Bear Grylls & "Man vs Wild" is a great show usually, but they are taking this show to a whole new level this Tuesday with Will Farrell as a special guest in the first ever episode of "Men vs Wild."
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May 2009
May 30, 2009
May 29, 2009
Quote of the Day
"You know what a friend is? Someone who knows all about you and likes you anyway." -- Duane Charles Parcells
Hurray...I think...not sure yet...but, I think, Hurray!!!
The Ohio Senate sent out the "Senate Budget Highlights: Substitute HB 1" and, at first blush, it at least seems quite a bit more responsible than what Strickland & Budish produced.
As we all know, the devil is in the details so it will be interesting to see what is actually in this thing, but here is a halfway decent article by Bill Hershey at the DDN:
The Senate put out a 12 page highlight memo today as well. It will be interesting to see what Budish & Ted have to say about this going into Conference.
May 28, 2009
Geeky post for the day: Watch out Amazon Kindle!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/165636/plastic_logic_demos_ebook_reader_with_wifi_3g.html
I just think this thing is so amazing!!!
Quote of the Day
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door."
-- Bilbo Baggins
Priceless
Being a creative donor/fundraiser who does what hundreds (yes, you read that correctly...hundreds) of businessmen/women, trial attorneys, associations, etc. do on a weekly basis on both sides of the political aisle in the state of Ohio, but is the guy who got caught/is being made an example of
Cost imposed for said activities by our genius committee (aka Ohio Elections Commission) on aforementioned creative donor/fundraiser $125,000
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REPEATEDLY thumbing your nose at the law as a lawmaker/supposed upholder of the law, mocking the election laws & regulations set forth by the Legislature & Governor
Cost imposed for repeatedly and intentionally breaking said laws by our genius committee (aka Ohio Elections Commission) on aforementioned lawmaker $1,000
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The rationale the Ohio Elections Commission probably would try to give to tell us why the $124,000 difference in fines is perfectly reasonable Priceless
Celebrity dies from Swine Flu
First celebrity dies of Swine Flu.
And we all know who the carrier is.
May 27, 2009
Mandel to Announce for Treasurer vs Boyce tomorrow!!!
It is on like Donkey Kong!
Mandel vs Boyce!
I'm pretty excited about this one.
If you need newspaper for your pet droppings fine, but if you want the scoop on Ohio
politics before anyone else then you are in the right place ;-)
"I am reality. There's the way it ought to be, and there's the way it is."
The quote in the title is by Tom Berenger's character in the movie "Platoon"
I used the quote because I've been having an exchange in the comments section with "Michelle" (not her real name) about some of my post from yesterday. I'm writing my latest response to her as a blog post because 1,000-1,500+ people read this blog everyday, but only about 100 people read the comments. If you want to see the entire back and forth then go to the comments section from yesterday's post on my thoughts on the GOP side of the aisle.
As background: Michelle is one of the 3-5 smartest commenters who generally comment on this blog. She is very astute and I am happy to say we don't disagree much, but on the topic of whether or not primaries are healthy we disagree. Here is my latest response to her. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts as well as Michelle's thoughts. Thanks!!!
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Michelle,
For someone with such good instincts/insights you have read me wrong.
Yes, the party and a # of people within it shat on me in a big way back in 2004. More than a handful of folks rolled the Greyhound over me, backed up, went forward, backed up, went forward...you get the picture ;-) All is fair in love, war & anonymous memos I guess.
I am no "party guy" (unless we are talking about going out for pops, bar food and catching the game...but I digress...I do enjoy a beer and a brat on occasion).
My allegiance is to Republicans beating dems in General Elections because I feel the most good/the least amount of harm occurs when the GOP is in charge instead of the dems. As I've said before, I'm fiscally a right winger and socially pretty moderate.
Kasich, Taylor, Husted, Mandel & DeWine will have exponentially more money & endorsements than their potential primary opponents.
In this economy it is even harder to raise political funds than ever before. The fundraising environment is horrific right now.
I don't care what anyone says: There is no magical f'ing pot of $$$ out there for primary & general elections. Making any of these folks spend $500K, $800K or $1 million plus in a primary to beat the likes of Coughlin, O'Brien, Grendell, R. Montgomery, Yost or Crites will do much more harm to our General Election candidates than it will do good.
That $500K, $800K or ...gulp...$1 million plus is not easily replaced in this environment. It just is not.
It would be one thing if Coughlin, O'Brien, Grendell, R. Montgomery, Yost or Crites could beat the candidates who are going to be our General Election candidates, but they cannot.
