Taft's leftward steps

Governor Taft keeps plodding on ever leftward.

His opposition to the new proposed improvements for the conceal-and-carry laws only makes things more difficult for Ohioans. Contra Taft, Ohioans should not have their names on lists accessible by newspaper or any other folk. "Conceal" means hidden; not partially out of view, while visible enough should someone want to see a name. We agree with the aphorism of state Representative Tom Brinkman (R - Cinn) which the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer records on page B3 of its Sept 14, 2005 edition, "They're concealed weapons and we want to keep them that way." America saw in New Orleans that when guns are outlawed only the outlaws have guns. These modifications to the CCW will increase the safety of Ohioans, since 45,000 CCW permits have been registered and 0, that is zero, accidents have happened.

Coupled with Taft's desire to make the state car fleet become all hybrids, Taft has joined the so-called enviromentalist movement.

Will Hershey at the Dayton Daily News shows in the Sept. 25 edition that Taft also supports Issue 1 (free reg. req.) on Nov. 2005 ballot. This new law follows the model of Keynesian economics by giving the state gov't almost $2 billion in bonds in order to fund the following: the Third Frontier measures, public-works projects along the lines of FDR's TVA; and some new business property development. Taft should trust the individual entreprenurialship and initiative of each Ohioan.

Too many times Taft has been the State's most successful Democratic governor. Now you see why Blackwell is the best alternative to Taft. Blackwell will restore some fiscal sanity to the State.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

The Pinocchio Awards - 5

The fifth Pinocchio Award belongs to Senator George Voinovich (R - OH) for his opposition to John Bolton -President Bush's nominee to the UN.

(Huh?!?)

The esteemed Senator deserves this award since his yeoman-like work provided ALL (Apathy, Laziness and Lethargy) the keys to reaching success in delaying Bolton. Voinovich failed to make himself aware of Bolton's nomination and the false charges made by the Democrats. He refused to schedule an air-the-grievances-meeting with Bolton. He willingly shed croccidile tears in the Senate's well.

Here's to you Senator. All the best and please use your award wisely.

The four previous award winners are
(4) US Rep Ted Strickland (D - 6th),
(3) Rep Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D - Clev),
(2) state Senator Tom Roberts (D - Trotwood), and
(1) James P. Trakas (SOS candidate).

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Interesting tidbits

Robert Novak has a delicious article here about the reaction of Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and DiFi (D-CA) to the answers that John Roberts gave to the Senators. The Senators sound like spoiled brats.

Following the precendents set by McCain and Hagel, Senator Voinovich has exploded in anger over the fact that Bush wants to make his tax-cuts permanent in the fact of mounting costs from the War on Terrorism and Katrina. The Dayton Daily News (free sub. req) recorded his September 20, 2005 apoplexy thus, "We need to get real." Sorry Senator but Chairman Specter is more liberal (to which the press gives more play) and McCain sells more copies. However, if anger does not move people, then perhaps tears are a better alternative.

*Update* If weeping fails, perhaps cofusion, stalling, or
apathy are better alternatives.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Flash: Blackwell is astute

The Columbus Dispatch (paid sub. req) uses its Sept 16, 2005 editorial page (A10) to speak out against Blackwell's new proposal to spend $.65 out of every public education dollar on teacher's salaries and classroom needs. They also unwittingly show that Blackwell knows the mind of the Ohio voter, advocates issues with which a majority of Ohioans agree, and does not have Walter Mondale's tin ear for politics.

They opine
Blackwell rarely passes up a chance to hitch his wagon to a catchy-sounding, but often unsound, proposal. Now he wants Ohio lawmakers to adopt a requirement that public schools spend 65 cents of every budget dollar on what he defines as classroom instruction. Period. The unique needs of a given school district wouldn't matter.
Blackwell has proved shrewd at using populist ballot initiatives to bring out the vote for the conservative candidates he favors. Last year's State Issue 1, the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Ohio, is widely credited with boosting conservative turnout and helping President Bush win Ohio in the presidential race.
More recently, Blackwell has backed a constitutional amendment to put similarly arbitrary caps on state spending, but he agreed to wait until November 2006 to put the issue on the ballot, the better to attract like-minded voters to the polls for statewide offices.

When the State's Public Radio notes that the jobless rate ticked up to 5.9%, voters recognize that its time to end the Republocrat politics-as-usual of high taxes, high spending, and low results. Blackwell is a conservative candidate who is using the TEL and $.65 ammendment to bring back some fiscal sanity to the state. Finally, agreeing again with 69% of the voters on what is marriage only shows that Blackwell understands the difference between right and wrong.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Gov's race

Joe Hallett editorializes about the state of the '06 governor's race on page E5 in the Sept 18, 2005 edition of the Cleveland Dispatch (paid sub. req.)

