What makes Seniors tick?

That's what Harris Sherline wants to know. He has a list of questions for you at his site, The Wisdom of American's Elders, not a blog, but a website with information categories--pets, humor, challenges, etc. Stop over and take a look. He seems to be a conservative and tonight will be on a California radio show, "Is Obama ready to lead?" To listen on your computer, click this link to open a radio on your computer screen.

News you can use

Sick of talking politics at the dinner table? Tonight wow your family and/or spouse with this one:

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and Columbia University have finally explained why ripened bananas glow blue under ultraviolet, black, light. Writing in Angewandte Chemie, Bernhard Kräutler and his colleagues report that blue hue is due to the breakdown of chlorophyll, which takes place during the ethylene-modulated ripening process of the curvy fruit. From the Alchemist Newsletter

My husband eats a banana every day. The doctor said on his last visit that he has the body of a 55 year old. Maybe you don't think that is desirable, but he is a 70 year old, born a premie, so tiny that when his head was in his mother's palm, his little toes barely reached to the crook of her elbow.

Hmm. I was over twice his weight when I was born.

The Night before the Elections

Humor, forwarded. E-mail. Author unknown. HT Maggie Thurber.

Twas the Night Before Elections
2008

'Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

Note from Norma: Amadinajad probably had too many syllables.

Obama and the Courts

All courts will of course swing to the left under an Obama presidency. He has made it very clear that when he vows to uphold the Constitution as President, he will be lying. He has been absolutely consistent from his dope smoking days to the smoking of Democrat dopes in the primaries to get their votes. He believes the U.S. Constitution is at fault for not providing a socialist, marxist template for social change, that the Founding Fathers were wrong in limiting the role of government in the lives of the citizens of the newly formed country, and that the country needs to be free from unfair competition (or any competition if you read between the lines).

The last time we had three branches of the federal government marching in lock step were the Johnson and Carter years. We got the War on Poverty and the Great Society with Johnson and stagflation with Carter (high inflation, high unemployment, stagnant growth). The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a spring board for blacks into the middle class. The War on Poverty which cost trillions, however, helped create an underclass of poverty and crime that is stubbornly resistant to change but which feeds every black candidate's election coffers. Yet the Democrats have never been happy, no matter how many trillions are spent, even when Republican presidents extend the programs so they can keep their cushy jobs.

Meanwhile, our liberal policies have killed millions of unborn American citizens. Our hysteria over the potential death of a bird caused premature withdrawal of DDT from the international market (after our own swamps were cleaned up) and more Africans have died as a result of a "liberal" environmentalist testifying before Congress than were killed by the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English during the transatlantic slave trade with the Arabs in Africa.

Under liberalism, several generations of young black men have grown up in prison because we stripped them of their manhood through government handouts to their mothers and girlfriends, never expecting them to get a job or get married and take care of business. Glorification of the gay lifestyle and focus on their civil rights rather then the disease eating up and spitting out their community have helped spread horrible diseases, destroying the lives and immunity of millions of gay men.

The chickens have really come home to roost on the liberals' 1970s feel good programs of finding the American dream for all Americans, regardless of their credit-worthiness or desire to live like white folks do. All the better to push them out of their neighborhoods into suburbia making the valuable central city land available for development by capitalists, who are never shy in finding opportunities the liberals create for them. The non-profit, ACORN clones gobbled up the grant money that each succeeding administration, regardless of party, pushed through Congress for approval. Even Bush waxed eloquent with words praising the growing housing bubble--and there was money pouring in from all over the world to buy these bundled, toxic funds.

Whether you call it the New Deal, the War on Poverty, The Second Bill of Rights or the Great Society, it's just one more toxic bundle of programs which will help destroy our liberty and economy.

My Dad was a smoker--from the archives

Oh, I remember that cough. We children had never known anything else but Dad's coughing. And the blue haze everywhere in the house if he was home. In those days, I didn't find the smell unpleasant like I do now. It was always a mix of after shave, hair cream, cigarettes and fuel oil. But what must my mother have thought? Neither of her parents smoked. Her mother was a health-nut--wouldn't even eat red meat, and she was always airing out the house.

Dad told me 40 years later [after he'd quit] that he wanted a cigarette for 20 years. When I was younger, I didn't think about that too much. But now I'm in awe of his focus, drive and determination. He was not always a pleasant person to be around when I was growing up. I wonder now if he just wanted a cigarette, if his head hurt, his eyes burned and his skin crawled for nicotine. My parents weren't social--Dad dealt with people all day, 12 hours a day and a houseful of noisy children at night. And all the while, craving a cigarette, knowing that would take the edge off.

