More than a month after Election Day, I finally received a response to my complaint about the vote-switching I witnessed as a poll worker. I personally witnessed a TXS voting machine change votes from Republican candidates to Democrats. I contacted Attorney General Mike Dewine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, The Wayne County Board of Elections, The Ohio Republican Party, and the Republican National Committee. DeWine's "Constituent Services" letter is the first (and only) response I have received.
DeWine's letter says that, "The Secretary of State, as is normal practice, has directed that county board of elections to also conduct a post-election audit to make sure that the voting equipment functioned properly. They will also review your other concerns as addressed in your correspondence to the Attorney General's Office."
Raise your hand if you think this will be a serious investigation. If they were serious, the machines in questioned would have already been secured and investigated. Sounds like business as usual.
December 10, 2012
Dear Paula,
Thank you for contacting the Ohio Attorney General's Office with your concerns about the malfunction of voting machines and other suspicious activity at you're Ohio voting location.
All voting machines that are used in the State of Ohio are certified by the State Board of Voting Machines Examiners.
This board tests and certifies both the hardware and software. Before voting machines are used, they go through an extensive testing called Logic and Accuracy testing. This makes sure that the machines properly function and accurately record any vote that is cast. The Secretary of State, as is normal practice, has directed that county board of elections to also conduct a post-election audit to make sure that the voting equipment functioned properly. They will also review your other concerns as addressed in your correspondence to the Attorney General's Office.
If you have any additional questions regarding the tests done on the machines, you can contact the State Board of Voting Machines Examiners within the Ohio Secretary of State's Office at 614-466-2655. Questions for the Secretary of State can be directed to the Secretary of State at, 1-877-767-6446
Again, thank you for contacting our office. If we can ever be of assistance to you in the future, feel free to contact us.
Very respectfully yours,
Mike DeWine Ohio Attorney General
Paula K. Armentrout Director of Constituent Services 614.644.2329
-----Original Message-----
Paula Bolyard 15952 McCallum Drive Doylestown, OH 44230
November 13, 2012
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine 30 East Broad Street 14th Floor Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Mr. DeWine,
This past Tuesday, November 6, 2012, I was a Precinct Election Official (PEO) and Republican Presiding Judge in Chippewa Twp., Ohio, Precinct 2 and witnessed the following incidents:
Voter “D” (identity withheld) announced that the machine upon which he was casting his ballot (Unit 0) had changed his vote from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama. At his request, I investigated, along with Democratic PEO Doris Jones. We saw that the machine showed a vote for President Obama. There was no way to determine at that point whether or not the machine had done this on its own or whether the voter had inadvertently touched the wrong spot and voted for Obama. We cancelled his vote and gave him another encoder card, allowing him to vote again. He proceeded to vote without incident and I called and reported the problem to Sue Ann Donahoe at the Wayne County Board of Elections. She said that it may have been a problem with his long sleeves brushing against the touchscreen and changing the vote. She said they had been having some issues with men with big sleeves. I was instructed to turn off the unit it and turn it back on, which I did. Voters continued to use it without further issues.
Not long after that incident, I was on the phone with the Sue Ann working through a problem with a printer on Unit 2. “T”, who was voting on Unit 1, alerted me to a problem with her machine. I again called Doris Jones to assist. The voter said that the machine would not allow her to choose any Republican candidates. Every time she would touch a box for a Republican candidate (including Mitt Romney) the machine would deselect her choice and place an “X” in the box for the Democratic candidate. I was on the phone with Sue Ann throughout this incident, so she heard the entire conversation. I asked the voter to uncheck all the boxes and try again. She repeated her attempt to vote for Republican candidates, only to have the machine change all of her votes to Democrats, this time with two poll workers watching and a board of elections official on the phone. We cancelled the vote and allowed her to cast her ballot on another machine. The malfunctioning machine was immediately closed, along with the first machine that had reported problems. The board of elections sent two new units to replace them. The events were documented on our precinct event log, which Doris and I both signed; Sue Ann said she had also documented it.
While I will not speculate on the reasons for the vote switching, as a Wayne County voter, an Ohio resident, and a Precinct Elections Official, I would like to ask for a formal inquiry into the incidents and request examinations of the two affected machines in my precinct as well as any other machines in the state that received similar complaints. The machines should be immediately secured and kept in a safe location until a time that they can be examined by independent analysts under the supervision of bipartisan witnesses and the board of voting machine examiners.
Confidence in the integrity of our elections is a matter I take very seriously in my capacity as a Precinct Elections Official. I work hard to project the confidence I have had in our system through professional conduct in my precinct on Election Day. Tuesday, my confidence in that system was shaken after seeing a voting machine changing votes before my eyes. I have no idea if it had happened before the reported incidents or if it had happened on other units in our state and that has made me question the outcomes of very important races and issues that our state voted on this week. It’s vital that you thoroughly investigate to determine what went wrong and that you find out how widespread the vote switching was so that you can assure Ohio voters that the problem has been fixed and that it never happens again.
On Election Day, November 6, 2012, I was a Precinct Election Official (poll worker) and Presiding Judge in Wayne County, Ohio. I personally witnessed an electronic voting machine switching votes from Republican candidates to Democrats. Early Friday morning I sent the following letter to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. I sent an identical letter to Nancy Hamilton, Director of the Wayne County Board of Elections. While I don't have any expectations that it will change the outcomes of any of the elections in Ohio, I am very concerned about the reliability of the voting machines and want to see a thorough investigation into the matter. For the record, I'm not speculating about the cause of the vote switching, only testifying to the fact that I saw it happen. And I'm urging the Secretary of State to launch an immediate, thorough investigation.
President Obama and other Democrats are staking Ohio on the auto bailout. If they win here, it will be because they convinced Ohio voters that the economy is improving on President Obama's watch and that Ohio is leading the way as a result of the auto bailout. They're willing to give him another four years to do the same with the rest of the country.
