Fairfield Republicans

I am maintaining this blog page in an effort to provide information on activities and events to conservatives in Fairfield, Ohio and surrounding areas. This page will feature items of interest and links to information from the Butler County Republican Party and from the City of Fairfield. It is my hope that by utilizing this forum, we will be able to share ideas and information that will make our Party, our City, and our Neighborhoods better than ever!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Halloween Trick or Treat times in Fairfield

Thanks to Fairfield City Councilman Tim Meyers for this "heads-up"!

For the 2nd time the Journal News has incorrectly reported the date for “Trick or Treat” in the City of Fairfield. The correct date is Wednesday, October 31st from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Limbaugh Auction brings $2,100,100.00 for the Marine Corps -- Law Enforcement Foundation

Radio host Rush Limbaugh recently auctioned a letter on Ebay to benefit the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.

Click Here to read how a ridiculous attempt by 41 Senators to censor the airwaves has been turned into the largest charity auction ever!

Congratulations & well done Mr. Limbaugh!
More from Newsmax - Click Here

GOP Blasts Hillary $1 Million Woodstock Earmark

A Woodstock Museum?! Let's hope the place never catches fire!

from Newsmax

Hippies used to say if you remember Woodstock, you weren't really there. Republicans say presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton can forget about getting $1 million in taxpayer funds for a Woodstock museum.

Clinton and Charles Schumer, Democratic senators from New York, want to earmark the federal money for a museum that would commemorate the 1969 music festival in their state.

"Woodstock Museum is a shining example of what's wrong with Washington on pork-barrel, out-of-control spending," said John McCain, Arizona senator and Republican presidential hopeful. An example, he said, of "the earmark pork-barrel spending which has made the American people disenchanted and angry."

Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., were trying Thursday to strip the Woodstock earmark from a massive health and education spending bill on the Senate floor. Democrats moved to kill their effort, but Republicans won a key 52-42 vote — seeping with presidential politics — signaling the Clinton-Schumer earmark would soon be gone.

Five Democrats voted against the Woodstock provision. So did old-school GOP members of the Appropriations Committee who had on prior occasions voted against conservative criticism of senators' earmarks.

"With all the pressing needs facing our country today, from entitlement reform to children's health care to the war in Iraq, the idea that the federal government should fund a museum that celebrates a 38-year-old concert is simply absurd," Kyl said.

It's the type of parochial project that's easy to make fun of. Conservatives call it a hippie museum and a taxpayer-funded LSD flashback.

The Woodstock museum — officially called the Museum at Bethel Woods — is due to open next year. Bethel is the town in upstate New York where organizers eventually put on the three-day Woodstock Music and Art Fair, featuring Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Band and others.

The open-air gathering attracted hundreds of thousands, became a defining moment of 1960s youth rebellion and shut down the New York State Thruway.

When Schumer and Clinton trumpeted the $1 million earmark for the museum back in June, she said in a statement that it would "continue to promote education, the arts, culture and tourism in the region."

It is part of a larger development called the Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts with a 16,800-seat amphitheater. The development was opened in 2006.

Billionaire Alan Gerry is the force behind the project. He and his family have contributed almost $30,000 to Clinton and a committee headed by Schumer dedicated to electing Democrats to the Senate.

Gerry is a longtime major political donor. The contributions — $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $9,200 to Clinton's presidential campaign — came just days after the earmark was inserted into the legislation.

Clinton did not speak during Thursday's debate on the project, but Schumer strongly defended the Bethel project as a boon for an economically struggling county.

While Clinton and Schumer jointly took credit for the earmark, Schumer was the driving force behind it.

Coburn himself said the project sounded like a good idea, but he also said U.S. taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill. The $1 million in federal funds would be a small fraction of the overall $100 million cost.

The underlying health and education bill is a target-rich measure for earmark critics since it contains more than 1,000 earmarks totaling $562 million, according to Taxpayers for Common sense, a budget watchdog group.

Republicans tried but failed Thursday to block $2 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at The City College of New York — spending that GOP critics dubbed Rangel's "monument to me."

Liberal activists, meanwhile, protested a $100,000 earmark by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to the Louisiana Family Forum, a conservative group that was to use the funds "to develop a plan to promote better science education."

GOP Slams Hillary for Hypocrisy

It's about time!!!

from Newsmax

Newsmax reported earlier this week that Republicans planned to skewer Hillary Clinton over her position on government surveillance, capitalizing on allegations that she listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents.

