Ohio senate loosens purse strings

PUT THIS IN THE CATEGORY OF YOU-CAN'T- MAKE-THIS-UP:

Down in Columbus at the Statehouse, where the honored catchword in troubled times is "frugality", we read in the Columbus Dispatch that the Ohio Senate has given raises to its 19 top aides ranging from 4 pct. to 33 pct. The lucky recipients include 10 Republicans and 9 Democrats. But Senate President Tom Niehaus (R) says calm down, he can explain it. "It's never a bad time to do the right thing," Niehaus said. "What I did with the pay increases is consistent with what we advocate in Senate Bill 5, which is paying people for performance .

Among those receiving $15,000 raises was Niehaus' chief of staff, Matt Schuler, whose salary rose to $138,507. With this crowd of cheapskates, it all depends on whose wallet is being gored.

The GOP's uninterrupted talking points

THE MOST THAT can be said about the Republican response to President Obama's jobs speech is that the plot didn't thicken. It's already thick with the same well-rehearsed Tea Party talking points. A lot of TV interview time could be saved if you bunched all of these characters together and called out"Ready, choir": cut taxes, cut spending. In unison!

That's it. We'll be back in a moment for tonight's baseball scores.

The likelihood of the Republicans doing anything to make the economy (read: Obama) look good before the 2012 election is not an option for the president's opponents who have been out to crush him since the minute he entered the Oval Office. Take House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the Virginia Narcissus with an expansive view of himself. Cantor immediately declared of his side, "We're serious and we have a vision". That, of course, suggests that Obama is trying to win over Americans as he prepares for his own Comedy Central show.

Then there's Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, whose grandiose economic schemes have been shredded more than once. He accused the president of being "excessively partisan." Go figure for a GOP caucus that engages in frenzied partisanship before and after every Pledge of Allegiance.

And then Ohio's Rep. Jim Jordan, who may be to the right of the Tea Party, trashed the speech by comparing it to the movie "Groundhog Day." Clever reference from a guy who seems to rely on his farm life for his imagery.

And Michele Bachmann, perhaps feeling less than cheery as the pundits have summarily erased her from the list of presidential contenders, declared the Obama plan DOA. She's no longer a player, we're being told. But what about the media-driven fuss leading up to the charade in Iowa, which was supposed to be a sort of winner-take-all ascent to the White House. She won, and all that, but ...

So shall we now add her to the humbled list of wannabes that for their brief 15 minutes of fame were declared the people's choice? Think Donald Trump,Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin (the Divine one) Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The only one still standing that I haven't included is Newt Gingrich. But he was the only one who ever considered himself to be a serious contender in the first place.

Perry's losing scheme vs. the Ponzi scheme

THE CURRENT BUZZ word in the political lexicon is "Ponzi" - as in Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi. He was the Italian immigrant who arrived on these shores penniless in 1903, went on to take in about $15 million in a postage coupon swindle and from there went on to prison.

From the Republican right-wing tower commanding the presidential road show comes word from Texas Gov. Rick Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Perry goes after some issues as though he is trying to lasso a rodeo bull with a rubber band. But as we have learned from rubber bands, they can snap back into your face.

Nevertheless, you will be hearing about Ponzi's schemes from the comfortable Social Security haters who obviously believe that if those recipients who survive on their monthly checks are going to starve, then let it happen quickly. The chorus of those who agree with Perry includes such modern-day social and economic philosophers as Tucker Carlson, Rush Limbaugh(whose current wealth could help restore Social Security to good health overnight) Fox News gurus Andrew Napolitano and Brit Hume and CNN contributor Erick Erickson. There are others, but this gives you some idea of where all of the Ponzi raps are coming from.

But wait. It should be an absolute in politics that if you scare the hell out of the public on issues like Social Security, you are destined to be an also-ran. On this point, I agree with Mitt Romney's aide who asserted after Wednesday's GOP debate that "Perry just lost the election."

