FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN SPEAKS TO US FROM THE GRAVE:

“Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.”

- President Ronald Wilson Reagan 1987

It is not a surprise that Ronald Reagan held a similar position as today’s Democrats on the debt ceiling issue. After all, this is a president that raised taxes 11 times during his time in the White House. Trickle down economics depended on deficit spending in order to both be able to cut taxes and increase spending.  If Ronald Reagan was alive today, he would be hated by the tea party. Michele Bachmann and her tea party caucus love to invoke Reagan, but they would have despised him for his willingness to raise the debt ceiling.  Reagan’s position on raising the debt ceiling wasn’t a one-time stance. In November of 1983, President Reagan wrote to Republican Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker

One again the right wing myth of Ronald Reagan does not match up with his actual record. Besides raising taxes, Reagan tripled the deficit and granted amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants and their families.  Ronald Reagan’s position on the debt ceiling illustrates how far right the Republican Party has drifted. In his day, Reagan was considered a far right conservative. Today, Ronald Reagan would be viewed as a moderate Republican or a very conservative Democrat. The vast majority of the American people understand that revenue must be raised. Seventy four percent of Republicans agree that revenue must be raised along with the debt ceiling.  Were he alive today, President Reagan would agree with the Democrats and Barack Obama on taxes and the debt ceiling.  Let that sink in, and realize how out of touch the tea party Republicans in the House must be if they really believe that they are speaking for the American people.

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law “respecting an establishment of religion,” impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Originally, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress. However, starting with Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court has held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.

What do you do.  Bills are piling up and you can’t find a job anywhere.  No one will give you that opening that you need.  It soon becomes cyclical, as you get behind on your bills your credit takes a hit.  Every time you apply for a job they want to look at your credit report.  As if, that is some kind of clue as to the type of employee you will be. It is not.  The hole gets deeper the possibilities seem fewer and the job search is futile.  It can be such a debilitating thing to go through.  Keeping going is as hard as finding the actual job.  If you’re fortunate enough to be drawing a paltry unemployment check, the end of that looms over you like a hammer.  What are the solutions to this massive problem of unemployment.

The answer to that question is fleeting at best.  That’s why the underemployed need to band together.  The answer to the problem is never going to come easy, but if we come together and support one another then we may find the answers together.  The answers are out there.  Part of the answer is putting pressure on our elected politicians to do a better job in creating an environment that will grow jobs in our communities.  Every community has a ready and able workforce that is more than willing to enable a company to succeed.  That being said we’re not going to do it for slave wages and or conditions.  The temp services haven’t the answer, either.  For the most part they are peddlers of cheap labor, most jobs have no future, no benefits, and no guarantees.

The Underemployed Underground can create a network of information and support for the thousands of employed in Licking County and Ohio.  We can as a group draw attention to the inaction that is our political leadership.  Politicians constantly talk about all of the jobs they are going to create, but they seldom deliver.  It is the carrot they can constantly dangle, year after election year, in front of you; the voter.  Delivering on that promise isn’t even on their radar.  Our elected representatives to Columbus, Jay Hottinger and Tim Schaffer are the worst of the worst.  Our County Commissioners are more interested in lining their own pockets than they are in seeing meaningful jobs come to Licking County.  Even Rick Platt of the Licking County Port Authority moves at a snail’s pace when it comes to creating a serious job environment in Licking County, and he gets paid a nice living for moving that slow.

Help me, help us all.  Let’s begin networking together and see what happens.  Contact me, share your contact information, I promise it will be guarded and used only for the means of communicating job information to our network.  In return take my contact information and share your experiences and ideas.  I truly believe that if we network together we can make Licking County a jobs haven for the future.

goldsmith71@windstream.net

It’s really not hard to figure out.  Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin the Tea Party lunatic fringe have been led down a road of misinformation perpetrated primarily by Roger Ailes of Fox News and aided and abedded by the fascist conservative media.  At the forefront of that attack is Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.  Between them all they have been able to convince the gullible tea party faithful that this bill has some sort of secret agenda to drive up spending in Washington.  Now mind you this comes from the right side of the aisle and the weak Democrats better known as “blue” dogs who have crawled into bed with Wall Street.  In the end this is what the attack is all about; making sure that the huge insurance conglomerates continue to make lewd profits, selling the working middle class a bill of goods that will only make corporate America wealthier and the rest of us much poorer. The Healthcare Reform Act is not perfect, but it is a start to insuring the millions of Americans who face catastrophic medical costs because a sector of our country is selfish and blind to the facts.  Thus they have bought into the lies of Fox News, Limbaugh, Beck and the rest of the conservative media whose agenda is to make the wealthy wealthier and erode the middle class faster.

But you the voter can stop this foolishness. First you have to open your eyes to the truth.  Second, you have to turn off Fox News, AKA Fox Lies. Third we have to notify the Democratic Party that we are not going to tolerate their incompetence any longer. Those Democrats who insist on going down the middle of the road must be fired from whatever role they may occupy in the Dem Party.  Be it the chair of the National Party, the State Party or your local party. Be it your elected officials or your local precinct captains.  The Democrats have got to refocus their efforts on lifting up the working men and women of this country, because the reality is that they (the middle class) is the largest voting block in this country.  Those who are suffering through unemployment, homelessness, devestating medical problems are depending on the Democrats to show the courage that it’s going to take to bring this country back to being the government of the people, by the people, for the people.  Instead we are headed for a country run by a corrupt greedy corporate enterprise who’s only concern is the bottom line. John Kasich is prime example of man with no conscience. We cannot afford to keep placing these morally deficient individuals in positions of responsibility who then set their sites on destroying the middle class. The choice is yours America, buy into the lies of the fanatical right, or demand that the Democrats find the courage to stand up to those who will bring this country to its knees in the name of the almighty dollar.

