Canada?

***   What would you do if Newt Gingrich was elected President of the United States?  Some people that don't know the legislative background of Newt Gingrich might wonder what a President Gingrich would be like.  If, God forbid, Gingrich ever became President, my husband and I would sell everything and move to Canada. Gingrich is not to be trusted with things like red buttons, nuclear weapons, or anything that could cause a catastrophe.

>>>  Residents in the Pennsylvania region where the Marcellus Shale is located, are losing their homes to the gas companies declaring "eminent domain" and taking their property at prices far below value (WSJ).  Could that happen here in Ohio or in other states?  Some Republican governors would sell their families to get in good with the energy companies.

****  Early voting has started in Ohio.  You can request an absentee ballot so that you don't have to face some Republican trying to prevent you from voting.

>>>>  You might want to check out a poll by the Plain Dealer.

Mandel

* Josh Mandel, current Ohio Treasurer, has given us every indication that he is bored and tired of the job that he has had since January 2011. As a member of the Ohio General Assembly, Mandel's work was unimpressive.

Cleveland.com:

In four years at the Statehouse he introduced four bills, none of which made it to a vote. In his Senate campaign, which Mandel began preparing three months into his first year as treasurer, he embraces hard-line views on topics such as the Second Amendment and Occupy Wall Street, yet he decries "hyper-partisan" rhetoric.

In four years at the Statehouse he introduced four bills, none of which made it to a vote. In his Senate campaign, which Mandel began preparing three months into his first year as treasurer, he embraces hard-line views on topics such as the Second Amendment and Occupy Wall Street, yet he decries "hyper-partisan" rhetoric....

"When I think of Josh Mandel and a number of other folks I served with, I'm reminded of 'The Wizard of Oz,' when Dorothy said, 'My! People come and go so quickly here!' " said State Rep. Jay Hottinger, a Republican from Newark. "He was thoughtful, he was serious. But he was not often vocal. I don't recall a floor speech or caucus speech."

Are Ohio's Republicans having doubts about Josh Mandel's ability to take on a difficult job like being in the U.S. Senate?

Job Growth?

If you need proof of the jobs created under President Obama, just look at the graph showing the job growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Jobs Created Under
Presidents Bush and Obama
December 2007 to Present

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Can you imagine how many jobs would have been created if the Republicans would have worked along with President Obama instead of against him and the American people?

Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate need to get off the fundraiser party wagon and learn to work with the Democrats.  Americans are sick of the do-nothing, right wing, Aynd Rand worshipping Republicans.  If Boehner and Cantor are too arrogant and smug to cooperate, they should resign.

Republican Debates Continue? Zzzzzzzzzzz...

* Have the Republican presidential candidates discussed ways to get people back to work, how to fund public education, how to rebuild our infrastructure, equal job protections, and how to protect Social Security?  If they've said anything about these topics, I've missed it.  It seems serial groom Gingrich, flip-flopper Romney, and crazy Santorum, have just tried to prove they are more conservative than the other candidates.

* I'm no military expert, but it might be time to cut our country's military spending. The cuts would have to be in areas that would (1.) not create any danger, and (2.) not hurt our troops or veterans.  Republicans like to portray an image as being tough and pro-military by continuing to support wars, wars, and more wars.  It would be to our benefit to create more technological weapons (drones, satellites, etc.) and wage a war different from the one Rumsfeld did in Iraq. While continuing to protect our military, our vets, our people/assets around the world, our future wars should rely more heavily on technology, intelligence, and prevention.

What is Brewer's problem?

* By now you've seen the picture of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sticking her finger into President Obama's face at an airport in her state.  I'm not a doctor, or a psychiatrist, but perhaps Gov. Brewer needs some help.  She appears to be having some difficulty with anger management.  Adding to her behavior with the President, Brewer also had a disturbing performance last year during her campaign.  See below:

YouTube:



Where was the Secret Service?  If I had been there, I would have put her in handcuffs as soon as her finger went up.

