No excuses for sexism, racism

“Duh, I just didn’t know our policy about e-mail bias. . . . “

That’s a pretty lame excuse for a state employee to use when caught sending sexist and racist e-mails. When the perpetrator is a state Department of Transportation employee in charge of preventing discrimination, that should be grounds for termination.

According to an Associated Press report, Robert Habern, 55, is the Equal Employment Opportunity officer for the Lima ODOT office. He was reportedly verbally reprimanded a year ago for sending e-mails joking about giving jobs to women with large breasts. This year, he was suspended 10 days without pay for sending “jokes about men kissing, a woman’s private parts and a negative racial caricature of Barack Obama,” according to the AP report.

An ODOT spokesman reportedly called that punishment “pretty harsh.” He indicated this is the equivalent of strike two, and strike three would lead to Habern's being out of work.

I understand public agencies have to follow "progressive disciplinary steps." Even so, if a person’s job is to prevent racism and sexism in agency contracts with vendors and he himself initiates racist and sexist e-mails, he is unfit for the job and should be removed from those responsibilities immediately. If EEO monitoring is an “add-on” responsibility and not his main function, that duty should be reassigned to another employee. If it is his primary responsibility, he should be fired.

Firing would be harsh, yes. So is being discriminated against for racial or sex-based reasons. This employee’s demonstrated lack of understanding of what constitutes discriminatory messaging shows he is not up to monitoring anyone activities. Not even his own.

Taking It Personally

This is the third and final of my Marine family trilogy today. People tend to think all military families think alike, and I wanted you to see a range of opinions.

By DONNIE MARLER
Marine Dad from Missouri

Reading through a number of recent online posts, I've been struck by how personally a good number of us have taken the results of the election. You know what? That's a good thing. It shows that at least we're involved citizens who both care about our nation and vote on Election Day!

Looking back over the last eight years of President Bush, I'm struck by how much the man has aged in such a relatively short time. It's easy to sit here and critique the decisions made by anyone. It's another thing entirely to be the one making the decisions.

I've tried to think of another recent President who faced so many crises at one time in his Presidency. Mr. Bush did not ask the terrorists to strike the World Trade Center on 9-11.

He did not ask Afghanistan's Taliban government to support that attack with both money and material. I for one believe we had every right and reason to both attack and destroy that same Taliban government. I shed no tears over the fall of the Afghan regime.

I don't believe he sought to take action against Iraq simply to “finish what his father started.” I believe he thought he was acting on the intelligence reports at that time. Perhaps he wanted to find fault with Saddam simply to justify invading Iraq. I don't think that's the case. I don't believe that General Colin Powell would have gone along with intentionally lying before the U.N. Security Council if that were the case.

President Bush has been as much a victim of circumstances as anything else. Sadly, he has become the face of failure in the eyes of many across the land.

Has he truly failed? The Taliban are back hiding in their caves and fearing for their lives. Saddam Hussein is in hell, answering for his crimes against humanity. Each day, the Iraqi people take over more and more of the responsibility for defending and protecting their land against terrorists and insurgents, many of whom are foreign born.

He has been much maligned over the “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard that ship. That ship had indeed accomplished its mission. That's all the banner was meant to say. It was not meant to imply that the war was over by any stretch of the imagination.

I have read and heard reported a hundred times that there were no WMD's in Iraq. Perhaps we did not find them, but I humbly submit that the northern Kurds know he had them, because he used them against their populace. I will never forget the heartbreaking photo of a dead mother and her infant lying on the street following the poison gas attack against their village. The mother's arms were wrapped around the baby, as if to cushion him from the fall when she succumbed to the gas. I can only imagine the horror that poor woman felt at that moment. I doubt she knew what was killing her, but I have no doubt that she knew she, and her child, were dying. I shed no tears over the fate of Saddam Hussein. He deserved a far worse death than he suffered.

I believe the United States of America cannot be defeated militarily by any force on Earth. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong did not defeat the forces of the United States. The American people defeated the forces of the United States in Vietnam by failing to support the war on the home front. Vietnam is the most tragic example of what occurs when politicians and President's seek to run a war, rather than entrusting that responsibility to the professional soldiers who have spent a lifetime training to do just that.

Johnson fancied himself a military strategist. Johnson was a fool, and a disgrace to his office. If any President in modern times deserves to be reviled it should be LBJ, not George W. Bush.

I believe that, had John F. Kennedy lived, our involvement in Southeast Asia would have been much different, as would the outcome.

God help us all if Johnson had been POTUS during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thank God for the courage of JFK and his resolve during those days when the world truly stood on the brink of thermonuclear war. How many times must the destiny of this land be changed by the murderous and cowardly acts of the Lee Harvey Oswalds of the world? How many lives were truly sacrificed on that terrible day in Dallas, Texas? How many promising and patriotic young men would not have died in Vietnam had Kennedy lived? We'll never know because of the actions of one misguided and delusional maniac.

I believe John McCain is an honorable man. I can't imagine the courage a man must possess to endure what he endured during his years as a POW. I can't begin to fathom the measure of honor a man possesses when he refuses to be released by his captors and be used as a propaganda tool, choosing instead to remain with his comrades in the Hanoi Hilton. America is richer for John McCain's service and sacrifice in her name.

I believe President-Elect Barack Obama will soon know the true weight of the office, and will, perhaps, better understand what his predecessor has endured for eight long years.

I trust the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate to hold him accountable for his actions during his administration. Now that the election is over, the implied “honeymoon” he enjoyed with the media is also ended. I believe that, if the media does their jobs, then we will know all we should, or could, about our new President.

I believe William Ayers should be spending life in prison without parole, not teaching young people in a university. He should enjoy the company of every member of Weather Underground during his incarceration.

