Sticker available soon!

I’ve never been very forgiving of Nader voters. I say that not to rile up more argument about Naderites’ role (or lack thereof) in the 2000 elections, but as a disclaimer, since I’m on record as being disappointed in those who support the unelectable at the expense of the simply acceptable, especially when the stakes are as high as they are in Presidential politics. And no, I’m not a blind Democrat supporter, ready to believe that if we just elect our corporate whores they’ll run this country so much better than their corporate whores.

I run this disclaimer because I’m stating my support* for Dennis Kucinich. You know, the unelectable Dennis Kucinich? I voted for him in the 2004 primary, but that’s not real support, not when you’re voting in Oregon, a state which would probably have held the 2004 primary in 2005 if they’d been able to get away with it. No, I’ve always known that Dennis Kucinich would be my preferred D if, in fact, he wasn’t a fringe candidate, only barely more electable than Ralph Nader.

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In honor of this gleefully horrific post, I have put up a couple of cover songs I actually like at Panda Songs.

Daddy D and Focus on the Anus have been all over the news, defending good friend, alleged rent-boy.com customer, meth user — and on-leave-pending-church-investigation evangelical leader — Ted Haggard, bleating about yanked marriage amendment commercials in Colorado, and now this — a hail mary endorsement and pimping of fundie-chasing homobigot Ken Blackwell, who’s swirling the bowl in Ohio as election day nears. (AgapePress):

A powerful Christian pro-family leader is throwing his support behind Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson has announced his personal endorsement of Blackwell, the Republican candidate who is running against Democrat Ted Strickland in the Ohio governor’s race. Dobson is featured in a new radio ad in which he calls Blackwell “the champion of Ohio’s marriage amendment and a lifelong pro-life leader.”

In the ad, the Focus on the Family chairman emphasizes that he is “speaking as a private individual and not on behalf of any organization” as he urges values voters to cast their ballots for the GOP candidate as Ohio’s next governor. “Ken Blackwell has stood for our values,” Dobson observes, “and it’s our turn now to stand with him. Help elect a great leader who shares our values.” Blackwell’s campaign has accused Strickland of wanting to keep God out of public life by voting to let liberal judges prohibit prayer in school and remove Ten Commandments displays from public buildings.

A group working for Ken’s defeat, Blacks Against Blackwell, is doing all it can to make sure he goes down hard. This is from an interview by NewsChannel5 anchor Leon Bibb.

Blacks Against Blackwell has intensifed its push against Blackwell with language so strong that the group said: “Ken Blackwell is our color, but not our kind.”

Lang Dunbar of Blacks Against Blackwell: “Mr. Blackwell was tied to the president George Bush hand and foot. Anytime a person is almost to the right of Clarence Thomas, we have a problem.”

Bibb: “What do you think? How do you respond to that?”

Blackwell: “Oh, look, I received about 40 percent of the vote in the African-American community in the last three elections. We’re going to do just fine in the African-American community.”

Dunbar: “He’s against affirmative action although affirmative action probably helped him further back.”

Bibb: “Traditionally, blacks in Ohio have voted Democrat. But early on, Republican Blackwell predicted he would garner 40 percent of the black vote. But the group — Blacks Against Blackwell — said it does not believe that can or will happen.”

Blackwell: “Many blacks, if not most blacks, will vote for me, not because of the color of my skin, but because of my competence and my agenda.”

Larry Rush of Blacks Against Blackwell: “If I have anything, I’m trying to keep it down to 4 percent and that’d be just his personal family and friends.”

Blackwell, who’s received support from Talibangelist Rod Parsley of Reformation Ohio and Russell Johnson, founder of the Ohio Restoration Project, was a featured guest of Johnson’s 10-city Patriot Pastors tour earlier this year. Ken hoped to sew up the freakshow Right vote in the gubernatorial race, but alas, his poll numbers (Strickland 59%, Blackwell 36%) are still tanking despite anti-gay rants like this:

“I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed. I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will. The reality is, again, … that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one’s genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist, or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes.”

Related:
* Ken Blackwell’s outreach flyer
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual, part 2

Fundie homobigot Ohio Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor, Ken Blackwell, is trailing Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland in the polls, despite strong support from Russell Johnson, founder of the Ohio Restoration Project, bible-beating Talibangelist Rod Parsley of Reformation Ohio, and a few black homobigot pastors.

Somehow, for some reason, he’s just not catching on with the wingers, despite a strong stand on the sanctity of marriage and stumping from Dear Leader.

Now, a political analyst in the Buckeye State takes a crack at why, and it’s laughable. (AgapePress):

An Ohio-based political analyst says Republican apathy and the left-wing media could be behind Republican Ken Blackwell’s continuing low poll numbers in his race for governor. But those polls could be misleading, he notes. Dr. Peter Schramm is executive director of the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, and a professor of political science at Ashland University. Schramm says a recent Columbus Dispatch poll did not bode well for the Ohio secretary of state who is opposing Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland.

The political analyst thinks there could be a couple of reasons Blackwell is not getting any traction. “[Republicans are] just not paying close attention to the race yet. That’s one reason why he’s down in the polls,” he contends. “And the other is the media, of course, has given Strickland … visibility. They’re just excited by the prospect of him running.” But Schramm thinks that the Dispatch poll may be underestimating Blackwell’s strength among black voters, where he is only polling at 15 percent. “He’s never gotten, according to the lowest estimates, less than 22-23 percent of the black vote for any statewide race he’s ever run for — and I think the more rationale estimate is about 33 percent,” says Schramm. “Well, if he gets about 33 percent of the black vote, he’s going to be doing very well indeed. I think he will.” Schramm says even though things might look bleak for Blackwell right now, he still believes the pro-family candidate can pull it out.

I’m sure some voters are apathetic, but Blackwell’s been getting plenty of press.

The bigots are simply not going to turn out for the black Republican. Do the math.

When you give money to the Democrats, you’re taking from Jeebus.

Okay, now that I’ve established that the evangelical movement is the source of the pressure on Christians to fall lockstep with Republican policies, time for a case study in where people are getting the idea that the categories “Christian” and “Democrat” are mutually exclusive. Hint: It’s not from atheist Democrats. Sorry to be hitting on this so hard, but I really think that while the argument that started all this—that atheists need to quit mocking religion—is a red herring, it’s nonetheless a very tempting one, because it’s easier to yell at liberal atheists for being meanies than it is to change the minds of the 25% of the electorate that will believe any horseshit lie their preachers whip out about Democrats.

Ohio’s gubernatorial election is an important one to watch to see my theory about the relationship of religion and politics in America today get played out. The Republicans and the Democrats both are trying to court the Christian vote through very different strategies. The Democrats are running a Christian minister who would have been well-regarded by evangelical Christians as one of their own in the days before Robertson, Falwell and company started pushing the idea that in order to be a real Christian you have to have conservative politics. Ted Strickland is a Jimmy Carter-esque liberal Christian. Ken Blackwell doesn’t have the Christian credentials that used to impress evangelicals back in the Jimmy Carter days.

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In an effort to demonstrate there’s no level of low that Blackwell won’t strive to lower himself to, it seems that his campaigners have decided to pass themselves off as people they aren’t in an effort to lull people into trusting them. This article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer had this quote in it:

Clermont County- In a county that proudly paints itself political red, where about 70 percent of voters backed President Bush in 2004, Nathan Estruth showed up at a park Saturday morning to hear the blue people.

In particular, he wanted to listen to Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor who, with U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, was headlining a three-day bus tour promoting the party’s statewide ticket in some of Ohio’s most Republican counties.

Estruth, a father of four who typically votes Republican, milled in the back of a partisan crowd of about 100, one of just a handful of people not wearing a shirt promoting a Democratic candidate. At the urging of a friend, he came to give the Democrats, who have been out of power in Ohio for more than a decade, a chance to win his vote…..

After the 40-minute rally, Estruth said he was not ready to vote Democratic. He was put off, he said, by their harsh rhetoric.

“I wanted to see if he was an executive with clear plans for fixing the state,” he said about Strickland. “What I got was partisan talk. He confirmed my worst fears.”

Nathn Estruth is lying. He is neither opposed to partisanship nor was he remotely in the neighborhood or even galaxy of wanting to give the Democrats a fair chance to win his vote. Estruth is the head of a group called Common Sense Ohio, which is a group that claims to be non-partisan but in fact is a pro-Blackwell group dedicated to running a smear campaign against Ted Strickland.

It’s not unusual to have groups that are established strictly to support certain candidates that claim to be non-partisan, though this is a practice I think needs to be eradicated, though I can’t say how you’d go about it. But this level of deceit—passing off campaign commercials as if they were actual news stories—is really beyond the pale. The TPM Cafe has more.

You can contact the Plain Dealer here and let them know what you think of them passing off campaign commercials as hard news.

Well how about this — Ken Blackwell, despite all the public support from the bible-beating Talibangelist Rod Parsley of Reformation Ohio and Russell Johnson, founder of the Ohio Restoration Project, his numbers continue to tank. These polling results are from Rasmussen.

During the past several months, Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland’s edge over Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has ranged from four to seventeen percentage points. Now, in our latest election poll of Ohio’s gubernatorial race, Congressman Strickland leads his opponent by an intimidating 57% to 32%.

We conducted the new survey August 22, several days after the Strickland campaign began airing positive TV ads about the Democrat. The health of the steel industry has been one issue this electoral season, and Strickland’s ad touts his help in securing a loan for an ailing steel company.

Blackwell: “Christians should show that they are not going to be whupped.”

Blackwell is not well established even with GOP voters, only 59% of whom now support him. He is perceived as conservative by 51% of all voters. By contrast, Strickland appeals to 88% of Democrats, and 55% of unaffiliated voters. A plurality of all voters (44%) see him as moderate.