Obama and his Democratic cohort in Ohio have made some bold claims about the success of the $80 million federal bailouts of General Motors (GM) and Chrysler. President Obama told an audience in Dayton that, "If Mitt Romney had been president when the auto industry was on the verge of collapse, we might not have an American auto industry today." In a campaign speech in Toledo in September, Obama said that, “The American auto industry supports one in eight jobs in this state.” This number has been so widely reported that it is never questioned. In a campaign ad, Sherrod Brown claims that the bailout “helped protect 848,000 Ohio jobs” and in a recent debate, he credited the auto bailout with Ohio’s improved unemployment rate, saying, “These are real jobs and real people that's [sic] a big part of the reason that before the auto rescue, well in early 2010, the unemployment in this state was over 10.5%, now it's under 7%."
Not everyone agrees with these rosy jobs reports. In a September interview with theNew York Timesdiscussing the improvement of Ohio’s unemployment numbers, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the Democrats’ numbers are inaccurate:
“But you look at the numbers. I mean, it’s like 700 direct auto jobs. Give them the benefit of the doubt — throw in a couple thousand. But we’re almost at 100,000 new jobs. So I’m glad the auto jobs are here, but let’s not try to paint a scenario that’s not accurate.”
On October 23rd, Kasich told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News that the state had actually lost automotive jobs:
“If you want to look at the auto jobs, we’re actually down 500 auto jobs. So of the 112,000 jobs that have been created, we’re thrilled with the auto industry, that it’s here, there’s been investments, and that even though the footprint is smaller, it’s still strong. I love that. But the numbers just don’t bear out and people should understand that.”
Since the country’s most coveted swing state may be won or lost on the issue of the auto bailout, it’s important that we weigh the numbers in the campaign speeches against the published data related to the auto industry.
Democrats are Cooking the Books on Ohio Jobs Numbers
Claim #1: The Auto Industry Would Have Collapsed Without the Auto Bailout
The president claimed that “The auto industry was on the verge of collapse,” and claims in his Ohio campaign ad that, " "Without President Obama's rescue of the auto industry, Ohio would have collapsed." The fact is that only GM and Chrysler were on the verge of collapse. Ford, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai, BMW and Mercedes Benz managed to navigate the same economic conditions GM and Chrysler were laboring under without needing bailout loans. In May of 2008 GM and Chrysler accounted for one-third of auto sales in the U.S.
Auto jobs certainly represented a large percentage of the industry and their “collapse” would have had a serious impact on the economies of auto-dependent states. But saying (or implying) that the entire auto industry was on verge of collapse, or worse, that "Ohio would have collapsed" is an enormous exaggeration. In addition to the implication that all auto manufacturers would have been affected rather than just those representing one-third of U.S. auto sales, the statement also implies that the automotive sector would have collapsed and disappeared completely. That wasn’t an option being discussed at the time. If the bailout had not occurred, Chrysler and GM would have gone through a structured bankruptcy and like other companies who find themselves overextended and heavily in debt, they would have been forced to make some painful decisions, many of them at the expense of union members and pensioners. The bailout avoided many of those difficult decisions, or rather, kicked them down the road for now.
Regardless, Chrysler and GM would not have vaporized into thin air under the traditional bankruptcy scenario. Ohio Senator Rob Portman wrote an editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week defending Mitt Romney's structured bankruptcy plan for the auto giants: “Romney's goal was to see these companies shed excess costs, clear out old debts and regain their competitive edge, so they could keep building cars and making payroll.” The former president of Chrysler recently said that Romney's plan would have left the companies "better positioned to provide the long-term job security for their employees that only true competitiveness can guarantee, and to grow, adding thousands of new high paying American jobs." Under either scenario, GM and Chrysler would not have gone out of business, though it is fair to debate how they would have been impacted under the various bankruptcy proposals.
Fact: The "entire auto industry" was not on verge of collapse and the entire state of Ohio would not have "collapsed" but for the federal auto bailouts as structured by President Obama.
Claim #2: The Auto Industry Supports One in Eight Jobs in Ohio
The next claim is that the “American auto industry supports one in eight jobs in this state.” As previously stated, this statistic is cited frequently by campaigns, politicians, and the media and is never questioned. However, the numbers just don't add up. According to a September, 2012 Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services report, “Ohio's nonfarm wage and salary employment decreased ... to 5,187,600 in August.” So we know there are around 5.2 million jobs (total) in Ohio. One in eight of these 5.2 million jobs would be 12.5%, or 650,000 jobs that the auto industry would support if the “one in eight” claim were correct. A February, 2011 report on The Ohio Motor Vehicle Industry from Jobs Ohio said, “The Ohio motor vehicle industry directly employed almost 120,000 workers – 1.8 percent of all employees in the state.” This is far below our target number (650,000), but then the report goes on to list a cluster of industries related to capital equipment, parts, materials, and facilities:
An estimated 37,400 workers in Ohio made goods incorporated into motor vehicles, bodies, trailers and parts, or that were used in the process. Examples of the former include windshields and windows, springs, nuts, bolts, bearings, valves, electronic parts, paints and metal coatings, adhesives, and sealing devices. These were often made of steel, aluminum, glass, rubber, plastics or other chemical products. Examples of the latter include capital equipment and paperboard products.
About 4,100 more non-manufacturing goods-producing jobs – notably in construction – depended on presence of the motor vehicle industry here. Altogether, 161,400 goods-producing jobs in Ohio – 2.4 percent of the total – were directly and indirectly related to motor vehicle production.
Jobs Ohio then adds service sector jobs that are tangentially related to the auto industry:
“An estimated 237,100 – 3.6 percent of all workers – were in service industries related to motor vehicles goods, notably including (but not limited to) transportation, warehousing, wholesale and retail trade, financing and insurance, and repair.”
The report concludes that “Combining the impact of the manufacturing and service clusters means that a total of six percent of all Ohio workers –398,500 of 6,615,100 – were directly and indirectly depended [sic] on the motor vehicle industry cluster for their livelihood.”
So at most, 398,500 jobs (120,000 directly related) are affected by the auto industry rather than the claims of 650,000 (one in eight). The number is inflated by over 250,000.
The 2011 Jobs Ohio number for “all Ohio workers” is much higher than the 5,187,600 cited in the ODJFS report as “nonfarm wage and salary employment,” so we cannot make an exact comparison. But even if we use the lower ODJFS number of 5,187,600 total jobs in Ohio, with 398,500 of them being auto-related, the Democrats' numbers don't add up.
Fact: The highest possible percentage of jobs related to the auto industry in Ohio is 7.6%, far below President Obama's and other Democrats' claims of one in eight jobs, which would be 12.5% of jobs in the state, or around one in thirteen.
Claim #3: The Auto Bailout Protected 800,000+ Ohio Jobs
Next is Sen. Sherrod Brown’s claim that the auto bailout “helped protect 848,000 Ohio jobs.”
The concept of protected jobs is an elusive target. There is no way to know what might have happened under a scenario than never actually occurred. Anytime a claim is made that jobs were “saved” or “protected” it’s important to view the claim with the understanding that there is no way to prove whether or not it is true. And at the time of the bailout there was no scenario being proposed that would have resulted in GM and Chrysler completely disappearing from Ohio. It's important to also consider that GM and Chrysler only accounted for 30% of the auto market, so at most, 30% of auto-related jobs (119,550) would have been affected (see previous point).
Fact:There are at most 398,500 auto-related jobs in Ohio, so the claim of 848,000 saved jobs is wildly exaggerated on its face. Even if Sen. Brown were to include all auto-related jobs in the state, no reasonable person could conclude that all the jobs related to the non-GM/Chrysler 70% of the market would have disappeared if Chrysler and GM had not been bailed out, even under the bizarre scenario of both of those companies completely disappearing from the state.
Claim #4: The Auto Bailout is Responsible for the Drop in Ohio's Unemployment Rate
Democrats, journalists, and political pundits have bandied about various versions of Sherrod Brown’s claim that, “a big part of the reason that before the auto rescue...the unemployment in this state was over 10.5%, now it's under 7%.” Ohio has enjoyed a lower unemployment rate (it’s actually 7.2%) than many other parts of the country, though it is still too high, with 400,000 Ohioans still out of work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides historical employment data for the automotive industry, so we can at examine how the industry was affected during the period of the government bailout and the aftermath. The BLS does not calculate all the jobs that are indirectly connected to the auto industry, but their statistics give us a snapshot of the conditions in the state:
State: Ohio Area: Statewide
Supersector: Durable Goods
Industry: Motor Vehicle Manufacturing
Data Type: All Employees, In Thousands
State: Ohio
Area: Statewide
Supersector: Durable Goods
Industry: Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing
Data Type:
All Employees, In Thousands
In January, 2008, at the height of the auto bailout crisis, when GM and Chrysler were negotiating the terms of their bankruptcy with the federal government, there were 99,800 jobs in Ohio in the motor vehicle manufacturing and parts sectors. By August of 2012, the number of jobs had decreased to 74,700, a loss of 25,100 jobs. Again, this number does not include indirect jobs related to the automotive industry, such as insurance companies, auto repair shops, retail establishments, etc. But it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where motor vehicle and parts manufacturing jobs decreased and gains were realized in other sectors of auto-related jobs. There is no reasonable way to conclude that automotive jobs (and therefore the auto bailout) are improving the state’s unemployment numbers when the state has actually lost 25,100 jobs in this sector.
Fact: Claims that the state’s unemployment numbers have improved due to gains in the automotive industry as a result of the federal auto bailout are false.
Claim #5: Mitt Romney Would have Let the Auto Industry Go Bankrupt
This claim isn't a result of the Democrats' poor math skills, nevertheless, it has been an important factor in the Battle for Ohio. A centerpiece of the Obama campaign in Ohio (and other Democratic campaigns in the state and across the country) has been that Mitt Romney would have let GM and Chrysler go bankrupt. An ad running in Ohio says just that, leaving out the fact that the car companies did, in fact, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy:
Man #1: "Without President Obama's rescue of the auto industry, Ohio would have collapsed."
Man #2: "Mitt Romney would have just let us go under. Just let 'em go bankrupt."
Mitt Romney: "That's exactly what I said. The headline you read which is 'Let Detroit go Bankrupt.'"
Woman: "For him to say, 'Let 'em fail...'"
Man #2: "How you say something like that is just beyond me."
Narrator: "Mitt Romney. Not one of us. "
This has been a grand deception in Ohio. For starters, the headline "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" in Gov. Romney's editorial was actually chosen by New York Times editors, likely to cast Romney in a negative light. Since then, Democrats have led voters to believe that while Mitt Romney would have let the auto companies go bankrupt, by omission they have led voters to also believe that President Obama's auto bailout did not result in bankruptcy. This is completely false, but most voters don't know it because Democrats don't use the words "bankruptcy" and "auto bailout" in the same sentence unless they are attacking Gov. Romney. Further, they have falsely led the public to believe that Romney did not favor any government role in the restructuring of the auto companies.
Sen. Rob Portman dispelled these myths his Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial last week titled, “A Tale of Two Bankruptcies.” Portman wrote:
“The fact is that in spring 2009, President Obama actually did take General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy. So when the president claims that Mitt Romney wanted the carmakers to undergo bankruptcy, he's describing his own policy...
"...To save those jobs, Romney proposed a restructuring plan -- backed by a government safety net -- that would have put GM and Chrysler back on their feet. He called for new management and cuts in executive pay and perks. And he proposed that the federal government provide a path forward for the carmakers by backing up loans to help them after bankruptcy filing and assuring car buyers that warranties would be honored.”
FACT: The Democrats have been deceiving voters on the issue of the auto bailout bankruptcy for months and continue to do so.They do this despite the fact that even the liberal-leaning PolitiFact has debunked it.
Conclusion
Ohio is Ground Zero in this year’s presidential race and also has several of the country’s most contested congressional and senate races. Part of the Democrats’ strategy in the state has been to convince Ohioans that the state would have been devastated without the auto bailout, which President Obama, Sen. Brown, and nearly every Democratic congressional candidate supports and which Gov. Romney, Senate candidate Josh Mandel, and most Republican congressional candidates have opposed. Moreover, some candidates and many in the media have claimed that the state’s improved economy and plummeting unemployment rate should be attributed to the auto bailout. For the most part, Republican candidates have not argued with these assertions. Governor Kasich has been one of the lone voices in the wilderness saying that the claims and numbers are overstated.
