Way to go Congressman Austria!

Our own Congressmen is working hard for us. One of the Ohio Republicans to stand against the Stimilus package...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/01/28/stimulus.html?sid=101

Obama misses an important event...

I'm not sure if this was the type of change he implied but this is the change we got.

Let me know if you see this in any printed newspapers...

Obama Snubs Nation's Heroes, Becomes the First President to Skip Ball Honoring Medal of Honor Recipients in Over 50 Years

Barack Obama may have stumbled over his words briefly during his inauguration, but he made an even bigger blunder later Tuesday evening. The newly sworn-in President opted not to appear at what should have been one of the most important Balls on his agenda that evening - The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball.
The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball was begun in 1953 for President Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration. The event recognized recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. There were 48 Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, who were undoubtedly disappointed by the Commander-in-Chief's failure to show. Over the past 56 years and 14 inaugurations, no President has skipped this event - until now.
The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball is sponsored by the American Legion, and co-sponsored by 13 other veteran's service organizations, including those such as the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Instead of attending this ball honoring our nation's heroes, Obama was busy making stops at 10 other official balls. Obama and his wife's first stop was at the Neighborhood Ball. From there they went to the Home State Ball for Illinois and Hawaii, the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Youth Inaugural Ball, and the Home State Ball for Delaware and Pennsylvania. They finished off the night with brief appearances at the Mid-Atlantic, Western, Midwest, Eastern, and Southern regional Balls.
Celebrities were a plenty at the balls, with Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Mary. J. Blige, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, will.i.am, Sting, Mariah Carey, and Leonardo DiCaprio in attendance at the Neighborhood Ball. In addition, the other nine balls also featured a star-studded lineup including Kanye West and Kid Rock at the Youth Ball, Marc Anthony at the Western Ball, and Cheryl Crow at the Western Ball.
It was the party without all of the celebrities that Obama skipped. The very people who he sought to have support him during his candidacy and campaign, who have fought to protect this country, were snubbed in favor of publicity and the opportunity to rub shoulders - yet again - with the out-of-touch Hollywood elite.

A Letter from Jarrod Martin...

Dear Friends,

As you know, Governor Strickland gave his State of the State
Address before a joint session of the Ohio General Assembly. The
Governor addressed many of the issues facing Ohio.

I applaud the Governor's efforts and look forward to reviewing the
details of his proposals once we receive the budget next Monday. I
have attached the text of the Governor's address for your review.

The text may also be reviewed online at: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1086113744/Text-of-Ohio-Gov-Ted-Stricklands-State-of-the-State-address

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the Governor's proposals
with me by e-mail at: district70@ohr.state.oh.us


Sincerely;

Jarrod


Jarrod B. Martin
State Representative
70th House District

Interesting numbers

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2009/01/voinovich-retirement-blessing-in.html


Just something to look at.

Jobless rates highest in 22 years

The Dayton Daily News reported this morning that the amount of people not working in Ohio is the highest in 22 years. In 2006 Gov. Strickland ran on a platform that he was going to fix Ohio's economy...guess we will still have to wait for those campaign promises.

On a side note, does anyone know who the Governor of Ohio was 22 years ago? Thats right Dick Celeste, the last democrat governor to serve in Ohio. Anyone else seeing a trend?

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/01/23/ddn012309jobsweb.html

Obama's BlackBerry

This is something I can almost agree with Obama on. I wouldn't want to give up my cell phone either. Think about it, no cell phone, no e-mail, no text messages. I would put up a fight too if I were in his position.


Obama not giving up BlackBerry without a fight
Posted: 11:54 AM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney


Obama is finding it difficult to give up his BlackBerry.
(CNN) — Barack Obama faces a host of challenges when he assumes the Oval Office later this month, but the hardest personally for the president-elect might just be relinquishing his cherished BlackBerry.

Those who follow Obama on a regular basis know the president-elect is constantly on the addictive e-mail device. But the Secret Service, as well as Obama lawyers, are concerned it could easily be hacked and are demanding the new president hand over the BlackBerry before he moves into the White House.

But in an interview with CNBC Wednesday, Obama made clear he's not giving it up without a fight.

"They're going to pry it out of my hands," the president-elect said.

"You know, this town's full of lawyers. I don't know if you've noticed…and they have a lot opinions. And so I'm still in a scuffle around that, but it–look, it's the hardest thing about being president. How do you stay in touch with the flow of everyday life," he added.

