State

The political consequences from Ohio’s stolen 2005 presidential election have been made manifest. The two loudest and most unprincipled men in the state, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and the World Harvest Church’s Pastor Rod Parsley, have formed a disingenuous ebony and ivory right-wing political alliance.

Their goals are clear: to be the new Mack Daddys of the Ohio Republican Party and to pimp and play the economically desperate Ohioans.

Since the presidential election, the stats are now familiar: during the first four years of the Bush administration, Ohio lost more jobs than any state except Michigan; in the year prior to the 2004 election 330,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared from the Buckeye landscape, the most in the nation; and Ohio leads the U.S. in outsourcing well-educated young adults between the ages of 18-44.

Fresh from their work on the electoral justice hearings and investigation, the Columbus League of Pissed Off Voters took a step back to evaluate their recent work, set new goals, self-educate, and move forward with strategic intention.

Some members met in March with community mentors and advisors to do a Power Analysis exercise; they mapped out local decision-makers, key policy issues, organized and unorganized constituencies. A representative of the group said they were proud and honored to have worked recently with local mentors like Bob Fitrakis, Charles Traylor, US Congressional candidate Mark Brown, and Chip Livisay.

The group also started a local book circle discussion group, whose first selections were No More Prisons; Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and Columbus Public Schools; and What’s the Matter with Kansas. The local focus of Getting Around Brown primed the group for their current project: Columbus School Board and City Council May 3 primary election endorsements.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell finally testified – something he had refused to do in the Moss v. Bush Ohio election challenge before the State Supreme Court and refused to do in Washington, D.C. His testimony proved so contentious that at one point Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-OH, told him to “haul butt” if he was unwilling to answer questions about irregularities in the 2004 election.

Blackwell vigorously defended his role in last fall’s presidential election at a congressional hearing on Monday, March 21, at the Ohio Statehouse, claiming critics have smeared his state as if it were a “third world country” rather than the national model of election administration that Blackwell said it was. In December, Republican state senators blocked a similar Democrat-sponsored forum from using the Statehouse, forcing testimony to be taken at the Democrat-controlled Columbus City Council chambers. Meanwhile, hundreds of disenfranchised voters testified under oath in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Warren concerning their voting day hardships.

I’ve only been at Kent for a short time, but I get excited everyday I arrive. I encourage students to learn and work hard academically. Currently, there are over 200 students attending Kent Elementary School. They have a daily routine, which gives them a sense of security and belonging. It’s been a difficult adjustment for them, since the proposed closure of Kent Elementary School to them. Many of them are saddened and angry about the decision to make them leave their school, so other students can attend Kent. They don’t understand why they should be treated unfairly. I don’t have answers that they can understand, because I don’t understand it myself. Don’t get me wrong, I know about the missing 20.8 Million Dollars that no one is being prosecuted for. I know about Governor Taft’s plan to cut education funding and how the Ohio House and Senate Bills affect the funding for local school districts. The parents and students also know that Governor Taft and his wife adopted Kent Elementary. They want to know where are they now? Governor Taft, your adopted school needs your support.

(Columbus, Ohio) – The Ohio Federation of Teachers calls on Ohio lawmakers to improve the state’s economic future by ending a long history of insufficient funding for higher education.

Enrollment at Ohio’s colleges and universities has increased over the last five years while state funding has declined. Between 1999 and 2003 the state cut more than $300 million dollars from the Board of Regent’s budget. During this period, state support dropped by about $1,600 per student and although tuition increased by an average of $1,300 per student, tuition hikes have not made up for all of the loss of state funding.

Ohio ranks 40th in the nation when it comes to state support for higher education. Only 10 states provide fewer dollars for state colleges and universities.

Funding cuts coupled with an enrollment increase of 17 percent (more than 50,000 students) and inflation at about 15 percent during that time have made it difficult for Ohio’s colleges and universities to offer the necessary quality and diverse programming.

Stiff legal sanctions sought by Ohio's Republican Attorney General James Petro against four attorneys who have questioned the results of the 2004 presidential balloting here has produced an unintended consequence -- a massive counter-filing that has put on the official record a mountain of contentions by those who argue that election was stolen.

In filings that include well over 1,000 pages of critical documentation, attorneys Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Peter Peckarsky and Cliff Arnebeck have counter-attacked. Their defense motions include renewed assertions that widespread irregularities threw the true outcome of the November vote count into serious doubt. That assertion has now been lent important backing by a major academic study on the exit polls that showed John Kerry winning the November vote count.

Beacon Fellowship Columbus has learned that the Simon Kenton Council of the Boy Scouts of America signed a required non-discrimination statement with the United Way of Central Ohio (UWCO) in order to receive funding from the agency. But the Council also sent a "clarification" letter saying that the organization "will not unlawfully discriminate against anyone". The BSA maintains that it has the right to select its own volunteers based upon its own policies.

Some BSA Councils will say they won't discriminate out of one side of their mouth in order to secure funding, get reduced city owned/taxpayer building space, use of public schools and government lands." says Scott Cozza, President of Scouting for All, a national organization working to end the polices of bigotry and discrimination from the BSA. "There is absolutely NO BSA Council that has defied the BSA's national policy of discrimination. That means that no gay or atheist child or adult can feel safe as a member of the BSA, nor can they join this youth outdoor program" Cozza says.

COLUMBUS -- In a stunning legal attack, Ohio's Republican Attorney General has moved for sanctions against the four attorneys who sued George W. Bush et. al. in an attempt to investigate the Buckeye State's bitterly contested November 2 election.

Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck and Peter Peckarsky were named by Attorney General James Petro in a filing with the Ohio Supreme Court. Petro charges the November Moss v Bush and Moss v. Moyer filings by the Election Protection legal team were "frivolous." Petro is demanding court sanctions and fines.

"Instead of evidence, contesters offered only theory, conjecture, hypothesis and invective," the Attorney General's January 18th memo about the suit said. "A contest proceeding is not a toy for idle hands. It is not to be used to make a political point, or to be used as a discovery tool, or be used to inconvenience or harass public officials, or to be used as a publicity gimmick."

The epic legal battle over Ohio's presidential vote count is back in the state Supreme Court, with an election challenge claiming George W. Bush was wrongly declared the winner on Nov. 2 and seeking a court-ordered reversal of that victory.

Meanwhile, efforts to recount Ohio's vote may have been fatally tainted by the Republican Party, raising questions of what the GOP has to hide, and prompting demands for criminal prosecution.

New affidavits point to possible criminal activity by top Ohio election officials, raising yet more questions about the 2004 vote. Rhonda J. Frazier, a former employee of the Ohio Secretary of State's office, has confirmed in an affidavit taken by Cynthia Butler, working with freepress.org, that the Office had secret slush funds. Frazier says it also failed to comply with the requirements of "The Voting Reform Grant" that required all the voting machines in Ohio to be inventoried and tagged for security reasons.

Dear Virginia:

In your letter, you asked me if there really was a Democratic Party. You said that all of your friends have told you it’s a big fat lie, a story that grownups tell little kids so they won’t worry about mean old Republicans who eat children like you. You wrote me also that you have a tough time believing there could ever be a political party that cares about the difference between right and wrong, and wants you to have clean air to breath and pure, fresh water to drink in the middle of the night when you wake up thirsty. And you told me that after listening to President Bush on the TV, you think all that stuff about Democrats who think it is wrong to kill people in countries that haven’t done anything to hurt us is all make-believe, too. After all, you never see those Democrat guys talking back to the President, and telling him he’s bad.