From Political Wire:  Schmidt Makes Potentially Career Ending Speech

One can only hope.  I also hope this haunts Mike DeWine and every other Ohio Repugnantcan with the stain they all deserve -- corrupt, a-moral, despicable criminal hacks that they are.

Ara Rubyan has posted the original resolution proposed by decorated war veteran John Murtha and the cynical rewrite by the GOP chickenhawks.

Nice video of Rep. "Piece Of Schmidt" (R-OH) from Think Progress

When the temperature is in the low '20s and you see kids walking to school in short sleeve shirts and no coats, you have to wonder whether natural selection stops when a human becomes a teenager.

Almost every day I drop my kid off at school I worry about America.

Just Wondering?

I mean, if there is serious consideration of limiting Supreme Court terms in office, WTF happened to limiting Congress?

States' issue, right.  Can't have a federal statute there but the good people of the individual States were certain to take up the cause, weren't they?

Kind of makes ya shiver what will happen when Roe is overturned when looking at that track record.

Hey, D'ja miss me?  Sorry I had to take another one of those working vacations and attend to two or three of the four kids, and one of the businesses.

How on earth do I find time to blog?  Well, unlike so many independent bloggers out there I respect, I'm no journalist or activist, I don't even try to earn a little extra income from selling ads (the only ad on this site is the one that permits me to annoy you for free -- I recommend Blogdrive. All the bells and whistles for no cost.)

I write because I like playing on my computer, it's fun, a release, a hobby.  You can only play so many video games on the computer and at my age all the porn sites look the same.

So I write because it's fun for me -- but what's Bob Woodward's excuse?

If you've been staying in a cave this last couple of days, after you're done taking a shower, catch up and Follow Taegan Goddard's links.

If you are wondering, as was I after scraping the bat guano off my sneakers and emerging from my own cave, what to make of Bob's involvement with the secret source of the most intriguing scandal since, um . . . well, you know -- that Deep Troat guyl Arrianna made the rounds to sum up the blogosphere's reaction. as did Slate, and of course Crooks and Liars has the keys to the video vault.

I haven't read any of it, I mean, who has the time, really.  Besides, isn't it obvious, now that Mark Felt came out of the parking garage, Bobby must have wanted in on the newest deep cover leaker, right?  Why should Judy Miller, and Bob Novak have all the fun?

OK. I will admit, I've read some of what's out there, but I came to the same conclusion as Digby before I read his Fitzmas speculation -- that it was none other than the Shrubster himself, the stupidest man working in the Whitehouse, including the night janitor, who burned a CIA operative.

The only thing that gives one pause that my theory has no merit whatsoever -- besides the fact that I completely pulled it outta my ass -- is Bush's reported petulant behavior lately, going way beyond his usual irrationality but now isolating himself with his Mom and his girlfriends and keeping his distance even from Cheney as well as Rove.  That certainly looks like a man who's mad at his buddies for lying even to him along with everybody else.

I think not, however.  Bush is, if anything, a paranoid little noodge, a sissy who acts like a bully and is now running to Mamma now that he thinks he'll get caught.

I think that Bush's behavior is wholly consistent with Bob Woodward sitting on the real scoop of the century.  Fuck Deep Throat, a nobody, a bitter deputy who got passed over for promotion.  When you've got the President of the Untied States giving you "unprecedented access," showing you classified material, and generally acting like a bragging frat boy proving how important he is, MAN, HAVE YOU GOT A STORY!  Especially if POTUS himself burned Valerie Plame.

It's a shame we'll never hear this story.  So tell me once again why Woodward calls himself a journalist?  Doncha wish Bobby did this for fun, like bloggers, and not for profit, continued access, and book sales?

Although a few political professionals were surprised that the Columbus Dispatch mail-in poll was so spectacularly wrong about RON, I took a lesson from the California referendum failure, which matched Ohio's, to be more instructive:

GOP strategist Ed Rollins, somewhat surprisingly, was surprised by "Arnold getting so blown away in California. The lesson is don't put everything 'your enemies don't want on the same ballot' so that they can turn it into a holy war.'

