Ohio Valley Politics

The WVWV is holding a very important election right now to determine just who is the best woman blogger. The initial nominating round of voting has closed and Ohio’s own Jill Miller Zimon has been selected as one of the finalists. Jill’s blog “Writes Like She Talks” was one of the first Ohio blogs I ever read regularly and has long been one of my favorites, but I feel compelled to remain neutral in this important election.

I urge you to take a serious look at the other candidates and base your decision on the facts. Try not to think about how voting for Digby might result in a nuclear war that would surely destroy every single daisy picking child on the face of the Earth. Don’t buy into those filthy rumors that Jill Stanek attended parties at the Playboy Mansion or allegations that Taylor Marsh is just a pawn in Jim Taylor’s political machine. Just base your decision on who you think is best.

You can vote here.

*Take everything you read in this post with a massive grain of salt (except for the part about voting for Jill).

This excerpt from a Newsweek article should do it, I know it sure ruined mine.

Khalida’s father says she’s 9—or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah
loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can’t
keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side,
trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the
family can’t keep her much longer. Khalida’s father has spent much of
his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in
the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan
and on the dusty southern plains. It’s the only reliable cash crop most
of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by:
traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now
he’s losing far more than money. “I never imagined I’d have to pay for
growing opium by giving up my daughter,” says Shah.

The
family’s heartbreak began when Shah borrowed $2,000 from a local
trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at
harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest, a government
crop-eradication team appeared at the family’s little plot of land in
Laghman province and destroyed Shah’s entire two and a half acres of
poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to
Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province.
The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took
his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency.
Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse
the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can
only wait for the 45-year-old drugrunner to come back for his prize.
Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible.
“It’s my fate,” the child says.

Congressman Zack Space’s website has posted results (PDF) from the Renew Ohio broadband work group held a few weeks ago. They seem to indicate which benefits of high speed internet participants believed would have the biggest positive impact on the region.

Among the highest ranked benefits are:

• an increase in educational oppertunities
• it may attract or retain businesses
• improvements to healthcare by enabling things like home health monitoring and access to electronic health records

I’ve attempted to embed the full results after the break.

Space was also talking about rural broadband with the Newark Advocate recently:

Space said one of his greatest achievements in the 15 months he has served as a Congressman has been the introduction of legislation regarding technology, specifically improving high-speed Internet accessibility in the area, he said.

“I think, in the long term, (Internet access) makes us a much more attractive place to do business,” he said. “What business is going to locate to a place that doesn’t have high-speed Internet?”

Additionally, he said, several significant aspects of the educational and medical fields have become reliant on Internet technology.

Tapping into that resource is a way to increase business and improve quality of life, he said.
Continue Reading »

I still can’t believe that “super” and “IRS” could be in the same title, but it’s true. Tomorrow IRS offices around the country will be holding “Super Saturday” events, during which they will help people who normally don’t file a return fill out a 1040A to be eligible for a stimulus payment. This will be done free of charge.

Congressman Charlie Wilson’s office forwarded on the IRS press release and included this handy list of participating IRS offices in and around the 6th district.

Youngstown, OH
(Federal Bldg.)
10 E. Commerce St.
44503 IRS 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Huntington, WV
(Sidney Christie)
845 Fifth Avenue
25701 IRS 9 a.m. - 3 p.m

Parkersburg, WV
425 Juliana Street
26101 IRS 9 a.m. - 3 p.m

Wheeling, WV
1021 National Road
26003 IRS 9 a.m. - 3 p.m

Just to further emphasise, this will take place tomorrow (3/29).

Zack Space is getting his re-election campaign into gear now that the primary is over and his opponent is decided. Earlier this week I received a fundraising letter from the campaign. This isn’t the first time I’ve received such a letter, but this time they also asked for volunteers.

The campaign is looking for help ranging from simply putting a sign up in your yard all the way up to volunteering in an office or coordinating a precinct. Other opportunities include making calls, working on election day, distributing literature, hosting a fundraiser, and walking in parades. If any of these things interest you, I’m sure they’d love the help.

And of course, donations are always needed.

Bill Clinton’s coming back to the area, only this time it’s across the river. He’ll be holding a rally in Parkersburg, West Virginia this Wednesday.

The Wood County Board of Education has confirmed that former President Bill Clinton will be speaking in Parkersburg Wednesday.

The Board says Clinton will be speaking at the Jefferson Elementary Center from Wednesday morning.

Doors open at 10 AM and the event starts at 11.

The event is free and open to the public

It’s been a long time coming, but the FCC has finally (and unanimously) voted for several key changes to the way we collect information on broadband internet coverage.

Among the changes made:

• Raising the FCC’s definition of “high speed” Internet from a sluggish 200 Kbps to 768 Kbps.
• Requiring the reporting of both download and upload speeds.
• Creating more refined tiers of Internet speeds, as opposed to the current use of broad categories that often misrepresent people’s actual speeds.
• Requiring service providers to report more detailed connection speed data at the census-block level, instead of the zip code level.

I heard each of these concerns mentioned last year at Rep. Zack Space’s “Connect Appalachia” summits and it’s really great to see that these concerns have finally been addressed. With the information gathered under these new reporting standards we’ll be able to more accurately assess the state of broadband internet in the country and act accordingly.

On a side note, I’ve recently traded in my dial-up connection for a much faster satellite option. After using it for about a week I’ve only affirmed my belief that satellite internet should not be viewed as a long term solution for rural broadband in it’s current form. But that’s a whole other post.

Now I’ve got a small favor to ask of everyone. Below is a small box that will test you’re internet connection and send the results back to SpeedMatters.org, an organization pushing for national broadband. Every year they take this data and put together a very informative report on the spread of broadband for each state, including a map showing average connection speed in each area. Please consider taking it.

Rep. Zack Space held his second Renew Ohio work group today, and this time the topic was agriculture. The event took place in Coshocton and was lead by Adam Sharp from the Ohio Farm Bureau.

“We have a long and distinguished agricultural heritage in our region, and I am confident that this industry will continue to play a vital role in our economic future. We must continue to find new and innovative ways to expand this staple of our economy.”

“In the United States today, we enjoy the safest, cheapest, most abundant food supply of anywhere in the world, and we owe that to the hard work of our agricultural producers. The ideas generated today will help ensure we are able to expand this necessary industry as we find ways to create jobs for our region.”

– Rep. Zack Space

Space also sent out a column to area newspapers about his view on illegal immigration. You can find it after the jump. Continue Reading »

This clip from the Warren based Tribune Chronicle made me laugh so hard that people ran in the room to make sure I was OK.

It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Tribune Chronicle that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions from voters in a local congressman’s office.Reporter John Goodall, who was assigned to the story, spoke by telephone with Hillary Wicai Viers, who is a communications director in U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson’s staff. According to the reporter, when Viers answered the phone with ‘‘This is Hillary,’’ he believed he was speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate, who had made several previous visits to the Mahoning Valley.

The quotes from Viers were incorrectly attributed to Clinton.

The original article seems to have either been corrected or removed. While I was searching for it, I did notice that gossip blog Gawker had picked up on the story.

Wilson has been travelling the district over the week holding economic listening sessions. Regrettably, I wasn’t able to attend the local stops.

Update: Google Cache caught the original article. (H/T to Elephants in the Room)

Just for the heck of it, here’s more links.

• Wonkette
• Regret The Error
• Poynter Online

This has been a pretty lousy winter down here in Southeastern Ohio. There hasn’t been a lot of snow, but we’ve more than made up for it in rain. An, of course. with lots of rain comes flooding. While we’ve managed to dodge the bullet several times on the big one (an Ohio River flood) the smaller creeks and streams have flooded several times.

Now, in the face of even more flooding, Rep. Zack Space is calling on Governor Strickland to declare a state of emergency so that relief efforts can officially begin.
I’ve included the press release after the break, as it contains information of use to Space’s constituents who’ve been effected.

Continue Reading »

This should go over well with his constituents:

“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to send a clear and unequivocal message that Americans have an undeniable right to own firearms. There is no legally justifiable reason that the residents of DC – or anywhere else – should be denied their constitutionally protected rights.”

“I once again renew my call to the justices of the Supreme Court to stand up for the principles our Founding Fathers saw fit to include in the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court has the ability to settle all questions regarding gun ownership.”

– Rep. Zack Space

Space also recently joined several other members of the House in signing an NRA “friend of the court” brief for District of Columbia v. Heller.

Congressman Charlie Wilson released a statement late Friday (OK, so I’m behind a little) on the House’s passage of a FISA bill not containing immunity.

“I was proud to vote for today’s FISA bill because it protects our civil rights while giving our intelligence agencies the clarity they need to conduct eavesdropping on foreign targets. In these uncertain times, Americans have the right to be confident that their government is acting in a responsible way. This bill makes some common-sense adjustments to surveillance law, and it should encourage the American people that our government is committed to operating openly. I call on the Senate to pass this bill, and I hope the President will sign it.”

I really hope President Bush realizes that this is the best he’s going to get without upsetting a whole lot of people.

In an effort to get caught up quickly, I’ve also pasted another press release after the break. This one concerns Wilson’s support for the 2009 budget plan.

Continue Reading »

Rep. Zack Space joined several other members of the House today in sending a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer urging them to take action on illegal immigration. Specifically, the letter urged them to present the “Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act of 2007″ (H.R. 4088) that has been stalled since last year.

“My constituents are crying out for action on the illegal immigration issue. There is no doubt that the illegal immigration problem is placing an undue strain on our public resources and our job market.

“When I traveled to the Mexican border last year, I saw firsthand how easy it is for people to sneak across, and that is completely unacceptable. We need swift and dramatic action to protect both our national security and our job security. I find it difficult to understand the delay.”

– Rep. Zack Space

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has announced the second wave of candidates they’ve selected for their “Red to Blue” program. The list goes as follows:

• Kay Barnes (MO-06)
• Anne Barth (WV-02)
• Darcy Burner (WA-08)
• Robert Daskas (NV-03)
• Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
• Jim Himes (CT-04)
• Christine Jennings (FL-13)
• Larry Kissell (NC-08)
• Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24)
• Eric Massa (NY-29)
• Gary Peters (MI-09)
• Mark Schauer (MI-07)
• Dan Seals (IL-10)

Notice the two in bold? You probably have already heard about Steve Driehaus, but Ann Barth might be a new one for you. She’s running to unseat Shelley Moore Capito on the other side of the river. Keep an eye on this race. It’ll be an uphill battle, but it’s winnable.

You may remember that Ohio candidates John Boccieri and Mary Jo Kilroy were among those selected for the first wave.

Both Charlie Wilson and Zack Space supported a recently passed change to the House rules that sets up an independent panel (called the “Office of Congressional Ethics”) to investigate ethics investigations of House members.

The panel will consist of six members appointed by the Speaker of the House and the minority leader and will not contain sitting members of congress or lobbyists.

“Since Day One in Congress, I have been calling for an independent panel to investigate Congressional ethics,” Space said.  “We simply cannot rely on friends and colleagues to instigate and conduct investigations into alleged ethical breaches.  This bill will stop the practice of relying on the fox to guard the henhouse.”

“This legislation will go a long way in bringing transparency to the process, increasing the efficacy of the ethics oversight process, and restoring the faith of the American public in their elected officials.  We still have a long way to go, but this is yet another great step in the right direction.”

– Rep. Zack Space

Space’s release notes that the bill is similar to legislation he introduced last year with Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT).