Pro-Romney CEO lays off workers with a prayer -- BARF!

What a jerk!  If coal magnate Robert E. Murray wanted to lay off his workers he should lay them off, but don't blame President Obama for it, much less hide behind God!  Here's his self-serving pink slip "prayer:"

Dear Lord:

The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.

We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.

My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.

The takers outvoted the producers. In response to this, I have turned to my Bible and in II Peter, Chapter 1, verses 4-9 it says, “To faith we are to add goodness; to goodness, knowledge; to knowledge, self control; to self control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, kindness; to brotherly kindness, love.”

Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build. We ask for your guidance in this drastic time with the drastic decisions that will be made to have any hope of our survival as an American business enterprise.

Amen.

Yet nothing changed on November 9 in the mining industry.  And since Murray Energy is privately owned, we have no idea how well it's doing, or will do, we just have to take old Bob's word for it that he's in "survival mode" now.  

In fact, Murray just wanted to make a political point against President Obama -- and he used the Lord's name and 156 workers and their families to make it.  (Gee, do you think it'll work if they pray to God to get their old jobs back; or will their prayers just cancel each other out?)

And let's not forget the complaint to the Federal Election Commission in October that alleges Murray threatened employees with reprisals, including the loss of their jobs, to coerce them to make contributions to the company's PAC.

Self-made millionaires like Robert E. Murray can be the most insufferable egotists.  They figure if they made it big then everybody else should be able to as well.  People like Murray discount luck and chalk up all their success to themselves (and maybe "God," in the abstract.)  He's probably too dumb to realize his father and himself probably could have avoided their terrible mining accidents if Big Government had been allowed to ensure adequate mine safety.  

So anyway, now Murray says he's in "survival mode," trying to generate all the cash he can.  I wonder what survival mode means for a rich CEO like Robert Murray?  I bet it's not the same, quantitatively or qualitatively, as survival mode for his laid-off workers.

Coal executive explains layoffs with prayer lamenting Romney loss

By Kim Geiger

November 10, 2012 | Tribune Washington Bureau

URL: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/09/174281/coal-executive-explains-layoffs.html

Ohio Romney supporters in their own words - YIKES

Like I said before, perhaps the best "tactic" of the Left is simply to give committed right-wingers a microphone and enough rope to hang themselves with.

Wait till you get to the part on when the correspondent asks what is Romney's plan?

And finally, we have an answer to the question that inquiring minds want to know: is Obama a communist, an atheist, or a Muslim?  "He's all three."

Even worse, we can't even go outside with somebody watching us.

Meanwhile, those damn Buddhists are taking away our freedom of religion.

Watch the whole thing, seriously.  Then ask yourself, if you're a Romney supporter: Can you do any better than these morons in explaining yourself?

Ohio Romney Rally - Interviews with Supporters

By NewLeftMedia

November 1, 2012 | YouTube

Cincy ads scare, confuse black voters over a crime that doesn't exist

Yep, Cincinnati's showing once again it's the most conservative big city in America...and perhaps the most racist.

In Ohio, Signs of Voter Suppression Go Up -- And Come Down
By P.G. Sittenfeld
October 24, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/QGfbcA

Voting should be preceded by an obstacle course

Hey, Democrat-district voters: your polling station is on the other side. 

"By and large, election officials, it's our job to make it easier for people to vote, not harder," said a Greene County election official in Dayton, OH.

Au contraire!  The ordeal of voting is a test of one's economic station and democratic mettle.  You should be willing to risk losing your minimum-wage job, and even swim across a moat full of man-eating alligators if you really want to get to your local polling station.  (Ideally, they'd have to pass through the Game like Kurt Thomas in Gymkata, but that would be too expensive to organize, unfortunately....)

Naturally, if you're fortunate enough to have a salaried position and your home county has excess funds to pay for early and extended voting, well... that's just one of the benefits that accrue to upstanding Americans who work hard, live right, and live in the right place.

To make sure that only the right people vote (wink-wink), we should make voting downright inconvenient and during work hours, when wage-earning commoners are least likely to go to the polls.  Because if they do vote, they'll just choose the candidates promising more government benefits that we property-owning lords of the manor must pay for.  And I say, harumph-harumph and tut-tut to that!  

