The Ohio Democratic Party is now taking applications from people seeking to be a delegate at the 2008 Democratic Convention. You can get more info and download the required forms here.
Anyone interested? If so, you've got until 1/1/2008 to get your paperwork in.
Yesterday afternoon Rep. Zack Space of Ohio's 18th district held a conference call with reporters to discuss some of his tax break proposals he's introducing as part of his "Tax Week" campaign.
Now I know what you're thinking, "what's 'tax week'?" I haven't had time to post about it yet, but Space has dubbed this week "Tax Week" because he was introducing several tax related bills in the House.
Yesterday's call dealt specifically with legislation before the House yesterday that would eliminate the foreclosure tax. A press release from Space's office describes the tax as follows:
As it stands now, the IRS taxes families on debt that the bank is unable to recover after foreclosing on and selling their houses. For example, a family takes out a mortgage on a home for, say, $100,000. They lose the home to foreclosure, and the bank sells the property for $70,000. The remaining $30,000 counts as “phantom income” on which the family must pay taxes.
You can listen to almost the entire conference call below. It's been divided into three parts.
This first part is Space's opening statement. It's followed by the stories of Janet Gibbs and Peggy Tanksley and the financial hardships they've been through.
This actually went out yesterday but I just got time to post it.
“At a time when the number of uninsured children is increasing, we need to be doing more to make sure that they have access to quality care. Congress’ agreement would give 10 million children health care. It’s a plan that Democrats and Republicans in the Congress widely support. The President’s veto is a veto against children and a veto against one of Americans’ top priorities: insuring our children’s health. Everyone deserves quality healthcare in this country.”
Or at least that seems to be the belief held by the Washington State Supreme Court who recently ruled a state law against political candidates deliberately lying is unconstitutional.
A law that bars political candidates from deliberately lying about their opponents is unconstitutional, a sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Justices in the majority of the 5-4 decision said the 1999 law, already rejected by a lower court, violates free-speech rights.
"The notion that the government, rather than the people, may be the final arbiter of truth in political debate is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment," Justice James Johnson wrote.
“Bucking the wishes of the vast majority of Americans and Members of Congress, President Bush has chosen the insurance industry and political pandering over the health of our nation’s children. I hoped that the President would do what is right by signing this legislation, but sadly, he has made the absolutely wrong decision. Put simply, President Bush has failed the American public, but even more intolerable is the fact that he has endangered our children for political gain.”
This is the scrutiny quarter as far as the primary is concerned, and no one will face harsher glares than Hillary Rodham Clinton. (By the way, we're not going to rank Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel anymore.
On the story itself that last bit in parentheses has been removed but they still don't rank them.
So now I'd like to ask you all a question: when is it time to start narrowing down the candidates? What criteria should a candidate have to meet to be considered viable?
“Innumerable American families and businesses are being left stranded on the side of the information superhighway. If industries and companies are to have the ability to compete in the modern economy online, they must first have the access necessary to get there.
“The Commonwealth of Kentucky has had some amazing success in creating the conditions necessary to achieve a nearly 100% broadband coverage level. This legislation will allow other states – including Ohio – to replicate their successes."
-- Rep. Zack Space
According to Space's office, the bill would create a public-private partnership to:
Benchmark current access.
Map broadband resources.
Build demand through grassroots, community outreach and education efforts.
Jill at Writes Like She Talks has the details on two blogging scholarships. One of them deals mainly with Conservative and Libertarian bloggers but the other one is more broad.
If your interested you can find out more at Jill's post.
You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately. I've been way too busy trying to get equipment put away and finishing up last minute outside work while it's still warm. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things in a day or two.
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