The skewering has begun.

In a fundraising e-mail from the Republican National Committee, RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan writes:

“What is most remarkable about this is that Hillary has spent this year fighting Republican efforts to give our intelligence services the ability to monitor terrorist calls coming into or out of the United States.

“In other words, the Clinton attack machine is apparently fine with listening in on phone calls if it bolsters her political ambitions – but Hillary doesn’t want to give America’s intelligence services the ability to conduct surveillance on terrorists plotting to attack our nation.”

The e-mail alludes to a report in the book “Her Way” by former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth and Times investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. They write that during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary “received memos about the status of various press inquiries, she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.”

As Newsmax reported in June, "The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill. Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions."

The e-mail seeks contributions to help the RNC “spread the word about Hillary’s double standard.”

It also charges that Hillary has “flip-flopped” on the war on terror and Iraq, first saying “it would be a mistake to set a date for withdrawing troops from Iraq, then voting to establish a timetable for surrender from this vital front in the war on terror…

“We cannot afford four more years of the Clintons!”

Martinez Quits As RNC General Chairman

from Newsmax

Mel Martinez, the public face of the Republican National Committee as its general chairman, announced Friday he was stepping down from his post after serving only 10 months.

"I believe that our future as a party and nation is bright and I have every intention of continuing to fight for our president, our party and our candidates," the Florida senator said in a statement.
His resignation came months earlier than anticipated. Martinez wasn't expected to step down until a Republican presidential nominee was selected, and the earliest that could occur is February.

The RNC said Martinez' job would not be filled.

Martinez, a prominent Cuban-American who is up for re-election in 2010, said he was relinquishing the job to spend more time focusing on his Florida constituents. He also said the RNC had achieved the objective he set when he assumed the job in January.

"It was my goal as general chairman to lead the party as it established the structure and raised the resources necessary to support our presidential candidate and ensure Republican victories next November. I believe we have accomplished those goals," Martinez said.

The RNC has been the only national GOP party committee to outraise its Democratic counterpart this year. As of the end of August, the RNC had raised $55.3 million in contributions and had $16 million cash on hand. The Democratic National Committee had raised $34.8 million in contributions and had $4.7 million cash on hand. The DNC also reported a $2 million debt.

Though the party committee has done better than the DNC in fundraising this year, Republicans have privately expressed concern that the RNC's finances are not stronger. The RNC has not kept pace with the far more robust financial picture the party displayed in 2003, when it had raised $69 million by the end of August, and 2005 when it had raised $72.5 million for the same period.

Martinez has shared the chairmanship with Mike Duncan, a longtime RNC official who has been responsible for the party's day-to-day operations. Republican officials say with Martinez' departure, the RNC will return to a traditional leadership structure with a single chairman.

President Bush named Martinez, who previously served in the Cabinet, as general chairman last November.

He had been reluctant to assume the role and did so only after repeated White House overtures. When he accepted the job, he had indicated to friends that he anticipated serving only about a year in the post.

Several Republicans with close ties to the RNC said Martinez needed to focus on retaining his seat in Florida, where his job approval rating has fallen. A Quinnipiac University poll in September found that 38 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the job he was doing, down from 48 percent in February.

In addition, Republican officials say Martinez had grown frustrated with juggling his two jobs.
The first-term senator was brought on to be the face of the party, focusing on fundraising, outreach and travel to promote the GOP agenda.

In a statement, the president said Martinez "has effectively communicated our party's commitment to addressing the issues most important to all Americans. His message of hope and opportunity has resonated throughout America and strengthened support for our agenda."
Separately, Duncan called it an honor to serve with Martinez.

"Our party has effectively laid the groundwork for the 2008 Republican presidential nominee thanks in large part to Senator Martinez's efforts," Duncan said in a statement.

By tapping Martinez to be the party's public persona a year ago, the White House had turned to a lawmaker who has been a staunch supporter of the president, including on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, including a guest-worker program.

Martinez served as Bush's secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2001 until 2003, when he resigned to run for the Senate seat left open by Democratic Sen. Bob Graham's retirement.

RE: OTC cough & cold medicines for Children under 6

Not one of my usuall posts, but I thought it was important to pass this on ...

from the Associated Press

FDA Advisers: No Cold Meds for the Young

Cold and cough medicines don't work in children and shouldn't be used in those younger than 6, federal health advisers recommended Friday.

The over-the-counter medicines should be studied further, even after decades in which children have received billions of doses a year, the outside experts told the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn't required to follow the advice of its panels of outside experts but does so most of the time.

"The data that we have now is they don't seem to work," said Sean Hennessy, a University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist, one of the FDA experts gathered to examine the medicines sold to treat common cold symptoms. The recommendation applies to medicines containing one or more of the following ingredients: decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines and antitussives.

The nonbinding recommendation is likely to lead to a shake up in how the medicines — which have long escaped much scrutiny — are labeled, marketed and used. Just how and how quickly wasn't immediately clear.

In two separate votes, the panelists said the medicines shouldn't be used in children younger than 2 or in those younger than 6. A third vote, to recommend against use in children 6 to 11, failed.

Earlier, the panelists voted unanimously to recommend the medicines be studied in children to determine whether they work. That recommendation would require the FDA to undertake a rule-making process to reclassify the medicines, since the ingredients they include are now generally recognized as safe and effective, which doesn't require testing. The process could take years, even before any studies themselves get under way.

Simply relabeling the medicines to state they shouldn't be used in some age groups could be accomplished more quickly, FDA officials said.

Indeed, the drug industry could further revise the labels on the medicines to caution against such use. The Thursday-Friday meeting came just a week after the industry pre-emptively moved to eliminate sales of the nonprescription drugs targeted at children under 2.

Pediatricians pushing for greater restrictions told the FDA advisers Thursday that the over-the-counter medicines shouldn't be given to children younger than 6, an age group they called the most vulnerable to any potential ill effects.

But FDA officials and panelists agreed there's no evidence they work in older children, either.
Still, panelists held off from recommending against use in older children. Some said they feared such a prohibition wouldn't eliminate use of the medicines by parents.

"They will administer adult products to their children because they work for them or feel they work for them," said the panel's patient and family representative, Amy Celento of Nutley, N.J.
The drug industry says the medicines, used 3.8 billion times a year in treating cold and cough symptoms in children, do work and are safe. It says that more parent education is needed to avoid overdoses that in rare cases have been fatal.

A group of pediatricians petitioned the FDA earlier this year seeking action on the medicines.
An American Academy of Pediatrics official earlier Friday told the experts the medications should be relabeled to tell parents they don't work in children under 6 and may be dangerous.

"Why not label these products with what we actually know?" asked David Bromberg, a Frederick, Md., pediatrician.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

FEDS: Drug-Resistant Germ Spreading; killing more people each year than AIDS...

from the Drudge Report & the Washington Post

Quick - Somebody call Bono!

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

read more here

Reckless Politics and the Ottoman Empire

At a time when Congress should be discussing National Security, The War on Terror, The Impending Flood of Baby-Boomers on the Social Security System, or Safety Concerns relating to Lead found in Imported Toys the topic that Democrats would rather focus on is the Ottoman Empire.

Did I just hear a great big collective "huh"?

So why, you ask, is discussing an empire whose decline is marked at approximately 300 years ago more important than discussing the previously mentioned National and Economic Security Issues?

Maybe this story from Newsmax will help to clear up the inexcusable political motives behind this farce.

Democrats Push Reckless Turkey Resolution

Why now, of all possible critical moments, are congressional Democrats insisting on passing a resolution guaranteed to offend Turkey, our vital ally in the Iraq war, by denouncing the Ottoman Empire's century-old massacre of Armenians as a "genocide?"

Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts have been warned that Turkey will be deeply offended by the move and may even take punitive action against us by withdrawing their permission for us to use Incirlik Air Base, through which well more than half of our air cargo passes in route to supply our troops in Iraq. Human Events editor Jed Babbin reports that some 95 percent of the new MRAP (mine-resistant, ambush protected) vehicles, designed to save our troops' lives, pass through Incirlik.

Also as a result, Turkey might decide to attack Kurdish terrorist forces against our strong urging not to do so.

What on earth are Democrats trying to pull here? They are the same people that barely blanch when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust. It's not like we need to worry about offending Iran, a charter member of the axis of evil and by last count a sworn enemy of the United States, actively working to defeat us in Iraq.

Democrats constantly castigate President Bush for alienating the international community by "going it alone." Their presidential candidates are united in promising that if their party recaptures the White House, they'll restore sound relations with foreign nations.