He concludes that the GOP nomination is "Blackwell's to lose" since Blackwell is 15 points ahead of Montgomery and Petro. For the Democratic side, Lisbon leads Coleman by 7 points.

Hallett also opines that

Once considered a long shot, Blackwell raised his profile last year by constantly being in the news during the presidential race and appearing in voter-education TV ads paid for with federal funds. Blackwell has endeared himself with the conservative GOP base, particularly the religious right, by campaigning in churches and hitching his candidacy to the anti-abortion movement and last year's successful Ohio campaign to ban same-sex marriage.

There are definite opinions in this issue. As far as Blackwell 'constantly being in the news' during the '04 campaign, Blackwell had no other choice since the Democrats threw lawsuit after lawsuit at him, Kerry drug the campaign out for another day or so, and Nader continually sued him. Blackwell also appeared in those ads since Ohio Law dictates that the SOS be in charge of running elections. Hallet has a point about the drawbacks of campaigning in churches. That makes me nervous.

Blackwell also has not hitched himself to the anti-abortion movement. Hallett himself later points out that it is Petro who has flip-flopped. Blackwell was also the only Ohio politician of note to agree with some 70% of Ohio's voters. Every other Ohio politician did a duck and run. Blackwell is the candidate with principles. Now that he is governor, he is making them more public than when he was SOS.

Read the article. Too many insinuations about Blackwell in what could have been a generally fair article.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Arab World developments

1. Diane West in her Townhall Column points out that the Bush Administration plans on doling out some $600 million dollars to the Abbas-led PA movement. This is in addition to the $275 million dollars sent last year. This is a good investment since all these dollars have given rise to lawless stampedes, burning synagogues, and a Rice-State Department snub of Israel's Hurricane Katrina donations. Read the whole article.

2. Afghanistan has held a second round of elections. This step is always a key step in becoming a true liberal democracy. The key phrase from the Reuters election summary is

Although there were no figures available yet, Joint Afghan-Un Electoral Management Body (JEMB) officials said that there had been a high turnout of female voters, citing local officials filing reports of long queues of women in many parts of the conservative [i.e., really Islamic] south, particularly in the cities of Jalabad and Kandahar.

There were also more polling places open this year than compared to the Oct, 2004 elections. The number of dead (including Al-Quaeda is less than 2-dozen.

3. Clifford D. May, a National Review essayist, has a Scripps-Howard news article here about Jalal Talabani, Iraq's PM. May describes the PM thus,

Talabani is effusive in his gratitude for the sacrifices Americans have made in Iraq. The young American men and women on the front lines in places like Fallujah and Tall Afar, he says, are “fighting fascism with the same dignity and courage as the Great Generation of Americans who fought in World War II.”

What an inspiring way to describe our soldiers. Fight on, fight on.


Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Free Exercise Questions (cont.)

The fictional situation written about below is in reality not a fiction in many African-American Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. In the Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Churches, most of the politicization addresses only policy stances or upcoming laws. There is also a general support for Republican candidates.

The RCC while not generally endorsing national or state candidates does endorse specific policy positions as well as directing its members how to vote. Some of these members are judges (or soon-to-be Chief Justices on SCOTUS), House members, or Senators. Legislators and SCOTUS' have, as a general rule, refused to end the the 501.c.3 status of churches who take sides on a policy debate.

Black Baptist Churches take specific stances on endorsing candidates often times in spite of the fact that Democratic members have differing policy stances than the endorsing churches; eg. abortion. Democrats almost universally support abortion, while a super-majority of black churches and their members oppose it, Jesse Jackson being a counter-example. These Baptist churches do not have their non-profit status revoked because the charge of racism can be thrown at the indicters as well as the fact that some politics is not illegal. Furthermore, there is also a distinction made between the pastor as a leader and the pastor as a citizen.

There is and has always been a close church-state relationship. Churches must remember that their members are universal and that doctrines are eternal. They ought to tread lightly in dictating actions in the temporal sphere, actions which ought the more properly to belong unto the area of Christian Liberty.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Free Exercise questions

Here is a fictional situation: A parishoner of a local Christian Church votes for the Democratic candidate for governor. The problem is that the minister and a majority of the church council (elders + deacons) publicly endorsed the local Republican candidate. The parishoner has just disobeyed the decision of the church's ruling body. Under most normal church guidelines the parishoner has sinned because of his action. When confronted with his error, he refuses to repent. Following the procedure of church gov't he is eventually excommunicated. Who is right in this circumstance?