Bombing Federal Buildings is not a form of protest. It's domestic terrorism, pure and simple. To my mind, William Ayers is no different from Timothy McVeigh or the fanatics who bomb abortion clinics, protesting the slaughter of innocents by slaughtering innocents.

I believe Anthony Rezko is a hood. Perhaps our new President did not know this side of the man. Many mobsters are charming. I know, I've met a few of them during my days as a union officer. I would never have suspected what they were and was shocked when the indictments came down. Perhaps I was naive? I pray to God that Obama is not naive.

I believe Bill Richardson of New Mexico would be a better choice for Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton. I also believe HRC will be SECSTATE if she wants to be.

I believe President-Elect Obama will govern from closer to the center than people think. I don't think the American people want to veer either hard left or hard right. I believe the people want the parties to work together to address some very serious issues. Cooperation is not possible from either political extreme.

I believe the United States of America is the greatest nation ever founded and preserved by mortal man.

I believe apple pie is better than peach cobbler.

I believe zebras are white with black stripes, not black with white stripes.

I believe I can make a decision and stick to it. That's why I eat neopolitan ice cream...

I believe the sun will rise tomorrow and eight years from now over the last bastion of true freedom in the world.

I believe in all the men and women serving our nation in uniform, and hope and pray the new administration treats them with the respect and consideration they deserve.

I believe we can debate the issues at hand civilly, even when we vehemently disagree.

I believe I've said enough.

Read more from Donnie on his blog, Firing from the Lip, http://kilodevildad.blogspot.com/

Listen Up, Complainers!

By LORI HOLMAN

Marine parent/OK native

Do you ever think some people are smellin' what they are shovelin'?

I suppose that John McCain's friendship with G. Gordon Liddy, or being one of the Keating Five doesn't count as "ties to extremists", "untrustworthy" "shady", "unpatriotic," etc., huh? Why is Obama voting against Operation Iraqi Freedom funding because there's no token timeline for withdrawal "UnAmerican, Against Our Sons, and Unpatriotic In A Time Of War!" - but McCain voting against funding because there IS a token request for a timeline, and voting against College funds and Veteran care "True Support Of Our Sons, Patriotism From A Real Hero!"?

BTW, don't EVEN get me started on military funding - I want my sons to have everything they need when they go to war. But that doesn't mean we can't save some money by slashing no-bid contracts to private contractors. Why not shift 90 percent of that taxpayer money to actually readying our boys for combat, making their missions more doable while they're there, then (gasp) taking care of them when they come home. But then, that's too radical, too restrictive, too. . . LOGICAL. My bad.

We won't even touch the whole "Let's actually go after the ones who keep attacking us" concept. I doubt you'd even listen.

And I know, it's just my own clueless, biased, I-don't-deserve -to-be- a-Marine-Mom- I'm-really -a-traitor -who-wouldn't-know-a-real-patriot -if-one-bit-me-on-the-butt because I voted for a "Muslim, terrorist pal, Communist, Socialist, Nazi, foreign-born, birth certificate-forging, immoral, untrustworthy (*whispering* uppity colored) man" opinion (golly, did I forget to mention he's unpatriotic?), but isn't the whole pouty "I'm going to fly my flag upside down or not at all for the next four years, he'll never be MY President, because Obama=Socialism not Patriotism” thing a bit...uh...much?

I am proud to be a newly registered Democrat/Liberal/Left-winger. I campaigned and voted for Barack Obama for President in 2008, and will do so again in 2012 if the situation warrants. I do not hate America. I do not sympathize with terrorists. I dislike extremism no matter from what direction it comes. I am not cultish (except for my support of the Marine Corps, and that's plain common sense). I am neither warmonger nor peacenik.

I do not believe Barack Obama to be either Messianic nor a benevolent father figure. I do not take lightly nor denigrate John McCain's service or POW experience - and I do not think those alone qualify him to be Commander in Chief over a candidate who did not serve.

At age 49, I am not youthful, nor am I disadvantaged; although I am ardently a believer in health care for all (a healthy society is a more productive and long-lasting society). I in no way view hard work as impractical or distasteful, nor do I prefer a hand out to a hand up to those who need it. I am highly concerned with practicalities.

I am well-read, well-traveled, and I painstakingly educate myself about events, people, politics and history. I take very seriously both my rights and the responsibilities that go with having them. I know how to use search engines, books, snopes.com, common sense and the brain that God gave me. And I'm sorry to disappoint, but I refuse to fit into the mold to which some seem so desperate to put "my kind." Those who do may kindly take comfort from someone else's failings, not mine.

Barack Obama IS our next President. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to being the same proud American I was before this whole election campaign started. It's just a suggestion, but you might try to do the same. It's less likely to cause a stroke for you down the line.

We'll take it up again in four years. Until then, TRY to have a beautiful day, y'all.

And God bless.

A Young Vet on Veteran's Day

The author sent this as part of an e-mail on Veterans' Day. It's a little late to be using it today, but I wanted to get his permission before sharing his history of the day and what it means to him.

By DAN BLACK

Please forgive the reversal of tradition; I thought that I [a veteran of the Iraq war] would reach out to you for Veterans’ Day instead of the other way around.

"Veterans Day" was once termed "Armistice Day" because Germany agreed to armistice (truce) in Rethondes, France. The first steps, the final armistice necessary, toward the Central Powers' surrender to the Triple Entente were officially taken. It was ninety years ago today, in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (actually signed six hours earlier that morning) that the "Great War", the "war to end all wars", the "war to make the world safe for democracy", and so on and so forth, saw its curtains close.

The world thought it had seen the last of war -- that was what World War I was all about. I suppose the logic must have run something like this: the world's largest, wealthiest nation states, having savagely butchered 20 million of one another's teenage conscripts over convoluted political/economic disputes, and the private interests that conceived and sustained the affair <http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm >,
having grown weary of making money, had tired themselves of the fight.

