Something is Rotten in Ohio

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” is a pretty well-known quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet that means that all is not well at the top of the political hierarchy.  It reinforces the point of an earlier quote in the play that states, “Denmark is an unweeded garden of things rank and gross in nature.” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2.)  With the green fingers of John Kasich and GOP lawmakers in the Statehouse, Ohio is fast becoming an unweeded garden of things rank and gross in nature as well.

One need not look far to find numerous examples of rotten legislation that have been propagated by a bumper crop of seedy politicians in the Ohio House and Senate.  Last year’s biennial budget planted an abundance of provisions that attacked women’s health issues, including the defunding of Planned Parenthood.  The seedling budget allows government agencies to meet in secret to sow tax increments, abatements, and community reinvestment projects.  It has grown Ohio’s existing school voucher program to make students from every school district eligible for vouchers that take money away from the state’s public schools.

For over two years, one of the most rancid pieces of legislation in Ohio was cultivated by ALEC, clipped off at the roots by concerned citizens, and unearthed again and again by ALEC’s GOP lawmakers.  The American Legislative Exchange Council dug in and pushed hard to kill Ohio’s renewable energy standards, despite the numerous benefits and widespread public support for Ohio’s clean energy progress.

After replanting the most current seed as Senate Bill 310, a two year “freeze” of those renewable  energy standards that saved electricity consumers money, the Senate plowed ahead, intent on weeding out future clean energy development.  SB 310 stemmed from previous bills nurtured by Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati), a board member of the corporate-funded, anti-clean energy group ALEC and the chair of the Senate Public Utilities Committee.  A vote on  the freeze took place before lawmakers left for their summer recess gardening projects, and Governor Kasich planted his signature on the legislation.

Many had questioned the continued propagation of anti-green energy laws in Ohio, and organizations had worked to dig up the root of that legislation. This investigation by Media Matters is still the most fruitful of the bunch: http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/05/15/unnoticed-fossil-fuel-influence-could-soon-dism/199337

Methinks something is indeed rotten in the state of Ohio.

Think.

Dear John

Dear John,

I’m disappointed that the people at Quinnipiac told the world that I still love you, because I realized a long time ago that I do not want to continue my relationship with you. Our fling is just not working for me anymore. Yes, things were great when we first started seeing each other a few years ago- I thought I had finally found someone who would complete me.

My heart was all aflutter with your smooth talk about “creating jobs,” but I didn’t realize that you were talking about generating low-wage jobs to replace the high-wage jobs lost during the recession.  You had me with your promise of “cracking down on corporate welfare,” but little did I know of your unrestrained love affair with the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC.)  Because of your infidelity with ALEC, your vows to me remain unfulfilled to this day.

I’m leaving you, because you never listen to me, John, and you’ve shown me time and again that you don’t respect my opinion at all. I’ve tried to share with you my thoughts and beliefs about important issues such as renewable energy, sensible gun control, and strong public schools, but your rejection has only left me with unrequited feelings.  It will be better for both of us if we break up and go our separate ways, because we are in totally different places in our lives.

I hope you don’t expect me to say that “it’s not you- it’s me,” because frankly, Johnny, it is you. I’m very concerned about all of the issues you have with women and how slowly you seem to be working through them. I tuned you out when I heard your speech about “getting more women involved in your administration,” because that’s all it was- just talk. That’s the main thing about you that drives me crazy.

You have been all talk and no action concerning the promises you made when you were courting me in 2010, but when it came down to the freedom to make choices about my health, you acted swiftly to remove that option in my life and the lives of all of my sisters. I just don’t trust you any more, John.

I need some space to find myself again, because if I’ve said anything to make you think I approve of  your conduct as Ohio’s governor, it’s obvious that I need time to get my head back on straight.  This DEAR JOHN letter should come as no surprise to you, because you have done absolutely nothing to fulfill my needs.

The truth is: I AM NOT SATISFIED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE.

Later this year, our split will be finalized. November cannot come soon enough.

Sincerely,

Jane Q. Public

Remember in November.

Think.

Remember the Fourth of November

Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

~English Nursery Rhyme

This old nursery rhyme refers to the attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the English House of Parliament on November 5, 1605. Fawkes was tried and executed, and the nursery rhyme serves as a reminder that treasonous events should never be forgiven nor forgotten.

