FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NEW AMERICANS TELL THEIR STORIES
The voices - and experiences - of Columbus' new ethnic residents will be heard on Wednesday, July 9, during the New Americans Forum to acquaint officeholders and candidates with the concerns of recent immigrants.
The event, at 6:30 p.m. at the IBEW Local 683 Union Hall, 23 W. 2nd Ave., will bring together members of Columbus' Hispanic and Somali communities with some two-dozen candidates for federal, state and local office.
Since the 1400's, immigrants have come to America to find their dreams or to escape treachery, war and starvation. They have not always been greeted warmly or well.
Columbus, for the most part, has been a welcoming community. Still, many newcomers experience lengthy bureaucratic delays in qualifying for citizenship. They also have to navigate their way through unfamiliar institutions, such as the schools, the courts and local permit and licensing agencies.
And in an election year, new Americans - like all citizens - can get confused by constantly changing voting requirements and procedures.
At the same time, politicians today face many opposing opinions as to how to address immigration and immigrants in the post 9/11 era.
The new Americans are courted by politicians "but there's not much awareness there," said one Somali community leader. "And after the election, they don't come back."
The New Americans Forum is being sponsored by the Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations to encourage dialogue between officeholders, candidates and new ethnic residents. Following panel discussions, a representative of the Ohio Secretary of State's office will clarify voting procedures and information will be shared about the Ohio Democratic Party's Neighborhood Leader Program.
The Coalition is a coordinating group for more than 20 Democratic and independent clubs and PACs in Franklin, Licking, Delaware and Perry counties.
For more information, contact:
Judy Kress, 614-268-2823, or
David Lore, 740-967-5227
Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations
http://coalitiondemscentralohio.org
Unfortunately, when it comes to Iraq (or Iran), the senator didn't have much encouraging news to share.
Brown said he will vote against the $165 billion supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan which will soon be on the Senate floor. This is no surprise, since Brown cast a similar vote against a $70 billion supplemental war-funding bill last December.
Once again, however, the war funding bill is expected to pass without significant concessions by the White House.
Brown's position on war funding has hardened since last June when he vowed in e-mail to Ohio Quakers to "continue to fight to fully fund our troops.."
And, in fact, in May 2007 Brown voted in favor of an earlier $120 billion war supplemental bill brought to the Congress by the Bush administration.
Now, however, "I don't trust anything he (Bush) says when he's talking about Iraq," Brown said. In view of the administration's failure earlier in the war to provide adequate body and vehicle armor, Brown said legislators can't be sure the President would recall U.S. troops even if future funding was denied.
Brown said in voting against continued war funding, he is taking a risk that congressional opposition could weaken U.S. forces abroad.
"It's a real hard call," he said. "In an election year, a lot of Democrats flinch from it. (Note: Brown was elected to a 6-year term in 2006 and isn't up for re-election until 2012.)
"But politics aside, it's a hard legitimate question," he said. "Do you cut funding when you have soldiers in the field? It's more than politics."
In his response to Ohio Quakers last June, Brown said, "I voted against the Iraq war and I generally support the principles of the (withdrawal) legislation. I will continue to fight to fully fund our troops, to ensure accountability and oversight, for economic and political changes that benefit all Iraqi citizens and to redeploy our troops as soon as possible."
Brown said he opposes any attempt by the Bush administration to ink a long-term security agreement with Iraqi officials that ties the hands of the next administration. The U.S. reportedly wants to preserve more than 50 U.S. bases in Iraq under such an agreement, and give U.S. soldiers and contractors immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.
Administration officials say they don't need to get congressional approval for such an agreement. Brown said he's not sure Congress could block such a move, although the next President could overturn any Iraqi pact not approved by Congress.
Likewise, if the outgoing administration launched a pre-emptive attack against Iranian nuclear facilities before leaving office in January, its congressional critics might not be able to do much more than complain.
"If there's an attack on Iran, and they (Iran) haven't attacked us,....there will be all sorts of reaction," said Brown. "That would be met with skepticism and rage by a lot of us..."
The bottom line, he said, is that the debate on the war has now shifted from Congress to the Presidential campaigns.
"The party will take the lead from Barack, he said. "In the end, what he says is pretty much what we follow. And we'll just have to fight about it after the election."
It was announced by Cleveland Peace Action during the conference call that an Iran Coordinating Group will meet this Saturday in Cleveland as part of the National Assembly to end the Iraq War and Occupation. For more information, go to www.natassembly.org or call 216-736-4704.
So what did I do last week.
Drove 55 mph down I-70 for about 400 miles -- and lived.
We had a very sick little niece at a hospital in Indianapolis, so we decided to drive over and support her and the family. With gas hovering around $3.75 a gallon (and my Passat requires mid-grade), I decided to use that mpg gauge on my control panel and just see what difference it would make to slow down.
So I locked in on the slow lane and set the cruise control at 55 mpg and headed west, only slightly speedier than the wagon trains which once traveled this route. I was being the much-mocked "Sunday Driver," talking to my wife, watching the grass (and bugs) go by on the berm and ignoring the alien bumpers which zoomed up behind me like cats on a mouse.
(Now I could tell by their expressions that these drivers were not happy with me, especially if the passing lane was temporarily blocked. But in 10 hours on the road, nobody honked, raised a finger or otherwise took their criticism to a higher level.)
And at trip's end, I had documented that my Passat Wagon, which normally gets 26-27 mpg on the highway, is capable of 32-33 mpg at the slower speed. That's about a 20 percent saving, or 70-some cents a gallon.
The down side:
It took longer, maybe an hour longer each way, between Columbus and Indianapolis.
That meant my wife got grumpy about an hour earlier, although she didn't seem to worry about "the crazies" since all she saw was the clear lane ahead of us.
Being a guy, it wasn't pleasant being passed by everything on the road, including a few Amish buggies (just kiddin).
Probably lost Dave Robinson (12th District congressional candidate) a few votes, since I had his sticker on my back bumper.
But all in all, it seemed worth it and hopefully as gas prices continue to climb, some of these hot wheelers will decide to start economizing. My advice, however, is don't commit to 55 if you're running late, or driving on a two-lane road (now that would be suicide!).
And slap a (removable) McCain sticker on your rear bumper just for the fun of it.
Seventy-cents less a gallon, and a roadful of drivers pissed at the GOP. What's not to like?
The sexual harassment scandal threatening Dann's job as Ohio attorney general forced his withdrawal as keynote speaker at the annual Jefferson-Jackson bash sponsored by the Licking County Democratic Club. This not only left a gaping hole to be filled in the evening's agenda, but also threatened to roll back the Democratic tide which swept Ohio politics in 2006.
Marc Dann, said State Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, has managed to overshadow the gains achieved by Gov. Ted Strickland and other Democratic officeholders over the past 16 months.
"What he has been accused of is very serious, and he has cast a dark cloud over everything we've accomplished," said Dodd.
Dodd this week was one of three House Democratic attorneys appointed by Minority Leader Joyce Beatty to investigate possible use of the impeachment process to remove Dann. Dodd left no doubt where he stands in regard to the attorney general's future.
Democrats won in 2006, Dodd said, because they promised to clean up the corruption which piled up during years of Republican rule.
"They brought shame to our state and we ran with a promise to clean that up, and that's what we'll do whether it involves Republicans or Democrats," he said. "If we don't, our clocks will be cleaned in November" when control of the Ohio House is on the line. Read More »
"Columbus, Ohio: Did Hillary Clinton's come-from-behind win in the March 4 Ohio Democratic Primary signal a seismic shift in the presidential campaign or the erosion of Ohio's standing as the "heart of it all" in national politics?
Is it still true, in other words, that "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation?"
A panel of distinguished central Ohio journalists and political observers will take up this question during an April 9 forum sponsored by the Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations. Speakers are:
Darrel Rowland, public affairs editor of the Columbus Dispatch.
Bill Cohen, veteran Statehouse reporter for WOSU-Radio.
Sandy Theis, media consultant and former Cleveland Plain Dealer bureau chief.
Brian Rothenberg, founder and executive director, ProgressOhio.org
Moderator Bob Ruth, retired investigative reporter for the Dispatch.
The program beings at 7 p.m. at the IBEW 683 Hall, 23 W. Second Ave. Attending will be representatives from Coalition grassroots clubs, PACs and organizations as well as a number of federal, state and local candidates.
For more information, see http://coalitiondemscentralohio.org
If only there was such a scramble at the White House and on Capitol Hill to do something about other oncoming freights, such as global warming, nuclear proliferation and African genocide, not to mention our own slide to becoming a beggar nation at the mercy of China, Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing states.
But is it also unreasonable to suspect that the crash program to get out the bonus checks might also have something to do with the upcoming election? Every incumbent Congressman and Senator on this year's ballot is salivating at the chance to vote for this $150 billion Easter egg.
Our own 12th District Congressman Pat Tiberi, for example, is quoted in today's Dispatch as brooking no delay, scolding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for wanting to take a second look at the House decision to drop extended unemployment compensation benefits and increases in food stamp allotments from the package.
"Everybody can't get everything they want," said Tiberi. "The important thing is doing this quickly."
Yet, as the independent watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense (www.taxpayer.net) reminds us:
"A 2002 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report compares the tradeoffs inherent in many of the more popular proposals for priming the economy. In the end it comes down to predicting individual behavior - a favorite pastime of economists. That said, a more recent CBO report proposes three fixes that at least do minimal harm: temporary tax cuts and rebates, temporarily extending or expanding unemployment benefits, and temporarily increasing foods stamps. Other economists suggest tax breaks and incentives for business investment, such as temporary provisions for accelerated depreciation on new equipment purchases."
In the grand bargain in the House, it looks like Nancy and the Democrats got snookered again. The rebates are there, along with accelerated depreciation on new business equipment, but the hungry and unemployed didn't make the cut.
Here's one taxpayer who would like to see the Senate take the time necessary to help out the neediest instead of just the greediest as usual. Maybe Congressman Pat should check out the depleted food pantries in his district. Maybe then he wouldn't tell those down on their luck that "everybody can't get everything they want."
We hope that our other Licking County ocngressman, Zack Space, D-Dover, who's about to launch a series of economic development workshops across his 18th District, also thinks of the poor and unemployed when he votes for this stimulus package.
In a news release earlier this week before the compromise plan was announced, Space had this to say:
"In an effort to tackle an economic crisis that is devastating Southeastern Ohio's families, Congressman Zack Space (OH-18) today said that his first order of business upon returning to Washington next week would be to tell Congressional leaders that an economic package must be enacted quickly.
Reports indicate that a stimulus package could include targeted tax cuts for individuals and businesses, rebates for individuals that may be several hundred dollars, and an extension of unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs as a result of the declining economy."
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/oh18_space/stimuluspackage.html
http://space.house.gov/RENEWOH18.shtml
Bottom line: It's always nice to get a check in the mail, but $600 or $1,200 ain't going to change my life (or my spending habits).
If the government feels it's necessary to send out rebate checks now, why not direct at least some of them to those who really are in the most desperate need of recovery?
Here's BSB's questions, and Dodd's reply to LICOPAC (www.licopac.org): Read More »
TAPE is officially a non-profit charity and is established to receive donations to help fund scholarships plus education and social awareness activities in schools and communities.
Substantial donations can be rewarded with a memorial scholarship created in honor of a person of your choice.
Won't you please add us to the list of charities you help support?
Make checks payable to: TAPE, Inc.
Mail: POB 509, Corning, OH 43730
Online: Go to http://www.nvboh.com/ (North Valley Bank)
Phone: (740) 347-4355 It is routing# 044109297 and acct# 130675
For additional information: theangelpoweremporium@yahoo.com Read More »
The two-day event is to thank those volunteers and party activists who worked to put Strickland in office last November. Read More »
I MUST FINISH MY THESIS THIS SUMMER AND WOULD LIKE RESPONSES FROM TEEN AND ADULT STUDENTS, INSTRUCTORS, AND ANYONE WHO MAY CARE. PLEASE, RESPOND BY AUGUST 5, 2007. SHARE IT WITH OTHERS WHO CARE. EITHER REPLY HERE, OR EMAIL IT WITH "THESIS " ON THE SUBJECT LINE, TO:
theangelpoweremporium@yahoo.com
THANK YOU!!!
Mrs. Kathleen Roby ~The Angel Power Emporium~
Questionnaire: Please state whether you are a student, teacher, youth leader, parent, or a combination of them. [CONTINUED] Read More »
The count, therefore, is now 0-1 with the next two critical pitches to be thrown in 2008 and 2010.
That was the message Thursday night that Richard Gunther, OSU political science professor, delivered to about 50 Democratic activists gathered in Heath under the auspices of Licking County Pro-Active Citizens (LICOPAC) and the Licking County Democratic Club.
"I think this might be the beginning of something major," said Gunther. "But it's extremely important to win the next election."
Read More »This today, from reporter Mark Naymik in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The sister-in-law of Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher landed a $60,000-a-year job at the Ohio Lottery Commission last month, even as Fisher came under heavy criticism for giving a job to a political ally.
Separately, the Lottery Commission is paying the full $75,000 annual salary of Gov. Ted Strickland's deputy chief lobbyist, who works exclusively out of the governor's Columbus office despite having a title with the Lottery Commission of deputy director.
If Michael Culp's salary were paid out of the governor's budget, the $75,000 saved by the Lottery Commission could go to education spending because its profits are earmarked for Ohio schools. Since Strickland took office, the Lottery Commission has replaced dozens of employees. Among the hires is Beth Zone, the sister of Fisher's wife, Peggy Zone Fisher, who started May 29 as an assistant lottery sales manager.
This caught my eye because, as a newspaper reporter, I covered the Ohio Lottery when it first opened -- and was amazed how an agency so young could be born so corrupt. Patronage was the least of its problems. Even a green journalist such as myself could easily discover that would-be contractors were writing hefty campaign checks within days of being hired. Governor Rhodes eventually had to assign the commander of the Ohio Highway Patrol as lottery director to try and clean up the mess.
So the Ohio Lottery, as far as I'm concerned, is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to ethics problems in state government.
This is one of several troubling signs (along with the Coleman case and Congress' failure to move on the creation of an independent oversight board) that ethics reform is not being taken all that seriously by the new Democratic leadership in Columbus and Washington D.C. This is NOT what voters expected when they went blue in 2006.
Republicans are being quick to take advantage of these ethics slips, as they should, even if there's no comparison with the 3-ring corruption circus that went on under Taft, Bush, DeLay & Co.
In the Dispatch on Sunday, for example, Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Delaware, is quoted as criticizing Congressional Democrats for their "holier than thou" campaign last year.
"We heard all the time about how things were going to be different -- blah, blah, blah. They're worse. They're worse than we ever were."
Now Tiberi obviously has a short memory: nothing that Congressional Democrats have done so far (with the exception of Rep. William Jefferson's freezer scandal) approaches the larceny of the GOP years, all of which escaped Congressman Pat's notice at the time (Tiberi even contributed to felon Bob Ney's legal defense fund!). But nevertheless, corruption is a slippery slope and we can only hope that Strickland/Fisher et al can keep their footing on solid ethical ground
In 1939, Hollywood produced a classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the story of a small-town congressional appointee (Jimmy Stewart) whose straight-arrow ethics ultimately prevail over the pervasive corruption of the Capitol.
Now it's 2007, and we have Mr. Space Goes to Washington, as related to the Licking County Democratic Club Friday night by freshman House member Zack Space, D-Dover.
"I'm not a career politician," said Space, whose only previous elected position was as law director of Dover. "So Washington D.C., to me, is like going to another planet. The people and culture are different. When you pass somebody on the street in Ohio, for example, you nod and smile. In Washington, if you do that too often, something bad is going to happen to you!"
The occasion was the club's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, a casual affair featuring pulled pork and potato salad and beans on paper plates with plastic cutlery, indeed another planet from the rich lobbyist-paid lifestyle that Space's predecessor, Republican Bob Ney, became accustomed to before being hauled off to prison.
Space was elected on an ethics plank, but admitted he has enjoyed the fraternity of the rich and famous, including meetings with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove (hereafter, always referred to by Space as "Bush's Brain.")
Here are Space's impressions of the White House triumvirate:
Read More »CONTRARY TO STATED BELOW, GAS IS ALREADY UP TO $4.50 + !!! HOW DO NON-"WEALTHY" PEOPLE AFFORD TO GO TO WORK OR IMPORANT APPOINMENTS?!? WHERE HAS AMERICAN MORALITY & ETHICS GONE..... [HIDING "UNDER A" BUSH ADMINISTRATION?!?]
