Mayor Newsom Simulating Fellatio on a Mic

California, with a state economy collapsing under the weight of unsustainable public pensions and a public sector, is truly Ohio’s ghost of state budgets future.

And as CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby reported, Gov. Ted Strickland is being supported in a fundraising appeal by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in hopes of bringing in left-coast dollars from the radical homosexual activists.

Notice how he uses the only thing that gets Democrat voters excited about Strickland… That this election will have a major impact on the 2012 presidential race:

From Mayor Gavin Newsom:

I’m writing to tell you about a good friend of mine, Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio.

Every four years, Ohio is a pivotal swing state in deciding who will be president. Keeping Ohio blue in 2010 is critical to winning in 2012. This year, Ted is facing a tough fight for re-election – and he needs all of our help.

Like California, the Midwest has been hit hard by this global financial crisis. But Ted has been doing an exceptional job of laying the foundation for recovery. This year, Ohio has been among the states with the highest job growth in the country and last year was a national leader in advanced energy jobs created.

Ted has also been a pioneering governor for education: he reformed the public school system with the biggest overhaul Ohio has seen in eighty years and kept the state’s tuition increases to the lowest in the nation. And Ted supported employment non-discrimination for all Ohioans regardless of sexual orientation.

Please click here to help Ted keep Ohio blue with a donation of $25, $50 or $100 – whatever you can afford.

Ted Strickland has been a groundbreaking governor, and it’s important to help him win a second term. In contrast, Ted’s opponent fought to cut health care and education funding while in Washington. And he was a player at the now-collapsed Lehman Brothers, one of the firms that precipitated our economic meltdown.

Unfortunately, Kasich’s ultra-conservative ties are helping him amass funds and run a competitive race. To fight back and keep Ohio blue, Ted needs our help.

Can you help keep Ohio blue with a donation of $25, $50 or $100 to Ted’s campaign?

In 2008, Ted Strickland campaigned tirelessly for Hillary Clinton in the primary and President Obama in the general election – and both won Ohio. Helping Ted win in 2010 will go a long way to ensuring that the White House remains in Democratic hands in 2012.

Thanks for everything you’ve done.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

P.S. Even if you can’t afford to give right now, please click here to join Ted’s campaign. He’ll appreciate your support and keep you updated on the race.

Newsom is Reason Magazine’s Nanny of the month.

By education reform I suppose we’re talking about how during Gov. Strickland’s 4 years in office, state aid decreased by $465 million…. the LARGEST cut in state aid to school funding since 1975. Here is the LSC chart with the exact numbers.

Contrast that with former Republican Governors of Ohio, such as George Voinovich, increased state aid for education by $264 million in his first 4 years. More money certainly doesn’t lead to better education- Cleveland spends more per student than most school districts in the country- But cutting education spending is the only “reform” Gavin Newsom could be referring to… other than kicking Catholic school children who received a 500% larger cut in funding than other schools. But harming institutions which provide a solid education while espousing Christian principles would certainly be in line with San Fransisco values, right?

Campaign finance reports are due soon and it will be interesting to see how effective Strickland’s California fundraising efforts were.

This isn’t very evidence-y of him.

Errrr… or maybe not:

These comments to Buckeye State Blog were at the conclusion of Progress Ohio’s Roots Camp, a gathering of fringe activists, bloggers, 9/11-truthers, socialists, and dunderheads who all came together so Progress Ohio could justify its existence with pictures and keep that sweet Peter Lewis/George Soros money flowing.

It’s comforting to know Strickland is keeping his fingers crossed for failing Ohio schools in the Federal Government’s education funding mega-sweepstakes. Blow on the dice for luck, baby… students need some new $400,000 videos and cultural anthropologists!

Ted Strickland counted on Federal education dollars as part of his patch-work budget, but it appears Ohio has no interest in spending much of that money on students:

Buried within a 263-page application for $409 million in federal grant money, Ohio education officials detail how they want to spend $600,000 for two cultural anthropologists, $400,000 for a video, $320,000 for a communications plan and another $160,000 for “creative messaging.”

Ohio is competing against 39 other states and the District of Columbia for a chunk of $4 billion from the U.S. Department of Education’s new “Race to the Top” program.

State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, called items in the application further evidence of why some people lose faith in government’s ability to reform education.

Ohio’s application seems to be “a way to fund the status quo and pay for things that have nothing to do with educating children in the classroom,” Husted said. “We should be embarrassed by some of the things they want to fund in this application.”

And not to mention that this is one-time money. It is nice to see Husted causing a fuss about this and the Strickland administration should be held accountable.

Maybe a 65 cent solution is in order?

From Jennifer Smith Richards in The Dispatch reports on more wasted stimulus ObamaBucks:

Ohio school districts are spending money meant for disabled students to stabilize their shaky budgets, and the state has made it easier for them to do so.

Statewide, schools are receiving an extra $438 million in federal stimulus money just for special education. For most districts, the influx has doubled the federal dollars they received for special education.[...]

