1) anti sodomy laws were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court around the turn of the 21st century so they have no choice in the matter.  The days when you could criminally charge gay men for engaging in sexual acts are now back in the 'good ole days' with the segregation laws

 

2) how do voter id laws prevent fraud through absentee ballot?

 

3). I was more thinking about the 'more preferred' method for airport screening and the 'show your papers' laws proposed in AZ..... But I'm sure you would find no shortage of support for laws allowing police to racially profile minorities as well

wow. John kasich has inspired such debate!

anyone else catch John Kasich on the CNN show "State of the Union" this past Sunday?  he was on there talking about the economy, national politics and ISIS.  All topics above the average governor's pay grade but he was ready to fire on all of them.  Certainly seems to be making a run for the White House. 

 

I have no idea how electable he is or how he'll fair in the primaries but it will be interesting to see him toss out stats on how he's done for Ohio in terms of job creation & budget cutting, etc.  As soon as he's a presidential candidate, scores of fact checkers will be reviewing all of Ohio's progress (claims) with a fine toothed comb...

I think Kasich gets the nomination because he's the crossover candidate Romney was supposed to be.  Once he gets a little momentum, he'll get all the backing he needs.  The convention in Cleveland is part of this plan.  On the downside, his weakness is foreign policy credentials, and I think foreign policy becomes increasingly important as this year plays out.  It hurts him in the primaries and it's a huge problem vs Clinton.  If he comes out hawkish and says Benghazi a lot he might overcome this, at least in the primary.

As soon as he's a presidential candidate, scores of fact checkers will be reviewing all of Ohio's progress (claims) with a fine toothed comb...

 

You'll get no complaints from me on this.  I'm interested to see everyone's take.

Wait 'til the national media start focusing on Kasich and pick up on the partially quashed Plain Dealer video clearly demonstrates what an arrogant, petulant a$$hat Kasich really is. The only Ohio paper that had the balls to do anything with the video was the Sandusky Register: http://www.sanduskyregister.com/news/politics/6366421 The Ohio press corps abdicated its duty in not making this widely available. I think it is as damning of Kasich as the driver's license buffoonery was to Fitzgerald.

As soon as he's a presidential candidate, scores of fact checkers will be reviewing all of Ohio's progress (claims) with a fine toothed comb...

 

You'll get no complaints from me on this.  I'm interested to see everyone's take.

 

I personally believe the first-term centrism was a ruse on Kasich's part.  Aside from Medicaid, I'm not a fan of anything he's done, and it looks like Medicaid was the centerpiece of the ruse.  In particular I'd like to see some national-level fact checking on Jobs Ohio, and all its inherent conflicts of interest.

Yes. JobsOhio is another thing due for scrutiny not provided by media within the state. For example, the Clean Ohio Bond Fund for environmental programs (approved by Ohio voters in 2001 and renewed in 2008 by almost 70 percent of voters -- and a majority in all 88 counties) has ceased to exist in the form favored by voters. The $400 million bond fund was broken into a $200 million green side backed by general revenues and $200 million for brownfield cleanup backed by state liquor agency proceeds. Guess what? The "private" JobsOhio is funded by state liquor proceeds. The Clean Ohio brownfields program -- formerly a wholly transparent, competitive grants program administered by an independent board -- has been subsumed by JobsOhio and turned into mostly loans given in private on a case-by-case basis.

Those stories sound kind of boring honestly to a media who craves more in-your-face content.

I think Kasich gets the nomination because he's the crossover candidate Romney was supposed to be.  Once he gets a little momentum, he'll get all the backing he needs.  The convention in Cleveland is part of this plan.  On the downside, his weakness is foreign policy credentials, and I think foreign policy becomes increasingly important as this year plays out.  It hurts him in the primaries and it's a huge problem vs Clinton.  If he comes out hawkish and says Benghazi a lot he might overcome this, at least in the primary.

 

Wait, you're predicting that he will be the Republican nominee?

Those stories sound kind of boring honestly to a media who craves more in-your-face content.

 

JobsOhio could be a real issue, but it takes a lot of explaining and connecting the dots. It's almost more an inside baseball type of a thing.

