Politics

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the airwaves are awash with coverage which is contradictory, confusing and dishonest. It is clear that President Kennedy was killed by the National Security State (CIA and Pentagon). The assassination marked the rise of the military industrial complex, the American Empire and the permanent warfare state. This fact is highly troubling for Americans who have not studied the political assassinations of the 1960s nor the many subsequent crimes perpetuated by the National Security State since 1963. People want to trust their government. Understanding the evil underbelly is highly uncomfortable. Political assassinations and events such as the attacks on 9/11 can be described as a “state crime against democracy,” a term coined by Lance deHaven-Smith in his book “Conspiracy Theory in America.” The cover story does not quite fit, but the result is increased funding or power for the National Security State. These events are used to justify another war, another conflict, another enemy. There will be no peace dividend.

On the 31st of July, Yellow Springs Ohio was the site of a major police operation that involved multiple agencies. The resulting standoff left one resident dead from police gunfire and residents with serious questions about police conduct. Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine took the opportunity on November 12th to deliver a state Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) report and push for new mental health laws and greater police funding. Questions from the deceased's family were not answered and the press conference ended abruptly. The BCI report, which has not been released in full, claims to have interviewed over 80 residents of Yellow Springs regarding the shootout and death of Paul Schenck in July. Several Yellow Springs residents have declined to give statements to the Columbus Free Press, claiming the police would not take their statements and alleging police harassment and surveillance since their attempts to go on record.

With a stroke of his pen on November 6, 2013, Ohio Governor John Kasich demonstrated his utter contempt for democracy. Fearing that Ohio Libertarian Party nominee Charlie Earl, who has strong Tea Party support, would cut into his conservative base, Kasich outlawed all third parties in Ohio for the 2014 election. The offending law is Senate Bill 193, which passed last week amidst controversy and turmoil at the Statehouse. It has been dubbed the “John Kasich Re-election Protection Act” for obvious reasons. The ever-arrogant Ohio Senator Bill Seiz (R-Cincinnati) introduced the draconian law the same day the Libertarians publicly announced Earl’s nomination. Kasich has always been a bit contemptuous of competitive elections. Other than his first campaign, most of his electoral victories were landslides aided by gerrymandered districts and an incredibly safe noncompetitive seat in the 1990’s.

Politicians should be envious of cannabis. It’s WAY more popular than they are. Its many wins at the ballot box testify to its popularity, and Election Day 2013 served as a case in point. From Colorado to Michigan, Maine and Miami, voters handed the substance healthy margins that would feel like a mandate to any vote hungry candidate. Take Colorado, for example. It is well known that the state’s Constitutional Amendment 64 to permit the “personal use and regulation of marijuana” passed by a 55 percent margin in 2012, the same year that President Obama won the White House with just 50.4 percent of the popular vote. Cannabis was on the ballot in Colorado again this year in the form of a tax on the sales made legal last year. This measure claimed an even higher 65 percent of the vote. Three Michigan cities ran local ballot initiatives to remove penalties for possession of an ounce and guess what?

Far from the centers of worldwide financial trading, Ohio State University gave an award to an intelligence industry academic, while he called for more secrecy. Less than 24 hours earlier, the intelligence community ensured itself a tighter grasp on one of the key tools that we, the global public, use communicate amongst ourselves – Twitter. On November 8, Joshua Rovner came to OSU to present his book “Fixing the Facts: National Security and the Politics of Intelligence,” a study of the influence of intelligence (as in CIA) on decision making in national policy. Rovner also received a prestigious award for its publication. The Edgar S. Furniss Book Award commemorates the founder of OSU's Mershon Center for International Studies and is given once a year. Rovner began by presenting his book as a study of how intelligence professionals are manipulated into presenting estimates to national leadership figures that fit into the latter's pre-decided upon policy positions. He claimed that this historical tendency was caused by leader’s attempts to use intelligence estimates as public political tools.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is in town and they are going to confront that redhead, Wendy. On Saturday, November 16 at 1:00pm, Ohio Fair Food and community members throughout the state will demonstrate at 9th Ave and High Street to raise the specter of how the CIW’s Fair Food Program is rooting out modern day slavery and abuse of farm workers. That’s right. Slavery. When the Immokalee workers – who work in and around in the fields of Immokalee, Florida picking many of the tomatoes for the fast food industry – mean the term slavery, they really mean slavery. Emilio Faustino Galindo is a farmworker who worked for 16 years in the fields of Immokalee, Florida.. Florida produces over 90 percent of America’s fresh tomatoes during the fall and winter seasons. Galindo told the Free Press that workers are mainly from Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. Galindo spoke at a Free Press gathering on Saturday, November 9, 2013 about the harsh conditions farmworkers historically faced. He stated that their movement started when a farmworker was “beaten bloody for getting a drink of water.” “His shirt became the flag of our movement.

On the heels of submitting roughly 23,000 signatures in support of campaign finance reform, the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government (“the Coalition”) buttressed its claims of a need for change in local election law with an analysis of campaign contributions in the 2013 City Council elections. The Coalition released a press release and analysis drawn from Campaign Finance reports submitted to the Franklin County Board of Elections showing that Friends for Ginther, the campaign fund for Columbus City Council President Andrew Ginther, contributed 70 percent of the campaign dollars in the 2013 election cycle, though Ginther was not on the ballot. Citizens for Priscilla Tyson raised $22,010.35 and also benefited from $58,901.58 of in-kind contributions from Friends for Ginther. A. Troy Miller for Columbus raised $7,110.74 and benefited from $58,751.58 from Friends for Ginther; and Paley for Columbus raised $12,159.30 and also benefited from $58,751.58 contributed in kind from Friends for Ginther. The major in-kind contributions from Friends for Ginther were for radio time and TV time. In total, the incumbent council members (Priscilla Tyson, A.