European media are much worse than ours

I might go on and on about Katie, Charlie and Chris, but visits to Germany, Finland and Italy in the past three years actually made me feel a tingle (ala Chris Matthews) for our American Media. I think I wrote that while in Finland (where you can't even figure out the street names unless they are in Swedish) I got so desperate for something to read while drinking coffee, that I actually bought a Time Magazine, about half of which covered sports. It had probably been 40 years. Germany was hopeless, as was Italy. Even if you found an "international" edition, the Bush bashing was beyond anything we see or hear (unless you can tolerate the cat littering in the Kos Kids sandbox). There is a German blog written in English on the German media bias. Not too many years ago, about 20% of Americans had German ancestry, far more than English, although that is our language. In my family tree, my German ancestors used a form of German for about 100 years, before really getting the hang of English in the early 19th century. I think that has changed, reflecting our deplorable border protection, and the tinkering done during the Great Society with our ethnic quotas.Click to enlarge

A shrill yet influential segment of the German media has repeatedly sought to exploit and exacerbate transatlantic differences. This weblog is a watchdog site dedicated to the documentation of anti-Americanism in German media and the negative influence it has on Germans’ perceptions of the United States. German media coverage of the United States is frequently marked by one-sidedness, ideology, stereotypes, clichés and factual errors Davids Medienkritik is a collection of critical postings written by those who run this blog (David and Ray) on the German media. Occasionally we also publish political postings that have no connection to any particular media organization, particularly if the topic is current and plays an important role in public discussion.

American liberals, progressives and Democrats should stop running after the European popularity vote. They don't like us, and except for a few years in the 1940s, never did. We didn't really help all that much in WWI, jumping in at the last minutes. We're always dabbling, then running away like we did in Korea and Vietnam, and like the Obamanationals wanted us to do in the middle east. I think they know that.

We are them--we are the descendants of the people who were kicked out, run off, starved out, bombed out, or sent on prison ships who built a new society where people of hundreds of ethnic groups, religions and cultures did what Europe's little city states and kingdoms were never able to do until the Euro and the threat of Islam forced them in to it--we worked together and built a country. We hung it all on a Constitution and Bill of Rights that the candidate the Europeans admire so much disrespects as being a collection of negatives, and wants to edit. Gosh, no wonder they will bow to him for a few weeks or months. He's one of them.

Payday loans--Ohio votes

Here's what I said on this topic in January. It seems to be another feel good topic for liberals, believing they will help the poor more by pushing them into more government help and away from high interest loans. One more door shut on access and choice for the poor (and the wealthy trying to hide their assets).

Our polls are very, very crowded with early voting. 51% are Democrats, 4% are Republicans, and the rest state no party preference according to the Columbus Dispatch. The Obama people have been flawless (not fraudless) in their machinations. McCain-Palin, at least in Franklin County, is not well organized and ran out of yard signs and badges some time ago (probably picked up by Obama trojan horses). As of yesterday at Vets Memorial, I think they had more absentee voters than people eligible to vote in three of our northwest suburbs--Upper Arlington, Grandview and Marble Cliff.

American Daughter recommends

"Look to Germany for extreme media bias regarding the upcoming US presidential election. Two astute German/English bloggers at Davids Medienkritik keep a watch on the German media’s commentary on the American scene. They have just documented an astounding instance of negative bias."

HT American Daughter

Once on the bandwagon, the music is too loud

Herb Denenberg invites you to look at the empty suit that is Barack Obama in this opinion piece in the Philadelphia Bulletin about major newspapers endorsing Obama. He is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a Philadelphia journalist, consumer advocate and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences.

“The [Philadelphia] Inquirer criticizes Sen. John McCain for voting with President George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, but conveniently neglects to note Sen. Obama votes with his party 96 percent of the time. He is one of the most partisan and the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate. That is not the stuff of an escape from the "tar pit of partisan sniping." How can an extremist liberal, radical and party-liner bring both sides together?In fact, Sen. Obama not only lacks the ability to be bipartisan and to bring people together, but also lacks the willingness to even listen to the other side. He is not only highly partisan but seems to have a Storm Trooper mentality with a slight whiff of fascism.” . . .

