It Takes a Hillary

It will be refreshing for your soul just to confess that you did not read it, because the undersigned freely and happily confesses so. Attorney General Jim Petro however, has read it, and then proceeded to reincarnate her bestseller "It Takes a Village" into a new proposal for a governor's level Dept of Education. While HRC advocated having a nanny-state raise one's children, now Petro has advocated the next step toward having the nanny-state dictate education curricula.

As reported in Clevland's Plain Dealer, Page B2 (Metro) by Sandy Theis, Columbus Metro Chief, this Communictic-type of department (and that is not too strong a word) would greatly centralize education control in the hands of the governor. It would abolish the independent authority of the following policy-setting departments:
1) State Board of Education - (K - 12);
2) Ohio Board of Regents - (Coordinating body for Higher Ed); and,
3) The Board of Trustees for each of the 13 state-financed universities

This would make education become government-controleed propaganda, and that is not overstating the case. But it gets worse. Rather than have individual districts and universities expand as needed while competing for dollars and funds based on student-achievement, Petro wants the following to occur:

This new cabinet agency would work to streamline Ohio schools and create what he called “centers of excellence” at the four-year colleges.
So instead of having Ohio’s limited resources spread among 13 state-supported colleges and universities, they would be used to strengthen what each does best."

To take away your breath, Republican lawmakers are agreeing since it would reduce gov't payrolls by 10% and streamline cabinet-level agencies from 23 down to 9.

For other Petro moves to reduce gov't payrolls see here.

Hillary, in short looks like a moderate to right saint compared to Petro. Ohio help us.

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Budgets & Soche Security

Ohio's budget woes could soon receive a new setback as Russian Oil Company, Yukos, has declared bankruptcy. The Ohio Public Pension fund has lost $2.7 milllion dollars and U.S. investor losses are in the billions of dollars. The article in the Feb 22 Columbus Dispatch from Mark Niquette on page B12 states

Ohio public-pension systems have lost money in the embattled Russian oil company Yukos, an officer in the financial holding company now running the energy firm testified at a U.S. Senate hearing last week.
Tim Osborne, a board member for Group Menatep, did not provide details during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could not be reached afterward.
But Osborne told senators that there are "U.S. minority shareholders in Yukos, including state pension funds such as that of Ohio." Losses to U.S. shareholders are "estimated in the billions of dollars," he said.
The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio has lost about $2.7 million in Yukos stock through time but sold all of its holdings in the company as of December 2004, spokeswoman Laura Ecklar said.
The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System has been invested in Yukos indirectly through some index funds its external managers handle, spokesman Rich Baker said.
He said a preliminary review shows that Yukos holdings once were part of eight such portfolios but now are only in one. Financial performance of those holdings wasn't immediately available, he said.

This loss of money helps Blackwell because it shines some light on the need for spending restraint in Ohio, just in case the pension fund needs some bailout money.
But this bankruptcy could also harm Blackwell and conservatives because it shines a negative light on Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. This demonstrates the risks of the Stock Market.
The reply is that only in America can a pension fund have 2.7 million to invest and only because of capitalism can a retirement account lose 2.7 million and still be financially solvable.

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The Pinocchio Awards - 1

The first Pinocchio Award (here and here) for managing to utter disingenuous truths while keeping a straight face goes to... drumroll please...

James P Trakas,

who insisted he wasn't criticizing SoS Blackwell, and then proceded to advocate exactly the opposite of Blackwell's positions:
1) Counties should choose their own voting machines
2) He preferred eloctronic voting machines.
3) He blames Blackwell for the bad attitude of the '04 election

"I think electronic voting is more important than having a paper trail.
"Ohio’s SoS should be our chief patriot, the guardian of our democratic principles, and a vanguard of integrity and character.

“I will ensure Ohio maintains an election system that is above reproach in its fairness openness and integrity. Every vote will count in Ohio. I will never let partisanship interfere with the sacred responsibilities with which I will be charged.

"When I'm secretary of state I will focus on the mechanics of elections rather than the politics of elections. I don't blame that on Secretary Ken Blackwell, but the environment for the last election really hurt that, and I want to restore it."

Most of the platitudes are easy to defeat and therefore I will focus only on implication that Blackwell does not favor electronic voting. The evidence is House Bill 262 under the 125th Assembly, which mandated the marriage of paper trails and e-voting machines. It was Taft and his legislature cronies, not Blackwell, that thought paper was more important than e-voting.