Poor Carlo Ponzi. Wasn't it enough that he went to prison for his bloodless crimes that he must now have his name trashed even more by loony people like Rick Perry and the Fox/CNN crowd?

When some things are more out of control than others

AS TEXANS WORK desperately to contain the fires of hell, here are some figures for Rick Perry's "miraculous" leadership, courtesy of the Crooks and Liars blog:

There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas, many of which have responded to the wildfire.

There are 114 paid fire departments.

There are 187 fire departments with volunteers as well as paid firefighters.

The state has cut its financial support to the volunteer departments by 75 pct.

P.S. Perry, who has attacked Washington for being "out of control", apparently excludes those times when the wildfires are out of control in his state. He now says he wants Uncle Sam's help for this particular emergency.

Should we still call it Labor Day?

SO ANOTHER LABOR DAY has passed, not with a bang but sorrowfully a whimper. The media told us of the bleak economy and in a couple of instances, still mindful of President Bush's quick fix, suggested that consumers could provide a glimmer of hope by going shopping.

The national h0liday was set aside by President Grover Cleveland in 1897, ten years after Oregon had declared a "Labor Day" to honor its workers. Until recently, editorial pages on this special day were dominated by grand salutes to the contributions of the working class to the strength of the nation.

My, how times have changed! Editorials in in the Plain Dealer and Columbus Dispatch went on and on about the state of the economy and how important it is now to find solutions. Interestingly, neither Kasich-friendly paper had a single reference to the governor's union- busting initiatives that will be challenged on Election Day. Nor could they. How hollow their words would be inasmuch as both oppose the repeal of Senate Bill 5, which severely restricts public unions.

Instead, the Plain Dealer hauled out the usual imprecise but handy nostrums to invigorate the economy, to wit:

"It is up to all Ohioans, and our political leadership, to show the imagination and forward-thinking in education, taxation and spending policies needed to bring vibrancy back to the employment market."

And what might they be? A brief translation: cut taxes and spending. That's imaginative these days with trickle-nowhere corporations sitting on more than $2 trillion that could help remedy the jobs picture?

The Dispatch, meanwhile., simplified the problem by blaming President Obama and the National Labor Relations Board, a thought that is not even forward-looking nor original but largely inspired by something held dearly by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Concluding that the NLRB was out to "punish" companies that strive to create new jobs, the Dispatch huffed:

"These moves have cowed, paralyzed or blocked the private-sector decision-making that is necessary to get the nation moving again."

To its credit, the Beacon Journal did slip from its occasional anti-union noose to call upon Obama to support unemployment benefits and protect the jobs of "teachers, police officers and firefighters, among others." That, of course, was an unmistakable reference to those public unions most affected by Senate Bill 5.

But for the state's two largest newspapers, it was a Labor Day that called for extending the employment benefits of their friends in the eagerly compensated front offices.

Doesn't either side want to be presidential?

IF YOU HAVE any interest at all in next year's presidential election - and I know that's a stiff challenge -then you can only conclude that:

While the current preposterous Republican job-seekers are doing their damnedest not to win the election next year...

President Obama's repeated concessions to the GOP suggest he is doing his damnedest to lose it.

Will it be a tie?

Arshinkoff: Searching for a presidential speaker?

THE SUMMIT COUNTY Republican Finance Dinner, the premier fund-raising event for the locals, still hasn't been scheduled even though it has usually been set much earlier. According to a source at Party Headquarters, it could be held in late September or later. My hunch is that Chairman Alex Arshinkoff is still turning up his Tarot cards to determine which magnetic presidential candidate might be lured to Akron as the star attraction who satisfies the

Tea Party and his big donors.

Arshinkoff always aspires to being a player in the national arena but his list of recent speakers as potential presidential nominees has not paid off. Among them: Mississippi Gov. Haley

Barbour , former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Lincoln Day speaker Mike Huckabee - all of whom gave nice Republican pep talks in Akron and then decided against a presidential bid.

