Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Ohio’s 4th Congressional District representative Jim Jordan (R-Urbana) held a town hall meeting at the University of Findlay on Monday September 19th. In the reddest of red areas of Ohio he still had to spar with some unhappy constituents. They peppered him with questions about the failed Republican economic agenda and the continued outsourcing of jobs. Jordan’s unsupported tired GOP talking points didn’t seem to help.
Just hearing the talking points makes me angry so forgive me if I sound angry. Someone will make a comment or bitch about “welfare queens” and about how these lazy poor people have wide-screen TVs and microwaves. If these comments come from friends and family, who should know better, it really drives me insane. Finally my hometown newspaper did me a solid and now I have some facts and figures to fight those biased FOX “news” talking points about poor people.
On Monday, August 22nd, the Findlay Ohio Courier had an article talking about the recent retirement of Judy Wauford, as director of the Hancock County Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). In Ohio, ODJFS handles the state and federal social safety net programs like unemployment, Medicaid, food stamps, and child support enforcement. The piece included some actual facts and data about the poor in Hancock county.
If you see a report on the news of Governor Kasich sitting in almost empty room complaining and blustering about the Unions not showing up to work out a compromise to get state issue 2 off the ballot – it was all great theater – a lie but great theater. He refused to talk back in February when SB-5 was forced through. Contrary to his bluster it looks like the Republicans are divided not the unions.
Here is a clip from the Capital Blog of the Kasich photo-op Friday (8/19/11):
Governor John Kasich and the other cheap labor conservative members of the GOP talk about how the state isn’t business friendly. To them that means attacking the unions, middle class, and elderly while out of the other side of their mouths, the Governor and his buddies have given big businesses tax credits and other hand outs. Most don’t really need them. That is exactly what happened in the case of Findlay’s Marathon Petroleum.
Marathon, founded in Findlay, and still having 1,600 employees in the city along with a large office complex downtown, seemed to be in “urgent need” of help from the state government in the form of tax credits. This is the same oil company that made net profits of $2.6 billion in 2010 and nearly $1 billion more in the first quarter of 2011.
Today is Memorial Day when we honor those who have served and/or died for this country. One of those military members was my Dad. He was killed in Vietnam in 1968. To those members of the Armed Forces who answered their country’s call, I tip my hat and say thanks.
This is my Dad in his dress uniform:
