Freedom, Liberty and Choice take a back seat....

The House and Senate and our fine Governor cut another slice out of the freedom pie this week. They passed and he signed the restriction on Pay Day loans.

Only big brother can properly decide the correct choice for you financially, protect you from "predators," oh, and limit your freedom.

Here was the vote. With a grand total of 28 members standing for liberty and the Constitution.


Unofficial Votes for House Bill 545
* See Journal for the official record of the vote.
Journal
Vote
05/14/2008
Senate - Third Consideration
summary
Yeas - 29
Amstutz
Austria
Boccieri
Cafaro
Carey
Cates
Coughlin
Faber
Fedor
Goodman
Grendell
Jacobson
Kearney
Mason
Miller D
Miller R
Morano
Niehaus
Padgett
Roberts
Sawyer
Schaffer
Schuring
Smith
Spada
Stivers
Wagoner
Wilson
Harris

Nays - 4
Buehrer
Mumper
Schuler
Seitz


05/20/2008
House - Senate Amendments
summary
Yeas - 70
Bacon
Batchelder
Blessing
Bolon
Book
Boyd
Brady
Brown
Budish
Carmichael
Celeste
DeBose
DeGeeter
DeWine
Dodd
Dolan
Driehaus
Dyer
Evans
Fende
Flowers
Foley
Gardner
Garrison
Gerberry
Goyal
Hagan J.
Hagan R.
Harwood
Heard
Hottinger
Hughes
Jones
Koziura
Letson
Lundy
Mallory
Mandel
McGregor J.
McGregor R.
Miller
Newcomb
Oelslager
Okey
Patton
Peterson
Raussen
Redfern
Sayre
Schindel
Schlichter
Schneider
Sears
Skindell
Slesnick
Stebelton
Stewart D.
Stewart J.
Szollosi
Ujvagi
Wagner
Webster
White
Widener
Widowfield
Williams B.
Williams S.
Wolpert
Yates
Husted


Nays - 24
Adams
Aslanides
Brinkman
Chandler
Coley
Collier
Combs
Core
Daniels
Domenick
Fessler
Gibbs
Goodwin
Hite
Huffman
Luckie
Mecklenborg
Reinhard
Setzer
Strahorn
Uecker
Wachtmann
Yuko
Zehringer

Thankfully Michigan allows payday lending - more business heading north.

Shameful - remember these names in the voting booth.

The A-Hole

That was ACTING!! Thank You!

Last night I spent some time with..................well........................lawyers. For the first time I attended the annual Toledo Junior Bar Association's Grid Iron Show. BRAVA!

I had gone to the pre-party the year before, but not the event. This spectacle provides a prime example of what lawyers and the legal community can and should be about. Good spirited, satirical, high and low brow self examination and discourse; with some local and national political humor as well.

This is not a common event among other Ohio or national metropolitan bar associations as far as I know. Perhaps that is why, for the most part, the members of our legal community - while being staunch advocates for their clients and personal beliefs - maintain a professional collegial respect with each other. And it never hurts to laugh at yourself a little bit either.

The name of my blog is after all, The Asshole Lawyer. While most people (ok the three who read it) understand the purpose of such a self deprecating title - others may take offense; believing I am catering to the chorus of voices who disparage our profession, discount our contribution, and seem to forget that when you have a problem who ya gonna call? Ghost Busters - nope, the cops and a lawyer. But as the Grid Iron shows, pointing the finger in the mirror and laughing can be great way to face reality.

Great job to the cast and crew of the Grid Iron. See ya next year.

The A-Hole.

Fatties - Foreclosures - and Floatillas

The city recently addressed a myriad of issues related to health, economic development and growth in our fair city and county. Over the last weeks the Mayor and council have voted, regulated and proselytized in areas of health (our fat city) land ownership and transfer (land contract restrictions) and recreational development (the marina funding).

These three subjects are only the most recent examples and illustrations of how our city government (much like all democratic party controlled governments) solve problems. MORE GOVERNMENT REGULATION FUNDED BY TAXES.

Yesterday's revelation that again Toledo is ranked as one of the most unhealthy cities in America spurred the Mayor to; call for more government built bike paths; highlight the 12 miles of paths and trails already constructed; and attack those who voice disagreement with those plans by calling them fat.

The council recently passed restrictions of land contract property sales to protect innocent citizens from predatory unscrupulous land speculators - claiming of course that the poor are victims of such schemes. Now that is both insulting and oppressive. "You are too poor and stupid to look out for yourself, so we will regulate your rights for you!" No cry of racism or elitism was heard however.