While the anti RON push centered around single amendments, mostly negative ads discrediting Issue 3, campaign finance reform, or fixating on Irssue 4, redistricting, the RON folks quite naturally pushed all four initiatives together -- and they failed together.

The pro-reform campaign framed the issues as a package, which like any chain with a weak link brought the whole contraption down when one of the links was sucessfully attacked.

More lessons on how democrats and progressives lose against determined, organized, well-funded, political professionals will be coming to a theater near you.

Did they really think nobody would notice?

Yesterday's Oct. 31, gaggle, according to the White House web site:

Q Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think that's accurate.

Yesterday'sOct. 31 gaggle, according to Wonkette (and verified by the video on the White House website):

Q: Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.

Mr. McClellan: That's accurate.

Nice catch by Firedoglake: Editing Reality One Press Conference At A Time

cleveland.com: NewsFlash - Neo-Nazis plan return to Toledo
11/9/2005, 11:14 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- The neo-Nazi group whose visit last month touched off rioting said it plans to return to protest how the police and the city handled its visit.

Spokesman Bill White said the National Socialist Movement plans demonstrate downtown Dec. 10.

History Mike has detailed reporting, plus some propaganda by Mr. White himself in hie comments section, which Mike debunks here.

Mike also has some advice to our Mayor Elect, on just how to handle the Nazis this time around, so, you know, we don't start looking like France.

Me?  I'm hoping for a blizzard that day.  The hooligans will stay inside and the Nazis will be lost in the white-out.

Bill Moyer's speech last September for the Texas Observer is simply superb.

America is not yet a theocracy but Texas almost is and the Republican Party already is... .

* * *
The phenomenon of our time is how the religious, political, and corporate right, under the cloak of "moral values," has forged a mighty coalition for the looting of America. With one hand they stretch upward for the pearly gates, and with the other they reach down and behind your back to pick your pocket or your purse.

Their appointed poster boy is George W. Bush. Everything he knows, he learned here in Texas. Unfortunately.

No wonder the (now exposed and disgraced) neo-con operative recently in charge of PBS spent taxpayer dollars to monitor "anti-Bush," "anti-business" and "anti-Tom DeLay" guests on Moyers' show."  Moyers is a spot-on, effective and knowledgable critic of the charade of "compassionate conservativism."  A true danger to the money-changers and warmongers who have made Texas into Taliban Lite then incubated and promoted the vile spawn of "century of involvement in oil, armaments and global intrigue" to the highest office in the land.

An indifference to other people's reality remains the mark of the system of privilege and patronage that is Texas politics.

* * *
What the hurricane exposed is what the progressive advocate Robert Borrosage calls the "catastrophic conservatism" of the long right-wing crusade to denigrate government, ˜starve the beast," scorn its purposes and malign its officials.

We know now the results of their social ideal -- the "You get yours/I'll get mine" ethic as opposed to shared sacrifice and responsibility. It's as if they had scissored out of their Bible, "I am my brother's keeper."

(HT: The Left Coaster: Catastrophic Conservatism, VIA American Street)

REFORM OHIO NOW SOME DAY, MAYBE?

Too Much Legalese! Did you actually read the ballot language, all of it. Did anyone really finish both pages of each issue?

Look, I'm a lawyer and I thought the amendments were way too wordy, especially for a Constitution.

With almost 1 million votes counted statewide, we're getting hammered. Next time remember the KISS method -- Keep It Simple Stupid.

STATEWIDE AT 9:50
2 No-64% Yes-35%
3 No-67% Yes-32%
4 No 70% Yes-29%
5 No 71% Yes-28%

Remember the anti-gay marriage Amendment last year. Two devastating sentences. That's all.

When you have to turn a page to read an amendment is doesn't stand a chance. The things read more like statutes, not guiding principles like a Constitution should have.

Rewriting them to only two or three clear, unambiguous sentences will level the playing field to the point where ads and further voter education will make a difference. These things didn't stand a chance no matter how fabulous the idea -- and they were.

And when we campaign, tell folks like Arnold "Thanks, but no thanks." He did more harm than good. We needed home grown talent, like John Glen who surely helped Issue One, but why wasn't he featured on any RON commercials? Where was Paul Hacket's face, Sherrod Brown? They needed to be FEATURED.

Remember, the republithugs will lie, and lie believably. Don't give them ammo like being able to take a grass roots, anti-establishment effort and paint is as some kind of out-of-state back room shenanigans.

And K.I.S.S.


CROSS-POSTED AT :
Swing State Project: Reform Ohio Now: Election Results

---

UPDATE 11:30

It's official, and it's a shame, because if there ever was a State in desparate need of election reform, it's Ohio.

Voters reject election issues
11/8/2005, 10:18 p.m. ET
By ERICA RYAN
The Associated Press


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Voters turned back four ballot proposals Tuesday to change Ohio election law, while a once-rejected high-tech research financing was comfortably ahead.

Issue 1 had 55 percent of the vote with 34 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial returns compiled by The Associated Press. Backers combined the $500 million high-tech issue with a popular $1.5 billion highway maintenance bond issue after it lost two years ago.

The long statewide ballot issues confused some voters Tuesday in an off-year election with light turnout and few glitches from the use of new voting machines in about half of Ohio's 88 counties.

"I didn't understand a lot of them," said Cleveland voter Theo Bell, who skipped over the state questions. "I didn't want to put something down, not understand and vote for the wrong thing."

Yeah, like I was saying . . .

The election proposals — all constitutional amendments — would have opened absentee balloting to all voters, lowered the limit on individual campaign contributions, put a board in charge of drawing congressional and legislative districts instead of elected officials and switched election supervision from the secretary of state to another board.

I was also saying this . . .

The transition to new voting machines, mostly touch screens, went smoothly in most of the 44 counties that have them, election officials said. A handful of people left without voting because machines weren't running when polls opened in some precincts. A few polling places opened late.

At six precincts in Toledo, poll workers misplaced cards that the worker must insert to authorize the machine to turn on, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. A handful of voters said they couldn't wait.

Paper ballots were being used within 10 minutes, and elections officials made new cards that were sent to the polling places by about an hour after polls opened, LoParo said.

I'm hearing quite a few reports on the local radio here in Toledo that our new voting machines giving the volunteers poll workers fits at various polling places all over Lucas County, Ohio, and one report from Wood County.

Machines slow to be ready and operational, workers resorting to giving out paper ballots (which may or may not be counted), memory cards/chips not available, some machines not usable at all, untrained workers unable to get them to work or be able to explain how they work to voters.

Developing . . .

UPDATE, 8:30:
Toledo has one of, if not the biggest mayoral race in Ohio, yet several reports of voters wishing to vote early before work had to leave their polling center without voting due to the problems.

Lucas County Board of Elections apologised for the inconvenience -- none of the machines were ready at 6:30 when the polls were supposed to open -- and asked those voters who were turned away to come back later today.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell sais, "There will be problems and those problems will be solved."  Note to Kenny, timing is everything.

All rumours that the problems were some kind of Democratic Party conspiracy to embarrass Ken Blackwell and promote the necessity of the election reform initiatives on today's ballot are irresponsible and were started by WSPD's Bob Frantz, who reports that all the problems were "human error," and not technological, most poll stations are now working fine.

I just hope that I don't inadvertantly vote for Pat Buchanan or switch my phone company to Sprint when I go later this afternoon.

UPDATE 1:54
The Toledo Blade, of course, has more.

LAST UPDATE, 3:56 PM
I voted, and liked the new touch screens. It had a little printer where I could see my votes, quick and smooth.  Real low turnout in my precinct. I was the 50th voter at 2:45 pm.