It’s not everyday a governor gets the great good fortune to prove his vice-presidential bona fides while also totally boning the citizens of his state, but lucky Ohio Governor John Kasich found just such a marvelous opportunity after five tornadoes ripped through the Rust Belt, leaving three Ohioans dead (out of the region’s 39, so far) and untold billions in property damage. While the Communists of Kentucky and Indiana were only too happy to go groveling to President Food Stamps for their Dependency Hand-Outs (Ameros), Kasich knows a fucking valuable thing when he sees it, and in this case that fucking valuable thing is putting Ohio’s future where his veep ambitions are and turning down any federal aid for his ravaged state because earmarks?
Clermont County Democratic Party Chair Dave Lane wasted no time in trying to score ugly partisan political points, unlike John Kasich, and grossly attacked Kasich, savagely, for the governor’s noble, can-do, All-American, rugged-individualist stand: “I question his judgment,” Lane said. “It would appear at first blush that he’s probably playing politics.”
Kasich did not rule out asking for assistance later, but his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans.
Millions of dollars in payments and loans are nothing of course compared to the bucket of warm piss honor Ohioans will feel once their erstwhile governor is going to funerals for a living, as President Gingrich’s trusted envoy, on the moon.
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OT…. The next time Wonkette changes hands I am hoping for ownership to be based in Nova Scotia the inevitable Cod centric coverage will be more than made up for by a 3.5 hour early first post time.
+2
Judging by the dick jokes, I'd say Wonkette was already Cod-centric.
Just a piece
Cod et mon droop?
Since this is Ohio we're talking about, shouldn't it be a piece of white fish?
But, we could then be overwhelmed by a bay of Fundies…
A veritable tide of them, perhaps.
"Tide comes in, tide goes out … waaaaay out."
Canadian geography puns are the best puns.
How about Moscow? Doha?
Be happy you got weekend posts, ingrate!
"It's the victims own fault for living in the path of a tornado."
–John Kasich
"It's the victims own fault for living in
the path of a tornadoOhio."–John Kasich
FTFY
Don't ferget! It's those exotic animals fault for getting out of their cages!
It's the victims' own fault for electing a grandstanding anti-government wingnut moron to be their governor.
I'm afraid to check if this is an actual quote, because it's not impossible.
Ron Paul basically said the same thing. And said that victims should not expect the Federal government to bail them out.
Yeah, but Ron Paul will get FEMA funds for *his* district.
And THAT is the reason for mandatory ultrasounds before buying a house.
I heard some of them were, in fact, blahs. They had it coming.
Aw, I saw the headline and thought Kasich had resigned, and I was learning of it first from my beloved Wonkett.
You'd think the Koch Bruddahs, by now, would have invested in all the industries that profit from natural disasters, and their stooges would be happily salivating over sucking in the Federal ameros. I can't believe there's no more Walmart or Home Depot shares on the market.
As for the Governor: heckuva job, Kasichy.
See: Hacking off nose to spite face.
But I'll still get a speeding ticket on the SL-OHIO Turn pike. Go figure.
And turned down money for rail, didn't he?
The state's own emergency response team (four Amish guys and a pony named Florence) is speeding to the scene.
And Florence threw a shoe
- – - at Kasich.
Must be an A-Rab(ian). Horse, that is.
I did not know that ponies were vulnerable to creeping sharia. Damn, looks like anyone can catch it.
Insulting the governor is fine. Don't crap on the whole state because of one guy. I don't know how he was elected but he was. No one wants him gone more than us.
I've been working with the Joplin, MO recovery teams for several months now. The Feds have made a difference and even though I'm not religious, I have to admit that the churches have made a big difference.
All the state did was send in cops from all over who stood around and got in everyone's way and ask everyone for ID, total waste of money.
Good luck OH…keep on Kasich and he will cave…it's just a PR move.
Union cops, working triple time, after overtime & hazard pay are considered. But, hey, those are the Unions that
hate the blahs & undocumentedvote Republican, so, why not?Kasish to demand tax cuts for tornadoes. Tornadoes create jobs in the construction industry.
And they're less destructive to Main Street than Wall Street is.
Why use tax money to rebuild homes when tornadoes build character for free!
If he gives federal money to them they will just buy birth control pills anyhow.
You bet. This is a great opportunity to get government out of the way and let the private sector do what it does best.
Rip off their customers with exorbitant rates for rebuilding and loans at 10% above market to pay for said repairs.
POWDERPUFF PINUPS LIBEL!!!!
There's all kinds of backlash already, hope things get ugly for Kasich.
