Special Issue-Voting Information for Voting Tuesday, November, 7, 2006

The S & G Political News
Issue 4—Special Issue: Monday, November 6, 2006
Voting Information—Vote your choice tomorrow, Tuesday, November 7

In this issue:
1: Welcome (Jeremy Grandstaff)
2: Information regarding Statewide candidates in Ohio
3: State Issues up for Decision-Ohio
4: Highlighted Local Issue of interest—COTA Levy (Central Ohio)
5: Special Contribution (Steve Wild, Columbus, Ohio)
6: In conclusion (Jeremy Grandstaff)
7: Subscription Instructions
To retrieve an online copy: visit www.sgendeavors.com/political

1: Welcome (Jeremy Grandstaff)

Welcome to the special Election Information issue of the S&G Political Newsletter. In our political newsletters, we try to provide information to our readers that is provocative. It is meant to grab your interest and allow you to ask questions. In this issue, we provide links to different web sites with diverse takes on the candidates, state-wide issues, and even some local election information to Central Ohio.
Be sure to visit our blog to leave your suggestion or read comments from others on the topics. If the above link does not work for you, please copy and paste the following into your browser: http://imakeadifference.blogspot.com/

2: Information regarding Statewide candidates in Ohio

The following links provide information regarding State Wide Candidates--including governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, auditor, ETC.

For the most up to date information of the statewide ads please go to http://www.uselections.com/oh/oh.htm. USElections is the actual name of the site and they provide a thorough list of current officers and active candidates for each race and most of their websites. This link is for Ohio, but if you browse the site you will see that they also cover 49 other states. They also have links to new stories, blogs, a bookstore, and voting information and rights.

You may also want to check out this recently created blog: http://30fpspolitics.blogspot.com/ . This is a great new blog idea for politics. It has 30 second ads from a lot of major Ohio races and issues on the ballot. You can click on them easily and watch the ads. Use the ads to decide how to conduct last minute candidate research before the election; you should not make a decision buy using the ads alone.

Another website that deserves kudos and mention in our political newsletter is Politics1, which can be found at http://www.politics1.com/index.htm. This is another great site to find out tons of information about politics, national races, local campaigns, issues, and political parties. Make sure you check out the National “issues” link which covers most major issues including Global warming, Gay Rights, International Trade and Immigration. They also have extensive coverage of political parties other than the Big Two, including but not limited to, CHRISTIAN FALANGIST PARTY OF AMERICA, AMERICAN NAZI PARTY, GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES and the LIBERTARIAN PARTY. They list the active races for each state, have an ongoing political blogroll (a list of political blogs on their site), and links to the different media outlets (usually newspaper and television) for each state as well.

3: State Issues up for Decision-Ohio

In addition, we wanted to offer some web sites of interest for each of the state-wide issues that are on the ballot in Ohio. State-wide issues do involve some amendments to the state constitution and warrant your consideration before going to vote.

http://www.ohiocathconf.org/L/06ballotissuesum.pdf -- A report on the ballot issues for Ohio by the Catholic Conference of Ohio

http://www.lwvohio.org/pdf/fall%202006/Ballot%20issues%20pros-cons%20F%202006.pdf – Pros and Cons for the Ohio Issues from the League of Women Voters of Ohio

http://www.gcpartnership.com/uploadedFiles/Advocacy/ballot%20issue%20brochureFINAL.pdf –A comprehensive report on the issues for Ohio prepared by COSE-Council of Smaller Enterprises and the Greater Cleveland Partnership

4: Highlighted Local Issue of interest—COTA Levy (Central Ohio)

Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)—Central Ohioans will vote on Issue 7 which provides the necessary funding to expand COTA services throughout Central Ohio, keeping our roadways running smoothly and providing continued affordable transportation on a daily basis. Visit www.cotacampaign .com to learn more about the benefits of voting “yes” to the levy in Central Ohio.

Some additional links of interest:
Columbus RetroMetro Article - The site RetroMetro with an article in which Mayor Coleman supports the levy.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2006/09/25/daily23.html; http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2006/10/23/story3.html; - both links to articles in Columbus Business Journal about the Cota ballot issue.

The following is an inclusion from Marie Keister, volunteer for the COTA Campaign:
This is just one last reminder to vote “yes” on Issue 7 tomorrow. Endorsed by an impressive list of chambers of commerce, city councils, area media and a bi-partisan list of various organizations, Issue 7 will help COTA connect people with jobs, increase service to persons with disabilities and increase service for second and third shift workers in high growth areas. Having worked on several area highway projects that also depend on transit to play a key role in offsetting dramatic future increases in traffic congestion, I know we must make this investment to keep people and goods moving.

As the Columbus Dispatch pointed out, the “10-year, 0.25 percent tax….will be collected starting January 2008, when an identical tax imposed by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners will expire. As a result, county residents won’t see a net change in the tax rate.”

Thanks to all of you who have posted yard signs, participated in lit drops, or just told your friends and neighbors the importance of this levy. Remember to vote!

