I didn’t care for the first Obama girl video, but this one tickles me. Fish and live bait, heh. And that chorus is really catching. “Red states… and blue states.” That could be a hit.
Politics aside, it is an incredible day for the country, in that so many say they [...]
Gallup’s 3-day tracking poll for today shows that the R’s have halved the D’s advantage from an 8-point high 3 days ago to 4 points today. The 3-day released September 2 had Obama on top by 50-42% while today’s has it at 48-44. Since the polling for today’s release [...]
OK, the first two-thirds of that speech: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
McCain’s just never going to be anywhere nearly as good an orator as Obama, and everyone knows that. I did actually agree with many of the cultural/political positions he laid out, which was good. It’s a reminder that even if the right disagrees [...]
That was about as momentous as I thought it would be. As expected, she’s drowned out- for the time being, at least- a lot of the flood-the-zone smears and sexist remarks the blogging left has been engaged in. I distinguish that sort of thing from proper criticism. I don’t want [...]
From ProgressOhio:
Ohioans for Healthy Families, the state wide coalition that has sought enactment of a paid sick day law in the Buckeye state, announced today that it will ask that the Ohio Healthy Families Act not appear on the November ballot.
You might call this the Thomas Eagleton of ballot [...]
A Central Ohio landmark was demolished Tuesday to make room for a new healthcare center.
The abandoned Schottenstein Department Store building on Parsons Avenue soon will be home to a new center that will provide quality care to South-Side residents.
Parsons Avenue needs all the help it can get. Though it is [...]
There have been many angles of attack on Sarah Palin and her daughter coming out of the left over the last few days. Nick D at BSB expresses one that’s now making the rounds to see if anyone salutes:
Okay, so riddle me this, BSB readers: if you knew your [...]
It’s the end of an era. Tonight is the last game the Clippers will play at Cooper Stadium. They’ll be playing at Huntington Park next year.
Here’s columbusING, and here’s the Dispatch. And from last year, an old post of mine with pics of the stadium.
[...]The Ohio National Guard is sending a CH-47 Chinook helicopter and five crew members to Louisiana from Company B, 238th General Support Aviation Battalion in Akron.
The unit is expected to help move supplies into staging areas, search for and rescue people and transport evacuees.
That’s good. There’s more, too.
[...]Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be in Dublin at Dublin Coffman High School tomorrow, starting at 4:30.
[...]Maybe to Springfield? I’m dubious.
[...]The big speech had me a little underwhelmed. It was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation for Barack Obama: if he kept the speech all airy and dreamy and inspirational like many of his previous speeches, he’d be criticized for repeating the same empty [...]
Steve Stivers is running an ad now. His Democratic opponent Mary Jo Kilroy has already had several. Though I notice her negative ad isn’t posted to her site. Strange, that. More at The Daily Briefing.
UPDATE: Oops. That negative ad wasn’t put out by the Kilroy camp- it’s [...]
New poll from Quinnipiac. It’s 44-43, Obama, a statistical tie, as they say.
Likely voters in three critical swing states want to see a Democrat elected President this year, but Illinois Sen. Barack Obama begins the Democratic Convention trailing Arizona Sen. John McCain in Florida; tying him in Ohio and [...]
So I watched the big political show last night. Some thoughts:
It was good to see Ted Kennedy again, and looking surprisingly healthy. I was half afraid he’d come out on stage looking all skinny. That would have been bad. Nothing fantastic about his speech but it was perfectly serviceable. But [...]
The Dispatch released its first presidential poll results yesterday:
Republican John McCain holds a 1-point edge, 42 to 41 percent, in the first Dispatch Poll of the general election campaign. The Arizona senator’s lead is well within the poll’s margin of sampling error, plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. That [...]
“While we would hope that all Ohio businesses would make paid sick days available to their employees whenever possible, we believe that this initiative is unworkable, unwieldy and would be detrimental to Ohio’s economy, and we will be opposing it and asking Ohioans to oppose it as a result,” said [...]
A press release from State Rep. Mandel (R, Lyndhurst) and Jay Goyal (D, Mansfield):
COLUMBUS – State Representatives Josh Mandel (R- Lyndhurst) and Jay Goyal (D- Mansfield) announced today they will soon introduce legislation to offer state income tax credits to Ohio-educated graduates in return for their commitment to stay [...]
More “It’s Gotta Be Hillary“. (Previous.)
[...]“Strickland’s brand of Stone Age union economics“. That’s a good one.
[...]This is kind of cool. It’s like the Columbus version of Koyaanisqatsi. Bexley’s in there too. (Via RetroMetro.)
[...]Is this the end of Mary Jo Kilroy’s egging on fellow Dems with that charge against Republican Steve Stivers that a 2003 bill he co-sponsored stripped local jurisdictions of control?
