Buckeye State Blog - Events

Frances Strickland To Speak At RootsCamp

Lorraine_Bieber — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:35:23 -0700

Bumped cause everybody loves Frances -Jerid

Progress Ohio, America Votes, and the Ohio Progressive Leadership Network are pleased to announce our 9:30 AM welcome speaker:

First Lady of Ohio, Frances Strickland

Mrs. Strickland will speak about sustaining Ohio's progressive movement through 2008 and beyond.

Our lunch speaker:

Robert Creamer of Progress Ohio's national partner, Americans United For Change. Creamer's recently released book is entitled Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, with a foreword by Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.

Says Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio):

"If every activist in America read Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight, we could change our country. This book will help bring on the New Progressive Era. It's that good."

More about RootsCamp here.

RootsCamp is Sunday, January 13, 9-5 at the Riffe Center, 31st Floor, corner of State & High Streets, Columbus, OH 43215.

RootsCamp is organized by the Ohio Progressive Leadership Network, and sponsored by Progress Ohio, America Votes, Licking County Pro-Active Citizens, UFCW Local 1059, UAW CAP Council, League of Young Voters, Licking County Democratic Club, Ohio Young Democrats, Ohioans for Democratic Values, Clintonville Community Market, and Licking County Women's Caucus.

Single Payer Action Network Event in Akron

Woodguy — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:47:02 -0700

There is a very special event coming up tomorrow night that I wanted to alert everyone about.

Event: 'Single Payer-Make It Happen!'Public Forum

Date: Friday, August 10, 2007 At 06:30 PM

Duration: 2 Hours

Contact Info: Jody & Steve Smith 330-920-0981 Michael Carano 330-715-2066
Email: ssmith20@neo.rr.com
USW Local 2 Hall -
501 Kelly Ave -
Akron OH 44306 -

Presentations by Dr. Johnathon Ross, Rep. Michael Skindell and others - Find out why we need to convince our elected representatives to support HB 186 and SB 168 -Single Payer is the answer to our healthcare crisis, let's make it happen!

Dr. Ross is a national leader on the issues of healthcare access and affordability. Our present system is teetering on the edge of complete collapse. Whenever anyone proposes to do ANYTHING to improve the situation, the Right Wing Noise Machine screams "socialized medicine" and that's all it takes to kill the debate.

Bush Pardons Libby? Wouldn't We Be More Shocked If He Didn't?

bobhiggins — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:34:38 -0700

There is an ad currently running on Comedy Central for David Spade's show in which the comic says that Michael Jackson is having a 50 foot robot of himself built which will roam the desert shooting laser beams from it's eyes. He then asks the viewer, "Wouldn't we be more shocked if he didn't?"

Looking around the net this morning and perusing a few of the thousands of "will Bush pardon Scooter?" stories, that ad kept popping into my mind.

I think that Bush will pardon Scooter, I will be shocked if he doesn't, the real question, for me, is when?

You can be sure the question is being discussed in hushed tones in the West Wing this morning, but the hand wringing is audible out here in the heartland.

"Obviously, there'd be a significant political price to pay," said William P. Barr, who as attorney general to President George H.W. Bush remembers the controversy raised by the post-election pardons for several Iran-contra figures in 1992. "I personally am very sympathetic to Scooter Libby. But it would be a tough call to do it at this stage."
In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention
By Peter Baker - Washington Post

My guess is that the administration is at this very moment pulling out all the stops to gain bail for the poor abused family man and pillar of the community pending his appeal, which, with some luck, will take Cheney/Bush to the end of the term when Bush can issue the pardon just before the oval office door closes behind him.

If they don't succeed in influencing the court to allow bail, Bush will probably be forced to pardon him. I may be wrong but I don't think Scooter will remain silent through a long stay in prison.

At the same time, some White House advisers said the president's political troubles are already so deep that a pardon might not be so damaging. Those most upset by the CIA leak case that led to the Libby conviction already oppose Bush, they noted. "You can't hang a man twice for the same crime," a Republican close to the White House said.
In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention
By Peter Baker - Washington Post

I like that kind of reasoning, it's just what I've learned to expect from this White House, indeed from government in general, the predictably pragmatic cynicism that these guys don every morning with their silk ties, expensive suits and anchorman hairpieces. It's never an issue of right or wrong, what matters is will we be damaged politically?...How badly?...Is it manageable?... How long will Scooter have to stay in Sicily before this blows over? Wait that was Pacino.

The reaction from the White House: Dana Perino told reporters that the president felt sad for Libby's family but would have no further comment about the case, the sentence or the possibility of a pardon at this time.
From the War Room by Tim Grieve at Salon

As I said there are thousands of articles this morning on the "Pardon, will he or won't he?" question, a Technorati blog search returned over 4800 and though I probably won't try to read them all but I'd like to share my two favorites so far. First from Booman:

Just what might justify pardoning Scooter Libby? I mean, if you are George W. Bush, what principles would you rely upon to rationalize the neutering of the judicial process? The jury was clear, the judge was clear, the case was clear...Scooter Libby intentionally and knowingly lied and obstructed an investigation, which is quite clearly a crime. The federal government payed a great deal of money to investigate the Plame Affair and jurors (grand, and otherwise) dedicated months of their lives to ascertaining the facts. The Justice system did its job and concluded that Scooter Libby deserves to do two and a half years in prison for the crimes that he committed. If you are going to wipe that away, you must have some theory about how, ultimately, this sentence is a miscarriage of justice.
From Booman Tribune by Booman

Booman makes a good argument that the government, having concluded that a crime was committed is going to expect someone to pay, if that person is not Scooter than the crime must lie at the feet of those he lied to protect, Cheney? Bush?
He concludes:

No matter how you look at it, there is no way to justify pardoning Scooter Libby without it being an admission of guilt by the President.
Any innocent President would be furious with Libby and wouldn't pardon him in a million years.
But Bush is not innocent. Libby lied for the President. And if Bush pardons Libby then we will know for certain that the President himself is the one that should be doing jail time for the crime that Libby covered up.
From Booman Tribune by Booman

I got my first good laugh of the day over Marty Kaplan's plaintive snarky plea for a pardon at Huffington Post:

I want Bush to pardon Libby.
I want every Republican candidate running for President and Congress to be forced to applaud Libby's pardon and to inscribe their names alongside Scooter's other distinguished defenders, from Rumsfeld to Bolton.
I want American history to possess forever a crystalline illustration of Cheney's whack-ball theory of the unitary executive exempt from the rule of law.
I want the persistent presidential nullification of the Constitution to be perpetually exemplified by an unambiguous act of unmistakable arrogance.
I want Scooter Libby's fate to be be ironically and irrevocably linked to Paris Hilton.
From Pardon Me by Marty Kaplan at Huff Post

In the grand scheme of things I don't know whether it matters but yes he should go to jail and the sentence should be significant, after all we like to discourage our senior people from lying to those who might have occasion to investigate their bosses, or do we?

Scooter is a big boy, a lawyer I believe. He knew every step of the way what he was doing, he was aware at once, while he did it, in real time, each time he lied, obstructed and worked to thwart the investigation.

He has not admitted guilt, nor has he offered to do what is the right thing for the country and tell the truth about the entire affair, the reasons for the character assassination of Joe Wilson and the outing of his wife and the various roles played by everyone involved including his bosses. The right thing for history would be to explain to the people who paid his not insignificant salary why he and his bosses felt that lies had to be told to insure our involvement in a war with Iraq.

It may be that Scooter will look at this as a post graduate course in being a stand up guy and despite the trauma to his family keep his chin up and do the time while preparing for a lucrative career on the wing nut lecture circuit or perhaps start a ministry of his own.

That approach seems to have panned out well for Charles Colson, Gordon Liddy and others convicted during the Watergate era.

He, like those before him will walk out of prison and into the arms of the largest and best funded of prison support groups. An entire wing of his party has dedicated itself to helping formerly incarcerated Republicans regain their rightful place in the halls of privilege and power.

These guys stick together.

Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust

Alan Ginsberg, Howl and Moloch Live On

bobhiggins — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:44:50 -0700

June 3, 1926 April 5, 1997

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats
floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,
From Howl by Alan Ginsberg

I went to high school in Dayton, Ohio from 1958 through 1962. There was a period during this time, I think it was my Sophomore year that several of us discovered the book "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac and the poetry and writings of Fernlinghetti, Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Diane DiPrima, William Borroughs, etal.

I forget which one of our group of pegged levis, duck ass hair cut, teenage angst ridden, James Dean cigarette hanging from arrogance without a cause mouth children discovered the Beat Generation first but a dozen of us took to the anger and alienation and not so subtle sexual references that we read in those works like ducks to water.

For months we carried in our insolent hip pockets a paper back copy of an anthology titled "The Beats" which held some of the writings of that post WW2 period, a story about saxophonist Gerry Mulligan which led me to a life long love of Jazz and a bibliography which led all of us to the library looking for more.

We collectively and publicly referred to the book as our "Bible," which in those days, in Dayton, in Ohio was seditious, blasphemous and instantly branded us as "juvenile delinquents" which was a distinction we had only dreamed of gaining up to that point.

I remember skipping school to go to the library to check out a copy of "Howl," by Ginsberg which due to it's involvment in an obscenity trial was on the "restricted list" as I was informed by a disapproving librarian down her nose through frightening black horn rims.

Her respect for all literature, I suppose, even the obscene variety allowed her to put me on the list and when a few weeks later I was able to procure this magnum opus I was completely smitten.

What I read in that small anthology, the entire genre, and especially "Howl," most especially the prolonged rant against "Moloch" in Part two, somehow codified in my young mind a stance that I had consciously felt developing between myself and the world of adults and authority and my abused teenage desire for personal freedom.

Ginsberg and most of the others of the genre, although members of my parents generation spoke directly to "me." I felt their anger and alienation from the world of the A bomb, the insecurity of the Cold War, and their disgust and horror at the carnage of the wars in Europe and the Pacific and the more recent debacle in Korea.

There are few things that I read in those early years that had such a profound affect on me and although I haven't thought about the poem in a long time, this morning when I read that today was Ginsberg's birthday, I looked it up and read it again.

It was like revisiting a lover from a distant past, the familiar angry staccato rhythms of Part two were the rediscovery of a courageous old friend.

Over the years I have from time to time written to thank authors and writers who moved me, or of whom I was jealous because they had penned something that I wished I had written, but for some reason I never wrote to thank Ginsberg.

Maybe it's because I'm still somewhat afraid of what I discovered in him and what he led me to discover in myself, I don't know.

I do know that Howl became a sort of anthem for me and I suspect for others of my generation as we faced the postwar development of the madness of modern technological market driven society with its greed for profits, its cold calculating dispassionate lust for territory and resources, and its evil thirst for the bodies of our children to feed to its wars.

Ginsberg died just over ten years ago. Moloch lives on and thrives.

Ginsberg's words live on as well:

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagi- nation?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unob tainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys
sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose
buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stun- ned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies!
Moloch whose breast is a canni- bal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless
Jehovahs! Moloch whose fac- tories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the
cities!
Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the
specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!
From Howl by Alan Ginsberg part 2

Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust

College Democrats at OSU Host Candidate Meet and Greet

2010 Buckeye — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:26:11 -0700

From the forums. Get on out there and meet the candidates. -Jerid

Anyone going to be in the Columbus area and bored? Join the OSU Dems at the Drexel Gateway Theatre, 1550 N High Street, on Wednesday, April 25th for our first annual Candidate Meet and Greet. The event will last from 6-9 PM.

Candidates for Columbus City Council (and possibly Mayor Coleman), the Franklin County Commissioners, and other Democratic candidates and elected officials from in and around Central Ohio will be joining us. A few State Representatives and State Senators will also be in attendance. Dan Stewart is going to be our Master of Ceremonies. This is an excellent opportunity to hear directly from local leaders and promises to be a fun event.

Admission is free with a student ID and is $10 for other community members. Food and Drinks provided. We hope to see you there!

BGSU WOMEN ROCK!

Woodguy — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:58:13 -0700

FIRST TIME EVER MAC WOMEN'S SWEET 16

Challenging Matt Naugle

Eric Vessels — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:15:53 -0700

I think Matt's mouth just wrote a check his guts won't cash - like to see him prove me wrong - staff

Matt thinks liberal men are pansies. I say we find out.

