There’s so much good stuff in these reasons that I’m forced to extract small bits from each to identify particularly objectionable points. That is NOT an excuse to not go to Writes Like She Talks for all three big enchiladas.

++++++++++++++++++++++

From Jill at Writes Like She Talks (original entry relating to Jill’s effort is here):

• Reason 12 — (in this instance, the conclusion is the money quote) “this proposed language represents the design by which corporate interests believe they can best enshrine and guarantee for themselves a deeper foothold in the gambling industry in Ohio.”

Not bad for the cost of a campaign — A state-granted, voter-granted monopoly. Not if this blogger can help it.

• Reason 11 — (this is my take on one small part of a bigger objection) The big problem that screams out at me as a financial guy is that there is no provision to ensure that the funds will be walled off from or not commingled with other funds.

The lottery, by contrast, IS walled off.

• Reason 10 — (this is my “key extract” from Jill’s analysis) The amendment says that “No other fees or taxes may be applied to or levied against gross slot machine revenue or the amounts wagered or the proceeds of the other games authorized by this section.”

If OL&E passes, it will probably the first time in American history that a “no new taxes” pledge exempting a specific industry will be written into a state constitution.

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Other Voices:

• Lincoln Logs — Don’t Let Issue 3 Slip Under the Radar
• Boring Made Dull — Ohio Issue 3, Fall 2006, Part III “Don’t Learn, while Racetrack and Casino Owners Earn”
• (added November 1) Pullins Report rips on lobbyist Neil Clark, with good cause

One guy, John Kerry, may be doing in 2006 what it took thousands of people to accomplish in 2002 at the Wellstone Memorial Rally.

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UPDATE: I get the sense that a big honkin’ bus is being brought around for Kerry to be thrown under — “A Democratic congressman told ABC News, Tuesday, ‘I guess Kerry wasn’t content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too.’”

UPDATE 2: I was sent a press release from 1st District Congressional incumbent Steve Chabot’s campaign. They have demanded an apology from Chabot’s Democrat challenger John Cranley for Kerry’s remarks. Kerry’s PAC, Keeping America’s Promise, has given Cranley $1,000, so an apology, repudiation, and return of the money would appear to the be the minimum acceptable response by Team Cranley to retain any credibility.

UPDATE 3: Bush reax.

UPDATE 4: Mary Katharine Ham reacts on Cavuto’s show. The Dem strategist who had to defend Kerry was transparently pitiful, but to be fair, she and others like her have nothing to work with, thanks to their 2004 standard-bearer.

UPDATE 5: Alan Colmes makes a complete fool of himself attempting to defend Kerry while interviewing McCain, who frankly seemed a bit stunned (and sad) that he had to explain very simple things to Colmes. McCain also got in a dig about what Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam (the “Winter Soldier” fraud).

UPDATE 6: Kos, given 18 hours to think about it, responds — “Kerry has nothing to apologize for.” The hole grows ever deeper.
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Earlier Posts Today:
– John Kerry Appears to Be on the Verge of Accomplishing the Impossible
– There’s Not a Hard Drive Big Enough

It is no secret, or it shouldn’t be, that George Soros, his family, and organizations affiliated with him are heavily funding John Cranley’s congressional run against incumbment Steve Chabot.

It also is no secret, or shouldn’t be, that John Cranley’s run is also being funded by many organizations, current congresspersons, and other individuals whose views are diametrically opposed to Cranley’s stated prolife views, and in general opposed to the views of the large majority of 1st District Voters on a wide variety of issues.

In case all of this is news to you, here are links to Federal Elections Commission web pages with the proof:

• Committees Who Gave to To This Candidate (scroll down to get past old 2000 contributions) — Far-far left Congressmen include Conyers, Steny “Slavish” Hoyer, John “Redeploy to Okinawa” Murtha, Nancy (who wants to be boss) Pelosi, Loretta “I Stole the 1996 Election From Bob Dornan” Sanchez (requires free registration), Ted “I will veto any legislation restricting abortion” Strickland, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Then there are the unions who have taken money from many of their workers for political purposes against their will, including the “national health care now” UFCW. Throw in the NEA, trial lawyers, assorted enviros, and other progressives, and you have a mix of contributors who are either being fooled bigtime, or are giving us tangible clues as to the kind of congressman John Cranley would really be. I would suggest that it’s the latter.

