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Jun
25
Remains of the Day, 6-25-07
Filed Under Politics | 5 Comments
Getting right to it:
1. Plunderbund gives its take on Kevin Coughlin’s pursuit of special ed vouchers.
2. Do not go after Connecticut librarians (Pres. Bush obviously never met one while he was in New Haven for four years at Yale).
3. Columbus Dispatch publishes a letter, headlines it, “Pension funds used as political pawns.” Ya don’t say!?
4. Speaking of vouchers, studies show that they don’t do much at all to improve education, but parents don’t care about that little old fact.
5. George is doing a great job frontpaging/flagging items related to the Cuyahoga County Commissioners’ endrun attempts to raise taxes for a convention center and medical mart. Great comments and MUST READ LINK to Bill Callahan.
6. If you haven’t had enough or still don’t know enough about the attempted endrun, listen to Commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones (who is on record saying that he does not want to raise the tax without a vote) on this morning’s Sound of Ideas. There were a couple of other guests who, by the end, just couldn’t stop talking over one another.
7. Very disturbing decisions coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States today. Absolutely worth your time to read a few – including ones that affect campaign financing, taxpayers ability to sue the government for how it uses our money and whether you can be expelled from school for unfurling a sign that says Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
8. Maggie Thurber flags this interesting website that seeks to follow bills from before they’re even introduced. Wouldn’t that be nice!?
No naps for the weary.
And a reminder: Submissions for The Carnival of Ohio Politics can be mailed to me of ohiopolcarnival AT gmail DOT com, anytime up until 7pm tomorrow evening, Tuesday, June (not July, thank you PBD) 26 for the 71st edition, which will be published by Weds. morning, June 27.
Oldies and newbies welcome.
Now…go to sleep.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:37 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 5 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Remains of the Day, 6-25-07
Filed Under Politics | 5 Comments
Getting right to it:
1. Plunderbund gives its take on Kevin Coughlin’s pursuit of special ed vouchers.
2. Do not go after Connecticut librarians (Pres. Bush obviously never met one while he was in New Haven for four years at Yale).
3. Columbus Dispatch publishes a letter, headlines it, “Pension funds used as political pawns.” Ya don’t say!?
4. Speaking of vouchers, studies show that they don’t do much at all to improve education, but parents don’t care about that little old fact.
5. George is doing a great job frontpaging/flagging items related to the Cuyahoga County Commissioners’ endrun attempts to raise taxes for a convention center and medical mart. Great comments and MUST READ LINK to Bill Callahan.
6. If you haven’t had enough or still don’t know enough about the attempted endrun, listen to Commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones (who is on record saying that he does not want to raise the tax without a vote) on this morning’s Sound of Ideas. There were a couple of other guests who, by the end, just couldn’t stop talking over one another.
7. Very disturbing decisions coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States today. Absolutely worth your time to read a few – including ones that affect campaign financing, taxpayers ability to sue the government for how it uses our money and whether you can be expelled from school for unfurling a sign that says Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
8. Maggie Thurber flags this interesting website that seeks to follow bills from before they’re even introduced. Wouldn’t that be nice!?
No naps for the weary.
And a reminder: Submissions for The Carnival of Ohio Politics can be mailed to me of ohiopolcarnival AT gmail DOT com, anytime up until 7pm tomorrow evening, Tuesday, June (not July, thank you PBD) 26 for the 71st edition, which will be published by Weds. morning, June 27.
Oldies and newbies welcome.
Now…go to sleep.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:37 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 5 Comments
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Jun
25
Local progress on wireless 911; Statehouse loving home rule w/this issue because of infrastructure cost?
Filed Under Politics | 5 Comments
As I’ve written before, there’s an impending dread related to how poorly Ohio and much of the country’s wireless 911 network works. This report from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) examines and outlines just how inadequate the systems are at handling wireless 911 and how immiment the need is to upgrade wireless 911 service. And the Ohio legislature has a direct relation to how poorly it operates in Ohio.
But today, the Plain Dealer Metro Breaking News feed offered this encouraging info, at least encouraging if you support home rule, which, it might seem, our lovely General Assembly does if it means that they can skip out on spending money on important statewide infrastructure:
Akron and Summit County partnered to buy a 9-1-1 system that displays a cell phone’s number and its location. The system will reduce response times and get help to people who don’t know where they are.
Buying one system to share saved taxpayers about $150,000, Akron spokesman Mark Williamson said, “and maintenance costs will be reduced by as much
as 40 percent by eliminating redundancies.”
Akron’s deputy mayor of public safety, George Romanoski, said the new system, made by AT&T, will be running by late July. It cost about $750,000.
Dispatchers in Cleveland are using an older system that does not give them cell phone numbers or locations.
And while I’m at it: Yo – Cuyahoga County Commissioners – you think hundreds of thousands of visitors to a medical mart and convention center, travelers with their cellphones, will want to be in a city that has an antiquated wireless 911 system? Safety is a person’s biggest concern when they travel to cities you know.
Okay – and a last thing: could SB 117 tie this issue in, and make AT&T and other similar providers toss in money for wireless assistance? Seems to me like there might be something in there for that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:03 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 5 Comments
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Jun
25
Knights of the Ohio Governor’s round table must wrap-up budget by Sunday
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Kind of neat article by Bill Hershey this morning re: how Ohio Governor Ted Strickland approaches working with the Ohio House and Senate leaders, Jon Husted and Bill Harris, respectively.
Policy-wise, Hershey writes the following:
A key to Republican cooperation was Strickland’s willingness to not tinker with the overhaul of the tax code enacted in 2005 — including a personal income tax reduction and a new low-rate, broad-based business tax, said Husted and Harris.
The three leaders also have found common ground in making increased support for higher education, neglected in recent years, a shared priority.
But how far will this spirit go? Yes, I’m asking, Will the Republicans drop that special education voucher proposal put in by the House, pulled out by the Senate and then re-inserted by the Senate?
Here’s the PD’s write-up of how the budget bill’s doing as of this weekend (the House is sending it to a conference committee because the House rejected the version from the Senate):
Budget bill (HB 119):
Lawmakers split along party lines in deciding whether to send the state’s next operating budget to a conference panel to hash out differences between versions passed by the House and the Senate. Prevailing were majority-party House Republicans, whose “no” votes on the bill as revised by the Senate sent it to the conference committee, primarily so they could figure out how to pay for a last-minute budget shortfall. Other differences include details of a $100 million higher-education scholarship plan, agency spending levels and special- education vouchers. House Democrats voted “yes” for the bill because they were satisfied with changes made in the Senate and they were worried about reopening negotiations.
House members voting yes: Matthew Barrett, D-Amherst; Barbara Boyd, D-Cleveland; Jennifer Brady, D-Westlake; Armond Budish, D-Beachwood; Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent; Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland; Timothy DeGeeter, D-Parma; Stephen Dyer, D-Green; Lorraine Fende, D-Willowick; Mike Foley, D-Cleveland; Joseph Koziura, D- Lorain; Matt Lundy, D-Elyria; Eugene Miller, D- Cleveland; Bob Otterman, D-Akron; Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood; Vernon Sykes, D-Akron; Brian Williams, D-Akron; Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland; Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights.
House members voting no: William Batchelder, R-Medina; Matthew Dolan, R-Russell Township; Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County; Josh Mandel, R- Lyndhurst; Thomas Patton, R-Strongsville; Carol- Ann Schindel, R-Leroy Township; John Widowfield, R-Cuyahoga Falls.
Not voting: None
Emphasis mine (in last graph re: how my state rep voted). You can see how all the legislators voted, not just the area ones, here. The vote was 53 nays (to not approve but instead have it go to the conference) and 46 yeas (to approve as is and send it to the governor).
I’m assuming there’s politicking in them there Dem votes too since I’m certain they didn’t want to include the vouchers if they didn’t have to but, knowing that the Republicans would be sending it to the conference anyway, the Dems might as well look as though it was just fine to keep them in there, since something’s gonna have to give.
That’s how it works, yea?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:45 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jun
25
I told you so. That’s all I have to say about this New York Times article today. Well, okay. I have a couple of other things.
1. How dare they publish this:
Predictably, the study set off a swarm of Internet commentary from parents, social scientists and others, speculating about what in families could enrich one child’s intellectual environment more than others’.
Complete and utter B.S. The study didn’t set off the swarm. The NYT putting it on the front page, instead of in Science Times (where it now resides, btw, when you search on it), set off the swarm. They set off their own swarm, period. The Mommy Wars fabrication begins all over again.
2. And, again, not until the end of the article do we get what we really should be told:
The best way to react to the news, some psychologists said, is to relax.
“When parents ask me what to do about this, I always say the same thing: nothing,” said Frank J. Sulloway, a psychologist at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of an editorial in the journal Science that accompanied one of the reports. Another report on the study was published in the journal Intelligence.
