From the monthly archives: August 2011
So now that we’ve pretty firmly and completely established that the press conference yesterday was one big PR stunt to try to re-frame the debate and paint the unions as the ones who are inflexible and unwilling to negotiate, it’s time to have some fun with it.
As a reminder, here’s a picture from Kasich’s staged press conference complete with an empty table and name tents for the union leaders who “refused to show up”.
Announcing the latest PlunderContest:
Waiting for John Kasich
Here is how it works. First download a printable table tent slash invitation to the [...]
Full Story... →Kasich’s fake outreach to union leaders reached a new level of ridiculousness today when he staged a fake meeting and then pretended to be outraged when no one showed up.
Union leaders clearly informed the Governor the previous day that they wouldn’t be attending his big charade but would gladly participate in discussions once the bill in question had been repealed. Still, Kasich and Republican legislative leaders showed up and sat in front of an empty table today claiming the unions had “flunked the test of showing up” and “abdicated their moral authority” by not participating in Kasich’s [...]
Full Story... →Wow, I was wrong. Somehow Josh Mandel’s horrible, no good week got worse. A lot worse. This morning The Toledo Blade reported that Mandel’s Senate campaign accepted over $100,000 in campaign contributions from Ben Suarez, his family, and his employees at Suarez Corporation. On top of the $100,000 in contributions from Suarez and his employees, Ben Suarez and his wife gave an additional $30,000 to a political action committee closely associated with Josh Mandel.
…in the current election cycle, a large number of his [Suarez] employees and their wives — many of whom have never before given to federal [...]
Full Story... →Poor John Kasich.
He looks like he called a meeting of all the people in Ohio who support Issue 2.
(Thanks to Eric for putting this video together so quickly)
Doesn’t a political leader take a hit to fail this spectacularly at negotiations? Even those who are clamoring for a negotiation, like Dispatch, had to acknowledge that Kasich was grandstanding.
In today’s podcast Dispatch, they called it a photo-op. And that’s what Kasich wasted an hour today just for for a political photo-op to try to bash labor on the same day that news broke that Ohio’s [...]
Full Story... →This morning the press was called over to Riffe for a big, staged, Kasich event in which he tried to paint the unions as unwilling to compromise or bargain.
Kasich’s people set up big tables with name cards as though they were seriously ready for a meeting with union leaders that had been planned for months.
Kasich knew the unions weren’t going to show up. The whole event was nothing but a big theater production and everyone, including the press, knew this going in.
Still, the press did show up and, to be fair, they asked some good questions. Marc [...]
Full Story... →
I’ll be packing up the kids tomorrow afternoon and heading over to the Ohio State Fairgrounds for the Stand Up for Ohio Festival. Grab me and say hi if you see me. I’ll be the one in the Plunderbund t-shirt chasing two out-of-control toddlers.
According to Stand Up For Ohio, the event’s organizers, there “will be “Built by Ohio Workers” displays, games and activities for children, and information from organizations fighting for Ohioans every day” as well as speakers and music from Grand Funk Railroad, Ohio Players and many other bands all day.
Stand Up [...]
Full Story... →For the second month in a row, Ohio’s unemployment rate in July increased .2% to 9%. This was the first full month of the new FY 2012 since Governor Kasich signed his “Jobs Budget” into law.
The number of unemployed Ohioans increased for the second month in a row. In July, the number of unemployed Ohio grew 12,000 from June. In June, the number of unemployed Ohioans grew 11,000. In other words, the growth in the number of unemployed Ohioans stayed relatively flat, with some slight growth.
But job creation can’t keep up with the changes [...]
Full Story... →(HT: Bizzyblog)
The Tea Party organizations behind Issue 3, the totally unconstitutional constitutional amendment that outlaws an individual mandate for health insurance, released a video that highlights the signers of their petition and why they signed. They highlighted roughly four individuals.
About two minutes in, they featured this testimonial:
Government-run health care… will… hurt…. MEDICARE?!?
First, even if you put aside that this amendment, if passed, is a unconstitutional nullity. But even if it were, and it somehow passed, the amendment only addresses the individual mandate. It has no affect on the Medicare savings in [...]
Full Story... →Budish challenges Speaker Batchelder to back up their talk yesterday with action. He has asked the Legislative Service Commission (LSC) to draft a bill to repeal SB 5 and asked the majority to call the General Assembly to pass it in order to wipe the slate clean and give labor and the Republicans the opportunity to negotiate a compromise to Senate Bill 5 like Batchelder and Niehaus have indicated.
“If Gov. Kasich and Republican legislative leaders are serious about compromising on Senate Bill 5, they will take the first necessary step and reconvene the legislature to completely repeal this [...]
Full Story... →So, yesterday Governor Kasich and the GOP legislative leadership hold a press conference to profess their desire to hold talks with the We Are Ohio campaign to try to reach a compromise on Senate Bill 5. We Are Ohio said they would be glad to talk about a compromise, but in order to show they were serious the campaign said Kasich and the Republicans would need to repeal Senate Bill 5 first before any talks could be had.
Some in the media called this a “demand” of labor, but really it was a political reality. There was NO WAY We [...]
Full Story... →After Kasich came forward yesterday asking for a deal on SB5, I was contacted by a friend of the blog who wanted to share some information about Chan Cochran – the Republican political operative who has been peddling misinformation about Kasich’s outreach to labor.
We’ve mentioned Cochran a few times recently, but he really deserves a little more detailed and personal coverage and our friend, a long-time political observer who requested anonymity out of fear of the Kasich bus, agreed to write up a guest post for us on the topic. Enjoy…
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The motive of Gov. Kasich [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