Saying that does not make me "a party guy."
It makes me a realist. I am reality. I am not a tea party attendee. I am not a dreamer. I am a realist.
Kevin Coughlin will have less than $250K to spend against Kasich. He cannot win.
Sandy O'Brien will have less than $200K to spend against Husted. If a Court of Law declares Husted did not break the law on this residency issue then Husted will outspend her 10:1 if he has to, but he will be the nominee. If Husted loses in Court then there will be a healthy free-for-all primary for the seat. I am 100% for that because at that point in time a clear nominee for the SOS/Apportionment Board seat will not be available.
Grendell is Grendell. For those of you who know him you know what that means. For those of you who don't know him then, as Elmer Fudd says, "Be vewy, vewy caweful." Grendell likes the art of the deal not nasty elections. If he rears his head it will be to intimidate/bluff/negotiate for something not actually file & run for a higher office.
Rob Montgomery has this big nest egg that he has accumulated over many years of setting aside dollars (just like Bill Mason on the dem side), but he is no prolific fundraiser. He could cause any of the down-tickets problems in a primary, but the second he loses the primary he is penniless again...not the type of situation Rob M wants to be in. Rob might talk about running statewide, but he won't pull the trigger unless Husted is out of the SOS race and then watch for him to enter that fray. Hopefully Rex, OB & others can convince him to run for the Testa seat or the Marilyn Brown seat.
If Yost were smart (and I believe him to be so) he would run a full-fledged campaign (raise $, build the organization, blanket the state, etc.) for AG and tell every single person he comes in contact with that there is one major, significant difference between him and both DeWine and Cordray: No matter what happens in the 2010 election for AG Dave Yost will be the Republican nominee on the ballot for AG in 2014.
If I were Yost I would tell everyone this is a 2009-2014 effort no matter what happens on the ballot in May 2010 or November 2010. Both the GOP $ guys and the law firms will care about that message (i.e. underdog in 2010 and frontrunner in 2014 since neither DeWine or Cordray will be around to be AG in 2014). I think Yost should run this race in 2010 up until...filing day 2010. Don't file Dave. Raise the money, build your organization, blanket the state and then don't file.
If Yost files for the May 2010 primary he will not only get beat by DeWine, but he'll zero out his campaign account and he'll make the GOP donor community spend big $ for DeWine/against Yost to make DeWine successful...a terrible way to build relationships with the GOP donor community statewide. This will surely come back to bite Yost in the ass & may potentially crush any chance he has/had at higher office in Ohio in the future.
Look in the Yost "crystal ball" for February 2011:
Yost either bowed out of the AG primary gracefully (thus enamoring him with the GOP donor community and strengthening DeWine's chances of beating Cordray in the General...and then DeWine either beat Cordray or lost a close one) and is sitting on $400-500,000 in his campaign account as he starts to roll around the state as the GOP frontrunner for AG for 2014
OR
Yost spent the $400-500K against DeWine in a primary and lost, completely pissed off the GOP donor community (some relationships irreparably damaged) and weakened DeWine to the point where he either lost to Cordray or barely won...either way Yost is sitting there in February 2011 with no money in his campaign account and a LOT of bad blood with the people he needs to be successful in 2014.
I really hope Yost gets out if DeWine gets in. He cannot beat DeWine in a primary. Again, sorry, but just being realistic (hence the title/theme of the post).
Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
Kyle
May 26, 2009
Does anyone have a time machine???
This license plate design would have been great to have...back when Gilligan took office in 1971...
Not really the kind of message we are trying to send as a state trying to tech companies and major corporations to uproot from the West or East Coast.
Golly gee shucks I'm so angry they had to shelve these plates!
Just some things I’ve been thinking about…on the GOP side of the aisle…
*If Kasich could keep his job at Fox with filing a Designation of Treasurer form with the Secretary of State, but lose his job with the announcement of his intention to run for Governor then why in the heck didn’t he file his Designation of Treasurer back in January or February??? The main thing I have been banging on Kasich was to announce so he could start raising money. Kasich better file with at least $2 million on hand when he files his mid-year filing or he & the rest of the ticket are in deep doo doo.
*Will Kasich start to engage the press with his June 1st announcement? I am interested to see how the Kasich, Harris, Batch dynamic works moving forward with this budgetary process. Harris could do Kasich some real favors in the next 37 days or he could be completely selfish and only look out for the Senate GOP caucus’ best interests. I hope for the sake of John Kasich and the Apportionment Board that Bill Harris and the Senate take a macro view when dealing with Ted & Budish on this budget in conference.
