Want your very own view of making sausage? It's all here at Stimulus Watch, a great web tool designed to give the folks ultimately paying the bills (that'd be you and me) a birds-eye view of just what Uncle Sam, Cousin Ted and Nephew Don want to do with all those billions.
My first visit went to the site for Akron projects, and it's a whopper -- more than a billion dollars worth of gimme put together by the City of Akron. It also makes very real what is often a powerful position for politicians: that all that spending is pork.
You might think so as well until you see your street, your school or your idea of what government should pay for on the list, and one the list of dozens and dozens of projects odds are you'll see plenty that ought to get a piece of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid pie. After all, who would complain about getting federal money to fix the crumbling roads and bridges we're seeing in the Akron area now that the snow and ice are off the highways?
You get the same look-see at what Mayor Healy in Canton says his city needs; there's even a separate page for Stow, almost five million dollars worth to finish Seasons Road and pave the road to Bulldog Prosperity. It is disappointing we don't see Hudson belly up to the bar here as well...one must imagine how much federal recovery dollars would help build new off-site parking for the boutiques on the Square.
Sorry, can't help but being cynical even while recognizing all this money would certainly do plenty of good. The problem is the majority of folks who are as cynical as I am living in Texas, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia and the rest of the 49 states other than Ohio (see what the state is asking for here to get a gander of the 847 projects the Strickland Administration forwarded Washington ) will take a look at these projects and wonder just why their hard-earned tax dollars need to go to a state with a $55 billion dollar budget. Then again, those of us in Ohio will think the same thing about a dime spent in Texas, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia and the rest of the 49 states other than Ohio.
That's the point: our "must have" list looks like a chunk of Bob Evans' most popular product to anyone on the outside, while anything outside Ohio's borders looks like it's all pork to those of us between the Ohio River and Lake Erie.
The interesting thing about pork in 2009, however, is we get to ride along and even report on our own what we think is good, what we think is bad, even what we think is B.S. (that's not short for bachelor of science...) and needs to be exposed. We still have to pay the bill for what Washington says we need but don't necessarily want. The difference between life under Bill and W. is with tools like Stimulus Watch we can get a better look in the Obama butcher shop on how the sausage is made -- including how much pork is really in the mix.
StimulusWatch.org is the creation of a couple George Mason University types with help from web professionals; they claim no affiliation with Presidents, Governors, County or City officials and even provide a Google Excel site to grab the database yourself and sort to your heart's content.
Showing posts with label Strickland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strickland. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thoughts On An Icy Day
God love Matt Drudge for his wonderful use of the web to highlight political irony. Example: this afternoon's flashback to a piece in 2005 over the high cost of a Presidential Inauguration during a time of war and economic uncertainty. Back then the Bush Bashers were apoplectic over the thought of $50 million being spent on a party celebrating the first 50+ percentage point win by any presidential candidate in nearly a generation; after all, it was W. Now that it's O, what's the guessing on who contrasts live in Baghdad on January 20th with live in DC for the party?
- - -
Outgoing U.S. Senator George Voinovich's office sends out word that Treasury Secretary-in-waiting Tim Geithner faces big problems with Ohio's senior senator thanks to his tax problems.
“It's a very bad thing for the guy that's running Treasury to be out there saying, 'I made a mistake. I forgot about it,'" Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, tells the Associated Press. "The American public thinks that there's some people ... especially a lot of these guys on Wall Street, that have had it made in the shade."
I'm sure Geithner is very scared.
What is amazing is that none of this came up when Geithner was selected to run the New York Federal Reserve, perhaps the second most powerful gig in the Fed beyond only chairman Ben Bernanke. He owed more than $42 grand for almost eight years and nobody picked up this might be a problem? This also from a guy getting grand marks from the goofs in Congress for his handling of the bailout -- the same bailout they voted for that they now rail over because they have absolutely no idea of how the money's been spent, shy of funding big banks buying other banks. More of a taxpayer-funded venture capital fund rather than for recovery, and now Frank and Dodd and Obama want banks to fork over more money for loans to people who can't prove they can pay it back. No wonder we live in an age of Pax Americana, where even the best and brightest can't seem to figure out how to pay their own bills much less manage other people's money responsibly. Where else does a guy who fesses up to missing tax payments big enough for entire families to live on for a year get a job overseeing the IRS?
