Licking County Pro-Active Citizens

Trash Talk

Did you know that:

• Ohio received (and hopefully buried) 21.9 million tons of trash - mostly from New York and New Jersey - during 2008 while exporting only about one million tons to its neighboring states, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal.  http://www.ohio.com/news/83768352.html 

If this is Ohio's new "growth" (or gross) industry, let's be thankful that the mess is covered right now by snow.  And while we're talking about weather:

• Cleveland rates first (and Columbus 8th) in a Forbes magazine ranking of the nation's "worst winter weather cities." (AP) 

Or they're among the "best" winter weather cities if you enjoy the white stuff.

• Congressman John Murtha, D-PA, who died this week, was the first combat veteran from the Vietnam War elected to Congress.  And then he went on again to show his bravery by opposing George Bush's disastrous adventure in Iraq.
• In a complicated series of votes on Feb. 4, both Democratic congressman Zack Space and Republican congressman Pat Tiberi voted NO on increasing the federal debt limit to $13 trillion and change.  Both represent parts of Licking County.

On a related measure, Space the same day voted YES to adopt pay-as-you-go rules barring Congress from approving new spending without offsetting spending cuts or tax increases.  Tiberi voted NO on pay-as-you-go.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=48&chamber=H&congress=1112

Space explains at

http://space.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=20&sectiontree=8,20&itemid=897

Tiberi explains at http://tiberi.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=169307

-- David Lore

 

SURVIVING THE STORM

  A humdinger of a snow storm and all across Ohio, people are struggling through drifts, desperate to liberate their (pick one):

1. Cars
2. Bird Feeders (as above)
3. Barn Cats
4. Children
5. TV satellite dishes

If you picked #5, you know my priorities.  The car can wait (nowhere to go anyway) and the kids and cats  and birds can cope but if you want to watch basketball today you've got to get out there and wipe off the dish.

This is a chore I hadn't foreseen last spring when I made the switch to satellite TV.  Luckily, however, I did have enough foresight not to put the dish up on the roof!  It sits at the edge of the field next to my house, giving it not only a clear connection to the TV God in the Sky but also exposing it to the full fury of the weather.  I cleaned it off twice last night after I noticed Jon Stewart freezing up every 10 seconds.  I'm afraid to turn on the set this morning since the whole dish by now is probably buried.

If you own a tractor and blade and are excited about a day spent plowing, go to it.

For the rest of us, here are things you can do to promote the progressive agenda and keep from going crazy with cabin fever:

1. Find - and clean off your TV satellite dish.
2. Check out Sarah Palin at the T-Party convention (C-Span, 11:30 a.m.)
3. Read GOP strategist Frank Luntz' latest Right-Wing Talking Points.  http://dccc.org/blog/archives/more_false_attacks_from_the_right/
4. Join the campaign to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling allowing corporations to spend unlimited money on political campaigns.  www.movetoamend.org
5. Bring the cats in and put the kids out.

-- David Lore

GERRYMANDERING REFORM STALLED

The campaign to place a gerrymandering reform amendment on the May ballot has fallen short, today being the deadline for legislative approval of the measure. 

As we reported on Jan. 23, recent political developments made bipartisan agreement at the Statehouse unlikely. http://www.licopac.org/licking_county_issue_pac/2010/01/redistricting.html

The Akron Beacon Journal this week had the best wrap-up on what happened - and didn't happen. http://www.ohio.com/news/83303097.html

Efforts continue to qualify this constitutional amendment for the November ballot but supporters really didn't want redistricting reform to get lost among the many issues and races already slated for the general election.  In addition, there is concern that the necessary bipartisan support for reform will evaporate if, between now and the August filing deadline, either Democrats or Republicans feel confident the statewide races for governor, secretary of state and auditor will give them control of the Apportionment Board, the panel which redraws state legislative district boundaries every ten years.

The Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations, of which LICOPAC is a charter member, sent out this summary of the proposed reform amendment earlier this week.  It was written by coalition board member and OSU Political Science Prof. Richard Gunther who has been working with citizen groups on the reform effort:

"As you know, I have been working with the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action to craft a reform of Ohio’s dreadful redistricting procedures (a.k.a. gerrymandering).  We developed a system that was tested statewide last spring, with the assistance of the Secretary of State. 