Lastly - we are now "benefiting" from state tax dollars being earmarked for the marina project. But wait - remember class - ALL TAX DOLLARS ARE YOUR MONEY!! Neither federal government, the state government nor the local government make their own money. So we are now stealing from a statewide tax base - for our benefit. Why - to "enable" the development of the project as promised for years and years. If the marina project, Swan Creek project and yes the unfunded arena project are good investments in the future of Toledo and NW Ohio, that investment should come from private sources - assisted by government DEREGULATION AND REDUCED INTERFERENCE - not by more tax dollars.

The A-Hole

Revenuers, Speculators, and Taxmen

They Got Me! Despite my general cynicism and dislike of the mayor and the Blade, they got me. A bright full color picture in the sun, an artists rendering of the new upscale Swan Creek, and 4.2 MILLION DOLLARS plastered across the top. But the truth is, its business as usual for the Mayor, the City Counsel, and The Blade.

This is not a sale. This is land speculation. With a token deposit (which it can get back) Tetra Tech gets to hold its place in line, let the city do the homework, fact checking, and CLEANUP, and then MAYBE - Tetra Tech will spend some real money.

Not likely. I should have known when the mayor said "if you want the details talk to the lawyers" that something was afoot.

Its rare, but I was fooled; and had engaged in a discussion with a co-worked about how nice it was to see the city and the mayor do something right for a change.

Toledo's version of oil speculation has come to town, but I don't see Daniel Day Lewis skulking around town in 1820's garb, promising to build churches.

The A-Hole.

From a tad-POLL to a toad.

I decided if I was going to comment on the process, I should have some sense of it, so I worked the polls for the primary. I must admit, after my training session, and meeting my precinct team on the Monday night beforehand, I was sure it would be a fiasco. Luckily all went well.

I worked the Ottawa Hills H.S. polling location, and yes I am well aware that more populated precincts were much busier and less staffed, but I was pleasantly surprised at how the system worked.

We had input from “seasoned” poll workers (many of whom apparently have been doing their civic duty since before I was born), we had team leaders called “presiding judges” to help us regular poll judges get by, and we all worked well as a team. As I mentioned; armed and educated by a three hour training session and a pre-primary night meeting at the polling location to set up the machines, we leaped feet first into the fray Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. I left the location at just after 8:00 p.m. in the freezing rain and sleet. A long but satisfying day.

I saw children with their parents to join in the “historic vote” on the democrat ticket. I saw 17 year old students who will be 18 in November, vote for the first time. I worked with one dedicated 17 year old high school student who was there for the day, not for the money, not because he was president of the young republicans at his school, and not because he had some required community service hours to complete, but simply because he wanted to learn and experience the system first hand.

The machines worked like a charm. For the skeptics paper ballots were available upon request. I debated the machine vs. paper with a co-worker on Wednesday. Reading about the “lost memory cards” she was convinced that the old way was more reliable. I argued (successfully I might add) that we have no idea how successful the old way was, because we were comfortably naive about lost ballots, missing ballots, discarded ballots, ballots dropped in the ocean, or uncounted absentee military ballots. Because of the accuracy and immediate results which are possible with electronic ballots we now KNOW MORE about lost votes and can react accordingly. And knowledge is power, even if it only leads to finger pointing and cries of voter interference and disenfranchisement.

Like DeWine said - not a single electronic machine ran out of paper ballots. Yes in Lucas County some memory cards containing the votes were missing for at time; but guess what - officials knew exactly how many memory cards, where they should have been, and where to look because the cards are a known number. Therefore they could find them, and as necessary - return to the proper machines and re-record the votes. VWALLA!!

Did we ever know when a bag, box, crate, pallet or truckload of paper ballots went missing in the good ole days? No. Because we could not know the accurate number of paper ballots cast across the hundreds of thousands of voters, OR, design out the human error factor in casting, collecting, and counting them, we simply never knew the total of lost or incorrectly cast ballots.

So despite my initial cynicism, I became a convinced believer in the system, the machines, and the process. A proud, long day well spent.

The A-Hole.

PS…..and I get paid!!!!!

Please - for your own good - Read Walter Williams

Walter Williams

The A-Hole

An Electable Ticket

It looks like McCain is going to be the republican nominee. Question is, if he is facing a Clinton/Obama ticket or an Obama/Clinton ticket (less likely) who can republicans put up to win.

I know she has said NO WAY for years, but if the ticket for the democrats is that strong and historical, would Condoleeza Rice reconsider a vice presidency, for her country, for her party, for her race and for her gender.

McCain/Rice would be electable. She might reassure conservative republicans who are worried about McCain's liberal leanings. She would draw moderate, independent, and undecided women and African American voters to the right, and, she is probably the smartest person in the current cabinet.

CMON CONDI - Please - for God and Country - take a four year job in the Vice President's quarters. If you don't want to be President, so be it.

The A-Hole