>>>> Newt Gingrich is a disgusting person.  That is my opinion.  Gingrich's attacks on the Spanish language (see YouTube video), calling President Obama a "food stamp President" recently, suggesting that poor children should have jobs as school janitors, etc., etc., etc. Gingrich is a pig. We do not need someone like him in the White House.

Anyone that likes/supports these Republican candidates should have his/her head examined.

What is wrong with being fair?

Did you watch President Obama's State of the Union last night?  I was struck by his call for fairness, his challenge to get the country moving again, and his positive attitude about ways to solve our problems. President Obama offered us all a chance to get out of this economic funk by proposing bringing jobs back to this country and giving more opportunities for people to attend college.  The President did have examples of people who've taken advantage of retraining programs that helped them qualify for new jobs.

However, I was also cognizant of the obvious display of complete boredom and arrogance shown on the faces of John Boehner, and Eric Cantor. Both of them looked like tired, old, constipated, white guys, who've grown accustomed to expensive liquors at "the club."  I guess Republicans are quite happy to collect massive contributions from anti-environment PACs, big shot billionaires, and right wingers who want to take our country to a time before Civil Rights, voting rights, women's rights, child labor laws, safety on the job, and a minimum wage.  Republicans want to go back to the early 1800's when white, male overlords controlled everything.  I have a message for Republicans:  We are going to move forward, not backwards.  You can be part of the solution, or left on the side, wondering what happened.

 Where do we go from here?  The only way to keep moving forward is to -

1.) re-elect President Obama.
2.) elect Democrats who will embrace and help the President's agenda.
3.) adopt a fairness doctrine---
        - fairness in taxes (Warren Buffet's secretary should have a lower tax rate than his)
        - fairness in opportunities in education, jobs, training, and access to health care.
        - fairness in the way we approach our daily lives.

Do you really want the closed-minded, arrogant, Republicans controlling your lives, your reproductive rights, and your future?

Do You Have A Swiss Bank Account????

* Mitt Romney's tax returns have finally been released.  It appears that even though Romney's job for the past year has been as a candidate for President, his income was quite good.  However, his tax rate at nearly 14% illustrates the inequality of the American tax rate---- those at the top pay less of their income because of pro-weathy loopholes and the ability to hide large some of money in off shore accounts.  Why does he have a Swiss bank account (see CBS News), and other investments in foreign countries?  Do you have a Swiss bank account? I don't.

Romney's wealth does explain his inability to connect with regular people.  When you have several homes, are accustomed to dealing with a long list of your investments (here and overseas), accountants, and lawyers before you make a move, you cannot relate to average Americans. 

I don't agree with Newt Gingrich on anything, but I do agree that Romney's years at Bain could easily label him as a "vulture capitalist."  Taking over companies, draining them of their assets to fill your own pockets, while firing people, does not seem to be a good, moral, decent way to practice business.  The word that comes to mind when I look at this kind of business behavior is GREED.  Those investors at Bain were only interested in their own personal wealth. In their world, the more money they had the better. 

For more information on Romney's tax returns, here is a short list of articles with details:
CBS News   NYDaily News    USA Today    SF Chronicle

Notes....

* Ohio Gov. John Kasich is facing a lot of criticism for taking his State of the State speech out of the Statehouse.  The DailyJeffersonian has the details.

* Republican presidential candidates are against the rights of women. Does anyone else see something wrong with that? Why are they concerned about my uterus?

*  President Obama's singing at the Apollo has had over 3,000,000 viewers on YouTube.

There is a new Obama headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, on the corner of Beechcroft and 161. Check out the updated Obama website.

Would women vote for any Republican?

I find it unbelievable that any woman would vote for any Republican presidential candidate.  They all want to limit what a woman can and cannot do.  Is this the 1540's?  Are we the property of our husbands and need to ask them for permission to leave the house?

Personally, I have a lot of problems with Newt Gingrich's racist remarks.  Calling President Obama the "food stamp president" is insulting.  It might be Gingrich's way of covering up his real racist views and could actually be a code word for something else.

Gingrich's lack of respect for the women he was married to makes him untrustworthy.  How can you trust a man that has cheated on two wives and freely admits it? 

