In the soaring atmospherics of my keen preparation of Grumpy Abe, I have only occasionally slipped out of the noose of commenting on the darkest side of politics. So when I happened to see President Obama in a tan suit instead of funereal black, I gave it no more attention than any tan suit should have, even one worn by the leader of the free world..
Little did i know at that critical moment that it would become the biggest sartorial story of our day that would surpass the wardrobe malfunctions of Biblical proportions that exposed nipples to TV audiences.
There were reports of an explosion of twitters around the world that even created a "suitgate" (not my word!) for anybody who needed one more thing to blame on the president. It was a modern reversal of Hans Christian Andersen's wonderful tale of the Emperor's New Clothes - actually skin colored and not tan.
One of the leading critics of Obama's attire was Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who can always find something to bitch about.
He was outraged that Obama wore a light summer suit to talk about the economy and the revision of the second quarter numbers when there are so many weightier matters on his plate. In the scheme of talking points, King downgraded the economy as though it were a trivial pursuit. You get that way when you are a well-fed, well-paid congressman from a safe district. Shouldn't these guys simply enjoy their ample public troughs and shut up?
Tan suit or black suit or no suit or Reagan's plaid sport jacket or LBJ's "Open Road Stetson" or George W. Bush playing cowboy. Congressman, the person who is out of work has only one concern: a paycheck to get the family through the day. Why don't you know that?
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Friday, August 29, 2014
Charter schools not a happy narrative
Today's recommended reading:
If you are rightly concerned about the invasion of public school education (and your tax money) by charters, check the detailed account of the current dismal situation reported on Plunderbund. You can easily find it under the headline: Are Religious Charter Schools the New Norm Under John Kasich?
If you are rightly concerned about the invasion of public school education (and your tax money) by charters, check the detailed account of the current dismal situation reported on Plunderbund. You can easily find it under the headline: Are Religious Charter Schools the New Norm Under John Kasich?
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Normal etiquette returns to Board of Elections
Every now and then, a warm and fuzzy slice of political life reminds us that there is a glimmer of hope in the future of civilized discourse. Such was the case today in the Beacon Journal report that normalcy has returned to the Summit County Board of Elections.
The story told us that Cecilia Robart, board worker and wife of former Cuyahoga Falls Republican mayor Don Robart, was quite active in using her cellphone while on the clock. An investigation revealed that she had been on Facebook 48 times in a single day (twice that number over a longer period!) even though board workers are prohibited from taking such liberties on company time.
Well, now. The probe called for a studied temperate response from Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, a board member, and he rose to the occasion. He considered the affair a dirty trick by Democrats. He didn't call it dirty, asking only: "What kind of crap is that? That's baloney." The reporter said he pounded his fist.
We all know that throughout his millennia as GOP boss for the party of family values, Alex has set near-impossible standards for gentlemanly etiquette for his line of work. He had long rumored that Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic would be indicted for reasons not fully explained. And leaping to the solemn defense of his party when United Way included a stop at Democratic headquarters to pick up a bauble for a scavenger hunt, he once called for a boycott of the charity.There were other times, but we're talking here about more pleasantly controlled moments. As they say in hockey, no blood, no foul.
As for Cecilia Robart, she wasn't pleased, either. In her cellphone chatter, she merely raised the spectre of recalling Don Walters, the Democrat who vanquished her husband, because the new guy ended Rockin' on the River in the Falls. (Last concert Friday night.) She called him a liar and threatened the Democrats with the return of her husband to oppose Walters the next time. Aside from that, well...you've heard enough.
Looks like more halcyon days ahead, right, Alex?
The story told us that Cecilia Robart, board worker and wife of former Cuyahoga Falls Republican mayor Don Robart, was quite active in using her cellphone while on the clock. An investigation revealed that she had been on Facebook 48 times in a single day (twice that number over a longer period!) even though board workers are prohibited from taking such liberties on company time.
Well, now. The probe called for a studied temperate response from Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, a board member, and he rose to the occasion. He considered the affair a dirty trick by Democrats. He didn't call it dirty, asking only: "What kind of crap is that? That's baloney." The reporter said he pounded his fist.
We all know that throughout his millennia as GOP boss for the party of family values, Alex has set near-impossible standards for gentlemanly etiquette for his line of work. He had long rumored that Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic would be indicted for reasons not fully explained. And leaping to the solemn defense of his party when United Way included a stop at Democratic headquarters to pick up a bauble for a scavenger hunt, he once called for a boycott of the charity.There were other times, but we're talking here about more pleasantly controlled moments. As they say in hockey, no blood, no foul.
