Zone of Free Thought

Ohio is not broke! We the people know where the money is, we know where it goes. We're a consumer driven economy. We the working class buy stuff and it goes into the pockets of the investor class. Look at corporate profits. Look at Wall Street, look at the stock market. Look at CEO pay and you'll know who has money and who doesn't. The Wall street is back to where it was in late 2007. How come we the people are not back to where we were in late 2007? Why are the rich continuing to get richer even in hard times and we are ask to endure the consequences of massive state budget cuts? The answer is the same as it has been since the beginning of the industrial age, but never more emphatic than after the 2010 elections. The reason we can't ask the investor class to pay their fair share, even on a short term basis is simply because when asked, they say "no". It's as simple as that.They just say "no". They say "no" to the Republ...

I was worried in the beginning that Kasich might be smarter than he looks, that his plans were well thought out.  Now I'm seeing evidence that he's about as smart as he looks, which is not very. Like when he nominated Mark Kvamme as Director of the Ohio Department of Development and was forced to un-nominate him because of this pesky little thing call the Constitution of the State of Ohio that bars him from holding a public position in Ohio since he is not, nor has any intention of being, an Ohio resident. And how did Kasich react? He bitterly blamed “partisan politics”, not his violation of the State’s charter of government. In a statement Kasich said: "I was frustrated when some tried to raise roadblocks to his eligibility to serve based on his residency, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything in politics," He thinks holding him to the constitution is politics, whereas I think it was simply making him obey the law. I guess having no law degree, or ...

Along with stripping state workers of their right to fairly bargain wages, Kasich gave his chief of staff a $47,000 dollar a year raise for $122,990 to $170,000. That's more than the Attorney General, Speaker of the House, Auditor, Treasurer or Senate President. The Communications Director will make $120,000, up from $89,003. That's more than some cabinet holders. A RAISE of nearly $31,000. The Press Secretary will get $90,000, an increase from $69,992. A RAISE of over $20,000. And Kasich has created a state job, that didn't exist, "special assistant", paying $145,000 for Jai Chabria who was person 2 in John Kasich’s “two person office” in Columbus when they both worked for Lehman Brothers. Remember Lehman Brothers? That company that help bring the economy down in '08, where he continued to work until they locked the doors behind him in bankruptcy?, In 2002 he made the introductions using his political connections which resulted in an investm...

I sometimes like to hang around Fox News websites and check out the silly things they manufacture outrage about. Ok, not really. I follow a link to a story there and can’t resist the urge to look at the comments.  Today it was a story about the T-shirts left on the chairs for the people who came to the tribute for the victims of the Arizona massacre. First of all,  many seem "disgusted" because they say the behavior was "outrageous" in the memorial. Except it wasn't a memorial, it was a tribute. Words have meanings. A tribute is different than a memorial. Then, there was a person who said they were disgusted by… they didn’t exactly say just what they were disgusted about but added something about we used to be a great country, which I guess means we aren’t anymore, which sounds less than patriotic to me. Personally, I can still make a case for American greatness, especially in the “compared to what” way of thinking.  Yes, what a great country it was; until...

  An instant background check didn't stop this assassin, but I've read that a substantial number of people don't return to pick up a handgun after a five day waiting period. In Arizona there are almost no gun laws. Instant background checks, not the extensive ones, no safety training requirements, no restriction on the size of magazines, (the Glock 19 the assassin used reportedly had a 19 round clip and could have been a 33 round one) not even a prohibition of carrying a concealed weapon in a bar, government buildings or inside the state Capitol. In this case however, not having a training requirement may have worked out to the peoples advantage as he appears to have botched the loading of the second large clip of ammunition. How many more would he have killed? He had several clips. My humble opinion is buying a lethal weapon should be just a little harder than buying a six pack of beer. But, I don't expect Arizona to budge, I don't expect...

You still don't get it. Republicans have been making suckers out of you since the Regan days. The only stealing going on is by banks and corporations taking money from the working class, spending it on their lifestyles, stuffing the rest of it in banks, that also are just sitting on it, and investing the rest overseas. There's no reason for them to invest it here. They've bled the American economy dry. Sucked out all the cash, all the individual credit, sucked out all of the cash people have been able to borrow against their home values, and now all that is left is pensions and the social security trust fund, and, mark my word, their are coming for that too. The Republican Party has been making fools of you by selling you social issues, selling you lies and misinformation that make you believe things that aren't true, from the lie that the health care bill raise the deficit (10 minutes in google would show your that's not true), to convincing you that small gover...

 Just in case you were excited about the prospect of not being shouted at by TV commercials like a carnival barker trying to sell you Ginsu knives was trying to get your attention, I have to burst your bubble.   I see no possible reason for this. commercial producers could fix this tomorrow. The congresswoman that authored this caved in to some form of lobbying pressure is the only reason I can think of. Now they have two years to find a way out of it. It's so stupid. Most all of the time I'm either watching something recorded or behind live on my DVR. Sometimes i'm multitasking and when the commercials come on, often I would hear at least parts of it out of the corner of my ear if my attention wasn't called to it by blasting volume. Soon as that happens I grab the remote and speed through the commercials. Every time. Without exceptions. Am I way into the minority here?  I will not watch offensive commercials, and often what offends me is blaring loud musi...