In a recent speech, the irrepressibly garrulous Bill Clinton stressed that this would be a major theme in the next Clinton co-presidency. But are Democratic Party leaders, who claim to be such staunch supporters of our troops, concerned about jeopardizing their indispensable supply lines?

Are they the slightest bit nervous that in response to a House committee vote on this resolution, Turkey has already recalled its ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, for consultation?

Apparently not.

When a seemingly incredulous Brit Hume questioned House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer about the resolution considering the high stakes involved, Hoyer cavalierly responded, "Turkey's help to us is vital, but more vital is the United States' help to Turkey." In other words, Turkey needs us more than we need them — presumably implying Turkey wouldn't dare cut off our supply lines. But Turkey has denied our troops access before — as recently as 2003.

More than that, this idea that other countries need us more than we need them could be said about almost any allies Democrats complain the Bush administration has alienated.

What if President Bush had responded to Democratic complaints in the same high-handed manner Democrats are exhibiting today, saying, "Our allies need us more than we need them?"

Given that there is nothing to be gained and so much to be lost by the proposed congressional resolution, how can we not be suspect, as Jed Babbin implies, that congressional Democrats might be trying to effect a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq indirectly? Is this suspicion really far-fetched?

They've tried similar ploys, like a "dwell-time" amendment attached to the Defense policy bill that would have mandated that troops have as much time at home between deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as they had in those countries. This would have virtually guaranteed we didn't have enough manpower to complete the mission — one of several "slow bleed" tactics advanced by Democrats to undermine our prosecution of the war.

In that case, they at least have the cover of arguing that they are forcing longer stateside missions on behalf of the troops. Their motive there was suspicious but at least ambiguous. But there is no upside to their proposed resolution designed to offend Turkey. None.

I can think of only one other possible explanation for the Democrats' gratuitous insult of our vital ally during time of war. Their worldview often compels them to pursue actions driven by their so-called good intentions — even when those actions are sure to result in adverse consequences to their intended beneficiaries, such as with promoting expansive welfare, affirmative action, nationalized healthcare, minimum wage laws, gun control and radical environmental measures, or opposing tax cuts and school choice. But in the unlikely event that the Democrats' motive isn't to undercut our mission in Iraq, it might as well be — and they ought to be held accountable just as sternly as if it were.

To the extent the resolution imperils American troops, it is egregiously reckless and indefensible at all levels.

This must not pass without loud and fierce opposition. President Bush and Republican congressional representatives, along with every conservative commentator in this nation, should mobilize to expose the Democrats' proposed course of action as an outrageous assault on our fighting forces — not to score political points but to deter these misguided renegades from endangering our troops.

This appalling stunt must not be permitted to proceed.

For Clinton, listening to Political Opponent's conversations is okay, but it's not okay to listen to the conversations of Terrorists?!

How on earth can anyone explain the disjointed logic that justifies Illegal Eavesdropping for purely political purposes and then rails against Legal surveillance measures in the Patriot Act?!

Talk about a "willing suspension of disbelief"!

from Newsmax

Hillary's Cell Phone Spying to be Probed

Republicans plan to skewer presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton over her position on government surveillance, capitalizing on allegations in a recent book that Clinton listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents.

In the book “Her Way,” former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth and Times investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. wrote that during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, “Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty.

“She received memos about the status of various press inquiries, she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.”

As Newsmax reported in June, "The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill. Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions."

Mickey Kaus at Slate magazine noted: "Isn't [secret phone monitoring] not so legal? … I'm no expert, but it looks like a potential minefield for Hillary.”

Several legal experts told The Hill newspaper that it was illegal to intercept cell phone messages in 1992.

In August, Clinton voted against an emergency law that temporarily expanded the government’s power to conduct surveillance on American soil without a warrant.

A month earlier, she outlined her privacy bill of rights, which includes the right to sue when privacy rules have been violated.

A GOP official told The Hill: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign hypocrisy continues to know no bounds. It is rather unbelievable that Clinton would listen in to conversations being conducted by political opponents, but refuse to allow our intelligence agencies to listen in to conversations being conducted by terrorists as they plot and plan to kill us.

“Team Clinton can expect to see and hear this over and over again over the course of the next year.”

