DAYTON, OH – University of Dayton graduate student and Dayton Christian Center (DXC) Fellow Drew Formentini has been selected as a participant in the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative to be held April 16-18 at the University of Miami, FL.

"Democracy is mocked by the Senate candidacy of the chief elections official, Jennifer Brunner, who did absolutely nothing about the massive defiance by the 58 county election boards that lost or destroyed the legally mandated records of the 2004 presidential election.  Some champion of democracy, some Democrat." — Michael Collins

Ohio election politics now rival the political hardball of Texas, Illinois, and Florida at their best.  As a result, the state's Democratic Party may once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2010 election cycle.  Through a bid for the open United States Senate seat, the self described election reform Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner puts two critical goals of Ohio Democrats at risk.

The first is the Senate seat held since 1999 by Republican George V. Voinovich who announced plans to retire at the end of his term this January.  This provided a short-lived advantage for a unified Senate candidacy by Democrats.  But the unity ended when the candidacy of Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, the party favorite, was challenged by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Election 2008 turned the tables on Ohio Republicans.  President Obama's 51 - 48% win inverted the questionable 2004 outcome, the Bush 51% to 49% "win" over Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).  Obama not only reversed the 2004 results, his 2.9 million vote total is the highest ever in Ohio, a state with static population growth since 2000.

Ohio:  Suit Filed for Election Observers,

"Dial Up" Provisional Ballots, and a Comment

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

Via the AP, the Supreme Court kicks the voting suppression efforts of Republicans where it counts... Out of court:

The Supreme Court is siding with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Across the nation the GOP is trying to suppress newly registered voters' rights. Because a very few people turned in ridiculous voter registration cards the GOP has been trying to use it as an excuse to boot as many of the millions of newly registered voters from voter lists.

Republicans screech about "Mickey Mouse and Acorn!"

I say...

Today I have just read that the mail in ballots from Ohio voters have various postage requirements.... Seems there should be a better way other than how much the ballot package weighs..some are three pages. Why cannot the Post Office just accept them as they get them rather than I assume shooting them back to the resident for postage due?

Postage problems arise with absentee ballots

Promoted. Originally posted 2008-10-04 12:09:50 -0500. See also Avahome's Wanted: 2008 Ballot Foul-Ups from Friday. Let's do what we can to protect and preserve the primary legal method we have for enforcing change in government. -- GH

10/02/2008

Today, VR [VelvetRevolution] offered a $100,000 reward for information from whistleblowers who have knowledge of election related criminal activity by Michael Connell, Randy Cole, Karl Rove and others. The full ad will be published this week in the Akron newspapers

Click for Actual Reward Notice

ATTENTION: Employees of GovTech Solutions, New Media Communications, and Technomania

If YOU know anything about Vote Tampering -- the time to speak up is Now!

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/

Editor's note: More after the flip. -- GH
------

 Click the first arrow button on the monitor bar to play video

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/Video/Spoon-Int.wmv
Transcript below.

I am always so surprised when I read articles like the following. Why I am so darn surprised...I don't know. Schnoockered comes to mind!!! Can we not stand the truth?

U.S. exports there have risen during the Bush administration

excerpt:

CrissCrossingOhio

Are you puzzled by government in general and Ohio government in particular? Don’t have a clue about what’s happening, what it means or who’s responsible for it?

OhioNews Bureau

COLUMBUS, OHIO: New statistics drawn from the two federal bankruptcy courts in Ohio show an 80 percent increase in the number of Buckeyes going bust since the spring of 2006.

The report, issued by Bob Lawless and found at Credit Slips, a nationally respected blog about credit and bankruptcy, is based on bankruptcy data from March 2008 that revealed that the US average filing rate went over 4,000 per day for the first time since the 2005 bankruptcy law was passed.

Of the ninety federal judicial districts in the 50 states, Ohio’s Southern and Northern districts ranked 49th (representing an 81.2% increase) and 51st (representing an 80% increase), respectively, in the number of bankruptcy filings reported from April 2006 to March 2008.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: With succinctness and a dab of dark humor, Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, told criminals who commit crimes in someone's home or car that “you will not get a volume discount on killing more than one person.”

Grendell's grim comment came following the unanimous passage Wednesday by the Ohio Senate of the aptly dubbed ”Castle Doctrine” bill. It protects anyone who uses deadly force to defend themselves or another person from any civil liability against the person who created the threat against whom the deadly force was used.

In a 31-0 vote, the bill sponsored by Sen. Steve Buehrer, a member who represents a group of conservative counties in Northwest Ohio, was an identical twin of a House bill that sought to devise a bulwark defense for anyone who uses a gun to protect themselves, their family or their property against the nightmarish scenario of someone breaking into their home or their car.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: After spending months dawdling over a bill that will redefine Ohio’s energy system for years to come, the Public Utilities Committee in the Ohio House yesterday got a sudden burst of energy that kept them sequestered into the wee hours of the morning in a subterranean meeting room, as they accepted a new, possibly industry-built version of a bill that the majority Republican party accepted and passed out of committee without Democrats even being in the room.

Democrats voiced concerns that they were given precious little time to read the new version of the bill, which one source reported had the digital fingerprints of a known utility insider on it and also said the committee chairman’s denial of their request to meet in private to review amendments they had not seen before was a case of disrespect to minority members.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: In the latest monthly economic health profile issued Thursday by the Ohio Department of Budget and Management, the grim impact a decaying national economy is having on Ohio was evidenced by job losses in February and a turn down in personal income, consumer spending and consumer confidence.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: In the 60s, Bob Dylan sang about the metaphorical "hard rain" that was going to fall in poetic response to the tumbling, trying tumult of the time.

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, both as a candidate for the job and during the 14 months in the job, has said solving Ohio’s education puzzle – constitutional funding for primary and secondary education and taming the lions of higher education that have produced a college education in Ohio more expensive than others -- will be the central issue in his first-term, one that will define whether he has been a success or not.