Schmidt considers nuke waste

[Rose Siding]

This doesn't happen every day: An incumbent member of Congress, in the middle of a re-election battle, says that storing nuclear waste shipments from around the world in her district may be a good idea.
U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt does say that, and her support for studying the idea has become an issue in her re-election campaign, especially in rural Pike County, in the far eastern end of her sprawling Southern Ohio District, where the nuclear wastes would be stored....

The idea of nuclear waste storage on a site that is still being cleaned up from its previous use has infuriated environmentalists and neighbors of the plant in Pike County and nearby Scioto County, prompting a communitywide petition drive and vows to fight the storage plan to the bitter end.

That and the fact that Schmidt's Democratic opponent, Victoria Wulsin of Indian Hill, has come out against the idea, mean that the issue could have an impact on Schmidt's re-election - meaning it could help determine who represents 650,000 constituents from Greater Cincinnati to Portsmouth.

"All I can tell you is that when it became known that she supports this, every Jean Schmidt yard sign in the county went down overnight," said Geoffrey Sea, a writer whose home abuts the Piketon plant.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS01/610290398/1056/COL02

[saltpoint]

1. Is Hamilton County the county that has been giving Schmidt her

margin of victory, or the other, more rural counties?

I hope the Wulsin campaign can jump on this one.

[rexcat]

16. Warren and Claremont Counties...

are the largest population counties in her district. I think part of Hamilton County is in her district but is less influential than Warren and Claremont. For Wulsen to win in the 2nd Congressional District she must take either Warren or Claremont which is unlikely. That said this issue could make some of the voters throughout her district stand up and start to think change is needed and boot her out of office.

[saltpoint]

25. Hi, rexcat. Thanks for that info. Well, Warren County is one place where

the "voting irregularities" of 2004 took place, so I'm not optimistic about that county, but this nuclear waste pronouncement by Schmidt seems clumsy and ill-timed.

Maybe it will be enough to tip the scales.

[rexcat]

33. I was a polling judge in Warren County in '04...

and what happened in Warren County was more to do with stupidity than fraud. I think the election results were on the mark. I have spoken to several Democrats on the Warren County BOE who were there that night and the lock down of the BOE was just stupidity in action and they have assured me that if there had been any fraud that night they would have been screaming for an investigation. This county is 88% republican and the turn out in '04 was high. I worked 14 hours that day. The precinct that I worked had most of the votes going for Bush*. It was about 3:1 in favor or Bush*.

On the other hand I spoke to a Democrat who helped with an audit of in Claremont County, next door to Warren County, and there were some "irregularities" in the results and the ballots. To date I have not heard anything else concerning this issue.

edited for clarity

[saltpoint]

35. Thank you for that inside look. You were there, you saw things as

they happened, so I trust your version for the precinct(s) you judged and observed.

A friend of mine did the same in Montgomery County and felt that the voting there was steady and "normal." I think Montgomery County was the only blue county in SW Ohio, wasn't it?

Still, we heard tales of irregularities. I'm out of line to call them felony voter fraud without evidence in hand. But things in other parts of the state did not seem to mesh with a well-run, SOS-supervised election procedure.

According to at least two people I've talked with (1 from Warren County, the other from Butler), there was a lot of distrust in many people's faces about events statewide.

Exit polls are not perfect, but they aren't usually off as much as they were that night in Ohio.

[rexcat]

39. Again...

there are issues in Claremont county and from what I have read on line and in the newspapers there are issues in Cuyahoga county (Cleveland Metro area). Claremont county is as republican as Warren County but Cuyahoga county has a lot of Democrats. The Cuyahoga county thing has me worried.

The main issue for the Democrats is to get the message out loud and clear and win by more than 5%. From what I have read a >5% margin eliminates the voting fraud issue in a large population state like Ohio. f the margin is 2-3% voting fraud or "irregularities" can become an issue.

[AndyTiedye]

42. They Flipped 30% STATEWIDE Last Year in Ohio

The reform initiatives were up 2-1 in the polls, yet they "lost" 2-1.

5% is easily within the margin of stealability.

[Kukesa]

41. Yep, Montgomery County was BLUE in 2004.

Just barely, but we were blue.

Link here:

http://tinyurl.com/yhglbe

[theHandpuppet]

29. The rural counties voted for Hackett by large margins

It was Cincy and its surrounding counties that carried the day for Schmidt.

[saltpoint]

34. Hi, Handpuppet. Well, I hope this time the Hackett voters go for

Dr. Wulsin, and that she picks up a good part of that Cincy-area vote, too.

[WCGreen]

2. Jean Nuke's Self....

[leesa]

3. Thank goodness this woman is her own worst enemy.

[Buzz Clik]

4. That was probably a mistake an Schmidt's part --

People want to generate waste but not be responsible for it. She should have known better.

[Rose Siding]

14. Looks like they are taking care of their own waste, but oppose importing others'

snip>
SONG has found an ally in Wulsin, who toured the Piketon facility this month. She said she came away as a supporter of the plan that the former 2nd District congressman, Rob Portman, helped put in place - to turn the old facility into a new operation called the American Centrifuge Plant, which most experts believe would be a much cleaner and more efficient way of enriching uranium.

But the plan for importing nuclear wastes, Wulsin said, is "a bad idea."

"I can't support just dumping wastes in that place," Wulsin said. "It makes no sense."

[Ian David]

27. If she'd said she would chuck it over The Great Wall of Bush, it'd be different. n/t

[wakeme2008]

5. Gotta Nom this one for the crazy one :) nt

[MisterP]

6. I though the next sentence would be,

30-foot Congresswoman rampages through Cincinnati suburbs, bellows, "VOTE SCHMIDT!"

