Q. Are you offended by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's remarks on gay marriage defying "barnyard logic"?

Click to Vote

And this guy wants to run for Governor?! I can't wait for Jerry Springer and Ken Blackwell's debates in 2006. He better bone up on his Martin Luther King, Jr., impressions.

Plain Dealer Bureau:

Blackwell offers 'barnyard' take on gay marriage

Columbus - Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is under fire for saying that same-sex marriage is so absurd that it defies "barnyard logic."

That's a lot of bull, responded a gay-rights champion, who called Blackwell an expert in spreading "manure."

By The Way: Did you know that the Vice President's daughter is gay? Shocking I say! Shocking!

---

Ohio: Center of the Storm
We here in the Buckeye State are getting almost too much attention. The U.K.'s Guardian has a their own take on the ground war here and the democrats' get out the vote effort.

---

More on the continuing sideshow that is Ohio's Secretary of State's supervision of our franchise:

Blackwell, shortly after receiving an official dressing down by U.S. District Judge James Carr of Toledo:

Judge Carr has ruled that according to the country's new voting law, people who show up to vote on Nov. 2 but whose names are not on voter rolls must be offered a provisional ballot to vote on. If it is later determined that the voter is registered to vote in the county the vote was cast, then the voter's choices for president and other federal offices will be counted.

Mr. Blackwell last month instructed Ohio poll workers not to give provisional ballots to people who could not prove they lived in the precinct they were attempting to vote in.

"I want everybody to understand that it's not just enough to say you want everybody to vote. You have an ethical responsibility to help people understand how to make sure their vote is counted,'' Mr. Blackwell said.

Democrats sued Mr. Blackwell in federal court, saying Mr. Blackwell's directive to county boards of elections would deprive thousands, especially minorities and the poor, the right to vote.

The case is now before the Court of Appeals.

Note: If this Federal Appeals Court leaves Judge Carr's ruling untouched, it will be at odds with the ruling on provisional ballots by the Florida Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court won't have a chance to see this until after the election unless some kind of miracle occurs, but hear it they will -- bank on it.

Fitting that FloriDUH should come up since both Judge Carr and Secretary Blackwell, both of whom accuse the other of promoting a political agenda, each accused the other of being in Florida this week, in spirit if not in body.

Brian Griffin of Cincinnati Blog says what everybody in the "reality-based community" feels:

Blackwell and GOP's attempts to suppress the vote is not a new occurrence, but in today's age of inclusion it shows a disdain for the poor and a disdain for the less educated that perplexes me. Why do people feel there should be an intelligence test for voting? Why make it more difficult to vote? If we are going to exclude people because of being ignorant on the issues or being askew of reality, then most of those supporting Bush would be disqualified.

---

Ready for more? Can your stomach take it?

Add another 1,284 bogus registrations to the list that have been or about to be tossed (4,000 in Lucas County), this time in Cuyahoga County, where some enterprising "CrackHead Chad" wannabe registered as "Jive Turkey, Jr." (Seriously, "Junior?")

---

Logan's Lurch has been doing journeyman's work on Ohio election rejections, first with the story I previously linked (via Atrios) where, Absentee ballots are being mailed with the wrong Congressional race on them; now informs us that according to the Columbus Dispatch there are two scams being perpetrated on unwary voters who receive fake and illegal telephone calls:

• The caller tells voters their precincts have changed
• or the caller offers to pick up an absentee-ballot application, deliver the ballot to the voter and return the completed ballot to the elections office.

---

Blogger extrodinare, Jesse Taylor warns at Make Ohio Blue that shit sometimes just happens and you better check your ballot very carefully (if they let you vote at all).

Meanwhile Jene Galvin asks:

How Could Any Ohioan Vote for Bush With This Stat?

[O]ver 30 percent of America's job losses came from Ohio.

No wonder the GOP is desperate enough to send Condolingus Rice here, without a second thought of the horrible precedent it sets by politicizing her heretofore a-political office (despite all her handwringing over the awful precedent it would set if she were to testify before the 9/11 commission).

And Dick Cheney had the friggin' balls to say, with a straight face, right in my back yard, that Soon-To-Be-President, John F. Kerry is

"a man who will say and do anything if he thinks it will advance his cause."

Make that the duly-elected, legal-winner-of-both-the-popular-vote-and-electoral-college, Soon-To-Be-President, John F. Kerry.