In studying government reports on jobs in the state, the only realistic conclusion is that the Democrats are overstating and, in some cases, wildly exaggerating their claims. Worse, many of their claims are outright deceptive. While the state would have certainly been negatively affected by a traditional bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler (without the $80 million government bailout), the imagined doomsday scenario in which the companies would have been vaporized, along with 800,000 jobs, is the stuff of magical campaign thinking. Or perhaps good old-fashioned fear-mongering. In the worst case scenario (a scenario never proposed by Gov. Romney) if both GM and Chrysler had disappeared completely and taken with them every last auto-related job corresponding to their 30% share of the market, around 120,000 jobs would have been lost. Most certainly, this would have been devastating for the state and individual families. But it is irresponsible to prognosticate that an entire industry (or an entire state) would have collapsed with the loss of these jobs. In addition, Gov. Kasich claims to have added 112,00 jobs since taking office in 2010, so the state may not have been significantly worse off in raw job numbers.
Democrats are using the auto bailout to take credit for the improved unemployment numbers in Ohio when the jobs statistics tell a completely different story. This has created a false narrative that may affect the outcome of campaigns across the state, including the outcome of the presidential election, which could have dire consequences for our country.
Words and numbers matter, and in this case, they don’t add up.
Of course it wasn't the Republicans. We all know better than that. Actually, it was NPR and their liberal buddies:
"Ohio Gov. John Kasich has appointed a television sports commentator and former Canadian league football player to the state Board of Education.
"Stanley Jackson, a Republican from Marion, attended Ohio State University and played football there, but does not appear to have graduated, Ohio State spokesperson Amy Murray said."
Kasich appointed Jackson, 37, to replace Dennis Reardon on the 19-member board and serve the final six months of an at-large term. Six months! For this he has incurred the wrath of the Left.
The Raw Story carried this headline:
Ohio governor appoints dropout quarterback to state Board of Education
...and then went on to parrot the talking points of Greg at the left-wing Plunderbund blog. I'm guessing Greg has his spandex bike shorts all in a twist because,
"Jackson is not shy about expressing conservative Christian values. "
The blogger managed to dig up a bio on Jackson from...well...he doesn't say and he doesn't provide a link, but it's from a fundraising dinner Jackson attended in April. The bio says that Jackson is the founder of a charter school (if you're keeping score at home, that's two liberal strikes against him). Though the Ohio Department of Education has no charter school fitting the description in Jackson's bio, Jackson gave an interview to WTVN on Friday and explained:
“I have been working on a charter school for over two years now. It’s a process that’s taken a while, it’s not something that you rush through.We are in place to be open in the fall of 2013, so for all the folks that are talking about that, that’s obviously not true as well.”
Strike 3 in Plunderbund's little game is that Jackson has not provided a resume to them. Or offered one to the Grand Liberal Resume God. Note the snarky, elitist comment at the end of the article:
"While we’re sure that “shares the governor’s vision on education” is the only qualification Jackson needed to meet Kasich’s approval, we’re super excited for the big reveal of the OSU star’s resume detailing his educational experience (maybe from his seven years in Canada?) and revealing the Paterson, NJ, athlete’s connection to Governor Kasich. ..Let’s just hope they didn’t entrust the resume to Josh Mandel’s office…" [emphasis added]
This seems to be an obsession with Plunderbund. If you can't win the war of ideas, bury 'em in paperwork. They've been demanding resumes from 35 staffers in State Treasurer Josh Mandel's office. As if no one on their side as ever hired anyone without a resume in hand. Mandel is running against liberal darling Sherrod Brown for the U.S. Senate. Plunderbund has been running a non-stop smear campaign against Mandel. Basically, Ohio's version of Media Matters.
But I digress. The real, actual third strike is that Jackson will be replacing SBE member Dennis Reardon, former executive director of the Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teacher's union. We all know that Ohio Democrats don't believe the maxim that "elections have consequences" and so they will fight tooth and nail to make sure the Republican agenda is defeated, even while we have a Republican governor and majorities in the legislature.
The Dispatch reported:
“On any board you want some diversification,” Kasich said, speaking of Jackson’s background and not his race as an African-American. “You want some people who will take a different look at things. The other thing about Stanley, he’d be very impressive going into a lot of schools in this state.”
"Republican state education board members Debe Terhar, Angela Thi Bennett (who was previously appointed to her seat by Kasich), and Republican Franklin County Auditor Clarence Mingo all called TheDispatch yesterday afternoon to express their support for Jackson.
Ohio State football great Archie Griffin, who is president of the school’s alumni association, provided a statement hailing Jackson as a “leader on and off the field” with “strong values” and someone who “champions a team approach.”
“Stanley has a wealth of varied experiences that bring a unique perspective that is healthy to any organization,” Griffin said."
Lifetime politician, Democrat Tom Sawyer, stroked his chin in concern, looked down his nose, and added:
“This is certainly something I suspect people will want to take a closer look at. He may be a very qualified person. His background doesn’t sound like historical qualifications for the position, but there are no specific qualifications except a willingness to work hard.”
??? Doublespeak much ??
State Senator Tom Sawyer with Former Ohio State Football Coach Jim Tressel
Sen. Edna Brown of Toledo sniffed that she would “expect a person appointed to serve on that board would have a little more of a background in education.”
Look...something shiny!!
Suddenly, on Wednesday, Plunderbund had a change of heart. It wasn't the black guy's fault, after all. It was all Kasich's fault. Wednesday's headline:
Lay off the QB – Jackson didn’t appoint himself to the State Board
Really, I am not making this up.
"[M]any news outlets have used our information as the source for their own stories (uncredited, as usual). But in a strange round of I-can-dig-up-more-dirt-than-you, Jackson has become the target of unfair attacks on his own character by mainstreammedia outlets."
(In an interesting twist, Third Base Politics blog had rightly called out the Dispatch for repeating Plunderbud's talking points practically verbatim.)(Like I said, Media Matters of Ohio.)
In other words....STOP BLAMING THE BLACK GUY!! We're liberals, for crying out loud! We can't start sounding like The Man.
BLAMEKASICHBLAMEKASICHBLAMEMANDELBLAMEMANDELBLAMEBUSH... BLOOD IS SHOOTING OUT OF MY EYEBALLS!!!!!