- - -
The GOP games are underway with former Congressman and Washington insider Rob Portman (OMB Director, Trade Ambassador) barely leaving a split-second undisturbed from the plaudits heading George Voinovich's way to say he's running for Senator; now State Senator Kevin Coughlin is tossing his hat into the 2010 Governor's race despite the bruising battle last year over control of the Summit County Republican Party. Coughlin may have his work cut out for him; John Kasich, former Columbus area Congressman and darling of the conservative Reagan wing, is also staking out similar territory and likely to have a much better chance of squeezing big dollars out of weary Republicans for a race against incumbent Ted Strickland. That said, it's a good political move for Coughlin to come out early for statewide office. The strategy is tried and true and right out of former GOP Chair Bob Bennett's playbook; remember when Blackwell, Montgomery and Petro were all running for the same office but then backed down over a period? With just one statewide executive office in GOP hands (Auditor Mary Taylor) there will be plenty of room to play musical political chairs and see if there's a seat for Coughlin when the music stops before filing time for the spring 2010 primary. In the meantime, he draws interest from around the state, uses the soapbox to raise money, and sees just how much political blood flows from the deep cut left over from his battle with Alex.
- - -
Mayor Plusquellic's State of the City is set for next month and it will be interesting to see what's rolling around in the halls of South High as TNBT (the next big thing) to be proposed during this annual speech. One year it was Don Robart being a liar (that didn't play out very well) and last year it was selling (later leasing) the sewer system to fund a scholarship program. This may very well be a great platform for the Mayor to revisit 2008 and challenge his Save Our Sewer opponents, back home by now from the special place in hell Plusquellic sent them when Issue 8 lost. This would be a great time to task them and others to come up with other ways to fund what most thought was a flawed but worth-further-work idea; even the most critical 8 haters admitted they liked the idea of coming up with a way to provide scholarships. Does the UA, and KSU, and College of Wooster, and Malone, and Walsh, and Mount Union, and Case-CSU-Tri-C-YSU finally get a role in this as well as part of a regional solution? Maybe something for the well-meaning regionalists to get behind?
- - -
Outgoing U.S. Senator George Voinovich's office sends out word that Treasury Secretary-in-waiting Tim Geithner faces big problems with Ohio's senior senator thanks to his tax problems.
“It's a very bad thing for the guy that's running Treasury to be out there saying, 'I made a mistake. I forgot about it,'" Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, tells the Associated Press. "The American public thinks that there's some people ... especially a lot of these guys on Wall Street, that have had it made in the shade."
I'm sure Geithner is very scared.
What is amazing is that none of this came up when Geithner was selected to run the New York Federal Reserve, perhaps the second most powerful gig in the Fed beyond only chairman Ben Bernanke. He owed more than $42 grand for almost eight years and nobody picked up this might be a problem? This also from a guy getting grand marks from the goofs in Congress for his handling of the bailout -- the same bailout they voted for that they now rail over because they have absolutely no idea of how the money's been spent, shy of funding big banks buying other banks. More of a taxpayer-funded venture capital fund rather than for recovery, and now Frank and Dodd and Obama want banks to fork over more money for loans to people who can't prove they can pay it back. No wonder we live in an age of Pax Americana, where even the best and brightest can't seem to figure out how to pay their own bills much less manage other people's money responsibly. Where else does a guy who fesses up to missing tax payments big enough for entire families to live on for a year get a job overseeing the IRS?