 

The PD interview could possibly be used against him to somehow show that he's a jerk. Not sure if most voters would care too much, though incidentally many Ohio voters would be seeing it for the first time.

Those stories sound kind of boring honestly to a media who craves more in-your-face content.

Actually, I think it's already an in-your-face story. Remember that bond money that you supported and that helped your community? The Kasich administration took it away and put it in a secret fund for developers.

Those stories sound kind of boring honestly to a media who craves more in-your-face content.

 

JobsOhio could be a real issue, but it takes a lot of explaining and connecting the dots. It's almost more an inside baseball type of a thing.

 

The PD interview could possibly be used against him to somehow show that he's a jerk. Not sure if most voters would care too much, though incidentally many Ohio voters would be seeing it for the first time.

 

Even with the video, the guys got a long way to go before he gets into Chris Christie level A-hole territory.

Good point: He's a Gold Standard A-hole, while Kasich is just a Major League A-hole.

I think Kasich gets the nomination because he's the crossover candidate Romney was supposed to be.  Once he gets a little momentum, he'll get all the backing he needs.  The convention in Cleveland is part of this plan.  On the downside, his weakness is foreign policy credentials, and I think foreign policy becomes increasingly important as this year plays out.  It hurts him in the primaries and it's a huge problem vs Clinton.  If he comes out hawkish and says Benghazi a lot he might overcome this, at least in the primary.

 

Wait, you're predicting that he will be the Republican nominee?

 

Yep.  Any guess is a reach at this stage, but that's my guess.  Imagine the narrative he could present at a convention in Cleveland's resurgent downtown.  Of course we then come to the counter-narrative, which may force the opposition to highlight problems in their own stronghold.

Those stories sound kind of boring honestly to a media who craves more in-your-face content.

 

JobsOhio could be a real issue, but it takes a lot of explaining and connecting the dots. It's almost more an inside baseball type of a thing.

 

The PD interview could possibly be used against him to somehow show that he's a jerk. Not sure if most voters would care too much, though incidentally many Ohio voters would be seeing it for the first time.

 

These are the things that I find fascinating about higher level politics.  Obviously Kasich's team knows where their liability lies with various gaffes or questionable coverups...  just curious where the team thinks they can find traction to pull ahead and what liabilities can be written off or dismissed without too much negative consequence. 

A big part of winning the GOP primary will be securing the funding from the major donors or a single super wealthy donor.  I think Kasich can do that.  He doesn't really care about social issues (at least not in the way other major GOP contenders do) so that gives him a leg up should he be picked as the nominee, although it might seriously hurt his chances of surviving the primary.  He won't win Iowa, NH, or South Carolina.  Maybe NH, but definitely not the other two early ones.  But he could make a late surge if the primary goes anything like in 2012 where it was a game of hot potato with virtually every contender taking a lead in the polls at some point in the race.

Socially though, Ohio is known for the Heartbeat Bill.

Speaking as one of the board's resident conservatives, I hope that Kasich does not get the nomination.  He is ideally positioned for the conservative cause as governor of Ohio and his chances in a general election against Hillary are slim.  I have seen him speak in public on multiple occasions and I did not find him inspiring even when he was making points I agree with.  I think part of the reason for his steady climb in popularity over the years since the SB 5 defeat has been his much lower public profile; neither a presidential candidate (i.e., after the nomination) nor an actual president will have that luxury in today's world.  (I wish it were otherwise, but the Calvin Coolidge lifestyle probably simply can't be done anymore even if I thought Kasich aspired to it.)

 

He manages the same off-putting upper-class standoffishness that Romney possessed in spades, and at least Romney was more authentic about it because he really is a blue-blooded member of the 0.001%.  He combines it with none of Romney's genuine genteel nature, substituting instead the false pleasantness of a used car salesman (or, more accurately, "alternative" investment pitchman).

 

I voted for him against Fitzgerald, and I'd have voted for him against any plausible Democratic alternative this cycle, even though I did vote for Strickland.  I appreciate what he's done for Ohio, particularly in terms of who he's stood up to (both successfully and unsuccessfully).  But I don't see him winning the White House and I think he'd make only an average president.  And while I may think that's an improvement over what we have now, we'll need better than that.  The years from 2017-2020 look to be tumultuous.