Questions for Jim to answer:
A) Where were you for the last four years from 2001 to 2005 in the fight to help modernize Ohio's voting machines?
B) How will you pay for the new machines since the HAVA 2002 funds, all $127,000,000.00+ of it, is being used on purchasing optical scannners: will you cut spending, raise taxes, or make the counties foot the bill for upgrading to e-voting machines leaving a voter-verified paper trail?
C) Isn't some $127,000,000.00 tax payer dollars enough money for you or do you need more tax-payer dollars?

Savor the irony.
Jim Trakas' Homepage (very slow)

--update -- Ohio State Public Radio (see 1st paragraph for link) reports that not only does Trakas support State Attorney General Petro but also he chose this job after being rejected for the state's treasurer job in favor of Lt. Gov Jeanette Bradly. He is another Taft clone.

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Ohio's Republican-Left Hydra

In spite of the many-headed Hydra that is the Ohio Republican-left establishment, one Herculean warrior shines through.

From Governor Taft, unto Chairman Bennett, former Speaker Householder, former Senate Leader Doug White, Senate Pro Tem Jacobson, Minority Whip Fedor, and on down to the least powerful legislator, this RINO-left establishment soothes the voter with talks of tax-cuts, family values, individual rights, and limited government. Their actions, however, are just the opposite.

This establishment has one fatal flaw, just as did the Hydra: light, or fire, keeps them from returning, which is to say, the one fatal weakness of the RINO-lefts is, the people do not support them. As Ellen Belcher opines in her Feb 13, 2005, Dayton Daily News Column, page B6,

this is what it has come to: Ken Blackwell hasn't been elected governor, hasn't even been chosen by Republicans to run as their gubernatorial candidate, and already he's setting the tone and making policy. It's so inarguable, so transparent.

Does anybody, even for a second, think the cautious, plodding, moderate Bob Taft would suggest tying the hands of all future governors and legislatures if Ken Blackwell weren't threatening to go over Taft's head and directly to voters with his spending limit amendment?

Taft is not the only one who is running scared of him. Moderate Republican legislators are, too.

The interested reader asks why are Ohio legislators running scared? The answer is Blackwell's constitutional amendment to limit spending appeals unto the public and the seats of the tax-supporters are in jeopardy. Belcher reports that at a recent luncheon with Taft, the governor admitted that "the [spending] growth rate has to be slowed and sometime soon he'd put out his own plan to do just that, also via the constitution."

After asking the question why Taft is imitating Blackwell (perhaps to save his own neck), she answers affirmatively to the truism that Taft does care about the votes of the citizens. The truth of the Taft's plan, when he & the RINO-left establishment have made a 20% increase in the state-sales tax plan from 5% up to 6%, is that moderates

have never been excited about making the temporary 1-cent sales tax hike permanent, but they were frightened to death that if they did, Blackwell would successfully spearhead a repeal.

Blackwell is right that Ohio can't tax itself out of its economic problems, but what he's not acknowledging is that spending too little is also a good way to run a place in to the ground. And he has no intention of granting that fact.

She concludes that unless Taft argues for increases in government spending, i.e., Keynesian economics, he is lying about decreasing spending, restraining spending increases, and cutting taxes, thereby breaking his boy-scout values.

They talk tax-cuts, yet raise taxes. They talk family values, but do not support FMA. They talk individual rights but set out to "take down" (here, here, and here) Blackwell politically for criticizing a tax-increase. They preach limited government but legislate and editorialize for a nanny-state. In short, Taft, Bennet, Jacobson, Fedor (D), White, and Householder are Republican-left Hydras.

Only the truth, that is the light of conservatism will set we the people free. White and Householder are gone now and they criticized Blackwell. It is a testament and warning that those who criticize conservatives, Arlen Specter excepted, tend to lose.

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Strickland Throws Mud

The Feb 20, 2005 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (CPD), Section H3, announces under the headline "Inside Politics," and the sub-heading "Blackwell's Many Hats," that U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D - NJ) have introduced legislation into the U.S. House of Reps, attacking Ken Blackwell. The Legislation, if enacted, prevents top state officials from participating directly in any future presidential campaign. Mark Naymik is the author of the article.

Both Congressmen accuse Blackwell, ala Katherine Harris in Florida 2000, of letting partisan politics interfere with their duties. Blackwell's spokesman LoParo counters with the facts that
1. Blackwell was an honorary co-chair;
2. Blackwell raised no money for Bush;
3. The indicated Congressmen ignore the roles that Democratic election officials played in Kerry's campaign; and,
4. The election process is bi-partisan, provides many checks & balances and makes it almost impossible for anybody to steal even a box of pencils without somebody else knowing.