And besides, no one, I mean NO ONE, disses a former OSU football star in this state.
But of course, Plunderbund was the one who started the trashing in the first place with the snarky little blog post. And in the follow-up post, even implied that his association with a charter school was part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. Something like that.
Here's the bottom line for me. The work of the State Board of Education is difficult and complicated. Much of it is tedious. I've attended SBE meetings and have met with board members and I know how hard board members work. More power to anyone who would willingly take on that job.
But it's not rocket science. It's a completely different animal than rocket science, in fact. As a homeschooling mother (with only a two year degree) I learned how to read and understand the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Administrative Code. I figured out how the legislative process works in Ohio so I could advocate for my children at the state and local level. While a degree in political science or accounting or education may have been helpful, it's not necessary to understand the process of governing our schools. A college degree does not guarantee that one is educated any more than a lack of a degree means that one is uneducated.
I believe that a parent with skin in the game can be a better, more effective school board member than a half dozen others with advanced degrees who are there for the wrong reason. According to Ohio law, all that's required is for this appointee to be a qualified elector who resides in a rural district. In my book, if Jackson is reasonably intelligent, cares about Ohio's children and has the courage to stand up to the demands of the unions and the hissy fits of liberals, he will do a fine job as a member of the State Board of Education.
And one thing we can say with 100% certainty: If Stanley Jackson supported the liberal agenda and a conservative dared raise the issue of his lack of a degree, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be on the first plane to the Akron Canton Airport.
I'll let you know if there are any sightings in the area. Or if Sasquatch shows up.
What a miracle! A routine ultrasound discovered a tumor the size of a tennis ball growing outside the mouth of Tammy Gonzalez's tiny unborn baby, Lyna. Doctors feared the tumor would continue to grow and cause bleeding, leading to the death of little Lyna. They performed surgery to remove the giant tumor when Lyna was at 17 weeks gestation.
Lyna is now 20 months old and perfectly healthy. Doctors don't anticipate any complications as a result of her prenatal tumor removal.
I do have to make a comment about how completely awkward the anchorwoman sounds at the beginning of the clip saying,
"Doctors are celebrating the first successful removal of a tumor growing from a fetus's mouth."
Politicians send troops abroad to die. Then they bestow fake honor on them at home. It's called Memorial Day.
Chances are EVERY member of Congress will be back in their district, pontificating and posing as a patriot, who values the sacrifice of the fallen. Yet...
Last week an amendment to end legalized kidnapping failed in the House, 182-238.
And so began a long, detail-pregnant e-mail about Downsize DC's Repeal Indefinite Detention campaign. I understand that it's an issue people have legitimate concerns about, but that's not the point of this post.
The point is that you don't use deceased soldiers, some of whose bodies are still warm, to hustle your issue in a MEMORIAL DAY e-mail!
There are real families who have lost real loved ones and who are in real mourning this Memorial Day. Calling the Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, and Medals of Honor "fake" is crass and gratuitous and spits in the face of each and every Gold Star Family.
May God protect each and every one of our troops as they "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." And may God grant comfort and the peace that surpasses all understanding to the widows, the mothers, the fathers, the brothers and sisters and the friends of our fallen heroes, especially on this weekend that we honor the brave men and women who "gave the last full measure of devotion" for their country.
And may we all take some time out of our busy weekends of barbecues, baseball, and fun-in-the-sun to thank a veteran and a military family and to remember that the freedom we enjoy comes with a great price.
Then, on Tuesday, we can get back to our Black Ops e-mail blasts about our pet bills.
It's not that complicated. Or it shouldn't be. But if you want to apply for a prestigious "Obama Organizing Fellowship," perhaps you should really wrestle and thoughtfully consider your answer to the question below. Even if you think you already know the answer because God gave you certain equipment at birth that makes the answer quite obvious to anyone with eyes and a lick of common sense, you might not know the answer. And lest you think that it's an easy test because there are only two possible answers, understand that Democrats live in a very complicated, confusing world. And as we've seen with Elizabeth Sacagawarren at Harvard, they like it that way because it benefits them and furthers their agenda of dividing our country into a million special interest groups, each with its own special rights.
Here's what young would-be community organizers are asked when they sign up to be Obama Organizing Fellows:
I haven't spent a lot of time worrying my pretty little head about this today, but my 40+ years on this earth apparently have not equipped me with the experience or knowledge base to construct a viable answer to the question of what "something different" might be. I probably don't want to know.
What the Democrats and race/gender/class/disability/ethnicity baiters cannot grasp is the complete contradiction in their commitments to both diversity and equality. They cannot mutually co-exist - at least not through artificial manipulation of the system.
Obama for America's application makes this obviously clear:
"Obama for America is committed to diversity among its staff, and recognizes that its continued success requires the highest commitment to obtaining and retaining a diverse staff that provides the best quality services to supporters and constituents. Obama for America is an equal opportunity employer and it is Obama for America’s policy to recruit, hire, train, promote and administer any and all personnel actions without regard to sex, race, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnic identity or physical disability, or any other legally protected basis. Obama for America will not tolerate any unlawful discrimination and any such conduct is strictly prohibited."
How exactly can an organization hire "without regard to sex, race, age," etc. and at the same time consciously be "committed to diversity among its staff" and "retain a diverse staff?" If Team Obama (or any other organization with a similar policy) is color-blind, gender-blind, sexual orientation-blind (?), and not regarding any of these characteristics in its hiring practices, we must ask how they're even aware that they're diverse.
The answer, of course, is that they are not blind to any of the differences between their fellow Americans. Indeed, they seek out the differences, as the question above demonstrates, because they win elections by continuing to divide our country and pit us against each other. For all the talk of wanting everyone treated equally, without regard to race or fad minority status, the professional left is the least likely to treat all equally and without regard to their "status" of one kind or another.
We need to make an issue of this intellectual dishonesty and remind voters that our side is the side that champions equality for all "without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin," as stated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (a Republican bill, let's not forget). It is the ultimate conservative value to fight for liberty for all. The Democrats and professional left have owned this, illegitimately, for too long.