He's not a great public speaker IMO.... but he is a fantastic interviewee, which makes me think he could do really well in a debate.

He manages the same off-putting upper-class standoffishness that Romney possessed in spades, and at least Romney was more authentic about it because he really is a blue-blooded member of the 0.001%.  He combines it with none of Romney's genuine genteel nature, substituting instead the false pleasantness of a used car salesman (or, more accurately, "alternative" investment pitchman).

 

I've been in the same room as Kasich twice, and that about sums it up. Thinks what he says is pragmatic and people should just deal with it, but really just coming off like an A-hole.

^^ I guess I should watch some more of his interviews, then.  Last I saw was I think the Plain Dealer one during the campaign with him and Fitzgerald there, and I think I only watched 3 minutes or so.

“For some reason, the Lord has made me more aware of people’s problems,” Kasich told me in West Virginia. “And I take that awareness seriously.”

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/could-john-kasich-be-the-gops-secret-weapon-in-114430626841.html?soc_src=mags&soc_trk=ma

I need one of those rolling laughing emoticons, stat.

What's scary is how do you tell someone who believes they have divine inspiration that they are wrong? Furthermore, accomplishing anything in a democracy means having to negotiate, compromise and make deals. How does someone who has tied their political beliefs to divine inspiration make compromises with another person they believe is on the wrong side of God??

Short answer: You don't. And that's why you're right in saying that it's scary. It's impossible to reason with someone who thinks some higher power has granted them the ability to see people's problems more clearly than anyone else.

I hope he gets the nomination, just we can see an Admiral Stockdale reprise.

Fun fact: Kasich used to identify as agnostic. I wonder if he had a legitimate change in belief, or if he just realized that it's politically advantageous to pretend to be religious.

I'm a Deist myself and nonreligious, but that's not what he is saying.  He is saying he became more empathetic.

^ Good point. I actually went back and read the article (I only skimmed it earlier). It's really a pretty good and accurate portrait of him, I think. I won't ever vote for the guy, but I can respect him more than almost any other GOP politician I can think of. I love this exchange in the article, in response to Rand Paul criticizing Kasich for his expansion of Medicaid:

 

“Wait, so was it Rand Paul or Ron Paul?” Kasich asks me.

 

“Rand,” I reply.

 

“Oh, OK,” he continues. “Well, first of all, I’m not going to get into Ron Paul.”

 

I correct him again.

 

“Whatever,” he snaps. “Same difference. Here’s the deal. It’s our money. We’re bringing it back. We have severe problems with drugs, mental illness and the working poor. We can let them walk around like scattered sheep and end up in our prisons and our jails and our emergency rooms, sicker. That’s worse for them and more expensive for Ohio. And so I believe we have to get them the help they need.”

I'm a Deist myself and nonreligious, but that's not what he is saying.  He is saying he became more empathetic.

 

Are you saying KJP quoted out of context and in a misleading fashion??? In the quote he used, the “more” wasn’t comparing Kasich to other people, it was relative to himself. The article makes it clear that he was agnostic, revisited his faith, and came out of the experience with more empathy than he had before. He wasn’t saying he has better views than other politicians because of some sort of divine intervention, but out of context that’s how it reads.

 

I think the quote below sums up the article, and Kasich's religious views, much more accurately than the quote above:

 

“Here’s the way I look at faith,” Kasich says. “There are a lot of don’ts, but there are a lot more do’s. Humility. Empathy. Love your neighbor as yourself. I choose to focus on the good lessons before I start worrying about who’s married to whom.”

 

I’ve never been religious myself but that description does seem to fit many of the religious people I know.

 

I wouldn’t mind if Kasich got the nomination simply because he’s more moderate than most of the Republican frontrunners.

 

Gov. Kasich vetoes GOP's college-voting provision

By Chrissie Thompson, Gannett Ohio

April 2, 2015 - 6:42 a.m. EDT

 

Out-of-state college students who register to vote in Ohio won't have to get an Ohio driver's license, after Gov. John Kasich broke with fellow Republicans Wednesday by vetoing a controversial provision.

 

The GOP-authored provision, part of a highway-spending bill, stated that registering to vote was a declaration of residency for driver's license purposes.  After registering to vote, a person would have had 30 days to pay to switch his or her driver's license to Ohio and register any vehicles in the state.  Keeping an out-of-state license would have been a minor misdemeanor under the bill.

 

Democrats had said the provision amounted to a "poll tax" and accused Republicans of wanting to hamper out-of-state students, who often lean Democratic, from voting in Ohio – an important "purple" state in presidential elections.  But Kasich, himself a former out-of-state college student, vetoed that provision.

 

MORE: http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/story/news/local/2015/04/01/gov-kasich-vetoes-gops-college-voting-provision/70812190/

Gov. Kasich vetoes GOP's college-voting provision

By Chrissie Thompson, Gannett Ohio

April 2, 2015 - 6:42 a.m. EDT

 

Out-of-state college students who register to vote in Ohio won't have to get an Ohio driver's license, after Gov. John Kasich broke with fellow Republicans Wednesday by vetoing a controversial provision.

 

The GOP-authored provision, part of a highway-spending bill, stated that registering to vote was a declaration of residency for driver's license purposes.  After registering to vote, a person would have had 30 days to pay to switch his or her driver's license to Ohio and register any vehicles in the state.  Keeping an out-of-state license would have been a minor misdemeanor under the bill.

 

Democrats had said the provision amounted to a "poll tax" and accused Republicans of wanting to hamper out-of-state students, who often lean Democratic, from voting in Ohio – an important "purple" state in presidential elections.  But Kasich, himself a former out-of-state college student, vetoed that provision.

 

MORE: http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/story/news/local/2015/04/01/gov-kasich-vetoes-gops-college-voting-provision/70812190/

 

Good call, though I would like to see some way of guaranteeing that out of state (and in state) students don't also vote absentee at home.

 

Requiring a state issued ID is indeed a "poll tax", though the solution is not charging for non-driver state IDs and not making them an impediment to getting an actual driver's license.

If you're concerned about college students voting twice, don't be.  The overwhelming majority don't even vote once.

So much for limited government. Or the Constitution....

 

Kasich Proposes New Government Agency To Promote Judeo-Christian Values

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/kasich-proposes-new-government-agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101

All it would take is a renaming and it would be fine, but then no candidate would touch the idea. Just the steady beat of fundamentalist Christianity trying to box out secularism in The Enlightenment and our constitution.

 

Also, the perfect counter example to Sharia that people lose their minds over for no real reason.

So much for limited government. Or the Constitution....

 

Kasich Proposes New Government Agency To Promote Judeo-Christian Values

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/kasich-proposes-new-government-agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101

 

Not as bad as it first sounded.  Indeed, I was thinking that if we *must* have refugee intake centers, whatever religious groups wish could have outreach centers right there.  Those "refugees" who get irate don't really get us and don't really belong here.

 

Still, not the government's job.  #lostmyvote

The NYT just endorsed Kasich for the republican party.

The NYT just endorsed Kasich for the republican party.

 

They probably just doomed any hope he had left.

^Why? I can't imagine a NYT endorsement hurts him, especially as he's been at the bottom for so long. From the article:

 

"... The hope among some Republicans is that the Iowa caucuses on Monday and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 will promote a candidate who can appeal to the half of their electorate that doesn’t support the two current front-runners. Those two, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, are equally objectionable for different reasons.....

 

...Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, though a distinct underdog, is the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race. And Mr. Kasich is no moderate. As governor, he’s gone after public-sector unions, fought to limit abortion rights and opposed same-sex marriage..."

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/a-chance-to-reset-the-republican-race.html?_r=0

Kasich promises to reunite Pink Floyd:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/music/presidential-candidate-john-kasich-promises-224200895.html

Kasich did not 'go after' public sector unions. SB5 was not a Kasich driven measure. He merely signed the bill which had been drafted and championed by an influential group of southern republicans in the GA. It was well in the works before Kasich took office and, in fact, his team essentially redrafted it to blunt a good chunk of the blow it would have had.