The article leaves out that Strickland, a representative of the 6th District, is a Democrat from Lisbon. Perhaps the author and editor of the CPD assume that their readership knows of Strickland's roots.

Second, Strickland is also an officially unannounced Democratic Candidate for governor, so his legislation is a smokescreen attempt to smear Blackwell with political mud. This website previously announced this info, here, about Strickland.

The CPD article is good for the next 30 days only.

More analysis to come...

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Taft Flunks Math

From the Cheers and Jeers Column of the Clevland Plain Dealer's May 14, 2004 edition, page B8:

CHEERS . . . to the office of Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, which now shows donations made to county-based funds for statewide candidates or political parties. Blackwell has had to buck powerful members of his own party in the effort to cast some light on these heretofore shadowed coffers.

Notice that Blackwell helps out the little-guy Republican and on a state-wide basis.
Taft, however, seems to have no qualms about screwing the little guy.

JEERS . . . to the incredibly bad timing of Gov. Bob Taft and the owners of Lester Precision Die Casting in Bedford. Two days after the company laid off a bunch of workers, Taft showed up to proclaim that the company, with the help of a state loan, was "retaining" 168 jobs. That means "retaining" more than the 115 or so workers now at the plant. Better times may be ahead for the plant, but right now, this deal is flunking both math and English.

Apparently Taft's desire for self-promotion knows no bounds, including misleading statistics. It is actually quite funny.

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Updates

At the starred paragraphs in 'Challengers' - Blackwell VI.A and VI.C, updates and clarifications have been added.

Good news: I discovered that as a university student, I have 'free' access to the Lexis-Nexis database of Newspaper archives. Liberals and Ohio Newspapers will rue this day.

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Blackwell on OSOS

Blackwell's comments on Taft's Ohio State of the State address (OSOS) as reported by James Drew, The Toledo Blade's Colombus Bureau Chief, followed two tracks: compliment and critique.
He complimented Taft, when the governor uttered the line "if we don't slow the growth of state spending, we cannot reduce the tax burden on Ohioans and help our economy grow."

Blackwell guardedly commended Taft for phasing down the State Sales Tax from 6 to 5.5%, as well as cut individual income taxes by 21%. Blackwell stated "The promise was the sun was going to set," thereby implying that he would take a let's wait and see attitude toward Taft's proposal.

Drew also writes that

Blackwell noted that Mr. Taft did not call for a constitutional amendment to limit government spending and make it tougher to raise taxes. Mr. Blackwell leads a petition drive to put the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot. Mr. Blackwell said he believes Mr. Taft, a second-term Republican, understands that tax reform "can't be revenue-neutral," with tax cuts offset by tax increases. But Mr. Blackwell said the picture of Mr. Taft's "tax reform" package won't be clear until the governor tomorrow releases his version of the two-year operating budget that starts July 1.

Taft would take note and follow Blackwell's criticisms.

--update-- We are now listed on the Blogshares Stock Exchange. It is a fantasy stock game.

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Where's Waldo

Ummm we are a bit late but on Wednesday the 16th at 6:30 p.m., Secretary Blackwell spoke at the University of Findlay in the Alumni Memorial Union about the general topic of public service. The reason is that February is Black History Month. The speech title was "Diversity in Politics and the 2004 Election."

Findlay is located in NW Ohio near the I-75 /O-68/O-224 intersection (also exits 156 - 161) about 45 miles SW of Toledo Ohio.

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Blackwell's power

Seemingly alone as a conservative in Ohio's centrist-left political alliance, Blackwell has a great influence in Ohio. By his frequent criticism of the establishiment and his proposals for voter-initiated ammedments, he has been cited as a great reason for cutting Ohio's budget.

As Jim Provance reports at the Toledo Blade Blackwell's threat that he would place on the ballot a voter-petitioned Constitutional Ammendment, which would limit Gov't spending increases, has made Gov. Taft skittish.

The ammendment works as follows: Barring an emergency declaration by the governor, government spending increases = the inflation rate + population growth adjustment.
In order for any other spending increases to take place
3/5 of the Senators
3/5 of House Reps
+ a majority of Ohio's voters at the polls would all have to agree.