After the results were in and we became convinced that we had developed an excellent system that was both immune from partisan manipulation and, at the same time, simple enough to generate redistricting plans from over a dozen Ohio citizens, we set about to draft our own legislation that would implement this new procedure.  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Speaker of the House, Armond Budish, very much liked our system, and assigned his top staff aide to work with us over the following months to draw up proposed legislation for House and Senate consideration, and for voter approval in either the this year’s primary or general election.  Unfortunately, progress towards introducing this bill was seriously delayed by the state’s protracted budget crisis.  Thus we may not be able to have this approved in time for placement on the May primary ballot (which would require approval in both houses of the legislature by 60% majorities by Wednesday).  But better late than never, the bill was introduced in the House today, and was announced this morning in a press conference.

In order to put this on the ballot, both political parties, and both the Senate and the House, must support this reform effort.  Last fall, the Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution #5, sponsored by Jon Husted.  While it does not adequately establish fair criteria for drawing district boundaries, it did an excellent job of restructuring the redistricting board and requiring that two members of that board from the minority party support a plan before it can be adopted.  I support the Husted bill’s restructuring of the board and testified in favor of it in Senate hearings.

 

Today we introduced our own plan, which perfectly complements the Husted plan’s restructuring of the board by setting in place procedures and criteria that will definitively end gerrymandering in Ohio.

 

It would be most helpful if members of the various clubs belonging to the Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations would write letters to the editor, phone in supportive comments to radio talk shows, etc., in support of this reform effort.  Since control of the current Reapportionment Board is completely up for grabs (especially with both Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, and Auditor Mary Taylor, a Republican, both stepping down), both parties are interested in the possibility of a bipartisan compromise.  Public support would greatly help. 

 

We have had wonderful support from the press over the past several weeks, and an outpouring of public support might help to put this over the top. 

 

I would be most grateful if you would circulate this attached statement to our fellow club members with a request that they speak up in support of this reform initiative."

OBAMA'S TEST ..... OR OURS??

In its Feb. 1 edition, The Nation asked 20 well-known progressives to rate President Obama's first year in office.  In this response, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, after commending Obama for "the power of the surge (which) has carried our nation forward on many fronts," turned the question around to focus on how the progressive grass roots have performed over the past year.

"The greatest failure of his administration's first year rests in the hands of all of us who are committed to manifesting our nation's dream of liberty and justice for all. In too many instances in the past twelve months we have powered down, left the field for the bleachers and chosen to play armchair pundit rather than continue leading.

"Like every great wave, the one that brought change to Washington must be regenerated or it ebbs. More important, our communities' and families' fortunes, which in so many instances were already in perilous condition, will ebb with it. Real change emerges from the collective power of a robust and inspired movement. 2010 must be the year we begin to fight at scale again."

With this in mind, here's a reminder of three upcoming opportunities for Licking County progressives to get (or stay) involved:

• Judge David Branstool's campaign kickoff reception, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, at The Grill at The Works, 50 S. Second St., Newark.   Suggested donation: $50.
• Licking County Democratic Club meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, at the county administration building (next to Wendy's) on the Courthouse Square, Newark.  Program will include presentations on the work of the Bridges out of Poverty initiative in Licking County and the financial situation facing the Licking County parks system.
• Licking County Democratic Women's Caucus Steering Cte. Meeting, 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, at the Buckeye Winery, 7 N. 3rd St., Newark.  All members encouraged to attend.
   

THE BIG HOUSE FOR BIG BUSINESS?

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted corporations full rights of citizenship under the 1st Amendment, why not grant our corporate brethren full emancipation?

Citizenship involves not just the sweets, such as free speech and now the unfettered right to write corporate checks to influence elections.  But corporate American must accept the sour as well, including personal rather than corporate tax rates, jury duty, registration for the military draft and -- last but not least - full exposure to criminal penalties under the law.

