A United Voice from Central Ohio

I don’t think that anyone on the planet now believes that Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee for the Democratic Party. Everyone of course, but Hillary and Bill, who seem to be in a state of denial. You would think someone as experienced as Terry McAuliffe would properly advise the Clintons on their best course of action. Which, is to step aside and unite the party behind the eventual nominee, Barack Obama.

The Republicans know it, and they are scared to death of Obama. In an interview on CNN, Mitt Romney commented on who the Republicans, perceive to be the toughest of the two to face in November. Romney spent about ten seconds, declaring that Hillary would be the more difficult to defeat for McCain, given her “experience” and panache. Then Mitt proceeded to take up the rest of his three of four minutes of air-time on running Obama into the ground, listing all of his alleged political short comings. None of which seemed to me to be an issue, but then I am somewhat biased. One thing for sure, experienced and hardened DC insiders have made a mess of this country on both sides of the aisle. A fresh face with new ideas would be a welcome relief, staying the course with Hillary or McCain would be a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, if by some sort of miracle Hillary would be the nominee, I would have to support her. She would definitely be the lesser of two evils. McCain in the White House would bring this country to it’s knees, make no mistake about that. Cheney/Bush has got us on one knee as it is.

The other side of it is this belief, perpetrated by the media, that this contest between Obama and Clinton is hurting the Democratic Party. Don’t believe it. When the time comes the Democratic Party will unite behind the nominee and the White House will turn blue on January 20.

Don’t let the so-called experts persuade you to believe anything else.

You have to feel for Barack Obama. The guy is getting it from all sides. Hillary and McCain are just tag teaming him, and the sad part about it is, they have nothing on the guy. The shots they are taking aren’t even as high valued as “cheap shots”. This is desperation folks! What it tells me is that the Clintons and McCain are scared to death that Barack is going to win this thing come November. They are right.

What Hillary needs to do is drop out immediately. She hasn’t got the numbers to win. Her weak attacks on Obama are hurting the Democrats, to a point. Fortunately, we have the best candidate we could have asked for to go up against in John McCain. McCain is Bush all over again. But we need to unite together as one party and the sooner Hillary gets out of the race the sooner that will happen.

We need change in this country. We need the kind of change that Barack Obama represents. Experience has gotten us Dick Cheney and George Bush. Experience has gotten us the bureaucrats that Hillary and Bill Clinton were and are to this day. It’s time for a new direction, an intelligent direction fueled by decisive action, tempered with common sense approaches. Barack Obama is the ONLY candidate that represents that.

My friends and I spent three days in Washington DC attending the Take Back America Conference. This is probably the largest gathering of progressives in the country. Conference attendees come from all over North America and beyond. This year our group got to meet and talk to such Progressive luminaries as Norman Lear, Kathleen Turner , Arianna Huffington and many others. This was our second year at the conference and I plan to attend in 09′ as well. While there, we attended great sessions on everything from media’s roll in American Politics to Blogging. I personally attending great sessions on Health Care, Progressive Ideology, and we got to meet people who are truly making a difference in our country. I highly recommend this conference to anyone who is looking for a way to get involved, and need some help in getting there.

I attended a meeting with Doug Moreland recently. Doug is running for Licking County Commissioner. His opponent is your classic Republican. This is why he has to go! We have seen what Republicans have done to this great country of ours, and it’s not pretty. It’s time for change, it’s time to start electing intelligent, responsible men and women at ALL levels of government.

The current Licking County commission has shown it’s colors. Taxes without representation. With the exception of the lone Democrat on the commission, they levied a tax without any input to the process from the citizens of he county. The only county that has a higher sales tax then Licking County is Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County. Of the 88 counties in Ohio, 42 have a sales tax of 7.0. Licking County is one of those. Licking County doesn’t benefit from people coming in from other areas to shop here, due in large part to the sales tax. Consumers from Licking County are more likely to make large purchases in surrounding counties, simply to save what they can in out of pocket cash. One might feel the tax was necessary, if the County Commission was doing more to promote Licking County, but they are obviously not doing that.

So what are those tax dollars going for? That’s a good question, one that the two Republicans on the Commission don’t seem to have an answer for.

We need a new direction, and after meeting with Doug and his campaign staff I can tell you he represents the kind of direction we need in Licking County. Doug’s experience and education would be a welcome change to what our current elected commissioners have to offer. I urge everyone to consider and vote for intelligent change, and that change is Doug Moreland.

Not there. She did not vote to protect Americans’ privacy.

The importance of this vote, which had been hotly debated in the Senate for months, and Senator Clinton’s lack of attendance on this day speaks volumes about her concern for American liberties and freedom. FISA gives the telecom industry immunity for their warrantless surveillance program. Clinton’s lack of action on this bill is in clear contrast to her spoken views on the Bush administration. On this vote, Clinton bowed out. Her bowing out supported the Bush administration’s agenda. Just what party is she working with? Her past and current voting history may seem more in-line with what we want change from.

Barack Obama did show up and he did vote to stop the FISA changes that would provide immunity to the telecom industry, clearly scoring major points for American liberties.

An attempt to strip lawsuit immunity for telecom firms that helped the government tap phone calls fell well short in the Senate Tuesday, leaving liberal Democrats on the losing side of what they believe is a fundamental civil liberties debate.

Only 31 senators — all Democrats — voted to take away retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies facing lawsuits over wiretaps carried out under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Sixty-seven senators — a mix of Republicans and Democrats — voted against the amendment.

With the immunity provision intact, the Senate voted late Tuesday afternoon to pass the bill, 68-29, setting up a tough negotiation with the House, which opposed telecom lawsuit immunity. The Senate vote amounts to a major victory for the White House, which had threatened to veto the bill if it did not protect telecom companies that aided spy agencies with wiretapping.