Mitt Romney seems like a plastic Ken doll with the perfectly combed hair, neat, expensive clothes, and stiff, awkward mannerisms.  How can anyone trust anything he says because he has flip-flopped on everything?

Santorum?  This guy wants to ban birth control?  I'd like to see him tell that to a group of women (not just any women--- Democratic women) and see how that goes over.  Is he nuts? Why is it his business if a woman takes birth control? 

Ron Paul is the Ayn Rand candidate. Forget about it!  This is America and we work together for the common good.

If a Republican wins the White House, our progress will stop and women, especially, will have more restrictions because of these backward thinking Republicans.

Obama was correct!

* The President is all about creating opportunities for Americans and American companies.  Republicans are more concerned with their own personal wealth.

*  There was a big announcement today regarding General Motors. 
NYTimes:

After three years of settling for second place, General Motors reclaimed its title as the world’s largest automaker in 2011, a year when its sales grew in every region of the globe while Toyota sales were hampered by major natural disasters....

....G.M. said Thursday that it sold 9,025,942 vehicles last year, 7.6 percent more than in 2010. Its closest competitor was Volkswagen, whose sales grew 14 percent to 8.156 million, with Toyota falling to third place....

....The industry’s sales crown means little beyond bragging rights. But G.M.’s ability to climb back on top, only two years removed from its government rescue and bankruptcy, is certain to bolster morale within the company and strengthen the Obama administration’s argument that its bailout of the industry was worthwhile. G.M. was the world’s largest automaker for more than 70 years before Toyota surpassed it in 2008.....

General Motors and Americans should thank President Obama for helping to save the American auto industry and all the jobs that go along with it.  In 2008, Mitt Romney (see his NYTimes opinion piece from 11/18/08) said that the automakers should just be left to die. (Of course, this is not a surprise since we now that Romney likes to fire people.) President Obama was right in providing help to the domestic auto industry.

Even Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, was against the auto bailout. 

Plunderbund:

John Kasich opposed the federal bailout of GM, saying on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News at the time:

“Americans will say we don’t mind helping them if they’re going to be viable. If they’re not going to be viable, we shouldn’t throw go money after bad. And so I think the public’s even going to put pressure on them.”

Except that the auto bailouts totally worked.  They saved the domestic auto industry in the Midwest and the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of jobs that go along with it.  For the first time since 2006, GM has reported a quarterly profit ($2 billion, to be exact.)..

It is incredible that Kasich continues to visit the big shots in Detroit and beg for jobs for Ohio (even though he didn't give a s**t  about their survival a few years ago).

Let me repeat----

Thank you, President Obama!

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

The IndianCountryMediaNetwork has an interesting take on something Mitt Romney said:

....Mitt Romney told a television reporter that “I get speaker’s fees from time to time, but not very much.”

...Although Romney has repeatedly declined to release his tax returns, he did file a personal financial disclosure as is required by all who are seeking the Presidential nomination. According to that filing, Romney was hired to give nine speeches and was paid a total of $374,327. The least he made for a speech was $11,475, paid by Claremont McKenna College, and the most was $68,000, paid on two different occasions.

Romney’s detractors and pundits on the left have been quick to point out that, to the vast majority of Americans, Romney’s speaking revenues are hardly “not very much.” The average American household makes $49,445 annually, according to the latest U.S. Census data; Romney’s speaking fees are more than seven times that amount.

For American Indians, the $374,000 figure is even more striking: It’s ten times the average household income of $37,348. (Source: 2009 American Community Survey.)....

I guess if you are as rich as Romney, own several homes, and pay very low income taxes, $374,327 is chump change.

Numbers

*  A recent survey in U.S. Catholic magazine, provided data on opinions of the administration of President Barack Obama.  Here are some highlights from U.S. Catholic:

....4. Partisan politics in Washington have stifled President Obama’s attempts at working to promote the common good.

 Agree 55%

 Disagree 29% 

 Other 5%

5. If I had to choose only one, the recent president I hold most responsible for our nation’s current economic difficulties is:

George W. Bush. 53%

Barack Obama. 21%

Ronald Reagan. 11%

Bill Clinton. 5%

George H. W. Bush. 2%

Jimmy Carter. 2%

Other 6%

....7. I intend to vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 elections.