Looking back, we know better. We remember that seven and a half months later, when the peace was settled and signed at Versailles, the seeds of World War II had been sown (Hitler forced France's surrender in the same train car). And we've lived seamless war ever since.

That is the history of this day that I'm reminded of every time I hear some ignorant media pundit preach to me about veterans, showing our support, pride, patriotism, and so on ad nauseam. I am amazed, and I wish to share this with you all, that although I believe the adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same," and surely have sufficient evidence, I dare allow myself to dream, nonetheless.

And of course, it continues. National Football League star, Pat Tillman, enlisted and went Special Ops, after 9/11. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and other PR minded NeoCons wanted to use Pat Tillman's All American narrative to "sell" the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)

After deploying to Afghanistan, Tillman became an outspoken opponent of the entire U.S. policy in the GWOT. The importance of silencing an American Hero, ready to expose the game is what Mary Tillman, Pat Tillman's Mom, writes about in her book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk, the story of the final hours of Pat Tillman's life. The book shows the unanswered contradictions of DoD coverups, and what REALLY happened on the Ground.

Iraq Veteran Against the War (IVAW) Geoff Millard was the MC of Mary Tillman's book reading and Q & A, on the Congressional Hearings, the Desert Camo Wall of Silence and LIES that enshrouded the Capital Hill hearings on Pat Tillman's assassination.

Read Mary’s book. I recommend it.

Dan Black, who served in Iraq with the Marine Corps, is completing his last semester for a bachelor’s degree from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. He attended high school with our son, Augie Schroeder in Maplewood, NJ.

Steal this, will ya?

A lucky Bay Village resident chosen to sit on stage for Obama's Cleveland visit reports that, while Springsteen was playing his set, she could see Barack and Michelle dancing in the Green Room. For those of us who missed that, a Traverse City, MI, company projected this clip from the Ellen Show on the side of a building earlier this week. Apparently someone had stolen Obama signs the company had posted earlier, so management put up one that couldn't be removed.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-134736

A Vote for Change

By LORIN WALKER
Gold Star Families for Obama

As military family members, we were supportive, proud to serve, and prepared to sacrifice for our country and our values. We were not, however, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for artifice.

We are Gold Star family members, a mother, a sister-in-law, and an adult child of service members who lost their lives in honorable service of our nation. We feel strongly about the reprehensible way in which the war in Iraq was conceived. The moment that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz sat down to plan how to sell the invasion to the public under false pretenses, we lost. We all lost. The damage done to us and to our reputation as a nation has still not been fixed.

How then, could Senator McCain begin to fix what he doesn't even seem to acknowledge has happened? We remember all too well that the war did not begin with the surge. Senator McCain's rhetoric demonstrates a complete denial about all of the "loss" that occurred before that -- the loss to our nation's integrity and honor.

"Still further, what are we as a country losing when we continue to lay to eternal rest the funny kid on the baseball team and the girl who always knew how to get her little siblings to finish their chores? These aren't Rambos we're sending to do our dirty work, they are our military," said Gold Star mother Rosemary Palmer. "We will forever wonder what each might have contributed to our world."

We appreciated Senator McCain when he spoke up about Bush policies that were damaging. Yet, he still does not seem to have acknowledged (even to himself) the ongoing extent of that damage or the resulting loss of public trust -- which is the lifeblood of our entire system. The Iraqi budget is running a surplus while ours is in a downward spiral. When tens of thousands of Iraqis peacefully protest in the streets against long-term U.S. presence, it is time to change course. It is time to refocus and redouble our efforts on Afghanistan, not stubbornly stay in Iraq while being asked to leave.

Gold Star sister-in-law, Janine Gastineau said, "The war in Afghanistan has long been overshadowed by the distraction that is the war in Iraq. Every new disaster there rubs more salt in the wounds of our grief."

When combined with McCain's insulting record on veterans' issues and his tendency to be out of touch with the plight of average working Americans, it is not surprising that he is also far out of touch with the long-term loss of credibility that Iraq has caused us around the world. Only with a truly myopic definition of victory is it possible to keep talking about winning.

As the daughter of a pilot who has been missing for 37 years, I can tell you that the cost of war is decades, generational in scope. To say that we will stay until we have won, in a war that has no clear lines, an ever-shifting definition of the word win is offensive, damaging, unethical, and wrong. It is playing with words to fuel a political campaign. What must we have won to say that we have won, and what more will we have to lose?

By stark comparison to Senator McCain, Senator Obama will take the long view. He will look before he leaps. He will not sacrifice American lives lightly or use force to prove a point. He will restore an honor to the American Presidency that is based on mutual trust. He will respect our service members, their families, and the rest of the world. He will engender respect from around the globe and from the troops that will call him Commander in Chief.

And finally, there is the question of patriotism. When the political chips are down or policies are failing, those who raise questions or who point out failures are accused of being unpatriotic. We are not unpatriotic people. As one widow said to me, "I was a proud military wife for ten years. I resent anyone who questions my patriotism, or anyone else's, simply because we question a flawed doctrine that endangers precious lives. I would never back down from defense of my country in the presence of a genuine threat. However, I cannot condone the duplicitous politics of McCain and Palin. As a survivor, I am a witness to the pain that plagues the families left behind."

We are Gold Star Family Members, true patriots. We are standing up for all that is great about this nation that we love. We are standing with a leader who has inspired the nation and the world, a patriot who will command with authority and lead with intelligence and foresight. We will proudly cast our votes for Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 4th.