Strickland is viewed favorably by 59%, Blackwell by 40%. Blackwell is viewed unfavorably by 55%. More ominously, 35% view him “very” unfavorably, a four-point increase since last month.

Look at how hard he pushes the gaybashing:

“I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed. I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will. The reality is, again, … that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one’s genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist, or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes.”

Gee, Ken, why do you think you’re not gaining any traction with the rank-and-file fundie voters? Hmmmmm? You’re saying all the right things, but it’s just not gelling, is it? What could be the problem?

Hell, even Karl Rove, who pimped you at a fundraiser, can’t get those numbers up.

***

A side note: if you want to see religious black homobigotry in action, look no further than this campaign. A group of black pastors (who are Dems) is crossing over and joining white wingnuts like Russell Johnson to support Blackwell.

The ministers, including the director of the Memphis-based Coalition of African-American Pastors, say they support Blackwell’s conservative message, including his anti-tax position and his opposition to gay marriage…The minister group, Clergy for Blackwell, which includes black and white ministers, plans news conferences Monday in Columbus and Cincinnati in a move sure to add to a debate in Ohio over the role of religion in politics.

Related:

* The friends of homobigot Ken Blackwell
* Ken Blackwell’s outreach flyer
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual, part 2
* Chris King’s 1st Amendment Page on Blackwell
* More posts on Blackwell

Five second video where Ken Blackwell explains that his job over the next 80 days is to keep your attention firmly trained below his opponent’s waistline.

Sometimes I think the Southern states should adopt Ohio, because so much of the wingnuttery that comes out of that state resembles the stereotype that the rest of the country holds about our region (see prior Ohio posts). They’ve already got a heinous marriage amendment on the books, for instance.

If you’ve been paying attention to the governor’s race in the Buckeye State, you’ve seen the incredible marvel of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell sucking up to the extremist fundie base for some time now, harping on homo-bashing and bible beating as a strategy to reach the governor’s mansion.

An interesting AP article tries to figure out why the wingnut campaigning doesn’t quite seem to align with the average voter priorities, despite the huffing and puffing over hot button issues.

Scriptural references are flying like a plague of locusts in one of America’s most watched governor’s races this year. Yet only about half of Ohioans belong to a church. Voters have been told that Democratic nominee Ted Strickland is a friend of the National Rifle Association and that his Republican rival Ken Blackwell is a gun-owning Second Amendment supporter. But, of 11 million Ohioans, only about 400,000 hold a hunting license or concealed carry permit.

Rounding off this holy political trinity of hot-button issues — “God, guns and gays” — Ohio’s governor candidates are also at the ready with their positions on traditional vs. same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Census, only a fraction of 1% of the state’s residents reported they were gay or lesbian living with a partner in 2000. The highest estimates put the nation’s gay and lesbian population at around 5%.

Well, gee, the state’s inhospitality toward its gay and lesbian citizens made itself quite clear when the amendment was on the ballot in 2004, so I wouldn’t have imagined there would be a large reporting of out queers in the state four years earlier. Realistically, though, that number should be higher. In any case…

Democrats are fighting fire with fire in Ohio this year, running a more religious and gun-friendly candidate in Strickland in hopes of neutralizing some of the wedges that have allowed Republicans to dominate the state. Strickland, a former prison psychologist and minister, has taken his campaign message to Christian radio, typical territory for more conservative candidates. His ads quoted the same Bible verse that Blackwell’s primary opponent, Attorney General Jim Petro, tried unsuccessfully to use in a flood of values-oriented television ads. Both campaigns sought the upper hand against the openly religious Blackwell, who routinely speaks to both Christian and secular audiences with a Bible in hand, lauding the importance of a government centered on God.

I’m sorry, but Jeebus H. Christ. This is the same Ken Blackwell who has earned the support of anti-gay Talibangelist Rod Parsley of Reformation Ohio and Russell Johnson, founder of the Ohio Restoration Project and the Patriot Pastors movement. This is the same Ken Blackwell who worked day and night to disenfranchise thousands upon thousands of voters with registration hurdles, law-breaking, and simply not putting enough machines to accommodate voters in select areas. You know, the precincts that wouldn’t swing for Dear Leader.

Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence says that the governor’s race and others like it are really about courting the voter base that is firmly committed to Guns, God and Gays positions, and cultivating the irrational fear factor for the rest of the undecided voters (a hallmark of Rovian political gamesmanship).

“They scare people with these hot-button issues. Whether you care a lot about one of those issues is not really the point,” she said. “If I can make you be afraid of one of these issues — they’re going to take your guns away, or gay marriage is going to be everywhere — then I can guide your vote. It’s always about fear.”

More, including flying fetuses, after the flip.

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He’s done his best to suck up to the anti-gay Ohio fundies, but it appears vile individual Ken Blackwell can’t seem to get any traction with independents and, significantly, Bush voters. I wonder why…hmmm.

Look at how hard he pushes the gaybashing:

“I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed. I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will. The reality is, again, … that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one’s genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist, or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes.”

Even with that, Ken, a good number of Dear Leader’s base in Ohio simply won’t vote for you because you are b-l-a-c-k, sorry to say. We’re talking the Base of the GOP. Studies have shown that a significant chunk of white voters, when presented with two candidates, one white, one black, will not vote for the black candidate even if the person on the ballot is representing the voter’s party. That’s a sad hurdle in this day and age.

The corrupt Bush toady Blackwell can’t separate himself from his blackness with that crowd on the right, no matter how much wingnuttery he spouts.

A Columbus Dispatch poll showed that just 53 percent of the respondents who said they voted for President Bush in 2004 are lining up behind Blackwell.

I’m sure he knows this, thus the recent push to scare black voters into voting for him, pushing minstrel-worthy flyers in black areas.

Democrat Ted Strickland has surged to a surprising lead of 20 percentage points in the first Dispatch Poll on Ohio’s Nov. 7 race for governor…Strickland’s 47-to-27 advantage over GOP rival J. Kenneth Blackwell is fueled by a more than 3-to-1 lead among independent voters, combined with Blackwell’s inability to sell himself to Ohio Republicans.

…Respondent Barbara Wardlow, a 70-year-old Republican from Clarksville near Cincinnati, said she’s never voted for a Democrat, but that may change this fall. She said she doesn’t like Blackwell but wants to learn more about Strickland before deciding.

Republicans’ tepid response to Blackwell, despite the secretary of state’s comfortable victory in the May 2 primary, shows up in several ways:

• Overall, 61 percent of Republicans are backing Blackwell, compared with the 81 percent support Strickland is receiving from Democrats.

• Just 53 percent of the respondents who said they voted for President Bush in 2004 are lining up behind Blackwell. There are 28 percent who remain undecided, but 18 percent are ready to vote for Strickland. Less than a majority of those who said they voted for Republican Gov. Bob Taft four years ago want Blackwell in the office. Taft voters are split 46 to 28 between Blackwell and Strickland. Strickland is winning the battle among those who said they voted for Democrat Tim Hagan in 2002 by 81 to 3.

Related:

* Ted Strickland’s tip jar
* Ken Blackwell’s outreach flyer
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual
* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual, part 2
* Chris King’s 1st Amendment Page on Blackwell
* More posts on Blackwell

Just when I think that fundie butt-kissing homobigot Ohio Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor Ken Blackwell cannot be any lower than the belly of a slithering, poisonous viper, he tops himself.

Several voter registration groups have filed a lawsuit against Blackwell and other Ohio public officials, claiming that their efforts have been critically hampered by rules put in place by a Republican-controlled legislative panel and implemented by Blackwell’s office. (Toledo Blade):

Yesterday, a coalition of groups - among them Project Vote, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and the Community of Faith Assemblies Church - filed suit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, challenging the rules and the law on which they were based.The suit maintains that the rules would unconstitutionally chill political activity by threatening to make felons of those who make innocent mistakes.

The suit claims the rules would discriminate against poor and disabled people who may not have access to or can’t use computers to complete online training to be certified as paid registrars.

Most opposition has centered on the requirement that the individual compensated to register voters must personally deliver or mail registration cards within 10 days of completion to either the secretary of state’s office or the local county board of elections. Cards may not be given to the organization paying the bills for review and subsequent delivery.

“Many workers and volunteers are unwilling to take the risk of assisting people registering to vote if the consequences of them returning voter registration forms to the wrong place could be a felony,” reads the suit.

Gee, what a surprise.

Blackwell’s opponent, Congressman Ted Strickland, is leading Blackwell in the polls (50-37), so Bush’s boy hasn’t completely snowed the voters; I guess Ken will try to win by Diebolding it. From Rasmussen:

Strickland attracts 82% of Democrats, whereas Blackwell attracts only 66% support from GOP voters. Unaffiliated voters and moderates prefer Strickland by a margin of two-to-one or more.

Strickland is viewed favorably by 53%, unfavorably by 32%. Blackwell is viewed favorably by 44%, unfavorably by 45%; 25% have a “very unfavorable” view of him.

A commenter at my pad said about Blackwell:

His campaign has already started the faux telephone polling which starts out as an innocent sounding inquiry into the callee’s likely choice for governor. Soon, however, the caller’s questions switch to an obvious Strickland bashing by asking such questions as, “Would you vote for Ted Strickland knowing he has voted to allow the flag to be burned?” Or, “Would you vote for Strickland knowing he has flip-flopped on the domestic partnership benefits?” It’s the old tried and tired republican slur strategy.

Another replied,

I got one of those calls, answered “yes” to the flag-burning Strickland and immediately heard a dial tone. Guess they won’t be calling me back…just taking me off the voting rolls.