• Individuals Who Gave (link is to an indexed page which has individuals grouped by letter; 2000 contributions are mixed in with 2006) — It is probably little known that Cranley’s relationship with the Soros family (scroll down alphabetically) goes back to his original 2000 run, when he received $13,500; this cycle, he has received $5,200 so far (there may be other extended family contributions under different last names).

The long-term relationship with Soros makes the following linkage relevant. Here’s George Soros, in his own words in December 1998 on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” on his feelings about surviving the Holocaust, and on his necessary (because he was only a teenager at the time) collaboration with the Nazis by helping his father confiscate property from Jews:

(CBS reporter STEVE) KROFT: (Voiceover) You’re a Hungarian Jew…

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.

KROFT: (Voiceover) …who escaped the Holocaust…

(Vintage footage of women walking by train)

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Mm-hmm.

(Vintage footage of people getting on train)

KROFT: (Voiceover) …by–by posing as a Christian.

Mr. SOROS: (Voiceover) Right.

(Vintage footage of women helping each other get on train; train door closing with people in boxcar)

KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.

Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.

KROFT: In what way?

Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should understand and–and anticipate events and when–when one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it was a–a very personal experience of evil.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?

Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the–whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the–I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.

What person wouldn’t feel at least a tinge of guilt over stripping his own people of their worldly goods — people who were condemned to die as long as the ovens were operating? Soros is not saying “I felt bad, but I got over it by …..,” he’s saying that, though he was clearly seeing evil, he was emotionally unaffected by it.

I will remember this the next time somebody gives me grief about “heartless” (supposedly always conservative and/or Republican) businesspeople.

Sweetness & Light responds “All of (this) would seem to indicate that Mr. Soros has no conscience.”

And George Soros is not only the driving financial force behind John Cranley’s current campaign but apparently his political career.

John, as a fellow St. X grad, let me just say: You should know better.

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UPDATE: Director Blue Doug Ross has more (HT e-mailer Larwyn). Insert John Cranley’s pic where Howard Dean’s appears.

UPDATE 2: I am told that John Cranley has received more than I originally found (more than $30,000) from the Soros clan during the course of his political career (two congressional runs and three council races), including more than $12,000 during the early stage of the current race. The Cincinnati Post way back in April said that the total was $19,500. That plus the $5,200 I cited, plus probable contributions in non-Soros family names, plus City Council money that’s not able to be found online, makes that $30,000 claim very credible.

Moderate Mainstream effectively works up a complete critique in the process of fisking a column by Martin E. Segal, the alleged “Doctor Law” at the Miami Herald.

Segal’s column is so riddled with errors and inaccuracies that ModMain essentially rewrites it, which is why it is probably the best review of the first year of “B-R” (or “BARF,” as she likes to call it) that exists.

That’s why I’m not excerpting it, and why I’m suggesting you read the whole thing.

Which brings me to an important point that needs to be re-emphasized every once in a while.

ModMain is NOT an unbiased observer and, unlike the poseurs in the 527 Media, doesn’t pretend to be. That doesn’t mean that she can’t put together a comprehensively effective critique, because she has, while STILL taking a look at the facts and circumstances in as fair a manner as possible. You know where she is coming from, and you can evaluate her work accordingly. The 527 Media insults our intelligence on a daily basis by acting as if they’re coming from nowhere, i.e., that they are totally detached and objective, when we all should know by now that it’s not the case.

I prefer learning from people like ModMain who don’t feign detached “objectivity,” yet apply their knowledge as subject matter experts (ModMain works in the field; Segal most certainly does not, or he would have starved to death by now) with their known predispositions to the issue at hand. What I pick up is almost invariably wider and deeper than what I get from the people who try to fool us into thinking that, because of a mindset they claim to have that doesn’t really exist, their facts, and especially their interpretations, are the only ones that are possible.

FOLLOW-UP: John Kerry’s Amazing Productivity

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Snatching defeat from what appears (if you believe the polls, which is another story) the jaws of victory for his party — TWICE.

The comment, again:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

OMG, I’m hearing that Kerry is claiming that he was talking about President Bush (this apparently after an attempt to blame Rush Limbaugh, Tony Snow, and right-wingers). Horsecrap. No, freaking, way.