Yes 51%

No 38% 

Undecided 11%....

For more details, follow this link to U.S. Catholic.

********

**** Isn't it amazing that Republican candidate Mitt Romney is in the 15% tax bracket?
Romney doesn't seem to get how that appears very unfair considering he is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

HuffingtonPost:

....In Greenville, S.C., Romney was asked directly what his effective tax rate is. It was a hot topic of discussion at Monday night's debate, at which Romney repeatedly declined to fully commit to release his tax returns. 

"It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," said Romney on Tuesday. "For the past 10 years, my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income or earned annual income. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. Then, I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much."

 

Not very much? According to his personal financial disclosure, from February 2010 to February 2011, Romney earned $374,327.62 in speaking fees. A few months later, Romney joked that he was "unemployed."

Romney's not very much of $374,327.62 in speaking fees is huge.  Does he realize that most people are not making $374,327.62 in a year? That is probably pocket money in Romney's world. Romney's famous line that "...corporations are people..." shows you that he is completely out of touch with the lives of average Americans.  Seeing as how Romney justified his "...corporations are people..." comment, what other objects will Romney try to claim as people?  Sidewalks?  Shoes? Country clubs?

You're Known by the Company You Keep...

* Fairness? Objectivity? Forget about it!

This weekend, Ohio's Inspector General Randy Meyer gave a speech that included the following----
WNEWSJ:

    “Our country depends upon people with integrity that seem to rise above 

      politics that so often divides us,” he stressed.

     

    Meyer’s job as inspector general is to safeguard the integrity of state 

    government.....

      .....His office is non-partisan.....

Where do you think that Randy Meyer, the Inspector General of Ohio, gave his speech about integrity???? 

Mr. "Non-Partisan" Inspector General spoke, according to WNEWSJ.com, at the
Clinton County Republican Party's Century Club dinner.  Ha!

_____

> Ohio's Treasurer of one year, Josh Mandel, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, came up with a questionable statement on why he supported SB 5 last November.
ThinkProgress:

.....while most Republicans at least acknowledge that the law disadvantages public employees, one Republican thinks the opposite. This summer, Ohio Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel said he supported Senate Bill 5 because the law, in his mind, actually “respect[s] police, and firefighters, and teachers” by giving “fiscal conservatives” the tools to ignore collective bargaining rights, which somehow “insur[es]that there is a state and there are local governments” down the road:

MANDEL: Well I’ve been supportive of Senate Bill 5…In my mind, it’s not about going after police, and firefighters and teachers. It’s about respecting police, and firefighters, and teachers and insuring that there is a state and there are local governments long into the future so that we have communities here in the state. The current level of spending in our state and our country? Simply unacceptable. And I think we need to put the tools in the tool belts of local government leaders and also people who are fiscal conservatives to bring this state into a sense of fiscal health. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve been supportive.....

Did Mandel come up with this reasoning all by himself?  His explanation is completely idiotic.  How are you showing respect when you take away their rights? Besides being absolutely wrong, Mandel shows that his political beliefs have no basis in fact.

Today....

Today we honor the work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We still have so much to do to bring his dreams to reality.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

* Just like the Hatfields and McCoys, the Ohio Republican Party is waging a war on itself.


CommunityPress Cincinnati:

...DeWine refused to talk to The Enquirer. However, in an email statement, his spokesman Christopher Maloney said, “The focus of the Ohio Republican Party and Chairman DeWine has been, and remains on supporting incumbent office holders and filling vacancies when and where they occur. Republican voters throughout Ohio are familiar with this being an historical function of our state organization.”

Kasich has a slate of candidates running in March, some of whom are seeking to oust long-term members. Kasich needs only get a simple majority to remove DeWine.

Two of those battles are in Southwest Ohio: in the 7th Senate District, which includes part of Hamilton and all of Warren County, and the 4th Senate District, which covers all of Butler County....