Republican Voter Suppression Campaign Rolls Back Early Voting

By Dan Froomkin

August 18, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/QbM3q3

GOP restricts voting because it can't win on ideas

"What Obama and Biden and the Democrats represent are their own ideas, and they have to be met with the competing ideas, and we have the winning ideas. This is a battle of ideas, ideology," said Rush Limbaugh on his show a few days ago.

Bulls**t!

The last thing Republicans want is a fair contest of ideas.  They want to use their political power, like states Attorneys General, to purge voter roles of Democrats and give early voting privileges only to Republican-leaning districts.  

It's amazing Republicans have to resort to these dirty tricks in the midst of such a bad economy.  Any Republican with a pulse and a smile should be able to manhandle Obama at the polls.  But, 1) Republicans fight to win and they don't take chances; and 2) their ideas suck. 

I am cautiously optimistic that enough Americans will realize that, as bad as thing are under Obama, they would only get worse under Romney-Ryan, whose "brilliant" economic plan consists of: 1) cutting taxes on the richest Americans, who are already richer than they've ever been, (and raising taxes on the middle class, if you believe Romney's promise to make his tax cuts revenue-neutral);  2) deregulating Wall Street so they can blow up the financial system and get bailed out, again;  3) deregulating extraction industries like coal, gas and oil;  4) decreasing environmental protection; and, of course 5) eliminating Medicare and privatizing Social Security.

Or, as I like to sum it all up: Cut, Deregulate, Pollute.  Somebody should paint that slogan on the side of Romney's campaign bus.

If you see something in the GOP's plans that connects to the good of the middle class then you must be a Grand Master at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Editorial: Overt Discrimination in Ohio

August 14, 2012 | New York Times

If you live in Butler or Warren counties in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Cincinnati, you can vote for president beginning in October by going to a polling place in the evening or on weekends. Republican officials in those counties want to make it convenient for their residents to vote early and avoid long lines on Election Day.

But, if you live in Cincinnati, you're out of luck. Republicans on the county election board are planning to end early voting in the city promptly at 5 p.m., and ban it completely on weekends, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The convenience, in other words, will not be extended to the city's working people.

The sleazy politics behind the disparity is obvious. Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati, is largely Democratic and voted solidly for Barack Obama in 2008. So did the other urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Akron, where Republicans, with the assistance of the Ohio secretary of state, Jon Husted, have already eliminated the extended hours for early voting.

County election boards in Ohio, a closely contested swing state, are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. In counties likely to vote for President Obama, Republicans have voted against the extended hours, and Mr. Husted has broken the tie in their favor. (He said the counties couldn't afford the long hours.) In counties likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Republicans have not objected to the extended hours.

This is just the latest alarming example of how Republicans across the country are trying to manipulate the electoral system by blocking the voting rights of their opponents. These actions have a disproportionate effect on blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities who struggled for so long to participate in American democracy.

Cincinnati, for example, is 45 percent black, and Cleveland 53 percent. Butler County, however, is 8 percent black, and Warren 3.5 percent. This kind of racial disparity is clearly visible wherever Republicans have trampled on voting rights during Mr. Obama's term.

In Florida, more than half of black voters went to the polls early in 2008 largely to support Mr. Obama. So, last year, Republican lawmakers there severely curtailed the early voting period. In Pennsylvania and other states that have imposed strict voter ID requirements, the impact will be felt hardest by blacks, Hispanics, older citizens and students, all of whom tend to lack government ID cards at a higher rate than the general population. At the trial in Pennsylvania over the constitutionality of the state's voter ID law, the plaintiffs introduced clear evidence, compiled by a geographic data analysis firm, that registered voters in Philadelphia who lack government ID cards are concentrated in minority and low-income areas.

In Ohio, as in other states, the Republican Party is establishing a reputation for putting short-term political gain ahead of the most fundamental democratic rights.

No big fracking deal: Ohio earthquakes

Oh, just frack it, it's no big fracking deal. What's a couple of little fracking earthquakes?

Mother Nature just has to get used to our fracking her in the crack. There's a lot more fracking coming her way, in Ohio at least, because fracking politicians like Kasich, Boehner and Chabot get a lot of fracking campaign donations for it.

Yep, we are so fracked.

