Obama's War on Coal costs him the miners union endorsement

We have told you several times about the Barack Obama/Sherrod Brown War on Coal and the damage it is doing in coal country.

Despite ridiculous efforts by his minions to convince us otherwise, Obama's policies are destroying jobs. Just last week, another 239 Ohioans were laid off because of Obama's determination to bankrupt the coal industry.

"This is a sad day for all of us, and particularly Mr. Robert E. Murray, the Founder of OhioAmerican," said Mr. Piasecki. "He is so distraught that he came to the Mine and personally announced the layoffs to each of the employees," he added.

"Mr. Murray created OhioAmerican, and our production began in May, 2007," said Mr. Piasecki. The Mine was intended to last for at least ten (10) years. Now we have been forced by our own Country's President and his followers and supporters to permanently close the operation," added Mr. Piasecki.

Ohioan to Obama: Take my business out of your ad!

Remember this ridiculous ad from President Downgrade, where he tried to tell us that he really said that we have to stand behind small business?



Besides the obvious lie about what he said, the owner of a specialty deli in Cincinnati saw something familiar: her own business. And she isn't happy about it. She wants the footage of her deli removed. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

"Voters First" Puts Ohioans Last

Earlier this week, Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted, certified for the November ballot a constitutional amendment aimed at reforming Ohio's redistricting process.  By now, many folks have heard a little about the proposal, backed by a group calling themselves "Voters First."  Unfortunately, the name is incredibly misleading, seeing as how the group is backed almost entirely by liberal groups and union interests.

Even the Cleveland Plain Dealer has called them out on it:

...Voters First's veneer of nonpartisanship has been shredded. And to think that some of its most visible advocates are individuals and groups associated -- for years -- with calls for transparency in campaign finance. Letting themselves be used by the kind of political insiders they decry will make their high-minded talk harder to take seriously.

Obama Playing Politics With Military Voters

Politicians are aiming to disenfranchise voters. They’re setting policy and filing suits to ensure that some Ohioans shouldn’t have flexibility in voting, and limiting the chances that these voters have to cast their ballots.

Republicans pushing for HB 194?  Nope.

Obama for American and the Democratic National Committee filed suit last month in order to ensure that some Ohioans aren’t able to cast their votes; and not just any Ohioans—our men and women in uniform.

The campaign argues that military voters and their families have presented no good reason to have special flexibility in voting. In fact, they Obama campaign has called it “arbitrary” and unconstitutional.

Wasn’t it just a few months ago that these same Democrats were arguing that uniform regulation of elections across all of Ohio’s counties disenfranchised voters? Wasn’t it just a few months ago that these same Democrats cried foul that the Ohio legislature limit—uniformly mind you—absentee voting from 35 days to 21 days.

And yet, Democrats now want to limit voting access to military families. Where’s the consistency of message?

I’m sure it has nothing to do with military support for Mitt Romney at nearly 60% while Obama flounders at 35%. Democrats wouldn’t let politics get in the way of ensuring that every American has the right to vote, would they?

Given this lawsuit, that’s exactly what Obama is doing—playing politics with the votes of those who protect our country.

The fact of the matter is, military voters, especially those stationed overseas, face limitations that can make it difficult to vote. The Ohio legislature recognized that when granting them special flexibility in making their voices heard.

Oh, and it was approved unanimously by the House and Senate.

Every Democrat in the Ohio legislature agreed with these provisions last year, making this move by the Obama campaign nothing more than petty politics, all at the expense of the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our country.

Proving once again that Obama cares only about his reelection, America be damned.

Cross-posted at GOHP Blog.

National Unemployment Rate Ticks Up Yet Again

The national unemployment rate is on the rise yet again under President Obama, with the rate rising from 8.2% in June to 8.3% in July.  Not that you'd know it from the lame-stream media:

To be honest, the economy did create jobs at a higher pace than anticipated, and the highest total in several months.  But even MSNBC had to admit the obvious:

But the economy still is far from creating enough jobs to do much for the 12.8 million Americans who are out of work. And the unemployment rate edged up to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June, signaling that more Americans may have given up looking for work.

Liberals used Ohio school shooting to trick people into joining anti-gun list

Right to left: ProgressOhio Executive Director Brian Rothenberg, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman

Remember our post about ProgressOhio and Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns back in March? Within hours of the tragic school shooting in Chardon, we reported that they had created a condolence website where people could send prayers and well wishes to the victims and their families. But it was really a scam to trick people into joining anti-gun progressive email lists.

As you can see, rememberingchardon.com has been shut down. Did MAIG act alone in this charade? No. Research on the domain reveals that it was registered by the moonbats over at ProgressOhio. How much cooperation was there between the two groups will probably never be known, but MAIG is still running the same scam in other locations. The email of the person who registered the domain is bret@progressohio.org. Maybe you should send him an email and ask him why they thought it was OK to use a tragedy to further their political agenda.

