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Monday, July 25, 2005

OH-02: Jean Schmidt Corrupted By Big Money

Posted by Bob Brigham

The Culture of Corruption in the Ohio Republican Party is disgusting. The Coingate Scandal shows how Republicans stole from the people to funnel money to dirty politicians.

Jean Schmidt, the Republican candidate in the August 2nd Special Election, is funding her campaign in a manner that shows her place in the corrupt Republican Party. She's funding her campaign with PACs and dirty money from Tom DeLay. Jean Schmidt was also busted for hiding gifts from fat-cat lobbyists. And now Jean Schmidt is trying to buy the race herself?

Posted at 12:33 PM in Ohio | Technorati

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The Smoke Eater

Greedy Jean

By: Peter Deane

The first time I saw the Cincinnati President of Right to Life, Jean Schmidt, was when she was debating in Anderson Township for the Republican Primary. During the debate she mentioned that there was no dirt in her closest. I took her for her word and only gave it a second glimpse. I thought for sure that someone else would win the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District. She seemed phony. I believe my intuitions were right.

Soon after her win in the Republican Primaries it was disclosed that she did not file money from gifts that she received from a night out on the town with the Chiron Corporation.

Chiron is a biotech company that’s a favorite to the Pro-Life movement. At the time, Chiron was lobbying Jean to create a cystic fibrosis task force. A month later she co-sponsored a bill that created a cystic fibrosis task force with Chiron. Recently English health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making flu vaccines when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. It also caused a panic here in the United States as our flu vaccination came into short supply. Remember the lines?

Her opponent Paul Hackett doesn’t like the fact that Jean Schmidt didn’t disclose the gifts from Chiron, Hackett said of her not disclosing, “She should have known better. What is going to happen when Jean Schmidt goes to Washington and they start throwing really big money at her?"

But it looks as if big money is already being thrown her way. Many donors to her campaign are also donors that give to Planned Parenthood. Jean Schmidt is the President of Cincinnati Right to Life. Corporations that give to Pro-Choice organizations are often boycotted organizations such as Right to Life.

And what organizations is Jean Schmidt now receiving money for her campaign. Currently on her FEC form 6 contributions, the Schmidt for Congress Committee is ringing in money received from many corporations that give to Pro-Choice organizations. That would be called blood money to anyone that’s Pro-Life. Why would the president of Pro-life Cincinnati accept such a donation from corporations that her organization deems baby killers? Lets just take a look at several of them giving to Jean’s campaign.

RJ Reynolds, if you are employed by them they’ll match your donation to Planned Parenthood. Jean gladly accepted their donation of $1,000.

The American Medical Association is backing a proposal that would force pharmacists to dispense abortifacients. And how much did The American Medical Association give Jean? $5,000! She probably was smiling all the way to the bank on that one. They are even for right to consent for minors.

Phillip Morris is on a list called Boycotts for Life. Boycotts for Life is an organization that only lists companies that give money to organizations that provide abortions and/or abortion counseling, or have made a profit through the use or sale of products that induce abortions. Also, on their website is a statement that states "each time you buy something from those companies (Like Phillip Morris), directly or indirectly, some of your money is spent to help murder an innocent unborn baby." Altria Group is the parent company of Phillip Morris and gave Jean's campaign $2,500. As the president of Right to Life why doesn’t Jean honor this Boycott for Life? When an organization like Boycotts for Life boycotts it means no giving and no taking. I wonder if Jean hides this one in her pipe and smokes it. She took the $2,500 from them.

General Electric is one of the biggest military contractors in the nation and they’re also being boycotted. A group that calls itself Children of God for Life list them on a boycott sheet, not because of the war, but because of their pursuit of embryonic stem cell research. What would the kids in March of Dimes think of this?

Pfizer, they too match their employee donations to Planned Parenthood and also make a drug called Cytotec which induces abortions. Jean Schmidt, received a check for $1,000 from Pfizer. I wonder what the Children of God would think of Jean Schmidt accepting a donation of $1,000 from a company like this.

The Fluor Corporation Pac also gave to Jean’s campaign. Fluor along with Halliburton is part of the six corporations chosen by President Bush to bid on contracts for Iraq’s future. There’s money to be made in the Mid-east and Fluor donated $2,500 to Jean’s war chest. What defense corporation wouldn’t want another rubber stamp like Jean on the House Floor?

Last but not least is the Exxon Corporation. There’s a big concern about mega-farms taking hold in the 2nd District of Ohio, this is all about the false dream of ethanol -- Jean Schmidt states that she "likes the smell of it!" Who but Jean and ill-informed farmers are supporting this idea?

Even the CEO of Exxon, Lee R. Raymond, of Exxon Mobile would disagree on ethanol saving us from our current energy crises. Petroleum World published an article in June of 2004, featuring Raymond in which he said, “Currently, ethanol from corn is neither an economic nor energy-efficient choice, as it can require more energy to produce than it generates in the end. And it relies upon using significant land areas, land that would otherwise go to food crops or forest cover.”

He then continued, “To give you some perspective, if we tried to replace just 10 percent of the gasoline the U.S. will use in 2020 with corn-based ethanol, we would need to plant an area equivalent to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio solely to grow the grain needed as feedstock. The difficulty of that can be appreciated when you realize that this area is about one-sixth of the land we currently use in the United States for growing all our crops.” Exxon Corp also matches funds of their employees to Planned Parenthood. Considered blood money to any Pro-Life president, but the president of Right to Life Cincinnati, Jean Schmidt, took the $1,000 without any comments about the Exxon offer to her campaign.

I believe that Jean’s true colors are dripping. It’s red and human, and the only green fields we see coming from the president of Right to Life becomes stuffed in already paid-for corporate energy and biotech Pro-Life pockets. There’s enough soiled dirt in Jean Schmidt's closet to create the next plague or dust bowl in the 2nd District of Ohio.

In 2004 Cincinnati Right to Life of Cincinnati published a national newsletter which went to all the then-known pro-life organizations. It recommended a boycott of the March of Dimes. Yes, her organization, Right to Life of Cincinnati was a leader in the boycott of the March of Dimes, that’s sad. Cures are to be made for the living, the dead are dead as dead can be. I believe in only one resurection. And sometimes through a march of dimes we find the answer.

Did Schmidt boycott the March of Dimes because of Right to Life of Cincinnati wanted to take them over using a biotech corporation called Chiron? It seems as if her Pro-Life organization has become another greedy corporation.

Posted by: The Smoke eter at July 25, 2005 07:08 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment