Don't say the "U" word????

Democratic Underground had a link to this song performed by the South Florida Raging Grannies.  The lyrics and background story are posted at Democratic Underground.

Here is the video from YouTube:



Great job, ladies!

Romney Flip Flops---Again!

Mitt Romney and the Republicans hope that you have amnesia and that you won't remember his statement in 2007. Luckily, New York Magazine has the quote from Reuters:

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama made clear his willingness to unilaterally go after Al Qaeda in sovereign Pakistani territory if necessary. Obama's opponents, including Hillary Clinton and John McCain, cast such trigger-happiness as evidence of his inexperience and naïveté. On August 2, 2007, Mitt Romney appeared to do the same. As Reuters reported:

"I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours ... I don't think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort," Romney told reporters on the campaign trail ...

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is one of the Republican front-runners, said U.S. troops "shouldn't be sent all over the world." He called Obama's comments "ill-timed" and "ill-considered."

"There is a war being waged by terrorists of different types and nature across the world," Romney said. "We want, as a civilized world, to participate with other nations in this civilized effort to help those nations reject the extreme with them."

Romney has done more flip flops than a gymnast!

>>>>  Ohio women want to know why Josh Mandel refused to endorse the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the renewal of the legislation called Violence Against Women Act???? Does Mandel think that women will let him get away with his lack of supporting women's issues????  Does Mandel think women should be paid less than men?  Does Mandel think that those accused of violence against women and their partners should not be punished?

Come on, Mandel!  Start answering some questions!

Romney-- Just Doesn't Care

** Paul Krugman sums up Mitt Romney's advice to students in the NY Times:

....Let’s start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama’s “divisiveness,” the candidate told his audience, “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.” 

The first thing you notice here is, of course, the Romney touch — the distinctive lack of empathy for those who weren’t born into affluent families, who can’t rely on the Bank of Mom and Dad to finance their ambitions. But the rest of the remark is just as bad in its own way. 

I mean, “get the education”? And pay for it how? Tuition at public colleges and universities has soared, in part thanks to sharp reductions in state aid. Mr. Romney isn’t proposing anything that would fix that; he is, however, a strong supporter of the Ryan budget plan, which would drastically cut federal student aid, causing roughly a million students to lose their Pell grants..... 

A "President" Romney (heaven forbid!), operating under the Paul Ryan budget, would create chaos, hardship, and massive unemployment.  Are you willing to risk your future on someone that will enrich his friends and condemn you to poverty?

- - - - -

* An article at InformationClearingHouse, details the seek and destroy missions that Mitt Romney and Bain used in absorbing companies, paying the executives, and firing the workers.

Here is an excerpt from InformationClearingHouse:

...An example of Romney's cold-blooded approach is his 1994 purchase of Dade International, an Illinois medical-equipment company. He soon merged it with two similar firms, a move that tripled sales.

Once again, he couldn't help but raid the vault, peeling away $100 million for himself and investors at the same time Dade was laying off 1,700 American workers.

After Bain closed a Dade plant in Puerto Rico, human-resources manager Cindy Hewitt was asked to lure a dozen of those employees to work in the company's Miami factory.

But that plant soon closed as well. Although Romney was gobbling up millions, Bain still wanted those laid-off employees to repay their moving costs....

Can you imagine your employer forcing you to repay your moving costs from Puerto Rico to Miami?  What about people that lost homes because they no longer had jobs?

More on Romney

>>>>>Mitt Romney was involved in a town hall meeting in March. Romney said the following:


Raw Story:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday told a high school senior not to expect any help from the government for college tuition unless he joined the military.

At a town hall-style campaign event in Mahoning Valley, Ohio, a student who was hoping to go to college next year asked the candidate what assistance he would provide “with regards to college tuition.” 

Even though Romney and his sons never served in the military, he is giving advice for others to join?

----------

**In a follow-up to Mitt Romney's speech at Otterbein University, it might be worth a second look at what he said.  Romney told students to (see Daily Beast): "...borrow money from your parents..."

Of course, if your parents have tons of money, that works.  However, if your parent is underemployed because Bain Capital destroyed the company or the Republicans refused to fund the rebuilding of roads and bridges, you are out of luck.

In article posted at Otterbein360, the writer offers the following statement:

...What do we really know about Mitt Romney? He seems so tame and naive at times, but what worries me is that he seems genuinely unprepared. He will say almost anything to please a crowd, and his views go from radically decisive to being so vague he might as well be talking about the weather. But enough about the good things — let’s take a look at what makes Mitt Romney the man he is.

.....As for job creation, under Mitt Romney’s leadership, Massachusetts ranked 47th among the 50 states in job creation and had a job growth rate of 0.9 percent, far behind the national average of over 5 percent. Romney has been quoted as saying, “Corporations are people,” a dangerous notion that leads to less taxes for big corporations and heavier taxes for the little guy. About the working class: Romney has a new tax cut set up for them. He wants to cut capital gains taxes for anyone earning $200,000 or less a year.

The issue? Research by thinkprogress.org shows that around 74 percent of people in this category will not benefit from this because few households in this category even earn capital gains, which is defined as money earned from investments such as real estate, stocks and bonds. It does, however, benefit the wealthy that have access to capital gains. According to the Tax Policy Center, 67 percent of the entire benefit from lower capital gains tax rates goes to millionaires. Seventy-five percent of the benefit goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. This tax plan costs around $7 trillion and is supposed to have a focus on the middle class, but all the benefits suggest otherwise...

Romney is totally unprepared.  While Barack Obama had experience in the Senate, and his own state legislature, Romney's business "experience" has come at the expense of people losing jobs, and communities being destroyed.



*** Rep. Marcy Kaptur is being challenged by Sarah Palin's buddy, Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. 

Politifact looked at Wurzelbacher's recent letter that contained charges about President Obama's parents.  Politifact took issue with Wurzelbacher's letter that was posted on the Christian Broadcasting Network website, in which  Wurzelbacher wrote the following:

"Imagine being the child of a mixed-race marriage - especially in the turbulent 60’s and free-wheeling 70’s," his letter said. "And when you throw in that dad was a Muslim and mom an atheist - you know it could not have been easy - and they were communists for crying out loud!"

Here is Politifact's assessment of Wurzelbacher's statement:

...The evidence that Wurzelbacher produced doesn’t back his claim. There does not seem to be any proof that Obama’s mother was a communist. Nor does the 1965 paper authored by Obama’s estranged father verify that he was a communist. And authors of books on Obama say there’s no evidence that Obama’s parents were communists.

We give Wurzelbacher’s incendiary statement a False rating.

I'm just so tired of these lies from Republicans and their continued attacks on President Obama.

Romney is Oblivious to Your Life

Once again Republican Mitt Romney demonstrated his complete ignorance about lives of Americans, and college students.  In a speech at a private, expensive, small university, Otterbein, Romney told students that they should ".....borrow money from your parents...."

YouTube (Think Progress)




What a genius!  I'm sure that students never thought of that!  With news that the Republicans purposely blocked all of President Obama's job creation bills and moves to improve the economy, many parents don't have an extra $20,000-$30,000/year just sitting on the kitchen table.

Mitt Romney got money from his father, and he thinks everyone else can do the same.  All the 50,000 students at Ohio State can clearly see that Romney is completely clueless about what it takes to pay for college today.  Then again, he probably never had to pay for his own education.

Romney should just stick to things that he knows---- dressage, overseas tax havens, car elevators, multiple mansions, etc.

Just your imagination?

* Sen. John McCain told American women that the "war on women" was just their imagination.  Really?

Bloomberg: 

Ohio lawmakers are considering a budget provision like one that caused five of six Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas to lose funding and, the group says, left poor women without access to preventive health care.

Republicans who control the Legislature amended a fast- moving budget bill last week to put Planned Parenthood at the end of the line to apply for federal dollars that Ohio distributes for contraceptives and other family-planning services......

Atlanticwire:

Currently, federal funds--Medicaid, for example--may pay for abortions resulting from rape or incest. This week, however, House Republicans introduced their latest piece of legislation: the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act." According to Mother Jones's Nick Baumann, Republicans want to say federal funding for abortion is only okay in cases of "forcible rape." Pregnancies resulting from statutory rape, in women who were raped while drugged or extremely intoxicated, in mentally incapable women, or in many of the victims of date rape would not be covered under this narrow definition. Abortion-rights groups have lashed out against the new bill's rape provisions, echoing the common liberal reaction found online today...... 

HuffPost:

Former Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra, who is now running to unseat Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), weighed in on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on Thursday, saying the law was a "nuisance" that shouldn't be in place......

Opposing Views:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) repealed Wisconsin’s equal pay law last week, which will make it harder for victims of wage discrimination to sue for lost earnings and back wages.

State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) led the effort to repeal the law because of his belief that pay discrimination is a myth driven by liberal women’s groups, saying: “Money is more important for men.”

Of course, Mitt Romney said the following (YouTube):




Here is another reminder for those in Ohio......
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the elected Ohio Republicans went after teachers, firefighters, police officers, and nurses when he pushed for SB5. With a huge majority of the teachers and nurses in Ohio made up of women, Kasich and the GOP tried to push women backward and disenfranchise them.

Sen. McCain says you are just imagining all this. Right.

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Leave it to Vice President Joe Biden to give us a great line to sum up President Obama's administration (see USA Today):  

 "....Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive...."