“Younger siblings are more likely to take chances,” Dr. Sulloway added, and to challenge the status quo in creative ways.
Bottom line: Change nothing and just be a parent, for goodness sakes.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:06 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 8 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Local progress on wireless 911; Statehouse loving home rule w/this issue because of infrastructure cost?
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
As I’ve written before, there’s an impending dread related to how poorly Ohio and much of the country’s wireless 911 network works. This report from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) examines and outlines just how inadequate the systems are at handling wireless 911 and how immiment the need is to upgrade wireless 911 service. And the Ohio legislature has a direct relation to how poorly it operates in Ohio.
But today, the Plain Dealer Metro Breaking News feed offered this encouraging info, at least encouraging if you support home rule, which, it might seem, our lovely General Assembly does if it means that they can skip out on spending money on important statewide infrastructure:
Akron and Summit County partnered to buy a 9-1-1 system that displays a cell phone’s number and its location. The system will reduce response times and get help to people who don’t know where they are.
Buying one system to share saved taxpayers about $150,000, Akron spokesman Mark Williamson said, “and maintenance costs will be reduced by as much
as 40 percent by eliminating redundancies.”
Akron’s deputy mayor of public safety, George Romanoski, said the new system, made by AT&T, will be running by late July. It cost about $750,000.
Dispatchers in Cleveland are using an older system that does not give them cell phone numbers or locations.
And while I’m at it: Yo – Cuyahoga County Commissioners – you think hundreds of thousands of visitors to a medical mart and convention center, travelers with their cellphones, will want to be in a city that has an antiquated wireless 911 system? Safety is a person’s biggest concern when they travel to cities you know.
Okay – and a last thing: could SB 117 tie this issue in, and make AT&T and other similar providers toss in money for wireless assistance? Seems to me like there might be something in there for that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:03 pm June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Knights of the Ohio Governor’s round table must wrap-up budget by Sunday
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Kind of neat article by Bill Hershey this morning re: how Ohio Governor Ted Strickland approaches working with the Ohio House and Senate leaders, Jon Husted and Bill Harris, respectively.
Policy-wise, Hershey writes the following:
A key to Republican cooperation was Strickland’s willingness to not tinker with the overhaul of the tax code enacted in 2005 — including a personal income tax reduction and a new low-rate, broad-based business tax, said Husted and Harris.
The three leaders also have found common ground in making increased support for higher education, neglected in recent years, a shared priority.
But how far will this spirit go? Yes, I’m asking, Will the Republicans drop that special education voucher proposal put in by the House, pulled out by the Senate and then re-inserted by the Senate?
Here’s the PD’s write-up of how the budget bill’s doing as of this weekend (the House is sending it to a conference committee because the House rejected the version from the Senate):
Budget bill (HB 119):
Lawmakers split along party lines in deciding whether to send the state’s next operating budget to a conference panel to hash out differences between versions passed by the House and the Senate. Prevailing were majority-party House Republicans, whose “no” votes on the bill as revised by the Senate sent it to the conference committee, primarily so they could figure out how to pay for a last-minute budget shortfall. Other differences include details of a $100 million higher-education scholarship plan, agency spending levels and special- education vouchers. House Democrats voted “yes” for the bill because they were satisfied with changes made in the Senate and they were worried about reopening negotiations.
House members voting yes: Matthew Barrett, D-Amherst; Barbara Boyd, D-Cleveland; Jennifer Brady, D-Westlake; Armond Budish, D-Beachwood; Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent; Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland; Timothy DeGeeter, D-Parma; Stephen Dyer, D-Green; Lorraine Fende, D-Willowick; Mike Foley, D-Cleveland; Joseph Koziura, D- Lorain; Matt Lundy, D-Elyria; Eugene Miller, D- Cleveland; Bob Otterman, D-Akron; Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood; Vernon Sykes, D-Akron; Brian Williams, D-Akron; Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland; Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights.
House members voting no: William Batchelder, R-Medina; Matthew Dolan, R-Russell Township; Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County; Josh Mandel, R- Lyndhurst; Thomas Patton, R-Strongsville; Carol- Ann Schindel, R-Leroy Township; John Widowfield, R-Cuyahoga Falls.
Not voting: None
Emphasis mine (in last graph re: how my state rep voted). You can see how all the legislators voted, not just the area ones, here. The vote was 53 nays (to not approve but instead have it go to the conference) and 46 yeas (to approve as is and send it to the governor).