Hillary's Top Adviser Cashes In

Hillary Rodham Clinton's top campaign strategist is the CEO of a mega public relations/lobbying firm and is often compared to Karl Rove. But Rove sold his consulting business to become President Bush's chief campaign strategist. Mark Penn refuses to even take a leave of absence.

from Newsmax

“Running a presidential campaign is good for business.” Mark Penn, Hillary’s chief campaign strategist and CEO of mega public relations/lobbying firm Burson Marsteller, wrote those telling words in an internal corporate blog.

Penn has good reason to believe it. His business is booming from hefty fees it's collecting from a "Who's Who" of corporate, foreign governments and special interests — many of whom oppose Hillary Clinton and many Democrats on key policy issues.

Given the breadth of his company’s special interest clients, Penn appears to be collecting from parties that are lining up early to influence the next administration, betting, as they are, that Hillary Clinton will be our next president.

The potential for a serious conflict of interest is simply staggering.

As Hillary's top campaign strategist, Penn meets and speaks constantly with both Clintons and with other key policy advisers. He is in a position to influence what the candidate supports or opposes.

But neither Penn nor Hillary Clinton seem to see any problem there — even though Penn has already shown incredibly poor judgment in this area.

During Bill Clinton’s second term, while he was the president’s chief political strategist, and with unfettered access to the president and first lady, Penn’s polling firm, Penn & Schoen, contracted to lobby the Clinton administration on behalf of Central American countries — for a half-million-dollar fee. (The firm had never registered as a lobbyist or foreign agent before.)

Burson-Marsteller ultimately bought Penn & Schoen and Penn later became the head honcho.
Today, the company is a major player in the world of corporate and political spinning, with offices all over the globe.

A short list of clients includes Countrywide Financial, the aggressive sub-prime mortgage lender, Microsoft (in its attempt to stop a merger between Google and Doubleclick), Philip Morris, Occidental Petroleum, Bristol-Meyers, Entergy (nuclear power), Lockheed Martin, Texaco, AT&T, Allergen (makers of Botox), Greece, Taiwan, Cyprus, Virginia Tech, Doha16 Qatar (to try to get the Olympics there), Comcast, Sony Ericcson, Ikea, the National Fisheries Institute, Visa International, and many, many others.

Indeed, Burson is everywhere!

In the past, the company has also represented the Chinese National Offshore Oil Co (CNOOC) (Burson operates over one hundred offices — including four separate offices in China), the Russian Government Press Office, Haiti, Nigeria, Armenia, and Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial president of the Iraqi National Congress who pushed for the overthrow of Saddam.
But most of the firm’s clients remain secret: Unless direct lobbying is involved, there is no disclosure requirement.

Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater recently hired Burson’s lobbying subsidiary, BKSH, to prep him for his congressional testimony — helping him to explain why the civilian cowboys who work for him have been involved in 195 shooting incidents.

After news reports about the controversial representation, Burson-Marsteller ran screaming from Blackwater, describing it as only a “temporary” engagement with no involvement by Penn. And the Clinton campaign affirmed its support for Penn.

Blackwater is yet another reminder of the ethical imbroglios that dogged her in the White House and raises serious questions about Penn’s dual roles as strategist for the potential next president and adviser to corporations and governments who have ongoing big business in Washington.

Penn is often compared to Karl Rove, but there’s at least one big difference: When Rove became Bush’s chief campaign strategist, he sold his consulting business. Penn refuses to even take a leave of absence.

Although he claims to have no involvement in the firm’s day-to-day business, published internal e-mails suggest otherwise. And, Penn demonstrated his blatant lack of sensitivity to conflict of interest issues during the last Clinton administration.

In October 1998, while Penn was the White House chief political strategist, he registered his polling firm, Penn & Schoen, as an agent for the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, operated, and controlled by Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua with Mexico, Taiwan, Argentina, and Colombia as additional shareholders.

In plain English, a number of foreign governments seeking to persuade the President of the United States to adopt legislation in their economic interest paid Penn to make their case in the White House.

Question: Did the President know this and permit it?

Because that’s not how Clinton used to operate. In his first term, the former president required all consultants with regular access to him or White House staff to file a financial disclosure form with the White House counsel’s office — to avoid conflicts of interest.

So, what happened to that sensible policy?

Apparently, it went out the window.

According to Penn’s hand-written filings with the Justice Department, he was the only partner working on the contract that required his firm to “lobby the [Clinton] Administration” and “encourage” it to adopt a NAFTA-like trade bill for Central America as “a primary legislative priority.”

