Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The willow is too close to the house.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

“Alexa, change the president.”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Come on, man.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

You are here: Home / Archives for Elections / Election 2011

Election 2011

Detroit to Ohio

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Labor Day:

A crowd estimated at 12,000 people lined up along the waterfront to chant “Obama” and “Four more years. The 60 degree temperature with a brisk wind forced most to their keep jackets tightly zipped. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO led off the Labor Day speeches, saying the union will work to make sure “That we don’t let Michigan become a right to work for less state”.

President Obama previewed his job strategy at a Labor Day rally Monday in nearby Detroit, saying he will propose infrastructure improvements and middle class tax breaks during an address to Congress Thursday. The event, sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO took place in the shadow of GM headquarters on the city’s riverfront. Thousands of union members attended.

This is Motown,” said James Hoffa general president of the Teamsters, “but today this is Uniontown.” He named three battlegrounds in what he called the “war on workers.” One of those battlegrounds, he said, is the effort to repeal Senate Bill 5 in Ohio. The Ohio AFL-CIO is seeking a “no” vote on Issue 2 to vote down enactment of the bill, which was passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly and signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich. The law, which would roll back some collective bargaining rights for public employees, is set for a Nov. 8 ballot referendum.

And with that, back to Ohio, and this:

Labor Day weekend is the traditional start of the campaign session, especially the paid television spots. Today, We Are Ohio announced that they would use the Labor Day weekend to remind people the reason for the season.


Here’s the ad

What do you think?

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Now we’re getting somewhere

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I’ve been following a lawsuit filed against White Management. White Hat Management is a for-profit charter school management company that operates in Ohio and Florida.

The case began in May of 2010:

A group of Cleveland and Akron charter schools is in open rebellion against the for-profit management firm that runs the schools. An unusual lawsuit brought Monday by 10 governing boards of Hope Academies of Cleveland and Akron and Life Skills Centers of Cleveland and Akron alleges that a 2006 state law passed by majority-party Republicans is unconstitutional and gives the for-profit company unchecked authority.

Charter schools are publicly funded but privately operated. In the case of White Hat Management, 96 percent of the state funding flows to the company. The governing boards say that White Hat’s interest in making a profit conflicts with the schools’ goal to educate. The suit, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, says that the boards are “virtually impotent to govern the schools.”

They say that White Hat has refused to provide detailed financial information such as unaudited quarterly financial reports required under the management agreement with the schools. White Hat has also refused to provide details on grants received and also failed to spell out what funds were used to purchase school property and equipment since 2004, the suit charges.

And this month, we (the people) got a good ruling on a discovery request:

Although charter school operator and GOP donor David Brennan has long maintained that he does not have to show how his charter schools spend the millions they receive in taxpayer money each year, a Franklin County judge disagreed and ordered Brennan to open his books.

The ruling is a remarkable victory for open and accountable government and for parents who have been struggling to learn why schools run by White Hat Management have consistently had abysmal academic records.

White Hat gets 96% of all state funds provided to the complaining charter schools but has long maintained that how it spends the public’s money is not the public’s business.A Franklin County judge disagreed: Ohio law “clearly and unambiguously requires operators of community schools to provide their governing authorities with a detailed accounting of how public funds were spent,’’ according to a Wednesday ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John Bender.

White Hat has control of 96% of state funding, but they also have control of 100% of federal funding, with oversight by a community board where the members of the board themselves state in the complaint that they are “virtually impotent to govern the schools”.

The linked article is a little breathless. It’s not a “remarkable victory”. They won some and they lost some, and keep in mind this is a just a ruling on a discovery motion in an ongoing lawsuit. This whole thing could get interesting when we finally, finally get a peek at White Hat’s books.

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John Lewis is concerned, but I’m well past “troubled”

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Great piece by John Lewis on voting:

Since January, a majority of state legislatures have passed or considered election-law changes that, taken together, constitute the most concerted effort to restrict the right to vote since before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act — also known as the Motor Voter Act — made it easier to register to vote, while the 2002 Help America Vote Act responded to the irregularities of the 2000 presidential race with improved election standards. Despite decades of progress, this year’s Republican-backed wave of voting restrictions has demonstrated that the fundamental right to vote is still subject to partisan manipulation. The most common new requirement, that citizens obtain and display unexpired government-issued photo identification before entering the voting booth, was advanced in 35 states and passed by Republican legislatures in Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri and nine other states — despite the fact that as many as 25 percent of African-Americans lack acceptable identification.