Ohio Women

* Women in Ohio that are tired of the elected Republicans and their concern for each woman's uterus, should breath a short sigh of relief today. 

Dispatch:

Ohio House Republicans yesterday backed off an effort to block Planned Parenthood from getting federal family-planning funds — at least for the moment.....

.....The controversial Planned Parenthood measure would have created a priority system for distributing federal family-planning money, putting Planned Parenthood at the bottom and likely cutting off about $1.7 million it uses for birth control and preventive health care....

.....In fact, GOP leaders said a separate Planned Parenthood defunding bill introduced last year is likely to start getting more attention....

It is time for the women of Ohio to convince the elected Republicans to stop pandering to their right wing base and start listening to a majority of women in Ohio.  Women should stop voting for right wing Republicans that are more concerned about your uterus than job creation, school funding, and fixing our crumbling roads. Throw the uterus-obsessed Republicans out of office.  Women deserve health care, especially those unable to afford a private physician.  Women need access to the yearly exams, breast exams, and birth control that Planned Parenthood provides.  As the Republicans support legislation that covers their "male enhancement drugs," they continue to try to restrict health care for women.  Enough!

*****  Shame on Republican Rep. Darrell Issa for saying those nasty things about President Obama's administration (see HuffPost). There are two things obvious from Issa's comments:
  1) Issa has forgotten his own scandals.
  2) Issa hasn't read about the scandals in the first four years of the administration of         George W. Bush. 

Thankfully, Salon has the list: (This is short sample from Salon.)

1. Memogate: The Senate Computer Theft...

3. Dark Matter: The Energy Task Force....

32. In Plame Sight....

33. Abu Ghraib.....

Darrell Issa needs to improve his memory!!!!

Romney was an Adult!

 The Republicans got all excited when they discovered that President Obama admitted that he ate dog as a child while living in Indonesia.  This is the GOP way of countering the Mitt Romney dog on the car roof fact.  Here is the difference between the two events----  

1. President Obama was a child. 
2. Mitt Romney was an adult, husband, and father when he put his family pet on the roof for the family trip that would last hundreds of miles.

* Sarah Palin demonstrates her lack of knowledge in some recent comments she made.

USA Today:

....Palin told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that the Secret Service agents' inappropriate contact with Colombian prostitutes was "a symptom of a government run amok" and Obama's "poor management skills." Then Palin offered up this bit of nonsense as proof of her contention: "The No. 1 thing that he is responsible for is … violating Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution in not having a budget."

What she's talking about is the section of the Constitution that spells out the responsibility of Congress, not the president, to appropriate money spent by all branches of the federal government. That clause of the Constitution does not mandate creation of a federal budget. It doesn't even use the word "budget."

Failure of Congress

The president is required by the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act to submit a budget to Congress — and that's exactly what Obama has done every year since taking office. That Congress hasn't passed any of his budgets is a failing of both Republican and Democratic legislators on Capitol Hill, not the man who occupies the Oval Office.

Blaming Obama for Congress' failure to pass a budget might be good politics for the former Alaska governor, but it's bad civics.....

Palin obviously doesn't know that much about how the government works.  While Boehner, Cantor, Stivers, and the Tea Party Republicans pass bill, after bill on abortion and restricting women's rights, worthless political statements as resolutions, they've yet to pass the President's  budget.   For almost two years Republicans in the House of Representatives have used their power to make speeches for their right wing base, and yet the Republicans have done nothing for the majority of Americans.  There have been no job creation bills.  The Republicans sit on their fat wallets and collect campaign money from super secret PACs, while they block President Obama's agenda to get people back to work.

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

= How much have you invested in dressage horses?????

Nationalmemo:

...It takes car elevator wealth to participate in the sport. “It runs thousands of dollars a month to maintain,” Braddick said in the same interview. “They have pretty much everything — a farrier, a chiropractor, a vet, a masseuse for the horses. Just like any professional athlete at that level.”

ABC News reports that, according to Romney’s 2010 tax return, Mitt and Ann have sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into the sport. The Romneys have a $250,000 to $500,000 stake in a corporation called Rob Rom Enterprises, which owns dressage horses, and incurred more than $77,000 in losses in 2010....

Mitt Romney is just a regular elite millionaire. 
                                                      _________ 

*** Another scandal has rocked the office of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel!!!!!!!!

Plunderbund has information about the latest scandal associated with Mandel's office:

A few weeks ago DDN’s Laura Bischoff slammed Josh Mandel for hiring a bunch of under-qualified friends to key positions in the treasurer’s office. At least one of those staffers may have violated ohio’s ethics laws, according to a State lawmaker.

One of the staffers mentioned in Bischoff’s article was Joel Riter, a 27 year old kid who got a 2X pay raise when Mandel brought him from the campaign to the treasurer’s office. According to Bischoff, Riter “left the job after six months to join the lobbying firm Cap Square Solutions. At Cap Square he lobbies the executive branch, including the treasurer’s office.”