Ohio magnitude 4.0 earthquake linked to fracking

By Michael Marshall

January 5, 2012 | New Scientist

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/01/ohio-earthquake-linked-to-frac.html

OWS already has a win -- in Ohio

OWS has successfully changed the debate from the federal debt and deficit reduction, to reducing inequality and consumer debt and improving the welfare of the bottom 99 percent. We owe them a big thank-you.

"Nonetheless, it's undeniable that a mood change had hit Ohio -- and in a major way. Pro-worker organizers and volunteers benefited from something their peers in Wisconsin lacked: the wind of public opinion at their backs. Polls conducted in the run-up to Ohio's November 8th vote showed large majorities of Ohioans agreeing that income inequality was a problem. What's more, 60% of respondents in a Washington Post-ABC poll said the federal government should act to close that gap. Behind those changing numbers was the influence of Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy protests."

A populist uprising may shape 2012

By Andy Kroll

November 21, 2011 | CBS News

URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-215_162-57328622/a-populist-uprising-may-shape-2012/

57% of Ohioans favor repealing GOP's anti-labor law

It's not long now till the Nov. 8 referendum when Ohioans will have the chance to strike this law down. No republic stuff this time, just direct democracy!

Opposition To Ohio's SB 5 Grows, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Women, Union Members Push Kasich Deeper In Hole

October 25, 2011 | Quinnipiac University

URL: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1322.xml?ReleaseID=1665

Finally! Ohioans can take concealed guns into bars

This is an important piece of long overdue legislation. Thanks, Ohio GOP, for keeping your priorities straight, and not getting distracted by little things like the economy and unemployment.

Seriously though, haven't Ohio's legislators ever listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps?" Guns, bars and babes are a lethal cocktail.

UPDATE (07.06.2011): There is at least one bar in Ohio where you still may not carry a weapon: the fancy new full-service bar in the the Ohio Statehouse.

Ohio Guns In Bars Bill Passed By State Lawmakers, Sent To Governor John Kasich For Approval

By James B. Kelleher

June 15, 2011 | Reuters

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15/ohio-guns-in-bars-bill-law_n_877867.html

Ohio class warfare case study has national implications

FOXNews opinionater turned Ohio Governor John Kasich and his GOP henchmen want to fire Ohio state employees and cut the salaries and benefits of those who remain. Taking Rahm Emanuel's advice never to let a good crisis go to waste, Kasich is using Ohio's projected $8 billion budget deficit as a pretext to fire teachers and cripple unions. Among the provisos which he supports are an end to collective bargaining and binding arbitration for public-sector employees, automatic 1-year continuation of outgoing contracts in the case of a dispute, and making it illegal for them to strike. This despite that fact that strikes in Ohio are extremely rare, and since 2008 binding arbitration has resolved fewer than 2 percent of public labor disputes.

Indeed, an irrefutable study on Ohio's labor force by Rutgers University professor Jeffrey H. Keefe shows that public-service workers are actually underpaid 3.3 percent compared to private-sector workers of similar education and hours worked.

Moreover, according to the 35,000-member Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, state workers have taken five pay cuts in the last nine years and saved Ohio $250 million in its current contract alone.

On February 9 at the first reading of SB5, more than 1,000 firefighters, police, corrections officers and other public workers stormed Ohio's Statehouse in opposition. Why so upset? Because the bill, proposed by GOP State Senator Shannon Jones – which Gov. Kasich said "of course" he supports – would eliminate: (1) collective bargaining for all state workers, including those at universities; (2) binding arbitration for local police officers and firefighters, who also could not strike; (3) health insurance as part of labor negotiations, and require government workers to pay at least 20 percent of the cost; and (4) automatic pay increases and mandatory sick days for teachers from state law.

The Ohio Tea Parties and the rest of the GOP state apparatus naturally support the bill, as they believe that all union members, especially public union members, are lazy and overpaid compared to lean, mean private-sector, non-union workers. And of course state employees and union members tend to vote Democrat precisely because they know Republicans have it in for them -- which makes the GOP hate them even more. Ohio's Tea Partiers are counter-mobilizing as this goes to post.