The Secret Service also made President Bush give up e-mail when he assumed the presidency, and former President Clinton, during whose term e-mail became widely-used, sent a grand total of two e-mails while president — one as a test to see if it worked and the second to former Sen. and astronaut John Glenn before he went back into space in 1998.

But in the interview Wednesday, Obama suggested keeping his BlackBerry is one way he could stay connected to the real world.

"I've got to look for every opportunity to do that – ways that aren't scripted, ways that aren't controlled, ways where, you know, people aren't just complimenting you or standing up when you enter into a room, ways of staying grounded," he said.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/08/obama-not-giving-up-blackberry-without-a-fight/

President of the Rotary?

In this article Chris Redfern compares being chair of the Ohio GOP to being President of the Rotary Club. "Somebody's got to do it". Is that a swipe at the Rotary Club? I'd like to see a new group emerge. "Rotarians against Redfern".

This article appears on the Dayton Daily News website on 1/17/2009.

Kevin DeWine takes over as Ohio GOP chairman
The former state representative is the first state party leader from the area since before The Great Depression.
By William Hershey

Staff Writer

Saturday, January 17, 2009

COLUMBUS — It wasn't so long ago when Ohio Republicans, led by their 69-year-old chairman, were stumping for a 72-year-old presidential candidate and gearing up for a 2010 U.S. Senate race with a 72-year-old incumbent.

In a flash, those days are gone.

Friday, Jan. 16, capped a week of generational change for the Ohio GOP. First, Sen. George Voinovich announced he wouldn't seek re-election in 2010, opening the door to former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, 53, who quickly jumped into the race and racked up enough endorsements to emerge as the frontrunner. Then on Friday, the party's central and executive committee unanimously elected Fairborn's Kevin DeWine, 41, as state chairman. DeWine replaces Bob Bennett, who began leading the party when Barack Obama was still a community organizer in Chicago. DeWine becomes the first state GOP chairman from this area since Arthur Nixon of Dayton in 1928-29.

At the committee's meeting in suburban Columbus, DeWine praised Bennett's nearly 21-year tenure, which included GOP wins for all statewide executive offices in three straight elections — 1994, 1998 and 2002.

But Republican fortunes plummeted in 2006 and 2008, and DeWine wasted no time calling for a fresh start for a party led in the 2008 election by an aging standard bearer, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"Going forward, we must be brutally honest with ourselves," said DeWine, a former four-term Ohio House member. "The last four years have not been grand for the Grand Old Party. In many ways, the party of Lincoln too often has been divided against itself."

DeWine said it's tempting to look for the "next Ronald Reagan," but the party instead should look to candidates such as Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal, Portman and Ohio state Auditor Mary Taylor. All are at least a generation younger than McCain and Voinovich.

In his luncheon speech, Portman also looked to the future, even putting together a potential GOP ticket for 2010, adding Taylor, state Sen. Jon Husted, former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine — Kevin's cousin — and former U.S. Rep. John Kasich to a list obviously including himself.

Republicans, Portman said, are "hungry for change."

"They want to take this state back," he said.

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said he doesn't envy DeWine. "I suppose being the new chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio is kind of like being president of the Rotary Club," he joked. "Somebody's got to do it."

But Redfern added that the new chairman shouldn't be taken lightly.

"It's a passing of the torch," he said. "I understand as Democrats we've got to work that much harder."


Contact this reporter at

(614) 224-1608 or

whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Tribute to George W. Bush

Senator Portman?

I've heard some stories that now that Voinovich has decided to retire. Rob Portman is interested in the job. Word also has it that he has 1.5MM in the bank to start with.

Palin speaks out!!!

Wow. Just wow!

Voinovich making plans...

Some rumors are going around that Voinovich may not seek re-election. We'll know in a few short days what the definite plans are. I'm honestly not sure but it sounds like he will be making an announcement Sunday night to his close personal friends and then to the public Monday night.



http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2009/01/voinovich_to_tell_donors_about.html

2008 in review

These predictions aren't all necessarily related to politics but I thought they were interesting to read and see what some folks had to say about 2008.

The 10 Worst Predictions for 2008



Posted December 2008

Prognostication is by far the riskiest form of punditry. The 10 commentators and leaders on this list learned that the hard way when their confident predictions about politics, war, the economy, and even the end of humanity itself completely missed the mark.


