It's Getting Embarassing To Be An Ohioan, And The Shit Must Not Stand!

With Senate Bill 5, the new state budget, and House Bill 125, Ohio's governor and his party's lawmakers are rapidly turning our state into back-water Mississippi. No, wait, I take that back. Even Mississippi doesn't have anything like the odious SB 5. I apologize to Mississippi.

The Ohio House Republican Tea Baggers added a few tweaks, and SB 5 is now stinkier than ever. The House will vote their approval today, along strict party lines. Then, it's back to the Senate for a final OK, then Kay-suck will sign the goddam thing into law.

A few of the House changes to SB 5:

If labor-employer talks reach an impasse, the employer's (government's) last offer is implemented. Since the bill already prohibits strikes and eliminates binding arbitration, this makes a mockery of supposed collective bargaining. What the hell exactly would be bargained? This shit cannot stand!

Unless the cheapest labor contract is chosen by the employer, the contract can be put on the ballot and the public can vote on it. Dumbass reactionary hill-jacks could now be voting on the pay of policemen! I didn't get to vote on Kasich's pay at Lehman Brothers or at Fox News. Will I get to vote on his pay as governor? No? Then this shit cannot stand!

Workers can now successfully decertify their union with just 30% of the vote. What the fuck? Since when does 30% trump 70%? These assholes are out of their minds. This shit cannot possibly stand!

Workers who refuse to join a union are no longer required to pay "fair share" union dues anyway. Such workers would enjoy the benefits of a union labor contract without paying one thin dime for the privilege. This shit cannot stand!

Says that traffic ticket quotas cannot be part of any law enforcement merit pay system. Kasich must have slipped this one in personally. "No more tickets from idiots!"

The two year state budget:

Hacks $850 million from Ohio's school systems, after Kay-suck refused $450 million in federal education funding. Class sizes will increase, and so will the number of property tax levys on upcoming ballots. This shit cannot stand!

Quadruples expenditures for private-school vouchers. That's our tax dollars paying tuition at St. Alfonzo's Parochial and at the We're-Only-In-It-For-The-Money Charter School. This shit cannot stand!

Cuts funding for the Ohio Consumers Council by 50%, claiming this reduces overlap with the PUCO. But neither the OCC nor the PUCO are funded by state tax dollars. They're funded by a small fee on each utility bill. So why chop their funding if there's no impact on the budget? Unlike the PUCO, whose wide-ranging interests include commercial activity, the OCC is concerned solely with fairness to residential utility customers, like you and me. The Ohio Consumers Council is on our side, while Kay-suck and the big oil, gas, coal and energy fat cats are on the other. That's the name of that tune, and the shit cannot stand!

Officially replaces the word ombudsman with ombudsperson. Hallelujah! We were all really worried about that one.

And the grotesquely misguided, Puritanical HB 125:

Seeks to give Ohio the worst, most restrictive abortion law in America by flatly banning the procedure if a fetal "heartbeat" is detected. And it can be detectable just a couple weeks after conception, when a great many women wouldn't yet know they were pregnant. HB 125 would thus effectively prohibit just about all abortions in Ohio. Legally, this is stepping backwards in time by 100 years or more. It's a goddam shame that abortion and other reproductive issues were ever made part of the legislative agenda to begin with. What will happen, will happen, and it's a most private affair. Butt out, Senator! As a society, we shouldn't need to have something like the Roe v. Wade ruling, but we do, and until we as a people get smarter, more open-minded and more compassionate, Roe v. Wade must stay. And HB 125 must go. It is an awful piece of shit which really must not stand!

SB 5 is almost certainly headed for a referendum on the November ballot, so we'll get a chance to overturn it. It may possibly hit some legal roadblocks as well. See Wisconsin. HB 125 is so extreme that it's unlikely to pass the House in the first place, but you never know. Don't know what to do about all the right-wing clap-trap stuffed into the budget. Cross fingers and hope that the legislature tells John-Boy to try again? Doubtful.

One thing I know is that it's increasingly embarassing to be from Ohio. If this shit stands, Buster may disavow his Buckeye-hood. Maybe I'll claim New York residency. Hell, maybe I'll pretend to be Canadian, eh?