Cleveland Sports Forum

June 6, 2012, 1:16 AM
No Recall
By ROSS DOUTHAT
For disappointed Democrats, seduced by early exit polls into a vain hope that the union-busting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker might actually be recalled from office late last night, the good news is that some of their pre-election spin still holds up. Yesterday’s recall vote is not necessarily a bellwether for the general election, not necessarily a sign that Mitt Romney can win a slew of purple states, not necessarily proof that the country is ready to throw in with Walker’s fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan on issues of spending and taxation.

But neither is it anything like good news for liberalism. We are entering a political era that will feature many contests like the war over collective bargaining in Wisconsin: grinding struggles in which sweeping legislation is passed by party-line votes and then the politicians responsible hunker down and try to survive the backlash. There will be no total victory in this era, but there will be gains and losses — and the outcome in the Walker recall is a warning to Democrats that their position may be weaker than many optimistic liberals thought.

To understand the broader trends at work, a useful place to turn is Jay Cost’s essay on “The Politics of Loss” in the latest issue of National Affairs. For most of the post-World War II era, Cost argues, our debates over taxing and spending have taken place in an atmosphere of surplus. The operative question has been how best to divide a growing pie, which has enabled politicians in both parties to practice a kind of ideologically flexible profligacy. Republicans from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush have increased spending, Democrats from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton have found ways to cut taxes, and the great American growth machine has largely kept the toughest choices off the table.

But not anymore. Between our slowing growth and our unsustainable spending commitments, “the days when lawmakers could give to some Americans without shortchanging others are over; the politics of deciding who loses what, and when and how, is upon us.” In this era, debates will be increasingly zero-sum, bipartisan compromise will be increasingly difficult, and “the rules and norms of our politics that several generations have taken for granted” will fade away into irrelevance.

It’s useful to think of Obama’s stimulus bill and Walker’s budget repair bill as mirror image exercises in legislative shock and awe.
This is a perfect encapsulation of what’s happened in Wisconsin these last two years: Walker and the Republicans used a narrow mandate to enact unexpectedly dramatic public-sector reforms, and the Democrats responded by upping the ante significantly, with mass protests, walkouts by state legislators and finally a recall campaign. A similar story could be told about Barack Obama’s Washington, in which a temporarily ascendant Democratic Party pushed through sweeping spending bills and social-compact altering health care legislation before unprecedented Republican obstructionism ground the process to a halt. In fact, it’s useful to think of Obama’s stimulus bill and Walker’s budget repair bill as mirror image exercises in legislative shock and awe, and the Tea Party and the Wisconsin labor protests as mirror images of backlash.

At both the state and national level, then, the two coalitions are aiming for a mix of daring on offense, fortitude on defense and ruthless counterattacks whenever possible. The goal is to simultaneously maximize the opportunities presented to one’s own side and punish the other party for trying to do the same.

That’s obviously what the organizers of the recall hoped to do to Walker – to punish his union busting and spending cuts as thoroughly as House Democrats were punished in the 2010 mid-term elections for the votes they cast on the health care bill and the stimulus. The fact that the labor unions and liberal activists failed where the Tea Party largely succeeded sends a very different message, though: It tells officeholders that it’s safer to take on left-wing interest groups than conservative ones (the right outraised and outspent the left by a huge margin in the recall election), safer to cut government than to increase revenue, safer to face down irate public sector employees than irate taxpayers.

A similar message is currently being telegraphed by the respective postures of the two parties in Washington. The House Republicans have spent the past two years taking tough votes on entitlement reform, preparing themselves for an ambitious offensive should 2012 deliver the opportunity to cast those same votes and have them count. The Senate Democrats, on the other hand, have failed to even pass a budget: There is no Democratic equivalent of Paul Ryan’s fiscal blueprint, no Democratic plan to swallow hard and raise middle class taxes the way Republicans look poised to swallow hard and overhaul Medicare. Indeed, there’s no liberal agenda to speak of at the moment, beyond a resounding “No!” to whatever conservatism intends to do.