I started receiving the unsolicited emails from MAIG and knew it was because I used the rememberingchardon.com website. I had proof that ProgressOhio created the phony site, and I suspected that MAIG was in on the disgusting scam, but couldn't find direct proof.

Analyzing the 8/1 Quinny poll: Dems oversampled, great news for Kasich.

Yesterday, Quinnipiac University released a poll of Ohio voters. Ohio Democrats are celebrating the results of the presidential questions. We'll take a look at that first, then we'll move on to the excellent news for Governor Kasich second.

This poll has liberals excited for a couple of reasons. First, it shows President Downgrade Obama beating Mitt Romney by six points. Second, Obama hits the 50% support level, which is key for an incumbent to feel safe.

But, if there's one thing about polling that I can't repeat often enough, it's to look at the partisan weighting. How many Democrats did they include versus Republicans? And how many indies?

For this poll, the D/R/I sampling was 35/27/32 for a Dem +8 advantage.

Obama's return visit to Ohio will land at air base he is closing. Does he even know?

Barack Obama returns to Ohio again tomorrow for a visit to Akron. In an effort to distract from the complete failure of his jobs agenda, he will land at an Ohio National Guard base in Mansfield. Unfortunately, 750 airmen at the base are scheduled to lose their jobs as a result of Obama' defense cuts. Per the Mansfield News Journal:

The 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard base where Air Force One will land Wednesday morning remains threatened by President Barack Obama's proposed cuts to the military budget.

The C-27Js will be positioned at the base so Obama sees them when Air Force One taxis in, Col. Michael Howard, 179th Airlift Wing vice commander, said Monday.

This is an issue that both Senators Brown and Portman have been bending the President's ear about. Yesterday, Portman said,

Baby Formula Now On The Banned Wagon

Background Info: Bloomberg to New Mothers: You Really Should Be Breastfeeding, You Know - Katie Pavlich (Townhall.com).

Don't you all feel safer knowing that a politician is making your decisions for you? He must be a modern day superman to be able to know so much about everyone's well being. Well, maybe just another Barney Fife, but with lots of money.

Cross-posted: TobyToons.com

New Romney Ad Features Ohio Business Owner

Ohio small-business owner Dennis Sollmann is the subject of a new Romney ad being featured here in the Buckeye State, and it's another hard-hitting video:

Sollmann, a Sidney, Ohio native, is a true success story.  I had the pleasure of working with him in my earlier years, and though the president might think others "made that happen," I can personally say Sollmann worked his tail off to build his small business. It's about time we had a president who's also willing to work his tail off to help small-business owners, rather than insult them for having the audacity to put their blood, sweat and tears into creating jobs.

 UPDATE (Nick): A local business in Lorain County has a message for Obama:

Refocusing Our Attention

In recent days there has been some dissension among the authors and readers here at 3BP in regards to Governor Kasich's proposal to modernize the severance tax (yes, updating a 40 year old law is modernization—it's not just a talking point). To be sure, there can be legitimate disagreement as to the details of the plan, just like almost every other piece of legislation.

Honestly, I myself wasn't entirely sold on the plan at first. But upon further examination, it makes sense and deserved GOHP's full support. I've previously highlighted the finer points as to the why. 

Unfortunately, however, sometimes strong opinions can cloud judgment, and thus the conservative dissension over the new "Opportunity Ohio" poll, which is clearly a push poll, as pointed out by Nick3BP.

Stepping Back

A week ago today a friend sent me a link to a Third Base Politics post which announced, while discussing Governor Kasich's plan to pay for an income tax cut by raising oil & gas severance taxes, "that's exactly why we at GOHP & 3BP wholeheartedly support this proposal." Given that my name is still in the author list here at Third Base Politics and I no-heartedly support the governor's severance tax proposal, I felt compelled to write a brief response.
 
This week I agreed (happily, I might add) not to post anything further about the severance tax issue here. Then I saw that I was being quoted and subsequently ridiculed for reporting on what the governor's office is characterizing as a "push poll" because it demonstrates broad opposition to the logic the severance tax plan is built on.



In lieu of some entertainingly epic meltdown, I will simply link to a recent Third Base Politics story endorsing a huge tax hike in Cleveland.


Considering that I cover nearly everything I'm interested in writing about in my work for Media Trackers Ohio, I've decided there is little upside in continuing to write intermittent posts for Third Base Politics. You can find me on Twitter at @jasonahart, and I'll continue submitting the occasional story to Breitbart.com in my free time so long as they keep publishing 'em.


Thanks for reading!

Shale plan opponents spiking the football over a push poll

If you've been following the back and forth over Governor Kasich's proposal to cut income taxes via increased oil and gas severance taxes, you sure saw a lot of news on the internets yesterday about a new poll. So let's take a look at what is being called "deep disagreement".

However, when asking, “Do you agree or disagree with Governor Kasich’s plan?” the poll found 23% agreement with the severance tax proposal versus 44% disagreement. Intensity points to further problems for the governor’s plan, as 29% responded they strongly disagree with the plan and only 15% said they strongly agree.