- - -
The GOP games are underway with former Congressman and Washington insider Rob Portman (OMB Director, Trade Ambassador) barely leaving a split-second undisturbed from the plaudits heading George Voinovich's way to say he's running for Senator; now State Senator Kevin Coughlin is tossing his hat into the 2010 Governor's race despite the bruising battle last year over control of the Summit County Republican Party. Coughlin may have his work cut out for him; John Kasich, former Columbus area Congressman and darling of the conservative Reagan wing, is also staking out similar territory and likely to have a much better chance of squeezing big dollars out of weary Republicans for a race against incumbent Ted Strickland. That said, it's a good political move for Coughlin to come out early for statewide office. The strategy is tried and true and right out of former GOP Chair Bob Bennett's playbook; remember when Blackwell, Montgomery and Petro were all running for the same office but then backed down over a period? With just one statewide executive office in GOP hands (Auditor Mary Taylor) there will be plenty of room to play musical political chairs and see if there's a seat for Coughlin when the music stops before filing time for the spring 2010 primary. In the meantime, he draws interest from around the state, uses the soapbox to raise money, and sees just how much political blood flows from the deep cut left over from his battle with Alex.
- - -
Mayor Plusquellic's State of the City is set for next month and it will be interesting to see what's rolling around in the halls of South High as TNBT (the next big thing) to be proposed during this annual speech. One year it was Don Robart being a liar (that didn't play out very well) and last year it was selling (later leasing) the sewer system to fund a scholarship program. This may very well be a great platform for the Mayor to revisit 2008 and challenge his Save Our Sewer opponents, back home by now from the special place in hell Plusquellic sent them when Issue 8 lost. This would be a great time to task them and others to come up with other ways to fund what most thought was a flawed but worth-further-work idea; even the most critical 8 haters admitted they liked the idea of coming up with a way to provide scholarships. Does the UA, and KSU, and College of Wooster, and Malone, and Walsh, and Mount Union, and Case-CSU-Tri-C-YSU finally get a role in this as well as part of a regional solution? Maybe something for the well-meaning regionalists to get behind?
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Ted's Death Row Test
I was struck by the depth of consideration Governor Ted Strickland gave John Spirko, the Death Row inmate who has big-city help in trying to overturn his execution sentence for the murder of western Ohio postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger in 1982.
I think it's important to make sure her name is included in the first paragraph of this story rather than as an afterthought.
Rather than rubber-stamping an expected politically correct call to give Spirko a pass the Governor fully explains just why it'll be life in prison for a killer rather than the needle.
“John Spirko was convicted, by a jury, of a heinous murder. At times, when he wasn’t denying having committed the murder, he appears to have admitted doing so. Ohio and federal trial, appellate and supreme courts reviewed his conviction and upheld it. Alibi claims and claims regarding evidentiary weaknesses, including more recently developed theories and interpretations of evidence, were considered by those courts and rejected. In addition, Governor Taft and I granted Mr. Spirko, collectively, seven reprieves to allow for the analysis of DNA related to the case. Once completed, these DNA tests neither exonerated Mr. Spirko nor implicated him or anyone else.
I think it's important to make sure her name is included in the first paragraph of this story rather than as an afterthought.
Rather than rubber-stamping an expected politically correct call to give Spirko a pass the Governor fully explains just why it'll be life in prison for a killer rather than the needle.
“John Spirko was convicted, by a jury, of a heinous murder. At times, when he wasn’t denying having committed the murder, he appears to have admitted doing so. Ohio and federal trial, appellate and supreme courts reviewed his conviction and upheld it. Alibi claims and claims regarding evidentiary weaknesses, including more recently developed theories and interpretations of evidence, were considered by those courts and rejected. In addition, Governor Taft and I granted Mr. Spirko, collectively, seven reprieves to allow for the analysis of DNA related to the case. Once completed, these DNA tests neither exonerated Mr. Spirko nor implicated him or anyone else.The Ohio Parole Board twice unanimously recommended against clemency for Mr. Spirko. Most recently, in 2005, six members of the Board recommended against clemency and three recommended that Mr. Spirko be allowed time to exhaust newly developed legal theories in the courts. Mr. Spirko was ultimately allowed that opportunity and his claims were rejected. Mr. Spirko’s claims that his own lies led to his conviction for an offense that he did not commit are unpersuasive in the face of the judicial scrutiny this case has received. Nonetheless, I have concluded that the lack of physical evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder that arises from careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case.
