding the EPA’s review:

“The Obama EPA’s unprecedented attempts to regulate dust on farms and ranches is just another example of how out-of-touch this administration is. Clear evidence acknowledges that the dust standard revision is unnecessary. Yet despite results from scientific studies, the EPA is continuing its attempts to control the day-to-day operations on ranches and farms.

“This unreasonable requirement will cause extreme hardship to farmers, livestock producers and other resource-based industries throughout rural America. People in the West and those in dry climates will be hit especially hard. It’s time the EPA rethink the consequences the farm dust regulation will have on the people who feed us.”

 Background:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM). The review is required every five years under the Clean Air Act. The Second Draft Policy Assessment (PA) for PM released on July 8, 2010 in the Federal Register lays the foundation for establishing the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nation’s history. Presently, scientific studies do not support the need for revising the dust standard. In fact, according to the PA, the science would justify leaving it as is. Yet, the Obama administration is signaling its intent to proceed with the new standard.