“As Sen. Obama has a resume so thin and legislative achievements so non-existent, the Inquirer bases its endorsements on his positions. But even here, you see the pathetic nature of the Inquirer's efforts to fill this empty suit. . . For example, it praises Sen. McCain for his stand on public financing of elections. It omits this was central to Sen. Obama's claimed reform agenda. It omits Sen. Obama promised to take public financing. And it omits, despite his promise and pledge, as soon as it was politically expedient, Sen. Obama abandoned his pledge and promise. As usual, Sen. Obama's rhetoric is the opposite of his reality.

The Inquirer editorial also praises Sen. McCain for his stand on pork-barrel spending. . . In contrast, Sen. Obama was a leading pork-barrel spender, and even got an earmark for the medical center where his wife works. But such an outrageous conflict of interest never raised a slight stir from the mainstream media.”

[On the plus of a bi-racial president?] “. . . We don't have to tell the world that America, as a melting pot, is a reality. We are that melting pot, and we don't have to decide the election in Sen. Obama's favor to please the world or the U.N. People all over the world are fighting to get into America because they know it is the great melting pot and the golden city on the hill that is the land of opportunity and freedom. . . To put it bluntly, the Inquirer's endorsement has a definite tinge of racism, just as their favorite candidate does. In any event, the Inquirer's editorial board thinks we ought to apply affirmative action to presidential elections.”

All true, and more Mr. Denenberg, but the crowded masses are packed in the bandwagon so tightly and the music is so loud, the heart rates so high, with arms and hands raised and waving that I doubt they can hear you.

FDR's failures will be Obama's

During high school and college courses of American History that I took (I had enough for a minor in college), President Hoover was villified, Roosevelt diefied. Sort of like Bush-Obama. It's still that way in most sources. But no sensible person can look at 1932-1942 and not see that Roosevelt totally failed with his New Deal! He taxed everything that moved, particularly poor people who were taxed for the smallest pleasures like chewing gum and movie tickets. The rich did fine. Each time the stock market would start to recover or the unemployment rate would go down, he'd throw another chunk of the alphabet (AAA, NIRA, TVA, WPA, NRA) on the fire, and whoosh, he'd put out the flame of progress.

Hoover was only in office a few months when the stock market collapsed--he had no role in that at all. Unemployment was 4% in August 1929, and the crash was in October. (Somebody tell Joe Biden.) Hoover tried a little and he tried a lot. He tried free markets, tax cuts, and tax increases. He tried bailing out banks and insurance companies. Has a familiar ring?

Some of it looks just like entry level "New Deal" to me. So if it didn't work, let's try more, and that's what FDR did, and did, and did some more. We'll never know what might have happened if Hoover and Roosevelt had done nothing. Unemployment peaked in 1933, well after FDR's 100 days. Well, if you won't blame FDR for that, then don't blame Hoover for the crash. But it never got out of double digits the whole decade, and was back up around 20% in 1938. If we hadn't gone into WWII when all the men went off to war and unemployment dropped below 3% because no one was left in town but my grandfather and my great-grandfather to run things, we'd probably still be doing the New Deal. In many ways, we never quit. And each time we get a Democrat in office it's like the ghost of FDR and he tries it all over again, whether or not we have a recession or stagflation or a tech boom.

Don't trot out the WPA and wave that at me. My home town has a nice little WPA mural in the post office. We had a sweet little state park down the road where they planted trees. It's still used today--we have our class reunions there. Bright eyed, idealistic college kids can write papers about the WPA's contribution, but what the town really had were several small companies that employed people--a printing plant, a publishing company and a fulfillment agency. That's what fed people and built homes--not the government paying people an allowance to paint, write, sing, dance or build cabins in parks or roads. For the 3 million or so who were in WPA I'm sure it was a nice chance to get away from home and earn some self respect, but most people had jobs or were working the family farm, or taking in laundry or boarders, or selling garden produce.

FDR was a brilliant politician, but none of his programs turned the economy around in the Depression. It was stop-gap government sop and Obama will take us in the same direction. Thomas Sowell says

Barack Obama's "change" is a recycling of the kinds of policies and rhetoric of the New Deal that prolonged the Great Depression of the 1930s far beyond the duration of any depression before or since.

These are the same kinds of liberal policies that led to double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates and rising unemployment during the Carter administration. These are "back to the future" changes to economic disasters that need repeating.