Yes, state workers' compensation makes up about 1/3 of most states' operating budgets, but in fact recent state budget shortfalls are due to the Great Recession with resulting lower tax receipts and higher demand for state services like Medicaid and unemployment benefits -- not any sudden increas in spending on state salaries. And the more ominous problem of unfunded state retirement benefits -- which Newt Gingrich and other Republicans lately argue calls for national legislation to allow states to declare bankruptcy and erase their liabilities to state workers, bond markets be damned -- has been building up for years. The Wall Street crash just made it worse. State workers are not actuaries, accountants, or elected legislators charged with a fiduciary duty to prudently set aside and invest these funds. Therefore, it is completely unfair to attribute the states' fiscal irresponsibility to everyday state workers. (Source: http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-states-in-crisis)

Republicans will cut public-sector jobs and wages and cripple public unions in the bad times in the name of balanced budgets -- but does anybody seriously think they're going to undo all that when the economy recovers? No, these "emergency" measures will be permanent. Conservative idealogues smell blood and they're going in for the kill. They are patient but ruthless hunters; now is their time to pounce.

This death struggle is being waged in other budget-strapped states, which show a similar picture as described above.

Ohioans, Americans, don't let them win!

OH mom jailed for sending kids to white school

That'll teach a black mother for violating American apartheid!

Darnit, white people work their whole lives and pay huge taxes to live in school districts with top-notch schools; and doggonit if some out-of-district black mother is going to defraud her way into an education her kids didn't earn! Of course the real answer is school choice, so this kind of thing happens transparently.

In fact, white parents in expensive suburbs are just dying to give black parents the choice to send their kids to school with their white children, as long as it's via school vouchers. You know, to diversify them and stuff. Not to mention to spur school competition, or something.

When is Big Gubument going to wake up and realize the solution to bad majority-minority schools is to give all those minorities the choice to study with white kids in the suburbs, preferably in exclusive private schools, via government vouchers? It's common sense! I feel like Todd Palin here, pointing out the blindingly obvious.


Black Mother Jailed For Sending Kids to White School District
By James Quin
January 24, 2011 | Anti-Kryptos

URL: http://antikryptos.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/black-mother-jailed-for-sending-kids-to-white-school-district-2/

Fat America: More to love?

What, they don't have fast food in Colorado or something? This map of adult obesity is like something out of Red Dawn: the entire nation is crimson, red, or purple, and there sits blue Colorado, a lone outpost in the middle. "Pack up the car, honey, we're headed for Colorado where they're still free!..."

The South and Oklahoma are particularly fat. I wonder why that is? And why Oklahoma too? Is that like fatness by association? Actually, this social epidemic is scarier than a viral epidemic, as research has shown that obesity can spread and infect others across non-physical social networks via vectors like e-mail, phones, and computers.




The map of childhood obesity is also heavily weighted toward the South (har-har). Fat kids are nothing to laugh at though. I mean, they used to be, back when there was like 1 or 2 fat kids in the whole class, but now 1 out of every 5 or 6 American kids is obese. Pretty soon the fatty majority will be making fun of the healthy-weight kids: "Hey, bean pole, are your parents too poor to afford the Super Size Menu or what?" and "Did you make yourself throw up after lunch again, Lohan?" or "You have to do extra situps in gym class for all of us, lightweight!" Oh wait, I forgot: American kids don't have gym class anymore....

At the bottom of the report, you can click on your state a more in-depth look at its fatness: "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010."

Below are two states of interest. So is Ohio 1.5% skinnier than Kentucky or just 1.5% less fat? Semantics, I guess.

New Report: Kentucky Ranks Seventh Most Obese State in the Nation

June 29, 2010 Trust for America's Health

Kentucky was named the seventh most obese state in the country, according to the seventh annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The state's adult obesity rate is 30.5 percent, and, in Kentucky men are more obese than women at 31.4 percent. Now more than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.


New Report: Ohio Ranks 13th Most Obese State in the Nation
June 29, 2010 Trust for America's Health

Ohio was named the 13th most obese state in the country, according to the seventh annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The state's adult obesity rate is 29 percent, and, in Ohio men are more obese than women at 30.2 percent. Now more than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

You could walk away from your mortgage, or hit it with a truck

I'm proud to see my birth state of Ohio coming up with innovative solutions to the U.S. mortgage crisis.

First came the Ohio man in February who after leveling his foreclosed home with a bulldozer, explained himself thusly: "I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground."

And now in a slight twist (driving a Ford, I must note with pride), an Ohio man rammed into his foreclosed home with his truck. After this impromptu demolition project he said, "As far as I'm concerned I am not done yet. Not until it's laying completely on the ground."