Riter was also one of the key Mandel staffers who was excluded from Josh’s “transparency” website, his information conveniently left off the list which included names and salaries for all state employees......

Plunderbund has the complaint:   Lundy Ethics Commission Complaint Against Riter

Students!

Students looking to get involved and show their support for Sen. Sherrod Brown have a new group to join:  Students for Sherrod:

....Sherrod Brown is fighting every day to ensure that a quality affordable education is available to Ohio’s students. As Senator, Sherrod Brown voted for the largest increase in federal aid since the G.I. Bill, as well as the Post-9/11 GI Bill to greatly expand educational opportunities for post-9/11 veterans in Ohio. Sen. Brown has introduced legislation to provide student loan relief to 100,000 Ohioans and fought against cuts to Pell grants for higher education. Sen. Brown also proposed legislation that would create thousands of Ohio jobs by funding renovations and improvements for Ohio schools, and has supported legislation to save teacher jobs across the state. It’s clear that when it comes to Ohio’s students, there’s no greater champion in Congress than Sherrod Brown.

The launch of “Students for Sherrod” will be accompanied by a new Facebook page and a section of the web site to keep students up-to-date on campaign issues and news. Ohio students can join the Facebook page by clicking HERE.

For more about Sherrod’s record of advocating for Ohio’s students, please click HERE.

Just a reminder---- those candidates like Josh Mandel that support the Paul Ryan budget also support cuts to college loans and Pell grants.  A vote for Mandel is a vote to cut student financial aid.

Rubio or Jeb Bush??? Yuck!

Besides Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's questionable stories about his background, his views on the reproductive rights of women, and his right wing leanings, there is one more reason why I'd never vote for him---- his opinion of former President George W. Bush.

Raw Story:

Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday refused to explain how a potential Romney administration would be different from George W. Bush’s administration, but insisted that the last Republican president “did a fantastic job” and his brother, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL), would be a “fantastic vice president.”

“I haven’t gone through the comparison,” Rubio told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “I think that presidents serve in different times with different challenges. And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.”

Last week, Jeb Bush told Newsmax that he would “consider” a vice presidential nomination, but suggested Rubio was “probably the best” choice....

Rubio thought "....George W. Bush....did a fantastic job as president....."  OMG!  On what  planet does Rubio reside????? Where should I start? 

Under George W. Bush we experienced---
- an attack on our country by terrorists, even though there had been warnings in PDBs.
- a housing crisis.
- a massive Wall Street collapse.
- outsourcing of American jobs.
- the lack of a response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
- an unnecessary attack on Iraq, when the 9/11 terrorists had come from Afghanistan.
- sending our men and women into war without the proper equipment.
- lack of an energy policy.
- a total lack of supervision, communication, and supervision of some countries. Bush just didn't bother to keep and eye on everyone.
- torture.
- massive tax cuts for the rich, creating massive debt.
etc., etc., etc.

Do Republicans think that Americans would vote for another Bush?  There is no dynasty in this county!  Just say no to another Bush!!!!!!!!!!!  NO MORE BUSHES in the White House!!!!!!!!!!!

Romney is Wrong!

Mitt Romney's visit to Ohio was very strange. He went to a plant that closed during the Bush administration, but then said, according to Loansafe, “Had the President’s economic plans worked, it’d be open right now, but it’s still empty and it underscores the failure of this President’s policies with regards to getting the economy going again,” Mr. Romney said in an 18-minute address....

Romney is wrong on many counts.

1. The factory closed because of the housing mess during the Bush administration.

2. The Republican Party has turned down every job creation plan promoted by the President, even one that would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs by fixing our crumbling infrastructure. (John Boehner wouldn't even support legislation that would have created jobs in his own district with bridge repairs!!!!)

3. Romney wants to have more tax cuts, like Bush, for the "job creators" (aka millionaires and billionaires).  The f*#@+ng  "job creators" have had massive tax cuts since Bush gave them, yet the "job creators" have done nothing but sit on their fat rear ends, and count their money. Why do millionaires and billionaires need more tax cuts if they haven't put to use the last tax cut?????

Where is the substance?

Right wing Republican candidate Josh Mandel has courted the business, pro-pollution, anti-middle class PACs.  A quick glance at the FEC disclosure website provides evidence of the groups that support Josh Mandel.  Here are a few of the PACs that are providing big money to Mandel's campaign as indicated by the FEC:

AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC (BANKPAC)
EXXON MOBIL PAC
HALLIBURTON COMPANY PAC
KOCH Industries PAC (KOCHPAC)

Although Mandel says he supports the middle class, his campaign has avoided allowing him to speak to the general public.  Mandel only speaks in front of Republicans.  Josh Mandel's fundraising has been pandering to big shots, business owners, members of the local Chamber of Commerce, big time polluters, and PACs that are connected to groups that are targeting women's rights, voter suppression, and public employees, like teachers, fire fighters, police officers, nurses, and others.