And what is it that did Penn inside the White House to advance the foreign bank’s agenda?
He reports that in November 1999, he made two telephone calls to Maria Echaveste, the White House deputy Chief of Staff “relating to visit of member countries to the U.S.”

Not surprisingly, Penn’s lobbying skills were no longer needed once Clinton was gone. Penn’s handwriting indicates that the contract expired on January 1, 2001 – days before Clinton left office.

Now Penn is deeply immersed in the lobbying world.

Burson-Marsteller is sought out by clients who are well aware of his close relationship with the Clintons.

Take the case of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. In late March, Bill Clinton traveled to Cartagena for the 80th birthday tribute to Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where he spoke to Colombian president Alvaro Uribe about the difficulties in passing the agreement.
Eager to help, Bill called several Democratic Congressmen. And, coincidentally, within days, Burson-Marsteller and two of its subsidiaries, BKSH and Penn & Schoen, signed on to lobby for Colombia for $300,000.

Other countries come calling, too: Earlier this year, Burson-Marsteller closed a $250,000 polling and lobbying project for former Prime Minister Bhutto’s People’s Party of Pakistan, which opposes the Musharaaf government.

And in June, Burson signed on with the Abu Dubai Investment Authority for $802,250 – in Bill Clinton’s favorite Arab country, the U.A.E.

Penn is not paid anything at all by the Clinton campaign. And his compensation at Burson-Marsteller is tied to the performance of the company, which is booming.

Running a Presidential campaign may, in fact, be good for Penn’s business, but, ultimately, it won’t be good for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

Last year, Burson-Marsteller’s parent company, WPP, raked in more than $53 million in fees from its various U.S. lobbying affiliates. (It’s been gobbling up D.C. lobbying firms in the past few years.)

Edwards and Obama have severely criticized her for taking lobbyists money. It won’t help if her strategist oversees a lobbying firm.

Interestingly, when Penn contributed to Hillary’s presidential campaign, he supplied a Miami Beach, Florida address instead of his home address in D.C. He also listed his employer as Penn & Schoen- not Burson-Marsteller - where he is employed in Washington as its “Worldwide CEO.”
Can you think of a good reason for that? Could it possibly be so that anyone searching for political donations by employees of lobbying firms would skip over it and think it a different Mark Penn who lives in Florida?

Given the unmistakable merger of his corporate and political work, its time for Penn to make a choice and follow the example of Karl Rove and end either his corporate work or his political activity

Monday, October 08, 2007

Butler County Treasurer Nancy Nix, Launches local effort to help Homeowners facing forclosure

from the Journal-News

HAMILTON — Faced with higher foreclosure rates, Butler County officials want to put in place educational and other programs to help people who face losing their homes.

County Treasurer Nancy Nix today will outline for commissioners a plan that includes providing workshops for borrowers to help them rebuild their credit, implementing the Save Our Homes program and increasing cooperation between county agencies.

"It's really just arming people with information," Nix said.
Nix plans to add a part-time person on a temporary basis to help organize and launch the programs. She has selected Ann Mort, retired executive director of the Middletown Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We really just need some help getting it off the ground," Nix said.

She also will update commissioners on plans to implement the Save Our Homes program — an effort first started by state Treasurer Richard Cordray — that has spread to more than 30 of Ohio's 88 counties.

Butler County will launch Save Our Homes in November, Nix said. A benefit of the program, she said, is that the state treasurer's office provides staff support and help with materials.

In Butler County, 556 mortgage foreclosures are under way, Nix said. Of those, 144 are for properties in Middletown, 124 in Hamilton and 53 in West Chester Twp., she said.
Foreclosures in Butler County have climbed 88 percent to 2,580 last year from 1,370 in 2001, according to a study by Policy Matters Ohio.

On a percentage basis, foreclosure growth in the county trailed other large Ohio counties, such as Summit, Hamilton, Cuyahoga, according to the group's study, Foreclosure Growth in Ohio 2007.

The nonpartisan research organization said that because of double filings and other reasons, the data don't give a full tally of foreclosures nor the number of people who actually lose their homes.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Leading Indicators Paint Bleak Picture for GOP

In case you were wondering how the 2008 elections are shaping up, read this story!

story from Newsmax

WASHINGTON -- It is gallows humor time for Republicans in Congress, where one lawmaker jokes that "there's talk about us going the way of the Whigs," the 19th century political party long extinct.