Stivers’ Senate office told PolitickerOH.com that townships and counties have not been able to regulate agriculture since the 1950s, as [...]
Some good news for all you flyboys:
Local travelers still stinging from Skybus Airlines’ demise are expected to get a welcome piece of news today, as discount carrier AirTran Airways announces it will begin flights from Port Columbus in November.
The Orlando, Fla.-based airline will offer nonstop flights to Atlanta and [...]
This is rather shocking:
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, has died after suffering a brain aneurysm, said sources familiar with the situation.
UPDATE: Acknowledging earlier reports that she had died, CNN is saying Tubbs Jones “remains in critical condition.” I [...]
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive yesterday forbidding county elections officials from taking voting equipment home and bringing it to polling locations on Election Day. The directive affects at least 23 counties, including Fairfield.
That’s one of those rules that common sense would lead you believe had already been [...]
Will Hillary Clinton be Obama’s VP pick after all? Ralph Nader says yes. So does Ben Keeler. (How often does that happen?) VP nominee Clinton wouldn’t surprise me at this point. As I wrote in Ben’s comments, her constituency is the one he needs the most and he’s [...]
Rasmussen has McCain up by 5 in Ohio. That’s 48-43% and includes leaners. It’s 45-41 among likely voters. Previous polls had it:
PPP, Aug 18, tied 45-45
Quinnipiac, July 31, 46-44, Obama
It’s not smart to compare different polls and find a trend, but this definitely looks like a [...]
CAPA’s new season is now on the web. Here’s a post about it.
[...]An example of the difficulty of obtaining public records. Scanned PDFs? Near useless. Here’s a somewhat related post.
[...]Lots of people buzzing about McCain’s apparent plan to name his VP in Dayton, Ohio on August 29. That’s the day after the Democratic Convention ends, which is when the CW had him announcing.
[...]Regarding the interminable egg controversy surrounding the race for the OH 15th district, the state’s Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement on the 2003 bill (H.B. 152) says:
The bill also makes other changes regarding regulation. The bill states that an owner or operator of a facility shall not be [...]
More domestic drilling- in Ohio? I didn’t know Ohio currently has 63,000 active oil and natural gas wells, according to the story. It’s NPR audio. Canada’s been drinking our milkshake in Lake Erie for 40 years. Despite this, environmentalists still say that keeping the US from drilling there too [...]
“This Little Wingnut Went to the Wrong Coffee Shop” What made it the wrong coffee shop? That reminds of the old ethnic turf battles: Friend, you just went to the wrong sockhop. I keel your broh-ther!
Maybe Nick D will post the car owner’s home phone number- after all, [...]
Is an egg farm the top issue in the race for Ohio’s 15th District? Seems like it, if you’re following the press.
[...]“The Central Ohio Transit Authority experienced an 18 percent increase in bus ridership on its fixed routes for the month of July,” according to Columbus Local News. That’s over July 2007. Stay high, gas prices! Keep these people off the road. Disclaimer: I have never ridden on a COTA [...]
A new poll shows Barack Obama and John McCain tied in Ohio at 45% each. It’s from Public Policy Polling, which I’m not too familiar with. The latest Quinnipiac, from July 31, had Obama ahead 46-44. OK, that’s the same thing.
[...]Gov. Strickland on Barack Obama’s campaign, from the New York Times:
I particularly hope he strengthens his economic message - even Senator Obama can speak more clearly and specifically about the kitchen-table, bread-and-butter issues like high energy costs…It’s fine to tell people about hope and change, but you have to [...]
Ohio unemployment is now at 7.2%, the highest figure in 16 years:
The figures released Friday show that the number of unemployed workers in July was 430,000, up from 394,000 in June. The number of unemployed people in the state has increased by 96,000 in the past 12 months.
Ohio’s 7.2 [...]
Things to do this weekend. Most interesting to me is Art al Fresco in the Short North tomorrow. I’m not quite sure what that is.
[...]NBC4i on another Whole Foods recall:
The company says its 365 Organic Everyday Value Popcorn, Lightly Salted might contain undeclared milk ingredients, which could cause a severe or life-threatening reaction in people who have allergies to milk ingredients
First last week’s ground beef recall, now this. Quite the string of [...]
Ohio’s political winners & losers of the week, courtesy PolitickerOH, a neat site if you live and breathe state politics. Gov. Strickland’s a big winner, but the ODP a loser. That’s certainly arguable.
PolickerOH is relatively new site- here’s a good review from bonobo, an initial skeptic. When and [...]
Some opposition to a part of the big downtown split project: “One part of the reconstruction plan would involve tearing down two century-old buildings in the nearby Olde Towne east neighborhood.”
[...]In the Dispatch:
U.S. foreclosure filings were up 55 percent in July from a year earlier and up 8 percent from June, with Ohio posting the third-largest number as the housing market remained on life support.
