I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.

Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back

One more argument supporting concealed carry and how it's not safe in establishments that don't allow law abiding folks to carry their weapons on them.

What a shame!

Phillips nets 514-vote victory margin

We've went from being represented by an Ohio right to life / NRA endorsed Jimmy Stewart to a dope smoking, coal hating (well she likes "clean coal if the technology allows it")....like I said, coal hating, Wal-Mart protesting liberal freak (is that too strong?).....Debbie Phillips.

If it doesn't smell right.....

Am I the only one that thinks this seems, unseemly?


"Marietta City Council adopted Resolution 67 during a regular session at Lookout Park last Thursday, authorizing the nonprofit group Friends of the Lower Muskingum to apply to the Ohio Public Works Commission for a Clean Ohio grant to purchase land owned in part by Mayor Michael Mullen."

Your vote does count

The local ballot initiative to allow Cool Spot (Coolville) to sell alcohol has passed. By one vote. 108 - 107.

This follows another ballot initiative (2007 general) in Troy East precinct to allow alcohol sales in Hockingport. It also passed by one vote. 149 - 148.

My question is: Both the Methodist churches (Coolville / Hockingport) had signs on their property opposing Ohio issue 6 (casino). Why didn't they become active in these local issues that have a direct impact locally? If they did oppose it, they sure were quiet about it.

One vote.

Honest hippies are a lot of laughs

"Those poachers need to lock and load with God's Green Herb and blow smoke instead of bullets"


See the comments section at the bottom of this Athens News story.


Yes, they are freaks, but they are a lot of fun when they take the veil off and tell you what they really think.

The Dispatch gets it.

They still don't ask the question on people's minds: What did Strickland know and when did he know it?

I know it's not in the GOP's nature to do this sort of thing, but the Senate should investigate what the Governor knew about this. Did he approve of this? Due to the lenient penalty, one wonders.

Dave Yost's blog has been on top of this.

Editorial: Weak response
Governor should have sent a stronger message about the abuse of office
Sunday, November 23, 2008 3:30 AM
Two serious examples of unethical behavior should be more than enough for Gov. Ted Strickland to demand the resignation of the head of a state agency. But instead of being removed from office, Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, was penalized with nothing more than a month of unpaid leave for misusing her office for political purposes.
In a report unveiled on Thursday, Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found that Jones-Kelley used a state computer and e-mail account to raise money for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, violating the governor's policy against such abuse of position. She also authorized an attempt to dredge up dirt on "Joe the plumber," an Ohioan named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher who gained sudden fame after questioning Obama on his tax policies during a Toledo-area appearance by the candidate. Republican Sen. John McCain used Wurzelbacher's question to challenge Obama in their Oct. 15 presidential debate.
Jones-Kelley justified the search of agency records on Wurzelbacher on the grounds that the agency occasionally reviews personal data on people who suddenly appear in the public spotlight. But Charles' report said Jones-Kelley had no legitimate reason for reviewing Wurzelbacher's records and that her explanations for doing so were not credible. Charles' report didn't conclude that the data-checking was politically motivated, but that's the only logical explanation. Officials in a Democratic administration were mining damaging information on an Ohioan who had challenged their presidential candidate.
This misuse of government power against a citizen is a grave matter. Americans should be able to challenge politicians without fear that government officials will try to damage their reputations. Fear of being targeted in that way can chill political speech and participation.
After Charles issued his report, the governor unveiled a directive calling for clear policies on when state employees can access private personal data and restricting such activity to legitimate government purposes. Agency directors must appoint data-privacy officers to help achieve better controls on access to sensitive personal data.
This directive is useful, but how much weight will it carry when state employees see how little penalty there is for violating it?
If two such glaring violations of public trust do not merit removal from office, what would the governor consider worthy of such punishment? For an administration that launched itself with much fanfare about its strict ethics policies, the response to Jones-Kelley's actions is inexplicable.
In light of the governor's failure to impose an appropriate punishment, the legislature has all the more reason to step in with statutes that spell out the limits for government workers with access to confidential information about Ohioans and penalties for those who overstep them.

OEPA pursues action against Marietta Industrial Enterprises

I know the OPEA works with companies towards good results. They keep in mind that we need to keep businesses in business. I wonder sometimes however, just how would the Chinese handle a company like this? Would they even care? We keep adding costs and requirements on our businesses, then wonder why they shut down and move elsewhere.

http://mariettaregister.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=1

"The director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is ordering a business operating on State Route 7 near Marietta to test their emissions for manganese and provide the state with information about its processes.....The OEPA Director is also insisting on the testing of manganese emissions (in terms of pounds per hour) and demonstrated compliance with set emissions limitations within 90 days."

"MIE president Scott Elliott said in an interview on Monday that the company doesn't handle manganese and hasn't handled manganese for years.
"We don't even handle manganese anymore. We haven't handled manganese for three years," he said. "So there's no chance that we do not report manganese emissions because we don't have them."

Do as I say, not as I do

Green Obama’s official limo is a gas guzzler

"On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to get a million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. His own new presidential limousine will be far from green, however.
The Obamobile being prepared for the president-elect is said to be a monster gas-guzzler made by General Motors, the troubled car giant. It will look like a black Cadillac but is built like a tank. A spy photographer who tracks down future car models for magazines snatched pictures of the heavily disguised first-car-in-waiting when it was being road-tested last summer.
The armour-plated car, which has a raised roof, windows up to 5in thick, extra-strength tyres and a body made of steel, aluminium, titanium and ceramics, is thought to be based on a GMC 2500 truck that gets less than 10 miles to the gallon."