In making this determination, my staff and I conducted a thorough review of the judicial decisions associated with this matter, the Adult Parole Authority’s reports and recommendations, letters received in the Office of the Governor and by the parole board, the arguments and exhibits presented at the Parole Board hearing, the arguments presented by Mr. Spirko’s counsel in favor of clemency, recordings of various interviews, relevant photographs, newspaper analyses of this matter and Mr. Spirko’s institutional mental health records.
Based on this review, I have decided to commute Mr. Spirko’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”
Here's the Governor's official order in the Spirko case:
Warrant of Commutation of Sentence
John Spirko, Jr., #A171-433 was convicted of the crime of Aggravated Murder with a Death Penalty Specification and sentenced by the Van Wert County Common Pleas Court to death.
Mr. Spirko is currently incarcerated in the custody of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and is scheduled to be executed on January 24, 2008.
I find that Mr. Spirko’s claim that his own lies led to his conviction for an offense that he did not commit is unpersuasive in the face of the judicial scrutiny this case has received.
I also find that the lack of physical evidence linking Mr. Spirko to the above-mentioned murder, combined with the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder arising from a careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty in this case inappropriate.
Accordingly, I direct that the sentence of death of John Spirko be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
I signed this Warrant of Commutation on January 9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio.
It's noteworthy the Governor's commutation order so strongly considers the DNA evidence as neither clearing nor implicating Spirko, something missing from most of the media coverage (notably the Plain Dealer) which centers on the evidence not linking Spirko to the murder of Mottinger, whose body was found in a Findlay area soybean field six weeks after she was kidnapped, without noting it doesn't really clear him, either.
It is interesting to note Spirko escapes the death chamber because we think he did the deed but we're not sure enough to allow the sentence to be carried out.
The Governor's reasoning is plainly and clearly expressed and while it may not be a full endorsement of withholding lethal injection for any prisoner (it is important to note there have been a pair of executions in Ohio under Strickland's term: James Filiaggi and James Newton) it comes at the time when the U.S. Supreme Court weighs arguments on whether lethal injection poses "cruel and unusual punishment" enough to order different methods or procedures to be used.
In making this determination, my staff and I conducted a thorough review of the judicial decisions associated with this matter, the Adult Parole Authority’s reports and recommendations, letters received in the Office of the Governor and by the parole board, the arguments and exhibits presented at the Parole Board hearing, the arguments presented by Mr. Spirko’s counsel in favor of clemency, recordings of various interviews, relevant photographs, newspaper analyses of this matter and Mr. Spirko’s institutional mental health records.
Based on this review, I have decided to commute Mr. Spirko’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”
Here's the Governor's official order in the Spirko case:
Warrant of Commutation of Sentence
John Spirko, Jr., #A171-433 was convicted of the crime of Aggravated Murder with a Death Penalty Specification and sentenced by the Van Wert County Common Pleas Court to death.
Mr. Spirko is currently incarcerated in the custody of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and is scheduled to be executed on January 24, 2008.
I find that Mr. Spirko’s claim that his own lies led to his conviction for an offense that he did not commit is unpersuasive in the face of the judicial scrutiny this case has received.
I also find that the lack of physical evidence linking Mr. Spirko to the above-mentioned murder, combined with the slim residual doubt about his responsibility for the murder arising from a careful scrutiny of the case record and revelations about the case over the past 20 years, makes the imposition of the death penalty in this case inappropriate.