I’m assuming there’s politicking in them there Dem votes too since I’m certain they didn’t want to include the vouchers if they didn’t have to but, knowing that the Republicans would be sending it to the conference anyway, the Dems might as well look as though it was just fine to keep them in there, since something’s gonna have to give.
That’s how it works, yea?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:45 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jun
25
I told you so. That’s all I have to say about this New York Times article today. Well, okay. I have a couple of other things.
1. How dare they publish this:
Predictably, the study set off a swarm of Internet commentary from parents, social scientists and others, speculating about what in families could enrich one child’s intellectual environment more than others’.
Complete and utter B.S. The study didn’t set off the swarm. The NYT putting it on the front page, instead of in Science Times (where it now resides, btw, when you search on it), set off the swarm. They set off their own swarm, period. The Mommy Wars fabrication begins all over again.
2. And, again, not until the end of the article do we get what we really should be told:
The best way to react to the news, some psychologists said, is to relax.
“When parents ask me what to do about this, I always say the same thing: nothing,” said Frank J. Sulloway, a psychologist at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of an editorial in the journal Science that accompanied one of the reports. Another report on the study was published in the journal Intelligence.
“Younger siblings are more likely to take chances,” Dr. Sulloway added, and to challenge the status quo in creative ways.
Bottom line: Change nothing and just be a parent, for goodness sakes.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:06 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 8 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Local progress on wireless 911; Statehouse loving home rule w/this issue because of infrastructure cost?
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
As I’ve written before, there’s an impending dread related to how poorly Ohio and much of the country’s wireless 911 network works. This report from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) examines and outlines just how inadequate the systems are at handling wireless 911 and how immiment the need is to upgrade wireless 911 service. And the Ohio legislature has a direct relation to how poorly it operates in Ohio.
But today, the Plain Dealer Metro Breaking News feed offered this encouraging info, at least encouraging if you support home rule, which, it might seem, our lovely General Assembly does if it means that they can skip out on spending money on important statewide infrastructure:
Akron and Summit County partnered to buy a 9-1-1 system that displays a cell phone’s number and its location. The system will reduce response times and get help to people who don’t know where they are.
Buying one system to share saved taxpayers about $150,000, Akron spokesman Mark Williamson said, “and maintenance costs will be reduced by as much
as 40 percent by eliminating redundancies.”
Akron’s deputy mayor of public safety, George Romanoski, said the new system, made by AT&T, will be running by late July. It cost about $750,000.
Dispatchers in Cleveland are using an older system that does not give them cell phone numbers or locations.
And while I’m at it: Yo – Cuyahoga County Commissioners – you think hundreds of thousands of visitors to a medical mart and convention center, travelers with their cellphones, will want to be in a city that has an antiquated wireless 911 system? Safety is a person’s biggest concern when they travel to cities you know.
Okay – and a last thing: could SB 117 tie this issue in, and make AT&T and other similar providers toss in money for wireless assistance? Seems to me like there might be something in there for that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:03 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Knights of the Ohio Governor’s round table must wrap-up budget by Sunday
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Kind of neat article by Bill Hershey this morning re: how Ohio Governor Ted Strickland approaches working with the Ohio House and Senate leaders, Jon Husted and Bill Harris, respectively.
Policy-wise, Hershey writes the following:
A key to Republican cooperation was Strickland’s willingness to not tinker with the overhaul of the tax code enacted in 2005 — including a personal income tax reduction and a new low-rate, broad-based business tax, said Husted and Harris.
The three leaders also have found common ground in making increased support for higher education, neglected in recent years, a shared priority.
But how far will this spirit go? Yes, I’m asking, Will the Republicans drop that special education voucher proposal put in by the House, pulled out by the Senate and then re-inserted by the Senate?
Here’s the PD’s write-up of how the budget bill’s doing as of this weekend (the House is sending it to a conference committee because the House rejected the version from the Senate):
Budget bill (HB 119):
Lawmakers split along party lines in deciding whether to send the state’s next operating budget to a conference panel to hash out differences between versions passed by the House and the Senate. Prevailing were majority-party House Republicans, whose “no” votes on the bill as revised by the Senate sent it to the conference committee, primarily so they could figure out how to pay for a last-minute budget shortfall. Other differences include details of a $100 million higher-education scholarship plan, agency spending levels and special- education vouchers. House Democrats voted “yes” for the bill because they were satisfied with changes made in the Senate and they were worried about reopening negotiations.