As for Cecilia Robart, she wasn't pleased, either. In her cellphone chatter, she merely raised the spectre of recalling Don Walters, the Democrat who vanquished her husband, because the new guy ended Rockin' on the River in the Falls. (Last concert Friday night.) She called him a liar and threatened the Democrats with the return of her husband to oppose Walters the next time. Aside from that, well...you've heard enough.
Looks like more halcyon days ahead, right, Alex?
Re-posted from Plunderbund
The Ohio Republican Party says it has found a scandal in Democratic State Sen. Nina Turner’s campaign against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. According to the party’s top flak, Chris Schrimpf, Turner is …um…”too partisan”.
Who knew?
Although Schrimpf’s assessment of Turner hardly rises above the level of playground insults, it is the stuff one would expect from a spokesperson who once labored in the non-partisan inner circles of righties like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Schrimpf doesn’t think Turner is playing nice by referring to Republicans as “stupid and dumb”, words not unfamiliar to Gov. Kasich who famously called a Columbus police officer an “idiot”. So I have to ask: What is the dividing line between “partisan” and “too partisan”?
We should all be thankful that we aren’t faced with answering such pressing questions in our workaday lives.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Cheney raging at Obama from his Cluck Dynasty
Dick Cheney has emerged from his Cluck Dynasty on Fox News to condemn President Obama for taking a vacation while the planet is still spinning. Although it's true that no president ever takes a real vacation from troubles (got that, Maureen Dowd?), Cheney is outraged that Obama wanted to get in a round of golf.
To Sean Hannity's everlasting delight, Cheney, a helpless liar, hissed that there's new evidence every day that Obama prefers to play golf rather than deal with weighty problems.
Here's the rest of the story from National Memo:
To date, President Obama has spent 150 days on vacation since taking office in 2008. But George W. Bush, Cheney's designer boss, spent 1,020 days at his Crawford,Tx. ranch and 43 at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Me.
There's a difference in context , too. During Bush's term, the world was serenely at peace and America's economy was booming. And even though Osama bin Laden was still lurking somewhere, Dubya dispatched concern by saying he didn't know where the guy was and couldn't care less.
As for Cheney, you you must understand that one of a cluck's liabilities is they can't do the math. Nor do they want to.
To Sean Hannity's everlasting delight, Cheney, a helpless liar, hissed that there's new evidence every day that Obama prefers to play golf rather than deal with weighty problems.
Here's the rest of the story from National Memo:
To date, President Obama has spent 150 days on vacation since taking office in 2008. But George W. Bush, Cheney's designer boss, spent 1,020 days at his Crawford,Tx. ranch and 43 at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Me.
There's a difference in context , too. During Bush's term, the world was serenely at peace and America's economy was booming. And even though Osama bin Laden was still lurking somewhere, Dubya dispatched concern by saying he didn't know where the guy was and couldn't care less.
As for Cheney, you you must understand that one of a cluck's liabilities is they can't do the math. Nor do they want to.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Chris Christie to win Arshinkoff's straw vote poll?
OK, here's the load: If you're planning a vacation at Lake Anna in late September, scrub it. Chairman Alex Arshinkoff's Summit County Republican Party wants you to SAVE THE DATE. Chris Christie is coming to town.
For a $300 ticket, they will seat you at the party's finance dinner at the Hilton in Fairlawn on Sept. 29. You also will have a chance to get an up-front look at what the dinner's sponsors assume will be the GOP presidential nominee in 2016.
That's a safe assumption about Alex because he caters to fill-the-bowl VIP dinner speakers at these affairs. You also will get a chance to participate in his unique straw poll that will find its way into the next day story. In 2112, Rick Santorum, then (and still is) a presidential candidate, thrilled the audience with his attacks on President Obama and won a landslide victory in the straw poll.
When I last looked, Christie, though still the target of an investigation into the George Washington Bridge scandal, was in Kansas trying to dig Gov. Sam Brownback from a deep hole.
A couple of years ago, Brownback signed away the state's decent financial health with huge tax cuts (25 pct. for the richest Kansans), and turned the state's ledger from a $600 million surplus to a $2.5 billion deficit. At the time, Brownback cheerily proclaimed his state would gush upward and not trickle down to demonstrate how Kansas would save America through his good works and the Grace of God.
Once again, trickle-down economics would find a way to avoid the bullshit filter.
