Around Ohio

I was thinking recently, gee, Labor Day is approaching. Labor Day was started in Ohio!

Well, not really, it turns out. Those signs you see as you drive through Cedarville really mean their senator pushed to make it an OFFICIAL Federal holiday. Turns out labor leaders had already been calling for it.

So it’s splitting hairs, I guess, but you can think someone in Ohio if you’re lucky enough to be off Monday.

And if you’re off, visit Cedarville.  It’s a charming little southwestern Ohio town.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

Former Youngstown representative James Traficant says he wants to keep a low profile following his September 2 prison release. Democrat Traficant is ending a seven-year federal prison stay for accepting bribes and other corruption charges.

But those planning a “Jim Traficant Appreciation Dinner” four days later in the Youngstown area say even if he doesn’t show, they hope the event will build his morale.

Gotta love Youngstown! Known for lots of Mafia activity, the city would be the one to celebrate the release of a politician convicted of corruption in office.

If Traficant runs again, he might just win! Who knows?

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

Looks like Ohio will see another casino proposal on the November ballot. Issue 3 language can be seen here:

Issue 3 Ballot Language

Your Buckeye predicts it will fail, partly because gambling issues have failed before and partly because people will be confused in that our illustrious Governor Strickland has already paved the way for gambling at horse race tracks.  My experience is that when people are confused they vote no.

This proposal is entirely unrelated to Strickland’s thing. Boy, gambling, gambling, gambling. It’s a shame we can’t try to build an economy on, say, manufacturing or green energy or investing in Ohio’s future or similarly frivolous things.

I will vote for it. Ohio needs SOMETHING.  This may take some money currently being gambled away in Wheeling and Rising Sun and bring it back to the Buckeye state.

We will also get to vote on Issue 1, compensating Iraq and Afghanistan vets, and my favorite, Issue 2 that will make life better for chickens.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

When I first read claims from right-wingers that Obama’s health care plan includes a “death panel” that would end the lives of terminally-ill patients, I thought “yeah, right.”

After I saw protesters right here in Ohio claiming such things at local health care reform meetings, I had to investigate the issue.

What Obama’s proposal says is that terminally ill patients would be counseled about their rights and options as they move into critical care or a nursing home or similar facility.  Death panel?  Hardly.

Come on folks.  This is America, we champion the underdog.  We spend billions on various safety nets and health care programs.  Has Medicare ever killed anyone off?  Hardly.

You can’t even EXECUTE A CONVICTED KILLER in this country without them sitting on death row for 10-20 years.  Don’t you think relatives and friends would sue if some “death panel” convicted their mother or other loved one?  Get real.

And shame on Sarah Palin for saying such a thing.  Purely for political gain.  To incite the masses and take away from the REAL questions about health care reform is a travesty when millions of Americans have no health insurance.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

The Ohio Turnpike is to join the E-Z Pass system allowing drivers to pass a transponder that reads their vehicle information and bills them each month.

In a related story, kerosene lamps at the Statehouse are being replaced with electric lighting.

Why is Ohio always the last to do anything? Other states have had this for YEARS.   It reminds me of when a friend of mine was a truck driver.  He complained that all the other states had a credit card he could use to pay tolls and his trucking company would just pay the bill, but the Ohio Turnpike only took cash.  He had to spend his own money, get and keep track of receipts, and submit them for reimbursement.  This was 20 years ago!

Is it because we are such a conservative state? Dunno, but I sometimes find it embarrassing to admit I’m from Ohio.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

The federal “CARS” trade-in program (known commonly as “cash for clunkers”) might actually be helping Ohio.  How?

By clearing excess car manufacturers’ inventories and forcing them to crank up factories that make parts and assemble new cars and trucks.  Many of these factories are in Ohio.

So why is the Senate “debating” putting 2 billion more bucks into the program?

2 billion?  After the trillions the feds have thrown around, 2 billion is lunch money.

Funny how there’s always billions to throw around on bank bailouts and auto executives, but when the little guy might get a buck it has to be “debated.”

CARS is stimulating the auto industry. And now that Uncle Sam owns half of the American auto industry, wouldn’t Congress consider that a good thing?

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

The Columbus Dispatch reports our governor has been making numerous trips to New York for party fundraisers:

At this rate, you are bound to see Gov. Ted Strickland in 30-second TV spots next year far more than you’ll see his Republican rival, John Kasich.

Kasich, who declared his candidacy June 1, raised $526,511, winding up with $451,293 on hand. Those totals pale next to the $2.5 million that Strickland has taken in this year, with more than $4 million banked for his campaign.

So he doesn’t want to spend our money on, say, tourism promotion to bring money to the state, but he’ll spend it on raising money for his reelection. Oh, that’s right, he doesn’t care about jobs in Ohio EXCEPT HIS OWN.

Whose interests are being promoted here, anyway?

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

With the fairly cool summer we’re having here in Ohio, I’ve been hearing “see, global warming IS a hoax!” coming from various mouths around town.

Uh, hardly.

Hear about the heat wave in the Pacific northwest? All-time record high temperatures being shattered. This is how things work, one extreme in one part of the country, a different extreme in another.

Folks, climatology is about the overall change in Earth’s climate over time, not the particular temperature in a particular spot on a particular day.

Get over it.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.