Election

You all know how the election worked out. You're either still feeling that gooey relief or simmering anger, either about McCain/Obama or Wulsin/Schmidt or any of the dozens of other races.

I won't bore you with a recap at this late date, since we all know the Franklin County Board of Elections can give you the low-down if you really still need it.

I do want to mention something about my personal voting experience, however. The fact I was forced to vote by provisional ballot this year.

When I moved, I registered to vote well ahead of the deadline (in order to avoid this nonsense, can you believe that?). My lil card came back, and it read the correct address. I thought, "Sweet!" and didn't give this another thought.

Until I showed up to vote, and the rather hostile lady informed me that my APARTMENT number on the rolls differed from the piece of mail I brought in.

***Side note, I used my change of address confirmation from the BMV because my license shows a place I lived two addresses ago. I THOUGHT that would make it simple***

They had apartment 3D listed. I actually live at 2D. A typo when someone was compiling the voter rolls, I'd put a lot of money on it. I was rather pissed off, I'll admit it (although, that may have more to do with having been up since 8pm the previous evening). I mean, I was a guy who did everything the right way and I still felt like my vote didn't count.

Did it? Another confession...I don't know. My candidates all passed with healthy margins, so I didn't feel a duty to double check on the BOE. The poll workers gave me an explanatory sheet with information about provisional voting, reassurances that my vote would be counted (if I was actually a voter), and a hot line I could call to see if they counted my vote.

I skipped it tho. I didn't have the energy to make them figure it out...and I'm a middle class white guy. Can you imagine how easy it would be to keep a poor minority voter from getting their say heard?

That's the problem with this set up...a typo can disenfranchise a person. What the crap?

...back at it again?

So in the process of getting a second job, it took quite a while to get the hang of time management. It took even longer to realize that sometimes, it's not enough to manage your time...sometimes, you have to manage your schedule.

Add those realizations to the sheer task of trying to report on the election...even in a casual way...I became beyond overwhelmed, and shut down.

So if anyone is still reading this, my apologies. I've got a few ideas for a more interactive blog, and hope you'll come along for the ride as I try to keep up on world events as well as national, state, and local politics!

Thanks for the patience, kids.

I also want to apologize to the annonymous commentor who kept trying to share information, but had their comments get caught in my moderation filter/double shift timewarp. I've since changed the settings so that all comments will get through the first time you try and post.

...though that doesn't mean I won't delete them after the fact if you get out of hand ;-)

Pay Day Lenders, Unemployment

The pay day lenders have turned in their petition, and now they wait for the reply. They are trying to get the heavy restrictions recently placed on them by the Ohio Legislature put onto the ballot. The theory is enough of their customers will be so outraged at the new limitations the bill will be overturned.

A good theory, and democracy in action. But is it a wise move?

That's where the unemployment comes in. Ohio has more people unemployed than at any other point in the last 16 years. A lot of these people, I'm willing to bet, are either taking out cash advance loans or already have. My question is, how are they going to be able to pay these back while their jobs keep vanishing?

The main issue behind wanting to regulate the industry is the fees. If you do the math, the annual interest rates are absurdly high. The Federal Trade Commission gives this example, with a number of 391%. (And I thought Mastercard was bad...). The Ohio Legislature figures that's more or less loansharking, and needs to be stopped by capping the rate at 28%.

But...I've known people who did these. And they aren't going to make their car payments, or pay for medication, or buy milk for the kids any other way. It's an evil, but maybe it's the lesser of two evils? Or is the problem the fact people don't get just one loan; they get a series of loans, in order to pay off their first one (or to cover bills left unpaid because they made good on the first loan).

Maybe if the loans aren't as readily available (because most of the payday lenders have shut down, as the industry claims will happen) we'll be forced to address the fact that millions upon millions of Americans aren't able to pay their bills each month.

Power Outages and Such

So the plan was the take Monday and finish up the posts for the week...but thanks to the windstorms and subsequent power outages, that did not happen.

My apologies for the week of silence...I hope not one was put out very much.

In other news, I've picked up a second job. I went into greater detail on my coffee blog, "In Search of the Right Blend" over here, but suffice it to say a couple-nights-a-week job has started to spiral into a 1/2 to 3/4 time gig. This means much less time to dedicate to blogging.

I'm scaling back operations to posting only twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Otherwise, there shouldn't be any changes (except for maybe improved quality with fewer posts to put out each week...I'll let you judge that).

Thanks for the eyeballs, folks, and I hope you don't find the time wasted!

Water Rights Ammendment

Remember when I said I had no idea what Ohio Issue 3 was all about, about water rights?

Well, I found out. Apparantly, it's not clearly spelled out that Ohioans have reasonable access rights to ground water on their property, as well as lakes and running water. Issue 3 is about changing that, and creating water rights for property owners.

This apparantly stemmed out of the Great Lakes Basin Compact. Evidently there were concerns that Ohio was sorta screwing it's own property holders by making agreements with other states before our own state was settled.

Makes sense to me.

Candidates in My District: Congress

Thanks to the recent Ohio court decision on the Libertarian Party, we now have three candidates on the ballot for Congress. I can't remember seeing three candidates for anything but a judge...and I feel good about seeing it now. Choices, options, dialogue. That's what democracy is all about...the more hats in the ring, the better (up to a point, I suppose...but that point is so far down the road I'm not thinking about it yet).

I hope this new level of choice isn't a flash in the pan.

Anyhow, the three people who want to go to Washington to represent us in the 12th Ohio district are:

• David Robinson (D)
• Pat Tiberi (R)
• Steven R. Linnabary (L)

Congress is an important job, since taxes originate from it. It's also where a lot of the actual business of government happens...if you look in the Constitution and read between the lines a little bit, the Senate is more of a vetting process to put the breaks on a boistorous lower house (and BOY have we seen that in the past two years!).

Pat Tiberi is the incumbant this year, has been since 2001. We'll use these years in office to evaluate him, via the voting record listing over at Project Vote Smart. I was actually quite surprized to see there wasn't much in the voting record I disagreed with. Yes, he leans right...but he IS a Republican, and that's to be expected. Three things that jumped out at me as being good: He's been consistently against oil exploration in the US; for alternative energy incentives (as long as they don't come with a stick against big business); and voted against this most recent farm bill. A three things I didn't like so much? A series of pro-life votes; against foreign aid to fight AIDS, malaria, and TB; has voted against every measure so far to alleviate home owner angst.

David Robinson is the Democratic challenger. He's a well-educated man from the Columbus area, with a seminary MA and a PhD in theology and philosophy. His most recent claim to fame, and the reason he got interested in politics, is his work with the Climate Project with Al Gore. I find it facinating a man with a seminary degree represents the Democratic Party...it's not the typical MO for the day and age. No prior government experience, just a passion to get involved and help bring a breath of fresh air to Congress.

I'd love to tell you more about the Libertarian candidate, Steve Linnabary. However, I can't seem to find anything about him. He's a Columbus area native who went to college in Lexington, KY. The website from his Clerk of Courts run (I'm not sure when that was) is up, and is far more functioning than the site for his current Congressional run (which I had to find in a roundabout fashion). I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of someone representing me who can't get any of his links to work. I appreciate the "I'm not a part of this madness" sentiment, but this doesn't excuse one from the basics of campaigning...namely making it easy for the voters to access information about you.

As for my personal choice? I'm not sure yet. I was pleasantly surprized by Tiberi's voting record...even though he's been along for the entire Bush ride. One could argue the fact he survived the GOP slaughter of '06 means something as well. Though...if I'm serious about change...Robinson certainly represents that. I'll need to deliberate longer.