Buckeye State Blog - General Issues

Are Voters Registered? Check Here to Ensure Every Vote Counts on Nov. 4

Project Vote — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:57:07 -0700

Cross posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog

As history has shown, there is a difference between submitting a voter registration application and finding your name on the rolls when you go to vote. With registration coming to a close, Project Vote is conducting emergency efforts to ensure that no one who wants to vote is left out on Election Day.

Project Vote's Registration Repair Program is an intensive and urgent effort to collect and rectify large numbers of registrations that have been rejected by boards of election. We have been working all over the country to obtain disqualified applications and to contact would-be voters to repair applications with missing or erroneous information.

Check www.ProjectVote2008.org to see if your county has disqualified application.

Project Vote offers a Web site to help voters to check if they, their friends or neighbors were rejected by election authorities because of alleged or actual deficiencies in their application. Unless these people have already fixed the problem or filed another, corrected application, they will not be able to vote in November. The lists are available at www.ProjectVote2008.org. Currently featured states include Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Check back often as lists will be updated with more information in coming days.

Given that many of these counties have registration deadlines this Monday, we encourage voters to ensure they are not excluded from the voter rolls. Voters who discover they are not registered may fix the problem immediately by calling or visiting the local elections office to file a new, correct registration. This must be done before the Oct. 6 deadline to ensure all citizens who thought they registered to vote may cast a ballot on Election Day.

For more information on how to file a new, correct application, call these voter hotlines, provided by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: 866 OUR VOTE (866 687-8683) or 888 VE Y VOTA (888 839-8682).

No other organization is conducting such an effort to save registrations that have fallen through the bureaucratic cracks. Several boards of election have been cooperative, recognizing the importance of ensuring that every American who wants to vote is able to vote. In other cases, however, Project Vote is being met with reluctance, resistance, or outright refusal from election boards who seem content to allow thousands of would-be voters to turn up on Election Day and find that they've been left off the rolls.

Note: It is a violation of law in many states to use any of the information on any of these lists for commercial purposes.

The GOP Slime Machine returns

Doug — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 09:51:14 -0700

Bereft of any positive ideas, the McCain campaign this morning announced that it intends to slime its way to the White House. Look for more innuendo, swiftboating, and Willie Horton-style attacks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100303738.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008100303878&s_pos=

This is where your paycheck went

mlberman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:38:36 -0700

You probably know from experience that health care premiums have been growing much faster than paychecks, but the numbers are still stunning.

Since 2000, wages in Ohio: Up 8.9%

Since 2000, health care premiums in Ohio: Up 76.4%

This is from a new report from Families USA. Next time you hear any Republican credit the Bush administration for increasing wages, keep that stat in mind.

McCain's solution? You can't make this stuff up -- these are McCain's own words:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

That's right -- he wants to deregulate healthcare like we deregulated banking. How's that one working out?

Ohio Secretary of State Brunner Does Right By Voters

Project Vote — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:01:24 -0700

Promoted to the Front Page, as this is a good summary of Secretary Brunner's anti-caging efforts. - Nick D.

For a while now, we've been keeping you informed of Project Vote's efforts to prevent a repeat of massive voter caging operations that plagued Ohio in the 2004 elections. A controversial series of vague voter challenge laws, passed by the Ohio legislature in 2006, allowed any voter's eligibility to be challenged, without notice, based on nothing more than a single piece of returned, unforwardable mail. This is the same trick the GOP used to challenge more than 35,000 Ohio voters in 2004, when the outcome of the entire presidential election was riding on that state. This transparent voter suppression tactic worked in 2004 and the 2006 laws made it even easier. Project Vote has estimated that, in 2008, voter caging could result in as many as 600,000 eligible voters-mostly low-income Americans, people of color, and youths-being stricken from the Ohio voter rolls without notice or due process.