Janine Gastineau's brother-in-law and her husband's only sibling, Helge Philipp Boes, lost his
life in Afghanistan in early 2003 during his second tour of duty as an Intelligence officer with
the CIA's Counterterrorism Center

Rosemary Palmer of Bay Village, Ohio, is the mother of Lance Corporal Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, who was killed in action near Haditha, Iraq, on August 3, 2005

Lorin Walker, Vice President of CLW-VETPAC, is the daughter of Capt. Bruce C. Walker, whose OV-10A Bronco was shot down in Quang Bihn Province, Vietnam, on April 7, 1972. He has been Missing in Action since 11 days later (two days before Ms. Walker's 1st birthday), when a rescue attempt was aborted as Capt. Walker was surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army.

Vote YES on Issue 5

Issue 5 has to be the most infuriating piece of excrement on the November ballot. It’s a “vote-no-if –you-mean-yes” issue that will have voters so thoroughly confused that they will give up and vote ”no,” which is exactly what the promoters want. This issue would repeal the Payday Lending reforms passed by the Ohio Legislature.

I received a mailer showing the sweetest looking elderly man and woman, dressed in their Sunday church clothes, looking for all the world like your favorite aunt and uncle made vulnerable by an uncaring government. “Defend your financial privacy and financial options. Vote No on Issue 5,” it proclaims.

The mailer claims “A new state law will create a massive government database to track and limit the number of loans Ohio consumers can take out.” Yup, that’s HB 545, designed to halt the abuses of the Payday Lenders who charge 391 percent interest on short-term loans. A database included in the legislation -- the one the ad alleges will cause “Social Security numbers, retiree benefits, and personal medical records [to be] lost by careless employees or stolen by Internet hackers”—was included to make sure the lenders don’t send borrowers over to a companion lending agency to borrow money to repay the first lender in an endless debt circle.

Call it “Nanny Government” if you will, but why should we stand by and let financially vulnerable Ohioans get stuck in a Payday Loan trap? Our state legislature passed this legislation because payday lending abuses were all too obvious.

Curious thing: The website of Ohioans For Financial Freedom, the promoters of this effort, included the endorsement of a 79-year-old Seven Hills woman who, when I called her, said, “I don’t know why they would have me on that list. I never agreed to anything like that.”

I checked public records for other Cleveland area endorsers. One person identified herself as backing the issue, and the daughter of a Lorain County endorser said the woman works for Cashland, a payday lender. Records show another supposed Cleveland person living in Hinckley, OH. I left callback numbers for three on the list, but most had disconnected numbers or no data found.

Personally, I’d like to see maximums put on ALL interest rates charged in this state. Have you ever missed a credit card payment date and seen your interest rates soar? Some people have told me of rates up to 31 percent! Is that even legal?

And while we’re at it, a student told me her bank not only charges a flat overdraft fee, but it adds an $8 per day fee for additional days she hasn’t repaid the overdraft. She said the bank is taking her whole paycheck. So, now how will she buy food? You guessed it, panhandling and/or payday lenders!

If you want to keep the Payday Lending fees in check, vote YES on Issue 5.

UPDATE: Keeping Ohio's new law capping payday loans at 28 percent is an issue important enough to bring together Attorney general candidates Richard Cordray (Democrat) and Mike Crites (Republican) and former attorneys general Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery (both Republicans). Today (Wednesday) they urge Ohioans to vote "yes" on Issue 5.

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/10/former_ags_candidates_say_vote.html

Palin passes the teleprompter test

Charisma goes only so far. The real test of a candidate comes when she has to answer the hard questions based on her own record.

Sarah Palin looked strong in her speech to the Republican Convention because she can read well from the teleprompter. I believe she has experience with that and television cameras from using her college journalism degree to be a sports newscaster.

We know we can’t judge the actual speech, just the delivery, because the GOP speechwriters had said earlier that they had had to change the one they had in the can because they had expected a male candidate. (Think Joe Lieberman – turncoat Democrat now calling himself an Independent but leaping at the chance to speak badly of Democrats at this convention -- since he was supposedly McCain’s first choice.).

Palin may be showing personal charisma at the moment, but McCain is going to pay dearly for the extra baggage that is just now starting to be piled onto the counter.

When she brags about her experience, remember that she was the mayor of an itty-bitty town. “According to the census bureau, the definitive source of US population figures, the last census tally, in 2000, revealed a population of 5,469. The bureau's 2007 population estimate, is 9,780 residents. The difference between the two figures is huge, approximately 79% growth, but there is no disputing it's a small town, approximately one-twentieth the size of Barack Obama's Illinois state senate district,” according to Daniel Nasaw, in Deadline Today, GuardianUSA (from the British publication). Another source indicated the town has had a 66.9 percent increase in population since 2000. She was mayor from 1996 to 2002, so it was around the lower figure at that time.

To use just one local example, Bay Village had 16,087 residents in the 2000 census (Wikipedia), about three times that of Palin’s town. She said she didn’t have to have focus groups, etc., because she’d been in the PTA. Since she was dealing with her tiny home town, one could see how everyone certainly should have known her!

So far as her being governor, the population of Alaska is 670,053 people. The population of Cuyahoga County is 1,314,241, about twice that of her entire state. Any one of our county commissioners exerts greater executive powers.

Also, how did she show her executive abilities? A “$15 million multi-use indoor ice arena was supposed to be her legacy as the mayor. This was a very big deal for a city that had a budget of $3.9 million in 96 (increased to $5.8 million in 2002). Although the city subsidy has gone down from the initial $600k per year to about $125k per year, the sports complex still does not break even,” according to Will Rogers in The SunSpot ( http://sunspot.mercedsunstar.com/?q=node/4816)

That might make one think of North Olmsted Mayor Tom O’Grady’s attempt to place an $18 million recreation center on the ballot this year. It would have been funded by a one-eighth of a percent income tax. A major difference is that I think North Olmsted already owns the land it would have been built on.