*What in the world is going on with the House GOP Minority Caucus??? Unreal. I had such high hopes for Batch, Troy and Huffman, but the caucus is in shambles. Recruit & raise money. Recruit & raise money. Recruit & raise money. I am hearing that candidate recruitment and fundraising are not going that well. I am utterly baffled by that since the horrific things coming out of a Budish-led House should have candidates dying to run and businesses showering money on the OHRCC. Being great at policy and “out policy wonking” the dem majority whilst not spending tons of time & resources getting a full slate of 99 strong candidates and putting the funds together to elect them is the sure path to one thing: a more solid minority. If Batch & crew (aka the land of misfit toys) do not change their ways soon then look to a Budish-led House with #s more in the range of 56/43 or 57/42 after the 2010 smoke clears.
*Harris surely will not be around that much longer and Niehaus has shown he would be a worse leader than even Doug White was (two year leaders do not work…they are lame ducks the second they are elected…4, 6 or 8 year leaders are the only way to make your majority caucus relevant with the other two branches). That said, who will be the next Senate President? I bet Steve Stivers is kicking his own ass that he left when he did. This thing would have been his to lose.
*Where do things stand with Ted delivering more documents to Seth Morgan and the House??? There are only 37 days left until a balanced budget…Bueller…Bueller…Anyone??? My guess is the Senate just “punts” and uses the same fairy tale numbers everyone else has been using and the real budgetary process will not occur until Conference Committee.
*Who in their right mind would want to be on this Conference Committee? Mark my words. Additional revenue will be a part of what comes out of Conference Committee. For the dimwits in the crowd…A TAX INCREASE. Who will bring it up first? Who gives a shit. If Ted Strickland, Bill Harris and Armond Budish all shot you with a gun at the same time would it really matter whose bullet actually killed you? If I were a member of the legislature that Committee would be the last place I would want to be. Need a good analogy? Remember what happened to GOP members of the US House Judiciary Committee who presided over the Clinton impeachment?
*Where do things stand with the Husted residency issue? Brunner knowingly let Husted vote from his Kettering address. She has had weeks (or months depending on which date you choose to start the clock) to inform an opinion on this issue. What is she waiting for? Why is the press not writing about this? At what point in time does the press say: Enough is enough Jennifer Lee. You have been sitting on this for so long that it is starting to look…dare I say…politically motivated that you are dragging your feet from making a decision on this issue. I would argue that at some point in the time the issue will come down to either one of three things:
1) Brunner has not had enough time to review the material (aka “do the job she has been elected to do”) because she is campaigning for the US Senate full time. Verdict: Not good
2) This issue is too complex for her to understand (aka “our chief elections officer rides the short bus”). Verdict: Not good
3) Brunner knows exactly what she thinks about this, but is not going to rule on it until she starts to feel some serious pressure from the mainstream media and until she feels like she is in a pressure cooker then she is not going to do one single thing on this residency issue (aka “the mainstream media is full of my best buddies and are in fact complicit in this situation because they know I am sitting on my hands for 100% political reasons, but are not calling me on it because they love me & not Jon”). Verdict: Not good
*Who will Kasich pick as an LG candidate? Some of you may poke fun at me, but I think he could do way worse than Sandy O’Brien. She helps him gender-wise, geographically, age-wise, she is a proven vote getter, she has conservative credentials. Kasich can’t pick Rob Montgomery or Joe Testa (no “X + Y” with either of those picks). Team Kasich would not let him pick Coughlin even if he wanted to pick Coughlin. Pick a “no name” out of the House or Senate…where does that get Kasich??? Betty Montgomery would be a great pick, but my guess is she wouldn’t do it and Team Kasich would quash that as well. I am a HUGE fan of Judge Lisa Sadler, but I doubt they could get her to leave the Court. Janet Creighton (former Mayor of Canton) would be an interesting choice as well. Deborah Pryce would also be a great pick, but I don’t know if Kasich could talk her into it.
*What in the world is Josh Mandel waiting for re: his announcement for Treasurer? This guy has been absolutely nowhere since the Lincoln Day speaking circuit ended.
*Will a wild card emerge on the statewide scene? I’m always wary of someone like Tim Grendell surfacing late and being the “turd in the pool” for our party. He could really cause some fits for someone in a primary. What does Rob Montgomery and his hundreds of thousands of dollars do when he gets passed over for Goodman’s seat? Will he do the right thing and run for Testa’s seat or Marilyn Brown’s seat or will he also be a “turd in someone’s pool”?