Despite their statements to the press and on their website attempting to distance the group from the five suspected terrorists who were members of Occupy Cleveland, their presence in court on Monday sent a different message. Members of the Occupy Cleveland community showed up in force today to support the "Cleveland 5" for their first day in court. According to Scene (a local hipster publication):
"By the time the hearing got moving, the rows in the courtroom were at capacity, the overflow against the walls. In the half hour or so before the proceedings began, the hallway outside the chamber was filled with about 60 people. And although adults were sprinkled throughout the group, the majority were young, most hovering around 25 and looking the part.
"It could have been a crowd waiting for a college lecture to start, coming in all the twentysomething shapes and sizes. Their haircuts ranged from tidy salon chops to slam pit shaves, ropey dreads to the watercolor shades of a kitchen dye job; beards both undergrad wispy and woodsy thick; skate shoes and loafers; a pair of handmade “Free the Cleveland 5” shirts; heart-a-gram decorated jean jackets; discount bin sport coats studded with slogan buttons; baggy graduation suits that would have fit a few years back; new dress shirts still vertically creased from where they were recently folded on a store shelf."
In addition, more evidence has surfaced tying the suspects to the group in substantive roles. Anthony "Tony" Hayne signed the lease on the $600/month, 2400 sq. ft. warehouse space the group had been leasing to shack up when they were not working a shift at the tent on Cleveland's Public Square (before the city revoked their permit this week).
Tony, the self-proclaimed anarchist, who posted as "Anthony8547" on the Occupy Cleveland Forum in February offered to pay the utilities himself, providing the group followed his strict rules (a neo-anarchist?):
RULES:
1. Dry camp
2. no more than 16 hrs at a time there.(resident occupiers will be doing 8 hr shifts at the info tent)
3: Clean up after yourself
4: Non- Violence
Good anarchists are hard to find these days. You can't make this stuff up.
Here's a video of Tony Hayne facilitating a "General Assembly" on 2/13/12. Tony, on the left hand side of the screen, wearing a black stocking cap and holding a cup of coffee, tells the group that they "got the warehouse" and that "today I brought the checks to the guy":
Below is a video showing bombing suspect Brandon Baxter leading a General Assembly on April 11th. The nice young man/community organizer has been keeping up on all the local protests, including those for Trayvon Martin, Justice for Janitors ("a cool day for us to be down here"), striking Red Cross workers, and three tax day protests (RED ALERT! He's a Tea Party member!!). Unfortunately, the sound cuts out about 5 minutes into the video, but it's clear that young Brandon is a leader of the pack:
As I documented here last week, these two have been members and leaders of this group from the beginning.
"This is a horrific example in terms of the arrests of how the movement itself failed to identify and understand the dangerous potential of people affiliated with it."
Doesn't he mean it's a horrific example of how HE failed to identify and understand the dangerous potential of people HE was aiding and abetting?
No word on whether Cummins was in attendance at the court hearing for the bombing suspects or if he is sporting a "Free the Cleveland 5" t-shirt at Cleveland City Council meetings.
Although Occupy Cleveland has a nice little statement on its website attempting to distance the group from the terror suspects who were active members of the group, directly below the statement is a video hailing the actions of suspected would-be bomber and Cleveland Occupy leader Brandon Baxter for his March 5th arrest. From the Occupy Cleveland site:
"On the morning of March 5th, Occupy Cleveland, in conjunction with labor and community organizations, marched from Public Square to the Justice Center. Every Monday morning, in a room on the first floor, there is a sheriff auction of foreclosed properties. Our aim was to shut it down. 5 very brave young men (Peter, Jonnie,Brandon, James and Ston) waited in the room where the auction was taking place for their cue...All five were arrested before they finished the mic check, but the demonstrators outside picked it up and made so much noise that people inside couldn’t hear what was going on. The demonstrators were eventually moved from the area right outside the sale, to the sidewalk, but we rallied on that sidewalk for approx. 2 hours. We may not have been successful in shutting it down completely, but we definitely brought a lot of attention to the issue, handing out flyers to everyone who walked by. The 5 were eventually cited for disorderly conduct and released. We celebrated their release, shouted “See ya next week!” to the Sheriff’s deputies, and marched back to the tent."
The Plain Dealer reports that Baxter was arrested for disorderly conduct, skipped his court appearance, and was arrested again the first week of April. He later pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. What? Occupying isn't considered community service? Couldn't fellow-Occupier, City Councilman Brian Cummins work something out?
Baxter said at the time:
"I took the risk of getting arrested because I feel the powers that be, whoever they might be -- on all levels of government and those who hold corporate power -- are not listening because not enough people are actually taking a stance" against foreclosures.
"I was hoping that this would be a great way to get Cleveland more involved by showing the potential that a small group of dedicated people can have in making an impact. Even though we are not in any government position or in Congress, we do have the power."
Apparently, Occupy Cleveland is so proud of their leader and his arrest for their cause that they don't mind featuring him on their front page along with their denouncement of his tactics. Ironic, isn't it?
Below are screen shots of the current Occupy Cleveland front page and the section of the YouTube video where Baxter appears (at the end). I've also embedded the full YouTube video of the protest at the end.
Cleveland Magazine has just posted an interview from the tents at Public Square in Cleveland with the shell-shocked reaction of the remaining Occupiers on receiving news that their comrades had been arrested for plotting to blow up an area bridge.
As I posted earlier today, the men have a clear link to the Occupy Cleveland movement and this article confirms that all five men were regular visitors to the Occupy Cleveland tent in downtown Cleveland.
“I know all those gentlemen – I don’t want to call them gentlemen anymore,” said movement member Robin Adelmann. Some of them spent time with him, manning the tent. “I never really expected that from any of them.”
One Occupier disputes the FBI account of the night of the October 21st arrests, when the FBI says the bomb plotters were trying to stir up violence in the crowd:
"Matthew Revelt, a Cleveland protester who said he was in Public Square on Oct. 21, said the affidavit’s description was accurate, except that the anarchists didn’t advocate violence. “They wanted to get people to get rowdy. They wanted to get people to get loud. They didn’t ask people to act destructive. We might’ve all turned on them [if they had]. They wanted people to get arrested that evening. They wanted to encourage that.”