In Ohio, 13,457 homeowners received a foreclosure notice last month, said RealtyTrac, a company that [...]
Blue Bexley has some doubts about the charges against payday lender signature-collecting. Plus he’s a Stalinist, apparently.
[...]The governor seems to be doing very well among Ohioans, according to a Quinnipiac poll. PolitickerOH:
Gov. Ted Strickland has a 60%-25% approval rating among Ohio voters, up from 55%-23% on June 4, according to a new poll released today by Quinnipiac University.
Even 47% of Republicans approve. Last time I [...]
10TV News on another school funding measure:
The Columbus City School Board finalized its decision Tuesday evening to ask voters to support a 7.8 mil levy on the November ballot….
The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an average of $275 more each year in taxes, 10TV’s Tanisha [...]
John McCain wrote a letter to Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post World Net, which owns DHL, asking him to come to Wilmington. But DHL’s making noises that it won’t matter:
DHL, however, this week expressed concerns that go beyond Wilmington. Put bluntly: sacrifice the limb (Wilmington) or put the [...]
About 10,000 workers in the Columbus are are covered. The members still have to ratify the deal. Business First:
The Cincinnati-based company began talks with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1059 on July 21 in anticipation of a contract set to expire Nov. 9. Kroger said the union [...]
The Wexner Center for the Arts is going to present Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms starting September 13. I caught Andy Warhol: A Retrospective at MOMA in 1989, just a couple years after his death. Great show. Pop Art, unlike a lot of art these days, is [...]
Here’s a post on payday loan interests caught using underhanded tactics to get signatures. As LisaRenee says, always read these things before you sign. Or at least hold out for more than a buck for your signature.
[...]A look at Clear Creek Metro Park, near Lancaster.
[...]“Gov. Ted Strickland has been given a prime speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention to talk about the economy.” It’ll be on Tuesday, which is also Hillary’s night. From PolitickerOH.
[...]Maggie Thurber writes up the Buckeye Institute’s plan to put Ohio government info online. This is a good idea. Some public websites look like they were made in 1995 and haven’t changed since. Many are difficult to navigate. Cynics would say that the pols want to keep it difficult.
Here’s [...]
A small controversy developed when it came out that the ODP reserved a bunch of spaces for themselves:
Columbus public-service officials blocked off 35 meters this summer outside the Ohio Democratic Party’s Downtown headquarters, not as a courtesy to political allies but because a check for more than $7,000 bought [...]
Ohio “state tax revenue was $139.8 million below estimates in July, a gap of 9.8 percent.” If that keeps up, the budget cuts of $724 million won’t be enough.
[...]This applies to Columbus to a large extent:
But, even if the critics are mostly right–even if the vast majority of cities never see a downtown residential boom of massive proportions–there is no doubt that a demographic inversion, in which the rich are moving inside and the poor are moving [...]
A brief on Ohioans competing in Beijing.
[...]Diebold Inc. will close its Newark-area plant and move the work done there to North Carolina, leading to the loss of about 100 jobs.
Company officials said they will begin cuts at the plant in October and complete the closing in the first three months of next year. The plant makes [...]
From Business First:
Dispatch Printing Co. in a filing with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services posted Monday said tentative plans call for work-force reductions for its production operations at 5300 Crosswind Drive beginning Nov. 3. Targeted for cuts are 112 workers at the facility, most of whom [...]
Cool, the Brewery District. I feel like a beer.
[...]Nice introductory article on the three people running for Ohio AG. The election’s this November, of course.
Work means not much blogging today.
[...]Heh. A comment I made on this Plunderbund post, wherein Eric complains that a comment he posted at the WMD blog has been deleted, has been deleted. If I made this up it would be hard to believe.
UPDATE: The comment’s there now. In the comments, Eric says there [...]
I missed this on Friday when the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Metro blog broke it, but both Plunderbund and blogger interrupted posted the wrong phone number when they tried to make people like John Quinn “think before they do these kinds of disruptions.” The phone number has since [...]
“Whole Foods Market is recalling fresh ground beef sold between June 2 through August 6 because the beef might be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.”
I had some of that- still here.
[...]John Edwards admits to the affair, but not to paternity or pay-offs.
Edwards denied paying any money to Hunter to keep her from going public but said it was possible some of his friends or supporters may have made payments without telling him.
Sure. (Via Ohio Daily Blog, and in [...]
From 10TV news:
Columbus Public Health officials said Friday that an area encompassing portions of German Village and the Brewery District had a pool of mosquitoes test positive for West Nile Virus.
The 43206 ZIP code joins ZIP codes 43211 and 43207, according to the health department.
It can kill you, but [...]