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Blowback and 527 Media cover-up update: Michelle Malkin, who notes that the 527 Media is desperately trying to ignore this. It’s worse than that, Michelle, as Kerry’s quote is “disappearing” from later stories (see update at previous post). Michelle also notes that John McCain is demanding an apology.

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Go to Memeorandum, which is using Captain Ed’s post as the anchor, to see at least a couple of dozen other blogs that are all over this.

UPDATE: Yesssssss! Fox News Radio played the audio of Kerry’s riff at the top of the hour.

UPDATE 2: Rush is saying that Kerry is now trying to claim it was a “mangled joke” (link it to Hot Air). Keep digging, John.

UPDATE 3: The latest story from Jennifer Loven of AP (yeah, HER) has the Kerry quote — in the 11th para. And of course the whole preceding story is about charges and countercharges. Zheesh. Nice try, Jen, but it won’t work.

UPDATE 4: He’s melting. Also just heard 3PM audio on Fox News Radio — he calls the flap a “Textbook case of Republican campaign disortion.” Some Democrat has to get that shovel out of Kerry’s hands before the GOP picks up 15 seats instead of losing some.

UPDATE 5: Hewitt — “John Kerry is trying to be against his slur on the American military after being for it.” UPDATE 5A: Hewitt hones in on why this has octopus-like legs (bold is mine) — “Too late. Kerry dropped the mask long enough for the American public to see clearly the same contempt we heard from him years ago, ….. And it is not just Kerry, but the left in America that holds as an article of faith that the military is full of losers who didn’t do their homework. The anti-military bias is also nested deep in the MSM.” UPDATE 5B: Dean at Hewitt has the snark of the day — “While Kerry may have been painfully recalling his own experience at Yale where he got 4 D’s during his freshman year and ultimately wound up in Vietnam, there’s nonetheless no excuse for these comments.”

Strickland 50.8, Blackwell 43.5.

The 50.8 is more important than the 43.5. A candidate normally isn’t seen to have sealed the deal unless they’re a few points above 50.

This poll result is well within the “Ohio Poll Margin of Error,” which in the May primary was well in double digits in three of the four major statewide races — all in the conservative direction (22 in GOP Senate primary, 18 in Dem Senate Primary, and 14 in Dem gubernatorial primary).

So it’s getting interesting. Actually, it always has been; Ohio’s 527 Media has been trying to tell us otherwise. That will now be more difficult.

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UDPATE: The WSJ has a nice layout of the nationwide Zogby poll situation in all of the Senate and gov races (and it’s not behind their wall) here.

From the person who, more than any other, exposed the UN Oil-For-Food Scandal (HT Amy Ridenour), on one private-sector person’s punishment:

If Jeffrey Skilling Had Worked for the UN Instead of for Enron… He’d be looking forward to years of dining out with his pals and collecting his pension in comfort. Instead, found guilty of fraud and conspiracy, he’s facing a 24 year sentence.

Amy also linked to an article noting that Kofi Annan’s “promised” personal financial disclosure form, mentioned here in brief a month ago, will not be made public

The only thing the Iraq Vets Against the War (IVAW) don’t say is “redeploy to Okinawa” in the first two things they call for:

• Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;
• Reparations for the pillaging and destruction of Iraq so that ordinary Iraqi people can control their own lives and future.

But wait, you say. IVAW didn’t endorse Vic Wulsin for Second District Congresswoman, Iraq War Veterans for Progress (IVFP; the word “war” is not in the official name) did. IVFP has also endorsed Sherrod Brown; that’s two Ohio candidates of IVFP’s total of five endorsements.

Navy vet Large Bill explains the linkage between the two groups:

IVFP does not openly call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. However, IVAW which is more transparent about wanting to abandon the mission in Iraq appears to be closely related to IVFP. These organizations seem to have considerable cross membership. Tim Goodrich is the Executive Director of IVFP as well as being a founder of the IVAW. Charles Anderson ….. is a member of both organizations, works for the Brown for Senate campaign, and is a regular poster at the far left blog Huffington Post.

There are at least four other IVFP members, including most of those working with the organization’s five endorsed candidates, who are also in IVAW. Large Bill also points out the absurdity of IVFP’s “renounce pre-emptive war” position in a post-9/11 world.