[acmejack]

8. this is what that stuff does to you...

[FVZA_Colonel]

21. SCHMIDT SMASH!

N/T.

[dazzlerazzle]

7. mean jean's Ohio strategery

ok, you are already a symbol of disgust, losing in the polls, so now you are ok with storing nuclear waste in our backyards in Ohio. Who in hell is her political advisor?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Considering the areas's history, this is political suicide...

Western Hamilton County (and SW Butler County) is just finishing up the demolition and remediation of a nuclear weapons facility (Fernald) that has been an environmental headache and point of contention for about twenty years. For a politician to advocate more nuclear waste in the region is jaw-droppoingly stupid.

[rexcat]

17. In the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer...

they said the plant in SE Ohio was shut down and the processing was done in Paducah, KY. There have been nothing but problems with the Paducah plant for many years, including radioactive pollution of the ground water and plutonium spread in the community. The DOE has been slow to improve the facilities at Paducah.

Another point is Fernald. It was used from WWII to the end of the cold war for plutonium processing and was an environmental mess of the greatest magnitude. This is still fresh in everyone's mind in the region.

[Connie_Corleone]

10. And the fish wrap Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed her yesterday.

Idiots.

[femrap]

12. The Enquirer has no sense....they always endorse

the repugnant.

I remember them endorseing Pepper for Mayor....and who won? Without spending huge amounts of money? Mark Mallory!

It's a good sign when you're NOT endorsed by that rag!

[NorthernSpy]

13. unless they want to be known as the Cincinnobyl Enquirer...

Surely they'll rescind the endorsement in light of this crazy-ass nuke dump idea!


I mean, nuclear waste from all over the world...

Who the hell would actually want that?

:crazy:

[theHandpuppet]

30. You've got to be kidding

Do you think the establishment in Cincy gives a flying furk about the people in the eastern part of District 2? The four rural, easternmost counties in Schmidt's district (Pike, Scioto, Adams and Brown) voted for Hackett in the last election; Scioto went for Hackett over Schmidt by 65-35% ! So this is the punishment Schmidt is considering for the rebellious Appalachians in her district -- she'll dump nuclear waste on their ass. You don't think she'd dump that shit near Cincinnati, do you? No, she's dumping it in Pike County as payback. She's a hateful witch and I wouldn't wipe my ass with the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Edited to add: Pardon my language, but as a native of Scioto County, Ohio, I can tell you there are plenty of us damned sick and tired of being crapped on by the neofascists to our west.

[theHandpuppet]

40. BTW...

When Strickland and Brown take over the Governorship and the Senate seat, they'll tell Schmidt to shove that "nucular" waste up her ass.

[maxsolomon]

43. your post made me smile

as a FORMER cincinnatian, knowing that the 2nd isn't all white & uptight gas guzzling suburbanite evangelicals warms my heart.

isn't there a Nuclear Power Plant in Moscow in the 2nd?

[tewl]

20. Fish wrap, I like that!

:rofl:

[salin]

11. "Jean Schmidt, a Nuclear Accident waiting to happen, which we can

ill afford" Vote Wulsin for Congress.

[Eurobabe]

23. I think you meant NOO-KY-LAR, right?

[salin]

24. my bad

;-)

[Vinca]

15. Oops - I misread the title of the post.

I thought it was "Schmidt IS nuke waste." :rofl:

[Carla in Ca]

37. I thought the same thing

But we can use it on November 8th :)

[jpak]

18. Mean Jean is out of her mind

Yucca Mountain will cost >$65 billion with taxpayers - not the nuclear industry - paying most of the bill.

In the meantime, the nuclear industry has $56 billion in lawsuits pending against the US govt. (i.e., taxpayers) for not disposing the spent nuclear fuel that they created.

and now she wants to import more nuclear waste???

can you say moran????

[tewl]

19. Jean Schmidt is radioactive after this

If she wasn't already...

[IndianaGreen]

32. Mean Jean was a nuclear waste site to begin with

Her fundie supporters will still vote for her even if they end up glowing in the dark.

[Eurobabe]

22. She's done, stick a fork in Schmidthead

Best moment in October was voting absentee/overseas ballot against that witch!

[Ian David]

26. Let's get all the Democrats to make this pledge...

If Ohio votes to keep Mean Jean Schmidthead, we promise to take her up on her offer, and make Southern Ohio the nexus for all the other nuclear waste in the country.

Only cowards cut and run from nuclear waste... Ohio won't get that chance, if they re-elect Mean Jean Schmidthead.

It's your call, Ohio: Re-elect Mean Jean, and we open the floodgates of radioactive sludge upon you.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS01/610290398/1056/COL02

[ohio2nd]

28. Ohio 2nd Blog Coverage

We've been covering this story in depth since Thursday.

Jean Schmidt's Toxic Legacy
http://blog.oh02.com/2006/10/26/jean-schmidts-toxic-legacy/

Schmidt’s Toxic Legacy II - The Lies
http://blog.oh02.com/2006/10/29/schmidts-toxic-legacy-ii-the-lies/

You'll also find some interesting points in the comments that we're looking into.

Chris

[mod mom]

31. Will it be high humidity or level 10 homeland security alert that delivers

the win for the repubs? "Nukular" waste for "hundreds of jobs? WTF!!

[Lindacooks]

36. Considers it as what? Makeup? It would only improve her

appearance.

[TheWatcher]

38. This is what she looks like without Makeup.

[Moloch]

44. Would you say that was something only someone with

"Schmidt for brains" would think is a good idea?