Regarding the latter, amidst all of the angst over the high court's controversial 5-4 decision, Citizens United vs. FEC, I've not heard anyone explain why corporations in this brave new world of artificial person-hood should continue to enjoy immunity for their criminal wrongdoings. 

As Wikipedia explains it, "In the criminal law, corporate liability determines the extent to which a corporation as a fictitious person can be liable for the acts and omissions of the natural persons it employs." (emphasis added)

"A company has no physical existence, so it can only act vicariously through the agency of the human beings it employs. While it is relatively uncontroversial that human beings may commit crimes for which punishment is a just desert, the extent to which the corporation should incur liability is less clear. Obviously, a company cannot be sent to jail...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_liability

Obviously,this is true in the normal sense, no matter how tempting it might be to move the corporate offices of Goldman Sachs to Alcatraz. Still, the idea is tempting since I'm sure President Obama would be glad to waive his pledge to close down Guantanamo Bay if that terrorist compound could be re-incorporated as "The Walls" for Wall Street felons..

But seriously, now that felonious corporations are no longer "fictitious persons" in terms of electoral politics, why shouldn't they also be subject to the same law and order justice the rest of us would have to face if we swindled our fellows, robbed our retirees, attempted murder on our economy?

Maybe you can't lock up Halliburton but you certainly could lock it down: turn off the lights and utilities, padlock the doors, furlough the employees and remove it from the world of commerce for 15 to 25 subject to parole.

And for those Wall Street banks and investment funds which attempted murder on our financial system, why shouldn't there be a Corporate Death Row where butcher businesses are sent to die?  Businesses die all the time, from natural causes.  We'd just be making sure that the "worst of the worst" of these corporate terrorists never get to strike again.

Now I'm not a lawyer and Wikipedia isn't exactly a recognized source for legal research, so if there are attorneys out there who can discuss this idea more intelligently, please chime in by leaving a comment.  Are criminal corporations under terms of the new Supreme Court ruling still too big to jail, too fictitious to impale on the sword of justice?

For an insightful discussion on this ruling, check out this transcript of Friday's edition of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01292010/transcript4.html

-- David Lore

  

SAVING LIVES HERE AT HOME

Here is something to ponder. 

I have been watching a lot of the coverage of the massive tragedy in Haiti.  Most estimates put the death toll at an unbelievable 200,000.  This is a tragedy that is hard to comprehend and so many of us feel very helpless in what we can do beyond financial support. 

Americans have always responded to such tragedies with benevolent donations, no matter where they occur in the world.  We demonstrate generosity like no other nation on the planet.  It makes us proud to be Americans, as well it should.

Here is what we should ponder. 

Most experts tell us that 40 million Americans go through life with no health insurance what so ever.  Of that number the vast majority are employed in jobs that offer no such health care benefit.  These hard working people have become known as the “working poor”. 

Once again, the experts seem to agree that one percent of that 40 million will die simply because they could not afford to get treatment.  If you do the math, one percent of 40 million equals 400,000 deaths.  That's double those who are estimated to have died in the Haiti earthquake.

When tragedies like the Haiti earthquake strike we have no qualms about putting aside our own needs to help. 

Yet today Americans are reportedly more opposed to health care with a public option than ever before.  For some reason, Americans can’t see the tragedy that is occurring everyday right here in front of them.  Maybe it’s because there isn’t enough visible rubble laying around the victims.   Most die quietly in their homes, or in an alley or under a bridge.  We don’t see the courageous first-responders pull them back from the brink of death, because all too often there are no miracle workers for people without health insurance. 

Or perhaps we don’t comprehend that this tragedy is occurring because we just don’t believe the expert statistics.  Could it be that it’s because most don’t understand the magnitude of the problem? 

Unless you have diabetes, cancer, MS, a heart condition or some other dreaded disease and at the same time have no way to treat it, it's difficult to put yourself in this situation.   What we come to realize all to late is that you never know when it could be you or worse, someone you love, facing these dire consequences.  In the meantime we find it easy to chastise our elected officials for trying to do something about the health care tragedy in this country.  We confuse socialism with social responsibility.  We allow misinformation to rule the day.  Tragically those who shout the loudest, come up with the vilest remarks, end up denying the uninsured and the under insured the same quality of health care that they themselves enjoy.