Rogers said the sticking point in Wasilla, Alaska, "was the process of how the land was acquired. The whole thing was handled with exceptional incompetence and arrogance, ultimately costing the city an extra $1.7 million in settlement and court cost for a piece of land that would have cost only $125k if they had handled it right from the beginning in 1998.”

Check the other Cleveland blogs since it's all Palin, all the time, for the moment.

The GOP has decided to use Palin as an attack dog, so that gives Joe Biden the right to bite back. I hope she knows what that means, as he is a master at it.

SHUT UP!

Is Joe Biden really going to be Obama's VP?

Biden was my first choice presidential candidate, so Obama could give me a truly "Just What I Wanted" birthday gift by choosing Joe. Biden has great depth in foreign affairs that could add substance to the excitement of the ticket.

Most national-level politicians are charismatic. Sen. Biden has that quality in spades. A big thrill for my husband and me was being his guests for a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on Iraq. Besides letting us chat informally with the committee members, he hustled us with him as he ran to the Senate floor, introducing us to Sens. Carl Levin, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and a number of others on the way.

[UPDATE: Nothing like have USA Today confirm that 2007 meeting by referring to us by name!www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-23-biden-profile_N.htm]

We had been corresponding with Biden on plans for the US to get out of Iraq since Sen. Sherrod Brown (then a Congressman) made the connections in the summer of 2006.

An Obama/Biden ticket would be huge!

Gas increase gives consumers bellyache

$15 million a year? I could live on that. So could many of Dominion East Ohio Gas Company customers.

By giving that salary figure for the Dominion chair, Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s aide set the mood for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) hearings on the company’s rate increase request. When the crowd of about 200 mostly silver-haired men and women heard that number, they were ready to shoot first and ask questions later.

Tim Walters, a community organizer at the May Dugan Center in Ohio City, works with low-income people. At what point, he asked, does the PUCO represent the consumer? Dominion supposedly has seen profits drop because customers have been winterizing and reducing consumption. Winterizing is expensive, people have cold homes, and still the bills rise. If the service charge is tripled, will we receive three times as much service?

Our organization, Walters said, supports people in finding money for winterization and heat bills. “If this increase goes forward, we think it’ll cost consumers over $200 a year more and it’ll wipe out the money from HEAP (Ohio Home Energy Assistance Program).”

Stephen Wertheim, of 211, First Call for Help, said their 24/7 health and human services line logged 9,700 calls two years ago and 17,000 last year for utility-related help, a 74 percent increase over two years ago. He said the organization helped 1,579 seniors aged 60 and above with utility bills. Some $2.5 million went into home energy assistance in Cuyahoga County last year. The Ohio Dept of Development, which provides the money, has said there may be less than $1.5 million this year.

Senior citizen (self-described) Mary Ryan said she kept her heat at 60 degrees and lower when she left the house. “I don’t think I should have to pay so much for so little heat.”

“This increase doesn’t hurt you $150,000 a year guys, but it hurts the people out here [in the audience],” Joe Turek declared to hearty applause.

Denise added, “What can I give you? I’d give you my son, but he just got back from Afghanistan. We’ve given enough!”

“I’m preparing to open a restaurant. It’s not open yet, and we’re only paying to heat water. Even so, we still have a bill of over $100 a month,” complained Tim of Maple Heights.

An Aurora man chimed in, “Automated meter readers should be saving the company money. If not, keep the human readers until the cost gets to the point it’d save money.”
“We had to go green,” Ralph of Garfield Heights noted. “My reward for conserving -- $8,000 in improvements – is a 36 percent increase in this request. Those who use more should pay more.”

The increase is inherently unfair, protested Mark of South Euclid. “This is Robin Hood in reverse. We’ll be penalized for putting in new windows, insulating, etc. Hard work should be rewarded. This flies in the face of what I’ve learned about life.”

Garfield Heights native Gary Smith wasn’t having any of the “negative returns” argument. “Everyone has to make a profit, but there is a difference when it comes to gouging. $15 million in salary is gouging!”

“A for-profit company shouldn’t be supplying our utilities. Utilities should be owned by the people,” insisted Jim, pointing to Dominion’s full-page Plain Dealer “propaganda” (advertisement about the rate increase) as waste.

Here’s the problem, John said. “Four of five of the PUCO officials were put there by Gov. Taft” [actually three of them were], while a fellow North Olmsted resident pointed to the American 39 to 1 ratio of executive to worker pay.

If you haven’t put in your 2 cents yet, you can send your comments to: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Attn: Docketing Division, Case Number” 07-0829-GA-AIR, 180 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215.

Tell Dominion what you think

Be nice now. . . .

I have to keep saying that whenever I think about mentioning Dominion East Ohio. Since I manage several Cleveland rental properties, I deal All Too Often with Dominion, and those contacts frequently end with gnashing of teeth. Does the company EVER get billing addresses or service requests straight?

Shutting off the gas at our Lorain Road campaign office turned into such an ordeal that I actually used the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as a negotiating agent. I had spent several days sitting in a cold, dark office waiting for service personnel who never knocked on the office door, just looked at the unmarked back doors and left, even though I had propped our door open. OK, my blood pressure is zooming at the very memory, so moving on . . . .

Here's your chance to get even. . . . I mean, to make your opinions known. The PUCO is having a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday in Garfield Heights Council Chambers, 5407 Turney Rd., on the company's proposed natural gas delivery rate increase.

The flat-rate charge of $5.70 per month would be increased to $17.50 per month for each customer, but the charge for the gas used would drop a bit. That would penalize the low-users and favor high-use customers.

My husband and I had installed a geothermal furnace/air conditioner in one Cleveland residence. We've been paying about $10 a month to operate the two remaining gas fixtures; the delivery charge is generally close to or greater than the cost of the gas. Whether or not this increase passes, we plan to replace those fixtures and shut off the gas.