"That's not going to happen," Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., hastens to add, although a little more than a year before the 2008 election, the major leading political indicators still point downward for a party abruptly turned out of power in 2006.

Fundraising for Republican campaign organizations lags. That is strikingly so in the House, where the party committee spent more than it raised in each of the past two months, reported only $1.6 million in the bank at the end of August and a debt of nearly $4 million.

Democrats reported $22.1 million in the bank and a debt of slightly more than $3 million.
Candidate recruitment has been uneven, particularly in the Senate, where Republicans must defend 22 of the 34 seats on the ballot next year. Democrats boast top-tier challengers for GOP-held seats in Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon.

Republicans have yet to put forward a prominent challenger for any Democratic-held seat, although an announcement is expected soon in Louisiana.

Additionally, nine Republicans in the House and three in the Senate have announced plans to retire. Some of those leaving are in midcareer, when a departure often signals pessimism about the prospects for regaining the majority. Democratic retirements total two to date — both are House members who are running for the Senate.

"The Democrats will continue to be the majority party in the House and Senate and Hillary Clinton will make history by being the first woman president" in 2008, predicts Rep. Ray LaHood, one of three Illinois Republicans to announce his retirement so far.

What makes LaHood's prediction stand out is his willingness to say it publicly.

Numerous other Republican lawmakers, aides and strategists said Democrats appear headed for two more years in power in Congress, but they declined to say so on the record.

Despite their difficulties, Republicans are not deep in the minority. A switch of 16 seats would give them control of the House next year; a change of one or two seats could deliver the Senate.

Despite the GOP's worst defeat since the Watergate era of the 1970s, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said recently, "We have more seats than Ronald Reagan had on his best day."

He added that Republicans have a better chance of winning a House majority in 2008 than they do of capturing the Senate or the White House. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the GOP senatorial committee, offered no response.

But Cole's job performance as head of the House GOP political arm is under internal challenge. In a recent private leadership meeting, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, sought the dismissal of the group's two top campaign aides, saying the committee lacked aggressiveness.

Cole refused and said he would quit first before firing the staff. Boehner, the party leader, backed down, at least temporarily, but may yet seek to install a senior aide at the committee. The officials who discussed the events did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.

After a long turn in power in Congress, LaHood and other Republicans say the change in fortunes is partly the result of historical cycles. "The American people like a change," he said.
At the same time, President Bush's approval is stuck in the mid-30s and the Iraq war remains unpopular with the public.

Nor have the ethics woes that plagued the party in last year's elections abated. Corruption investigations swirl around Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and California Rep. John Doolittle. To the particular distress of party leaders, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct last summer in an airport men's room sex sting operation and has yet to make good on an earlier pledge to resign.

Stevens and Doolittle deny all wrongdoing, as does Craig, who has asked a Minnesota judge to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea.

Polls, too, chart the decline of the Republicans.

A recent Gallup poll reported that 59 percent of those surveyed have an unfavorable impression of the Republican Party. By a margin of 47-42 percent, they said Democrats will do a better job of protecting against terrorism and military threats. Asked which party would better maintain prosperity, the majority preferred the Democrats, 54-34.

Despite their woes, numerous Republicans say they may have weathered the worst of it.
The race for the 2008 presidential nomination may sort itself out as early as February, they say, giving the party a new face months before the elections.

"Whoever it is, it won't be George W. Bush," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. "I deeply admire the president, but many Americans have a somewhat unmovable impression of the president at this point," he added.

Others predict Clinton will win her party's nomination for the White House and say her polarizing effect on the voters will benefit GOP candidates in swing areas currently held by Democrats.

"A Clinton candidacy would help energize Republicans to go out and vote in down-ballot races," said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster working in House and Senate campaigns. "It will help the Republican case for divided government."

Pence also said the military situation in Iraq is improving, and that a looming spending struggle between Bush and the Democrats should help reassure conservative voters who have become disaffected.

But efforts to draw clear distinctions with the Democrats can cut both ways.

Senate Republicans from New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon and Minnesota, who face particularly tough races in 2008, all voted in recent days for a children's health care bill that Bush has pledged to veto.

"I just do not understand his decision, and I think it would be terrible," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. She faces a challenge from Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine.