In this Tuesday post, I questioned, and then weighed in against, the proposed state-sanctioned local sales-tax subsidy for large retailers.

Proponents are showing their true colors in this response to the brewing opposition:

The (Senate Finance) committee, however, questioned why it took so long for opponents to weigh in. Gander Mountain, which has nine stores and 1,185 employees in Ohio, sent a letter to Mr. Taft on Tuesday asking him to “say no” to this provision, but yesterday marked the first time anyone has testified on the issue.

Y’know, we elect representatives and senators to follow the law and do what they can, through OVERALL tax and fiscal policy, to help this state’s economy grow.

We don’t elect them to hand out goodies. We sure as bleep don’t elect them to subsidize large retailers at the expense of small ones (or vice-versa for that matter).

We also shouldn’t have to watch their every action 24-7-365 for any indications that they’re breaking their promises to voters. And if we don’t, and they sneak something by us, they want us to think it’s our fault. Gander Mountain has nine stores to run; they don’t have time, and shouldn’t have to make it, or hire a consultant, to make sure the state isn’t pulling the rug out from under them.

The Senate Finance Committee’s defense is pure, unadulterated horse manure.

Sponsors of this provision tried to get it through below the radar by including it in comprehensive legislation, and got most of the way there before they were caught. Now their response is essentially, “Why didn’t you catch our underhandedness earlier? Oh, and the fact that you didn’t until now means it really should pass. Please just go away.”

There is an urgent need for brooms in May and November to sweep the legislators supporting this garbage and engaging in this kind of conduct out of office.

Scott Pullins and the Ohio Taxpayers Association are in the fight against the sales-tax subsidy built into HB 530. Go there to learn more.

For what it’s worth, without commentary, with amounts raised as of 12/31/05, even though a lot of the candidates below didn’t enter the fray until January or February (only gross receipts are shown here — see the rest of the post below for further explanation):

The linked page has money info for all other Ohio congressional races below what I took a picture of.

Each race’s link has detailed info about receipts, disbursements, and cash on hand.

The first link at this post is worth a bookmark, as new info should start coming in soon.

Background:
– Dec. 29 — Election Law Complaint Filed
– Jan. 11 — Probable Cause Hearing
– Jan. 17 — Probable Cause Finding Letter
– Feb. 8 — Full Committee Hearing Scheduled
– Mar. 16 — Ohio Elections Commission Finds Violation, Issues Reprimand
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I was on the distribution list for this letter from the Ohio Elections Commission, and received it yesterday.

March 20, 2006

Bob McEwen
McEwen for Congress
10935 Rice Field Pl.
Fairfax Station, VA 22039

Re: OEC Case No. 2005E-087

Dear Mr. McEwen:

At its meeting on March 16. 2006, the Ohio Elections Commission held a hearing on the referenced complaint filed with it regarding allegations of your use of false statements in campaign materials which you circulated. All parties and legal counsel were present at the hearing. After a full consideration of the evidence presented to it, and your admission, the Commission found that you violated Ohio elections law based on the Ohio Revised Code’s standard of clear and convincing evidence in falst statement cases.

Specifically, a complaint was filed with the Commission alleging that you were responsible for certain campaign materials in the June 14, 2005 Special Primary Election for the House of Representatives seat in the Second Congressional District which used the title “Congressman” in such a manner that it implied that you current held that office, in violation of Ohio law. Numerous such reference were included throughout a variety of campaign materials included printed matter and television and radio advertisements. The commission found that by using these repreated references in the materials, you violated Ohio Revised Code §3517.21(B)(1) by clear and convincing evidence.

As the penalty, the Commission found that good cause exists not to refer the matter for further prosecution to an appropriate County Prosecutor, but instead determined to issue a letter of public reprimand to the committee, pursuant to Ohio Administrative Code 3517-1-14(D).

The Commission is issuing this letter to you as the public reprimand for the violation of R. C. §3517.21(B)(1). The Commission expects that you will not engage in such activities in future campaigns from the date of this letter forward. The findings of the Commission and a copy of this reprimand will become a part of the permanent records of the Commission.

Sincerely,

Catherine Cunningham
Chair

Note: Ms. Cunningham was the only Commissioner to vote “no” in this matter.