He needs a hard lesson in the real world consequences of all his awesome opinions that sound so good on the Internet and the Koch board rooms.
Clermont County is a Republican breeding ground (descendants of butternut slave-holders). Maybe they'll see now that they've been voting against their own self-interest. (ha, unlikely!)
Finally someone saying 'no' to Big Relief.
Isn't Big Relief the remembrance wiki for Breitbart?
I had a big relief just an hour ago, but I flushed it.
Failed vice-presidential candidates. We remember them fondly, for a few weeks (well, except for Joe Lieberman). Best of luck to Kasich as he tries to cash in on it. My sympathy goes to suffering Ohioans.
Does he get to bone Riele?
No. Jack Kemp.
Money? Kasich doesn't need money! Ohio has sparkleunicorns and magic dragons that will rebuild the entire state!
"but my bootstraps done blowed away in the tornado!"
From the KY Governor: “Thanks for the involvement that everybody in the federal government is having with us,” Beshear said. “It is really making a difference here on an hourly basis, so we appreciate it.”
Oh, wait… he's a (D) so wtf does he know.
Hey, this make Mitch Daniels a closet socialist. Why that son of a gun!
Kasich, sheesh? I'm waiting for Gov. Hashish.
I'd settle for Governor Hash Browns
Also would have made a good McDonald's character.
Governor McBurglar?
Ahnuld?
Seems every year doG shows how she loves the mostly red state Midwest & South by sending all those tornadoes, hurricanes and floods as wee gifties to those loving evangelicals.
Hey now, there are some red states in the Midwest but just look at the 2012 map; they mostly go Dem.
Well the northern Midwest often does, but Wisconsin and Michigan have given us Governor Kochs & Minnesota produced TPaw. In Illinois between Cook County and East St. Louis it is rather scarlet. The Illinois Govs are not an issue, since both the DRat & Repug occupants are simply doing there to do the graft that a few years later will have them incarcerated. Lived a number of years in Urbana – a blue oasis in a sea of red.
I'm waiting for the televangelists to declare who is responsible for these tornadoes. I'm putting my money on Sandra Fluke, because you know their God is really po'd at her.
And, of course, nothing clearly depicts the Lord's wrath at a DC area woman than wiping out some real "Mercuns in the Midwest.
God has to keep the FEAR in those God-fearing Mercuns somehows.
That slut.
Too soon?
White man's burden
I hear that Wyoming has set aside $16k for just such an emergency.
Wait a minute. Is that 16 thousand Wyomigons? Just trying to figure the exchange rate. Les-see, 16 divided by 37 residents. G-bye OhiO !
AND 2 cases of beer. No such thing as bein' too ready.
Last I heard, Kasich had roughly the same approval rating as a penile swab. So by all means, Rmoney/Gingorum, add him to the ticket. Besides, Ohio is not terribly important in Electoral College calculations, it would be better to solidify your support with the base in places that understand small-goverment, like, say, Wyoming.
He'd make a great VP. Not a brain in his head.
Hubris or stupidity?
You don’t have to choose just one, you know….
So "All of them, Katie" is in play?
Hubridity?
Kasich: "The only people who are going to suffer in our state are the poorz, and we never liked them anyways. As we say in Ohio, "the poorz can go buckeye themselves.""
"My house and family are fine… we don't need anything from the government!"
Come on, y'all, go easy on the governor — he had to turn down the aid. Ohio's economy isn't going to turn shitty again if he doesn't give it a little shove in the right direction.
He wants to prevent Ohioans from being addicted to federal aid every time they are wiped out, killed, or ruined. THEY CAN TAKE OUR FEMA LOANS, BUT THEY CAN NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!
I hope the good citizens of Ohio remember this the next time they think about electing someone for any office who runs on the idea that government isn't there to help anybody. It's far too easy a promise to keep in the worst way.
Heartless, stupid, and shortsighted? Yes.
Consistent with current Republican values? Yes.
Will turn voters against Republican politicians? I'd like to hope. But doubtful.
The entire GOP race has been to see who can be the most heartless meanspirited SOB in the Colosseum. And the base eats it up. So why shouldn't the VP contenders join in on the fun.
Judging by the recent (excellent) NYT article, voters who depend on federal handouts vote against them because they're fucking idiots.
But the reality of life here is that Mr. Gulbranson and many of his neighbors continue to take as much help from the government as they can get. When pressed to choose between paying more and taking less, many people interviewed here hemmed and hawed and said they could not decide. Some were reduced to tears. It is much easier to promise future restraint than to deny present needs.
