I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH, BOY...

This has been a busy and maddening week at Casa Isabella.  Taking
a few days off has enabled me to deal with some odds and ends that
should have dealt with last week.  Though I still have odds, ends,
and actual writing to do, I’m feeling much less overwhelmed than I
was at the start of the week.

Last Tuesday’s election was relatively incident and surprise-free.
Okay, yes, there was a Cleveland poll worker who tried to bite the
nose off a voter, but that’s Cleveland, Jake. 

Amusingly, my brother-in-law was a poll worker at that site.  The
first inkling he had that anything was askew was when he heard the
ambulance arrive.  My mother swears my bro-in-law wasn’t the biter,
but I’ll be exercising caution around him.  Once Republicans gets
a taste for human flesh, you really have no choice but to put them
down.  We should have learned that with Cheney and Rove.

I was most interested in three state and three local issues.  The
big state issue was the repeal of a union-busting bill supported by
Governor John “Creepy” Kaisch and his GOP lackeys.  Not surprising
since Kaisch, a former Lehman Brothers executive, has been trying
to sell off the state to his business cronies.  Nothing like right-
wing billionaires trying to turn working people against each other.
Fortunately, the bill was repealed and by such a huge margin that
it gives me some hope for my home state.

State issue #1 called from raising the mandatory retirement age of
judges from 70 to 75.  Normally, I would have voted in favor of it,
but I recognized its true purpose was to keep some bad right-wing
judges on the bench longer and that it has two extraneous clauses
that had nothing to do with the main issue.  Though I’d certainly
consider voting for an actual one-issue law in the future, I’m glad
this issue was voted down.

State issue #3 was the “I hate everything Obama” issue, an absurd
vote for a constitutional amendment to allow Ohio to opt out of the
national health care laws.  It’s an amendment that won’t stand up
in the courts but will, during that process, put Ohio residents at
risk.  Sadly, it passed by a large margin.  I guess people in this
state prefer the Republican health care plan of “Don’t get sick or
you’re screwed!”

At one of that party's debates, was there anything more chilling than
Republicans cheering the prospect of letting the uninsured - their fellow
Americans -  die?

The local issues to renew levies for the Medina County Home and the
Medina County Health District passed easily.  Both do good work for
the community and I was happy to support them.

The remaining local issue was a proposed income tax for the Medina
City School District.  It failed by a large margin.  In my case, I
voted against it, reluctantly, because I have no confidence in the
district’s partisan hack of a superintendent or in the school board
to look out for all the city’s students and not just the “elites.”
Past cuts have impacted more severely on those who can afford them
least than on the ruling cliques.  That said, I doubt many of those
who voted against it did so for my reasons.

People don’t want to pay more taxes.  They especially don’t want to
pay more taxes towards a state school funding system that was ruled
unconstitutional years ago and has still not been fixed.  I’d like
to think that Governor Creepy’s lust to take funds from the public
schools and give them to charter school operators who have donated
generously to Republicans also has something to do with it.  But I
see too many middle-class people voting against their own interests
for me to assume that’s the case.

Governor Creepy and his followers have tried to spin their defeat
as the voters only disliking some parts of his union-busting bill
while those of us who support universal health care claim, probably
a wee bit more accurately, that voters only dislike some of what’s
included in the current federal law.

In the meantime, Republican attempts to disenfranchise Democratic
voters continue.  The GOP redrew state districts to benefit their
candidates and did this in such an egregious manner that the map is
being challenged and there’s a decent chance said challenge will be
successful. 

Governor “Must Balance the Budget” Kaisch’s response to this?  For
reasons I don’t quite understand, except I’m sure they are reasons
benefitting Republicans, he and the GOP are planning to split the
2012 primary elections into two primary elections.  This will cost
Ohio taxpayers an additional $15 million. 

If this becomes an issue, except Kaisch to blame the Democrats for
obstructing his total domination of the state.  After all, he has
been quoted as believing things would be better if he could simply
make the laws himself and not have to concern himself with all that
silly democracy stuff.

I was going to end today’s blog on a cheery note.  When I read the
voter participation figures in the newspapers, I was pleased to see
Medina County led neighboring counties with its 51% participation
rate...and then I realized this meant almost half of my county’s
registered voters didn’t vote. Sigh.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more of the things I don’t understand.
It might turn into a series. 

© 2011 Tony Isabella