Not everyone can do that. Please consider speaking up.

Turning Point for Moscow?

Not all the world-wide judging going on right now is happening in Beijing. Some of it is taking place in a real world context, including the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware writes in Financial Times:
"Despite Russia’s overwhelming advantage in size and firepower in its conflict with Georgia, the Kremlin may have the most to lose if the fighting there continues. It is too soon to know with certainty who was responsible for the initial outbreak of violence in South Ossetia, but the war that began there is no longer about Georgia’s breakaway regions or Russian peacekeepers.

"By acting disproportionately with a full scale attack on Georgia and seeking the ouster of Georgia’s democratically elected President Mikheil Saakashvili, Moscow is jeopardizing its standing in Europe and the broader international community – and risking very real practical and political consequences.

"The historic precedents in this case should trouble the Kremlin. The Red Army’s invasion of Hungary in 1956 succeeded in putting down an anti-Soviet rebellion, but simultaneously unmasked the brutality of the Soviet regime and tarnished Moscow’s reputation around the world. Similar consequences followed Soviet interventions in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. If Russia continues to overreach in Georgia, it might earn a small tactical victory. But it will do so at the expense of a monumental strategic defeat. . . ."

Tell me again, why wouldn't Joe Biden be a great vice presidential candidate? He could add a great deal of depth on foreign relations.

Spreading the Word about Bioneers

Bioneers: Biological pioneers.

Sometimes a person just doesn't know a good thing when she sees it. I grew up in one of the "greenest" environments possible. I lived on a subsistence farm, in which we grew what we ate. We had two cows, two pigs, 100 chickens, and assorted other animals off and on. Our six and a half acres were more than enough for a small orchard, red raspberry patch, and three huge truck gardens. The cows and pigs provided the fertilizer, so we didn't have to worry about chemical runoff. The pigs ate the garbage, and dad took the few tin cans to the dump once or twice a year. We dried the clothes on a line. Dad had a job in town four miles away, but the rest of us only went in once a week, on Saturdays, unless it was a medical emergency. If I wanted to see my friends, I had the choice of walking or riding my bike. And I just couldn't wait to get away from that backward existence to live in town!

Now that I live in the city, those roots keep calling me, and I turn every backyard I've ever had into a mini-farm with what I like to call a "Victorian garden." If a person can't eat something from the plant, why are we growing it? My "city boy" husband puts in flowers, but they have to compete for space with my veggies. (I will admit that the amount of swiss chard last summer was a little excessive, but the red, orange, yellow and green stalks were more colorful than most flowers.).

I've started small this summer in Bay Village, since I don't know what is permitted. The tomato plants are hidden behind the pampas grass, but I'm still considering putting in some fall greens.

That's small scale "greening."

For the larger context, the city of Cleveland is becoming one of the Great Lakes Bioneers. It's hosting several conferences this fall to connect the environment with other networks to combine structured networking to national forums for environmental innovation. Among other things, the conferences aim to go beyond green to creating sustainable cities. To me, that means promoting green industry as well as reclaiming a livable environment.

I've attached a link for your exploring pleasure. If you are one of the subscribers to this blog, I apologize for the earlier, unexplained link. I'm still trying to get the hang of the posts!

Olympics give China "face"

China always puts on a great celebration. No matter what the occasion, you can always count on glorious fireworks and unrivaled pageantry. The Olympics opening was just another example of what the Chinese can accomplish.

The mindset there is that everyone must work together for the good of the country. The unparalleled pomp and circumstances give China “face” with the rest of the world. Anyone who would detract from that -- say the migrant workers who were asked to leave Beijing for the duration of the Olympics or the workers in the nearby pollution-producing factories which had shutdown for the month of August -- understands and makes way so the country looks good.

Americans can’t really get the concept of “face” because we totally buy into individual rights. If we don’t agree with the majority, we can speak up, no matter who it embarrasses or what the consequences. Consider the heckler at the Obama rally on Wednesday. He claimed his “rights” to disrupt a political event to make his point. (That he also claimed press “rights” while demonstrating political bias could make another column.)

According to Wikipedia, “Face refers to two separate concepts in Chinese social relations.). . . . Lian is the confidence of society in a person's moral character, while mianzi represents social perceptions of a person's prestige. For a person to maintain face is important with Chinese social relations because face translates into power and influence and affects goodwill. A loss of lian would result in a loss of trust within a social network, while a loss of mianzi would likely result in a loss of authority. To illustrate the difference, gossiping about someone stealing from a cash register would cause a loss of lian but not mianzi. Repeatedly interrupting one's boss as he is trying to speak may cause the boss a loss of mianzi but not lian.”

In China, as the old saying goes, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Children are taught not to make waves. When we lived in that country during the mid-80s, we had some leeway because the Chinese knew we were foreigners who didn’t know any better. Our wonderful friends tried to teach us the social rules while bending some other rules to give us the best possible view of the country.

The Hankow sports school an hour away from our home was preparing champions. Everyone was expected to be very serious about the training. Fu Mingxia, a diver training there at that time, has since won four Olympic gold medals (one in Barcelona in 1992, two in 1996, and one in 2000). The coaches were Asian games champions.

The Chinese knew our daughter had been a competitive swimmer since she was tiny, so at the age of 9, she was permitted to train there several days a week. She and I made the trip into the city and back by taxi on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and we stayed at the school on Saturday nights so she could practice both weekend days. It was a big honor for her and required school officials to put themselves out on our behalf. We understood that we had to cooperate as much as possible to continue the deal.

We quickly saw that the coaches had different discipline methods than American coaches. For example, when the children misbehaved by giggling or talking when they weren’t supposed to, her coach hit them over the head with a foam kickboard.