In cooperation with another organization, Project Vote has been working on the situation for months, urging Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to stand up for Ohioans and put a stop to these partisan practices. On Friday, Secretary Brunner showed that she had heard many of our concerns, and took steps to help protect Ohio voters. To prevent partisan voter-caging operations, Brunner issued a binding directive to all county election boards, instructing them that parts of the 2006 challenge laws were unconstitutional and stating that granting a residency challenge based only on returned mail violates the National Voter Registration Act. Brunner's directive also advises that voters must be to be given due notice of any challenge before Election Day. Failure to follow these guidelines, Brunner indicated, could result in lawsuits from disenfranchised voters.

According to an AP story, Brunner acknowledges that the 2006 voter challenge laws appeared to have sprung from partisan attempts to challenge voter registrations based on returned mail. "When you line it all up you see a very flawed process that can put many people's rights in jeopardy," Brunner says. "I'm not sure what the motivation was and who drafted it. All I know is it's not likely to stand up in court."

Teresa James, attorney for Project Vote, appreciates Brunner's efforts to protect voters: "Particularly in light of the troubling history of voter caging in Ohio," James says, "Secretary Brunner is to be commended for her work on this issue and her concern for Ohio voters. However, there is still work to be done to fully protect the voters from voter caging."

While Brunner's directive makes it clear that residency challenges based solely on returned mail would be denied, we know all too well from history that partisans might file frivolous challenges anyway to intimidate voters and reduce turnout of low-income and minority voters on Election Day. They've used this trick before, and we're working with our allies to make sure they don't get away with it this time. We'll keep you informed as the situation develops, but for now we recognize Secretary Brunner for taking positive steps on this vital issue.

Quick Links:

Press Release on the Directive from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office

Secretary Brunner’s Directive

Reports:

Project Vote’s Report: Caging Democracy: A 50 Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters

Uninsured? "Voila, Problem Solved!"

mlberman — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:17:34 -0700

Promoted from the Forums - Nick D.

This seems to be the McCain plan for dealing with difficult problems: Pretend they don't exist.

McCain's health care advisor just declared that he has the "solution" to our health care woes -- he'll define the problem out of existence. Here's the article and the key quote:

"[John] Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American - even illegal aliens - as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

So apparently in not just the recession that's in our heads -- it's uninsurance too.

For those that actually care about ensuring that everyone has access to real health care, the comparison isn't even close.

MY PHOTOS OF DIMONA - 1985

JeanLR — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:14:38 -0700

http://www.serve.com/vanunu/dimona/pix.html

http://www.serve.com/vanunu/dimona/index.html

ABOUT DIMONA

"Dimona should be open to international inspections, should be shut down because it is past its age, beyond 25-30 years, it is now 40 years working. If the U.S. is looking for nuclear weapons in the Middle East, or a nuclear factory, it is here in Israel." -vmjc

"The plant's [Dimona] infrastructure is worn out, and this risks sparking incidents. It's a matter of the concrete shell which cannot be changed and the reactor's cooling pipes, which are worn out due to neutron bombardment." -Dr. Uzi Even, Feb 2000

http://www.serve.com/vanunu/index.html

"I AM YOUR SPY "
"...Come and see for yourselves. Lighten my burden. Stop the train.
Get off the train.
The next stop -- nuclear disaster.
The next book, the next machine.
No. There is no such thing."

Do Not Donate Over The Phone - Period

DDINK — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:29:01 -0700

I work for a non profit here in OHIO. We call and ask for donations for the Ohio Troopers. Our call center is on Chillicothe St in Portsmouth not Columbus like they want you to think. Your donation does not go to your state troopers it go to lobbyist organazations. The main evil of this scam is CDG .Our AG had them in court but to no avail. The AG approved our scripts and agreed to everything we say and don't say. Just DO YOURSELF a favor and NEVER give over the phone.

Heres a tip - Once introduced and only after- tell /demand them to remove you from ALL CALL LIST. Or if you want to really hurt them you can make fake donations,the higher the better. Then of cousre be removed from the list.

They have so many ways to get your number don't sell it to them with your donation. Once you make a donation you go on a list that's bigger than you could ever imagine.