Make no mistake, the political rhetoric of FDR was great. For those who admire political rhetoric, as so many of Barack Obama's supporters seem to, FDR was tops. For those who go by actual results, FDR's track record was abysmal.
Thomas Sowell

What not to put in a cover letter

is the topic of Poet with a Day Job post. Good stuff. Stop and read her poetry. The Wall St. Journal today had an advice column for retirees going back to work. I noticed this one: "Hide your resentment." How you feel about the economy and your financial situation. A positive attitude goes a long way in a job interview and some of the casual questions are there to draw out your personal characteristics (that's me commenting, not WSJ, because I was on a lot of search committees).

I know people my age "laid off" at 68 or 69 who are quite bitter. Now the Obama-Biden way would be to be patriotic and spread the wealth and opportunity to the younger, poorer, less experienced person looking for work. Right?

Whatever your reason--choice or cut back--don't sit around letting your unemployment checks become a habit. When I worked for JTPA in a jobs program we told people they needed to spend 8 hours a day looking for work, updating their skills (like learning to drive or read the bus route), mailing out resumes, and networking.

The government can't do everything--yet.

The story of Cowslip

They started with three young heifers. Then

Several years later Snowdrop suddenly died. Cowslip stood next to Snowdrop's dead body refusing to leave until Snowdrop was buried. It was after Snowdrop died that we realized there was something very wrong with Cowslip. Our neighbor took one look at her and said she was blind. Then it all made sense. Snowdrop had been her eyes and without her old friend she was lost and afraid of the other cows and new places. Judging by Cowslips pale brown eyes, I'd say she been born blind." Rest of the story here at My Mustangs.

McCain Paper Dolls

My celebrity paper dolls get a lot of hits. At Illinois Review I saw an item about McCain Paper Dolls.

Eugene V. Debs, Socialist

Another Ohio Blogger suggested we google "Eugene V. Debs + Canton" for the irony in Obama's final plea to Ohioans to send him to the White House. So I looked through a Deb's speech from 90 years ago, 1918. It does have a certain flow, a ring, a familiarity, doesn't it? Except Debs was a bit more humble than Obama.

Ah! Tovarishch [Товарищ], it makes my heart sing as I march to the machine-tractor station for the motherland with the other kolkhoznitza [колхозница] and Obama's mellifluous tones in my ears.

"Socialism is a growing idea; an expanding philosophy. It is spreading over the entire face of the earth: It is as vain to resist it as it would be to arrest the sunrise on the morrow. It is coming, coming, coming all along the line. Can you not see it? If not, I advise you to consult an oculist. There is certainly something the matter with your vision. It is the mightiest movement in the history of mankind. What a privilege to serve it! I have regretted a thousand times that I can do so little for the movement that has done so much for me. The little that I am, the little that I am hoping to be, I owe to the Socialist movement. It has given me my ideas and ideals; my principles and convictions, and I would not exchange one of them for all of Rockefeller’s bloodstained dollars. It has taught me how to serve—a lesson to me of priceless value. It has taught me the ecstasy in the handclasp of a comrade. It has enabled me to hold high communion with you, and made it possible for me to take my place side by side with you in the great struggle for the better day; to multiply myself over and over again, to thrill with a fresh-born manhood; to feel life truly worthwhile; to open new avenues of vision; to spread out glorious vistas; to know that I am kin to all that throbs; to be class-conscious, and to realize that, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color or sex, every man, every woman who toils, who renders useful service, every member of the working class without an exception, is my comrade, my brother and sister—and that to serve them and their cause is the highest duty of my life."

Sarah Palin's Wardrobe

Far be it from me to say the media are going down the low road on this one--I complain about women's clothing all the time. I see women in public dressed in pajamas, sweat suits, cowboy boots, fringy-droopy 70s retro thingies, and low-cut porno outfits--and those are just the ones I see at church--you should see the ones headed for work! Both Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin have thankfully put a little class back into women's public face and rear end. (Real ladies don't say butt.) I truly hope it catches on.

Before Palin's Dayton, Ohio love fest back in late August, (view here, beginning about minute 10) I'd only seen her in casual clothes--I think she was either pregnant, or someone had turned down the heat and given her a sweater. So a black pencil skirt just a bit below the knees and short jacket fastened up to her neck looked pretty darn good, if a little schoolmarmish, and was pleasure after months and years of Hillary's pants suits and blazers and San Fran Nan busting out all over in her open front business suits below her cheery botoxed face. Sometimes she wears a red jacket, sometime pink. But she always looks good.