1
“If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she’s going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her, then. … Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I’ll predict that right now.” —William Kristol, Fox News Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006
Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist William Kristol was hardly alone in thinking that the Democratic primary was Clinton’s to lose, but it takes a special kind of self-confidence to make a declaration this sweeping more than a year before the first Iowa caucus was held. After Iowa, Kristol lurched to the other extreme, declaring that Clinton would lose New Hampshire and that “There will be no Clinton Restoration.” It’s also worth pointing out that this second wildly premature prediction was made in a Times column titled, “President Mike Huckabee?” The Times is currently rumored to be looking for his replacement.

2
“Peter writes: ‘Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there?’ No! No! No! Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money out. … Bear Stearns is not in trouble. I mean, if anything they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear! That’s just being silly! Don’t be silly!” —Jim Cramer, responding to a viewer’s e-mail on CNBC’s Mad Money, March 11, 2008
Hopefully, Peter got a second opinion. Six days after the volatile CNBC host made his emphatic pronouncement, Bear Stearns faced the modern equivalent of an old-fashioned bank run. Amid widespread speculation on Wall Street about the bank’s massive exposure to subprime mortgages, Bear’s shares lost 90 percent of their value and the investment bank was sold for a pittance to JPMorgan Chase, with a last-minute assist from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

3
“[In] reality the risks to maritime flows of oil are far smaller than is commonly assumed. First, tankers are much less vulnerable than conventional wisdom holds. Second, limited regional conflicts would be unlikely to seriously upset traffic, and terrorist attacks against shipping would have even less of an economic effect. Third, only a naval power of the United States’ strength could seriously disrupt oil shipments.” —Dennis Blair and Kenneth Lieberthal, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2007
On Nov. 15, 2008 a group of Somali pirates in inflatable rafts hijacked a Saudi oil tanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude in the Indian Ocean. The daring raid was part of a rash of attacks by Somali pirates, which have primarily occurred in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates operating in the waterway have hijacked more than 50 ships this year, up from only 13 in all of last year, according to the Piracy Reporting Center. The Gulf of Aden, where nearly 4 percent of the world’s oil demand passes every day, was not on the list of strategic “chokepoints” where oil shipments could potentially be disrupted that Blair and Lieberthal included in their essay, “Smooth Sailing: The World’s Shipping Lanes Are Safe.” Hopefully, Blair will show a bit more foresight=2 0if, as some expect, he is selected as Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence.

4
“[A]nyone who says we’re in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depression—is making up his own private definition of ‘recession.’” —Donald Luskin, The Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2008
The day after Luskin’s op-ed, “Quit Doling Out That Bad-Economy Line,” appeared in the Post, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and the rest is history. Liberal bloggers had long ago dubbed the Trend Macrolytics chief investment officer and informal McCain advisor “the Stupidest Man Alive.” This time, they had some particularly damning evidence.

5
“For all its flaws, an example to others.” —The Economist on Kenya’s presidential election, Dec. 19, 2007
The week before Kenya’s presidential election, the erudite British newsweekly ran an ill-conceived editorial praising the quality of the country’s democracy and predicting it might “set an example” for the rest of the continent. If only. The ensuing election was rife with examples of voter fraud and ballot-stuffing. What followed was a month of rioting and ethnic bloodshed that left more than 800 dead and 200,000 displaced. The carnage ended in a messy power-sharing agreement between President Mwai Kibaki and his challenger Raila Odinga, leaving the country deeply divided and its government delegitimized.

6
“New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will enter the Presidential race in February, after it becomes clear which nominees will get the nod from the major parties. His multiple billions and organization will impress voters—and stun rivals. He’ll look like the most viable third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt. But Bloomberg will come up short, as he comes in for withering attacks from both Democrats and Republicans. He and Clinton will split more than 50% of the votes, but Arizona’s maverick senator, John McCain, will end up the country’s next President.” –BusinessWeek, Jan. 2, 2008
No part of this prediction from BusinessWeek’s “Ten Likely Events in 2008” turned out to be even remotely true. After weeks of hints and press leaks, Bloomberg declared he would stay out of the race, saying that Barack Obama and John McCain showed signs of displaying the “independent leadership” needed to govern effectively. After overturning New York’s term-limits law, Bloomberg seems likely to run for a third term as mayor instead.

7
“Ther e is a real possibility of creating destructive theoretical anomalies such as miniature black holes, strangelets and deSitter space transitions. These events have the potential to fundamentally alter matter and destroy our planet.” —Walter Wagner, LHCDefense.org
Scientist Walter Wagner, the driving force behind Citizens Against the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is making his bid to be the 21st century’s version of Chicken Little for his opposition to the world’s largest particle accelerator. Warning that the experiment might end humanity as we know it, he filed a lawsuit in Hawaii’s U.S. District Court against the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which built the LHC, demanding that researchers not turn the machine on until it was proved safe. The LHC was turned on in September, and it appears that we are still here.*

8
“The possibility of $150-$200 per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six-24 months.” —Arjun Murti, Goldman Sachs oil analyst, in a May 5, 2008, report
The vaunted predictive powers of Murti, dubbed the “oracle of oil” in a glowing New York Times profile, failed him this time. Oil prices peaked in July at about $147 a barrel before beginning a long decline. Thanks to a decrease in demand because of the global recession, prices are now nearing the $40 mark, and some experts even see $25 as a possibility next year.

9
“It starts with the taking over of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which has already happened. It goes on to the destruction of the Georgian armed forces, which is now happening. The third [development] will probably be the replacement of the elected government, which is pro-Western, with a puppet government, which will probably follow in a week or two.” —Charles Krauthammer, Fox News, Aug. 11, 2008
Krauthammer immediately followed this inaccurate forecast (Russia eventually agreed to a cease-fire and pulled out its troops several weeks later, leaving Mikheil Saakashvili’s government in place) by predicting that Ukraine would be next on Russia’s hit list and suggesting that the United States station troops there. As for Saakashvili, his approval rating was at 76 percent in September.

10
“I believe the banking system has been stabilized. No one is asking themselves anymore, is there some major institution that might fail and that we would not be able to do anything about it.” —Henry Paulson on National Public Radio, Nov. 13, 2008
The U.S. Treasury secretary entered November with guns blazing. After much hemming and hawing before Congress a month earlier, he came out with what he called his “bazooka” —a $700 billion mandate to scoop up bad assets from troubled banks. By mid-November, he had already discharged $300 billion in munitions, albeit mostly via the kind of direct equity stakes he had rejected earlier. Unfortunately for Paulson, shortly after his vo te of confidence, Citigroup’s stock price plunged 75 percent in one week, closing below $5 for the first time in 14 years.
*Wagner has written in to point out that the LHC broke down shortly after it was activated and that the particle collision experiments he’s worried about haven’t been conducted yet. “The experiment has not yet even been performed, so of course its outcome remains uncertain,” he writes. So, we’ll have to wait for 2009 to see if he is proved right.

There is an end in sight...

http://obamaclock.org/

So much Obama Drama....

He hasn't even taken office yet and he's been involved in 2 "pay to play" scandals. Change we can really believe in....

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95GHJPO0&show_article=1

Hobson donates his Congressional papers

This is an article that appears in the Dayton Daily News

Hobson donates congressional papers to WSU
Documents cover the retiring congressman's 18-year tenure in U.S. House.
By Dave Larsen

Staff Writer

Saturday, January 03, 2009

FAIRBORN — Retiring U.S. Rep. Dave Hobson, R-Springfield, has donated his congressional papers to Wright State University, where they will be housed in the Special Collections and Archives in Wright State's Paul Laurence Dunbar Library.

Hobson's congressional papers document his political career from his 1991 election to the U.S. House of Representatives to his retirement at the end of 2008. The collection includes legislative documents, photographs, correspondence and printed material chronicling Hobson's accomplishments and service to Ohio's 7th Congressional District.

Wright State announced Hobson's donation on Wednesday, Dec. 31.

"I am impressed with Wright State's archiving program, and the fact that it is part of the district that I have represented for the past 18 years," Hobson said.

Wright State's archives is home to the largest Wright Brothers Collection in the world. The repository also is home to the papers of former Gov. and presidential candidate James M. Cox, and former U.S. representative and United Nations ambassador Tony Hall.

Hobson's collection "is a valuable addition to our holdings on the political history of the region and nation and will provide a rich resource for the study of Hobson's career, the issues he addressed and their importance to the community and region," said Stephen Foster, Wright State librarian.

Hobson, a Cincinnati native, is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Ohio State University College of Law. Hobson served as an Ohio state senator from 1982 to 1990, serving as president of the Ohio Senate from 1988 to 1990. Hobson and his wife, Carolyn, live in Springfield.


Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.