LisaRenee at Glass City Jungle has a round-up of McCain in Ohio MSM coverage. MyFoxToledo has video.
[...]Magellan Mortgage and Highland Banc have been charged with violating Ohio’s predatory-lending laws:
The lawsuits allege that the companies arranged loans with undisclosed fees and the loans “resulted in no net tangible benefit for homeowners who had no reasonable ability to repay the loans,” according to a statement from the [...]
The Olympics have started- they’re something like 13 hours ahead. Anybody going to watch?
[...]Bank robbery in Bexley yesterday. He might have hit another on Wednesday.
[...]German Village’s Oktoberfest is moving again:
Oktoberfest will take place Sept.5-7 at Genoa Park and Amphitheater, between the banks of Scioto River and COSI. It will run from 5 p.m. to midnight on Sept. 5, noon to midnight Sept. 6 and noon to 8 p.m. Sept. 7…
That’s not even in [...]
Vinyl isn’t dead in Columbus. Or is it coming back like a zombie?
[...]John McCain promises to look into the antitrust implications of DHL outsourcing air freight to UPS. DHL is number 3, while UPS is number 1. That’s a bit like Wendy’s buying their hamburgers from McDonald’s.
[...]Walker’s blogging about Experience Columbus’s forthcoming ad campaign, “Not in Columbus.” Example: “We don’t have the Eiffel Tower in Columbus” and then it lists things we do have- COSI, etc.
It seems kind of negative, but it isn’t the first use of irony in tourism ads. It reminds me of [...]
“But we desperately need help from the federal government. We simply do not have the resources to do everything that must be done to get us through this difficult economic period, so that we’re positioned for future growth.”
Well, if it’s just from the Feds it’ll be ok. [...]
State Democrats are making a lot of noise about John McCain and DHL’s acquisition of Airborne Express. The ODP has a new video.
Here are a few background facts:
Here’s a primer on John McCain’s day in Ohio today:
The Republican presidential candidate heads to Wilmington after a scheduled 11:30 a.m. town hall meeting in Lima at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center. Another campaign stop is planned for the Columbus suburb of Dublin.
The DHL deal is expected [...]
Lisa the Waitress has things to do this weekend. There’s a Waterfire on the Mile event this Saturday. Never been. Maybe I’ll go.
[...]John McCain will be in Columbus today for a private fundraiser. Big bucks, apparently. Progress Ohio is holding a counter-event. Tomorrow (Thursday) McCain’s got a public appearance in Lima. More at the Dispatch.
[...]SurveyUSA has a poll on the Ohio-15th race. It’s Mary Jo Kilroy (D) vs. Steve Stivers (R). Kilroy narrowly lost two years ago to Republican incumbent Deborah Pryce, who’s retiring at the end of this term. The result is Kilroy over Stivers, 47-44. I’m surprised, in this [...]
Nick D at Buckeye State Blog published the home address of that wacky guy who demanded Barack Obama recite the pledge of allegiance at his campaign event in Berea yesterday. (Obama did.)
Now clearly what that guy did was bizarre and I don’t approve, but publishing a person’s home address [...]
In the Dispatch, “Keno’s 1st day smooth”:
Keno tickets went on sale at 6 a.m. yesterday and the first drawing took place at 11:04 a.m. Drawings take place every four minutes until 1:44 a.m.
At Average Joe’s, the first drawing passed uneventfully, but by the lunch hour, people snapped up tickets, [...]
A report on Barack Obama’s campaign stop in Youngstown this morning:
Speaking before fielding questions from a crowd of about 2,500 at Austintown Fitch High near Youngstown, Obama argued that investing in wind power alone “could increase workers’ wages in Ohio by more than $3.5 billion through the year 2020.”
He [...]
This Quinnipiac poll of Ohioans is from July 31 (ancient history) but since I wasn’t here back then here it is:
Obama has 46 percent to McCain’s 44 percent, compared to a 48 - 42 percent Obama lead last time
So it’s tightening in Ohio, as it is in the country [...]
Good and angry post on energy politics at Rowsey Blog:
As a democrat, albeit a new democrat, I am thoroughly outraged, embarrassed, and even disgusted as our party has blocked every effort to deal with the energy crisis. Pelosi, Reid, and Obama who refuse to negotiate some kind of compromise [...]
Columbuser.com has returned from the netherworld, all rested up and ready to rock your world with local stories of little-to-no import, bloggy ruminations on the state of Columbus, Ohio, and post-MSM internecine warfare.
To all those who’ve asked after the proprietor (i.e., me), I’m fine- just burned out on blogging for [...]
According to Buckeye State Blog, allowing parents to take their children (and tax dollars) and go to private, charter, religious, or suburban schools is the equivalent of busing them. Bill Todd advocates those options in a new radio ad (mp3). It’s a bit slimy to use the busing [...]