Don't quit giving locally to drives or to charities you know. WBNS exposed the Ohio Troopers Coalition for 6% of the dollar going to charity and all day long OHIO gives to what they think are the families of 4 dead troopers. They call every holiday and every sunday you cannot escape it unless you tell them to never call the number again.

Tell your parents and grandparents to never give over the phone/please for gods sake they will harrass your parents to no end. The elderly give the most often, its very sad.

Non proifits are scams these days. OTC is not tax deductible because of a 501c5 IRS code,

Basically its all to hide the fact that your money isn't being used for what you are being told. OHIO has made CDG very wealthy. Yes OHIANS your donations in part are in New Jersey.

No polition will touch this issue its up to the people. Don't attack me ither because I am telling you how you can stop this from happening. to you and the ones you love. This is the new age in comminication and if everyone of you do their part I should see donations drop and I'll let you know.

Simply don't donate on the phone and you'll be fine. All day long people give the OTC and Retired Troopers their donations on credit cards its unreal how large a scam this truly is. If you could see inside that place and see what goes on, it would make you ill.( many centers in OHIO)

Its all legal though, THE AG approves what this fundraising center does and the many more like it. The total for that one office for 07 was like 26,898.00 $ with only as little as 6% of your dollar going to charity. Oh yes now they say 50 50. They rebuttle every question you got there is an answer for everything.

Please spread the word

DO NOT DONATE TO ANYONE WHO CALLS YOU.

Yes they are starting to call cells now, so remember wait for them to identify themselves and demand off of the list. Don't ask.

DDINK

Who is the Future of the Democratic Party?

Sven — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:56:11 -0700

In 2003 hardly anyone outside of Illinois knew a state senator named Barack Obama.

Five years later he is the nominee for President of the Democratic Party.

What this shows is that there clearly is talent all over the United States (while I'm not saying there is an Obama in every state). The question simply is if they can make it out of the political wilderness into the limelight.

What I'm wondering is who comes after Obama? Who is the future of the Democratic Party? Now, this is not necessarily about who might become a future president but rather who has the ability to work hard and inspire people and make it into a leadership position in the future. Whether that is as governor, in the U.S. Senate or any other leadership position.

So, here's my question to you: who is the future of the Democratic Party? Which young person (younger than Obama who was born in 1961), male or female, white, African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic, straight or gay, inspires you? Now, that person may have already made it to Congress, or have been elected to statewide office. But it's just as likely that person is in the state legislature, the state cabinet or an elected official at the local level (mayor or county commissioner) or currently running for an office.

Which young Democrat in Ohio inspires you and whom do you wish/hope to rise and aim higher? And please provide year of birth and a bio link to that person if you can.

Cross posted from My Silver State.

Filler Er Up, The Bush OIl Company

raz — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:03:08 -0700

If you don't believe that Oil Runs the world then read this post

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/37259.html

Why is John McCain Lying to the American People?

khurd77 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:03:02 -0700

We are in the age of political ruthlessness and with political figures willing to lie to the American people over and over again it is critical that we pay close attention to what these politicians are saying. It is up the military and supporters of military to call out and hold accountable those that are misrepresenting us and using their own service to hurt those that are still serving. The fact that you served in the military or even that you were a POW does not give you a blank check or a "wink and a nod" if you are making choices that are without a doubt hurting military people! However it does understandably have a lot of "pull" with veterans of all ages and groups. The fact that John is willing to use this respect to further his political objectives first hurts me, and then it pisses me off. We must find better ways to explain this to those that have not served or had someone close to them serve. I think that John McCain deserves respect for being a POW. I DO NOT respect John for dishonoring those in uniform by lying to them for political reasons. Enough is enough. Those of us who have fought in these wars must find better ways to fight these politicians. Perhaps at one time John was still 90% independent supporter of the military and 10% politician. Those numbers have flipped-flopped now.... right along with John's positions and views on so many subjects and issues. We must pay close attention and ensure others are doing the same. We must point out these facts that we are painfully aware of, but that they may not fully understand or comprehend. It is up to us to get this message out. One simple question begs an honest answer: why is John McCain NOT supporting the Post 9/11 GI Bill? A bill that will help military people.... period.

