Oh Ohio, I’m ashamed of you

Most of you know that Ohio is trying hella hard to backdoor Roe. The Toledo Blade wrote a wonderful editorial on how awful Ohio’s budget is, and how it is targeting women with disgusting restrictions. Tara Culp-Ressler wrote for ThinkProgress a summary of the WORST ABORTION BILL EVER (do the echo effect on ever). This bill, House Bill 200, came to be because someone thought they weren’t being clear with the budget. A group of 35 Republicans in the House introduced an omnibus anti-abortion bill that combines some of the worst attack on reproductive health.

The bill includes the following restrictions:

Mandates invasive ultrasounds, and forces women to pay for the cost of the extra procedure themselves. Classy. Force women to have an unnecessary ultrasound and then make them pay for it. The bill doesn’t explicitly say trans-vaginal ultrasound, but that is really the only one that can give you a picture of the first 12 weeks. And then, make the ladies pay for it because you know bitches be rolling in monies when they want to end a pregnancy.

Requires doctors to describe the ultrasound images to women seeking abortions, including details about the fetal heartbeat. If the heartbeat is audible then the doctor has to describe that. You know, causing emotional stress during a difficult decision making process. We all know this is intended to shame and coerce women seeking abortions.

Extends the waiting for abortion to 48 hours, and eliminate the option for women to bypass it because of a medical emergency. This is just fucking dangerous. Ohio already has a 24 hour waiting period, which adds the burden of cost and travel for multiple trips to the clinic. But they can bypass this in the case of a medical emergency. This bill would take that away. This bill would kill women.

Requires doctors to tell women scientifically disputed information about abortion risks. You know requires doctors to give false and medically disputed information about abortion because that is a good idea.

Requires doctors to tell patients how much money they earn from each abortion procedure. This is supposed to demonstrate how the doctors are profiteering off abortion services. You know what would be great if someone wrote up how much having a child would cost over time and distributing it or that NYT’s article on what happened to women denied abortions…SPOLIER poverty.

Punish doctors who don’t comply with the new restrictions with a felony charge and up to a $1 million dollar fine. Nothing like threats of jail time to force your agenda on the public. So you know, cumbersome restrictions and punishments for noncompliance to convince doctors to stop performing abortions…oh, that’s the point.

OH-I-O blows right now. Sorry ladies, guess your health is irrelevant to the theocracy. Fingers-crossed this won’t pass, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised. Someone get this clowns out of office. Additionally, this puts abortion service provides at odds with the women they serve. A lot of this is just an attempt to get providers to stop providing services.

Ohio’s GOP wants to disenfranchise Ohio’s college students

I know you’re all shocked. So Ohio has been working on disenfranchising more and more people every year. We’ll call it the “GOP Rocks the Vote.” True the Vote spent a lot of time last year trying to intimidate hundreds of students because students tend to vote democrat. Now the Republican legislators are going to use the budget bill to intimidate universities to keep students away from the polls.

According to Plunderbund, the substitute budget bill (Sub. H. B. No. 59) introduced by house republicans contains changes to Ohio law that makes it difficult for Ohio’s students who live on campus to prove they are residents of the state.

In Ohio, students living on campus can obtain a letter from the school as proof of residency. These letters are important for students who are trying to participate in the political process. Moments like this, I really wonder who added this to the bill, and how they pitched it: “Hey, guys, how do we disenfranchise young people?”

An Ohio voting guide on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website confirms students can use their college address to register to vote and the letters are acceptable proof of residency. Language in the bill creates a disincentive for schools issuing these letters, by requiring schools to change the residency status of a student who is issued one of the letters. Schools would be forced to lower tuition rates for any student who pays out of state tuition but wants to vote in Ohio.

The provision reads:

“(E) The rules of the chancellor for determining student residency shall grant residency status to a student to whom a state institution of higher education issues a letter utility bill for use as proof that the student is a qualified elector in this state.

“Nothing in division (E) of this section shall be used to grant residency to a student for any purpose other than for state subsidy and tuition surcharge purposes.”

For those of you who don’t know, tuition is how schools pay their bills. I think tuition should be lowered across the board. However, schools will stop or in the very least decrease issuing letters of residency to students to live on campus, but pay out of state tuition. The intended purpose: prevent students from voting.