Joe Hallet in the Aug 30, 2005 Cleveland Dispatch (paid sub. req.) explains that the groundwork for such a possibility is ever so slowly being laid in the Rev. Rod Parsely's World Harvest Church and the Rev. Russell Johnson's Fairfield Christian Church. Both pastors, while urging their members to register 400,000 new voters who support the moral side of conservativism re: homosexuality, abortion, cloning, embryonic research, pornography, etc..., have publicly refrained from endorsing Blackwell.

Hallet also writes

" Meeting for the fourth time in a year under the banner of Reformation Ohio, a four-year initiative to infuse state politics with conservative values and morality, 1,320 pastors were handed thousands of mail-in petitions to distribute to their congregations urging U.S. senators to quickly confirm John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court."

While Robert's may be a good church-going guy, who is being unfairly slimed by those on the Left, National Review has described him as being center-left on abortion. This would seem to mean that those above-mentioned 1300+ pastors just might possibly support abortion. Plus Roberts has not ruled on abortion. If he makes a pro-abortion ruling, this would also imply that the churches support abortion.

The problem with this church-originated activity is that if the IRS decides to get involved about, many churches could lose their 501.c.3 status. While I support the policy positions of these church-members, I think that better methods could have been chosen.

Politics is temporal while the preaching and the gospel are about things eternal. Charles Colson has written a column Sept 16, 2004 column about ministers who need to refrain from endorsing Democratic or Republican political candidates. Cal Thomas has written a 1987 book about his mistakes in the Jerry Falwell-led Moral majority . This requires care.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Taft's Resume

The more one sees and hears of Ohio's Governor, Bob Taft, the more a man ought to be reminded of Richard Nixon without the swear words. High gov't spending, criminal charges, tax-increases, and a stagnant economy run a parallel to Nixon.

National Review Magazine's "The Week" Feature runs this editorial analysis of Taft in its Sept. 12, 2005 issue

"Ohio's Bob Taft was never our favorite governor. Although a Republican, he oversaw steep spending increases and received one of only four failing grades in the Cato Institute's latest fiscal-policy report card. Governor "Taft and Spend" pushed through tax hikes including a "temporary" 20% sales-tax increase that he sought to make permanent even after the state's deficit closed. With this record Taft's greatest asset was his stringent, self-proclaimed code of ethics, but now that's gone too. On August 18, Taft became the first Ohio governor ever convicted of criminal charges, for failing to report $6,000 worth of golf outings and other gifts. While this may seem a trivial offense, Taft has pressured other state officials to resign for similar lapses. And the conviction could not come at a worse time, as the Ohio GOP is emeshed in growing scandal over management of a state fund. Taft said he accepts "total responsibility" for his mistake. If so, he should resign, at least creating a possibility that a conservative Republican can run for statewide office without Taft's legacy hanging from his neck."

Boy-Scout Bob is now criminal. This legacy almost brought down the most recent GOP House-candidate in Bob Portman's special election. It's past time to go Mr. Nixon.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

GOP Dumps Conservatives

Why its depressing to be a conservative right now.

1. Bush is attempting to outspend Clinton, LBJ, and FDR in Katrina's aftermath.
2. Bush is trying to legalize illegal immigration.
3. Bush has already spent drunkenly in the 5 years that hea has been in office.
4. The Rep. leadership in both House and Senate spends like a Parliament of whores
5. Majority Leader Frist flip-flopped on supporting embryonic stem-cell research.
6. Ohio's Governor Bob Taft spends like Bush, is a criminal, and almost caused the GOP to lose Bob Portman's Ohio seat.

There are reasons why to be happy. We shall enumerate those later.

E-mail me with suggestions to any list.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.

Savings rate problems

Government statistics do not tell the whole truth. Recently you will have heard in the national media and your local media that the country’s savings rate is at 1.1% and declining. In some cases the rate may already be negative, by which you are to understand that people are spending way more than they are earning. This is bad because if there is an economic downturn or a sudden rise in price of some item of necessity such as gasoline prices, Americans will not be able to handle any sort of micro-recession. The effect will snowball and create huge problems for our economy etc…

The facts missing in the story are that the government-surveyed savings rate does not include private pension plans such as 401K, Roth/IRAs, Keoghs, and so on. The savings rate also fails to include your investment in your own home. When these factors are worked into the savings-rate algorithim, which apparently only covers savings accounts, checking accounts, money-market accounts, piggy banks, and glass jars buried in back yards, the savings rate jumps up to 52% of American having some sort of private pension account. This account does not include the Social Security amount, so the number is even highter. This means that the US economy is healthier than listed.
There is more here at Yahoo or here.

Please e-mail the Editor-in-Chief with any questions.