From the Hillsboro Times-Gazette's publisher and editor, Rory Ryan:

Youngstown police detective Rick Alli was named by Dann to be Ohio's chief of law enforcement operations, a newly established position for Alli. That's all well and good. The attorney general can make such an appointment, of course.

Trouble was, $118,000 a year from Ohio taxpayers wasn't enough for Alli. Apparently, he wanted to continue collecting his $56,412 a year as a Youngstown cop. (This is off the topic, but is anyone else amazed by the fact that a 31-year policeman in a city the size of Youngstown was paid just $56,412 a year? Alli should have moved further south than Columbus.)

But I digress.

The Youngstown Vindicator reported that Alli has been fired and "is now the subject of a state investigation into charges he may have improperly collected two salaries."

Dann fired the Top Cop and said he (Dann) was "broken-hearted."

Maybe Dann's broken heart prevented him from finding The Times-Gazette fax number to inform us of this allegedly corrupt public official in his employ.

You see, former state senator Dann has a real fondness for fax machines. At least he used to.

Dann's probably caused the death of more Ohio trees than the emerald ash borer and the Husqvarna chain saw combined.

While running for office, Dann made a habit of inundating Ohio media with his daily faxes about the Republican "culture of corruption." To date, we haven't received a single fax about Dann's Top Cop, Sgt. Alli, and his double-dipping from taxpayers.

Dann, as many have noted, was very good at offering up criticism of the Taft administration.

Some of Dann's criticism was warranted, some was not. But given such an egregious ethical and legal lapse by a high-ranking appointee in his own office, Dann's relative silence on the matter has been deafening. By his own standards, at least one fax to all the state media would seem to be in order. He's done as much for others, and then some.

If Dann's choice for Ohio's Top Cop is any indication of things to come, it could be a quick, four-and-out for this attorney general and former fax man.

Dann surrounds himself with incompetent, unqualified people like Alli, then he is broken-hearted when something like this happens? The only thing Dann is broken-hearted about is how this appointment is bringing him an onslaught of negative news articles written by liberal reporters who used to love him.

Ugh!

The Ohio GOP posted results from a recent Quinipiac University poll, which reports Rudy Giuliani or John McCain would defeat Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Al Gore in the general election. But at this early in the race, I think these type of polls are meaningless. And, I think it is quite a stretch to believe Giuliani or McCain would be the Republican nominee. But that didn't stop GOP Chairman Bennett from getting some healthy jabs in:

“Ohioans are looking for leadership from their next president, and the Republican candidates for president have the character and experience necessary to do the job,� said Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett. “None of the Democrat candidates have done anything to instill confidence that they could lead this country through the difficult times we face. In fact, the opposite is true. Hillary Clinton remains a calculating politician who morphs like a chameleon and makes up fake southern accents; Barack Obama wrote a work of fiction and called it his autobiography; and Al Gore can’t accept the inconvenient truth that voters just don’t want him in the White House.�

To quote a Tanya Tucker song, "Well it's a little too late to do the right thing now."

If you were one of the 29 people who watched MSNBC's debate of the Democrat candidates for President, you would know why I officially endorse Mike "I’m feeling like a potted plant over here" Gravel in the Democrat primary. He made Dennis Kucinich look as sober as a judge, and was way too much fun to watch. Every debate needs more screaming about the "military industrial complex."

Gravel! Gravel! Gravel!�

This time, he is coming to Lake County. Here is the invite:

It is always exciting to go to a rubber chicken dinner with a speaker who attracts dirty hippies to protest outside. Make sure to visit the Lake County GOP's website for more information.

ATTENTION SECRET SERVICE: Below is Todd Hoffman, the Ohio Democrat blogger (which, like my former job, is really just a "pr stylist") who moonlights as Chris Redfern's pool cleaner. If he shows up with his stupid cardboard affidavit, tackle and arrest him with extreme prejudice:

and she is pandering to the radical Gay agenda.

If this bill passes and is signed into law, it will be the first time that there would be a protected class that anyone could choose to join.

And I continue to believe that this sort of anti-discrimination legislation for the private sector workforce does harm to the Constitution, as it is yet another unfortunate expansion of Congressional powers under the Commerce Clause, which is used to restrict the rights of employers. Discrimination is immoral, but we should leave it to market forces to harm discriminatory employers.

This is bill is legislating morality, and I thought that was something liberals and high-minded centrist Republicans were opposed to.

From the PD

Columbus — House Republican leaders rolled out their version of the state's next two-year budget with a heavy emphasis on higher education and school choice.

House Finance Committee Chair Matthew Dolan, a Russell Township Republican, outlined GOP changes to Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed $52.9 billion budget late Thursday afternoon as a 34-page briefing document was released.

Dolan told reporters that the boost to higher education is balanced largely by further cuts to dozens of state agencies.

"There is no question — higher education, and the knowledge it provides, is the driver of our economy and the yardstick by which our future will be measured," House Speaker Jon Husted wrote in the document.

 

Republicans also freed up about $50 million for higher education by eliminating a Strickland proposal expanding Medicaid coverage to about 25,000 working parents making between 90 and 100 percent of the federal poverty level, which sits at $20,560 a year for a family of four.

That cut — which Democrats strongly oppose — means part of the debate on the first budget proposed by a Democratic governor to a Republican-controlled legislature since 1971 will likely be over the health-insurance needs of Ohio's poor.

This morning an omnibus amendment detailing the GOP plan, which caps overall spending at $785 million less than Strickland's plan, is expected to kick-start the final series of budget hearings before the House Finance Committee.

As was widely expected, Republicans countered Strickland's move to end a voucher program outside of Cleveland, which provides fewer than 3,000 students in low-performing districts with vouchers to attend private schools, by fully restoring money for the program.They also plan to allow charter school expansion in some cases rather than the moratorium sought by Strickland.

Some good proposals, and if you read the rest, some proposals that will leave you scratching your head. Let's take that $785 million and cut some taxes with it.

Townhall.com's Mary Katharine Ham videotaped this at the Heritage Foundation’s Resource Bank, which is, what she calls, "an annual event during which a bunch of conservative think-tank wonks get together to talk, strategize, and drink for a couple days."

for more information, visit www.myschoolmychoice.org

Read more at the Secretary of State's website here. (Her website, by the way, was designed by an evil Republican website firm that lefty kooks have a bunch of nutty conspiracy ideas about- I've worked directly with that company (New Media), and they are far too incompetent to get involved in any diabolical election day scheme.)

This is just one more attempt by Democrats to propose ballot initiatives to hurt Ohio's economy which they hope also brings out more Democrat voters to the polls.

Too many people have been injured with baked beans. And its clear that, if baked beans were banned, a photographer wouldn't have been injured by actor Hugh Grant.

Will this incident encourage the formation of the Ohio Coalition Against Baked Beans Violence? Will The Plain Dealer treat bean eaters like criminals and publish their private information? Only time will tell, but it is clearly time to get beans off the streets and out of the hands of law-abiding bean eaters… Especially those who bothered to take a comprehensive, 12 hour bean eating class.

This is from The Other Paper and is too funny…

And Speaking of The Other Paper, I heard a rumor that Dan Williamson, my favorite cyborg of the Ohio MSM, wrote something about this funny flyer for the Capital University College Republicans' "Global Warming Beach Party." And a little birdie told me Williamson became aware of it because I posted it on RAB. Whatever he wrote doesn't seem to be on their website, so I'll scan a copy soon.

From Candice Brooks Higgins in the Hamilton Journal-News:

HAMILTON � A Republican candidate for county commissioner in 2008 has yanked her $900 three-hole sponsorship from a Butler County Republican Party's golf outing because the party's chairman refused to include her campaign slogan on the sponsor signs.