I had to laugh at Mandel's first campaign commercial. Sure he is wearing his boots, but there is no substance, no plan, no ideas/agenda presented in the ad.  The ad just says he was a Marine.  Are Ohio voters willing to vote for someone that supported SB 5 and yet refuses to speak about policy, laws, and his views?

Despite the Do Nothing Republicans....

*....President Obama is accomplishing a lot. Stephanie Miller, liberal talk show host, just mentioned this article from the WashingtonMonthly-  Obama's Top 50 Accomplishments.  Here are a few from the WashingtonMonthly:

1. Passed Health Care Reform: After five presidents over a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act (2010). It will cover 32 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014 and mandates a suite of experimental measures to cut health care cost growth, the number one cause of America’s long-term fiscal problems....

6. Eliminated Osama bin laden: In 2011, ordered special forces raid of secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was discovered....

20. Increased Support for Veterans: With so many soldiers coming home from Iraq and Iran with serious physical and mental health problems, yet facing long waits for services, increased 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 16 percent and 2011 budget by 10 percent. Also signed new GI bill offering $78 billion in tuition assistance over a decade, and provided multiple tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans.....

24. Eliminated Catch-22 in Pay Equality Laws: Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago. Under previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about it.....

Look over the list because there might be some that you have forgotten.
(You might want to send this to you right wing relatives.)

Paul Ryan's Budget = Panem????

* After reading the book, The Hunger Games, we recently saw the movie.  Would Paul Ryan's draconian budget make our country resemble Panem?  The rich people in Panem's capital would be like the wealthy Republicans that Rep. Paul Ryan wants to protect with more tax breaks.  Those living in Panem's twelve districts provide a look into a Paul Ryan budget-created society for the rest of us. Would the 99% face life without a safety net, cuts to schools, cuts to college loans and grants, ending of Medicare, cuts to safety programs, end of agricultural support, etc., etc., etc.?

>  Thomas Suddes of the Republican-adoring Columbus Dispatch usually does not agree with any of my political beliefs, but this morning I can say that Suddes hit a home run with this statement in the Dispatch:

....Sherrod Brown’s GOP challenger, State Treasurer Josh Mandel, should consider that bread-and-butter fact — which weighs on countless Ohio households. To date, however, the gist of Mandel’s campaign strategy seems to be blaming Brown for humankind’s every misfortune since Adam bit the apple. What’s next? An accusation that Brown helped sink the Titanic?...

Josh Mandel is a like a broken record with this repeated, wild, unsubstantiated, talking points and other fabrications.  Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.  Mandel has provided little of his own agenda but willingly provides bizarre, unsupported, foundationless claims about Sen. Sherrod Brown. With word that Mandel marched in a 2009 anti-reproductive freedom march in 2009 (see Plain Dealer), it seems that Mandel could face a huge loss of women voters. Of course, Mandel's lack of dedication and attendance to his job as Ohio Treasurer could be another turnoff.  Women generally don't like men who don't fulfill their obligations.

Compare the Candidates

A post at a manufacturing association in Dayton, Ohio, has left me questioning the content of their statement.  MFRtech has endorsed Republican Josh Mandel.  Even though the website calls Mandel a "champion" in their post, I wonder how much Mandel actually knows about manufacturing since his only knowledge comes from the talking points that have been given to him by his right wing backers.  As a matter of fact, I believe that if Josh Mandel and Sen. Sherrod Brown would be in a debate about manufacturing that Sen. Brown would actually shame Mandel.  Sen. Sherrod Brown has an extensive legislative background in the federal and state level.

Here is a comparison between Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel as posted at an independent website, Votesmart.

Votesmart page on Sen. Sherrod Brown:

Current Legislative Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Member
• Appropriations, Member
• Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Member
• Select Committee on Ethics, Member
• Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Member
• Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Member
• Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Chair
• Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology, Member
• Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, Member
• Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition, and Family Farms, Chair
• Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Member
• Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, Member
• Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, Sustainable and Organic Agriculture, and General Legislation, Member
• Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support, Member
• Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, Member
• Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Member
• Veterans' Affairs, Member

Education

MA, Education, Ohio State University, 1981
MPA, Ohio State University, 1979
BA, Russian Studies, Yale University, 1974

Professional Experience

Teacher, Political Science/Government, Ohio State University

Political Experience

Senator, United States Senate, 2007-present
Representative, United States House of Representatives, 1993-2006
Ohio Secretary of State, 1982-1990
Representative, Ohio State House of Representatives, 1975-1982
Member, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Member, Democratic Steering Committee

Caucuses/Non-Legislative Committees

Co-Founder, House Food Safety Caucus, 2003-2006
Co-Chair, Congressional Automotive Caucus
Executive Committee, Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans
Co-Chair, Congressional Caucus on Taiwan
Member, Congressional Human Rights Caucus
Member, Congressional Steel Caucus
Member, Great Lakes Task Force
Member, Law Enforcement Caucus
Member, Medical Technology Caucus
Founder, Northeast Ohio Breast and Prostate Cancer Task Force
Member, Older Americans Caucus
Member, Senate Nuclear Waste Cleanup Caucus

Organizations

Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America

*     *     *     *     *

The following is the Votesmart page on Josh Mandel:

Current Legislative Committees

• No committee memberships found.

Education

Investment Decisions & Behavioral Finance Program, Harvard University (*see note below)
Graduated, Marine Corps Intelligence School
JD, Case Western Reserve University
BA, Ohio State University

Professional Experience

Enlisted, United States Marine Corps Reserve, 2000-2008
Founder, The Groveland Company
Intelligence Specialist, United States Marine Corps, Iraq

Political Experience

Treasurer, State of Ohio, 2010-present
Representative, Ohio State House of Representatives, 2007-present
Member, Lyndhurst City Council, 2003
Member, Alternative Energy Committee
Member, House Insurance Committee
Vice-Chairman, Public Utilities Committee
Member, Financial Institutions, Real Estate and Securities Committee

Caucuses/Non-Legislative Committees

No caucus information on file.

Organizations

No organization membership information on file.

___________________

 

Josh Mandel has little, if any, real legislative experience.  While Sen. Sherrod Brown could talk about every city, county, and hamlet of Ohio, the businesses, the people, etc., etc., Josh Mandel's experience is very limited.  

 

(*Note: That program that Josh Mandel took at Harvard University was a short, few days of a seminar that he took so that he'd know how to do his job as Treasurer. He is not a graduate of Harvard.  Although he did go to law school, he is not a licensed attorney in the state since he has taken the law boards, but has not passed them.)

 

There is no comparison between these two candidates.  Sherrod Brown is in the Senate, knows how to write legislation, make contacts, work with others, and knows the needs of Ohio's working people and businesses.  

 

Mandel, on the other hand, has little legislative experience, and has demonstrated his lack of effort and supervisory skills by hiring inexperienced friends/campaign workers for his staff. However, the most troubling part of the Mandel tenure in the Ohio Treasurer's office has been his lack of seriousness he has shown, with frequent absences, and more campaigning on state time than actual work.

And one more thing.......

Josh Mandel has demonstrated his opposition to the rights of women by participating in a march against women's reproductive freedom.  Apparently, Josh Mandel wants to limit what a woman can and cannot do with her own body (see Plain Dealer).

Check out today's post at Plunderbund.

He Doesn't Care Enough to Know

*  If Mitt Romney really cared about women's issues he'd know if
(1) he supported the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
(2) the correct statistics about job losses.

Politico:

...“This is an amazing statistic,” Romney said. “The percentage of jobs lost by women in the president’s three, three and a half years, 92.3 percent of all the jobs lost during the Obama years have been lost by women. Ninety-two point three percent!”

That figure, first introduced by Romney’s press staff earlier this month and repeated by Romney surrogate Bay Buchanan during a Tuesday afternoon conference call with reporters, was dubbed “mostly false” by PolitiFact....

...On the Wednesday conference call, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post asked for Romney’s position on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — the first law Obama signed as president — that eliminated the statute of limitations for women to sue to receive equal pay for performing the same jobs as men.

Following a six-second pause, an unidentified voice replied, “Sam, we’ll get back to you on that.”

Somehow I think Romney just woke up from a nap.  He has his own plans and somehow I don't think he is really concerned about what women think.

Horses?

>>>>  There is an interesting post over at Gawker where Mitt Romney discusses the kinds of horses he owns with Sean Hannity.   Watch the video at Gawker.

**** Josh Mandel is bringing in someone very big to help him raise campaign cash----- Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey will help raise money for Mandel, according to an article in the PlainDealer. Bringing in a bully like Christie says something about Mandel---- he with no experience lets others speak for him.

>>>  In an appearance on the Today Show, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, the Ayn Rand apostle, said that his budget plan would not hurt poor people.

DailyKos:

Rep. Paul Ryan went on The Today Show this morning. The news that most of the press paid attention to is whether he's thinking about getting Mitt Romney's VP nod and his trying to pick a school-yard fight with President Obama. The really remarkable part of his appearance is this:

“Do you acknowledge poor people will suffer under this budget?” [Ann] Curry asked Ryan. “No,” Ryan responded…

Also presented at the same DailyKos diary is the information put out from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org):

In Over His Head????

The evidence is adding up that Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel is in over his head in hiring staff for his office, doing his own job, and even running for U.S. Senate against one of the heroes of Middle Class Americans, Sen. Sherrod Brown.

*  Josh Mandel had to attend a 2-day seminar through to learn how to do his job.
*  Josh Mandel had to send one or more of his staff to a seminar to get the basics of their job.
*  Josh Mandel has nothing to call his own.  Since he has nothing of his own in an agenda, beliefs, goals, or platform, Josh Mandel has tried to accuse Sherrod Brown of all sorts of things. 
*  Since Josh Mandel has no legislative experience (his time in the Ohio House was less than mediocre), Mandel has no real record. His two co-sponsored bills were never passed.

Josh Mandel has voiced support for two controversial bills---- SB 5, and the "heart beat" bill which was sponsored by the anti-reproductive choice groups in the state. In case you are interested, Josh Mandel's channel on You Tube even brags about his support for SB 5 (see YouTube).

Josh Mandel has nothing but the talking points fed to him by his right wing supporters.  Honestly, the corporations and wealthy don't need the tax breaks that are being supported by Josh Mandel.

No Honor In Lies

* Republican Josh Mandel is a regular generator of false statements.  Although Josh Mandel rarely speaks about his own goals, agenda, or bills he would propose, he has been coming up with a fast and furious list of false statements about Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Here is the latest statement from Josh Mandel, as reported by Politifact Ohio:

Sherrod Brown opposed blocking a new EPA emissions rule, "despite acknowledging that the EPA's cap-and-trade regulations are ‘burdensome’ and could harm economic growth in Ohio."

-- Josh Mandel senate campaign

Politifact called this statement by Mandel as "Mostly False."  Politifact has given the following verdicts on Josh Mandel's statements:
>   3 "Pants on Fire"  (see list here)
>   2 "False"  (see list here)
>    2 "Mostly False" (see list here)

With his repeated lies, exaggerations, and misleading statements, people see Josh Mandel as untrustworthy.  He apparently is unable and unwilling to speak the truth, has covered up his own cronyism, and refuses to discuss the remedial courses that he and his unqualified buddies have had to take to be able to perform their jobs in the Treasurer's office. 

Larger Gender Gap????

I remember the women's movement of the 60's and 70's and the struggle for equality, equal pay, and respect.  Unfortunately, just when we thought that it was safe out there, the Republican Party decides it is time to put women back--------back into the 18th century.  The Republicans appear to think that they should decide what happens in a woman's uterus, what she chooses for birth control, where she can go for medical treatment, etc., etc., etc.  I'd like to know why the predominately male, white, rich Republican Party thinks it should make decisions for all women????

Even in our local paper, we are seeing articles about women, their rights, and birth control.  In a recent editorial in the Dublin News, a writer, a woman, said the following:

....One political group, in an attempt to get votes, has created a new issue that the media has labeled the conservatives' "war on women."

.....Who we are as women didn't need to be revolutionized so we could become equal to men because we are already the compelling and stronger sex by just embracing our natural role. Without any knowledge of feminism, we felt powerful just being the sex that can influence men and society with our charming nature and spirituality.

Sadly, the war on woman is the one we created among our own sex, it is not political. This is one battleground that would benefit from a white flag of respect.

White flag?  Needless to say, this quiet little suburban weekly newspaper has seen a large response from readers about this column.  Here is part of one of my favorite comments: 

...I feel sad for women like Ms. Giddens who don't embrace or understand the courage of women who came before us, who fought for our right to vote, hold office, own property, obtain credit, receive higher education, and work for equal pay. She is deluded if she thinks her children or mine would be better off living under those conditions of prejudice and discrimination that I suffered under...

I don't know about the writer of the editorial, but I do know one thing that a majority of women know----- 

We are not going back to the days when we had no voice, no rights, no power. 
NO! NO! NO! 

Any candidate or political party that thinks that women can be collectively picked up and returned to another decade is very, very wrong. Any chairperson of a political party that compares women and their concerns to insects, is going to see that gender gap get bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

She Says It Best

This video says what many women believe.
YouTube



This election matters.  Do you really want Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and all those right wing Republican men making decisions about you, your job, and your uterus? 

Copy this link (http://youtu.be/OKq0MwnMGcU) and send it to your women friends.  They'll understand what we need to do on election day.

Are You Kidding Me?

* Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina appeared on The View the other day where she said,
"Women don't care about contraception."  

 Nikki Haley is wrong.

Unfortunately, Nikki Haley is another one of those Republicans that live in a bubble, watch Fox News, and believe it is news.  In looking up her bio, I noticed that she was born in 1972, one year before abortion was legalized in 1973.  She has no idea about the history behind the fight for reproductive freedom, the economic freedom women experienced because they had  choices about birth control, and the number of women who died because of botched, unsanitary abortions.  Women care about contraception. 