That “No!” might still be enough to win Barack Obama re-election. But November 2012 will just be one battle in a longer war, and the outcome in Wisconsin suggests that the edge in that war currently (and to some extent unexpectedly, given the demographic trends that favor the left) belongs to a limited government conservatism. The Democrats threw almost everything they had at Scott Walker, and it wasn’t nearly enough. And when you fail in what is essentially a defensive campaign, it makes it that much more difficult to get back on offense.

I'll hit her up next time I visit the in-laws for sure.

Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:I've had only four or five people cut my hair in the past 30 years. I like to find someone I like, and then just sit in the chair with no instructions needed. For five years I only had my hair cut in Dallas, Texas, though I never officially lived in Dallas but worked there at least once a month for 17 years.

Today in my new home with my wife in Southwest Florida, I think I found a new girl to cut my hair. She had previously been the "lead designer" at The Hyatt Resort here, but left as she lamented due to the Hyatt's reluctance to advertise to get local hair cutting clientele and just the visitors could not keep her busy enough.

I chimed in that as a now "local," I would NEVER have thought about going to a hotel for a local haircut.

"Yes, I know," was her response.

I let her know that I wanted to find a person to cut my hair that I could be loyal to and depend upon for years to come.

I tested her with a mention I had read that Barack Obama had flown his favorite hair dresser from Chicago to Washington every three weeks during his Presidency.

"Well, he can do it," she offered.

She further offered, "it seems like a waste, though."

She had me at "hello."

Her name is Susan. If two of you let her cut and style your hair, my next cut is free....

Baron, you may wish to just walk in the shop and check out the other (eye candy) stylists. I think they are all good and professional at taking care of hair, but some of the other girls made looking in the mirror as I was getting my hair cut very easy. I'm sending my wife to the girl who cut my hair. She's far from chopped liver, but she would have ranked at the bottom of beauty and hotness when in a grouping with the other girls working in the place that day. She wore slacks and flats, while the other girls in the place wore their hair down, with skirts and heels. I'm not too dumb, though my wife might differ in opinion once she visits....

I needed a refill on my coffee to make it through this story. Not sure what to make of the subject matter, though it could be a vast left wing conspiracy..... ?



Akron area is the target of efforts to diminish incivility

One will set standards for campaigns, while another will engage citizens in evaluating congressional race

By Stephanie Warsmith

Beacon Journal staff writer

Published: June 23, 2012 - 11:16 PM | Updated: June 24, 2012 - 12:12 AM

Some might say that civility and politics don’t mix.

But three groups in the Akron area and an organization coming here from the Twin Cities aren’t willing to accept this.

They hope to improve the level of discourse in politics.

“We are here for the common reason of being frustrated with sound bites and how to move beyond that,” said Jim Meffert, who heads up Promoting Healthy Democracy in St. Paul, Minn.

His group has chosen one U.S. congressional race for a special citizen involvement experiment — the Betty Sutton-Jim Renacci race in the Akron-Canton-Cleveland area.

Locally, a complex civility project is under way that will involve three universities, the faith community and the Beacon Journal.

“We would really like to change the tone of political debate,” said John Green, executive director of the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, which is part of the Ohio Civility Project.

Three of four Ohioans think incivility in Ohio politics is either a very serious or somewhat serious problem, according to a poll by the Ohio Civility Project, a collaboration of UA, Cleveland State University and the University of Mount Union.

Led by Green, the Ohio Civility Project currently is in the process of developing a civility code that will be used in the November election to gauge whether statements made in the presidential race live up to these standards.

In conjunction with the Civility Project, the Beacon Journal is publishing the America Today series illustrating that area residents are deeply divided because of their variety of experiences in the brutal recession. The stories attempt to give citizens unfiltered opportunities to express themselves.

Building on the university and newspaper efforts will be a community group that includes local pastors who will challenge local residents and political campaigns to live up to the civility guidelines. The group also may urge area television stations not to accept advertising that runs afoul of the civility standards.