UPDATE: WaPo says Domenech has resigned. This is the proper center-right response to problems of this nature, and stakes out a distinct contrast with the example cited below, liberal historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and many others. Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings, in a new post, says this is not the time to defend the indefensible. She’s right (thanks to the commenter below for the catch that Hilzoy is female). That’s what the other side does too often.

UPDATE 2: Domenech defends. Some valid points, but they don’t carry the day. The better question is, as Large Bill notes in the comments below, how did The Post let someone into such a sensitive position without adequate investigation. I would argue, at the risk of ticking off some younger readers, that the lofty and automatically controversial perch of conservative blogger at WaPo should not go to any 24 year-old (for contrast, think of Barone or John Leo at US News). UPDATE 2A: The he apologizes.
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Michelle Malkin covers the topic that’s all over the blogosphere this morning: Ben Domenech’s “alleged” plagiarism (the word “alleged” looks like it should be in the tiniest of quote marks).

Unlike leftists, who all too often let their plagiarizers off the hook after non-career-ending sanctions and allow them to keep working (thereby hurting the left’s credibility indefinitely — think Mike Barnicle — “Notwithstanding these controversies, and perhaps because of his family’s social standing in the Boston business community and Washington political circles, he did not become a ‘journalistic pariah’ in the fashion of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair”), conservatives and the honor-bound should not, and Ben of all people should know that if he faces things honestly.

Domenech needs to pull the plug on his Red America blog at The Washington Post — NOW. He’s already done considerable damage, and the bleeding must stop. If he won’t go, the Post should send him packing.

For what little it’s worth, Red America is no longer on my blogroll.

(The original post on Red America’s debut is here.)
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UPDATE: Obsidian Wings articulates the case after providing numerous examples, and question Domenech’s judgment in taking the assignment (as do I):

First, plagiarism is very serious. I don’t know how much this view is shared by people who don’t write for a living, but for writers, it’s pretty much the ultimate dishonor. Your reputation as a writer or a scholar depends on your written work, and the discovery that you have been passing someone else’s work off as your own is the closest thing we have to a mortal sin.

Second, in my opinion, the Post should not have hired him, not because he’s conservative, but because he has no journalistic experience, and besides, his first few blog posts were pretty dreadful. But if these charges pan out and they don’t fire him, they have no standards at all. Likewise, if they pan out, you have to ask yourself why the Post didn’t do a better job of vetting him before they hired him.

Third, what could he have been thinking when he took the Post job? If anything on earth is predictable, it’s that if the Post hired a lightning rod like Domenech, his work would be gone over with a fine toothed comb. Could he possibly not have anticipated this? If he did, why didn’t he just come up with a decent excuse to say no?

Paul Craig Roberts used to be a key player in the Reagan administration. His journey into knee-jerk neocon bashing, which I first noticed a little over a year ago (not that I was the first), has descended into full-blown conspiracy mongering of the worst type.

This, from a week ago Thursday, is sad (HT FrontPage Magazine via Atlas Shrugs):

The Bush regime has created a major dispute with Iran over that country’s nuclear energy program and then blocked every effort to bring the dispute to a peaceful end.

In order to gain a pretext for attacking Iran, the Bush regime is using bribery and coercion in its effort to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council for sanctions.

In recent statements President Bush and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld blamed Iran for the Iraqi resistance, claiming that the roadside bombs used by the resistance are being supplied by Iran.

It is obvious that Bush intends to attack Iran and that he will use every means to bring war about.

Yet, Bush has no conventional means of waging war with Iran. His bloodthirsty neoconservatives have prepared plans for nuking Iran. However, an unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran would leave the US, already regarded as a pariah nation, totally isolated.

Readers, whose thinking runs ahead of that of most of us, tell me that another 9/11 event will prepare the ground for a nuclear attack on Iran. Some readers say that Bush, or Israel as in Israel’s highly provocative attack on the Jericho jail and kidnapping of prisoners with American complicity, will provoke a second attack on the US. Others say that Bush or the neoconservatives working with some “black opts” group will orchestrate the attack.

One of the more extraordinary suggestions is that a low yield, perhaps tactical, nuclear weapon will be exploded some distance out from a US port. Death and destruction will be minimized, but fear and hysteria will be maximized. Americans will be told that the ship bearing the weapon was discovered and intercepted just in time, thanks to Bush’s illegal spying program, and that Iran is to blame. A more powerful wave of fear and outrage will again bind the American people to Bush, and the US media will not report the rest of the world’s doubts of the explanation.