The larger point is that Sherrod Brown and Vic Wulsin are brandishing endorsements by the more-reasonable appearing IVFP, when in reality the people in IVFP want the immediate withdrawal advocated by IVAW.

You doubt? Two of IVFP’s non-military “timetable” pretenders at the group’s About page are Daniel “Pentagon Papers” Ellsberg, who showed the rest of the country how to be a successful turncoat during the Vietnam War, and Barbara Lee, the only congressperson to vote against authorizing the use of force against Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Give either of those truth serum and they would say “Timetable, Schmimetable. Get out now!”

So either Brown and Wulsin believe in a timetable for withdrawal and have been fooled by the IVFP/IVAW subterfuge, or they know about the subterfuge and are determined to fool the voters. Neither possibility says anything positive about either candidate.

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UPDATE: Yes, I’m perfectly aware of the legal distinction between the IVFP (a PAC) and IVAW. There’s also a legal distinction between Procter & Gamble, to pick one example, and its PAC, that most would agree doesn’t mean much philosophically. Why, except for sbuterfuge, would there be a fundamental difference on withdrawal from Iraq between IVAW and IVFP?

….. to store all the dumb, condescending, and insulting things John Kerry says.

Here’s the latest (HT Michelle Malkin). It’s all three:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

I’m sure fellow party members Paul Hackett, Tammy Duckworth, and a host of others will be thrilled to no end to hear how their 2004 standard-bearer feels about their service.

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UPDATE: The SFgate link got revised, and the Kerry quote “somehow” isn’t there any more. How convenient; they’re literally covering for Kerry. Here’s one that is still has Kerry’s quote there, along with a note that the reax was “a mixture of laughter and gasps.”

UPDATE 2: So in character.

UPDATE 3: The happiest guy in America today has to be Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel, because this won’t get much attention.
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FOLLOW-UP POST – “John Kerry Appears to Be on the Verge of Accomplishing the Impossible”

If you haven’t checked out the right-of-center blogs, you almost definitely have missed this — the self-righteous clown who ran stopsexpredators.blogspot.com was outed.

He works for the Human Rights Campaign in Royal Oak Michigan — uh, make that worked.

RadarOnline has his name, and he’s “a onetime staffer to Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and former Democratic South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, (and) is 29.”

Stop October Surprises did the dirty work of finding the guy with some nifty tech tricks.

A Google news search on the guy’s name (in quotes) shows absolutely no 527 Media listing — NONE. (that would compromise their mission to change who contols Congress.)

The fact that the “Foley scandal” was a targeted Democrat October surprise is an established, fact, yet it is unknown to almost all. THAT is obscene.

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UPDATE: If you think my frustration is misplaced, please recall the extraordinary lengths the media went to in order to find out who “Buckhead” at FreeRepublic, the guy who first raised questions about the Rathergate memos. Buckhead didn’t prove it (Little Green Footballs did that), he just made an opinionated observation. Yet the LA Times was beside itself with glee when it found out that “Buckhead” is a (gasp) active Republican (a hanging offense if there ever was one).

“Buckhead” began the process of outing journalistic fraud committed by the press. Yet the person who played a large part in PERPETRATING the Foley obsession gets leave-alone treatment from the 527 Media. Horse manure.

The points Mike DeWine makes (here and here) about Sherrod Brown’s career, weak performance, and lack of accomplishment are powerful. Read them.

SO BUSTED — Cardin’s commercial with supposed “average Marylanders” included:

• a woman on Cardin’s staff paid by his campaign.
• a top union official.
• another one paid by the Democratic Party.
• his personal make-up artist (make-up that you put on your face, not on TV).

Is Cardin TRYING to lose?

But they won’t push the rock over top. Given that it’s the Blade, I suppose we should be thankful that they got as close as they did in a Friday editorial:

THIS is an English-speaking country. Has been since the revolution. Anybody who came here expecting to get along and get ahead knew they had to learn our language.

That hasn’t changed, and it isn’t about to. So we don’t need legislation to make English the official language. It already is. Wouldn’t you think our elected officials had more important issues to wrestle with?

….. The debate is a diversion from the issues that matter: health care, the war, the state of the nation’s schools, corruption in Washington.
Americans who live in other nations learn their host country’s language in order to get along in society. Foreigners who adopt America have an equal responsibility to adopt English.