The coach and I exchanged English for Chinese lessons and, after we had become friends, I teased him about his methods: “Big strong man hits small children.” Bewildered, he asked, “How do American coaches do it?”

Sometimes they make the kids “sit out” an exercise or two on the side of the pool, I told him.

The next time our daughter and one of her Chinese girlfriends giggled at the wrong time, the coach first looked over at me, then told the girls to sit at the end of the pool while the others swam laps. The other child started sobbing at the shame of being singled out so publicly. She had lost face (lian).

After one lap, the coach relented and told them to get back into the pool. “I couldn’t do it,” he told me afterwards. “It was too cruel.”

At that, we compromised. Since the smack was what the other children expected, he continued to whack them with the kickboard (it was light enough not to hurt anyone), but he had our daughter sit out a couple of laps if she misbehaved. That way, he didn’t lose mianzi and the children, lian.

In the Olympics context, the glorious opening ceremony gives the nation lian, while any mention of the Tiananmen protests of 1989 or the Tibetan separatist movement could affect mianzi.

In an American context, demonstrators might seize the moment and strike while the iron is hot. What could be more effective in getting something accomplished than demonstrating while the whole world is watching? In a Chinese context, however, doing so could mean the demonstrators would face dire consequences when the foreign television cameras leave.

Burned into our hearts

Just three years ago, Ohio Marine Reserve families were frantically calling back and forth, trying to find out which of the six men attached to the Brookpark 3/25 had been killed in Iraq.

After an anxious day, we learned that the Aug. 1 fallen were snipers: Cpl Jeff Boskovitch, Seven Hills, OH; LCpl Roger D. Castleberry Jr., Austin, TX; Sgt David Coullard, Glastonbury, CT; LCpl Daniel (Nate) Deyarmin Jr., Tallmadge, OH; LCpl Brian Montgomery, Willoughby, OH; Sgt Nathaniel S. Rock, Toronto, OH.

Aug. 3, we awoke to the news that 14 men, plus a translator, had died when their transport had been blown up by an IED. Most of those men, including our son, were from the first squad, third platoon, of Lima Company, out of Columbus, OH.

The squad had earlier posed for this group picture in Iraq. Back, from left, LCpl Eric Bernholtz, Grove City, OH, LCpl Edward (Augie) Schroeder, NJ/OH, Cpl David Kreuter, Cincinnati, OH, LCpl Chris Dyer, Cincinnati, OH, LCpl William Wightman, Sabina, OH, Sgt. Justin Hoffman, Delaware, OH. Front: Living, LCpl Nicholas Bloem, Belgrade, MT, Living, LCpl Timothy Bell, West Chester, OH, LCpl Aaron Reed, Chillicothe, OH. Not shown: LCpl Michael Cifuentes, Fairfield, OH, LCpl Grant Fraser, Anchorage, AL, Spt. Bradley Harper, Dresden, OH, Cpl David (Bear) Stewart, Bogalusa, LA, and LCpl Kevin Waruinge, Tampa, FL.

(I realize that your eyes might have skipped over the names. Those names, like the men who carried them, do matter, however, to every one of their families. Especially for today, I ask you to care, too.)

So many fallen in such a short time sent shock waves through Brookpark and made this area the epicenter of attention on the human cost of the war.

Three years have passed. The level of violence in Iraq has dropped considerably, a matter that Lima Company families are thankful for, since 10 of their Reservists are in California, training to return to the battlefields in a few months. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, in Cleveland this weekend for the national Democratic platform drafting committee, said his son is among those going back.

Iraq has been pacified to the point that even President Bush is considering a drawdown of troops. The question is, can we bring the troops home, or are we just going to send them to Afghanistan?

What, if anything, have we learned?

a million miles away from home (©2006 Bob Stewart)

”Today we stop to say goodbye to the children who fought and died Far too young, and too alone a million miles away from home . . . .

Flags are flying, they gently wave; soldiers fight on, must be brave Far too young and too alone a million miles away from home . . . .”

Listen to Bob Stewart’s CD "a million miles away from home," released on Aug. 8, 2006, the one-year anniversary of the state of Ohio's "Day of Mourning."

(http://www.bobstewartband.com/mm/ )

What got you hooked?

Our son, Augie, got too into TV when he was in middle school, so I suckered him into reading adventure novels. I chose “boy books,” adventures by Clive Cussler and Robin Cook, and dropped bombshells into the dinner conversation, such as telling particularly shocking or exciting events. “Where? Let me see,” he would beg.

“When I finish, you can read it,” I’d answer. Before he knew it, he was reading every book Cussler ever wrote.

A former English teacher turned political activist has to be forgiven occasional side trips into promoting reading. I consider reading a political issue because it is connected both to quality schools and to voters who can read and understand complex political issues.

Unfortunately, parents don’t always have the time or inclination to be the nudge who gets kids into books, but you can help. Here’s an invitation to do good and take a gasoline-free trip down Memory Lane. What book turned you on to reading? Why do you remember that one?

First Book (http://www2.firstbook.org/whatbook/) wants you to share the memory of the first book that made reading fun for you, then help get more kids hooked: Vote for the state to receive 50,000 new books for children in need. You don’t have to buy anything. Voting closes at midnight on Sept. 15.

I found the first book question through The Literacy Site (http://www.theliteracysite.com/clickToGive/home.faces)
which has a “Click to Give” feature (See the ad of the side column). If you click on a button, sponsors give a certain amount to literacy projects. You can sign up for daily reminders, and all you have to do is open the site and click on a button. Obviously the sponsors would like you to browse while you are there, but there’s no pressure.

When I was teaching in a Cleveland high school, I found an ad on the Literacy Site that led me to a paperback book series written for inner-city kids. Each book cost only $1, and the kids loved them.