The vote also provided an opportunity to showcase the key differences on national security between presidential candidates, as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) voted against immunity for telecoms, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), voted to keep immunity in the bill. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) did not show up for the vote. All three candidates were in the Washington area Tuesday morning for the region’s three primaries.

Every Democrat should be seriously concerned about Senator Clinton and her intentions.

Arlen Spector is not your average Republican. It is true he has been somewhat of a maverick. At times he is even a thorn in the side of the Cheney/Bush administration. Not always voting they way they want him to. But this past week, in a typical grandstanding Republican manner, he had to grab the spotlight. It was Super Bowl week and what better way to get attention than call in the Commissioner of the NFL, concerning the Patriots cheating ways. From where I stand, I can say in all honesty, that I hate cheating in ALL sports. I find it deplorable. The NFL caught the Patriots coaching staff cheating and took swift and decisive action. Apparently that wasn’t good enough for Spector. He wants an all out Senate investigation into why Goodell and the NFL decided to destroy the tapes the Patriots used in the football spygate incident.

As always, priorities seem to befuddled the Republicans. Hey, Arlen why not find out why Bush destroyed the tapes concerning the leaking of Valerie Plame’s CIA affiliation? Or, how about looking into the mysterious disappearance of thousand’s of E-Mail’s by the White House? E-Mails by everyone’s estimation could have paved the way to impeachment of Cheney/Bush gang. Arlen why don’t you call a Senate investigation into that? It would seem to me, at least in my humble opinion, that while less glamorous, it sure would be more pertinent to what you are BEING PAID TO DO.

This goes for all Congressmen and Senators! As legislators why not legislate! Why not investigate criminal activity concerning this illegal war! How about investigating insurance companies who are ripping off millions of Americans every day! Why not look into the CEO’s of major corporations who are bilking their employees pension plans, and then retiring with outrageous severance packages and no prosecution. What do you think, Arlen.. those investigations would be far more worthy of the Senate’s attention, wouldn’t they? You would think so.

Arlen Spector, the liberal Republican at the end of the day is still a Republican. Never forget that.

The past few days have been interesting, watching the clips from the South Carolina Democratic debate. As Democrats, what are we to make of this very public display of cat-fighting. On the surface it doesn’t bodes well for the Democratic Party, this sort of thing is exactly what turns people off toward politics.

You might think that John Edwards’ campaign would benefit from this outburst. Of course, this is how it appears on the surface. If one takes the time to look a little deeper, there is other possibilities.

For instance, Sen. Clinton showed she is willing to stand up to the male dominated Presidential race. You have to give her some credit in the clarity and eloquence in which she speaks, even when its in a heated moment, as this was. On the other side of things Sen. Obama, seemed to stutter in his responses. Bare in mind, it was Barack who through out the first verbal exchange. So he gets credit for being aggressive and taking on the Clinton Machine. John Edwards was right on target when he made his “squabbling” comments. The question still remains; who benefited from all of this? Let’s hope it wasn’t John McCain and the Republicans. The Democrats have all but declared McCain the Republican nominee. There’s a long way to go, and nothing has been settled, which is the only “for sure” there is. Stay tuned!

After the first two primaries are in the books, I don’t believe we have a front runner yet! Amazing! Now it’s on to South Carolina. Common sense says that John Edwards should win there, but will he? Recent history says yes, he won there in 2004. At this point he has to win there, it’s that simple. His distant third place finish in New Hampshire comes as no surprise. But the fact that Hilary won (as expected) and Obama didn’t (he was surprising many) keeps Edwards chances alive. I stand by, that Edwards is the most electable of the Democratic candidates. I have received some very disturbing e-mails about Obama. It angers me that racism is still alive in this country. There is a group of people in this country who still believe that Barack Obama is Muslim. He is not. It doesn’t seem to matter what the truth is about him, and I think it is eventually going to be a problem. Hopefully we can get past this.

By the same token, there are people who will not support Hilary Clinton, merely because she is a woman. This to, is very unfortunate. I believe that Clinton and Obama are far and away better than anything the Republicans have produced as a candidate. Huckabee, McCain, Romney and Rudy are all weak in many aspects of being Presidential. That being said, I believe there is a block of American voters who will simply, not vote for Obama & Clinton based on their respective minorities. The question remains if either Obama or Hilary become the Dem nominee, will their minority status deter voters, thus leaving us with a Republican in the White House in 2009.

Let’s hope that America has risen above petty prejudices, the stakes are high, and the Republicans are destroying the middle class. We cannot allow Republicans to continue on this path. That’s why we must reduce the risk of losing in 2008, and Edwards remains are best possibility.

Being humble is never easy and for the second year in a row I am having to swallow that humble pie. No excuses here. OSU was outplayed, out coached and soundly defeated by an obviously superior team. That’s all I have to say about a very forgettable night for Buckeye faithful.

A year later , after suffering one of the worse defeats in Ohio State Football history, we are back and facing another SEC team, LSU.

There is a lot of talk about Ohio State and their chances of beating the mighty Bayou Tigers in what amounts as a home game for them. Like the Buckeyes one year ago, LSU had better take Ohio State seriously or the same fate will befall them. Ohio State will come to play and I have enough faith in Jim Tressell and his ability to learn from the debacle in the desert in 06′, to make an impact in this game. LSU is beatable, they have two loses for a reason. On January 7th the Buckeyes will put another whippin’ on the LSU Kitties, and this time it will come in regulation. Go Buckeyes, LSU beware, we’re comin’ with a score to settle.