Joined by happy talk, both Brownback and Christie have asserted that Kansas' devastating path to looming bankruptcy was entirely due to - yep - President Obama's "failed economic policies". I have to say that when these guys move on they will leave behind no intellectual history.
A cautionary note: If you're in the neighborhood on Sept. 29, be on the alert for a lot of orange cones and a massive traffic jam at the All-America Bridge.
For a $300 ticket, they will seat you at the party's finance dinner at the Hilton in Fairlawn on Sept. 29. You also will have a chance to get an up-front look at what the dinner's sponsors assume will be the GOP presidential nominee in 2016.
That's a safe assumption about Alex because he caters to fill-the-bowl VIP dinner speakers at these affairs. You also will get a chance to participate in his unique straw poll that will find its way into the next day story. In 2112, Rick Santorum, then (and still is) a presidential candidate, thrilled the audience with his attacks on President Obama and won a landslide victory in the straw poll.When I last looked, Christie, though still the target of an investigation into the George Washington Bridge scandal, was in Kansas trying to dig Gov. Sam Brownback from a deep hole.
A couple of years ago, Brownback signed away the state's decent financial health with huge tax cuts (25 pct. for the richest Kansans), and turned the state's ledger from a $600 million surplus to a $2.5 billion deficit. At the time, Brownback cheerily proclaimed his state would gush upward and not trickle down to demonstrate how Kansas would save America through his good works and the Grace of God.
Once again, trickle-down economics would find a way to avoid the bullshit filter.
Joined by happy talk, both Brownback and Christie have asserted that Kansas' devastating path to looming bankruptcy was entirely due to - yep - President Obama's "failed economic policies". I have to say that when these guys move on they will leave behind no intellectual history.
A cautionary note: If you're in the neighborhood on Sept. 29, be on the alert for a lot of orange cones and a massive traffic jam at the All-America Bridge.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Kasich: the blue-collar kid who really isn't
Re-posted from Plunderbund
John Kasich wants me to know that he grew up in humble surroundings that seeded his deep concern for ordinary, hard-working folks. He seldom fails to mention in his TV ads that his father was a mailman for 29 years. His reelection campaign is spending millions of soft-earned contributions from the highest rollers that pay for these ads. He's just a regular guy, they tell us - or as National Review defined him, "a blue-collar kid from a little town near Pittsburgh called McKees Rocks. (Historians tell us Alexander McKee was a colonial British Indian agent who was loyal to royalty during the revolution. That explains everything.)
C'mon, guv. There are countless small-town kids who were too short on ambition to be governor. There were many, too, who grew up with silver spoons that went on to be the head of state. As one who was nurtured in the culture of a small coal-mining town not that far from Kasich's home, I would have been an awful governor. So what's the point?
Acknowledging Kasich's blue-collarship, it's worth knowing he also was the one who vigorously supported the voter-rejected bill that would have restricted unions, which sort of made him the white-collar kid that he really is. The cascade of dough that has found its way into his campaign suggests his croupiers outshine anyone you'd find in Vegas.
In 1998 as chairman of the House Budget Committee, then-Congressman Kasich concocted a Federal budget plan that mercilessly slashed money from welfare, anti-crime and environmental programs, a proposal that was even resisted by some Republicans but lauded by his colleague, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who as a presidential candidate called for the firing of all school janitors. On the other hand Republican Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware said Kasich had "overreached in both policy and political viability".
So this is what Blue Collar kids do when they get to Congress?
Dave Hess. retired Capitol Hill reporter for Knight-Ridder newspapers, wrote more recently that Kasich's slogan of "a new way and new day" was the "typical Republican euphemism that adorns all of the party's proposals and policies...to ensure a steady flow of election year lucre by preserving the wealth of the wealthy..."
I do want to thank the governor for one small matter. As one forever interested in the meaning of the written word, I can now add a new synonym to the definition of "blue collar kid."
John Kasich wants me to know that he grew up in humble surroundings that seeded his deep concern for ordinary, hard-working folks. He seldom fails to mention in his TV ads that his father was a mailman for 29 years. His reelection campaign is spending millions of soft-earned contributions from the highest rollers that pay for these ads. He's just a regular guy, they tell us - or as National Review defined him, "a blue-collar kid from a little town near Pittsburgh called McKees Rocks. (Historians tell us Alexander McKee was a colonial British Indian agent who was loyal to royalty during the revolution. That explains everything.)