Related:

* Ken Blackwell is a vile individual

Lest there be any doubt that the conservative sentimentality for fetuses, “snowflake babies” and have a million frigging children is based in anything but an obsession with Sperm Magic, let me introduce you to the rumor-mongering that’s going on in Ohio right now regarding candidate Ted Strickland’s childless status. The Toledo Blade ran a story about the fact that Strickland and his wife Frances married 20 years ago when they were 46 and never had any children. I don’t see why anyone has to apologize for this sort of thing, but that’s politics for you. But “none of your business” isn’t going to work on conservative Ohio bloggers, because not having children is an absolute scandal. I mean, how are you supposed to know if a candidate is a Real Man® without some Virility Objects to reassure you his sperm work properly?

The scandalized rumor-mongering is just great, seriously. This guy’s blog post on the Man Who Has Not Procreated is a textbook example of how obsessing over sperm slowly poisons the brain.

Here are some of the facts: Ted and Frances waited until age 46 to marry and never had children. At the same time, the Stricklands are out lecturing the rest of us about parenting. In addition, Strickland said this week that he would veto pro-life legislation.

Translated from Wingnut: Not only is this man unwilling to tell us if he has a high sperm count or not, but he’s even willing to allow the uterine receptacles to eject the essence of manhood if they don’t want it.

Can a man who thinks women are human and isn’t too worried about whether or not he’s displayed to the world at large that he can in fact ejaculate even be considered a Real Man®? After soberly considering it, Pullins has to admit that he doubts the manhood of any man who doesn’t have evidence in the form of progeny that he’s a Heterosexual Male.

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This article is great but for one thing—stifling the vote isn’t a new thing for the Republicans, but is a time-honored way of winning elections. As someone who lives in the part of Texas that was massively redistricted to make sure every liberal voter was paired off with a Bible-thumper and a Bubba to cancel your votes, I can attest that there’s nothing a Republican hates more than a public that takes full advantage of their right to vote.

That said, Ken Blackwell’s approach to vote-stifling is notorious both for how it helped Bush steal his second election and also because he has a strong disregard for the process of covering it up. If you make Tom DeLay look like a bit player is voter disenfranchisement, it’s time to stop and reconsider your disdain for the concept of subtlty. Stunts like these send the signal to voters loud and clear that you think they shouldn’t have the right to vote and you’re going to resist it at every turn.

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell’s office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell’s edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell’s rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

Republicans like Blackwell are not “conservative”. That word implies a certain respect and regard for our existing political system. Disdaining and resisting something as basic as the concept of “one man, one vote” is undemocratic, not just un-Democratic.

The Rolling Stone has an article by Robert F. Kennedy up now about how the Ohio election, with Ken Blackwell’s active participation.
A little birdie sent me a list of interesting quotes from Ken Blackwell’s campaign book, a book that has no instructions on election-stealing, and I thought I’d share some with you.

For instance, I’ve learned that welfare is so lucrative that many CEOs of multinational corporations are considering quitting to get on the gravy train.

“But the money a single mother can draw from welfare is limited – possibly several thousand dollars a month, but never enough.� p. 59

Technically, it’s several dozens, sometimes even a few hundred, a month, but why quibble over numbers when any number is way too much if it prevents those who deserve to starve to death on the streets from doing so.

“The staggering number of African American abortions since Roe v. Wade would suggest that the “abortion upon demand� insistence of the political Left is permitting genocide to be waged against blacks in America.� p. 98

You might think that what Blackwell is suggesting here is that black women are nothing but brood mares and that they shouldn’t be accorded their fundamental human rights. But let’s be fair. He’s suggesting that someone is demanding that black women get abortions against their will, possibly by lottery. Kidding! He doesn’t think that. In order for him to think that genocide was actually being perpetuated by whites against blacks, he’d have to admit such a thing as racism exists, and he thinks so such thing.

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Tell me this sort of thing doesn’t set off all sorts of alarm bells:

I just got off the phone with a friend in Ohio. He went to vote today in a Cleveland Heights (heavy Dem) precinct this morning. He showed up to vote at 6:30, when the polls open. After 15 minutes, 2 of the 9 Diebold machines were finally working, and he was able to vote. The poll workers didn’t know how to work the machines, and the “help line” calls went unanswered. The printed receipt didn’t work on any of the machines.

It’s been said before but bears repeating–they don’t actually need to change votes, which is something that could eventually be detected and people could be thrown in jail for, in order to throw elections. All they need to do is make sure there’s inadequate facilities in certain precincts and the frustration of waiting to vote will drive huge numbers of voters away.

Ted Strickland’s site is collecting stories from people who experience these kinds of problems. If you have that kind of information, please give it to them.

I wonder how hard it would be to start compiling the data necessary to file a class action lawsuit against the state of Ohio.

Speaking of Ohio, this picture from Blackwell’s campaign site is the essence of the art of pandering:

I have a good suggestion to Blackwell’s campaign staff for packaging him. Think Crystal Pepsi–it’s new and gimmicky until you actually taste it and realize it’s the same shit in a different color.