“I would be willing to lend my name to doing that,” said the Rev. Mark Ford of Love Akron, who is part of this community-led effort.

The faith leaders also include Akron attorney Larry Vuillemin and the Rev. Norm Douglas at Heart to Heart Communications.

Separate from the local effort, though related in its goals, is Promoting Healthy Democracy. The nonpartisan group plans to use a citizens-jury process to gauge the most important issues in the 16th Congressional District, which will pit two congressional incumbents against each other and is expected to be one of the most hotly contested races this fall. The jury of registered voters will judge how well the candidates address key issues.

Meffert thinks the fact that the Akron area has so many efforts focused on improving the tone of public discourse is “pretty amazing.”

“We’re glad to be a small part of that,” he said. “Hopefully, if we do this right, people will be clamoring for it.”

Developing civility code

The Ohio Civility Project began in March 2010 as the first collaboration among three Northeast Ohio universities — UA, Cleveland State and Mount Union. The group decided to explore the issue of how to improve public discourse, bringing together a panel of experts in May 2011 who concluded a lack of civility was a major problem in Ohio politics. This was supported by a survey of registered voters last summer.

The project is now in a new stage, which involves developing a civility code and using it in the fall to evaluate the presidential campaigns.

Green and several others, among them Ford, Beacon Journal editor Bruce Winges and Dan Moulthrop, curator of conversation at the Civic Commons, are in the process of developing an initial draft of the code. They are crafting questions that could be asked about a campaign statement. One question being considered is: “Does this statement contain derogatory comments about other people?” An affirmative answer would mean the statement was uncivil, while a negative response would mean it would pass at least one test.

The questions will be turned into statements that will make up the code. To test the code’s validity, the group will use polling in the Akron area and two focus groups being coordinated with the Beacon Journal in late July — one with younger citizens and another with older citizens.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has provided funding for some of the research.

Evaluating candidates

The group also will seek feedback from the community, leading up to a large community meeting in early September, just before the presidential race really heats up.

“We want standards a lot of people are behind,” Green said. “Our hope is that the expectations are widely recognized. If someone violates them, this will be recognized.”

The final version of the code will be used to evaluate the civility of various statements by the presidential candidates. The results will be shared on a website, where the public can weigh in, and also published in the Beacon Journal.

The group is still deciding a few key issues, including where the campaign statements will be drawn from — campaign ads and statements in news stories are being considered — and whether inaccurate statements should be considered uncivil.

Green is hoping the civility code will be successful in the same way that political fact checks are now being done by many newspapers and will be replicated for races at the local, state and national levels. He thinks raising the level of civility won’t make problems go away but will mean there’s a better chance of resolving them.

Coming together

Ford became concerned about civility after the 2008 presidential election.

He was troubled by what he heard on talk radio and saw in blast emails that bashed President Barack Obama.

“That’s not the way Jesus behaved,” Ford said. “He did not call people names. I don’t think he would say Barack is a socialist or communist.”

Ford voiced his concerns at a meeting of Summit County pastors about a year and a half ago, leading a prayer for unity.

Ford then read about the Ohio Civility Project in the Beacon Journal and arranged a meeting with Green, whom he hadn’t met before. He coordinated a roundtable of local faith leaders to talk to Green.

Ford and Green put together a group of community leaders, inviting Doug Oplinger, managing editor of the Beacon Journal, who was crafting a civility project based on discussions in the newsroom.

Since then, Ford, Green and Oplinger have become part of a core group, made up of community leaders with different backgrounds, involved in a yearlong effort focused on civility.

After the civility code is developed, groups of citizens may be tasked with taking the code to candidates and campaigns and asking them to abide by it. Those involved also have discussed asking television stations only to accept political ads that meet the code.

“I know negative advertising works,” Ford said. “I hope people will no longer tolerate this stuff. It’s making the culture hostile.”

Congressional race

The local effort focused on civility was one of the reasons Promoting Health Democracy chose the 16th Congressional District for its citizens-jury process.