Kasich did not 'go after' public sector unions. SB5 was not a Kasich driven measure. He merely signed the bill which had been drafted and championed by an influential group of southern republicans in the GA. It was well in the works before Kasich took office and, in fact, his team essentially redrafted it to blunt a good chunk of the blow it would have had.

 

From what I've heard, behind the scenes he called their bluff on it being an "economics" bill.  Leaving out the police and fire departments, as Wisconsin did, would have prevented repeal and also greatly decreased the projected cost savings for municipalities.

 

A lot of conservatives supported repealing SB5 because it included them.

Kasich is now ranked no. 2 for New Hampshire. Out of the Republican field, he has had a good moderate stance and has kept a good, positive message throughout. Too bad that it's all washed out. Let's hope that for the GOP sake that he maintains momentum after New Hampshire.

Kasich is now ranked no. 2 for New Hampshire. Out of the Republican field, he has had a good moderate stance and has kept a good, positive message throughout. Too bad that it's all washed out. Let's hope that for the GOP sake that he maintains momentum after New Hampshire.

 

Kasich is benefiting from the others attacking each other.  As soon as he finishes in the top 3, the spotlight will shine a little more brightly on him and it'll show a few more of his warts and air a little dirty laundry.  I want to puke every time he touts his efforts to slash the budget deficit in Ohio...  all he did was slash local spending.  Voila!  Even wealthy districts across the state are reeling from the cuts

That was a fund, in my opinion, that needed to be reduced. To the extent and as quick as it got slashed? Perhaps not. But where I come from, towns didn't rely on the state to rain them down with funds - the cities were responsible for putting on their own firework displays if they chose to expend their money on that, or fund their own pet projects or to overfund police departments. Cities and villages alike got dependent on the state for their own misdeeds and they spent too much time sucking the tit of a state government dry that had no responsibility to dole out money in that manner.

 

I guess that puts me in an awkward position. I'm fiscally conservative and agree with many of Kasich's economic viewpoints, but I'm socially liberal. Go figure.

Ohio's local government fund existed so that municipalities could benefit from types of taxation -- especially the inheritance tax -- they cannot by law collect themselves.  When Kasich eliminated the state inheritance tax, it was a huge gift to the children and grandchildren of the state's wealthy who were already going to inherit a ton of money.

 

Just one P&G heir paid $6 million into the local government fund when he died back in 2011 or 2012.  So if he had died a year later, instead of that money going to a municipality, it would have gone to the family trust which was probably north of $100 million.  So the kids would have gotten $106~ million instead of $100~ million. 

@HenryJGomez  3h3 hours ago

Kasich: "Steph Curry's my favorite basketball player."

 

Kasich is benefiting from the others attacking each other.  As soon as he finishes in the top 3, the spotlight will shine a little more brightly on him and it'll show a few more of his warts and air a little dirty laundry.  I want to puke every time he touts his efforts to slash the budget deficit in Ohio...  all he did was slash local spending.  Voila!  Even wealthy districts across the state are reeling from the cuts

 

Fact. Now every local government entity has to float a zillion levies -- bringing us closer to direct-democracy chaos.

Or perhaps in a more common case, the inheritance tax robbed those who would not be able to pass down money from generation to generation of working families. I remember my grandparents not being wealthy but they were able to pass along over $30,000 to their three sons that wasn't nabbed by the government for a slush fund.

 

GCrites80s[/member]: I think that if a local government has to enact levies after levies to maintain their old spending level, they should re-examine how much they are spending and if it was ever really sustainable. Was it the Lakota school district that was hurting (and still is) up near West Chester because of the cuts? They were making students pay to play organized sports and had cut back some frivolous school programming that, and let's face it, would never be offered in inner-city schools.

 

The way schools were funded in Ohio were awful - was that ever resolved? Property tax poor areas had shit school districts, like Portsmouth, whereas the wealthy areas were able to afford television studios and state-of-the-art tablets for their students in their schools, for instance. The Dispatch had a big focus on Portsmouth several years back after their schools were rebuilt.