Ohio would be PERFECT for this

There is one project that would jump-start the Ohio Economy and put Ohio on the map for some years; High Speed Rail.

California is attempting to build a high speed train system that would connect Anahim, Los Angeles, Fresno and San Francisco. They have launched a $9.9 billion state bond offering to finance the proposal.

Ohio needs to do the exact same thing. Such a train system would connect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Phase two could connect Toledo, Akron/Canton and the South-East Appelachian area. Phase three could go to Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
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cuil must be better

www.cuil.com must be a better search engine -- when you search for "Miserable Failure" you get both GW Bush's white house page and Jimmy Carter's page as well >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Ohio's Strickland is screwing up

Re: State shouldn't limit flexible workweek

Strickland is screwing up (see Strickland takes away flexible hours and State workers back to 8-to-5). He's messing with state worker's schedules. He's making it more difficult for people with kids (single parents even more so), unionized workers and people taking classes to stay employed with the state.

Why does it take Strickland's office to deem such policies down upon management of State Agencies. Can't those whom run each agency not manage their own employees time, schedule and workload? Don't they know their own employees the best to judge how to handle them? Really, is the state going to lose money if an employee leaves for an hour to go to a dentist appointment and then work an hour late to make up the work?

With the brain-drain of higher-educated people leaving the state for jobs why would one create rules that prevent them from shifting schedules to take classes and/or training. That seems counterproductive to keeping a highly educated workforce.

If Strickland's moves are meant to drive people to leave state employment, it's working. Those that can leave, will. Those that can't leave, won't. Let's be realistic, those are the bottom dwellers that private employment would never employ in the first place. He'll claim that his leadership has saved the state vast sums of money. In reality, he's driving away from state employment those that are most wanted. He'll claim up front goals and savings. But just a few short years from now all state agencies will feel the pain two-fold.

I'm beginning to regret having voted for him. And that's saying a lot, because Taft's administration was a total flop. And they mention this guy from Vice President with Obama? The thought makes me want to scream!

Also related: Ohio State Workers Are Coping: It’s Now 8 to 5, With a 5-Day Week and Strickland Diet to Slim Down Government, Gambling Machine Expansion to Fatten Coffers


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Why is China still a 'developing country'?

So why is China still referred to as a "currently developing country"? (1/4 way down ) when they manufacture most of the goods that are purchased in the US? I mean, really, if a country has the infrastructure to produce that much, and the people enough to produce that much, and the infrastructure to keep all those people alive, they're no longer developing.

You can't argue that "the country is so vast that populations/parts don't have running water and electricity. Well, technically you can argue whatever you'd like. But the US has parts where there is no running water, and no electricity.

You can't use Government as a factor. They have one. It's stable. There are many countries that wish they had this.

If it's because parts of their population are uneducated (the same can be said about the US, honestly) - that's by choice of their government. Their government's making fistfulls of money yet they chose to only spend $19/student on textbooks. Does that make them a developing country?

So why is this? Will someone from the lazyweb please explain this to me? >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Single parents cost taxpayers bazillions

CNN posted an article from the AP titled Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion. The gist of it sponsors of the study are recommending lawmakers invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Others, not associated with the study, question whether that's a good idea and instead recommend investing resources into programs for things such as job creation.

Such a program [bolster(ing) marriages] has been in place in Oklahoma since 2001; Texas last year earmarked about $15 million in federal funds for marriage education.

Let's see, what does a single parent need? Money? Yep, a job would help that (ignore child support). What about... oh... day care?!?. These states spending money on marriage-programs are fools. I wonder if those programs are being pushed by the religious right. The two states they mention, Oklahoma and Texas sure aren't known for their bible-beltedness.

Let me say it again - day care. A big third is education. And they can't take courses if they don't have day care. And most of them can't have day care without money.

Well, in Ohio single women used to have dirt-cheap near-free daycare if they were in school too. But our recent block-head governor got rid of that.
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But what about Vermont?!?

I have not seen a single poll regarding tommorrow's primary in Vermont. As an Ohioan, I am truly concerned about what's happening in Vermont. Obviously, their results are going to influence so much of our future.

heh >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Richardson calls it quits?!?

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson quits his Presidential Bid. His campaign didn't do all that well in Iowa nor New Hampshire.