House members voting yes: Matthew Barrett, D-Amherst; Barbara Boyd, D-Cleveland; Jennifer Brady, D-Westlake; Armond Budish, D-Beachwood; Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent; Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland; Timothy DeGeeter, D-Parma; Stephen Dyer, D-Green; Lorraine Fende, D-Willowick; Mike Foley, D-Cleveland; Joseph Koziura, D- Lorain; Matt Lundy, D-Elyria; Eugene Miller, D- Cleveland; Bob Otterman, D-Akron; Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood; Vernon Sykes, D-Akron; Brian Williams, D-Akron; Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland; Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights.
House members voting no: William Batchelder, R-Medina; Matthew Dolan, R-Russell Township; Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County; Josh Mandel, R- Lyndhurst; Thomas Patton, R-Strongsville; Carol- Ann Schindel, R-Leroy Township; John Widowfield, R-Cuyahoga Falls.
Not voting: None
Emphasis mine (in last graph re: how my state rep voted). You can see how all the legislators voted, not just the area ones, here. The vote was 53 nays (to not approve but instead have it go to the conference) and 46 yeas (to approve as is and send it to the governor).
I’m assuming there’s politicking in them there Dem votes too since I’m certain they didn’t want to include the vouchers if they didn’t have to but, knowing that the Republicans would be sending it to the conference anyway, the Dems might as well look as though it was just fine to keep them in there, since something’s gonna have to give.
That’s how it works, yea?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:45 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jun
25
I told you so. That’s all I have to say about this New York Times article today. Well, okay. I have a couple of other things.
1. How dare they publish this:
Predictably, the study set off a swarm of Internet commentary from parents, social scientists and others, speculating about what in families could enrich one child’s intellectual environment more than others’.
Complete and utter B.S. The study didn’t set off the swarm. The NYT putting it on the front page, instead of in Science Times (where it now resides, btw, when you search on it), set off the swarm. They set off their own swarm, period. The Mommy Wars fabrication begins all over again.
2. And, again, not until the end of the article do we get what we really should be told:
The best way to react to the news, some psychologists said, is to relax.
“When parents ask me what to do about this, I always say the same thing: nothing,” said Frank J. Sulloway, a psychologist at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of an editorial in the journal Science that accompanied one of the reports. Another report on the study was published in the journal Intelligence.
“Younger siblings are more likely to take chances,” Dr. Sulloway added, and to challenge the status quo in creative ways.
Bottom line: Change nothing and just be a parent, for goodness sakes.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:06 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | 8 Comments
Print This Post
Jun
25
Remains of the Day, 6-24-07
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
This evening, I attended a tribute dinner at my synagogue. It’s a fundraiser but also a way to recognize outstanding congregants: those who’ve given time and energy over the years to the shul as well as the community at large, in their professional lives and so on.
We went because it’s the thing we do. I wasn’t not looking forward to it, but it wasn’t something I’d been anticipating with great eagerness either.
If I’d known beforehand about Professor Deborah Lipstadt, the speaker, I’m sure I would have felt differently.
You can read her bio here, but it does not do her justice. Prof. Lipstadt is a powerful presence and she sets that tone from the get-go: she approached the mike, told the waitstaff to stop serving dessert and apologized, without really feeling all that sorry, to the audience if they had to wait for their cake but it was just too distracting. A friend sitting next to me said, I like her already. And I felt exactly the same way.
Lipstadt when on to talk about David Irving, a Holocaust denier, and the lawsuit he filed against her that charged her with libel, in England, which she won, including all the appeals. It’s a fascinating case, discussed in books and news articles galore, and she did an excellent job detailing how it is that one wins such a case, although it makes perfect sense to me and is what I believe I try to do when confronted with accusations that have no basis in reality: you show how the details have no basis in reality.
But what provoked me most was how she took her experience, and Irving’s existence, and applied it to today. She talked about hard-core denial, like Irving’s, which she believes is waning, and soft-core denial, which she believes is on the rise. And then she told us about how her lawyers prepared her before her trial began, years ago. They advised her to wipe up the mess, eradicate the mess spread by people like Irving, and then move on. But whatever you do, don’t carry it with you and spread it throughout your life and your life’s work. Because then it becomes your life too.
Instead, you must keep on with your own life’s work and agenda, not what someone else wishes they could make your life’s agenda become.
I’m paraphrasing and reinterpreting what I got from her presentation. But it was incredibly powerful.
And that’s what’s remaining with me today.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:16 am June 25th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
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