Blackwell remarked on Taft's movement to get a comprimise

"We are involved in ongoing discussion with a broad number of people connected to the governor... The governor and I have not had an eyeball-to-eyeball discussion… It's very clear there is a rapidly closing window for all practical purposes to continue this discussion. A bunch of folks want to get this on the ballot by way of petition."

Taft's 2 year budget limits spending increases to 3.4%
Read the rest of the article.

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--update -- Way back at the beginning of this blog Google rejected this blog's request for ad revenue via select ad placements. I am proud to be one of those few. They said something like there was not enough product placements available for my blog or the focus of the blog was too narrow.

Updates & Taft

Dear Loyal Readers,

Thanks to all your concern we have rocketed up the TLLB Ecosystem from Furry Rodents to Large Mammal. The number of people linked to us now is 175 which is an increase of 100. Only 440 more to go to reach the level of playful primates. Our rank# is tied for 1015th as the Editor views it or 1021 actually.

** update ** Thanks to you our rank is now 479 w/ 289 links. Could be victory Wednesdays but Thanks anyways.

Our average/day has shot up to 18 unique visitors/day, which is a fly on a wall compared to instapundit or Daily Kos. Oh well, progress is progress.

-- update -- our avg/day is now 22 visitors/day.

Turning to news, the Amish story still remains hidden in the cornfield and impossible to verify. Developing more slowly...

'Challengers' - Blackwell III.A has been updated at the starred paragraph(s) with the insertion of Taft's public role.
'Challengers' - Blackwell IV.A has been updated at the starred paragraph(s) with the insertion of Taft's public role.
'Challengers' - Blackwell VI.C (continued) has been updated at the starred paragraphs with the insertion of Taft's public role, and some others too.

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Self-Promotional News

According to Truth Laid Bear's Ecosystem all of your visits have propelled this blog up from Flappy Birds to Adorable Rodents. Darwin would be proud.

That's right fans, we are now part of the top 2200 blogs of the nation, even the top 2180, even the top 2177 blogs. Thanks to all your hard work, we have been propelled from 40 unique links to 76 unique links. With only a mere, even a piddling little 5 more links, this blog can, again thanks to you alone, evolve up the Ecosystem to Marsupial. Go baby go.

Saturday, Feb the 12 around 8 p.m. we broke the 800 barrier.

Keep up the good work you all.

Hey, hey, never you mind that we might only be getting 6 unique visitors/day. That does not matter.

But thanks anyways.

Anyways in actual newsworthy items, a friend told me that the AMISH of all people have already or will shortly sue the SOS for implementing the electronic voting machines in Ohio. The reason for the lawsuit is technology is against their religion and they prefer the punch-card or lever. I have as of yet no news source to back up this claim, so let me know if you see, hear, or smell anything. Developing...

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Blackwell: Disciple of Reagan & Bush

Sandy Theis' February 06 article in the Clevland Plain Dealer makes plain that of all the Republican and Democratic contenders for Ohio's governor, Jim Petro(r), Michael Coleman(d), Betty Montgomer(r) have not, while Ken Blackwell (r) has learned from the successful roadmaps to election of Ronald Wilson Regan and George W. Bush.

Here are the Candidate's positions on Tax Cuts, the Federal Marriage Ammendment, allowing Permits for Conceal Weapons, and the Death Penalty.

------- Tax Cuts --- M/F marriage --- Concealed Guns --- Death Penalty
K.B. ---- Yes ------------- Yes --------------- Yes ------------------ Yes
J.P. ---- NO -------------- NO --------------- Yes ------------------- Yes
B.M ---- NO -------------- NO --------------- NO ------------------- Yes
M.C ---- NO -------------- NO --------------- NO --------------------Yes

R.R. ----Yes -------------- Yes --------------- Yes --------------------Yes
GWB ---Yes -------------- Yes --------------- Yes -------------------- Yes

Since Ohio Citizens just approved the pro-marriage, pro-society, and pro-morality marriage ammendments, Coleman(d), Montgomery(r), and Petro(r) are handing the governor's mansion to Blackwell. This is good for the Secretary of State, but makes the rest to be politicians with a tin ear.

The other three Ohio Candidates may have learned from Governor Bob Taft about how to survive in Ohio's centrist-left political landscape, but do not forget that William Taft's grand-descendent has also learned how to doom his chances to be President, national Senator, or Congressional Representative.

Ohio has moved right as the 2004 vote demonstrates, but the Montgomery, Petro and Coleman have not shifted accordingly. This will doom them in the '06 race.

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