Two New Reports Prove: Our Deployment Cycles Are A Recipe For Disaster.

Bobby Muller VFA — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:39:52 -0700

Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say "no" for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.

We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.

How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.

Bobby Muller - Veterans For America :: Two New Reports Prove: Our Deployment Cycles Are A Recipe For Disaster.

Today, here at Veterans for America as part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, we are releasing two very important reports. In fact, we are delivering these reports to every Senator and House Member on Capitol Hill so that they can be better informed when General Petraeus testifies and when they weigh all elements of Iraq policy.

Our first new report - The Consequences of Churning" - takes an in-depth, state-by-state look at the toll multiple deployments are taking on frontline Army units.

These units are going through high-intensity combat, are not getting adequate dwell time between tours, and are also being devastated by the fifteen month tours.

Our second new report -- "Weekend Warriors to Frontline Soldiers" -- examines the toll of repeated deployments on our National Guard, again breaking it down state-by-state.

Here we see that of the nearly 200,000 National Guard members that have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and almost half are returning with post-combat mental problems.

The problems of our troops are real and immediate, and they are getting worse. The Soldiers who are seeing the most combat are also being sent back to Iraq and Afghanistan the greatest number of times.

As part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, we traveled to Fort Drum in New York State and saw, first-hand, the devastation that is happening right now. Devastation that gets worse with every tour, every deployment.

We are releasing these reports, and we have a simple message: enough is enough. The greatest threat to our military is the continued deployment of our troops under unfair conditions; it's as simple as that. As Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, "The well is deep, but it is not infinite...People are tired."

The withdrawals must continue, our troops must come home, and we must be ready to help them.

We have to continue to assess how much help the 1.6 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan need and what assistance they will need in the future. We know the need will be great; it is our duty to be ready to answer the call of those who answered the call for us.

Veterans For America/ General Petraeus

Bobby Muller VFA — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:39:19 -0700

Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say "no" for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers. We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform. How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.

Today, here at <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org/">Veterans for America</a> as part of our <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org/woundedwarrior/">Wounded Warrior Outreach Program</a>, we are releasing two very important reports. In fact, we are delivering these reports to every Senator and House Member on Capitol Hill so that they can be better informed when General Petraeus testifies and when they weigh all elements of Iraq policy. Our first new report – <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/08-199va_consequences_of_churning.pdf">The Consequences of Churning"</a> – takes an in-depth, state-by-state look at the toll multiple deployments are taking on frontline Army units. These units are going through high-intensity combat, are not getting adequate dwell time between tours, and are also being devastated by the fifteen month tours. Our second new report -- <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/08-188va_weekendwarriorreport.pdf">"Weekend Warriors to Frontline Soldiers"</a> -- examines the toll of repeated deployments on our National Guard, again breaking it down state-by-state. Here we see that of the nearly 200,000 National Guard members that have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and almost half are returning with post-combat mental problems. The problems of our troops are real and immediate, and they are getting worse. The Soldiers who are seeing the most combat are also being sent back to Iraq and Afghanistan the greatest number of times. As part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2008/02/12/fort-drum/">we traveled to Fort Drum</a> in New York State and saw, first-hand, the devastation that is happening right now. Devastation that gets worse with every tour, every deployment. We are releasing these reports, and we have a simple message: enough is enough. The greatest threat to our military is the continued deployment of our troops under unfair conditions; it’s as simple as that. As Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, "The well is deep, but it is not infinite...People are tired." 
The withdrawals must continue, our troops must come home, and we must be ready to help them. We have to continue to assess how much help the 1.6 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan need and what assistance they will need in the future. We know the need will be great; it is our duty to be ready to answer the call of those who answered the call for us.