Accordingly, I direct that the sentence of death of John Spirko be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
I signed this Warrant of Commutation on January 9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio.
It's noteworthy the Governor's commutation order so strongly considers the DNA evidence as neither clearing nor implicating Spirko, something missing from most of the media coverage (notably the Plain Dealer) which centers on the evidence not linking Spirko to the murder of Mottinger, whose body was found in a Findlay area soybean field six weeks after she was kidnapped, without noting it doesn't really clear him, either.
It is interesting to note Spirko escapes the death chamber because we think he did the deed but we're not sure enough to allow the sentence to be carried out.
The Governor's reasoning is plainly and clearly expressed and while it may not be a full endorsement of withholding lethal injection for any prisoner (it is important to note there have been a pair of executions in Ohio under Strickland's term: James Filiaggi and James Newton) it comes at the time when the U.S. Supreme Court weighs arguments on whether lethal injection poses "cruel and unusual punishment" enough to order different methods or procedures to be used.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Goodyear, City Hall, Zips and Dog v Baby
OK, this has already been a big week; it's likely Goodyear will announce tomorrow it is staying put in Akron; two members of City Council tussle with the Mayor in an unusual public display of will and ego and University of Akron head basketball coach Keith Dambrot is so frustrated we're not showing up for Zips games he's promising to work to get us all free hot dogs.
On Goodyear: the State passes a big plan and now the world's top tiremaker has a news conference set for Wednesday to announce whether they stay or go. The developer will be in the house, and not just to hum the Clash tune; it's a no-brainer Goodyear will stay. As we told you last week the economics to keep Akron the Rubber City was on the fast-track to happen in early December (I noted this was coming during our "crystal ball" segment on NewsNight Akron a month or so ago). This isn't insider information but it is highly likely since Governor Strickland, Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, Summit County Executive Russ Pry (confirmed) and Mayor Don Plusquellic (we think) are all planning to attend the news conference. Ohio wins one in the war to protect our economic flank, and this is a HUGE win for Strickland & Fisher -- and Pry has a major feather in his cap heading into a March 2008 primary election. Plusquellic should share in the love, too as local government proves it can do what it is supposed to do: keep Ohio's businesses in Ohio. That hasn't always been the case.
I could opine further on both Mike Williams and John Conti taking on the Donald but this link to AkronNewsNow's coverage, complete with audio, is 'nuff said. We're working on getting Dambrot's full comments after Sunday's Zips-Wyoming game posted as well but in the meantime my favorite multimedia is included in this blog: who cries loudest and isn't it great we've finally found something other than a car ride to quiet the screaming baby.
On Goodyear: the State passes a big plan and now the world's top tiremaker has a news conference set for Wednesday to announce whether they stay or go. The developer will be in the house, and not just to hum the Clash tune; it's a no-brainer Goodyear will stay. As we told you last week the economics to keep Akron the Rubber City was on the fast-track to happen in early December (I noted this was coming during our "crystal ball" segment on NewsNight Akron a month or so ago). This isn't insider information but it is highly likely since Governor Strickland, Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, Summit County Executive Russ Pry (confirmed) and Mayor Don Plusquellic (we think) are all planning to attend the news conference. Ohio wins one in the war to protect our economic flank, and this is a HUGE win for Strickland & Fisher -- and Pry has a major feather in his cap heading into a March 2008 primary election. Plusquellic should share in the love, too as local government proves it can do what it is supposed to do: keep Ohio's businesses in Ohio. That hasn't always been the case.
I could opine further on both Mike Williams and John Conti taking on the Donald but this link to AkronNewsNow's coverage, complete with audio, is 'nuff said. We're working on getting Dambrot's full comments after Sunday's Zips-Wyoming game posted as well but in the meantime my favorite multimedia is included in this blog: who cries loudest and isn't it great we've finally found something other than a car ride to quiet the screaming baby.
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