When you kneel down to pray this weekend for the victims in Haiti, try to take some time and say a prayer for those who are suffering without health insurance.  More than likely it will be someone you know, instead of a stranger. Both need our prayers.

 -- Garry Goldsmith

Capitol Cat Fight

President Obama must agree with my recent post that it is possible to herd cats.  In any case, he gave it a good try Wednesday night in his first State of the Union address to Congress.

• For the Left, he offered up bank bashing, gays in the military, immigration reform, green jobs, college subsidies, curbs on corporate fat cats, taxes on the rich and - let's not forget - another shot at health care reform.
• For the Right, he extended tax cuts for the middle class, small business loans, nuclear power and "drill-baby-drill," cuts in capital gains taxes, a 3-year partial freeze on federal spending, a budget control commission and a push to increase U.S. exports.
• For the Independents, fiscal restraint, curbs on Wall Street excesses and renewed efforts at bipartisanship to actually get things done in Washington.
• For the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the back of his hand for last week's disastrous 5-4 decision opening what he called "the floodgates" for corporate cash in political campaigns. 
• For unemployed Americans: jobs, jobs, jobs.
• For the rest of the world, well not so much this time around.  It was 55 minutes into the President's 70-minute address before he even got around to foreign affairs.  And then about the only noteworthy items in this 7-minute segment was a promise to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by August and his cheer leading for American aid to Haiti.

As you might suspect, he didn't exactly get all the cats into the corral - maybe not even most of them.  Only time will tell.

The Republicans in the chamber held back from the "liar-liar" chant which marked last January's congressional address, but tittered and guffawed frequently over Obama's claims of transparency and even-handedness on health care reform.  (The Republican response by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonald was short and clueless but Fox News managed within an hour of the speech to let both ends of the 2008 McCain-Palin ticket take their revenge).

Supreme Court justices endured their rebuke in stony silence.  Even those justices whose dissents agreed with the President's position were as mute as misbehaving kids parked on a bench in the principal's office.

Obama's generals were just as stiff and silent when he vowed to end the occupation of Iraq, although they joined seconds later in the chamber's enthusiastic applause for the veterans chewed up in that war.

Progressives - and that would include me - always enjoy Obama's speeches, and this one was no exception.  Sure, we're lap cats but we still hiss and scratch every time Obama starts up again with that nicey-nice "bipartisan" pandering to Republicans obstructionists in the Congress. But after Wednesday night, he's still got most of us in the corral.

-- David Lore

STRICKLAND HIGH ON OHIO

Expecting a sales pitch from Governor Strickland, we got a love letter instead.

To put it in biblical terms, it was as if our governor was channeling the torments of Job: beset by the boils of joblessness, budget crisis and a crippling recession, Strickland in his State of the State address today proclaimed his love for Ohio even as many of his supporters forsake him (at least in the polls) for another,  To quote the governor: 

"I believe in Ohio.

I believe in Ohio because you can’t write the history of the world without us – without flight, without light, without Rock and Roll, without professional football, without John Glenn in space and John Glenn on the Earth, without the tomato, without the underground railroad, without Roy Rogers, without tires and ignition switches, without the humble fly swatter, without the Richter Scale, without Jesse Owens running for gold and for all of us in Berlin, without street lights, without fire departments, without Superman."

http://www.tedstrickland.com/content/pages/state_of_the_state/

Since I'm retired as a journalist, I don't have to recount for you all the details of Strickland's speech.

You can now read it yourself -- on-line. 

In brief, Strickland said we're going through a tough patch but because we're a great state and a great people we'll get through it if we show enough grit.  And, incidentally, look at all the good stuff going on (thanks to my administration) to make that happen.

But what resonated with me was not all his details about programs adopted and promises made and progress achieved, but rather that one simple opening phrase: "I believe in Ohio."

Governor, so do I, even though I'm not a native son.  And that's why I share your optimism.