Ohio Senate candidate: death penalty for homosexuals

“In my observation and others, the judges have been moving the country toward increasing ungodliness, and I don’t like this.”
– Merrill Keiser, on his desire to return government to its strict religious roots

“If you teach kids that they’re here by accident rather than purposely by somebody putting them here, their self-worth won’t be more than any other animal.”
– Keiser, on evolution

“I don’t claim to know what I’m doing. I’m just doing it and learning as I go.”
– Keiser, on running for the U.S. Senate

Gee, what a sunny, subtle stumping campaign this will be in the Buckeye State! Self-described “Biblicist” Merrill Keiser, Jr. of Fremont, Ohio, will be running the Democratic primary against Sherrod Brown. (WTOL):

Merrill Keiser, Jr., is a trucker by trade, and he’s hoping his next journey takes him all the way to Washington. His goal is a seat in the US Senate, but first he has to make it through the primary that will determine which Ohio Democrat will be the November ballot.

The Fremont man is causing some controversy with one of his beliefs. He tells News 11 homosexuality should be a felony, punishable by death. “Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs — we should have laws against immoral conduct,” Keiser says.

Keiser says he is in the mold of former Georgia Sen. Zell[fire] Miller, if that gives you a clue. We learn more about this breathtaking candidate’s positions on centralohio.com.

MERRILL KEISER JR.

Supports:
Right to bear arms
Capital punishment
Strong national defense
The war on terror
Secure borders
Choice in education
Israel
Freedom to pray

Opposes:
Theory of Evolution
Homosexuality
United Nations

Other Issues:
Lowering taxes stimulates the economy
Global warming and the Green House Effect by CO2 is a false concern

Source: “Keiser for U.S. Senate” committee pamphlet

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Larry Kilgore: A few bibles short of a stack

A reader of my blog, Val, passed this freakshow on — Larry Kilgore, a real nutcase who is running for Governor of Texas. He is hoping to unseat Rick “Blow Dry” Perry. His mission?

My first priority as governor will be to submit to Biblical law given to us by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. My job, according to 1st Peter 2:14, will be to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

You can see Larry’s nice chart on “The Issues” here, comparing his views on all sorts of matters to those of “Blow Dry” Perry. Take a look what Kilgore outlines as firm contrasts to the sitting Governor:
* 1-40 lashes for crime of maliciousness, like graffiti, porn, strip clubs.
* Execution for crime of murder including abortion. (Exodus 21:12, 21:22-23)
* Execution for crime of adultery. (Leviticus 20:10)
* Execution for crime of homosexual acts. (Leviticus 20:13)
* Execution for crime of deadly negligence, like a DWI fatality. (Exodus 21:29)
* Texans should become independent then stop paying US taxes. $123B
* Texas should secede because the US has sealed its doom.
* Illegal immigrants should receive a minimum punishment of five lashes, $3,000 fine & deportation.

In Larry’s FAQ section, he gives us a peek into how he would govern — and whether he has anything to hide as a candidate…

The US Supreme court has ruled that Texas cannot prosecute adulterers, sexual perverts and murderers of preborn babies. How do you plan to prosecute the perpetrators?
Option #1) The US has a system of checks and balances. If the supreme court makes a ruling contrary to God’s law, then the president can choose not to enforce that ruling. I will ask the president not to send in troops when Texas prosecutes these criminals.

Option #2) I will uphold the current Constitution and sovereignty of the Republic of Texas and propose withdrawal from the corporation titled “The United States of America.”

What do you think of democracy?
Democracy and Terrorism: Two Faces Of The Same Evil.

What are the skeletons in your closet?
From age 16 to 24 I dated and did not treat these ladies with respect. Physically I was virgin when I married at age 25, but I did not guard my heart. Dating is not wise!

I have watched pornography on the TV and computer. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. Ps101:3

And yes, he has endorsements, including the thumbs up from Flip Benham of Operation Rescue / OSA and Michael Marcavage of Repent America.

You have to wonder — how out on the fringe are these fellows? They don’t seem on the fringe at all when you look at the positions of, say, the American Family Association.

The Rev. Bob Larson: “Not everyone spits green pea soup and has their head rotate 360 degrees. But everybody needs deliverance.” Photo: Toledo Blade/Jessica Crossfield.

Holly sends me these two articles, Pastor feels called to fight demons and Toledo gets visit from ‘The Exorcist’, and I read them wondering whether this was a joke, that perhaps the Rev. Bob Larson was a comedian.

Nope. He’s dead serious, and he claims to have cast out over 6000 demons during his road shows, called ‘Spiritual Freedom Conferences’. One passage in the article caught my eye, since it has particular relevance for ‘Radical’ Russ (a contributor to PHB), who is out there in the Pacific Northwest.

Mr. Larson said the influence of demons varies according to location, with some parts of the United States and certain countries having more demonic activity than others.

“I’ve never had a problem finding demons in the Pacific Northwest, for example, because it has been such a non-church, non-religious area. Demons are more free to operate,” he said. “Ironically, the other place is the Bible Belt. The devil is where he’s not expected to be. It’s what happens when people have too much religion and not enough spirituality.”