But I'm a woman blogger. Why shouldn't I comment on women's clothes? Why would the main stream media care what Sarah spends if they don't care what Obama or Biden spend on their tailor made suits? At home, she admits she buys at the consignment shop and about half of what the Republicans bought went back to the store either because it didn't fit or wasn't her style. I'm sure she always looks nice, but if you've got to change clothes several times a day and look good on TV (remember Nixon lost because he didn't want to wear make-up for the TV debates). I assume she's nursing Trig, and if you've ever done that, it can get messy and up the dry cleaning bills. Then there's the spit up, the diaper changing, etc. I would guess that to keep up the campaign pace she would need 8-10 outfits minimum. Then there's shoes, undergarments, jewelry, etc.

But there's always a double standard where Democrats are concerned, and the press is so deep into the dirty clothes hamper with Obama, they're getting smelly. I'm betting Nancy's pearls cost more than some of Sarah's outfits, but who's counting--certain not journalism jockeys who were so afraid Palin might have some ideas worth reporting that could get them in trouble with their editors that they decided to switch topics and go for the safe, soft news. The cost of her clothes.

The widening gap

You can't turn on the radio, TV or open a newspaper without someone talking about a gap*--and I don't mean the store where teen-agers shop. There's a poverty gap, a gender gap, a technology gap, a health care gap, yada, yada. Three and a half years ago I wrote down my reasons for the widening gap between the rich and the poor (this is actually a fabrication because people are retiring and by plan and choice reducing their household income, but let's imagine there is a gap). Let's call it The Easy Gap.

1. Easy credit cards: We got our first credit card in the late 60s--I think it was a "Shopper’s Charge." We now have one department store credit card and one bank card--we’ve never carried a balance. Since the late 80s and into the 90s, many new households have never known what it was to live on their earned income. 2. Easy divorce: Christians now have the same divorce rate as anyone else in the culture. When we married 48 years ago, regular religious observance offered families some protection. No fault divorce particularly hurt women and children, pushing them economically into competition with two income families. 3. Easy sex: Casual one-night stands were glorified in the movies of the 70s and 80s. Although adultery and fornication had long been a theme in literature, drama and movies, casual sex and living together before marriage became the gold standard of relationships by the 80s, even though it’s been proven that it increases the divorce rate. Then easy sex came into the living rooms via TV so that even young children think who’s spending the night is no more important than what toothpaste mom buys. Women having and raising babies alone is the biggest cause of growing poverty and the gap that liberals worry about. 4. Easy birth control and abortion: The millions of Americans that might have sprung from the loins of some of our best and brightest have been denied life itself, and thus their slots in the pie chart has been taken by poor, uneducated immigrants. Obviously this creates a huge gap between the middle class and the poor, who instead of having a solid footing as those aborted citizens might have had, flood across our borders or arrive as refugees with nothing. 5. Easy technology and gadgets: Time wasted on I-pods and text messaging and vegging out in front of bad movies on DVDs has certainly absorbed billions of hours that could have been invested in networking, education or advancing up the career ladder. Cable and cell phone monthly costs easily equal what we spent on a mortgage 30 years ago. 6. Easy bankruptcy: Load up the credit cards with consumer spending, mortgage your future, then make the rest of us pay it off for you. It might have been Plan B 20 years ago, but is now Plan A. Interest only mortgages, leases for larger and more expensive vehicles, second mortgages--for a generation who thinks the future will be paid for by someone else, it’s a recipe for a growing gap. 7. Easy leisure: Thirty eight years ago (1970) few middle class families took vacations--if Dad had a week off (and most companies didn’t offer it) he spent it fixing the house. Sure it’s a huge industry and employs a lot of people, but we’re looking at the gap aren’t we? We’d probably been married 10 years before we took a family vacation (my parents never had one), and then it was at my mother’s farm for a week. Our daughter and her husband had been to Key West, Arruba and took a Mexican cruise in the first 5 years of their marriage. 8. Easy entertainment: This is related to leisure and technology, but today’s young families have difficulty being alone or quiet, it would seem. Even 30 years olds seem unable to walk around without head phones. They are spending their children’s future at movies, sporting events and theme parks. A visit to the library is most likely to pick up a movie, not a book. 9. Easy college loans: Instead of attending a state school, working during the summer or attending closer to home, many young people begin their real working lives with huge debt, a debt that takes years to pay off, assuming they don’t default. Loans were so easy in the 80s, that parents who could well afford to pay tuition had their children at the public trough. 10. Easy shopping: You can be a couch potato or a computer novice and never leave home to shop. Addiction is easy. Just call in with the credit card. See? And I haven’t even said a word about how much health care costs, or how the women’s movement changed our culture, public transportation or taxes. And while the government is tangentially involved in these areas, mostly it boils down to perfectly legal choices, choices which when they become ingrained in our way of life lead to poverty or slippage down by a quintile for the next generation.

According to a google search: health care gap = 15,700; gender gap = 842,000; technology gap = 166,000; obesity gap = 417; poverty gap = 113,000.

Money to help the poor

That's probably the justification for the outrageous campaign expenditures of the Obama campaign. " Guesstimates from inside the broadcast television industry are that Barack Obam will spend $1.5 million per network -- CBS, ABC and Fox -- for Wednesday night's national 30 minute informercial. Now that's $50,000 per minute per network -- $8,333 per second per network. Altogether, $4.5 million in 30 minutes. Illinois Review"

The Democrats' idea of helping the poor is to take as much from you in the form of taxes--income, excise, death, phone, gasoline, sales, pass through (in over under around and through), VAT, etc. then pass it back to you in grants to your states, your educational institutions, your non-profits, your interstates, your transportation bailouts and subsidies, even your churches, all with handsome salaries along the way. Technically, it's a form of job creation with no product. The government doesn't create wealth, it consumes it, and sometimes uses the very people it steals from to do it. Like you. Watching the ads (never fear, Obama will make back the costs of his infomercial tomorrow night). Marking the ballot. Sitting back and waiting for the exchange and transfer of funds.

Note: I can't get the article at tv by the numbers site, but I'll keep trying. Maybe it's been pulled.

Looking for the vigilant liberals

especially librarians who were all over Bush's case for tracking down foreign terrorists by violating their privacy and freedom to bomb us. Both the state of Ohio and Ohio State have been unable to keep hackers out of our personal information (I think mine has been lost, strayed or stolen three times either on purpose or staff ineptitude--and those are the cases about which I was notified). But all that stuff about Joe the Plumber who questioned Obama's "spread the wealth" threats promises that mysteriously appeared in all the media the day after McCain mentioned him during a debate? You know, damaging information like his "real name." Well, that wasn't hacked, that was pulled by a hack and redistributed to the waiting media.

"Ohio's inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on "Joe the Plumber."

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK'd the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System.

Amid questions from the media and others about "Joe the Plumber," Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments.

Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said. It is unclear if Wurzelbacher is involved in a child-support case. Reports state that he lives alone with a 13-year-old son.

"Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look" at them, Jones-Kelley said, citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. "Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way." " Columbus Dispatch

Now Governor Strickland, a Democrat and big time Obama supporter, yes that Ted who said he didn't give a damn about Obama's relationship with Ayers, says he is satisfied that there hasn't been any political mischief. Just like there wasn't any racism in the campaign to defeat his black Republican opponent two years ago. And there wasn't any malice intended by the 13 honor scholars from the east coast and abroad who came to Ohio to register Ohioans too dumb to figure it out by themselves. Democrats. They are so transparent it is pathetic. Was I that way when I was a Democrat all those years?

According to Open Secrets dot org, Jones-Kelley contributed $2,500 to Barack Obama in July 2008. Wow. What a surprise.

Obama behind your back

Oh sure, you're close and cozy now. Best buds. He wants your vote. By the time you realize what's going on, it will be too late. He'll have your wallet, your freedom, and your future.

Some schools succeed

Ninety eight percent graduation rate. That's impressive. Maybe it's the uniforms. My Catholic friends tell me there aren't many nuns in the classroom anymore. This letter was in today's Wall Street Journal.

Your editorial "Charter Success in L.A" (Oct. 14) overlooks the contributions of at least 40 Archdiocesan Catholic schools located within that same area. These Catholic schools serve the same population as the public schools and charter schools, yet they are achieving graduation rates of 98% and doing so at one-third the cost on a per student basis. Over 95% of these graduates are going on to two and four year colleges. For over 150 years, Catholic schools have been educating students in L.A. who go on to become leaders of integrity and competence. This is done without taxpayer funding.

Catholic schools deserve recognition for their past and continued contributions in educating civic, business and church leaders, teachers and many other professions that serve the Los Angeles community.

Kathleen Anderson
Executive Director
Catholic Education Foundation
Los Angeles