Anybody wanna guess? The winner will be awarded a GOP tea mug.

The junk politics of Eric Cantor

WHAT IS IT about Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, that prompts him to be so beastly toward civilized behavior? Although there has been plenty of earlier evidence of his fondness for junk politics, I now refer to his opposition to Federal aid for hurricane victims unless the money can be offset by further cuts in the budget. He can say such things with grave resolve or with his familiar Mona Lisa smile.

• Is he hoping that such loony talk will lead him to a spot on the national ticket next year when Tea Party Republicans may be expected to reach for the craziest candidate on the their ticket?
• Is he simply the bratty child simply demanding attention from Mommy?
• Does he impatiently have to go to the bathroom?
• Is he still trying to remove personal guilt for voting to accept federal aid when his own state of Virginia was stricken by the elements several years ago?
• Is he a narcissistic moron driven by junk politics?

Speaking about junk politicians, what can we say about House Speaker John Boehner, who is a rank above Cantor?

Do the folks in his congressional district in Southwest Ohio know that he was servilely obedient to Rush Limbaugh when the latter called for him to block President Obama's original date to address congress on j0bs? In setting a precedent for a rejection of a President's request, Boehner has paid an addition premium to the political right by seeking parity with the Oval Office.

In this skirmish Obama failed to recall something he said as a candidate when he was asked about President Bush. He said: "You can only have one president at a time.." It made sense at the time. Why doesn't he believe it makes sense today against this gang of junk politicians?

Sherrod Brown: a solar jobs deal near Toledo

THERE WAS SOME good news today by way of the Toledo Blade:

A joint announcement by Sen. Sherrod Brown and the head of the federally operated Ex-Im Bank reported that the bank will provide $455.7 million financing that will allow the First Solar Inc. plant near Toledo to produce solar panels for two solar projects in Ontario, Canada.

The paper said the 18-year government guaranteed loan will sustain jobs for 550 workers at the plant. It should be further noted that Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im Bank chairman, said such financing was needed through federal channels because without it the project could not obtain loans in the commercial lending marketplace.

There's a chance his Republican opponents will find a way to criticize Brown for the deal. They usually do if they aren't busy raising questions about global warming or damning the Feds.

Will muni income taxes become a Kasich enterprise?

I DON'T WANT to sound like I'm picking on Rob Nichols, Gov. Kasich's media puppy, but as long as he insists on staring into the dark wall of Plato's cave, I can't avoid being a nag - or worse. It seems that not a day goes by the Nichols doesn't sound like a damn fool in defending his boss's latest assault on local government.

So when Kasich & Co. shows interest in taking over local income tax collections as progressive "belt-tightening" measures for the officials who run city halls - Democrats and Republicans - across the state, it is left to Nichols bring out his shovel to explain the latest bizarro from the executive palace in Columbus. First, Nichols describes mayors who huffily object to the idea "as advocates of the status quo." As in, the mayors love their fat cities the way they have been since America liberated itself from the British.

From his mentally embedded script, he then tells the Plain Dealer: "All of this has to be done if we are going to make Ohio more economically competitive. We can't afford the government that we have, and I think very few Ohioans feel that the government is so efficient that there isn't some room for things to become leaner."

Instead of portraying local officials as easy streeters with public money, a few belt - tightening facts (which are obviously of little value to Ohio's chief executive):

In 2013 , local government will lose the estate tax , 80 pct. of which goes to local government.

And the Republican legislature has already cut a third of local government funds.

Rechanneling local income tax revenue into the state's hands for distribution would be an administrative nightmare without anything more than second-rate guesswork to tell us how it would attract a company from Germany or China to invest in Ohio.

We await Ohio's corporate controlled editorial pages to refer to the scheme for what it is: another Kasich fiasco-in-the-political-making. He's already proved to be a master of such handiwork with Senate bill 5. If you don't think so, it's time to come home from the beach.