Stimulus bill passes, filled with earmarks. Obama will sign it.

Columbus City Council President Mike Mentel

As I said before, Columbus will have a tax increase on the ballot along with trash pickup increases, according the Dispatch.

Even though the chairman of the commission says that this is the “only option we have” and Council President Mike Mentel refers to this as “gut check time”, I disagree with both of them. We have been at gut check time in Columbus for the last few years, but political leaders have held off on making the decisions that will help the taxpayer.

Mentel says that there will be hearings on the tax increase that will give the people a chance to speak out on this. I plan on attending them, and I hope many Columbusites do the same. They need to hear from us.

State Auditor Mary Taylor said today that she cannot properly audit until the Strickland Administration provides the financial records, records she should have received at the end of 2008.

A spokesman from Strickland’s office countered her complaint with a memo:

Wurst produced a memo showing that during a June 2007 meeting with Taylor’s office, budget officials suggested ways to help reduce delays with the 2008 audit that other states had experienced when they moved to a new accounting system.

Which makes me wonder: if they have been looking into this since June of 2007, why are they over two months late?

U.S. Trade Representative-designate Ron Kirk

According to Politico, U.S Trade Representative Ron Kirk, is another Obama Cabinet nominee that has tax problems, now “agreeing” to pay almost $10,000 in back taxes.

This is quite possibly the worst vetting that I have ever seen from a president. And the worst part is, the Democrats with the tax problems (Daschle, Geitner, Kirk) would have a huge say on ecomomic policy and the direction (left) that it would go.

This would be hilarious if I weren’t so scared.

Mayor Coleman during his State of the City Address

Mayor Coleman may not have come out and said it, but it was definately implied in his State of the City address according to the Dispatch.

I wonder what are the costs that make the city budget potentially $50 million over budget?

I cannot, and I am sure that many Columbusites feel the same way, have my taxes increased. Now is not the time. If Mayor Coleman and City Council are the true “fiscal stewards” that they consider themselves, then they must find other ways to get money and trim this budget.

Picture from google.com

I’m not going to comment really on the Obama speech, a)because it makes me mad and b) we’ve heard it before. And the constant contradictions that he has made have been covered and blown away by better writers than me.

But I will leave something for many of those that are early supporters of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (like me) and were disappointed in his speech last night (like me).

Here is his appearance on the Today Show where is articulates clearly where the GOP will stand when it comes to dealing with Obama. One sub-par appearance is not enough for me to lose faith and it should not be for you.

is a website made for political junkies and I’ve been following it for the last 10 years. If you need to find the offical office and campaign website for federal and state candidates or parties, this is the site for you.

They will post news updates 4-5 times a week and there were a couple of Tuesday updates that caught my eye.

First:

PALIN. “We are going to seek and … destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents,’ is how the Alaska Governor now described the national media’s reaction to her Vice Presidential candidacy last year. In a new documentary, Palin discusses how she believes a conspiracy took place among members of the media to undermine her candidacy.

Really? I mean, really? Look, as valid and as acknowledged the point that the media was in the bag for Obama and they did not care for her, I would not call it a “conspiracy”. If anyone destroyed her candidacy. it was her. She was out of her league, and this was proven in the VP debates. Hell, she would not have been in the equation if McCain picked who he really wanted and selected Lieberman. This makes her look petty and paranoid. If I had the ear of the governor, I would tell her to go back to Alaska, kick butt for the rest of her term, get re-elected and take on Begich so she can get some experience in dealing with DC.

Also:

P2012. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is strongly leaning towards making a second run for President in 2012. Romney is already lending financial support to several Republican US House members targeted by the DCCC. Romney is already planning to make the rounds in support of these candidates as part of his efforts to lay the groundwork for a 2012 run.

Mitt, I like you now. You have grown on me. But 2012 is for this guy and I, along with many other Republcians fully support him.

Sorry that I had to break it to you.

Just when I thought that this nonsense of President Obama’s legal residency was done, GOP Senator Dick Shelby of Alabama brings it up again during a meeting with citizens in Cullman, AL.

This is the kind of garbage that we cannot continue to focus on. He’s an American, he was elected. Move on.

Meghan McCain, daughter of GOP nominee John, called it out. Part of the reason we lost is that Obama utilized today’s technology and continually beat us over the head with it.

Many in the campaign looked at her when she recommended writing a blog for her dad’s campaign:

McCain, who authored a popular blog on her father’s Web site while he was running for president, also recounts early pushback from Republican strategists when she first sought to establish the Web site.

“Many of the established Republican strategists told me that young people would not visit my web site,” she wrote. “I used to categorize many of the advisors in my father’s campaign into one of two groups: those that ‘respected’ the Internet and those who didn’t. It was a running line between me and my friends who worked on my site.”

I mean, really? It’s 2009 and these people treat the internet like it’s some new fangled gadget that they’ll learn later! Geez.

I think she made a real good point. Obama used technology to his advantage; you could not go on a website without seeing an Obama link. It was almost like he was a brand.

Then again you can do that when you raise money like Obama did.

Giving credit to Anthony at Ohio Daily Blog for this one (I saw it there originally), but I guess Sandy O’Brien will be challenging Jon Husted for the GOP nomination for Secretary of State. If you don’t know who she is, her biggest claim to “fame” was she defeated Jeannette Bradley for the GOP nomination for Treasurer while running as a social conservative. For Treasurer.

Try and watch the clip of her during a candidate’s debate. If you can watch it for more than two minutes I’ll be surprised.