The House plans to vote on this bill on Thursday. Well played Ohio. Keep finding ways to cut voters, and I’ll cross my fingers that this comes back to bit all of you in the ass. It should be noted that students will probably see this as a good thing, but only after they organize to ensure in state tuition and the ability to vote. [Aside, on Wednesday, the women come to Columbus to speak out against the defunding of the Planned Parenthood.]

Ohio, Ohio, trying really hard to compete for worst state in the nation

Ohio Republicans are attempting to ban sex education classes from talking about “gateway sexual activity.” I’m not completely clear on what that is, but more on this later.

Tara Culp-Ressler summarized the cray-cray coming out of Ohio for Think Progress. On Tuesday afternoon, in a House debate on the Ohio’s budget in House Finance Committee, Republicans included an amendment that prohibits health classes in public schools from including any instruction on “gateway sexual activity,” which includes all sexual contact. The budget bill relies on the definition of “sexual conduct” that is in the state’s criminal code: “any touching of an erogenous zone of another, including without limitation the thigh, genital, buttock, pubic region, or, if the person is a female, a breast.”

The amendment doesn’t permit any sex ed classes to provide students with any information that might “condone” that type of gateway activity. This of course includes dispensing contraception. The law would allow parents to sue if their children receive whatever falls under the purview of this type of instruction, and sex education teachers could be subject to thousands of dollars in fines:

“The sex education addition says that any instruction conducted under the state’s model health education program must not promote “any gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with sexual activity.”
It goes on to prohibit distributing certain materials, conducting demonstrations with “sexual stimulation” devices, or distributing contraception.If a student receives such instruction, a parent or guardian can sue for damages, and a court may impose a civil fine of up to $5,000. 

Ohio definitely isn’t the first state to worry about students being corrupted by “gateway sexual activity.” In fact about a year ago Tennessee strengthen their state’s abstinence-only law by including kissing and hand-holding as gateway activities that can lead teens to engage in sexual intercourse. Question: are there any activities that don’t make teens want to have sex? Because I can’t remember many.

Of course, we already know abstinence education or not, teens will becomes sexually active, and those with comprehensive sexual education have safer sex. This “gateway” amendment isn’t the only crazy amendment the Republicans have added to the budget that appears to be more focused on sexual health than the state’s finances. They have also included an amendment that would defund the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics, reallocate those family planning dollars to right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers” that provide no services of merit or any useful health services. This is Ohio’s third attempt to defund the Planned Parenthood. It will probably go to the full House later this week.

Hopefully, we’ll fight this back. Last time they tried defunding the Planned Parenthood, people occupied the hearings. 

Ohio Dems Given the ok to Mobilize against the Gerrymandering

So you may remember, Ohio Republicans are trying to gerrymander and force Democrats out of office.  However, Ohio's Supreme Court has ruled to allow Democrats to move forward with a petition to stop the Republican congressional redistricting plan that has thrown the 2012 congressional elections into chaos.  So, candidates for Congress may have to wait and when they should file and if the districts they plan to run in will exist.

So at this point we're not sure, but the candidates will file petitions to run for office by the Dec 7th deadline for districts that may not exists by the planned March 6th primary.  Or they could be forced to run in a statewide primary election for Ohio's 16 U.S. House seats.  This could mean that the top 16 Republicans face the top 16 Democrats in the November 2012 election.  Or this could mean the candidates could run in vastly different districts than they expect to, provided the Republicans and Democrats work out a solution. If the March 6th date holds, the primary would be held on Super Tuesday, when the presidential primaries take place.  However, if the primary is pushed back till May, the filing deadline could be pushed back and the primary could lose some significance (particularly in the national GOP race).  The head of the petition effort, Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, must collect 231,147 valid voter signatures to get the GOP congressional redistricting plan on the November 2012 ballot.  If he does, it would force an election where candidates for Congress in a statewide race next year and that the Ohio primary might be pushed back to May or June.  He's planning on collecting them on November 2, 2011, you know when everyone turns out to vote against Issue 2.

If no agreement is reached, it could mean a federal court could draw up Ohio's congressional map.  Republicans would not be happy about this.

Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, said:

“warned the public that the Democrats’ plan was to stymie the General Assembly’s constitutional duty to pass a congressional redistricting plan, and ultimately have a map imposed on Ohio by unelected federal judges, who may be judges from Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.”

The decision came out of the Ohio Supreme Court (7-0) said the referendum petition from the group called Ohioans for Fair Districts plan to submit a challenge to the GOP redistricting plan by putting it on the November 2012 ballot.  Of course some are arguing that the bill creating the new congressional districts isn't subject to referendum because Republicans wrote into the law a $2.5 million appropriation for local boards of elections, and referendums aren't allowed on appropriation bills under Ohio law.  Ohio's Supreme court (6 Republicans and 1 Democrat) disagreed.

The last time Ohio congressional district mapping was on the ballot was 1915, when Democrats forced a vote and Ohio voters rejected the Republican map (fingers crossed for a repeat).  Republicans are naturally defending their plan, and Batchelder are calling the Ohio Supreme Court decision "the first step into judicial interference in this process." You know the same lame argument whenever they are trying to screw us...not like union busting.  Batchelder went on to call the map, "fair and legal" or as Fox News would call it "fair and balanced."  The ruling actually doesn't say the map is unconstitutional, but instead that the appropriations inserted into the bill doesn't meet the criteria to shield it from a referendum effort.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) issued a brief saying:

the 16 Ohio congressional districts must be finalized by Dec. 7, in order to “ensure proper administration of the March 2012 congressional primary.” 

Clearly, the man is delusional.  So for those of you who hoped that after Issue 2 was over this pissing contest between Dems and Republicans would be over too bad, sucker.  The reality is it will more than likely get worse the closer we get to elections because Republicans are going to make a grab to hold onto power.  I just wish that the politicians remember who are actually getting screwed here: it isn't those of who might lose their district, but really the workers, their families, and those being systematically disenfranchised.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201110151320/NEWS01/110160322

Ohio Dems Smack Down in 2012

I'm really sad to write this.  At first I kind of thought it was a joke.  I mean look at the new Ohio Congressional District map.  But it is true one district will snake around from from Toledo to Cleveland.  What does this mean for voters?

1. This area is packed with democrats, life long dems actually.  This are the old steel towns going up the lake.  So we're going blue, but now we have to choose between Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich.  I'm hoping the campaigns are civil, and they should be give these two are friends.
2. A non-representative government.  I like Kaptur; she's great and a good representative of her district.  However, Toledo is not Cleveland.  The demographics alone demonstrate the differences in Cleveland we are 2 to 1 black.  I think Toledo is 70% white (that may be a dated stat).  Kucinich has always been good to Cleveland's poor.  My first memory of this man is when he came to Mound Elementary School (on the corner of Mound and E 55th) to keep it open after the roof fell in.  He rallied with a neighborhood with one of the lower income tax rates in a recession.  My family became life long supporters.  I'm sure Kaptur has done for her district the same sort of things, but I also know some problems are regional.

To sum this up: gerrymandering.  Ohio republicans think they are redistrict and keep their seats after the voter suppression and anti-worker bills they are forcing through the Ohio Assembly.  No friends.  Not going to happen.  Vote these sons of bitches out of office.  

The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an interesting article laying things out for us.  Particularly interesting is their list of "winners" and "losers"
And the "winners" are"
1. Republicans, of course.
2. Steve LaTourette (14th District), he's gaining a lot of ground in Cuyahoga county, but only where there are no democrats.
3. Steve Stivers (15th District) and Pat Tiberi (12th District), more suburban landscape on top of Columbus.  No need to fear the democrat is one of the Klan strong holds is voting.
4. Columbus Democrats, there are a lot of Dems in Columbus and this will give them a chance to get back in there.
And the "losers"
1. Dennis Kucinich (10th District), see above.
2. Betty Sutton (13th District), loses her home town and Akron.  She won't win, which will make that ass who told her to go back to the kitchen happy.
3. Steve Austria (7th District), he will have to run in a primary against Republican Mike Turner (3rd District).

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/09/new_remap_will_give_democrats.html