The law that allows districts to take from the fund isn’t new, but it’s been rarely used in Ohio. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act says that, in years where districts receive more special-education funding, they can reduce their local spending by up to 50 percent of the increase.

In essence, that allows schools to spend more local money on other needs.

In Ohio, only 8 percent of districts and charter schools were qualified to use the exception in past years, because schools were eligible only if they showed “adequate yearly progress” in special education.

But the Ohio Department of Education lowered the requirements last year. Now, 99 percent of Ohio’s 613 districts and 323 charter schools are eligible.

Ohio added flexibility for its schools even as the U.S. Secretary of Education urged against doing so. Districts don’t have to meet the federal progress goal to divert funds anymore, nor do they have to prove that special-needs students are being educated in the “least restrictive environment,” which often means in regular classrooms.

And this is a double-whammy to disabled students, as Federal funding is a tied to the amount of local funding, and schools that use this provision have lower level of local funds dedicated to special ed, which sets up a lower baseline for funding in the future.

This is just $439 more stimulus dollars that didn’t “save jobs” or improve test scores, but instead went into the financial black hole of inefficient public schools. And this is ontop of Strickland cutting funding for non-public schools, which might be able to give more personalized and cost-effective care to special needs students, by 500% more than public schools.

When it comes to children with disabilities, Ted Strickland apparently won’t let his compassionate liberalism get in the way of his support for greedy teacher unions.

Update: And remember, this is the same Governor who misdirected donated BMV fees that was supposed to fight blindness and was instead used for general state expenditures.

From Bill Bush in The Columbus Dispatch:

Columbus City Schools have more than 120 buildings designed for teaching.

But in a three-day effort to teach its teachers, the district is renting banquet halls, high-end hotels and conference centers — using almost $145,000 in federal grant dollars.[...]

The district will pay up to $8,000 to rent Villa Milano, a marble-clad banquet hall with enough “classic elegance” that “you will think you have been transported to a romantic Italian Villa,” according to the hall’s Web site.

Other sites include: the Hyatt Regency ($23,000); the Greater Columbus Convention Center and the Hyatt on Capitol Square ($25,000 each); the Quest Business and Conference Center at Polaris ($17,000); and the Aladdin Temple near Easton ($12,500).

The district will pay the speakers more than $1.4 million in federal stimulus money, part of $64.2 million that Columbus schools have been awarded from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

One company, the International Center for Leadership in Education, will receive $468,258.

Sheridan WorldWise, a company run by former Columbus school board President Dave Dobos, will collect $84,500 to give several presentations. He will talk about the college-admissions process and the SAT and ACT exams, while other WorldWise-affiliated speakers will talk on other subjects.

I really feel for Spokesbabe Kim Norris, as this story is in addition to the Obama Administration using fuzzy numbers with “saved or created” jobs at Columbus schools.

And this is a perfect example as to why dumping piles of money on Ohio schools is NOT the answer to our state’s educational problems… as educrats will always find new, creative ways to waste your money.

From Laura Bischoff…

$2.3 billion cut to schools possible, Strickland says

Without money from slot machines, Ohio may also lose federal stimulus funding for schools and see a $2.3 billion gaping hole in K-12 funding, the Strickland administration said Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Without special permission from the federal government to shift money around, Ohio may have to cut aid to districts by 10.3 percent in the current school year and 15.74 percent next school year, according to an analysis by the Ohio Department of Education.

I’ve never heard of this GAAP rule, where amounts are almost tripped for no reason other than that Gov. Strickland wants to.

And Strickland, as a big supporter of spending Federal dollars without regard for their attached mandates, will now have to ask the Federal government for “special permission.” Wonderful

Hold onto your wallets folks. Taxin’ Ted Strickland’s stupid “evidence based” education reforms will probably cost you:

You should be.

Phew! I am relieved that Ohio’s complicated school funding issues are over. Aren’t you?

Apparently, the new budget which Ted Strickland signed into law includes a ban on corporal punishment. The Center for Effective Discipline, which sounds like one of those pretend one-guy-and-a-fax-machine lefty operations which exist solely to provide useful quotes to the MSM, is thrilled about the news.

Perhaps I’m old fashioned and have an illiberal view of human nature, but I truly believe there are some terrible children which should be swiftly hit. And possibly hit again.

Far too many students do not dress properly for school and do not respect their teachers. As long as education remains compulsory, perhaps true reform would encourage MORE paddling to improve the learning environment for the innocent children who actually want some sort of an education from woefully inadequate public schools. And another step might be protecting teachers from frivolous lawsuits filed by parents who taught bad manners to their children in the first place.

Gov. Ted Strickland is not a father, and I’d love to hear him explain just how banning paddling improves the quality of public education. Perhaps with this ban, combined with reducing the number of days children will have to play outside during the Summer, Strickland’s true objective is to continue feminizing entire generations of young boys.