The 1940 U.S. census was released this week and it is quite evident that things were different then. In 1940, families were huge because women had many pregnancies, produced many children, and often died in childbirth.  It was not unusual to hear of women dying while giving birth along with her child.  A woman's womb was not intended to be in production mode every year.

When a woman is having 8, 9, 10, 11, or more children, her life is in her home, her education is unimportant, and her ability to leave her home is limited.  She might be in a marriage that isn't happy, but she is trapped. Her life is limited to cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children, and doing it all over again every single day.  A woman that has many pregnancies increases her chances of an early death.  Is this what Republicans want us to return to-----the 1940's?

Women care about contraception and we know that President Obama respects the rights of women to make their own choices about their bodies, careers, education, and lives.  The Republicans only care about money, their own wealth, and controlling what happens in a woman's uterus.  They don't care about supporting public education and medical care for the children of those accidental pregnancies.

Women care about contraception. We don't want a Republican President and a Republican controlled Congress stopping our access to get contraception, medical care, and cancer screenings.


YouTube



In the upcoming elections, women need to let Republicans know that we care about contraception.

The Past and The Present

* Forty-four years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed.  It was such a sad day. 

>>>  Gov. John Kasich's former employer is in the news.  Lehman Brother and its collapse in 2008 that started the financial disaster in our country, is mentioned in an article in the Chicago Tribune:

A U.S. regulator is set to penalize JPMorgan for actions linked to the demise of investment bank Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the New York Times said, citing people briefed on the matter.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected this week to file a civil case against JPMorgan. The bank is expected to settle the Lehman matter and pay a fine of about $20 million, the paper said.....

....The CFTC is expected to accuse JPMorgan of overextending credit to Lehman for two years leading up to its bankruptcy in 2008, according to the newspaper....

Even almost fours years later, the collapse of Lehman Brothers continues to be part of the landscape.  How many people lost their nest eggs, retirement funds, and investments because of the actions of those gambling with their money?

*  I had to shut off the Today Show yesterday as soon as I saw Sarah Palin's face on my TV.  Were they just looking for ratings? Why would they invite a person like that who has said so many horrible things about President Obama? 

Kasich is the Ohio GOP---Don't forget it!

* Now even Republicans aren't buying Gov. Kasich's propaganda. 

Businessweek:

...Republican John Kasich on March 14 called for higher taxes on oil and gas drillers and environmental rules that his administration says no other state requires. 

As a result, Kasich, 59, a former U.S. congressman, Fox News commentator and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. investment banker, is fighting his own party over a plan that he says would ensure that Ohioans, not just out-of-state corporate shareholders, benefit from an energy boom. 

“I’m the party line now, you know?” Kasich said in a March 29 interview in Columbus, the capital. “I’ve never been uncomfortable with traveling a lonely road. I think that’s what leaders do.”  

Yeah, right.  John Kasich is the face of the Ohio Republican Party.  Do you like him?  Do you like how he has cut funding for public schools?  Do you like how he has blamed teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, and state employees for all the financial problems in the state? 

When you vote for a Republican in Ohio you just give more power to John Kasich.  That gives me a head ache just thinking about Kasich with more power.

Do you want to live in the past?

I find it hard to believe that some people just realized that a gender gap exists over the choices for candidates for U.S. President.  Where have these pundits and poll takers been?  If one political party is trying to remove any freedom for women and promotes transvaginal probes, why would any woman vote for any candidate that supports that kind of legislation?

Any Republican that has voted to defund Planned Parenthood should lose any support from every woman?  Do Republicans think that women are their property?  If a woman is having any kind of medical problem, cannot afford a visit to a doctor's office, where do Republicans think the woman should go?  If a woman goes to a private doctor's office, an upfront payment is demanded by some office managers before the woman can see the physician. 


It is good to see that women are coming to the realization that President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party support women and women's health.

USA Today's most recent poll indicates that trend:

....In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.

The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.....

.....While women typically are more likely to identify themselves as Democrats than men are, that difference widens to a chasm in the USA TODAY poll. By 41%-24%, women call themselves Democrats; men by 27%-25% say they're Republicans.....

The right to make their own reproductive choices leads women to economic freedom.  If you have seven or eight kids at home, chances are you are not working a job, interacting with other people, discussing issues outside of the home, and making decisions on your own.  Republicans want women to return to the days of yesteryear, before women had jobs, economic freedom, their own cars, fair equal wages, and opinions of their own.  As a 61 year old woman, I don't want to return to the days of my great grandmother.  I like being able to speak for myself.  Don't you?

By the way, if you've been watching Mad Men, you become keenly aware of what life was like in the 1960's for women.  It was even worse than the decades before the 60's.