Marie

Issue #7 (COTA) is endorsed by:

-Columbus Dispatch
-Columbus Business First
-Columbus Chamber of Commerce
-Columbus Workforce Alliance
-Columbus Partnership
-Columbus City Council
-Dublin City Council
-Upper Arlington City Council
-Westerville City Council
-Worthington City Council
-The City Council of Grove City
-Grandview Heights City Council
-Minerva Park Village Council
-Canal Winchester Village Council
-Minerva Park Village Council
-Northland Community Council
-German Village Society
-Dublin Chamber of Commerce
-Upper Arlington Chamber of Commerce
-Clintonville Chamber of Commerce
-Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
-League of Women Voters
-NAACP
-Transportation Workers Union Local 208
-Central Ohio Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
-Ohio League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
-Sierra Club
-1000 Friends of Central Ohio
-Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition
-Columbus/Central Ohio Building Trades Council
-Schumacher Place Civic Association
-Bexley News
-Big Walnut News
-The Booster
-Delaware News
-Dublin News
-Gahanna News
-German Village Gazette
-Grove City News
-Hilliard Northwest News
-New Albany News
-Northland News
-Northwest Columbus News
-Olentangy Valley News
-Pickerington Times-Sun
-Reynoldsburg News
-The Times
-Tri-Village News
-Upper Arlington News
-Westerville News & Public Opinion
-Westland News
-Whitehall News
-Worthington News

5: Special Contribution (Steve Wild, Columbus, Ohio)

Steve is a close friend of S & G Endeavors and is very active in progressive politics. Though his writing may appear to some as a bit in-your-face, I feel it might help to inspire our readers to believe that each individual has the power to make a difference. You can find more of Steve’s writing at http://www.dailyspeech.net/. If you would like to see more of his writing in future newsletters, please be sure to let us know.

This is it folks. Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, we have an opportunity to send George W. Bush and his Republican Congress a real wake up call. (Likewise to his Republican allies in Ohio and other states across the country).



Let’s let Republicans know we are tired of their reckless and incompetent management of government at all levels – their reckless foreign policy and military campaigns that have made us and the world less safe, their filling the coffers of military contractors like Haliburton in Iraq while cheaping out on military armor for our men and women in the armed forces, their giving lucrative contracts to Arab companies to guard our ports while not investing in real port security and first responders in America’s cities, their tax breaks to the rich and corporations while cutting back on student loans, health care, attempting to take away our guaranteed Social Security, giving breaks to drug companies on the so-called new Medicare prescription benefit instead of negotiating bulk rates on medicine and reducing prescription costs for seniors, working with banking interests to make it harder to get bankruptcy relief even for those with unexpected unemployment and high medical bills, a political party that trips over themselves to interfere with very personal end-of-life decisions like Terry Schaivo and impose a federal answer to a state’s issue – marriage, while not investing in a Homeland Security department that can adequately respond to a major disaster like Hurricane Katrina (God help us if terrorists cause a man made disaster of that magnitude).



Neither political party is perfect or super human. It was Democratic presidents who led America during some of the most critical national security crises (WWI, WWII, Cuban Missile Crisis) and Democrats are just as able as Republicans to be strong on national defense. We, as Americans, were fully united on 9/11 and all but one Democrat supported the Afghanistan invasion, the nation harboring the mastermind of 9/11. It was the reckless and unnecessary war in Iraq that the Bush administration was hell-bent on doing regardless of the facts and now we have caused the world to hate us (Because of Iraq, not Afghanistan) and our military is worn to the bone. We are in an endless quagmire and we need a real opposition party to challenge the Bush administration on their stubborn “stay the course” mentality in Iraq that is leading into an endless black hole.



Just as importantly, though, Democrats have historically looked out for the less then rich, the middle class, the working man and woman, the poor. They have been better at providing for the needs of everyday Americans including better job security (the economy boomed under Clinton with his federal budget SURPLUS), education, health care, retirement security.



Democrats will PROTECT and HONOR the Bill of Rights (unlike the tyrannical Bush Administration who has gotten Congress to strip you of your Habeas Corpus right - the right to challenge an arrest) – this includes TRUE freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to challenge an arrest, the right to an attorney, a jury of your peers.



In case you think the government would never arrest you because you are not a terrorist, tell that to a poor Canadian man who was arrested last year in New York (because they mistaken him for someone else) and shipped him to Syria where he was tortured, before they realized their mistake and released him – Oops, oh well – mistakes happen. Maybe if your name is Smith or Jones, or you are light skinned, you may be OK – then again, maybe not.



The most recent opinion polls across the country this past weekend show a distinct tightening in the races. If you assume the Democrats will win because their polls had been good recently, you may be in for a rude awakening Tuesday night if we all don’t make every effort to get out the vote.

6: In conclusion (Jeremy Grandstaff)
Thank you for taking the time to scrutinize the sources and information provided in our special “voting Information” issue. Please remember to vote tomorrow at your designated polling place as listed with your County Board of Elections. Visit here to get general information on voting from the Secretary of State.
We hope that you visit our blog http://www.imakeadifference.blogspot.com/ to discuss your ideas on the topic or simply provide us with your feedback. Let’s discuss how we can all work together to make a difference!

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