Very clever, Paul — Hide behind the skirts and the shirts of your most moonbatty readers (”those were their ideas”), and suggest that our president would sacrifice American lives to motivate the public into support attacking Iran. This is a new low, even for you.

Roberts may even have jumped too far off the deep end for Lew Rockwell, which is saying something.

Free Links:

• If An Enviro You Know Is Sad Today, Here’s Why — The first automobile was sold on this day in 1898.
• I Really Tried to Resist Posting This — (Oh, sure. — Ed.) I know 96% of readers use PCs. Bear with me, at least this item is about Intel and Windows…. running on a Mac (bold is mine):
  

  Windows XP on Macs: Tested, Benchmarked

  ….. We thought, what can we add to all of this? Why, we can boot XP on a 20″ iMac, a MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini Intel Core Duo all in the same room, of course. And we can make all three of them remotely access a fourth Mac system via VNC, so we’re looking at Mac OS as a window in Windows XP Pro.

  (This is all 100% legal, by the way. Apple has said it’s not opposed to booting other OSes on Macs – Linux has run on Macs for years – and our copy of Windows is legally licensed.)

  PC Magazine Desktops maven Joel Santo Domingo ran some benchmarks on the three machines, and came up with surprising results. The MacBook Pro is the fastest Core Duo laptop we’ve tested running the Photoshop scripts. It’s faster than other laptops originally designed for Windows.

  If I couldn’t resist posting, I won’t even try to resist this: Nyah, nyah.

• Another Day’s Key Economic Stats — Existing home sales were up 5.2% in February (vs. an “expected” -1%). Initial unemployment claims dropped to 302,000 vs. the “expected” 305,000. So people are worried that Fed Chairman Bernanke will think things are TOO good. Nice problem.
• No, they’re not biased (HT Instapundit):
  

  A top producer at ABC NEWS declared “Bush makes me sick” in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

  John Green, currently executive producer of the weekend edition of GOOD MORNING AMERICA, unloaded on the president in an ABC company email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

  “If he uses the ‘mixed messages’ line one more time, I’m going to puke,” Green complained.

  The blunt comments by Green, along with other emails obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT, further reveal the inner workings of the nation’s news outlets.

  A friend of Green’s at ABC says Green is mortified by the email. “John feels so badly about this email. He is a straight shooter and great producer who is always fair. That said, he deeply regrets the sentiment expressed in the email and the embarrassment it causes ABC News.”

  Developing…

  Yeah, he’s mortified all right ….. that he got caught.

….. and because of that, a little girl in Iraq has a pediatric wheelchair:

Hardened by the bitter experience of ambushes, roadside bombs and snipers, Marines on patrol in Iraq notice things.

They have to.

When they move through a village they size up groups congregated at corners or storefront doors. They scan faces. Are they welcomed? Feared? Ignored? They make mental notes and tuck away images that might be helpful on the next patrol.

They notice particular houses or buildings, walls or clumps of trees, irrigation ditches, junked cars. They notice things. Their lives depend on it

The men of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, are no different. Their personal radars were scanning, scanning as they patrolled the dusty little town of Al Hasa back in January.

That’s when they noticed something at a particular house. That’s why they showed up at that house last week.

They roared up in a couple of amphibious assault vehicles.

But they didn’t kick down the door. They knocked.

The family inside was surprised, but they weren’t frightened. Greetings were exchanged. The small group of Marines seemed to be holding back smiles and anxious to get to the point.

While on that patrol back in January they had noticed this large Iraqi family and particularly the cute little girl propped awkwardly in a big old rusty adult wheelchair. So, well… a bunch of the guys got together back at Camp Smitty and…

The Marines unloaded a shiny new pediatric wheelchair from one of their vehicles and rolled it into the house.

The little girl had suffered a severe spinal injury in a car accident two years ago. The old wheelchair was the best the family could do for her.

Until the Marines came.

The family’s faces lit up with the smiles. The incredulous father picked up his daughter and immediately placed her in the new wheelchair. He shook the Marines’ hands, saying “Thank you,” again and again.

“They seemed pretty happy about it,” said Cpl. Matthew Rivera.

“We knew we had to help out in some way,” said Staff Sgt. Charles Evers.

The Marines didn’t stay long. There were smiles and a few tears and then they jumped back into their assault vehicles and headed back to Camp Smitty.