There is a finite number of demons in the world because God created a set number of angels, he said. The evil spirits are those who followed Lucifer when he rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven. But demons are becoming more active, Mr. Larson said, as seen in the increased incidents of violence, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and criminal behavior among Americans today.

“There has been exponential growth of demonic activity today than when I started 30 years ago,” he said. “It’s rampant.”

Larson has toured the country over the last six years, building exorcist teams to handle demon cast-outs and healings. He claims to have trained 100 teams, including the Toledo team — Rev. Louis C. Roy’s Oasis Christian Fellowship.

The Rev. Bob Larson works on the demons inside Mishael Dempsey at the Clarion Westgate Hotel in Toledo, Ohio. Dempsey said demons also caused her father to kill her mother and then take his own life. “There are demons with mental powers, and demons with physical powers. But the most dangerous demons are mind demons. They’re mentally crafty. There’s a spiritual strategy involved.” Photo: Toledo Blade/Jessica Crossfield.

Holly also commented: “There were no nuts like this in Toledo when I was growing up. BTW, I could have walked to that hotel from my home. I wonder if Larson zapped the Church of Psycho-Cybernetics which used to be across Secor Rd from Cinemas 1, 2 & 3?”

An Ohio lawmaker, State Sen. Robert Hagan, is threatening to introduce legislation that would bar Republicans from adopting children — how beautiful is this?!

State Sen. Robert Hagan sent out e-mails to fellow lawmakers late Wednesday night, stating that he intends to “introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents.” The e-mail ended with a request for co-sponsorship.

…Hagan said his legislation was written in response to a bill introduced in the Ohio House this month by state Rep. Ron Hood, R-Ashville, that is aimed at prohibiting gay adoption.

“We need to see what we are doing,” said Hagan, who called Hood’s proposed bill blatantly discriminatory and extremely divisive. Hagan called Hood and the eight other conservative House Republicans who backed the anti-gay adoption bill “homophobic.”

Hood’s bill, which does not have support of House leadership, seeks to ban children from being placed for adoption or foster care in homes where the prospective parent or a roommate is homosexual, bisexual or transgender.

To further lampoon Hood’s bill, Hagan wrote in his mock proposal that “credible research” shows that adopted children raised in Republican households are more at risk for developing “emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.”

No one has co-sponsored, by the way. The best part is that Hagen freely admits that he has no scientific evidence to support the claims that Republicans are unfit to adopt kids (though we here at the Blend can come up with plenty of unscientific reasons), which is equally valid as Hood’s “evidence” that gay parents would be harmful to children.

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I have to admit, I danced with a wee bit o’ glee last night when I found out about Bob Taft’s indictment, but the e-mails I’ve gotten about it tend to waver between two attitudes. About 80% or so love it, and think it’s about time someone got taken down for the obvious corruption that pervades the Ohio GOP. (I’m sure they’ll only be firmer once they find out about Taft’s behind-the-scenes pressure to get intelligent design in Ohio classrooms.)

The other 20%, however, seems to be of the opinion that Taft shouldn’t go down for such minor violations. A few golf games, some hockey tickets - what’s the big deal?

Well, besides the fact that they’re crimes, no matter what you think about them, Taft has himself held his own office to this standard several times in the past. This isn’t Monica, a comparison quite a few people have made - this is a governor breaking a law he considers to be important enough to determine continued employment. He may look like a big, dumpy, nonthreatening doof, but he’s a big, dumpy, nonthreatening doof that happened to break an important law.

The major question right now is impeachment or resignation, not guilt or innocence. As Tim Tagaris points out, the person Taft has to thank most of all is Tom Noe, the classiest act there is.

Update on Coingate: the growing consensus here is not only is Taft in trouble, but it’s getting more and more likely that he’ll be charged criminally in the surrounding investigations.

Really, it couldn’t happen to a smarter guy.

I admit it. I live in a dumb state.

Granted, I don’t think Ohio is all that great myself, but I’m surprised every time I talk to an out-of-stater about living here just how much of a shithole the rest of the country (rightly) thinks my state is…and the genuine pathologies of us dumb state residents that lead us to reflexively embrace our crappiness as our own.

Sure, our schools suck. Soon, Ohio will be nothing but extensions of Cincinnati, Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo as white flight eventually forces every rural area in the state to have its own Wal*Mart and “under construction” tract-housing development. The job market pretty much assumes that everyone wants to be a secretary or support worker, our urban areas are about as exciting as the World Badminton Net Setup Contest (”Johnson is using a double-threaded wingnut, truly an expert’s play”), and I don’t think I’ve taken a single trip longer than fifteen minutes in the entire state without having to deal with road construction.

But whenever I discuss Ohio with someone else, I always get this nagging defensiveness about the state. It’s my home, but more importantly, people still live here. As Amanda discussed yesterday, living in a Red State shouldn’t be a signal to leave the place to the dogs and move to safer enclaves of liberal goodness and happiness. Living in a dumb state, one of those places that nobody wants to go yet where you can eke out a completely comfortable and aware existence of the world around you, is a badge of pride. We’re continual survivors of stupidity and incompetence, and we persevere despite it.

There’s also the fact that dumb state residents, most of whom are not themselves dumb, tend to embrace the things that make their state bad and believe that if they just push through with that same philosophy/goal, they’ll get to the promised land. We’re a sort of niche market for America, the video store with the different lending policy, the music store that takes returns on opened products. You may dislike us, and we probably dislike ourselves, but the key of the matter is that your reasons are stupid, and ours are completely and utterly valid. We’ve earned at least that much.

We may not have the best ideas, the best execution, or even a reasonable assessment of our own worth, but we have potential, dammit. And if you don’t like it, go rot in Youngstown.

Well, you remember yesterday, when I called Ohio Governor Bob Taft a walking neuter for his lack of knowledge of the nearly quarter-billion dollar loss from the OWBC fund due to bad investments? I take that back.

He’s a walking sack.

I suppose it’s possible that he still maintained neuter status, and he just never read the e-mail, as his office contends. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt; he’s not corrupt, just incredibly incompetent.

In case the rare coin scandal in Ohio wasn’t enough, our workers’ comp bureau lost $215 million.

Long story short, a conservative investment strategy was yielding returns a few years ago, so the OBWC shoved in $300 million more to invest in a riskier strategy to hedge against inflation. Knowing there was a problem last year, the state pretty tooled around on it for a while, apparently lying to the governor about it in the process.

Oh, well. It’s not like Taft does anything anyway. I’m beginning to wonder who was in charge of the math, though. Why allocate $125 million in a risky, loss-prone strategy to make up for a $6.9 million loss? They’re shoving in over $300 million to this - all you need is a strategy that returns between 2.3 and around 6% (depending on the higher or lower amounts being invested), and as we all know from Social Security, the market has a guaranteed rate of return of at least 6%, right?

It’s less about the fact that the money was invested (the rest of the fund is actually pretty competently run on the investment side), but rather the absolute panic mode OBWC seemed to go into when they lost a fairly small amount. And the fact that Taft is a walking neuter at this point.

You know, stuff like this almost makes me want to vote in the Republican governor primary next year.

Now, imagine this…but with shit that actually matters next year. Hrm…who wants to get me TiVo for the debates?

Ohio GOP to require ethics training for all potential candidates. Some old saying about “too little” and “too late” keeps popping to mind…

Why do I live in such a fucking stupid state?

A reader sent me this link, which I initially disregarded - it’s from Adult Video News, and sounds like those e-mails I got a couple of years ago about every three days from people telling me that Republicans were going to let the Civil Rights Act lapse.

Then, I found the bill, a ridiculously thorough delineation of every form of activity which can be possibly be construed as sexual.

Insanity under the cut.
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Ron Brownstein writes about the Democratic need to start winning the South even as they look towards the West.

He makes one point which doesn’t get nearly enough discussion, about Ohio.

The entire article is about population shifts to the South (where the weather makes up for the lack of good schools and the low taxes are a balm to the unemployment rate), and how that will change the electoral dynamic for years to come, but Ohio’s woes, in a nominally red state dominated by Republicans, point to the bizarre ways in which Republican screwups actually help Republican chances.

Ohio is statewide Republican, but often Democratic on a local level. All of Ohio’s major cities have Democratic mayors, but the statehouse is about as Republican as a Reagan Appreciation Night. From that selfsame statehouse, we’ve seen Ohio fall from nice Midwestern state where you go to raise your kids to the place that makes Indiana look like the East Village. As schools fail, businesses leave urban areas; as businesses leave, they migrate to the suburbs, which is where the people go; as you see (largely white) flight to the suburbs, urban areas go to pot. People are leaving Ohio in droves, many of them headed south to areas even more Republican than our own. Essentially, Republicans are concentrating power in no small part because they’re screwing up the other places where they’ve concentrated power.

Political Wire reports that Bob Taft has the lowest approval rating of any governor in the nation.

His approval rating is 19%, which is remarkably, terribly awful for a governor in a state where he has no major scandal, no major initiatives, no major…anything. He’s crossed the boundary from nonentity to nega-entity.

The fact is that Taft is just…well, a pointless politician, if such a construction makes sense. He’s a conglomeration of three branches of Ohio Republicans - the religious, the economic, and the gun. The problem is, he’s not really motivated by any one of those branches. If the Republican majority is held together by skillful interweaving of seemingly disparate goals without their subsequent accomplishment, Taft’s leadership is viewing that network, the power it holds and its ability to accept failure through ideological eyes…and then heading off to the can to finish up the latest James Patterson novel. For four years.

The Republican machine is remarkable in its ability to massage a bleak reality to some semblance of success, even when they fail. Taft simply fails without all the intermediate soft-shoeing. Marilou Johanek gets it exactly right - even when Taft takes a stance, it’s in the least noticeable way possible. He opposed Issue 1 - and I’d be surprised if anyone outside of his office remembered on Election Day.

Let’s just get on to the Blackwell/Montgomery/Petro Trio Of Terror and get this over with.