There are also tabs for giving to other good causes: hunger, breast cancer, child health, rainforests, and animal rescue. Click on as many (or as few) as you want!

By the way, if you share your memory on the First Book Site, won’t you share it with us as well?

Hillary and Barack: FOCUS!

Watching TV analysts tear apart the Clinton and Obama missteps tonight left me wondering why we Democrats seem to manage to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.

Jim Dean, Democracy for America says:
“The Democratic race for President has lost its focus. We have John McCain to beat in November, instead we fight each other. Geraldine Ferraro. Reverend Wright. Rezko ties. Secret tax returns. If you're like me; you're sick of it.

"We have a war to end, an economy in trouble, and $4 gas.

"With hundreds of progressives to elect at all levels of office, it's time to leave the character attacks to Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly.

"America needs to know why our candidates are better than John McCain and we need to hear it from Senators Clinton and Obama. Fight McCain, not each other.

"We have an historic nomination battle, driving record Democratic turn-out and commanding the nation's attention.

"America needs to know our nominee will fight global warming with new jobs, technologies, and investment. Our nominee will expand health coverage to 10 million kids immediately, allow lifesaving research on stem cells, and work toward health care for all by the end of a first term. We will ban torture, restore habeas corpus, and build renewed respect for America around the world.

"A Democratic President will end the war in Iraq and bring our brave men and women home.

"A long primary battle is healthy as long as we make the case for how we'll win, not how the other candidate will lose. We need to fight McCain, not each other. Join me in demanding Senators Clinton and Obama keep their eyes on the ball.”
http://ga1.org/ct/V7e7NwF1hzq8/

Remembering Sen. Metzenbaum

The man on the other end of the telephone couldn't believe anyone in Ohio had to verify that Cleveland was in Cuyahoga County. "I would never hire you to work on my newspapers," Howard Metzenbaum bellowed.

"That's OK, I wouldn't want to work for a jerk like you," the very young reporter at the Wooster Daily Record responded. (I had just been checking my facts, after all, something careful journalists do.)

Despite this rocky introduction, I learned very quickly that this easily roused gentleman was just as easily set off by injustices and affronts to Ohio's working people as he was by rookie news reporters.

He visited the newspaper office while on the campaign trail later that year, as the photo of us to the right reveals. As the only admitted Democrat on the staff, I was always assured a warm greeting from "those" politicians.

Metzenbaum, who died yesterday at the age of 90, was a liberal giant from a conservative state. His ability to earn votes in Ohio and grudging respect in Washington bespoke a maverick who knew what was important to voters: lunch-bucket issues and a strong backbone.

Rest in peace, senator.

Sharks are circling

Seeing a “Rent to Own” sign on a neighboring street this afternoon reminded me that being a housing rip-off artist is easy. Subprime mortgages are just one of the tricks. People wanting to own their own home don’t know the sharks are probably circling when they see those particular rental signs.

A slimy real-estate instructor explained how to make money on “rent to own.” First, you exact a fee of $2,500 or more for a Purchase Option. This isn’t a refundable rent deposit; the money is now yours. Make sure the renters sign an agreement to pay on time every month and exercise the option within one year. If they are late even one time, you keep the money, and they get nothing. Also, if they can’t get a mortgage by the end of the year, tell them goodbye and “resell” the house to the next sucker.

If you keep churning the house, you collect more than you’ll make on the rent, and the residents treat it better because they think they are buying it.

Just in case you have a chance to sell the house with a better deal before the end of the option period, do not register the option with the county registrar. Registering the option would make it difficult to sell the house out from under the renters if you get a good offer.

On the other hand, if you find an attractive rent-purchase deal for yourself, make registering the option mandatory. (Why let someone take you for a ride if you know the tricks?)

Is this all legal? Depends on how the “option” is written. While the recorder’s office suggests getting legal advice, the “smart” investor would remind the mark that “lawyers are in business just to block good deals.”

How do we keep this from happening? Just try to find out. A person in the Cleveland Office of Consumer Affairs referred me to Housing Court, which referred me to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann’s office, which referred me to the Ohio Department of Commerce. If my landlord was ripping me off on a rent-purchase, do you think I’d have the stomach to follow these convoluted trails through the system? Just bring on the moving boxes.

Thanks for the support

Friends,

Thank you for your support during the long eight months I was running for Congress. We ran an issues-oriented, positive campaign. Your help kept our spirits high despite the crowded field and related stresses.

Our campaign made very creative use of online media, including YouTube, blogs, and the Internet to introduce the campaign to Cleveland and the 10th District. I think the methods we used will become more and more vital to political campaigns as the world moves online.

Because we were outspent by our opponents almost 12 to 1, we had to use both new and old methods of reaching the voters. We launched the HopeMobile (For Sale, cheap!) as a traveling billboard, worked hard on door-to-door campaigning, made targeted personal telephone calls and mailings, used personal notes from friends outside the district, and made appearances at fish fries, grocery stores, and mass transit. Despite all this, it was not enough to overcome the natural advantage of sitting politicians and perennial candidates.

We appreciate every dollar, every minute of time our supporters and volunteers gave the campaign. I also appreciate bloggers’ willingness to give us a chance to get out our message. As the lines between traditional and emerging media blur, they will continue to have a greater role in campaigns and political coverage.

Will I run for political office again? Your guess is as good as mine. In the short term, I’ll stay involved while I consider what I want to do when I grow up.

Now that voters have chosen Dennis Kucinich to be the Democratic nominee, we need to put aside our differences and work together to keep his progressive voice in Washington. We need to keep our Democratic majority in the House and elect a Democratic President.

We’ll all be busy! See you on the campaign trail.

Thanks again,
Rosemary