This is another example of Kasich's enormous ego and his appetite for power.  He wants to control everything. He is managing to create uncertainty, resentment, disorder, and a sense of chaos in the Ohio Republican Party.  Good job!  Seeing as how Kasich's popularity has plummeted within the state, this latest party battle will only add more to his baggage.

*     *     *

>>>>>>>  The Marion Star has an Associated Press story on how Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has been spending his time on his job and the job he wants---- Republican Senator. Mandel, who has very little legislative experience, appears to be afraid of the press and has repeatedly declined interviews---- except on right wing media like Fox News.

In a letter to the editor of the Plain Dealer, the writer takess issue with Josh Mandel's support of airborne mercury pollution.  Would Mandel like to live near a site that produces mercury?  Does Mandel think that it is okay to pollute our air, water, and environment with deadly substances to make corporations and CEO's richer?  Should the public be willing to sacrifice their lives and those of their children in order to help corporations make money?  Does Mandel think that corporations are more important than the people of Ohio?

Unfortunately, you won't be able to get an answer from Josh Mandel because he is avoiding the press and anyone that might demand a truthful answer.

Cough, Cough, Cough

Clean air?  Clean water? A clean environment?  These are not goals pushed by the Republican presidential candidates.  The Sierra Club has posted the Republican view at Vimeo (h/t DailyKos):



Real Republicans on the EPA from Sierra Club National on Vimeo.


(Note:  They might look like sock puppets, but, in my humble opinion, they capture the true essence and personality of Newt, Mitt, Paul, and Santorum. I'm especially fond of the eyebrows.)  

Romney didn't ask what American citizens thought about having clean water, air, and environment. Romney asked "...some of the oil and gas executives...." their opinions.  As you can see, Romney is more interested in the views of corporations and their CEO's than those of the American people.  We must remember that Romney thinks "..corporations are people too, my friend..."  However, we should remind Romney that corporations answer to stockholders who are looking for profits. Elected officials answer to their constituents who are looking for a stable, safe life.

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

Just when you thought it was safe to......

WashingtonPost:

“I wish he would . . . We wanted him to this time.”

 

— Laura Bush, on the prospect of her brother-in-law Jeb running for president, in a speech Wednesday in Sarasota, Fla., reports the Herald-Tribune. 

 

OMG!  Haven't we suffered enough under the Bush family????  We don't need another Bush. 

Tax Plan?

Mitt Romney's tax plan has been analyzed and it provides big rewards for millionaires. 

BostonHerald:

Mitt Romney’s tax plan would cut taxes for fewer than half of U.S. households, with the wealthy getting most of the benefits, according to an independent analysis released Thursday.

Some taxpayers at the lower end of the scale - those who make less than $40,000 a year - could pay more taxes under Romney’s plan.

Under the presumption that the Bush-era tax reductions are extended - as Romney has proposed - nearly all Americans who make more than $1 million would get tax cuts that average $150,000, the review by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found....

Isn't that incredible?  Romney would be rewarding the same people that George W. Bush did---fat cat millionaires would get richer!!!

>> In 2010, Mitt Romney shared his idea of "creative destruction" in a talk he gave at Emory University in Georgia. You can find information about how Romney defended taking over companies and firing people at this Emory University link.

***  Romney continues to get money from Bain even though he left the company, according to the 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.... 

...Though Mr. Romney left Bain in early 1999, he received a share of the corporate buyout and investment profits enjoyed by partners from all Bain deals through February 2009: four global buyout funds and 18 other funds, more than twice as many over all as Mr. Romney had a share of the year he left. He was also given the right to invest his own money alongside his former partners. Because some of the funds and deals covered by Mr. Romney’s agreement will not fully wind down for several years, Mr. Romney is still entitled to a share of some of Bain’s profits....

.....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.....

This is an awful way to make money.  Taking over a business, bleeding it dry of its assets, firing people, destroying families and communities, and then making huge profits is a prime example of greed.

Romney's Numbers

As of this time (11:39pm EST), it appears that Mitt Romney has won the New Hampshire Republican primary.  However, when you look at the numbers (see NYTimes), 60% of the voters in the primary voted against Romney. Apparently, the Republicans are still voting for anyone but Romney.