I HEREBY CHALLENGE MATT NAUGLE TO A BOXING MATCH!

You talked the talk, Matt. Let's walk the walk. I say we sell progressive tickets and conservatives tickets and take our cuts and give them to charity...all the while having a little fun. You up for it? Give me a call over at the shadow organization sane people call ProgressOhio. 614-441-9145. We can set it up

Your hippie buddhist friend Eric

Author of "Dead Man Walking" speaking in Columbus tomorrow

Renee in Ohio — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:52:14 -0700

On Sunday, November 12 at 7 p.m. Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents will speak at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. She is also the founder of the Moratorium Campaign, a group seeking to halt the death penalty

30 West Woodruff Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Parking available at ARPS garage
614-294-3749.
Free will offering

You can read more about Helen Prejean here:
Sister Helen Prejean: The real woman behind 'Dead Man Walking'
Sister Helen Prejean's Personal Web Site

Earth Charter Summit in Columbus, Ohio

Renee in Ohio — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:12:27 -0700

Passing this along from e-mail. I'm currently feeling a bit event-ed and forum-ed out. But I thought I should pass this along to anyone who might be interested.
What: �� Earth Charter Summit 2006
When: ��October 14th, 2006 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Where: SGI-USA Columbus Community Center
�� 1197 Noe Bixby Rd
�� Columbus OH ��43213
�� 614-751-8990
Why: �� Because you support

I. Respect and care about the Community of Life
II. Ecological Integrity
III. Social & Economic Justice
IV. Democracy, Non-violence & Peace

Guest Speaker: ��David Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

In addition to "top-down" reforms, ... any lasting solution will require commensurate "bottom-up" reforms that build and strengthen solidarity at the people's level. These are the two interlinked prerequisites of change on a global scale.

Daisaku Ikeda, "The Challenge of Global Empowerment"

We share one planet. What happens in one country can affect the other. We are so inter-dependent that we cannot behave as if we live in isolation.

-- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, interview in A Quiet Revolution

Sometimes when we think of global problems, we get disempowered. But when we take action at the local level, we are empowered.

-- Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement

Contact Ernestine Jackson for more info: 614-237-3815

Elections and Democracy Conference Friday &Saturday 9/29 & 9/30

LakeThomas — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:45:03 -0700

The issue is much bigger than what brand of voting machines or whether we should buy electronic voting machines at all.

��Please attend and learn about what can be done to make our elections fair and democratic.�� You can also train in how to be an election-day observer.

http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/we_count_2006_conference_friday_saturday

www.wecount2006.org

Elizabeth Kucinich Walk for Peace, Prosperity, and the Environment

Aaron Voldman — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:16:41 -0700

ELIZABETH KUCINICH WALK FOR PEACE, THE ENVIRONMENT & PROSPERITY CONCLUDES��WITH RALLY ON MALL B, THURSDAY: UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE��Elizabeth Kucinich��begins the final leg of her northern Ohio college campus walk for Peace, Prosperity and the Environment. She started the walk on September 12 th and will finish in downtown Cleveland on September 21st, the UN International Day of Peace.��Mrs. Kucinich has been working to engage student, community, inter-faith, women's environment and peace groups in a coalition for peace and sustainability.�� Her walk has been in support of her husband's bill to create a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Non Violence, HR3760, an initiative which now has the support of 73 members of Congress. ��You are invited to join Elizabeth for the final 1.5 miles of her walk on Thursday, September 21 at 3 pm at the Westside Market Park on W25th & Lorain.

Statewide Dem Breakfast Rally in Columbus Tomorrow

Renee in Ohio — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 16:33:32 -0700

Forgive me if this has already been posted, but I don't see it listed under events. I only found out about it when someone mentioned it in the comments at Howard-Empowered People. Here's the info, for anyone who's interested.

Statewide Democratic Candidates Breakfast Rally at Westgate Park
Sunday, August 20th 2006 10:00 AM
Columbus, OH USA

The Turnaround Ohio Bus Tour stops in Columbus this Sunday!
featuring the following Statewide democratic candidates:
Ted Strickland for governor
Lee Fisher for Lieutenant Governor
Jennifer Brunner for Secretary of State
Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate
Rich Cordray for State Treasurer
Marc Dann for State Attorney General
Ben Espy for Judge
Barbara Sykes for State Auditor

Location:
Westgate Park (Columbus, OH) 455 S Westgate Ave Columbus OH 43204

Location:
Westgate Park 455 S Westgate Ave Columbus OH 43204

Hamilton County is Doing Things

Muffet — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 07:47:49 -0700

There will be several events in Hamilton County this week.�� Please join us.

Note the change in the Strickland event on Friday.�� Both parts are at the Westin now.

Please join us for an evening with Ohio's next Governor

Ted Strickland

Friday, August 11th

The Hamilton County Democratic Party

5:30-7:00pm cocktail reception

the Westin Hotel, Cincinnati

Suggested Donation $150

(Make checks payable to Strickland for Governor)

But everyone is welcome to attend and donate whatever they can.

Following the Fundraiser

The Hamilton County Democratic Forum

will sponsor a program at the Westin Ballroom

with Democratic Candidates

Featuring A Major Policy Address by

Ted Strickland

The new location, at the Westin Ballroom, is for your convenience.

There is no charge for the Forum event which is open to the public.

Please Join

��Congressman Sherrod Brown,

Former Senator Max Cleland,

��and Major Paul Hackett

For a forum on veterans' issues

��Tuesday, August 8th�� at 4:30pm

at the Cincinnati Public Library Atrium

800 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Join the Wulsin for Congress Team

for an Open House at the Campaign HQ

Sunday, August 6th 1-4pm

7440 Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH

For more information please check www.wulsinforcongress.com

Budgets and Beliefs: Governing for the Common Good

Renee in Ohio — Mon, 15 May 2006 20:25:09 -0700

FYI--seen on the We Believe web site...

Please join the Center for American Progress Action Fund for a special presentation:

Budgets and Beliefs: Governing for the Common Good

Featured Speakers:

John R. Corlett, Senior Fellow and Director, Public Policy and Advocacy, Center for Community Solutions

Rev. Mark Diemer , Co-convener, We Believe Ohio and Pastor, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Terri McMaster, Diaconal Minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Director of Lutheran Advocacy Ministry - Colorado.

Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness in the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries

Moderated by: John S. Irons, Director of Tax and Budget Policy, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Opening Remarks by: Michael B. Coleman , Mayor, City of Columbus, Ohio

From our country's earliest days, our government has operated under the fundamental notion that it must provide for the protection and welfare of its people. Among its responsibilities are: funding schools, roads, police and fire departments, and other public services. These civic obligations stem from commonly shared values of fairness, justice, compassion and the common good.

However, an initiative on the November ballot will seriously hinder Ohio’s ability to serve and protect its citizens—especially children, the poor and the elderly. The Tax Payer Bill of Rights or TABOR (also known as TEL) will jeopardize funding for basic public services, and will also weaken the state’s capacity to respond to natural disasters or terrorist attacks. For these reasons, people from various faith traditions, beliefs and backgrounds are joining together to take a stand against TABOR.

Join us for a lively conversation that explores the consequences of TABOR, as well as the ideology and national strategy behind it. Add your voice to the voices of neighbors who are speaking up against TABOR and for the common good.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 Program: 6:30 P.M to 8:00 P.M. Refreshments will be served at 5:45 P.M. Admission is free. St. Thomas More Newman Center at the Ohio State University 64 W. Lane Ave. Columbus, OH

http://www.webelieveohio.org/events/OHIO_TABOR_May_16th_Invite.pdf

Talk to Redfern and Bennett this morning!

Lucie — Tue, 02 May 2006 05:21:21 -0700

They will both be on Fred Andrle's program, "Open Line" today at 10:00 a.m. on WOSU - am, 820. I don't know if they'll be there together or separately -- probably separately. The program is streamed, rebroadcast at 6:30 p.m. and archived. It is a call-in show, though Fred usually starts with an interview. Journalist Bob Green is also on today, and may come first.