• Ohio, in 1958, made it possible for me to get a college education that wasn't very affordable back in New Jersey.  Along with thousands of other Jersey boys and girls limited in their options back home, I hopped a bus to the Midwest, ending up spending four glorious years at Bowling Green State University back when out-of-state-fees were still very low.
• It was at BGSU that I met Hummingbird, my bride-to-be, and learned to be not only a writer and scholar but a political activist as well. (Okay, the cause at BGSU in those days was freedom to drink beer and kiss our dates good night in front of the dorm.)
• But after four years I had impressed at least one professor enough to get a recommendation which landed me a $110-a-week reporting job in 1965 at the Columbus Dispatch, despite a near total lack of prior journalistic experience.
• And there I stayed - mostly happily - for nearly 40 years covering stories from the bottom of Ohio coal mines to shuttle launches to the edge of space, from the South Pole to the Arctic Circle, from the classroom to the steel mill, from pollution spills to drive-by homicides.  And, of course, politics: my father, a life-long New Yorker and a one-time newspaperman himself, told me early on that Ohio was the place to be to cover politics and boy, was he right.
• Now retired, I have no enthusiasm for leaving Ohio, even though my daughter and her family deserted to Dixie, outside of Atlanta.  But the South is not for me.  I'd miss the Buckeyes, the blanket of snow softening the world (on days I don't have to drive), the dazzling pageantry of fall colors, the courtesies Ohioans usually show one another even if they despise one's politics (or driving habits).

So yes, I believe in Ohio because even though I am an adopted son, this state has been good to me.

We all should be so lucky, and I'll put my bet on Strickland to help make that happen.

-- David Lore

 

AFTERSHOCKS BURY REDISTRICTING REFORM?

Any chance that a legislative redistricting reform measure would make the May 4 ballot likely has disappeared given the aftershocks from last week's political earthquakes in Massachusetts and Washington. 

Newspaper editorial writers across Ohio have for months been badgering legislative leaders to act by the Feb. 3 filing deadline to place such a constitutional amendment before voters this spring.  Proponents say this is the best - and possibly only - time to bring fairness and equity to the process of redrawing state House and Senate districts since neither party can be assured it will emerge from the 2010 elections with control of the state apportionment board, the panel which redraws the political map on the basis of the 2010 census.

Redistricting reform is all very complicated and hopelessly infected by partisan maneuvering -- but no need to give it much thought now.  

Given the Republican senatorial victory in Massachusetts and the Supreme Court's grant of enormous electoral clout to corporate America, there's no reason to think that either Democratic or Republican party leaders here are left with any appetite for bipartisan cooperation.

Statehouse Republicans opposed such reforms when they were on the ballot in 2005.

They were only showing interest this year because Democrats seemed to be in a strong position to control the reapportionment board after this year's balloting for governor, auditor and secretary of state.  Even then, party support was far from assured - and that was before Republican prospects for this November spiked given the evident public anger at the Obama administration and the predicted flood of corporate cash now unleashed by the high court in favor of Republican candidates.

Democrats - namely party leader Chris Redfern and House Speaker Armond Budish - have been even more skeptical that redistricting reform at this time serves their interests. 

Even before last week's events, Budish was flatly predicting the matter would not be on this year's ballot.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/ohiopolitics/entries/2010/01/12/speaker_budish_redistricting_r.html?cxtype=feedbot

Neither was labor on board.

Reform proponents might now argue that it makes even more sense for Democrats to back redistricting reform and thus minimize the political damage if Republicans do come back strongly this November.  But so far, the Democratic battle plan appear to be to go back on the offense rather than call for a truce.

So much for "leveling the playing field" in 2010.

According to reform proponents, there is no Plan B if the reform measure  isn't on the ballot this year.

Other than to revisit the issue come 2020.

-- David Lore

STUCK-ON HEALTH CARE

 
  

Speaking of the Health Care bill, where does one get a "HealthCare '010' " bumper sticker?

My "HealthCare '09" sticker, which I thought was going to be a temporary addition on the back bumper, has now after a full year become as worn and torn as my "Obama '08" and "War Is Not the Answer" stickers.  Is there going to be a re-issue in the wake of the Massachusetts vote?  Or should I just accept reality and scrape it off now?

-- David Lore