This year, Ohioans need to remember, remember the FOURTH of November to stand up to ALEC and vote against Governor John Kasich and the Republican leadership in the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate.  Below is a list of ten egregious events voters must never forgive nor forget:

1. John Kasich signed, sealed, and delivered Senate Bill 5, an anti-collective bargaining bill created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to destroy public labor unions.

2. The Republican controlled legislature radically gerrymandered Ohio congressional districts to give its party 75% control of state policy-making for the next ten years.

3. Kasich and his ALEC accomplices passed several voter suppression laws, including the elimination of “Golden Week,” a time when Ohio citizens could register and vote on the same day.

4. Guised as “school reform,” John Kasich and the GOP legislature sponsored ALEC laws enabling charter school expansion, high stakes testing linked to Common Core, and the infamous Third Grade Guarantee.

5. The GOP led House and Senate made Kasich’s JobsOhio exempt from state audits when they passed a bill designating that the $100 million a year from the lease of Ohio’s state liquor profits was private money.

6. Gov. Kasich signed a very unpopular budget bill, which included some of the most extreme anti-women provisions seen in the country, surrounded by a group of old white men.

7. At least four Republicans on Kasich’s State Board of Education were found to have business interests that benefited from diverting tax dollars from public schools to charter schools.

8. GOP legislators garnered changes to state gun laws to make it easier to carry a concealed handgun and to introduce Ohio’s stand-your-ground law.

9. Kasich signed one of the worst fracking laws in the country using ALEC model legislation lobbied by the gas industry to set inadequate disclosure and safety rules.

10. Electricity consumers have saved over $1 billion due to Ohio’s renewable energy law, yet GOP legislators froze the green energy mandates to please ALEC’s utility companies.

The Ohio GOP is overrun with extremists who have sold their souls to the devil called ALEC.

Remember, remember the Fourth of November…

Think.

Ohio’s ALEC Governor

The sun’ll come up tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun

Just thinkin’ about tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow, till there’s none

When I’m stuck with a day that’s gray and lonely,

I just stick out my chin and grin and say

The sun’ll come up tomorrow,

So you got to hang on till tomorrow, come what may!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow

You’re always a day away!

~from “Annie,” the Broadway musical

The sun’ll come up in November when Ohio’s ALEC governor is voted out of office and returned to Fox News.  GOP Governor John Kasich is one of the men who helped mold the corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in its formative years.  As governor, he has signed a number of ALEC-influenced bills into Ohio law, and he’s also introduced major initiatives in his state-of-the-state addresses and biennial budgets that were similar or identical to ALEC proposals being considered in other states.  Every aspect of Kasich’s agenda for Ohio has been created and lobbied by the task forces that make up ALEC, yet now he’s trying to trick voters into believing that his “leadership” provides a model for others.

After a contentious three years as Ohio’s governor, Kasich is scrambling to rebrand himself as a moderate Republican in the months before the November election.  Ohio newspapers are doing their part to portray him as a charismatic leader who’s fulfilling a grand design to save Ohio.  His re-election team is busy manipulating data to paint a false picture of the guy, saying that he rescued Ohio from an $8 billion shortfall.  Kasich’s campaign ads seek to characterize him as a compassionate fellow whose faith ensures that he will dutifully look out for those among us who are less fortunate. Unfortunately for the governor, his actions speak louder than his words.

One thing that Johnny cannot camouflage is his incompetence in speaking genuinely, intelligently, and humbly before a crowd of people.  Last week during an unscripted speech at a fundraiser, he offered up this sappy nonsense about his tenure as governor:

“The sun’s coming up.  Can you see it?  The sun’s coming up in our state.  Oh, it was low.  You couldn’t see it at times. But now it’s rising. And as it rises, and as it grows brighter, people around our country, they notice that sun.  They notice those rays.  They notice that warmth.  It’s allowing others to think about how they could be like Ohio … so we’re providing the leadership, the model.”

Bet your bottom dollar that the audience was glad John Kasich decided not to break out in the song and dance made famous on Broadway by that little red-headed orphan girl!

Think.