“There was already an energy behind how to help things recover and move ahead,” said Kyle Bozentko, a policy analyst for the group.

The 16th district race was also interesting because it features two incumbents — Renacci and Sutton — thanks to the redrawing of district lines that put both in the same district. The new 16th includes all of Wayne County and parts of Summit, Stark, Portage, Medina and Cuyahoga counties.

“This is one of the congressional races that is a tossup,” said Meffert, who heads Promoting Health Democracy. “We want to see how we can get the discussion back to the important issues the voters want to hear about.”

The group sent a letter to 20,000 randomly selected, prospective jurors in the 16th district last week, explaining that Promoting Health Democracy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses the citizens-jury method to “give a cross-section of the public an opportunity to learn about and report on important policy issues.” The jurors will be paid for their time.

From those who agree to participate, the group will select 24 jurors who reflect the makeup of the 16th district based on factors such as party affiliation, age, education and race. The jurors will meet in late July when they will learn the results of a survey that identifies what voters see as the most important issues in the district. The jurors will decide, based on these results and their discussions, what policy issues they think should be the focus of the congressional race.

“We’re hoping that sets the context for the campaign — gives the public something to measure what’s being discussed over the summer,” Meffert said.

A second group of jurors, drawn from the same pool, will meet in September. They will talk to Renacci and Sutton and evaluate how well each candidate is focusing on the issues prioritized by the first jurors. The jurors will convene one last time in early October to measure how the candidates to this point have addressed the key issues.

Promoting Health Democracy will give voters a firsthand view of its process through its website, www.promotinghealthydemocracy.org/. The group has reached out to Renacci and Sutton, inviting them to be involved.

In the end, the jurors will report to voters whether the candidates have done a good job of addressing the most important issues. Bozentko said the decision will be up to them.

“Regardless of the outcome, we will communicate the results,” he said. “They may like one, like both or say they don’t like either.”

Beacon Journal readers have an opportunity to join the conversation of the community civility effort by going to this story on Ohio.com. There, they can select a moderated conversation at the Civic Commons, or the anonymous Ohio.com comment page, to address these questions:

Do you agree with the goals of the Civility Project?

Do you think a Civility Pledge would be a good idea?

Politicians will never stop lying, and therefore politicians will never be civil.

Annual cost of charging your iPad?
According to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute, the annual cost of charging your iPad tablet -- based on fully charging it every other day -- is $1.36.

"The analysis shows that each model of the iPad consumes less than 12 kWh of electricity over the course of a year, based on a full charge every other day," EPRI said. "By comparison, a plasma 42" television consumes 358 kWh of electricity a year."

EPRI did the analysis at its Knoxville-based power utilization laboratory.
EPRI, in info distributed today, said costs may vary depending on what region that a consumer resides and the price of electricity in a particular location.

The study was done to determine the load requirements - the amount of power needed to operate the devices -- of the increasingly popular iPad.

Apple said 67 million of the devices have been purchased worldwide, the power institute said.

EPRI calculations found that the average energy used by all iPads in the market is approximately 590 gigawatt hours.

"In a scenario where the number of iPads tripled over the next two years, the energy required would be nearly equivalent to two 250-megawatt (MW) power plants operating at a 50 percent utilization rate. A quadrupling of sales in two years would require energy generated by three 250-MW power plants," the power institute said.

In a statement, EPRI Vice President Mark McGranaghan said, "As information technologies continue to change rapidly we see important implications for energy consumption. These results raise important questions about how the shifting reliance from desktop to laptop to mobile devices will change energy use and electricity requirements for the information age. At less than a penny per charge these findings bring new meaning to the adage, 'A penny for your thoughts.' "

Well I have to say it. I'm kind of surprised at the 2 recent SCOTUS rulings, one on immigration and the other on Health Care.

To listen to the pundits it was assumed they would go the other way. Go figure.