Cleveland's New Channel 5 reports on the high level of their involvement:
What is perhaps most disturbing is that Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, a vocal and active Occupy supporter, admits that he knew and worked alongside the suspects, even admitting that he knew they were anarchists:
“They wore their anarchist beliefs on their shirt much more than anyone else did,” Cummins said. Baxter and Stafford didn’t talk to him, probably because he was an elected official, Cummings said.
“None were very much involved with the strategy of the movement,” Cummins said. “They were more fringe members of the group. People were perturbed with them occasionally.”
Like the guys in the tent today, Cummins had begun hearing that Hayne was a “troublemaker, a pain in the ass.” The councilman noted that the Occupy Movement’s open, often leaderless nature makes it hard to kick people out.
Cummins, a member of the Green Party, has been an integral part of Occupy Cleveland's activities since the movement began. He was present on the first day of the "Occupation," offering advice about dealing with the city's laws and regulations and helping them to secure the required permits. In October he invited his Occupier comrades for a personal visit to Cleveland City Hall (I wrote about the field trip here):
"According to #OccupyCleveland, they were personally invited to Cleveland's weekly city council meeting last night by Ward 14 councilman Brian Cummins. He is the only non-Democrat among the 19 council members — he is a Green.
According to #OccupyCleveland, "Members of the group received a tour of the grounds and sat in on a City Council meeting that turned out to be mainly about them. The group received a rousing round of applause, as well as the endorsements of many key Council members.
"Cities are going into default, states are going into default, and yet when people go to Congress we're not too big to fail, only banks are too big to fail," says Westbrook.
"The #OccupyCleveland folks shared, "Councilman Cummins made sure to highlight the group’s excellent working relationship with the Cleveland Police Department and its relentless commitment to the consensus process. Councilman Jay Westbrook of Ward 16 expressed his delight to see such a diverse group engaging in their First Amendment rights. Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell of Ward 6 said that she is inspired by the way the movement is engaging in democracy. Councilman Zach Reed of Ward 2 stressed that Cleveland is an important place to see this movement prosper. He was especially impressed with #OccupyCleveland’s steadfast dedication to nonviolence and peaceable assembly."
"Mayor Frank Jackson was also in attendance, seen shaking hands and smiling for #OccupyCleveland’s live feed of the event. The group later received endorsements from Council President Martin Sweeney of Ward 18, Councilman Matt Zone of Ward 15 and Councilman Joe Cimperman of Ward 3."
Apparently, though, the FBI doesn't see any connection between the Occupy groups and the terror suspects:
"Let me be clear, the FBI and Department of Justice are not conducting an investigation of any specific group," said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "We do not investigate movements or groups, we investigate individuals."
Personally, as someone who sends her husband to work in Cleveland every day, I would like them to be a bit more curious...no...a LOT more curious about what is going on in these camps and how many more violent anarchists they are harboring among them. Someone needs to be asking the leaders of Occupy Cleveland a few basic questions about exactly what level of violence they are willing to tolerate and at what point they would be willing to contact the authorities. Would they have called authorities if they knew what "Tony, Connor, Brandon, Doug and Skelly" had been considering? I'm not convinced that they would have. I must repeat what I posted in my earlier post: there are known members of the group who are vocally opposed to turning criminals over to the police. From the Occupy Cleveland forum:
"Some of us are morally opposed to handing someone over to the cops and consider it a violent act…I can tell you for a fact that at least one other prominent Occupier is strongly opposed to calling police, for the same reasons stated here. Even when someone has committed violence, this person says, putting them through the criminal justice system only imposes more violence.”
Meet Cleveland Occupier Brandon Baxter. A few weeks ago he was one of the few remaining protesters manning the shabby Occupation tent on Cleveland's Public Square. Today he was arrested for plotting to blow up a major bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area.
Anthony Hayne is another member of Occupy Cleveland. He was highlighted in an October, 2011 story in the Lakewood Patch about his work trying to spread Occupy Cleveland to the suburb of Lakewood.
This is my home turf. I grew up not far from the bridge they plotted to blow up and my husband works in downtown Cleveland, very close to the other potential targets this group discussed. I attended the original Occupy Cleveland event and reported it here at RedState and also reported the rape of a teen girl in the camp and the group's field trip to Cleveland City Council, where their received a hero's welcome. This is personal for me.
Make no mistake. These individuals were associated with Occupy Cleveland and the self-proclaimed anarchists have the EXACT SAME COMPLAINTS as the Occupy movement. The FBI complaint, which contains conversations between the suspects and an undercover agent are filled with the language of the Occupy movement and in fact, the suspects were originally identified at an Occupy event in Cleveland. Here are some details taken from the FBI complaint:
[CHS = Confidential Human Source UCE = Undercover Employee]
"Based on an initial report of potential criminal activity and threats involving anarchists who would be attending an event by a protest group, the Cleveland FBI directed the CHS to attend that event. On October 21, 2011, approximately 6:30 pm, and while the CHS was attending the event, the CHS identified four suspicious males with walkie-talkie radios around their necks. Three of the four men had masks or something covering their faces; one man did not. The men were wearing black or dark colored shirts, had black backpacks, carried the anarchist flags and acted differently than the other people in attendance. The four males were subsequently joined by three more males wearing scarves or towels around their heads. The whole group appeared to be together and was constantly moving throughout the crowd expressing displeasure at the crowd's unwillingness to act violently. During a briefing between the protestors and organizers, the organizers explained who would be arrested emphasizing that they wanted to conduct peaceful civil disobedience. One of the original four men turned away and said "f-k that" before the group of men walked away."
Here's a clip of the 10/21 protest in Cleveland (no time stamp):
Twenty protesters were arrested that night for violating the city's ban on overnight camping. Though I have been unable to track down the names of those arrested (The Cleveland Plain Dealer did not think it was newsworthy to report the names), there was a photo of the criminals when they appeared in court:
Are the terror suspects among those arrested? I don't know, but a couple of them bear a resemblance to those charged in the terror plot.
After the informant made contact with one of the anarchists he met at the 10/21 Occupy Cleveland event, he set up meetings with Doug Wright, and eventually, the other suspects. Here is some of the information gleaned from the investigation:
"Wright explained to the CHS that he and a group of anarchists Wright recruited had been discussing plans involving violence and destruction to physical property in a variety of ways in order to send a message to corporations and the United States government."
"The group of five to six men...wanted to knock the bank signs off the tops of the larger buildings in downtown Cleveland....they needed to make sure everyone knows that the actions was against corporate America and the financial system, and not just some random acts."
"Wright and Baxter decided that doing some kind of attack during the opening of the new Casino in Cleveland would make a good statement. Baxter went on to talk about the G-8 in chicago and the Republican convention in Tampa."
BAXTER: “Taking out the bridge in the business district would cost the...um...would cost the corporate bigwigs a lot of money not just because of structural damage to the bridge but because it’s going to stop a lot of people going to work.”
The conversation then switches gears on March 31st when Baxter, obviously distracted by his work as an Occupier/Community Organizer, complains about the City of Cleveland denying his request for a permit. He makes clear that there is overlap between the anarchists and the Occupiers:
"Baxter then discussed the fact that he believes the city of Cleveland is going to give him a difficult time about acquiring a permit for an upcoming festival. He wants to march on city hall. Baxter said, “I’m going to straight up tell the city we are not playing by your f--king rules.”
"He continued by saying he knew the city was trying to shut them down and that, “if you shut it down we will blow it wide open.” Baxter was also upset because he is presenting the festival as a family friendly event and the city will not support them. When asked about comments Baxter previously had made about how the last few days of the festival were going to get crazy, Baxter replied, “Yea, but they don’t know that.”
At an April 7th meeting, the group discussed blowing up a Klan or Nazi headquarters. The informant said he thought there was one in Wooster or Lodi, which is in "Southern Ohio," 45 minutes away (I will refrain from making comments about the state of public education in Ohio!). The group decided this wouldn't help their cause. Baxter "advised that it would not stop money flowing to the One Percent."
"Wright suggested getting a car that they can drive into the Federal Reserve Bank with C4, and blowing it up. Upon hearing Wright mention blowing up the Federal Reserve Bank, Baxter advised this is now higher scale, and wanted everyone to agree this was an open discussion."
Up twinkles if you agree this is a good idea?
The next meeting was on April 10th and they discussed other targets. They decided against the Cleveland Justice Center because they didn't want to harm "inmates" and anyways, there would be too much security. The next idea was to blow up a cargo ship in Lake Erie so they could "f--k up" some merchandise.
The group thought the Occupy May Day protest would provide not only a good distraction (police would be so busy with that nonsense they wouldn't notice a few random terrorists), but also an alibi:
“He suggested doing it during the “fest” or May 1st, because police will be downtown and not around the bridge. In order to create an alibi, Wright suggested they could be downtown and be seen, then get to the river to blow up something, and then go back downtown.”
Note that they understood that they would be "seen," implying that those at the protest would recognize them and later report they had been in attendance at the rally.
Much more damning is Baxter's confidence that he could lead the crowd away from the site of the explosion:
“Baxter stated that he is rallying in May Day so he could act as a decoy or diversion and move the crowd away from the river so that the police are removed away as well. He agreed that he could move them to another place such as city hall after Wright’s suggestion.”
Baxter was planning to use his position as a leader in Occupy Cleveland to divert attention away from the planned terror attack.
"Baxter stated that they may not have to drive downtown that day because there is talk about setting up a tent city."
In fact, Baxter and his fellow Occupiers were so enmeshed in the culture of Occupy Cleveland that they had to postpone the original pick-up time for the explosives in order to attend an Occupy "festival" in the city:
“Wright further told the CHS that the time of the delivery [of the C4] needed to be changed to either before the start of the festival on Saturday, or sometime on Sunday, April 29, 2012. Wright said that he, Baxter, and C.S. wanted to attend an event associated with the festival and could not make the meeting previously agreed upon.”
Ultimately, the group decided to blow up the bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational Area.
Their plan was to use the May Day Occupy protest as their alibi:
“Wright said that Baxter, (C.S.) [Connor Stevens] and he would be downtown at the festival and should be seen there to help establish an alibi.”
On April 29th, they met at a hotel and purchased what they though was a duffel bag containing enough plastic explosives to take down a massive bridge:
"Approximately twenty minutes after Wright called the UCE, the UCE arrived at the location and the meeting was recorded. In sum and substance the UCE arrived and asked Wright, Baxter and Hayne for the money. Wright gave the UCE $450 and counted it quickly in front of him. The UCE gave Wright, Baxter and Hayne a duffel bag containing the vests, smoke grenades and gas masks. The UCE then opened the two black boxes containing two inert IEDs. "
Occupy Cleveland has the following statement on their Facebook page:
"While the group arrested Monday evening by the FBI were associated with Occupy Cleveland they were in no way representing or acting on behalf of Occupy Cleveland or the event that was planned for later today at the GE Lighting building. The May Day Event that was sponsored by Occupy Cleveland, the North Shore AFL-CIO, Cleveland Jobs with Justice, Fight for a Fair Economy and SEIU Local 1 has been cancelled because of the alleged actions of the autonomous group arrested last night. Occupy Cleveland has had affirmed principles of non-violence since its inception on October 6, 2011."
"Some of us are morally opposed to handing someone over to the cops and consider it a violent act...I can tell you for a fact that at least one other prominent Occupier is strongly opposed to calling police, for the same reasons stated here. Even when someone has committed violence, this person says, putting them through the criminal justice system only imposes more violence."
While I'm not at all suggesting that everyone associated with the Occupy movement is a terrorist or that many (or even most) are not dedicated to non-violence, it's now clear after today's event that it can and does harbor anarchists in its midst. Spend some time on their Facebook pages (and check out the profiles of the commenters) or read through their forums and you'll find that you can't swing a cat (or a dog if you're a Democrat) without hitting an anarchist. The Occupy movement's penchant for accepting everyone's viewpoints as equally valid and its unwillingness to say anything is wrong (except the 1% and the Republicans), creates a virile breeding ground for the kind of people who plot to blow up the bridges my husband drives over on his way to work in the morning.
We have to ask, how long before before one of these plots is successful? Though our law enforcement officials did an excellent job of conducting this investigation, it seems like it's only a matter of time until one of them succeeds. When a group like Occupy Cleveland considers turning violent criminals over to police an act of violence itself, they must be considered complicit in whatever results from their inaction.