Wait a minute. How could this be? Just two months ago, the plan was approved by 60% of Ohioans, and opposed by only 32%, in a poll performed by Quinnipiac University. It went from +28 to -21 in two months? How in the world did that happen?

Because this latest poll is a push poll, that's how.

For those who aren't familiar, a push poll is one where the questions are worded and ordered in a specific manner to intentionally get the results that are desired. Look how they set up the questions:

Obama's First Children's Book

Cross-posted: TobyToons.com

Barack Obama tries, and fails, to deny the insult he delivered to small businesses

Maybe Barack Obama took a clue from Sherrod Brown, who famously denied comparing Republicans to Hitler and Stalin, after he made a speech on the Senate floor comparing Republicans to Hitler and Stalin.

After his now infamous declaration to small business owners that government that "You didn't build that! Somebody else made that happen!", he came out with this ad, trying to tell people that what he REALLY said is that we've got to stand behind business owners. Yes, really.



Is he serious!? Does he think this ad is going to work?

Kasich's fracking driven income tax cut endorsed by the Wall Street Journal

Don't look now, but the liberals over at The Wall Street Journal think that Governor Kasich's plan to improve Ohio's income tax climate by tapping into the vast shale reserves we have is an excellent plan. (Hint: for the slow among you, I'm using sarcasm. The WSJ is of course known as a conservative newspaper.)

Note that they agree with us on several points:

• Our oil and gas tax policy is extremely outdated, because Ohio has never been a big producer.
• Taking advantage of our energy reserves to lower income taxes is successful in other states.
• Using this policy to reduce taxes on income and capital will fuel economic growth

For some reason, the link above is not loading the entire article. I don't usually like to quote entire articles, but since it isn't working, I have done so below. Emphasis is mine.

News OF Another Shooting

Cross-posted:TobyToons.com

Fallacies in the conservative case against Kasich's shale plan

As you have seen on our very own pages, there is a difference of opinion among Ohio's conservatives regarding Governor Kasich's severance tax proposal. Below, we take issue with some of the main arguments against the proposal.

The current severance tax will already result in $433 million for the state to use to cut income taxes.

This is a claim made by the Ohio Liberty Coalition in their press release.

“What Governor Kasich is proposing is unnecessary and unwise. Under the current rules, the severance tax on oil and gas produced $11 million in state taxes in 2009, and by 2014 it is projected by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce to increase to $433 million per year. If the Governor wants to cut personal income taxes he can use that new money to do so. It is unnecessary to raise taxes when this industry is already on track to dramatically increase tax revenue. It is also unwise to throw roadblocks in front of an industry that is critical to the economic future of our state. Some companies are already leaving Ohio. That is not what we want.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The Sherrod Brown/Barack Obama war on coal causes more layoffs

We've spoken previously about how Barack Obama is waging a war against the coal industry. Even though Candidate Obama openly told us that he aimed to bankrupt the industry, he has his toadie, former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, traveling around the state making a fool of himself by insisting that Obama is actually a friend to the coal industry.

Recently, ultra-liberal Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined Obama in attacking the energy source that provides 86% of Ohio's electricity. Brown had a chance to join other Senators, including other Democrats, in getting rid of the EPA's new Utility MACT rule, which is the centerpiece of the Obama's administration's self-declared goal of bankrupting coal plants and making electricity prices "necessarily skyrocket."

Sherrod Brown talks a big game about standing with miners. He even boasts about the coal miner's canary pin that he wears instead of a flag pin. But when it came time to cast a vote to protect the livelihoods of thousands of Ohio coal workers, he kicked them to the curb and voted to keep Obama's extreme new coal regulations. Sherrod Brown jumped into the foxhole, and eagerly became a soldier against his own state in Obama's war on coal.

Severance Tax Counterpoints

A conservative in Ohio has no shortage of union-funded foes, so I try to avoid arguments with friends. But I want to note that I still think the governor's severance tax proposal is a bad idea.

For the legion of 3BP readers who have been marching outside 3BP Global Headquarters chanting "WHERE IS JASON?" and for the benefit of anyone just discovering the site, I've been critical of the governor's plan in work for my day job at Media Trackers Ohio. Lest anyone think this is a case of me trying to draw some silly line in the sand, keep in mind the proposal is also opposed by AFP Ohio, the Ohio Liberty Coalition, and the National Taxpayers Union.

Several weeks of researching this topic have hardly made me an expert on the oil & gas industry, so let's just look at the logic here: the governor is proposing we raise taxes on a specific industry to fund an income tax cut statewide. That's the absolute bottom line, when you distill the issue. Is this something conservatives ought to support?

Big Oil, with Ohio taxpayers innocuously along for the ride

The governor has alluded to the many aspects of Ohio's government that remain broken, so why double down on the severance tax proposal when it faces broad opposition? Why not use the power of the bully pulpit to drive repairs to one of those other innumerable broken things?