And because of their belief that they are "deserving" but "those people" are shiftless, lazy, on drugs, etc.–which is kind of the point of the "welfare queen" hype, attempts to require drug testing for welfare beneficiaries, attacks on the unemployed . . . the list is endless. Convince people everyone else is getting an undeserved handout, and they'll be more likely to vote for the people who will destroy the social safety net while assuming it will be there for them because they're so deserving. Clever strategy. And usually invoked by the same people who claim to be the most Christian and patriotic.
High winds and tornadoes coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the posturing,
No help for Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Aid and help are dragging us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you teabagged
And found folks in dire straits
How can you help when you know?
I WENT BACK TO OHIO
BUT MY CITY WAS GONE
THERE WAS NO TRAIN STATION
THERE WAS NO DOWNTOWN
SOUTH HOWARD HAD DISAPPEARED
ALL MY FAVORITE PLACES
MY CITY HAD BEEN PULLED DOWN
REDUCED TO PARKING SPACES
A, O, WAY TO GO OHIO
Sickens me that limbaugh can use the opening refrain of that song as a semi-trademark.
Really! I don't actually listen to Rush, so I never heard that….. But good for her to put his $$ to some good.
Thanks, Manchu.
(Finally! An ear worm I actually like!)
Are such addled attempts to jump on the Veepstakes Bandwagon really smart career
movesgestures when a GOP'er's threadbare chances of taking over the WH are not lost on* even the most commonsense-challenged Republitard?*(regardless what they say in public; based on what they're thinking in private, and more & more lately admitting in public)
Nothing funnier than a rat running onto a sinking ship.
Cleveland Pearl Clutchers Daily
I think it was first carried in the Akron Panty-Wetter
Oh sure! Leave me standing on the corner with a copy of the Panty-Wetter tucked under my arm! I don't even *like* the rag!
One of the first things President Obama did in 2009 was end a series of accounting gimmicks utilized by President Bush (43) to hide the fiscal truth from the American people.
Things like running his two wars Enron-style – off the books.
The Bush Administration budgets didn't include money for emergency relief. These programs were funded from supplemental appropriations. Like we wouldn't have a natural disaster during his term (other than having him for a President, of course).
Mr. Obama knew he'd take heat for these changes, as it would make the deficit appear to have worsened during his term. He just thought it was the right thing to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20b…
Also, he put both wars back on the budget books.
Oh, wait. You mentioned that. My bad.
actor212:
The NYT article explains the four (well, five if you count each war once) changes Mr. Obama made. I didn't want to get too deep into the details and fail to make my point.
And not only did the GOP blame Obama for the deficit "increases", they claim the savings from winding down operations in Iraq can't be used as offsets since they aren't "real."
Well, according to most Tea Baggers, the entire 16 trillion dollar debt was personally caused by President Obama and all we have to do to eliminate it is stop spending money.
Yes, Mr. Obama is responsible for the interest due on the $10T of debt left by the two Bush Administrations.
When they get really wound-up, the right wing nutz conflate TARP, the stimulus (40% of which was tax cuts, by the way, but Faux News never mentions that!), and the Deficit.
"One of the first things President Obama did in 2009 was end a series of accounting gimmicks utilized by President Bush (43) to hide the fiscal truth from the American people.
Things like running his two wars Enron-style – off the books.
[...]
Mr. Obama knew he'd take heat for these changes, as it would make the deficit appear to have worsened during his term. He just thought it was the right thing to do."
Thanks for that info.
You actually made my day a little better, and I haven't even finished my coffee yet.
tessiee:
Thank you!
These changes didn't get a lot of play. They don't fit the "horse race" political reporting scenario. Inside baseball, wonking (Wonkette?) stuff that makes a huge difference but has no visuals, requires thought, and just isn't sexy.
You certainly weren't going to hear about this on ClusterFox. And if you brought it up today, the FoxPAC would whine "You're just blaming Bush again!"
god this is great info. no idea.
thanks.
Well, now you're using facts and stuff, and half the audience is asleep and the rest turned on American Idol. So knock it off, OK?
I really wish he would telegraph this more when the fuckers are screaming "deficit!" and "debt!" every other second. Instead, he cedes their points about needing to bring down the debt and deficit without qualifying it that our budget looks so much more busted than years ago because of the phoney accounting practices of the Bush administration.
I want to scream every time one of his surrogates misses putting the current deficit in context.
Hoisted by his own Republitard.
I saw this play when it opened. It was a hurricane and that little Eric Cantor guy.
Dear Gov. Kasich:
Thank you for making everyone forget how clinically fucking insane I am by screwing over thousands of innocent
victims of the disasterpotential voters in Ohio.Sincerely,
Kansas Gov. Brownback
No one who has ever seen Sam in action can forget his insanity. Or fail to wonder how the hell someone as level headed as Sebelius ever got elected in that shithole.
Scott Walker approves this message.
Ohio is going to go their own way, like Wyoming after the apocalypse. Maybe the two states can secede from the Union and form their own independent nation, like Nasser did back in the day with his short-lived United Arab Republic. They could call it Wyohio.
That's our governor!
A Koch whore just like Wisconsin's but with no recall option.
~
I feel really sorry for all the Ohioans who didn't vote for this kochsucker.
Hurricane Andrew is looking down and shrugging. "Don't you folks ever learn?"
I'm sure he's against federal corn subsidies, too. Naturally.
His is a selective kind of compassion.
he feels he has earned them by regularly giving blow jobs to the CEOs of Monsanto and Cargill
There have been a record number of tornadoes in the Midwest this year; but remember, global climate change is just a conspiracy by the scientists to do something or other vaguely sinister.
They're just trying to ruin it for Big Business by taking away their religious god-given freedom to fuck us all over, those bullies.
Tornadoes – just another word for clearing the trash out.
Al Gore is fat. That disproves everything.
Except the stuff that's disproven by Michael Moore being fat.
But Limbaugh's fatness is irrelevant.
On a related note, I hope our friends in San Francisco are ok after their Earth Surfing event this morning at 5:33 a.m. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenew…
Supposedly a 4.0. Most people probably slept through it – I know I used to. Now, if I lived in the Marina District (aka landfill pudding) I might worry more.
I lived through a 2.7 once. Nearly woke my cat up.
I don't know anyone that even woke up, but a friend's dog went nuts.
(They must have a special Spidey-sense for these things!)
Neil Young needs to write a new song: Three Dead in Ohio.
Everytime, I think the GOP has reached bottom, some asshole brings out a shovel. I hope the citizens of Ohio show up at his door with torches and pitchforks.
KY, lubricateing the skids of Socialism while claiming to care.
Sounds like it might make a decent blues song:
My baby done left me, she left me for good.
Said I couldn't keep her, no food on the table
No job and no training, always onna dole
But my boostraps done blowed away in the tornaaaaaaaaaaaaaado
Snark + Music is a delightful duo.
*blues riff*
Da DAH da dum!
I guess Kasinch, in his grand master scheme of knowing all things, didn't listen to his emergency managers. In the world of FEMA aid, it's actually a well-prepared plan and considers the long-term implications to communities. For an incident like this, FEMA, the Small Business Adminstation, Department of Agriculture, and other Federal agencies can have a presence for 24-26 months, because that's how long it takes for things to be rebuilt. Every day Kasinch plays this little game of whack-a-mole with Ohioans, that's more delays in their reconstruction.
Sorry Ohio. I pity you but I am not suprised. I'm sure Rachel Maddow will have some sage words tonight.
Live and learn, Buckeye.
People get the government they deserve.
You're absolutely right. My family is from Akron and most of them didn't vote in the midterms because they were dissapointed with Obama.
Thereby hangs a salutary lesson in participatory democracies the world over.
There goes the Auntie Em vote.
Your move, Chrissie Hynde.
A, O, Way to go, Ohio.
Freak big winter snow storm = Ha ha, DFH how's that global warming working out for ya? + Al Gore is fat.
Actual results of climate change = *crickets*
Herp.
http://thismodernworld.com/wp-content/uploads/201…
Take that Ohioans! Since Kasich isn't about to use any lube while he rectally abuses you, at least you won't have to worry about Santorum.
"… at least you won't have to worry about CATCHING Santorum."
Fixed it for you.
Why should Kasich stop there – state gummint is gummint, too, along with county and township….rebuild yerselves, sukkahs!!!!….
Isn't that the Spirit upon which this Great Nation was founded? Give them each a rasher of bacon, a hand-axe, and a mule and soon they will build a new country.
In order to remain ideologically "pure," Kasich must fuck over as many people as he can. Kind of like sexual purity, but in reverse.
On NPR there was an interview with someone in someplace like Henryville (?) and I mouthed the first anticipated question: "What did y'all do to bring down God's wrath like this?"
Maybe I need to change radio stations, because I was disappointed.
Every time, and I mean EVERY TIME, I go to Chi-town they nab me for 200 beans. Seriously 55MPH. Trunpikes are for 80-100MPH.
Well, obviously it was God's will, and everyone knows you can't try to mess with or change God's will! (Unless his will is for you to no longer get boners – in THAT case, mess away!)
Or his will is for trophy wives of wealthy old men to get wrinkles when they reach middle age – then it's time for the botox, or even the full Callista.
What an amazing bastard our governor is.
And those are the kind sentiments about him in Ohio.
As a US taxpayer and NY state resident, I salute the bold decision making of the governor of any other state that doesn't want my tax money. As I tell my kids – "Ohio is where we get our natural gas and where we send our garbage".
As a fellow member of said New York state, I too applaud Governor Kasich refusal to take my tax dollars.
As a net recipient — along with every southern state — of federal tax hand-outs, donated by those of us from [usually] the north east states, may I suggest Kasich now consider self-immolation, or something similar as a just punishment.
Kinda like the captain going down with the ship… I'm sure the rest of Ohioans will appreciate the gesture.
Governor Kochsuck to his Constituents: "Drop dead!". Meanwhile, here in the Sovereign State of Dumfukistan, Governor Wheeler-Dealer posted a glowing fluff piece in the OpEd Section of the "Atlanta Urinal-Contstipation" touting the Newtster as the only viable antidote to the Blah President. Good times!
Nice usage of the Blagojevich-isms.
So, wait…
If I'm to understand this correctly…
Some right-wing crank in some godforsaken state has complained for years about "handouts" this and "taxes" that and "big guvment is the problem" the other thing…
And then did NOT instantly turn around and take guvment munnies?
Bein a repuke, Kasich is doin it rong.
Just a couple of weeks ago my mom in Virginia was talking to my aunt in Cleveland (but who grew up in and spent a large chunk of adulthood in VA), and my aunt, in reference to all the fun misogyny coming out of the VA state legislature, asked Mom "What the hell is wrong with your state?" Now Mom can call her back and ask the same thing.
Seems to me that I recall Sen. Kerry having a comfortable lead in 2004 until Ohio magically turned red, in some sort of 1 in 80 million coincidence. Perhaps Kasich is turning down government aid, secure in the knowledge that his pals Bush and Diebold will throw some of their millions his way as a reward for his loyalty?
Ouch. Those memories still hurt. (though not as bad as the 2000 supreme court katherine harris voter fraud fiasco)
"Clermont County Commissioner Bob Proud said he is confident the state can handle cleanup in hard-hit areas, such as Moscow. " Hmm, I still smell a Communist plot.
Kasich to Ohio: Drop Dead
Naw, it's blow away.
I want to fucking shake this guy's hand! I mean, if you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. Kudos to Gov. Kasich (pronounced, "car-sick" in certain parts of Massachusetts) for not bloating the federal budget any more by accepting government handouts designed to increase dependency upon the government. He is so much more honest than those bastards who voted against the stimulus plan, then were photographed with giant checks handing out the dole to their constituents.
/snark off
Is it possible Gov. Kasich has never visited Xenia, Ohio? A tornado ripped through the Greene County seat twice.
Take a look at the satellite photos of that town today. Let me put it this way – nobody has any trouble finding a parking space…
That reminds me: where is Cantor, voice of the nation's conscience, on this?
Jesus wept.
Kasich is in office until 2014. He knows the Dems won't be showing up at the polls to vote him out, because they can't.
I love the smell of recall in the morning…
Because God forbid you actually take back some of the money your taxpaying citizens sent to the federal government for EXACTLY THIS PURPOSE!
I wonder if there will be very many folks in Ohio willing to show up in public tomorrow and admit they are Republicans? Just guessing but I'd bet not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ituP5X7kP64
Saw McConnell on teevee this morning saying he will make sure the pl of KY get help…
So in other words, McConnell is a welfare queen too.
Guess so…the guy was standing in a ruined street w/debris all around…unless I wasn't awake quite yet!JanWhat other people think of youIs none of your business.
I am not sure the Turtle Queen would be that close to the poors unless they had one of those oversize Stimulus project checks with them and a press crew.
And yeah, I just checked and she was in D.C. today.
Govenor K-Hash knew them there tornados were really just God's will to punish the people of O-hi-o.
For electing such an asshole govenor who hates the Poors.
Friends don't let friends elect acid burnout Deadheads to be Governor.
Huh?
Ohio Republicans are going to be furious at Kasich's consistent textbook conservatism.
The Pep Boys?
No snark, this fucker needs to be impeached, stat. This is something so not in need of partisanship. Your state has had an emergency, and you'd rather be a rigid ideologue than help suffering people. Fuck you, and good riddance. If only you were so lucky to have been hit by this thing. This is dereliction of duty to not accept emergency aid when it is available.
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