Summit county Sheriff and Akron PD working together

CitizenUprising — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:02:06 -0700

Akron police is now going to be under control of Sheriff Drew Alexander from the Summit County Sheriff's Department. I have never heard of anything like this before. The police and sheriff should be seperate. Akron should be in control of their own department. We voted the sheriff into office to be in control of Summit County, not Akron. Additionally, the Sheriff's budget is considerably larger than Akron's budget, who's going to flip the bill? The tax payers. We will. Also, who will be liable now in the event something goes wrong? I would imagine Summit County Sheriff's Department would be liable, the buck usually stops with who is in charge, and then gets passed to the tax payers. The only benefit that I could see is if they were beefing up Sheriff patrols in Akron. I doubt that will be the case. Logistically, I would imagine they communicate already on certain tasks, so I doubt that would be improved.

Akron police is stretched thin and underfunded. What they need to do is to stop spending money on pointless things, like the "Cop in a box" program. A camera that takes pictures of liscene plates of speeders does not provide any beneift in the event of a robbery. The City of Akron leases these "Cop in a box" systems from a company called Nestor. Their contract is not widly available. However, we can speculate that is something like the City of Los Angeles. LA's lease is $96,000 per camera per year. Akron has 9 of them, thats $864,000 per year. The company Nestor also charges a per ticket cost. LA's contract is $3/ticket printed. Now, most police departments don't cite you if you are going over the speed limit by 5 MPH or less. They don't give tickets for those because of odometer issues, tire pressure, etc. So, the City of Akron throws all of those tickets away. It is estimated that each camera will generate about $93,000/year in tickets for the city. So the cost to the city for these stupid cameras is astronomical.

The cost alone is ridiculus. What about the fact of whose responsible for paying these tickets? What if someone else is driving your car? Right now, it has been upheld in Akron that the vehicle owner is responsible.

Now they are dumping their mismanagement onto all of Summit county's taxpayers. RIDICULUS!

As published on CitizenUprising.com

Why will Senator Voinovich not support the Post 9/11 GI Bill?

khurd77 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:51:19 -0700

I am a resident of Ohio that has been in the military for almost ten years. I am committed to the military, but when I do get out someday it would be nice to be able to get a good education and contribute to my community back home in Ohio. That is what I really want to do... help my family and community, and I believe having a education is key to this. My question for all of you is why do you think Senator Voinovich has yet to support the Post 9/11 GI Bill? The only argument that I have heard is that it will hurt retention. This is a totally offensive and empty argument to me however. For someone to suggest that my commitment to my country hinges on some educational benefit is disgusting. Also, I think those of us that have given our lives to the military should be able to get a good, solid education. The current GI Bill was fine for peace time, but considering all the things we have been through in the last 7 years or so, I think it is time to update the GI Bill. Without this new GI Bill it will be unrealistic for me to go to college full time after I get out. Another valid reason for supporting this bill is because it is widely believed that it will be a major long-term stimulus for our nation's economy.... every dollar spent on WWII vet's education made 7 dollars for our countries economy. Thats a pretty good return. So what do you think is the reason why the Senator and others are NOT supporting this bill? I ask that everyone check out the bill in detail and urge their senators and representatives to support it. Thanks.

Bush's Simplistic Vision

frandy — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:20:35 -0700

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 28, 2008

The new wave of violence sweeping Iraq is not just a powerful rejoinder to President Bush's insistence that the U.S. troop surge has been a success -- it's also a reminder of how the problems facing that troubled country are much more complex than he will acknowledge.

In the vision Bush puts forward, there are just two sides in Iraq: The good guys and the bad guys; our team and an enemy who, as he put it in his speech yesterday, "will try to fill the TV screens with violence." To Bush, the people of Iraq need our help to save them from terrorists who intend to overthrow Iraq's brave and unified government on their way to attacking America.

That the current battle in Basra is essentially between rival Shiite militias fighting for political power doesn't alter his narrative.

Bush yesterday said the Basra offensive shows Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner" and demonstrates "the progress the Iraqi security forces have made during the surge." The ultimate result, he said, would be that "terrorists and extremists in Iraq will know they have no place in a free and democratic society."

But, increasingly, it looks like the result of the bloodletting in Basra may be the U.S. more actively taking up arms in the messy, multi-sided civil war that the surge, rather than resolving, has apparently only postponed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/03/28/BL2008032801916.html