Why the GOP refuses to make a counter offer in fiscal cliff negotiations (Daily Kos) The past few weeks it seems like I’ve been getting frustrated more easily than usual. Cold weather never brightens my mood, and perhaps the stress of my teaching load ballooning last October is finally taking its toll on me, but I think a good part of the blame can be laid on the Republican party and their reaction to last month’s elections. At times I have to hold myself back…
Hostess to Pay $1.75 Million in Executive Bonuses After Blaming Unions for Bankruptcy (thinkprogress.org) Black Friday’s Labor Strike May Hit Wal-Mart Where It Hurts (AOL DailyFinance) It can be quite bracing to see all the attention paid by most Americans to the Hostess bankruptcy compared to, say, the recent spate of bombings in the Middle East. Perhaps it would be more tolerable if these people were focused on the political issues surrounding the Hostess bankruptcy, but let’s face it; most people are just worried about…
In the leadup to this week’s election, I very much wanted to blog about the worries I had concerning the irregularities and difficulties that were being reported with early voting, both here in Ohio as well as other states like Florida. Those problems continued through election day, and I was deeply worried that they would lead to an effective hijacking of the electoral process by Republicans, enabling them to seize the presidency, and possibly the Senate as well, leading to further voting roadblocks that would…
As I feared, Toledo becoming the perceived ground zero of the presidential election has meant a volume of politicking in this part of the country that is almost suffocating. Yesterday we had a visit from Bill Clinton, and I suspect we’ll be seeing more of the candidates themselves before Tuesday. The attention and advertising in and of itself would be bad enough, and the nastiness of the campaign — earlier today I saw anti-Obama ads online that equated women voting for Obama with battered women…
“[Romney and his campaign] know they’re behind in Ohio. They’ve gotta fix this and it’s all about … I tell people basically it’s about Toledo. Romney is losing in Toledo because [of] the auto worker[s] there. [The] President’s overperforming with white men. Romney’s made up ground in coal country, down in southeast Ohio, but not up there in Toledo.” – Chuck Todd, MSNBC debate coverage, 2012.10.22 (video) Welcome to my nightmare, folks. I am living in ground zero of the election endgame, and it is…