Having fought for voting rights as a student, I am especially troubled that these laws disproportionately affect young voters. Students at state universities in Wisconsin cannot vote using their current IDs (because the new law requires the cards to have signatures, which those do not). South Carolina prohibits the use of student IDs altogether. Texas also rejects student IDs, but allows voting by those who have a license to carry a concealed handgun. These schemes are clearly crafted to affect not just how we vote, but who votes.

John Lewis, a Democrat, is a congressman from Georgia.

If we make it difficult for poor and young people to vote, or, in the case of “provisional” (second-class) ballots, make it difficult to have their votes counted, fewer poor and young people are going to vote and fewer poor and young people are going to have their votes counted.

One wrongfully disenfranchised voter is one too many, but in our country, in our cash-choked system, where moneyed interests already have a hugely outsize political voice relative to their actual numbers fewer poor and young people voting is a flat-out disaster.

So what’s it going to take before this becomes a top-tier issue for ordinary middle class democracy enthusiasts who may not (yet) be directly affected by these laws?

An attempt by conservatives to have portions of the Voting Rights Act declared unconstitutional? The same Voting Rights Act sections that were defended (successfully) by a majority in Congress as recently as 2006?

You got it. Last week, in Arizona.

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The 50% Rule

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Liberal elites

Mandatory bully pulpit training for our youth

We had a rally to repeal SB 5 last night. SB5 is now Issue 2 on the ballot. That’s the union-busting law Governor Kasich maneuvered through the Ohio statehouse.

First we set a date and find a location. This time, we reserved a covered picnic area at the county fairgrounds. We have an email list of about 60 people. I email those 60 people with the invitation. I don’t find email to be particularly effective for turning people out here, so I then send those 60 an invitation in the mail. I then add about 40 others who are on one list or another. They don’t have internet access or don’t use a computer at all. I send them an invitation too.

At this point, I have a dispute with the local Democrats. They always insist we purchase space in the local newspaper to run an ad for any event. I object to this, because the local newspaper runs what are essentially ads for GOP and Tea Party events for free. This past year the newspaper ran a front-page announcement of an upcoming Tea Party event as news. I’ve been around and around with this newspaper, and I have just given up. The last time I spoke with any of them was November of 2010, where I argued that in the interest of good government alone they should offer us comparable coverage, because every single elected individual at the county level is a Republican and 90% of them run unopposed. A competition based argument, one I thought might appeal to a blatantly conservative newspaper. No dice.

Shortly after I start this fight, I give in and we buy the ad but I do complain about it a lot. I think I’m making progress. Wearing them down. Any year now, I’ll prevail.

We like to have a meal at these things, so we then plan that. This year, we had brats and hotdogs and potluck sides. We have a local Democrat who is a DJ, so he sets his outfit up: music and a microphone. He donates this service. I then find a speaker. This year I invited a We Are Ohio rep and he attended.

We ask for a free will donation to cover costs, and people are always generous. A good turn out is 50%, and we hit that this time, because about 50 people showed up. They all ate and drank and listened to the speakers and the music.

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Wisconsin Round-Up

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If you’ve been sleeping, the wake-up story is that two Democrats won in Wisconsin, one shy of the three needed to flip the Senate, and the Wisconsin Democratic Party has dropped its accusations of election tampering.

Nate Silver thinks that the results show a toss-up for a Walker recall. Next week, two Democrats are up for recall — does anyone know if those races are close?

Apparently the next question is whether Sen Dale Schultz, who voted with Democrats on the labor bill, will play the Ben Nelson role.

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More and better voters

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This sounds good:

A newly released review of a June 27 report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) shows that voter registration application rates at state public assistance agencies have risen sharply following National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) enforcement actions by advocacy groups Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and others. In contrast, the overwhelming majority of states not targeted have continued to see a long decline in registration of lower-income residents.

“The new data underscore the effectiveness of enforcement in giving low income Americans a voice in the democratic process,” said Lisa Danetz, Senior Counsel at Demos and co-lead counsel in a settled lawsuit against Ohio. “For example, Ohio topped the EAC list for voter registration at public assistance offices. As a result of our lawsuit, the state institutionalized procedures to offer voter registration. Those procedures will ensure that voter registration does not fall off the radar screen.”Ohio and Missouri topped the rankings in reported voter registration applications submitted at public assistance offices. Both states have settled lawsuits regarding lack of National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) compliance, brought by Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee, and others.