*If Husted wins his residency issue will Sandy O’Brien stay in the race or will she bow out? If Husted loses his residency issue in Court then look for this primary to have 3-5+ candidates in it (sans Husted with Sandy probably being the only female & the frontrunner) and if Husted wins his residency issue then I hope Sandy will do the right thing for the Party and bow out gracefully so Husted can keep his finances intact for the General Election.
*How funny was the Coughlin letter to Kevin DeWine? It totally cracked me up. This is such a weird election. If Kasich announces, says he is running and then bows out this winter then everyone (including me) will be ecstatic that Coughlin stayed in this race for Governor. On the other hand, if Kasich announces on 6/1, says he is running, does his evaluation of the landscape this winter and decides that he is in the race to stay and he actually files to run for Governor (remember that running & filing are as different as dry humping & doing the deed) then everyone (including me) will want Coughlin to disappear from this race ASAP and under no circumstances file for Governor in a primary vs Kasich.
*How excited is Mary Taylor about the prospects of running against David Pepper???
*Where did Petro go? What is he doing? Is he really going to try to be Chief? Say it ain’t so, Jimbo!
*Where is the Mike DeWine for AG announcement? This guy is the only person more invisible than Mandel lately. Will Yost stay in the race if DeWine announces? What will Yost’s fundraising look like? What will DeWine’s fundraising look like? I know the conservatives are out for DeWine blood even more than they are out for Husted or Stivers blood, but I’m wondering if the money folks have forgiven DeWine (I’ve heard yes & I’ve also heard no)? How about the people within the GOP leadership & grassroots ranks? How much damage control and mea culpas does DeWine need to do? My guess is A LOT. Here is the problem with that though: DeWine & company don’t think he has to apologize to anyone for anything whatsoever and apologizing is not very Senatorial (Newsflash: you are no longer a Senator so you can afford to skip being Senatorial). That makes for a very ugly “oil & water” dynamic at the onset of a campaign. There are a lot of people who want to forgive Mike DeWine and give him a second chance, but the only way they are going to do that is if they get an apology or a mea culpa first. If DeWine gets into this thing without doing some apologies and some mea culpas first then I think he is going to be like a farmer trying to plant seed on hard ground. Till the soil first, Mike. Till the soil first. Mea culpas and apologies THEN show them your poll numbers vs Yost and Cordray. Don’t skip the apologies and mea culpas and then hit everyone over the head with your great poll numbers. I think that approach will fall on mainly deaf ears. My path is the path to becoming AG and positioning yourself for a rematch vs Sherrod Brown. No mea culpas & no apologies will put you in a world of pain & misery.
*If Budish can get away with what he is getting away with in the House that begs the question can Ted, Boyce, Cordray & other dems also get away with these practices as well? If so, how in the world can the GOP possibly compete with dollars if the party in power can put out a “for sale” sign with no media or legal repercussions???
*Does Chabot beat Driehaus in a rematch? How about Stivers vs Kilroy?
*What else am I missing?
Quote of the Day
"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."
-- Edmund Burke
For our readers who have kids
From "Always Looking Up" by Michael J. Fox:
There's a truism about parenting that goes like this:
When your first baby is sucking on a pacifier and spits it out onto the floor, you pick that pacifier up, and before returning it to your child's mouth, you immerse it in boiling water to make sure you've destroyed and traces of bacteria.
With your second child, you realize a quick pass under a stream of warm tap water will do the trick.
With your third child, you pick the pacifier up off the floor, lick it yourself, and pop it back in the kid's mouth.
With the fourth, you let the dog lick it.
May 25, 2009
Remember...
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Death of the coin? Personally, I hope so!
To maintain our stock of hard currency, the US Treasury creates hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new bills and coins each year. The cost to US taxpayers in 2008 alone was $850 million, more than 2/3 of which was spent minting coins that many of us regard as no more than a bulky, clunky nuisance. To add insult to injury this process used up nearly 15,000 tons of zinc, 24,000 tons of copper, and over 2,500 tons of nickel.
Coins are an expensive, wasteful medium of exchange that I personally hope will disappear in our lifetime.
With the rise of the use of credit & debit cards, PayPal, EagleCash, FreedomPay, use of cell phone as a point-of-sale terminal (already widely accepted method of payment in places like South Korea) and other advancements in technology that are in testing at the time of this blog post I hope the death of US hard currency is coming...and soon.