Rawnica Dillingham, executive director of Mental Health Matters, wrote GOP Chairman Tom Ellis Wednesday requesting that her sponsorship be withdrawn for the May 14 golf outing at Wetherington Golf Club in West Chester Twp.

Dillingham wanted her sponsor signs to read "Rawnica Dillingham for Commissioner � The Real Republican," according to an e-mail Ellis sent her last Wednesday. Ellis wrote that the slogan was "inappropriate" for the event and offered to print her signs without "The Real Republican" slogan.

"We, of course, would not treat Rawnica any differently than anyone else," Ellis said Wednesday. "We would never permit something that we would deem inappropriate with respect to the other people at a private event that we are having, such as our golf outing."

Ellis and GOP Executive Director Scott Owens said in the past campaign messages or slogans like Dillingham's have not generally appeared on sponsor signs � only the candidate's name and the office being sought.

"It's unfortunate that she would pull her sponsorship of the county GOP's golf outing," Owens said.

Dillingham, who has repeatedly stated she will not seek the local Republican Party's endorsement, wrote back to Ellis that her slogan was born from former President Ronald Reagan's use of the term "real Republicans" when referring to those who he felt could unify a divided GOP.

"Allowing you to censor my campaign slogan would be a serious mistake on my part, causing some to perceive my principles as a shallow, carnival-tent version of what I truly believe in, or for that matter, what you think is politically correct and appropriate," Dillingham wrote to Ellis.

Dillingham said she still intends to purchase tickets and attend the event.

"The Real Republican" doesn't sound like an inappropriate slogan for a GOP candidate to use in a primary.

Matt Hurley is not pleased about this story.

From the AP:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Tens of thousands of home health care, farm and amusement park workers are getting the state's new, higher minimum wage even though Republican lawmakers voted they shouldn't get it, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The workers may not be entitled to the higher pay under state rules the GOP-controlled Legislature approved last year, but they still are eligible under federal law, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce, controlled by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.

"We're interpreting that you've got to be in both of those (state and federal statutes) to be exempted from Ohio's minimum wage," Robert Kennedy, the agency's Division of Labor & Worker Safety superintendent, told The Columbus Dispatch.

Ohioans voted last fall to raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour. Backers of the measure said the increase was intended to be applied broadly to all workers, but state lawmakers cut some groups out when writing the rules to implement the law because they said ballot language had given them that leeway. Among those exempted were 20,000 health-care workers, and between 6,000 and 8,000 farm laborers.

Sen. Steve Stivers, who backed exempting home health care, farm and amusement park workers, said he intended to investigate the fact that the state is still allowing those workers the full increase.

Republicans said at the time that they used either federal definitions or backers' own public statements to decide what groups to exempt.

"It takes a lot of legal gymnastics to get to where they've gotten to. Very creative," said the Republican from Upper Arlington.

The union-backed minimum wage ballot initiative had very sloppy language- and the Ohio legislature was within its rights to limit increases for certain industries and clean up its language. The Republicans should take this to court to help limit the damage this minimum wage increase will do to Ohio's business climate.

Watch the video here.

Here is the related article.

I guess this would be alittle extreme, but I'd rather see conflict than two similar higher education plans which both include more government spending. I'd rather Speaker Husted announce a plan which wouldn't make the libs at the Cleveland Plain Dealer so happy.

Goodbyes are always so difficult…

Great idea:

COLUMBUS A provision in the governor's two-year budget to limit advertising will cost newspapers across the state $150,000 a year.

Buried in the massive budget is a provision that would allow the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to stop placing advertising dealing with the state's Voluntary Action Program in local papers. The program uses grants and loans to encourage private developers to clean and reuse polluted land, called brownfields.

The agency publishes the program information on its Web site, and that would continue.

Step 2 should be to completely eliminate the Ohio EPA. The amount of confusion and expenses they create for already overburdened Ohio businesses by creating policy which goes far beyond federal EPA requirements is incredible. I'd love to see that entire agency be eliminated.