But what do you do about people who refuse to learn the language yet feel it’s their right not to be inconvenienced in any way (and who bring their public-interest lawyers with them if challenged)?

The English-only movement wasn’t needed in the first three-quarters of the previous century because there WAS buy-in that English had to be learned, if not by the parents, DEFINITELY by the kids. Thanks in part to multiculti, that consensus is showing serious cracks. The English-only movement would be stopped dead in its tracks if that consensus returned.

In Berkshire, UK (HT Good News Blog):

Oct 27 2006

By Dominic Bareham, Maidenhead Reporter

AN heroic driver saved the lives of 12 passengers by hurrying them off his bus just seconds before it was engulfed by flames.

The driver, who modestly refuses to give his name, was driving through Marlow when he discovered the coach was on fire.

He evacuated all of his passengers seconds before flames up to 30ft high swept through the bus.

Tracy Hudson, landlady of the Earl of Cambridge pub, Queen’s Road, said that dis-aster was only seconds away.

She said: “It was really close. He had just got the last of the passengers off, and seconds later the bus just went up in flames.”

She added: “The bus was a towering inferno. The flames were massive, It was not a small fire.”

The quick-thinking driver has been praised by Buckinghamshire Fire Service spokesman Fraser Pearson, who said: “Everyone was able to leave the bus safely before what appeared to be merely smoke from the engine turned into a really bad fire.

“That driver deserves a pat on the back for his prompt action.”

The blaze started at the back of the bus, which was travelling from Reading to High Wycombe via Marlow, at 5pm.

Witness Ben Winstanley, 14, who lives in Copse Close, Marlow, spoke to the driver, who told him that he was forced to pull over because the engine was revving up and he was not able to find a gear.

The driver was unable to to switch the engine off at the ignition. So he then rushed to the back of the bus to find the emergency stop button.

Ben said that the driver was unable to do so because of the smoke.

So he swiftly cleared the passengers off the bus and called the emergency services.

Ben, a pupil at Great Marlow School was at home doing coursework at the time of the incident and thought he saw smoke billowing from the direction of the Earl of Cambridge pub.

He grabbed his camera and arrived on the scene just after the back end of the bus caught fire. turn to page 2

Of the passengers, he said: “They all got off and were relieved about the fact that there was no one left on it and that they had escaped in time.”

A crowd of up to 30 people, including some of the pub’s customers, turned up to see what was going on and take photos at the scene.

Police moved the crowd back to a safe distance while the firefighters extinguished the blaze, and Oxford Road was temporarily closed.

A spokesman for Arriva buses said that the bus had been taken back to the depot so that is can be examined by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA).

He said that, as yet, the cause of the fire is unknown.

As a reminder, a BizzyBlog Dealbreaker is “something that completely justifies a person not voting for you, regardless of your party or your stands on the issues.”

Once any Dealbreaker is in place, discussion of where the candidate involved stands on “the issues” is over. The candidate is unacceptable by the standards of any reasonable voter, PERIOD. The choices are then limited to those candidates who remain.

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Official Dealbreakers of the current campaign season:

• Ted Strickland Dealbreaker #1 — Voter Deception over the fact that he has been living outside of his district.

• Ted Strickland Dealbreaker #2 — Financially Shortchanging His District by not living inside it.

• Sherrod Brown Dealbreaker #1 — No-show Sherrod’s absence from roll call votes and key committee and subcommittee hearings.

• Sherrod Brown Dealbreaker #2 — Late payment of taxes (19 months), and then only under legal threat (Brown can’t even remember the taxes he’s pushed on us, so “of course” he won’t remember the taxes he owes).

• Charlie Wilson Dealbreaker (OH 6th District Congressional Candidate) — living outside his district, refusing to move into it, and thereby financially shortchanging it.

• Paul Gillmor Dealbreaker (OH 5th District Congressional Incumbent) — living outside his district, and financially shortchanging it in the process; his opponent’s Wiki entry is the source, and the fact that Gillmor lives outside the district is not in dispute.

• Vic Wulsin Dealbreaker 1 (OH 6th District Congressional Candidate) — Serious Breach of Medical Ethics, apparent endorsement of, and supporting continuation of, CDC-discredited “Malariotherapy” experiments.