As of yesterday, gas prices are the highest in U.S. history—we just passed the 1981 record, even adjusted for inflation.1 Prices could reach $4.00 per gallon in parts of the country, just in time to crimp summer vacation plans. As consumers suffer, the oil industry continues to reap the windfall—breaking profit records on an almost quarterly basis. It's outrageous!
Enough is enough. Hearings start today on H.R. 1252, a House bill that would make gas price gouging a federal crime, punishable by 10 years in prison. Speaker Pelosi has said she'll move the bill to a vote this week—if there's the two-thirds majority required to fast track the bill through the process.2
Oil company lobbyists are frantically trying to stop the bill. Your representative needs to hear from you today. Will you sign our petition asking Congress to pass the price-gouging bill—and then send it to your friends?
"Gasoline price gouging should be made a federal crime before the summer price increases hurt more American families."
Sign the petition:Link
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
Newly elected 18th district Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, already has competition for his seat in the 2008 election.
Chillicothe resident Paul Phillips, a Republican, has announced he will be launching a campaign.
Phillips, who filed his paperwork May 9, recently retired from a 20-year military career and returned to Chillicothe to start a law firm. Practicing law runs in the Phillips family, he said.
“I’m a fourth generation attorney in Chillicothe,” Phillips said. “My roots run deep here.”
Phillips served as a U.S. Air Force bomber pilot for years before finishing his career at Headquarters Air Combat Command in Virginia. He served as deputy chief of weapons and tactics while attending law school at Regent University in Virginia Beach.
Full Story at the Lancaster Gazette
Growing disrespect for the United States - from within and from without; multitudes of deaths, tortures, disabilities - to our own people and others; crimes against all humanity; loss of patriotism in truth (and LIFE) for our troops; NO compassion for our own needy citizens, veterans, and others around the globe; crimes against our very globe; and, so much more! Read More »
I spend alot of time on the road with my job. To pass the time on the long drives, I listen to the radio alot. After about an hour of the same commericlized garbage called "music" on the FM stations I have heard the rotation.
Switching over to the AM, I seek out the latest tirade of so called conservative talk show hosts. It amazes me how these people claim to stand for Family values and Christen beliefs but constantly partake in disgusting name calling and spitefull rhetoric. They dont even realize that is what they are doing.
They claim to be fair, but I have listened for years to how they treat callers who vary from thier point of view. In my opinion they select callers they know they can out debate and the moment they are losing said debate they cut to comercial or shout them down and hang up on them.
When I am lucky enough to be in an area where there is a progressive talk show host, that is where I am able to hear honest debates. The host almost always allows a caller to state an opinion that differs from theirs without interupting and name calling. It truly seems that these host have a genuine desire to listen to the other side.
Funny thing is these folks sit on their soap box and claim false alleigences to the middle class and to their religious listeners.
Perhaps by telling everyone how much they care about the poor and downtroden, and professing their beliefs over and over again these "conservitive" host think it will get them into heaven. I think its going to take more than that.
How often will you find The Nation and the Dispatch business section on the same page, particularly in regard to the environment?
Quoted in the May 7 edition of The Nation, James Hansen, the government's top global warming expert, advocates "a moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants until we have the technology to capture and sequester the CO2."
That technology, said Hansen, is "probably five or 10 years away."
See the article, Why We Can't Wait: A 5-Step Plan for Solving the Global Crisis at: Link
Then take a look at today's Business page in the Dispatch, under the headline: AEP Says It Won't Abandon Coal Plans.
Abandon....no, but if you read the article, it turns out AEP -- the nation's largest coal burner -- is talking about delaying construction of two new coal-fired power plants -- including one in Meigs County -- until at least 2015.
Many reasons are given, but it appears AEP is holding off on this multi-billion dollar investment until the future of coal, carbon taxes and carbon-trading schemes are worked out in Washington, where nothing much is predictable right now. See the article at Link but here's the bottom line, appropriately at the bottom of the Dispatch piece by Paul Wilson.
Carbon legislation could pose challenges, even though AEP is doing the right thing with its new coal projects, said Robert Burns, a researcher at the National Regulatory Research Institute at Ohio State University.
"It will not be business as usual, but they're already changing strategy in anticipation of the legislation," he said.
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