Over on the big (well used to be big) iron, Brian makes his point that the negative symbolism of Obama's invitation to Rick Warren is "overblown".

Bullshit.

Like Brian I am also straight and have known several people who are gay.

However, to my knowledge I've never met someone from Belgium, but I don't need to have experienced that to know that in this country, THEY DESERVE EQUAL RIGHTS!

Speaking for myself, I'm less offended that Warren doesn't believe that gays and lesbians cannot marry as I can and did marry. That's not great, but like abortion it's an issue that is unfortunately tied up in religion and that makes things very messy.

However, I cannot overlook some of Warren's more offensive quotes equating gay marriage to marriage between an adult and a child, or a brother and a sister.

That sort of "reasoning" is offensive and cheap and frankly this man does not deserve a place of prominence at this very public event.

As a preacher's kid, I grew up listening to people discuss how other people should be conform to their particular point of view. Rick Warren may have put a more pleasant face on bigotry, but bigotry it still is.

The right wing talk about "tolerance" but frankly there is nothing to tolerate in gay marriage. You tolerate a toothache until you get to the dentist. You tolerate a cold house until the furnace person comes to repair it. Tolerance doesn't apply to civil rights.

I'm disappointed in Obama's pick and his judgment in making it. Hopefully this is an isolated incident. I never expected 100% satisfaction in our new President. However, on an issue such as this, it cannot be easily overlooked.

I guess I should have seen it coming. President Elect Barack Obama has chosen Pastor Rick Warren, a bigot and one of the leading activists behind the passage of Prop. 8 in California, to give the invocation at his inaugural.

For me and the millions of other gay people who supported Mr. Obama, this is a slap in the face. According to the President Elect's spokesperson, "This is going to be the most inclusive, open, accessible inauguration in American history."

Bullshit.

I must say that I agree with Andrew Sullivan when he says that "[It's] shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now." Consider me sobered up.

This has been the problem with the Democratic Party as of late. They talk a good game on gay rights, but when they are in a position to actually do something, they pass the buck.

I'll write more on this once my blood stops boiling. As for now, I will NOT be watching the inaugural.

W.T.F.!!!  The Buckeyes don't even rate an Honorable Mention in the ranking of the most corrupt States anymore.

How soon everyone forgets we lived for a year and a half under a Governor even after he was convicted of sleaze in August of 2005 until the entire GOP apparatus was swept from power with the inauguration of Governor Strickland and taking over every other statewide office in January of 2007.

Good times.

My source tells me that both Marian Harris (State House - 19) and Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15) have won in the final official count by enough to avoid recounts.

I should have hard numbers in a couple of minutes and will update this post when I have them.

Update:

I'm told Marian's margin was 735 votes which by my very rough calculation is about a full percentage point, but I don't have the complete numbers yet.

I'm also told that Kilroy's district-wide margin is 2,311, also enough to avoid a recount.

Update X2:

In Marian Harris' race the numbers are as follows:

Marian Harris (D) - 33,796 - 48.13%
Brad Lewis (R) - 33,061 - 47.08%
Michael Johnson - 3,366 - 4.79%

That's the cleaned up version of my first thoughts when I just saw the headline:

November: Most jobs lost in 34 years

It seems that our economy has shed an eye-popping 533,000 jobs in November.

Five Hundred Thirty Three Thousand.

Not only that major blow, but September's numbers were revised upwards to 403,000 (up from the first estimate of 159,000) and October's numbers were raised to 302,000 (up from the first estimate of 240,000).

Since the beginning of the year, we've lost 1.9 million jobs and remember that doesn't even account for the 100K to 150K jobs we need to create each and every month to keep up with population growth.

We're in a major problem, here folks.

Muscular conservatism is in major retreat just now and apparently they have retreated to Oklahoma.

And the Oklahoma GOP is happy for it. Click here to see the evidence.

Turns out, guys ... the rest of us are pretty pleased as well.

The Columbus Dispatch has a news blurb about the priorities of certain state legislators:

The next time a state employee or agency director makes an improper Joe the Plumber-type search into someone’s background, someone would get fired, or at least be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor under a new bill introduced today.

This apparently high priority issue is the "brainchild" of State Senator Mark Wagoner and State Representative Shannon Jones, both Republicans.

The state is facing a $7 BILLION budget shortfall, education needs fixing, businesses are closing left and right across the state, our Governor is having to go hat in hand to the only entity that's allowed to print money and THIS is a proirity for our state legislators?

Now I must admit that during my epic multi-week run for the state house (before being replaced by the $1,000 man) I had some ideas about making state legislative and election data more accessible and making information more reliable in this area. I plead guilty to being a computer geek and both a consumer and a provider of this data.

However, it wouldn't have been my top priority in the face of this mess and it certainly wouldn't have been in petty reaction to mostly a non-issue and a political attack against our Governor (as this clearly is) but an initiative to make information about our government easier to use.

Wagoner and Jones need to reorient their priorities and work on something else, I think.

"This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change."
- President-elect Barack Obama

Across the country, food banks are struggling to keep up with increased demand.  And with the holidays approaching, Democrats Work is doing something about it.  We need your help.

Today, we are launching the Yes We Cans Virtual Food Drive to help you donate to the food bank in your community.

In Ohio we are helping the Second Harvest Food Bank of Clark, Champaign, and the Logan Counties, West Ohio Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, Toledo-Northwest Ohio Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, Shared Harvest Foodbank, Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, FreeStore/FoodBank, Inc., Cleveland Foodbank, Inc., Mid-Ohio FoodBank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeastern Ohio, and the American Red Cross Emergency Food Bank.


Here's how it works:

1.    Click here to go to our Yes We Cans Virtual Food Drive website. 

2.    Put food or cash contributions in your shopping cart.

3.    When you check out, you will be able to designate one of over 200 food banks that will receive your donation.

No matter where you live, you can give to a food bank in your area.  Put turkey on the table in Colorado or fill a child's bowl with mac and cheese in Atlanta.  Together, by making donations through Yes We Cans, we are giving food banks the power to buy in bulk and provide more food than each of us could donate individually. 

This election was about bringing positive change to our country.  We don't have to wait for others to act: we can make a difference in our communities year-round.  Thanks to you, we are putting our values into action when they are needed the most. 

Yes We Cans!


Also! -- If you want to volunteer or deliver goods directly to your local food bank, you can find the location of one near you by visiting Feeding America.  And please send an email to info@democratswork.org so we can keep track of what the Democrats Work community is contributing this holiday season.

I just couldn't let this pass without comment.

I just got an email that the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus is seeking a replacement for Sen. John Boccieri. Good luck with that...

As anyone who reads ODB knows, I am a big fan of Maj. Boccieri. I was his web guy when he was running for the Ohio Senate and was the first web designer for his Congressional campaign.

I am delighted that he has triumphed in his run for the U.S. House in OH-16. He is the right person for the District and will do a GREAT job of representing his constituents.

One of the things that has turned me off about the lefty blogosphere, is when self appointed pundits blow hot and cold over arcane policy issues that oftentimes mean less than nothing to the working families of Ohio. And frankly, on some issues, I strongly disagree with John's positions. But even when that's true, I respect where he stands. He is neither a dummy nor an ideologue.

John Boccieri is not a conventional politician. He's something much rarer. He's a leader. He is not a hot head who easily blows up and loses his cool. He's smart, highly qualified and tough. REALLY truly tough.

I am absolutely "a lover not a fighter." But if (God forbid) our land were to ever be invaded, and John said to me "Earl, here's what I need ya to do." I would gulp, take a deep breath, look him in the eyes and say "Yes, sir." And then go do my best. There's not many pols that I would say that about, but here's two:

This guy should be in a 10' x 12' cell, and not by himself, just for what he did in the Plame case.

Just one example:

Q: Do you see the election results as a repudiation of your politics?

A: Our new president-elect won one and a half points more than George W. Bush won in 2004, and he did so, in great respect, by adopting the methods of the Bush campaign and conducting a vast army of persuasion to identify and get out the vote.

What a load of bull-excrement. Obama adopted the "methods of the Bush campaign"??? Tell me ... did Obama raise the terror alert level time and again during the 2008 Presidential cycle?

Tell me again, why is this man walking free?

I just knew it was coming and sure enough here it is:

Yep, we have another one of these Republican vs Democratic vote by county maps.

This particular map appears on Rush Limbaugh's website under this headline:

We've had these maps each of the last three Presidential cycles and the Republicans have shown this to their sheep followers to make themselves feel better, despite the rank lunacy of their arguments.

Remember that when Bush got 50.7% (a 2.4% spread) of the vote in 2004, it was a "Mandate" but of course when Obama got 52.7% (a 6.7% spread), Rove, Novak et al declare it to not be a mandate at all.

Between this and bleating from all corners of the Conservative Movement that this is still a "Center Right Country", it's clear that the right can't come to realize what has happened over the past four years.

Personally, I hope Limbaugh and the crew keep it up. Democrats benefit when Republicans are running around in circles lying to each other.

If they continue to think that land can vote they will continue to lose elections.

The Senate Democratic Caucus has selected State Senator Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) to be the new Senate Minority Leader. I can only imagine that this is surely a thankless job since the Democrats are presently crushed in numbers by the Republicans.

A lot has been made of this, especially here, here, and here. Now I am originally from Youngstown and know the Cafaro name from my time there. Its kind of like living in Boston and knowing the name Kennedy. Anyways, originally I wasn't thrilled about this but upon review I have decided to throw my whole support behind Leader Cafaro and the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Its time that we start to make a serious play for the State Senate. The House Democrats, under the amazing leadership of (now) Speaker Armond Budish, have managed to take back the state house under what some people have described as impossible circumstances. Some districts that had been reliably Republican for years flipped in 2008, including (most likely - pending recount!) the 19th district, where Marian Harris defeated Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis (disclosure - I managed Marian's campaign.) Were it not for the House Caucus' foresight we would again be in the minority. (Read More Below)

More awful news on this first Friday of the month:

The government reported more grim news about the economy Friday, saying employers cut 240,000 jobs in October - bringing the year's total job losses to 1.2 million.

According to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from 6.1% in September and higher than economists' forecast of 6.3%. It was the highest unemployment rate since March 1994.

Also, the initial report of September job losses of 159K has been revised upward to a whopping 284K.

1.2 million jobs since the beginning of the calendar year. President Obama has been left a terrible mess to clean up created by Bush.

Update:

You gotta love Tom Blumer over at the BizzyBlog ... he's going to have to ice his groin down after his latest stretch on the unemployment numbers.

First, he goes on that the latest grim numbers along with those to go back to June (June? - since he got the nomination?) are Obama's fault!

Second, for the first time that I can remember, he only discusses seasonally adjusted numbers, which is what the media generally reports.

Check Tommy out in October, September, August ... need I go on? Each post discusses that the real number is when you don't adjust seasonally. Suddenly 3 days after the election, he flips methodology.

Total. Intellectual. Dishonesty.

Jeff and I have talked for some time about getting out of this racket once the election was over. It's interesting that cultural pursuits are calling both of us, albeit in very different ways.

Jeff is going back to his WONDERFUL art and I'm going to focus on music. Hopefully, I'll soon be doing a radio show on WBGU-FM.

Jeff has done such an incredible job with ODB that I just couldn't imagine working with anyone else. His honest desire to tell the truth, his patience, tolerance and grace are unique in someone who is so deeply passionate about social and political causes.

On Thursday November 13, Matt and Shannon Heaton from Boston are playing at PJ MacIntyres at Kamm's Corners. The show starts about 8:30 or 9:00 PM and goes until they don't feel like playing any more. There is NO COVER. Great venue, great music. And it's FREE.

Jeff has the Cleveland Heights Democrats meeting in the first part of the evening, but he plans to make it over later. I'll be there for the duration.

Please stop by and have a pint. Matt and Shannon are GREAT musicians, lovely people and true progressives. They play a mixture of Irish Trad and contemporary songs that they write. A GOOD TIME WILL BE HAD BY ALL!

The New York Times has an excellent interactive map up today that allows you to see shifts in Dem/GOP vote between 2004 and 2008. Here is the Ohio section zoomed in:

The darker the blue, the more movement there was to the Democrats from the GOP. The most movement was in NW Ohio and the only movement to the GOP was outside Dayton, along the Ohio river and along the eastern border.

Only 12 out of 88 counties moved towards the GOP, with the remaining 76 counties moving towards the Democrats.

As far as raw votes, 21 counties voted for Obama, 67 voted for McCain. That is better than 2004 where Kerry won 16 counties and Bush won 72 counties.

What an incredible time! The most inspiring presidential campaign and the most sweeping victory for Democrats in a half century. An historic transformation for the country. A resounding statement to the world, and for all time, about equality and social justice in America.

So ... while we're on the topic of Change We Need, this is probably the perfect time for me to announce my departure from political blogging.

I started blogging about Ohio politics in January 2006. I was motivated by a desire to learn more about progressive candidates and policies, and to share what I learned. I can honestly say that the experience has changed my life forever. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to meet many wonderful people and to form lasting friendships. I can't express how much I have learned about politics and policy, and I have come to deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by candidates and public officials in pursuit of the greater good. It has been a wild, fascinating, and inspiring experience to write about their deeds.

I have also greatly appreciated the interest and support of my readers. Thank you very, very much for the flood of tips, suggestions, comments, and notes of encouragement.

However, blogging on a full-time basis is not something I care to continue indefinitely, and now is the time for me to turn to other pursuits.

I am leaving this blog in place (for the time being at least) for the use of the front pagers, Forum contributors, and commenters. For how long and in what form is not completely clear, so I will just leave it at that for now.

In closing, I just want to convey my congratulations and gratitude to all of the candidates, staffers, volunteers, and contributors who have worked so hard and given so much to help bring progressive change to Ohio. There is so much to celebrate, not just the election wins but the struggle itself. Keep up the great work!

A statement from the campaign of Mary Jo Kilroy:

There are thousands of votes that are still being counted in the race for Ohio's 15th Congressional district. The process is working and this election is not over. The Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress Campaign is confident that when those votes are counted, Mary Jo will be declared the winner. There was confusion over the vote counts coming from the Franklin County Board of Elections, but that has been clarified and the the Associated Press agrees that this race is still too close to call. The thousands of votes still being counted include early votes from Veterans Memorial and legal paper ballots that were issued at the polling sites. Many of these votes were in high turnout precincts where voters wanted to cast ballots in this historic election.

"We are confident that when the Board of Elections completes their work that Mary Jo Kilroy will be declared the winner given the number of ballots that have yet to be counted in Franklin County," said Brad Bauman, Communications Director for Kilroy for Congress. "The most important thing at this point is that every voter who has cast their ballot in this historic election has his or her their vote counted."

UPDATE: The AP-generated story published by the Columbus Dispatch that announced a win for Steve Stivers (R) in this race has been pulled (hat-tip Dave at ProgressNow). CNN has backed off on calling this race, and CQ Politics has not called it.

2nd UPDATE: Consider this for a moment... You think that your vote doesn't count? Right now, the margin is 321 votes out of (get this!) 270,020 votes tallied so far.

In OH-15, at this moment, the Ohio Secretary of State's website is reporting that Stivers has 123,322 votes and Kilroy has 123,001 with all but one "Federal" precinct in Franklin county to be counted. These are legitimate overseas absentee ballots, some of which haven't even arrived yet. (See note at end.)

And there are a larger number of provisional ballots that have yet to be counted.

What I don't understand is why the AP (and the Columbus Dogpatch, along with some cable TV networks) are were reporting this race as a win for Stivers (and by a large margin!) I wonder where they got their numbers?

Clearly, what they are reporting is NOT accurate nor up to date.

The count will not be final until the provos and late arriving absentee ballots are counted and that won't be for about two weeks. Some provos will get rejected, others will be counted without further action by the voter, and some people will need to take documentation into the BOE to establish their new residency.

So this doesn't seem to be over (to me, anyway.)

The presidential race is and was the big story, but taking control of the Ohio House of Representatives is huge for the future of the Democratic Party in Ohio. (A relatively smooth election is also huge, boosting as it does the chances of Jennifer Brunner to hold onto the all-important office of Secretary of State.) Here are the latest results on the key House races:

16th
51.09% - 30,352 - Nan Baker (R)
48.91% - 29,054 - Rep. Jennifer Brady (D)
18th
50.86% - 27,716 - Matt Patten (D)
49.14% - 26,779 - Colleen Grady (R)
19th
47.66% - 29,336 - Marian Harris (D)
47.64% - 29,324 - Brad Lewis (R)
4.70% - 2,894 - Michael Johnston (L)
20th
50.65% - 27,769 - Nancy Garland (D)
49.35% - 27,061 - Rep. Jim McGregor (R)
22nd
56.47% - 32,026 - John Carney (D)
43.53% - 24,684 - Michael Keenan (R)
28th
54.27% - 29,508 - Connie Pillich (D)
45.73% - 24,862 - Virgil Lovitt (R)
42nd
55.93% - 31,286 - Mike Moran (D)
44.07% - 24,648 - Rep. Richard Nero (R)
58th
53.87% - 26,875 - Terry Boose (R)
46.13% - 23,013 - Terry Traster (D)
63rd
53.97% - 27,228 - Mark Schneider (D)
46.03% - 23,225 - Rep. Carol-Ann Schindel (R)
85th
52.11% - 23,987 - Ray Pryor (D)
47.89% - 22,043 - Rep. John Schlichter (R)
92nd
50.16% - 26,052 - Debbie Phillips (D)
49.84% - 25,882 - Jill Thompson (R)

To recap, the 16th and 58th are pickups by the Republicans, but the 18th, 20th, 22nd, 28th, 42nd, 63rd, and 85th look like certain or at least very likely pickups for the Democrats, which would give the Democrats a net gain of five and a margin of 51-48. If the narrow leads in the 19th and 92nd hold up, it's a net gain of seven and a margin of 53-46.

The Democratic wins on this list were all hard-fought contests against an onslaught of hideous and misleading attack ads in the closing weeks. We out-worked them on the ground and raised cash at an unprecedented (for Democrats) pace. The strategic gain is enormous.

In 2004, my kids were six and eight years old respectively. I had heard about this talented young man from Chicago who was going to address the Democratic National Convention.

My kids were just heading to bed by the time he came on the TV here. I got my kids bundled up and onto the sofa with me. My daughter asked what was up. I told her that even if she didn't understand all of the speech, I wanted her to be able to tell her grandchildren that she heard this first national speech by Barack Obama.

And I told her that I thought that he was going to become the first person of color to be elected President of the United States. The speech was, as we all know now, just incredible.

Over the last 72 hours I have witnessed a ground game by the Obama campaign here in our area that was a thing of beauty.

What I have seen "up close" here was simply the best closing campaign operation EVER.

The GOP has buried our area in "scary" TV ads, robocalls and mailers. And polls and my contacts with people around here have shown that there were, indeed, many frightened and misinformed citizens.

But well organized and highly motivated "boots on the ground" still trump libelous, impersonal falsehood. No amount of "store bought" lies can overcome a genuine groundswell of people knocking on doors, making REAL phone calls and handing voters a leaflet, face to face.

The GOP and it's venomous allies have shot themselves right in the a__. They have actually managed to drive DOWN their own turnout! Instead of moving voters from Obama to McCain they have scared their likely voters into just staying home.

And in January, my sons and my daughter will get to witness an event even more historic than the speech that they saw on TV that August night four long years ago. They will get to see the inauguration of a competent and compassionate man of intellect and vision, the junior senator from Illinois.

Update- The morning after...

I'm just hearing this afternoon of the death of Senator DeWine's parents over the last week.

The Plain Dealer reports that his mother Jean died a week ago today and that his father died on Saturday.

A joint funeral service is planned for the parents of former Ohio U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine.

Jean DeWine, 83, died last Tuesday at home in Yellow Springs in western Ohio. Richard DeWine, 85, died there on Saturday.

The couple had been married 65 years.

The causes of their deaths have not been disclosed, but it was known that Richard DeWine had pancreatic cancer.

Mike DeWine's assistant, Ann O'Donnell, said he's taking the losses "as well as can be expected."

It's two days and two months shy of a year from when I lost my father at age 86 and I'm still not really over that, so I can only imagine what Senator DeWine is going through with the lost of both of his parents in such a close time.

Again, our condolences to him and his family.

I have a few observations to share with this community:

Overnight the Obama campaign has opened over 800 staging offices in Ohio, 47 in Lucas county alone. These offices ‘neighborhood offices’ were opened to handle local canvassing and other GOTV operations. The staging location I was routed to had a parking lot full of volunteers! Imagine if all 800 were this busy!

Rural turnout is heavy. I observed long lines and filled up parking lots at 5 rural/suburban precincts. Below is a picture of the Unitarian Church, where cars were parked on the highway due to the fact that the parking lot was filled up.

The Obama campaign is amazing and efficient. I walked into the very busy Toledo headquarters this morning to volunteer. Right away I was greeted by a table of friendly people sitting at a computer work station. They formed a group of volunteers and told us to go to a staging location to canvass. They had directions prepared and we were off to our “neighborhood office” in 5 minutes.

Diversity is about more than race or gender.

Judge Peter Sikora has faced obstacles, heartache and barriers beyond my darkest dreams.

But he has triumphed. He has already accomplished more in his life than a whole sphere of us bloggers. We're all just slackers by comparison.

There are many reasons why reactionaries have complete control of the Ohio Supreme Court. One reason is that so many voters simply overlook the judicial campaigns.

PLEASE don't make that mistake today. VOTE for Judge Peter Sikora for Ohio Supreme Court Justice.

"Justice Sikora" ...sounds great to me.

I have to get up in five hours to work at a polling place, so I'm posting this here instead of in the calendar as usual:

Cuyahoga County Democratic Election Night Watch Party
7:30 pm
Hilton Garden Hotel, 1100 Carnegie Ave, Cleveland 44115

Hosts: The Obama/Biden Presidential Campaign, The Cuyahoga Democratic Party and the Young Democrats of Cuyahoga County

Cleveland Stonewall Democrats (& their LGBT Allies)
7:30 pm
Union Station, 2814 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland 44113

Medina County Election Night Party
7:30 pm
Democratic Headquarters, 913 N Court St, Medina (behind Starbucks & Chipotle)

Official Lorain County Democratic Election Night Party
7:30 pm
St John's Lutheran Church, 1140 W River Rd, Elyria 44035

Summit County Election Night Party
8:00 pm
Lux Nightclub & Ultra Lounge, 1 W Exchange St, Akron 44308