Political News....

* Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown is getting ready for her campaign.
 
Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown on Monday officially kicked off her election campaign with a short speech before a couple dozen family members and supporters at a Columbus YWCA meeting room. 

Brown said she will campaign on her long professional and political career tied to helping juveniles and broken families and her belief that Ohio's courts must contain elements of diversity to ensure fairness in the judicial system. 

Brown is the only African-American and only Democrat among the seven Ohio justices....

We need to keep her on the Ohio Supreme Court!

* Thomas Fitzgerald, a columnist in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has a short list of Republicans that Mitt Romney might choose as a running mate. Check out the article and the comments by readers.
 

* Chris Redfern of the Ohio Democratic Party is asking for information that we all want to know----- How much time does Josh Mandel actually spend doing his job as State Treasurer?

WKSU:

.....Ohio’s Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern has filed a request for the daily schedule of state Treasurer Josh Mandel.

Mandel is the frontrunner among the six Republicans running in the March 6th primary for the U.S. Senate, and has raised well over $2 million for his run.

Some of his Republican opponents and Ohio Democrats claim that within months, Mandel was ignoring the treasurer’s office he was elected to in November 2010 to set up his Senate bid. Redfern filed a public records request for Mandel’s daily schedules for the last year....

Josh Mandel has spent a lot of time visiting special interest groups all over the country while he collects campaign donations.  Is he doing all the flying after hours?  Is he using state vehicles to take him to campaign locations?  Josh Mandel, with his extremely limited legislative experience, is a lightweight compared to Sen. Sherrod Brown.  We need to keep Sherrod Brown in the Senate because he cares about Ohio's middle class.

The Cold Reality

I'm sixty years old and I can truthfully say that I've learned a lot over the years.  Some of what I know can be applied to the cold, ruthless behavior of Republicans.

* In a story posted at Raw Story, Gov. Chris Christie yells at an Occupy protester that attended a Romney event. 
---I know that fat men from Jersey with big mouths should be ignored.  They don't care about your needs because they only care about their own avarice and misguided appetite for food and power.

* Mitt Romney's past behavior at Bain indicates the kind of leader he'd be.  He is not interested in helping people get back to work.  He enriched himself and his partners by taking over companies, soaking up the money through management fees, and throwing employees out on the street without pensions or anything.
-----I know that we don't need a one percenter in the White House.  We already had one in the case of George W. Bush and we can see where that took us.

* Mitt Romney says he was a job creator.  Really?  Romney has a long record of filling his own pockets and firing people.
----Take a look at the trailer for "When Mitt Romney Came to Town."



* Gov. John Kasich actually falls into the same category as Romney.  More and more people I meet use the same word to describe Kasich (a seven letter word that begins with "a" and ends with "e")
---Gov. John Kasich is not a person that you feel has the best interests of all of us in mind.

* Sen. John McCain of Arizona thinks we're interested in his opinion on Iraq and everything else.
---- I think we know that the words that come from McCain's mouth come from a very bitter man.  Frankly, I don't care what he says.

Republicans will do and say anything to get your vote.  They need your vote but forget about you until the next election day.

2 Bad Ideas

* Indiana Republicans are going after collective bargaining in their state.  Bad idea. 

Bloomberg:

The fight is on in Indiana (STOIN1) over another Republican attempt to weaken unions amid signs that the party’s appetite for war with organized labor isn’t matched in other states.

In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker faces an ouster campaign after pushing restrictions last year on government workers’ collective bargaining. Ohio voters repudiated Governor John Kasich’s similar curbs on labor in November. 

So as Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Republican lawmakers want to prohibit mandatory union dues in private workplaces, others keep their distance in an election year...

Gov. John Kasich is only slightly more popular that a Michigan wolverine in Ohio.

 ............................

* Guess the name of the Republican presidential candidate that wants to raise taxes on the poor but give tax cuts to millionaires? Mitt Romney!!!

HuffingtonPost:

Republican Mitt Romney's tax plan would increase taxes on low-income families while cutting taxes for the middle-class and the rich, according to an independent study released Thursday.

On average, households making less than $20,000 would see their taxes increase by more than 60 percent, said the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group that studied the Romney plan.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 would get small tax cuts, averaging 2.2 percent, or about $250, the study said. People making more than $1 million would get tax cuts averaging 15 percent, or about $146,000.....

What a guy! Would you expect anything less from a guy like Romney that said that "corporations are people" at a campaign event? 
YouTube



The conservative ChicagoTribune explains what would happen if Romney's tax plan was adopted:

U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's tax plan would cut revenues and increase the government's budget deficit, while benefiting wealthy taxpayers more than others, said a report from a non-partisan think tank released on Thursday....

Increase the deficit??????? OMG!

Romney and Indiana's Republicans need to rethink these stupid plans.

Get Informed...

The Republicans have their panties in knots because President Obama made a recess appointment. Ohio's own Richard Cordray was appointed by President Obama "...to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
 

Republicans blasted the move by Obama as constitutionally dubious, arguing that the Senate was in “pro forma session” and technically not in recess. Meanwhile, business groups, such as the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, expressed disappointment with the decision and said that Cordray’s authority as the consumer watchdog could ultimately be challenged in the courts.

For his part, Obama charged Republicans with foot-dragging on Cordray’s appointment of the agency tasked with oversight of non-bank financial companies.... (from TucsonCitizen).

A graphic shown on MSNBC from the Washington Post shows the number of recess appointment made by the last four Presidents:

Reagan = 240,  Clinton = 170,  G.W. Bush = 171, Obama = 32

Since the Republicans refused to even have a vote on Cordray, the President did what other Presidents before him had done---- he made a recess appointment.

>>>  Here is something that Rick Santorum, Republican presidential candidate wants to do that will knock your socks off---- Santorum wants to outlaw all birth control.



ThinkProgress:

Rick Santorum reiterated his belief that states should have the right to outlaw contraception during an interview with ABC News yesterday, saying, “The state has a right to do that, I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that. It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statues they have.” 

......an overwhelming majority of Americans — virtually all women (more than 99 percent ) aged 15–44 have used at least one contraceptive method — rely on contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancies and limit the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. In fact, the Guttmacher Institute estimates that contraceptive services provided at publicly funded clinics helped prevent almost two million unintended pregnancies. Without funding from Medicaid and Title X, “abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.”

Would you vote for a person that wants to outlaw all birth control, even condoms?

Underwhelming Romney

* Mitt Romney got an astounding 25% of the vote in the Iowa caucus. The problem is that Romney never seems to get anything higher than 25% of voters in these primaries.  Are people just not sure about him and his continuing flip flops on every issues?

ChicagoTribune:

Talk about winning ugly. Mitt Romney squeaked out an early morning victory over relatively unknown Rick Santorum to win the Iowa caucuses by a whisper-thin eight votes. Romney’s 24.6 percent of the caucus vote taunts him. It reminds everyone of his recently acquired nickname: “The 25-Percent Man.” 

That’s his ceiling, so far. He received a quarter of the votes in Iowa four years ago when he lost to Mike Huckabee. That’s also been the ceiling that persistently stops him in national polls of fellow Republicans. The Grand Old Party’s Anybody-But-Mitt movement doesn’t like him because he’s not conservative enough. They didn’t like Sen. John McCain, either, for which President Barack Obama should be most grateful.....

Are Republicans underwhelmed with their candidates?????


* Did anyone else notice that in the recent debates the Republican presidential candidates did not discuss how they'd get people back to work?  They'd rather try to discuss your uterus, which of them is more conservative, allowing children to work as janitors, etc., etc.  It is all a bunch of baloney.

The MoralLiberal shares this:

...The low turnout at the republican Iowa caucuses is not an exception but apparent trend in the last few months. The defeat of Governor Kasich’s attempt to reform labor laws in Ohio was the major warning sign for the Republicans of disenchantment with their brand. Forcing people to buy health insurance was rejected by the voters in the same special election. The republican establishment favorite will have to defend the most hated measure in the ObamaCare law, because Mitt Romney was the one who started it all in Massachusetts.