They’re suing to enforce the National Voter Registration Act (known as “motor voter”).

I read quite a bit on election law, and “motor voter” is usually portrayed as an idea that enjoyed “broad bipartisan support”. The implication is that Republicans and Democrats linked arms across the aisle and happily rubber-stamped the bill.

Here’s how The League of Women Voters remembers it:

The League’s grassroots campaign to secure national legislation to reform voter registration resulted in 1990 passage by the House of Representatives of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), or “motor voter.” Despite strong League lobbying, the Senate refused to bring the bill to the floor in fall 1990.

The effort to pass national motor-voter legislation intensified in the 102nd Congress. In February 1991, the National Voter Registration Act of 1991 was introduced in the Senate. Leading a national coalition, the League carried out a high visibility, multifaceted, grassroots drive, resulting in passage of the Senate bill by both the House and Senate in 1992. Despite League pressure, the President vetoed the bill. An attempt to override the veto in the Senate fell five votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

Finally, in 1993, the many years of concerted effort by the League and other voting rights organizations paid off, when both houses of Congress passed voter registration reform legislation. President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act in May. The “motor-voter” bill enabled citizens to apply to register at motor vehicle agencies automatically, as well as by mail and at public and private agencies that service the public.

So, like nearly everything else, it was big battle and it took too long.

Here is a report on a study of voting across income levels. I don’t know if it is reliable. If it’s accurate, most of us probably aren’t adequately or equitably represented:

Furthermore, there are enormous disparities that exist in America across income levels in all forms of participation, particularly voting. A study on these disparities found that 86% of people with incomes above $75,000 claim to have voted in presidential elections as compared with only 52% of people with incomes under $15,000. As a result of the participation disparity across demographic lines, politicians are more responsive to the opinions of high-income constituents.

A study of roll call votes under the 107th and 108th Congresses reported that legislators were three times more responsive to high-income constituents than middle-income constituents and were the least responsive to the needs of low-income constituents.

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Great Lakes Restoration

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I’ve talked about the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative here before, but that was in the context of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is a close friend of Rupert Murdoch, by the way. I’m troubled by that relationship. I’m concerned. I would even go so far as to say that Kasich’s passionate defense of Murdoch in major media raises more questions than it answers.

In any event, the Great Lakes Restoration project continues, despite Rupert Murdoch and John Kasich:

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades. A task force of 11 federal agencies developed a plan to put the president’s historic initiative into action. This action plan covers fiscal years 2010 through 2014 and addresses five urgent focus areas:
Cleaning up toxics and areas of concern
Combating invasive species
Promoting nearshore health by protecting watersheds from polluted run-off
Restoring wetlands and other habitats
Working with partners on outreach.

Which is good, because we have some issues with Lake Erie:

A huge bloom of potentially toxic microcystis algae, which has reared its ugly head almost annually since 1995 after more than a 20-year absence, has been visible from space since at least July 22. European Space Agency satellite photos given to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor show how it formed in the Monroe area, grew, and has fanned out to the Lake Erie islands.

This problem has gone unaddressed since 1995, so it’s going to be a long haul.

The algae, though, wouldn’t be there if not for the region’s ongoing battle with controlling both storm water and agricultural runoff. It is likely to be a topic of discussion when President Obama’s chief adviser on Great Lakes issues, Cameron Davis, visits the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center in Oregon tomorrow with U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) and UT President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, according to an aide for Miss Kaptur.

Mr. Davis is to unveil the latest round of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants, a program that has brought the Great Lakes region a historic amount of new money to combat pollution. Although its anticipated funding of about $300 million is down significantly from its first-year allocation of $475 million, the program is in response to Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign pledge to infuse the Great Lakes region with at least $5 billion for cleanup during his administration. More than $20 billion worth of needs, mostly sewage spills that helped algae grow, have been identified.

I went to a Great Lakes water forum in 2005 or thereabouts and Marcy Kaptur was a speaker at that one, too. She’s genuinely knowledgeable on water issues. I learned a lot.

During the Q and A session a 9-11 Truther stood up and delivered a screed poorly disguised as a question. Kaptur responded with her concerns about our dependence on foreign oil, her fuel efficiency agenda for the US auto industry, and a completely irrelevant anecdote about her brother, who is a machinist. She then tipped her head, smiled, and said, “I hope that answers your question”. She’s a pro.

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