The recent Federal budget negotiations represent exactly what is wrong in America.  It’s not that it seems to come to this eleventh hour drama all the time.  It’s not partisan bickering that is the problem.  The problem is simply in how the two parties view what should be cut and what should not be cut.  This ultimately leads to a bigger problem, the Democrats are spineless and the Republicans are bullies.

The Republicans believe in spending, spending and more spending.  Of course they are masters of deception.  They have the American people, by and large, bamboozled into thinking they are fiscal geniuses.  A bigger lie could not be told.  No Republican has ever even attempted to reduce the size of government or make the kind of cuts in spending that are truly needed.  But the bigger issue is that Republican leaders not only in Congress, but the State legislators as well, refuse to make the large corporations pay their fair share.  The GOP lip flappers, want us to believe that if corporations are allowed to run un-tethered that some how that will translate to economic utopia for the working class.  This has been tried many times, by many conservative/Republican leaders and has never once accomplished that goal.  That doesn’t stop them from continually trying to sell that scam.  Of course that is understandable because the voting majority seem to be gullable enough to believe it will someday happen.

Then there are the Democrats.  The party that is supposed to be standing with working families.  I suppose they are, just not right next to them.  To be accurate the Dems are standing on another planet given the way they have bumbled and stumbled through the political landscape here on Earth.  Unfortunately poor leadership has plagued those who would like to see the Democrats stand right next to working men and women.  What we have as leadership in the Democrat party is Republican want-to-bees.  This is a new kind of bee, all buzz, no sting.  The Democratic leadership today has lost touch with the largest single voting demographic in America.  The working poor/middle class.  Working people need political representation that will serve them and not the corporate world.  Democrats have to stop trying to act like Republicans and start taking on the issues that will benefit the struggling middle class.  Of course I would argue that there isn’t much of a middle class any longer.  It has become the working poor almost exclusively.  The leadership of the Democrat Party has forgotten working people, the unemployed and the poor.  Instead Democrats stand back and allow people like State Senator Tim Schaffer legislate away the rights of the middle class.  Then there is Jay Hottinger who hasn’t got the back bone to stand up to this Governor, even though in his heart he knows it’s the wrong thing to do.  We’re talking about Senate Bill 5, here Jay.

Only we the voters can change this ant-working class environment in Columbus and Washington.  But you have to stop listening to the diddo-heads, stop watching Fox News, most importantly you have to stop listening to the hypocrites on talk radio.  None of them believe what they say, it just makes for a sweet pay check.

Wake up you narrow minded voters and begin to realize that the Republicans are on a mission to hand over the reigns of government to the corporate CEO’s and conservative media moguls.  Only you can stop that from happening. Only you can make a difference.  But you are going to have to get off the couch and turn the TV off and turn your brain on.  Finally, that T-Party bunch, they’re just the Republican Party with a scary face.  I’m not scared.

Garry Goldsmith

There was a time, not that long ago, when being unemployed was not a death sentence.  Today being unemployed is a mountain of challenges, unfortunately for many it feels like a death sentence.  It’s easy for those who have jobs to be judgmental of those who don’t.  But the task to find employment is much more daunting then it has ever been.  If we, as a society, are to improve our economic situation then we need a different approach to the jobs that are available.  It will be up to our legislators to fix this problem.  Make no mistake about it there are jobs readily available, however many are intentionally excluded through no fault of there own.

Employers have stacked the deck against perspective employees. An unemployed individual may be well qualified for a position and will apply for  a job, but will never here back from that employer.  Behind the scenes many things could have happened that, in the minds of the employer, disqualified the candidate.  The victim of this covert activity fell prey to a simple internet search.  For example, something innocently placed on any of the social network sites has come back to haunt that individual.  No recourse for the job seeker is available.  There is no due process and employer will not give the prospective job seeker a chance to explain.  The other menace lurking in the shadow is your credit.  Someone thinking logically might say that hiring someone with some dings on their credit report would make them a better candidate for the job.  Think about it.  They only way you can repair your credit is to become gainfully employed.  In this world, a bad credit report is one more reason you as candidate may never know why you weren’t interviewed for a position that you were well qualified for.  If you haven’t worked for the past six months to a year, it is highly likely that your credit has taken a hit.  It doesn’t make you a bad employee and you are certainly not a bad person.

Our economic times have contributed to this filtering system for employers.  Companies now have the luxury to pick and choose who they want as employees.  Those who will readily defend their right to hire who they want, have not been victimized by this unfair and unjust screening process.  All of these obstacles for the unemployed will increase the unemployed roles and subsequently put more of a burden on government assistance programs.. Programs, Governor Kasich and the Republicans have vowed to cut.  Those who are denied access to jobs, assistance will inevitably turn to crime.  When you are desperate and all streams of help have been shut-off, people will do what they have to survive.  The right wing conservative’s answer to the problem is to arm everyone with guns.  Hammer those who need more government assistance, by insisting they go through drug screening.  Our Republican dim-wits, who are now in charge, want to make the problems worse.  Finding a solution to this growing problem isn’t even on their radar.  John Kasich, Tim Schaffer and Jay Hottinger are so out of touch with what is going on right under their proverbial noses, that hearing the screams of those who are being economically squeezed, isn’t possible over the noise of getting re-elected.  Voters to rarely see the big picture.  A lot of unnecessary legislation coming from the right may have the appearance of a good idea.  However, if voters take the time to peel back the word play, they quickly see the failure of those in office.

In this present political atmosphere, I’m afraid, we will need more bridges for people to live under.

Vince Kincaid