The independent folks who stood in the wave that in 2010 delivered the shellacking of the Democrats realized that the Republican Party is dysfunctional (judging by their erratic behavior in Congress) and unwilling to change (standing behind Mitt Romney, whose vision for the future is copy/pasted from the Bush policy books) ....

...The majority of voters in the republican primary understand that Mitt Romney is unelectable. He won the Iowa caucuses with the lowest percentage of votes in the recorded history. Unfortunately, the party also failed to produce electable conservative alternative. So the protest vote will go in three directions: some disappointed folks will stay home, some will join the Ron Paul Revolution, and some will cast protest votes for third party candidates.....

The Republican Party seems to want to give the nomination to the person next in line.  It is the way the royalty decides which person takes the throne. Since Romney was a runner up in the last election, the GOP considers it his turn to be their candidate. Romney has been running for President since the last presidential election.

We can only hope that some Republicans display their lack of interest in their party's nominee and stay home on election day.

What is wrong with Mitch Daniels?

Apparently the Republicans in Indiana have not learned anything about what happens when Republicans attack middle class workers. Are they completely unaware of events in Wisconsin and Ohio? Gov. Mitch Daniels continues his right wing assault on the people who are the backbone of his state and this country.

Firedoglake:

....Daniels, going back on his earlier word, supports the right-to-work legislation.....

Currently 22 states, almost all of them in the South and West, have right to work laws. New Hampshire passed one last year, but Democratic Governor John Lynch vetoed it and the legislature could not override him. You should really call them “right to work for less” laws, because they diminish the bargaining power of labor, empower management, and lead to wage cuts. Studies have shown that workers in right to work states make at least $1,500 and as much as $5,500 less for the same job than workers in states without those restrictions. And it’s designed to starve a union of revenue by creating a free rider problem, eventually dissolving the union entirely. First Daniels busted the public unions; now he wants to bust the private ones. 

Labor leaders in Indiana plan to use many of the same tactics that delayed anti-union laws in Wisconsin and Ohio and stopped right to work in Indiana. They are already on the air with a law telling the truth about right to work. But it would probably come down to having Democrats leave the state and deny a quorum again. Daniels is supportive of the legislation this time, going back completely on his view from last year, and Republicans have large majorities in both houses of the legislature. Democrats could walk out, raise awareness about the law (which polls show a lot of flexibility on) and rally opposition, like they did in other states in the Midwest last year, including Indiana.

Mitch Daniels is a flip flopper on this issue--he was for it, against it, and now for it. He might want to get Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the phone and ask him what happened with SB 5.

But wait!!!!  There is more!!!!  Mitch Daniels is becoming even more anti-middle class worker.

BusinessInsider:

The NYT reports that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels is pushing legislation that will require workers who support a union to pay extra money to support the cost of representing workers who don't want to pay. Under federal labor law, a union is required to represent all the workers in a union, whether they opt to join the union or not. This means not only that all workers will receive the full pay and benefits negotiated by the union, but also that the union is required to represent workers who face any sort of disciplinary action.

Since the union is legally obligated to represent all workers, in most states workers are able to sign agreements with management that require all workers to pay for this representation. However, some states infringe on workers' freedom of contract and prohibit such agreements with management. These states require the workers who join a union to pay for the representation of workers who opt not to join......

Mitch Daniels might be viewed by some as a moderate, but he seems very radical to me. Listen to what he had to say about health care.  Is Mitch Daniels promoting death panels?  If you are too poor, should you just be denied treatment? Wouldn't that be cruel and unusual punishment?

YouTube

A doctor recently told me that because some people are out of work and without health insurance, many are showing up with end stage cancer, where treatment is no longer helpful.  If these same patients would have had early treatment, their cancer could have been treated and possibly cured.

Mitch Daniels and his Republican buddies need to stop listening to the Koch brothers and their right wing, pro-corporate agenda.

Which Mitt are they getting?

* Which Mitt Romney are Republicans voting for in their primaries????

From Which Mitt:
(YouTube)