(Crossposted at your flippant and irreverant Ohio source for politics and humor, Athens Runaway )

It’s not every day that Ohio shows up in the national news.

It’s even rarer when Ohio shows up in the news for anti-Semitism.

It’s even rarer than that when anti-Semitic, pro-holy war Ohio government officials show up in the news.

How rare is that?

Not very rare, apparently.

Testifying on Thursday, before a House Homeland Security Subcommittee, the Multicultural Affairs Director for the Ohio Department of Public Affairs, Omar Al-Omari’s lectured on how government law enforcement organizations can “[work] with Communities to Disrupt Terrorist Plots.” However, is Al-omari an expert on Islamic jihad?

Yes, but not in the way you’d think.

In 2008, Al-Omari (pictured at left) published—through the state Department of Public Safety—a pamphlet that claimed that terrorists attacked American targets because of, and I quote, “Israeli occupation and loss of [Palestinian] homeland [...] cruelty in Iraq”, as well as because “Israel can get away with everything from occupation to killing civilians to demolishing houses”.

According to Al-Omari, terrorists blow themselves up and crash airplanes full of civilians into buildings full of civilians because of “the aftermath of colonial experience” and the “pressure of imitating advanced countries.”

Aw, the poor widdle babies. It’s just too hard to maintain a basic level of civilization, and not lop off the head of people who disagree with you.

In 2006, Al-Omari’s first terrorist-sympathizing pamphlet was a 40 page-long “Culture Guide,” in which he wrote that jihad was nothing more than “the benign pursuit of personal betterment.”

The sympathizing part of “terrorist-sympathizing” comes in when he writes that jihad “may be applied to physical conflict for Muslims, but only in the arena of Muslims defending themselves when attacked or when attempting to overthrow oppression and occupation.”

However, he spins in the opposite direction, too. After writing that Muslims are allowed to blow up truckers and crash airplanes into buildings if they feel that they’re being threatened, Al-Omari assures us that us Anglos just made up the concept that a religious jihad is a holy war.

Ah, glad we cleared that one up.

As if the fact Governor Ted Strickland hired a rabidly pro-Caliphate loon wasn’t bad enough, Al-Omari is directly linked to the delivery of apostate Rifqa Bary back into the hands of her extremist parents, who both attended a mosque established by local Islamic nutball Salah Sultan.

Not only does Strickland have a jihadi in his regime, this jihadi got to testify before Congress with other jihadis. As blogger “Barbarossa” at The Jawa Report quips:

…having Omar Al-Omari speaking on preventing terrorism is a bit like asking Emperor Nero to speak on fire prevention. Not only is Ohio one of the most active areas of jihadist and terrorist efforts in the country, but Columbus, where Alomari lives and does most of his work, has been the home of the largest known Al-Qaeda cell since the 9/11 attacks and is the focus of an ongoing FBI investigation into radicalization and terrorist recruitment by the Somali terror organization, Al-Shabaab.

If disrupting terrorist plots is the aim of Congress (yes, an item still subject to debate), then from an empirical perspective Omar Al-Omari and his colleagues at Ohio Homeland Security are doing a seriously sh**ty job.

Bam.  Donezo.

Ohio Representatives, I suggest you think deep and hard about how you vote on health care “reform” because the numbers are ugly. First, Susan B. Anthony List:

OH-01 Steve Driehaus

• 73% oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortions (61% strongly oppose)
• 72% oppose taxpayer funding of abortions as part of healthcare reform (62% strongly oppose)
• 64% agree that abortion and abortion funding have no place in healthcare legislation (52% strongly agree)
• 55% would be less likely to vote to re-elect Congressman Driehaus if he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion (45% would be much less likely)

OH-06 Charlie Wilson

• 80% oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortions (65% strongly oppose)
• 79% oppose taxpayer funding of abortions as part of healthcare reform (66% strongly oppose)
• 74% agree that abortion and abortion funding have no place in healthcare legislation (61% strongly agree)
• 64% would be less likely to vote to re-elect Congressman Wilson if he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion (51% would be much less likely)

OH-09 Marcy Kaptur

• 67% oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortions (52% strongly oppose)
• 66% oppose taxpayer funding of abortions as part of healthcare reform (52% strongly oppose)
• 61% agree that abortion and abortion funding have no place in healthcare legislation (45% strongly agree)
• 47% would be less likely to vote to re-elect Congresswoman Kaptur if he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion (38% would be much less likely)

OH-16 John Boccieri

• 80% oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortions (67% strongly oppose)
• 79% oppose taxpayer funding of abortions as part of healthcare reform (67% strongly oppose)
• 71% agree that abortion and abortion funding have no place in healthcare legislation (60% strongly agree)

62% would be less likely to vote to re-elect Congressman Boccieri if he votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion (50% would be much less likely)

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Get this great quote from that wonderful Dem lawmaker, John Boccieri of OH-16, in response to the barrage of contact he is having to deal with regarding the health care bill:

“We can’t even get to the business of the day, helping folks with their passports and weeding through some of the bureaucratic red tape. That’s frustrating,” Boccieri said. “I wish they would just let us focus on doing our job and listening to our constituents.”  (From http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34600_Page3.html)

Hey, Ohio-16, don’t you have anyone you can run against this guy?  C’mon, it wouldn’t take much, if, when faced with what may turn out to be a constitutional crisis, constituent services is all that he thinks the job of the legislative branch is.

Fla Mom

So what exactly is going on with Lee Fisher and Jennifer Brunner in the Democratic primary for the US Senate seat in Ohio? The two candidates seem intent on ignoring each other and the party and its interest groups seem to have sworn an oath to avoid talking about the primary (the biggest in this important state in a critical year).

First, there was some confusion over whether Brunner was or was not at the President’s visit to Strongsville yesterday. It turns out she was there but President Obama apparently snubbed her! As I noted on Twitter, Obama snubs a women but praises the men? Good thing the president doesn’t have a history of belittling women …

We do know that Lee Fisher was definitely not at the rally. Why? Well, he said he had to attend the meeting with the Plain Dealer. But obviously Secretary of State Brunner was able to attend both while the former jobs czar used it as an excuse to miss it. Interesting. What is Lee up to?

But then Fisher was supposed to be on WFIN in Findley to discuss the health care debate. But it turns out he was a no-show. Let’s go to the transcript:

Not sure exactly what happened to Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. Of course we mentioned not only the current Lieutenant Governor and candidate for US Senate seat now being held by Sen. George Voinovich was scheduled to be with us on the program in this half hour. [HE] scheduled to be with us to talk about his campaign hand the key issues he saw in terms of the important stuff for Ohio moving forward especially in this period of economic recovery .

We were planning on talking to him about that in this half hour but nothing, not sure what happened. We did confirm yesterday that he was supposed to be with us and then this morning nothing.

So not sure exactly what’s going on there. Hopefully we can reschedule and maybe get the Lieutenant Governor on the program yet this week because one of the things I wanted to ask him about was this health care vote in Washington. He wants to go to the Senate so wanted to ask where he stood on this whole healthcare debate that seems to be coming to a head this week.

Wow, that’s embarrassing!

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I just got off the phone with someone from John Boccieri’s (D, OH-16) office. Rep. Boccieri, you might remember, was one of the four Congressmen that Rep. Clyburn suggested were possible ‘yes’ votes on the health care bill, and who were later rumored to have switched their votes. I’m informed of the following:

• Rep. Boccieri has not made a final decision;
• His office has gotten a considerable increase in phone calls on this issue, both in-district and out of district;
• I was told that the in-district calls have been somewhat more supportive of the health care bill, and that reform in general was a constant theme*;
• And that Rep Boccieri has been available to people wishing to discuss their concerns with health care.

This, of course, can change - but that’s the state of the situation as of about fifteen minutes ago.

Moe Lane

I should note, by the way, that the Congressman’s office was very civil and accessible to an openly conservative Republican blogger asking for information. Mind you, that doesn’t always happen - but when it does, it certainly makes getting information easier.

Moe Lane

*The trick is, of course, is in defining ‘reform.’

A few days ago I posted on how the Democrats were attacking US Senate Candidate Rob Portman for supposedly supporting the “status-quo” on health care (instead of the health care monstrosity currently being debate in Washington).

The ODP rolled out some nonsensical attack quotes that missed the whole point. Portman has been saying since the beginning that a bill that raises costs and hurts business is the last thing we need right now. He has been calling for reform that reduces costs and allows for greater access. But Democrats insist on ramming their plan down our throats even if they have to ignore the constitution to do it.

Anyone who knows him knows that Portman is no raging populist - nor is he in the pocket of big insurance companies like the Democrats insist - but he is an intelligent politician and he knows his public policy. So he knows the public doesn’t want a government take over of health care that leads to higher costs and more bureaucracy.  And he knows that the proposal the Democrats are pushing will lead to just that. So he opposes it.

This is neither trolling for campaign donations nor mere campaign rhetoric. And you know what? He is right.

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This story from the Dayton Daily News is revealing in so many ways:

On a day that brought President Barack Obama to Ohio to make a final appeal for congressional approval of his health care overhaul plan, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rob Portman had a different message.

“I pray that it will not pass,” Portman said on Monday, March 15. His comments came in a meeting with members of the Dayton Daily News editorial board.

Portman said the plan that Obama is trying to get the Democratic-controlled Congress to approve would increase costs.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Portman. “…We’re going to have higher, not lower costs.”

[emphasis mine - KH]

Now, for those of you slow on the uptake Rob Portman is saying he is opposed to the current health care proposal because it will lead to the opposite of what is needed: higher not lower costs. With me so far? Good.

Enter Seth Bringman and the Ohio Democratic Party who apparently struggle with these basic concepts.

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Yes, I just claimed that John Kasich is going to be Ohio’s next governor. This is not meant as hyperbole. I really believe Kasich is going to beat Governor Strickland in November.

This is not based on deep study of the polls or a county-by-county analysis or anything of that sort. It is more of a gut feeling based on how I see the campaign playing out. Now, of course, a great deal could change in the intervening months: scandals, gaffes, the political environment, etc. But right now I don’t see any of that happening in such a way to change the underlying landscape.

I have begun to think that elections are determined in many ways by some pretty basic elements. What is the mood, what is the central issue or issues, how the candidates are perceived and what are their one sentence arguments for running.

On these basics Kasich is simply better situated to win than Strickland.

Details - such as they are - below.

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UPDATE: Cleveland Jewish News has changed the headline. It now reads: “State reps urge Portman to sever ties over group’s “Nazi” posting” See? That is the kind of power this blog wields …

I wasn’t planning on writing on this issue (I have little time to write as it is) but when Leon pointed out this headline on Red Hot I felt compelled to post:

State reps urge Portman to sever ties over “Nazi” past

When you read that headline what do you think? You think Rob Portman has some sort of connection to Nazi’s in his past, right? It clearly implies a connection between Portman and Nazi’s; a skeleton in the closet that requires he come clean.

Now those who follow Ohio politics more closely might know that this is not the case. They might actually know that this issue is a trumped up red hearing put together by desperate Democrats hoping to distract voters from real issues.

You see, an organization known as COAST (Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes) used a bit of hyperbole on their web page. Here is the outrageous hate speech in question:

COAST started with just two people, and virtually no funds, yet has had a profound effect upon politics in southwest Ohio. The Nazis in the State Legislature have created draconian campaign finance reporting laws that make criminals of those who fail to complete their paperwork correctly, but COAST refuses to be cowed by this intimidation and we encourage you to jump through their hoops and attempt to comply with their silly forms. It is important. You activism is needed. The Ohio Secretary of State has the rules for establishing and running a PAC.

Now would I have used that kind of terminology? No. Is it effective or appropriate? No.

But does it rise to the level of outrage that public office holders must sever any and all ties with the group and denounce them in public? Um, no.

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(Crossposted at your flippant and irreverant Ohio source for politics and humor, Athens Runaway )

Recently, US House Representative Zack Space (Democrat, Nancy Pelosi’s Lap Ohio-18th District) proclaimed himself to be the “political center of Congress.”

In a press release, Space cited a National Journal Congressional ranking which found him to to be “only 4 spots away from dead center” of the US House’s ideological spectrum.

The NJ’s score system was derived from “a panel of National Journal editors and reporters initially [compiling] a list of 191 key congressional roll-call votes for 2009–99 votes for the Senate and 92 for the House—and classified them as relating to economic, social, or foreign policy. [...] The liberal percentile score means that the member voted more liberal than that percentage of his or her colleagues in that issue area in 2009. The conservative figure means that the member voted more conservative than that percentage of his or her colleagues.”

In other words, the National Journal’s score system is dependent on Congressmen breaking party ranks. However, this methodology is broken if a Congressman rarely defies his or her party.

A better methodology would be able to account for all votes, not just the votes when a Congressman disagrees with his party. When NJ finds someone to be “moderate”, that just means that they are in the mainstream of their party, not the House or American political thought as a whole.

Let’s go find some better tools to build this case.

After going to Congressional Quarterly Politics’ 2009 Vote Studies tool, and doing a bit of toying around with it, I was able to derive this interesting chart:

This chart represents the accumulative voting patterns of every Representative in the House—in terms of how often the Representative voted with their respective party, plotted against how often the Representative voted with the President—during the year 2009. Some dots represent more than one Representative, some represent just one.

As you can see, there are several conclusions that can be drawn immediately. First, we can see that the Republican Party is a “bigger tent” than the Democratic Party—there is more diversity of thought on the right side of the aisle than there is on the left. Dissent is tolerated within Republican ranks, but not as much within Democratic ranks.

Second, we can see that the oft-repeated mantra that the Republican Party does not contain the American political Centrist is false. There are more Republicans inside that overlap than there are Democrats.

Third, we see that Rep. Zack Space is NOT a moderate or a centrist. In fact, we see that he votes with his party over 80%, and follows Barack Obama’s lead at a rate of 90%.

Perhaps you’re unconvinced. Perhaps you think that you can’t believe your lyin’ eyes. Well, let me blind you with some science.

Using OnTheIssues.org’s VoteMatch tool, which plots political ideology on a two-axis graph—with “libertarian”/”populist” as the Economic Issues axis, and “left-liberal” plotted against “right-conservative” on the Social Issues axis.

All the input that goes into OnTheIssues.org’s tool is sourced from quotes and votes from the person, and is carefully researched. This chart that I compiled shows us the relative positions of the overall Republican Party, Democratic Party, Pres. Barack Obama, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Congressman Zack Space.

As you can see from the chart, President Obama is more liberal than the overall Democratic Party’s stated platform.

However, we see something that we should not be surprised by.

Not only is Zack Space NOT a political moderate, and NOT “dead center” ideologically, he is actually more populist than Barack Obama.

Now here’s the kicker.  According to OnTheIssues.org, Zack Space is more liberal than the Reverend Jesse Jackson—who actually scores as a political moderate, when viewed at the 500-foot-up view.

As I said before, who are you going to believe, me—or your lying eyes.  All of my analysis can be easily reproduced, and I encourage you to reproduce my procedure and see if you agree. 

Although he may think that the universe—both the physical and political world—may revolve around him, the truth of the matter is that Space’s Camp is not some rarefied, independent-thinking clubhouse for moderates.

Space’s Camp is located in a backroom of Nancy Pelosi’s little fiefdom, with a tin-can and string that goes straight out the window and to the Oval Office, and not to the people of Ohio’s 18th Congressional District.