I first heard mention of this while listening to the local NPR station on the way home from my CMH Digital Photography and Photoshop Meetup Group meeting at a local coffee place. It wasn't suprising, considering he'd not done that well in the primaries.

Earlier, before I left for the meeting, during Hardball someone piped up that Richardson was never in it to be the President - instead his goal was the vice-presidency. I'd never heard that before. I don't know whether to chaulk it up to Hardball BS or what. Who knows. I guess time will tell.

I had always assumed that there'd be a large part of the population that won't vote for a black man. Then another large part that won't vote for a woman. (Note: I'm not advocating either way of thinking, but I've travelled the US and though no one seems to want to say it, those two Democratic front-runners have an uphill battle in parts of the US, misguided the reasoning may be). Therefore this situation would leave Richardson set for the position (besides the fact that he seemed to have a lot of experience and knowledge w/ foreign policy).

With Richardson out, maybe Edwards will be in this so-called pole-position in waiting out the struggle between Obama and Clinton.

Oh, CNN is running similar so it must be true. ;)
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Poor Hugo Chavez

Poor Hugo Chavez. He just can't win. He tried to use a hostage situation to embarass Columbia. Even Oliver Stone joined in the frey, hoping to embarass the Bush Administration. It turns out it was a setup - he was totally played by the jungle rebels.

But ya know what? When you go to bed with dogs, you generally wake up with fleas.

And that's exactly what happened. Chavez has to feel like he was played the fool - because he was.

The true winner in the whole ordeal was Oliver Stone - he walks away with a Movie deal.

Political hostage's son found in Bogota >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Everyone's leaving Ohio!

Our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, has an article titled "More people leaving Ohio". Basically, the article is stating that more people are leaving Ohio then coming here. This claim is based on the fact that United Van Lines says for the 15th consecutive year, 57% percent of the moves they have made are out of Ohio.

No one should be suprised hearing this news. That's right, absolutely no one.

Ohio's Economy sucks. We have auto plants closing, or near-closing every year. Many of those who worked in the manufacturing industry that we've known over years, are gone, retired (not by choice) or are working in jobs that are no where near as advanced (nor well paying) as what they were doing in the steel and auto industries. Some of our cities don't rank well. Topics of discussion with family members are often dominated with the debate of whether to accept the then-current early retirement package being offered by insert manufacturing company with a union here.

We in Ohio cannot seem to keep religious matters from imposing upon everyone in the state. We seem to have religious wacko's coming out of the wood work (ahem, from the Cincinati area) working to tell everyone how to act. Will the young people in our state stay in such an environment? No, they won't. Look at the populations of some states out west. They are closing grade schools because there is no young population base that's marrying and having kids to supply the schools. They're all leaving or already left (we have family in Oklahoma, someday I'll write about that).

The higher-education situation in Ohio sucks too. For a few years now, there've been a lot Ohioans going to North Carolina (and obviously other states). Why? Because it's cheaper to go there in-order to send their kids to college. Yes, for a few years they are paying NC's out-of-state tuition rate, but it's far cheaper to do so then stay in Ohio and pay Ohio's in-state rates. Obviously, after you've moved down south to educate your family, and enjoyed the warmer temperatures, why would you move back to Ohio? Answer: you won't.

The last 15 years of "Republican Control" have stagnated Ohio's Economy. The decision to cut higher education funding (hence force the Colleges to significantly increase their rates) immediately started killing Ohio's economy because it's becoming near impossible for many people to send their kids to state schools. Prior to this, in-state schools were always the cheaper schools to send your children to. Another boneheaded cut - From 2001 to 2003 Ohio cut $268 million out of their child care assistance fund. If you have a part of our population who aren't making squat, have children, want to goto college and will eventually have a decent income from having gone to college why would you cut their knees out from underneath them? If they cannot afford childcare, they won't attend college. It's that simple; Help them help themselves to earn a decent income and fuel that tax base.

Thankfully Ken Blackwell didn't win the election. We'd already discussed how soon we could relocate out of the state if he'd won.

This all lends itself to a higher-education brain-drain throughout the state. Who thinks that will help attract industry? (I will admit the decision to drop Ohio's Tangible Personal Property Tax was a smart, belated, move).

If you have no people, you have no tax base. That's a brow-raising thought isn't it? Look out west for what Ohio could easily become.
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