You gotta love Americans' dogged determination to get the job done.

Thanks, Obama: 12% of Americans on food stamps

Look what BHO has reduced us to: 1 out of 8 Americans is a helpless welfare junkie dependent on gov't cheese.

Meanwhile, the states, like drug dealers, are pushing food stamps on more and more erstwhile honest, hard-working, self-sufficient Americans, because unlike cash welfare payments, food stamps are 100% federally funded.

Even conservative and once proud Warren County, Ohio, which turned down federal stimulus funds on principle, has lately doubled its dependence on food stamps. Said proud, principled, Warren County Commissioner Dave Young [R]: "As soon as people figure out they can vote representatives in to give them benefits, that's the end of democracy. More and more people will be taking, and fewer will be producing." You tell 'em, Dave! ... I mean, wait! Don't tell them! You just helped the people figure it out! Nooooooo!.....

Seriously though, the following excerpt so neatly encapsulates everything that's wrong with white, middle-class, conservative Americans, who are getting beaten over the head by economic forces they can't control and yet oppose any programs or reforms designed to help them or their compatriots:

While Mr. Dawson, the electrician, has kept his job, the drive to distant work sites has doubled his gas bill, food prices rose sharply last year and his health insurance premiums have soared. His monthly expenses have risen by about $400, and the elimination of overtime has cost him $200 a month. Food stamps help fill the gap.

Like many new beneficiaries here, Mr. Dawson argues that people often abuse the program and is quick to say he is different. While some people "choose not to get married, just so they can apply for benefits," he is a married, churchgoing man who works and owns his home. While "some people put piles of steaks in their carts," he will not use the government's money for luxuries like coffee or soda. "To me, that's just morally wrong," he said.

He has noticed crowds of midnight shoppers once a month when benefits get renewed. While policy analysts, spotting similar crowds nationwide, have called them a sign of increased hunger, he sees idleness. "Generally, if you're up at that hour and not working, what are you into?" he said.

Note how even as he receives welfare, he can't overcome his hardwired angry-white-guy programming to criticize other people on welfare. Classic.

The Safety Net - Across U.S., Food Stamp Use Soars and Stigma Fades
By Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff
November 30, 2009 | New York Times

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&th&emc=th

Ohio man shoots teens defacing McCain yard sign

Yeah, but these teens were in his yard. In his yard! That's holy ground. You don't come onto a guy's yard and then dare to deface his free yard sign. That's crossing the line. You take your life in your hands when you go there. Serves them right. Real men like Rowles, defending their lawns and the 2nd Amendment at the same time, make me proud to be an American.

Teen shot over vandalized McCain sign, police say

October 28, 2008 | CNN

A Warren Township, Ohio, man faces charges of felonious assault after authorities say he fired his rifle at two teens who were attempting to deface his McCain presidential campaign yard sign.

Kenneth Rowles, 50, pleaded not guilty to the charge Monday, according to CNN affiliate WBNS.

Bail was set at $10,000.

Rowles told police he was sitting on his porch Saturday when a tan SUV pulled up and a black youth jumped out and ran toward his house, screaming, "This is for Obama."

He said another male was hanging out of the passenger window screaming the same thing.

Rowles said he went inside, got his rifle and fired three shots to scare the youths away, according to a Warren Township police report.

He told officers he believes that the men "were the same two that have been destroying his McCain sign."

Just hours before the shooting, Rowles called police and said that a car had stopped in front of his house and that a black male "ran up and said something about Obama," according to the report, and "damaged his sign again."

One of the youths, 17-year-old Kyree Flowers, was shot in the arm, according to a police report. He and the second youth, Patrick Wise Jr., 16, told police they were in the car attempting to leave when Rowles fired at them.

"Kyree stated that he witnessed the homeowner trying to shoot Patrick but he was having trouble chambering a round," the police report said.

The teens admitted that they had defaced the McCain sign several times, Warren Township police Lt. Don Bishop told CNN.

Rowles' is the only McCain sign on a street full of Obama signs, he said.

Bishop said the teenagers probably will not be charged -- and are unlikely to damage campaign signs again, as the incident scared them.

Warren Township is in Trumbull County not far from Cleveland, Ohio.