Even though I hate Obamacare and the far reaching growth of the federal government I never have liked the idea of unelected unaccountable judges over-turning laws that elected representatives passed. Even if it is something I hate I try to only let my hypocrisy go so far. So I only hope that in the next couple years conservatives are able to repeal and replace this monstrosity.

MtFan wrote:Well I have to say it. I'm kind of surprised at the 2 recent SCOTUS rulings, one on immigration and the other on Health Care.

To listen to the pundits it was assumed they would go the other way. Go figure.

I clicked on some Drudge story about the ruling and then followed a link to a calculator that purported to show how Obamacare when implemented would affect my wife and I.

The bullet explanation points seemed like Shangri La. Go figure.

I heard the other day that the deptartment of agriculture has been running radio ads since 2004 promoting food stamps. And recently spent almost 3 million running radio ads promoting the benefit.

I'll skip past the part where I cursed and threw a fit. Skip to today where I received an e-mail from my better half with the irony that the department of agriculture tells people they should go sign up for food stamps, while the department of fish & game tells us not to feed the bears or wildlife cause it may create dependancy and they wont fend for themselves.

Hillbilly wrote:I heard the other day that the deptartment of agriculture has been running radio ads since 2004 promoting food stamps. And recently spent almost 3 million running radio ads promoting the benefit.

I'll skip past the part where I cursed and threw a fit. Skip to today where I received an e-mail from my better half with the irony that the department of agriculture tells people they should go sign up for food stamps, while the department of fish & game tells us not to feed the bears or wildlife cause it may create dependancy and they wont fend for themselves.

And bears and alligators, once getting food from a human, will always presume they will be getting food from any human they see. In one way or another.


I was in line behind a lady using her food stamp card at a grocery checkout the other night. She had two little kids with her, and I certainly understand and accept what little kids want and why parents occasionally give in. That said, the most nutritious and about the only non-processed food the woman had in her cart was a pack of pork chops. My wife happened to be with me and clutched my arm as I was thinking of advising the woman on nutrition and how to stretch dollars on good food choices for not a lot of money.

Maybe I'll put together a little pro bono seminar for food stamp recipient folks one of these days.


To clarify, food stamps are something I support as a safety net for people in need. Especially for families with kids. I just hate seeing the dependence and benefit go on and on for extended duration without a solution for moving on.

I forget who all lives in Montana (exceptin' Hillbilly of course) -- but I have read here about some of the Montana pols. Ran across this link, thought I'd share:

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/08/m ... -rednecks/

In the article linked to above, there's a link to the Cato Institutes 2010 grades for state governors. Wow, Mark Sanford gets an "A" at the top of the list by a decent margin! Hike THAT on your Appalachian Trail.

VT'er wrote:In the article linked to above, there's a link to the Cato Institutes 2010 grades for state governors. Wow, Mark Sanford gets an "A" at the top of the list by a decent margin! Hike THAT on your Appalachian Trail.

From what I could gather with a very cursory look it seemed the Cato Institute grades were most weighted to favor governors with balanced budgets who held the line on spending and/or reduced taxes.

Having had a presence and foot in South Carolina for over 30 years I'll note that the state benefits in fiscal matters because there is rarely disagreement between the two parties. The state constitution mandates a balanced budget, and both Republicans and Democrats in the state have historically fought for restraint in spending. And even in times when there have been proposed increases in taxes, both parties have tended to agree on the need. Dick Riley was a Democrat governor when I was living there and he proposed a statewide increase in the sales tax earmarked for education. The proposal was embraced by both parties.

The Appalachian Trail just misses South Carolina as it passes directly from Georgia into North Carolina. I do recommend day hikes around Caesar's Head in South Carolina near the highest point in the state. It's not far from Cleveland. Cleveland, South Carolina that is.

An email from my accountant on the Affordable Care Act small business credit

"I ran the form and it shows no credit. Sorry"


Ronald J , CPA
Tax Partner

My response

"That cannot be right. I heard Obama say how small businesses would be helped by the Affordable Care Act ."