County expects ’09 budget to shrink 9 percent

Picture from the Athens News article here

So maybe it's time to get rid of the "Meals on Wheels" program. Maybe this program isn't funded by the county, but this story reminds me of all the Meals on Wheels trucks I happen upon on the back roads when gas was $4.25 a gallon.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to mail Happy meals to the "needy"????

I wonder if the Meals on Wheels employees are AFSCME members? If that's the case, we wouldn't get rid of this program if it cost $50 a meal to deliver. Take a look at this link to AFSCME's website and you'll realize I'm right about that.

Charlie Wilson does not understand economics

Too many comments on this one.

First he votes to raise the minimum wage. If he'd do a little reading, he'd understand this puts people out of work. If employers have to decide if it's more cost effective to buy a machine since they can't afford to hire workers, how does this help those this "raise" is supposed to help? Also, if stores raise their prices because the labor price goes up, who pays? Those that the bill was supposed to have helped. And on top of paying higher prices, now they are out of work.

Which brings me to the next point:

Now he votes to extend unemployment "benefits" (redistribution of wealth). He also voted to do this in May. So how does paying people not to work help our unemployment situation? We should be encouraging folks to work, not paying them not to.

Another dumb idea: Bailout the auto industry. We should let them make the decisions they have to to stay in business. Everyone knows they need to get rid of the greedy union thugs sucking them dry and making our automobiles less competitive than Honda, Nissan, Toyota, etc, who, by the way, do just fine building cars in the US. The only difference is, they are non-union. Giving Detroit taxpayer money would reward bad management and just prolong the inevitable. If they had to fix their business now, they might have a chance. Of course the union backed dems want to continue to receive their campaign contributions from the unions, hence their support of this bailout.

Lastly, Wilson's support of the deceptively labelled "Employee Free Choice Act". See previous post here.

Our Representative knows nothing about economics.................or he does know about economics and doesn't care, just wanting to receive union campaign checks. Either way, he needs to go.

We get the government we deserve

Lawsuit on horizon over landlord-tenant ordinance

"The attorney for a local landlords’ group confirmed Wednesday that he is preparing a lawsuit to challenge the city of Athens’ legally required landlord-tenant forms."



I've got an idea, why doesn't the city of Athens just put a public notice in the Athens Messenger with the information they want conveyed to the tenants? Instead they come up with a scheme forcing landlords to do the city's work. Of course, no one reads the Messenger and one has to pay to view it on the web.....but that's another story.

It took them how long to come up with this theory?

How long have we been saying this? With this type of delayed deductive reasoning, how did we ever "evolve" from the apes???

"The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks.
In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits.
Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises.
Now tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers. The psychological profile of a mass murderer indicates he is looking to inflict the most casualties as quickly as possible.
Also, the data show most active killers have no intention of surviving the event."

I've been trying to impress on my daughter that it's simply not safe to enter businesses with "no guns allowed" signs posted. The reasoning is this: the only people in the business with a gun would be a criminal. Since law abiding citizens follow the rules, they'll leave their concealed carry guns in their cars. This leaves the only people with guns in the business; criminals. Hence, it's not safe to enter establishments with these signs posted.

Another reason the GOP should not listen to the media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAUmIv2SGYY

Another reason the GOP should not listen to the media when they want to give advice on winning elections. John Fortney must have attended a creative math school!

We should go after 6 year olds to vote? I think the dems have that vote bottled up with ACORN.
The media only look the other way when dems conduct voter fraud.

Unintentional, unscripted truth from state GOP

DeWine's desire to shift away from social issues leads to uproar

Dumb comments from state GOP deputy chairman DeWine; "the party has to, “exchange a fiscal message and an economic message in for the social message that has dominated the messaging of this party for the past decade,” and said the GOP has had a “distracting focus on social issues.”

So, which is it?

then, when called on it he sends an email; "DeWine said in an e-mail to Republicans on Tuesday that the party is not abandoning its positions on social issues.
“This is not to suggest that we yield in combating the assault on our values. Our party's platform on the critical issues of life and marriage is clear, and I'm proud of my pro-life and pro-family record in the General Assembly. I can assure you that we will continue to advance those core values,”

If the GOP wants to abandon the "values voters" (another dumb media label) who will be left? A few Bob Taft Republicans?

Another comment that gets to the bottom line:

"Dan Prince, chairman of the Warren County Republican Party’s central committee, said DeWine’s comments weren’t particularly damaging, but warned that continued statements that the party needs to move away from talking about social issues could alienate social conservatives who form the backbone of the party’s get out the vote efforts.
“That would be the risk, I would say, that Kevin might be taking is alienating people who would otherwise be very good workers for the party,” he said. “Even though in the end I think they’ll vote the way he hopes, but keeping them engaged as workers is key.”

Finally someone tells us the truth, the truth that we've always felt, but no one has ever verbalized: We don't really care what you want, just get out there and work and vote. We'll take care of the rest.

Bomb threat reported at Mountaineer Plant

Bomb threats at local power plants.

I wonder where one could find a group of radical "environmentalists" capable of doing such a thing in Southeastern Ohio????

"NEW HAVEN, W.Va. — Employees at Appalachian Power’s Mountaineer plant were evacuated Monday morning as law enforcement officers with the West Virginia State Police searched the area for a bomb."

"This is the second bomb threat the company has had the state police investigate. A similar call was placed at the John Amos Power Plant in Putnam County last week, Moye said. It was the fifth call made to that plant within several weeks."