Haven't posted since 10/17 and for that I apologize.
Hopefully you guys will come back to read this blog when I come back and start writing again next Tuesday after a month's hiatus from the blog.
I needed it. Sorry. Something had to "go" in the last 30 days & the blog was it.
Between the horrific on too many levels to mention passing of my birthday buddy Sam McCarthy, the Grendell ruling (don't drink & drive, don't go bareback with hookers in Haiti & don't blog when you are livid pissed at Grendell and the Supreme Court...not surprised at all with the ruling mind you, but pissed nonetheless...rest assured there will be a lot of truth coming out about Tim & Diane over the years to come...and yes, you read that correctly...years as in plural), the passing of one of my fraternity brothers who is my age (39 going on 25) after a bout with cancer leaving a wife and two young daughters behind and the fact that I was on the road for my new business for a 16 day, 14 state, 26 meeting, no plane/all driving 4,932 mile sojourn through western United States all pretty much put me in a position where mentally I was not really focused on political blogging and timewise I was pretty screwed as well. Adding insult to injury my girlfriend of over 2 1/2 years and I broke up on Sunday night so I've been a bit of a dysfunctional zombie for the early part of this week, but the cobwebs are starting to clear (thanks for all the kind words by the way...they are appreciated). And for those of you who know me well you realize how huge 2 1/2 years is for me since I am not a normal human being (on a lot of levels and I get that) and I date in "dog years." Me dating someone for 2 1/2 years is like a normal person dating someone for 17 1/2 years...kind of helps put things in perspective now doesn't it.
Sorry to digress there at the end...just thought a little perspective was needed.
All that said, I promise I will be back on the 17th.
To steal a word from Stephen Colbert the "truthiness" will be flowing like never before.
Just picture Maximus from "Gladiator" with one knee on the ground, picking up dirt, rubbing it in his hands and calmly and ever so succinctly telling Comodis to simply "Unleash hell."
There has been a LOT of material I've missed out on I know and I assure you that if I have a different twist on something that happened three weeks ago I'm still going to write about it if I think it is relevant, interesting or hilarious.
My first order of business is to beg our Guest Columnists to come back: Please please please with whipped cream & a cherry on top shoot me an email sometime this week and let me know that you don't hate me and that you are foaming at the mouth to start writing again.
My second order of business is to finish reading the Dispatch, the IHT & the stack of magazines staring at me from the corner of my home office screaming, "READ ME!!!"
My last order of business is to ask each of you to return to reading this blog and if you like it please tell your friends, acquaintances & enemies about it. I'm sorry I left you, but I hope you will come back. We were up to about 1,500 readers a day at one point and right now after being gone for nearly a month the daily readership is basically down to nothing.
I implore you to come back. I will do my best to make it worth your time to do so.
Thanks!
Kyle
By 2007 more than 3 million Afghans were involved in cultivating a yield of some 8,200 metric tons of poppies (think the fight against the proliferation of opium is going to be a problem for the US troops to deal with for a few more decades? yep. i think so, too).
"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities...because it is the quality which guarantees all others." -- Winston Churchill
I believe that everyone who runs for the legislature basically runs initially either for:
*All the right reasons (i.e. for the greater good, to make the community/state better, to serve, etc)
*For personal power
*For ego/status, being put on a pedestal or for the sex with people who are not your spouse/to get away from their spouse/family and go play in Columbus for three days a week
*They need a job and do not have any skills that have value in the private sector
Although 4, 8, 12+ years in public office can truly change a person (Is that not one of the biggest understatements I’ve made on this blog over the last year?) I truly believe in my heart of hearts that the overwhelming majority of people initially run for the legislature for “all the right reasons.”
I am hoping and praying that the majority of the 132 legislators in office right now in the great State of Ohio will reflect deeply and remember back to that time that they wanted to be in the legislature to make their community and Ohio better.
I won’t list all of the statistics like I was going to because a) they would take up nearly two pages and b) I don’t think I need to.
Everyone knows how bad it is right now.
It is horrible.
It has most likely not been this bad since the Great Depression.
But there is a “silver lining.”
With great crises come great opportunities.
I totally admit that I don’t know much, but what I do know with a 100% crystal clear certainty is this:
Making major changes to our state government will NEVER happen when things are going well (or even fair to ok for that matter).
The ONLY thing that can happen to create a climate within which significant changes can happen with the way Ohio operates is for a severe shiitake storm to hit this state so hard that change is doable.
It has been 75 years since the legislature has had such an opportunity as they have right now and it may very likely be another 75 years until this kind of opportunity presents itself again.
I believe the State Reps & State Senators of this great state owe it to their kids, grandkids, community & state to roll up their sleeves and actually make some of the genuine changes to the structure of state government in Ohio so we can not only compete with 49 other states, but so we can actually compete globally once we come out of this recession.
The singular, myopic focus should not just be on filling a hole of $851 million or whatever the number is today. A macro, big picture view should be taken to not only address the short term $851 million hole, but to also position Ohio with real structural changes to compete in the global marketplace.
Here are our proposals:
http://kylesisk.typepad.com/sisker/2009/06/filling-the-32-billion-hole-in-the-ohio-budget.html
The other thing I want to do with this blog post is to make a plea to the MSM to NOT hide this situation on Page B8 near the bottom of the page below the weather within Capital Notes as Mark Niquette of the Columbus Dispatch did on Tuesday:
In my opinion, I think major structural changes to the way Ohio operates is front page news and worthy of significant Editorial Page coverage once every 3-5 days until the legislature hears you and starts having Committee hearings on these issues.
So there you have it…two pleas:
1) A plea to each and every legislator to take this opportunity you have been given to make this state better and
2) A plea to the MSM to write about the need for significant structural change within Ohio’s state government ad nausea until the legislature capitulates and starts to actually heed your call.
Having an obese spouse raises your risk of becoming obese by 37%. If a close friend becomes obese, the risk skyrockets by 171%.
Number of people that the UN estimates will be living in countries or regions with water scarcity by 2025. 2/3 of the global population could be under stress conditions.
Don't get me wrong. I want this to happen.
Yes, you heard me correctly. My fiscally conservative, socially moderate self would like for Ohio to get this money for a medium speed rail system connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton & Cincinnati.
Blasphemy you say?
I don't think so.
It would be one thing if the question was: Should $8 billion plus be spent at all on rail funding?
The answer to that is a resounding "NO!!!"
But that is not the question and to act like that is the question is ignorant.
The $8 billion is going to get spent. Period.
Since the money is going to get spent the only question that remains is who is going to get it.
I think it is better for Ohio to have it than not to have it so since I love the great state of Ohio I truly hope we do get this.
Unfortunately, I think the point is going to end up being moot because I do not think we will get the $517 million for two reasons: Personalities & Power.
Personalities: Neither Ray LaHood (R-IL) nor Barack Obama are particularly close to Ted Strickland and are not going to go out of their way to bend over backwards to help old Ted out in a pinch.
Ted was for Hillary & Barack may never forgive him for it.
Barack & Arne Duncan are big Charter School supporters and Ted tried his hardest to kill off Charter Schools in Ohio (purportedly against Duncan's wishes).
How many Ohioans are in Barack's Cabinet?
How many Ohioans are Ambassadors? Czars? Key advisers?
Ohio is the 7th largest state by population, the 5th largest state by political giving and, supposedly, a key swing state for Obama's re-election, but look how a Strickland Ohio has been treated over the last ten months.
Plain & simple: Barack does not like Strickland.
Power: The days of the Ohio Congressional Delegation having a "big stick" in Congress are over. That ship has sailed my friends. We were close to the "brass ring" at one point in time, but unless the GOP minority takes over the House in 2010 (a LOT of stars would have to align for that to happen) and elects Boehner as Speaker you can look to the Ohio delegation to muddle through for the next few years in the middle of the power pack...not at the bottom, but most assuredly not near the top.
So there you have it. Don't worry. No one else will write this story and the reasonings (aka excuses) that will be given for why Ohio does not end up getting this money will be anything & everything except personalities and power, but rest assured that, if we do not get this money, you heard the real reasons why here.