C'mon, guv. There are countless small-town kids who were too short on ambition to be governor. There were many, too, who grew up with silver spoons that went on to be the head of state. As one who was nurtured in the culture of a small coal-mining town not that far from Kasich's home, I would have been an awful governor. So what's the point?
Acknowledging Kasich's blue-collarship, it's worth knowing he also was the one who vigorously supported the voter-rejected bill that would have restricted unions, which sort of made him the white-collar kid that he really is. The cascade of dough that has found its way into his campaign suggests his croupiers outshine anyone you'd find in Vegas.
In 1998 as chairman of the House Budget Committee, then-Congressman Kasich concocted a Federal budget plan that mercilessly slashed money from welfare, anti-crime and environmental programs, a proposal that was even resisted by some Republicans but lauded by his colleague, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who as a presidential candidate called for the firing of all school janitors. On the other hand Republican Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware said Kasich had "overreached in both policy and political viability".
So this is what Blue Collar kids do when they get to Congress?
Dave Hess. retired Capitol Hill reporter for Knight-Ridder newspapers, wrote more recently that Kasich's slogan of "a new way and new day" was the "typical Republican euphemism that adorns all of the party's proposals and policies...to ensure a steady flow of election year lucre by preserving the wealth of the wealthy..."
I do want to thank the governor for one small matter. As one forever interested in the meaning of the written word, I can now add a new synonym to the definition of "blue collar kid."
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
The dive bombers are active on Browns' QB crisis
The reports from the boiling Browns QB crisis are not reassuring. The updates:
The Beacon Journal described it as a "conundrum".
The Plain Dealer's usually upbeat Terry Pluto described it as "chaos'.
Ch3 sports guru Jim Donovan said the QB's performances in Game 2 were "terrible," adding that the Browns are the only NFL team that don't know who the starting QB will be.
I can't go on.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Post-game reviews; Browns lose more than a game
Quickly, to update my earlier piece on the media hype of the Browns' QB crisis:
The reviews of the Monday night snore were distinctly flavored with the acidity of a lovers' quarrel. The Beacon Journal headlined "QB hopefuls don't impress'' and the story reaffirmed it by describing the historic performance as "perhaps the biggest dud since the Y2K Scare".
The Plain Dealer took a meaningless more humane course by calling for a reader poll on whether Brian Hoyer or Johnny Middle-Finger Football Manziel should be the starter. (One fan proposed dressing Tim Tebow for the next game! You can understand the desperation.)
But shouldn't some of the red faces be shared by the media for the electrified buildup of the QB gold rush that asked us each day which guy should start? Unfortunately, the Browns didn't play on Broadway Monday night, where bad reviews can close a show in an instant. .
They are left, instead, with Hoyer and Manziel, for better or worse and the show must go on.
The reviews of the Monday night snore were distinctly flavored with the acidity of a lovers' quarrel. The Beacon Journal headlined "QB hopefuls don't impress'' and the story reaffirmed it by describing the historic performance as "perhaps the biggest dud since the Y2K Scare".
The Plain Dealer took a meaningless more humane course by calling for a reader poll on whether Brian Hoyer or Johnny Middle-Finger Football Manziel should be the starter. (One fan proposed dressing Tim Tebow for the next game! You can understand the desperation.)
But shouldn't some of the red faces be shared by the media for the electrified buildup of the QB gold rush that asked us each day which guy should start? Unfortunately, the Browns didn't play on Broadway Monday night, where bad reviews can close a show in an instant. .
They are left, instead, with Hoyer and Manziel, for better or worse and the show must go on.
Alas, ABJ's Beliczky is leaving
The word from the ABJ is that another top reporter ls leaving an already skeletal staff. Carol Beliczky is packing up after 24 years on the local staff plus two in the Columbus bureau and will be gone in two weeks.
Her departure, folks, is a major blow to the paper. Her coverage of higher education as well as the Tressel epic at the University of Akron was at the highest level of professional journalism and one of the few bright signs of local reporting. The decision didn't come easily. After extended consideration she applied for a buyout during the last staff churn - and was turned down by the front office.
A university town can't afford to lose her, but it will too soon.
Her departure, folks, is a major blow to the paper. Her coverage of higher education as well as the Tressel epic at the University of Akron was at the highest level of professional journalism and one of the few bright signs of local reporting. The decision didn't come easily. After extended consideration she applied for a buyout during the last staff churn - and was turned down by the front office.
A university town can't afford to lose her, but it will too soon.
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