• Vic Wulsin Dealbreaker 2 — Failure to Disclose Endorsements of major national feminist organizations.

• UPDATE: I’ve been tipped off to another congressperson who feels it’s beneath their dignity to live in the district they supposedly represent. I just need to button down some details, and will add that person when that occurs. It may also be another example of moving out while not informing voters. This ended up being a false lead. I learned this on about Nov. 4, and am just now (Nov. 12) updating.

In previous campaigns, before the Dealbreaker name was officially coined, these situations qualified under Dealbreaker standards:

• Bob McEwen Dealbreakers (May-June 2005, Ohio Second District Congressional GOP Special Primary campaign) — One month of “official” residency in the District; Undisclosed business associations; Calling himself a congressman when actually a former congressman.

• Paul Hackett Dealbreaker (July-August 2005, Ohio Second District Congressional Special Election campaign) — TV ads posing as a supporter of George Bush while in reality holding a strongly antiwar position and calling the Commander in Chief, among other things, a “son of a b…..”

• Bob McEwen Dealbreakers (April-May 2006, Ohio Second District Congressional Primary campaign) — Continuing to call himself a congressman on his web site; Discovery of illegal voting in Highland County from approximately 1997 - 2002; Voting using someone else’s address; Continued undisclosed business associations; Posing as a Christian conservative while accepting the active campaign and financial support of an R-Rated (and sometimes worse) publisher and his political/legal acquaintances.

Personal income is up a bunch, both in this month and during the past six, and wayyyyyyy ahead of inflation.

As Matt at WoMd would say, “I blame Bush.”

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UPDATE: Some precision — Marketwatch (link requires free registration) reports that “Real disposable incomes (were) up 0.8%, (the) biggest rise in a year.”

Outstanding posts I noted over the weekend while perusing the output of the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance (I’m sure I missed many other good ones; please don’t feel offended if you’re not included):

• Congrats to A Rose by Any Other Name for participating in “An Auction on Behalf of a Military Family” that raised over $30,000.

• Blackwell v Strickland found a FreeRepublic poster who said, “I am a graduate of the same seminary as Ted Strickland. There is NO WAY that a graduate of Asbury Seminary, in that era in which he attended (late 60’s), should be advocating these anti-morality positions that Strickland advocates.” It gets better from there.

• B v S also had a quick interview with an apparently confident Lt. Gov. candidate Tom Raga, who said, “Polls have been wrong before, remember the RON issues?” Oh yeah. I do.

• Boring Made Dull had Part III of a series with a great title: “Ohio Issue 3 — Don’t Learn, while Racetrack and Casino Owners Earn”

• Friday afternoon, Matt at Weapons of Mass Discussion posted a passionate video recitiation by Mike DeWine of Sherrod Brown’s dismal record (one would hope, in about 8 days, Sherrod Brown’s dismal legacy). The idea that every major 527 Media newspaper except the Toledo Blade endorsed DeWine because Sherrod Brown is too far on the fringe — even for them — is stunning.

• Large Bill’s post last Wednesday included an important link to and excerpt from an American Thinker piece by Dr. Mary Davenport on the relative results of adult vs. embryonic stem cell research.

• Gribbit’s Word looked at District Judge Algenon Marbley, who suspended Ohio’s voter ID law last Thursday. Surprise (not) - Marbley uses dingaling logic, and is a Clinton Administration appointee (but I repeat myself).

• This goes back a bit, but FYI News wrote a reinforced editorial endorsement of Ken Blackwell that Ohio’s 527 Media hopes their owners won’t read — because it’s better written than theirs, regardless of who they’re supporting.

• EyeHackerBlog covered the Hugh Hewitt interview/slugfest with Andrew Sullivan last week that I mentioned briefly in an earlier post, and honed in on Sullivan’s heretical recasting of Vatican II as an excuse to dismiss papal authority if your conscience tells you otherwise. Nice try, Andy — no sale. UPDATE: Non-SOB blog Deep Thought fisked the conscience question in great detail, and finds Sullivan’s take on Vatican II totally wrong, to the point where he questions Sullivan’s right to call himself a Catholic. Money quote: “The trickiest part of claiming to be Catholic, though, is that there is actually a definition. Mr. Sullivan doesn’t seem to match it.”

• Conservative Culture noted a big story being neglected and downplayed, as it was last year until it got so hot (literally) that no one could ignored it: France is frying again.

• Conservative UAW Guy tells us what various answers to the question “How many guns do you own?” mean.

• New SOB member Connect the Dots 2006 (welcome!) fisks a tiny portion of the Associated Press Stylebook. Creating an automated AP-to-objective/fair/balanced translator from a detailed study of the Stylebook would be a noble project.

• Newshound, who in my opinion must have tuned in sometime after the endless fever-swamp repetition of the false “Blackwell stole Ohio” meme that his opponent has bought into, isn’t happy with the gubernatorial campaign’s devolution, and says he won’t be pulling the lever for Ken Blackwell. (UPDATE: I think NixGuy has a great post to consider for Newshound and anyone else who is thinking of sitting out the guv race on account of “civility.”)

• Don’t forget that NixGuy, in addition to comprehensively covering all things Strickland-Foley and the complete collection of Strickland Dealbreakers, is ably representing the Alliance at the AOL Elections Blog, covering Ohio’s Senate and gubernatorial races. UPDATE: Do not miss “Who Is Bruce Rind?“

• Porkopolis is continually updating his own index of all things Strickland.

• The Pullins Report is clearly getting under the skin of the post-buyout survivors (or is that time-markers?) at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

• Pro Ecclesia (”pro” must be short for prolific) has a list of three things people should pray from now until Election Day.

• Red Hawk Review covers Antonin Scalia’s speech a little over a week ago. Make it an over-dinner read if you want to get through the comments, where Red Hawk quite stridently and successfully defends originalism.

• Repeal the 17th is troubled by the money being spent on political campaigns. I’m not as troubled by that as by where it’s coming from. Consistent with what I’ve said before, I don’t understand why someone from another state giving money to a given state’s US Senate candidate is even legal.

• Return of the Conservatives risks a fatwa.

• Justin at Right on the Right has YouTubed his first foray into video. Outstanding. Moving. Go there. And Justin — Keep it going. When you get a chance, help us old fogeys out.

• Steve the Pirate has 10 questions you should ask yourself before deciding whether to vote in this election. Steve, you’re grading on a curve — I’d be tempted to say anyone who isn’t 9-for-10 on “yes” answers should stay home.

• Thespis Journal was on the most invisible story of last week — the one that, despite the current blackout, will end whatever positive historical legacy Ted Kennedy thinks he still has.

• Viking Spirit covers a sore loser and political vandal who defends the Taft Administration. Zheesh.

• Wizblog notes the coverage of a coach and father figure who may have as much to do with Ohio State’s current perch at Number 1 as anyone besides Buckeye Jim Tressel.

Or, conversely, Cincinnati is the 18th most dangerous city in America (based on FBI figures, per AP report, out of 371 listed; HT Drudge).

More dangerous than:
- Washington, DC (353)
- Newark(!) (350)
- Dayton (346)
- Toledo (331)
- Miami (327)
- Columbus (326)
- Indianapolis (320)
- Pittsburgh (307)
- San Francisco (270)
- New York City (145)

Small consolation: A few cities didn’t report, including Chicago and New Orleans (but Chicago might very well have come in less dangerous).

John Cranley isn’t the only person to blame for the city’s safety deterioration. But he’s the only one who feels he’s entitled to a promotion to Congress after six years of watching it happen.

I don’t think so.

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UPDATE: This is admittedly from a Wiki entry that doesn’t have a cite, but it conforms with what I expected and recall, having lived in the Cincy Metro area for over 40 years, and in the city itself during part of that time:

Before the riots of 2001, Cincinnati’s overall crime rate was dropping dramatically [citation needed]. It was at its statistical lowest point in records dating back to 1992.

John Cranley has been in City Council for six years while a previously favorable trend in crime has gone the other way — severely.

UPDATE 2, Nov. 12 — Cincinnat Blog points out that the recent restatement of Cincinnati’s population upward by 22,582 changes the city’s crime standing. My admittedly wild quess is that the 7% or so increase improves the city’s ranking by 20 or so places at the very most. The Enquirer link indicates that the city’s standing in homicides only “improved” from 15th-worst to 17th-worst.