From the Post Online

Last week, Gov. Bob Taft announced his support for Issue Five, the SmokeFreeOhio initiative proposed for the November 7 ballot. Backed by the American Cancer Society, the initiative would create smoke-free public places and workplaces statewide. Though well intentioned, SmokeFreeOhio is far too sweeping. Not only is it wrong to strip private businesses of their right to regulate such things, but any smoking ban should only take the form of a city ordinance in the first place. If Issue Five appears on the fall ballot, Ohioans should give it the response it deserves and vote it down.

Admittedly, smoking bans have worked particularly well in some major cities, with improving health standards and relatively little opposition. If all-out smoking bans must continue, they should at least remain in such localized forms. SmokeFreeOhio, on the other hand, would attempt the same thing across an entire state that features cities of varying sizes and cultures. What works for Columbus might not work for Athens, and this is the important distinction SmokeFreeOhio overlooks. In America, something like a smoking ban is controversial enough at the local level. This initiative would unnecessarily complicate the issue by trying to impose it on an entire state.

Do it HERE.

From the Dispatch

I noticed the latest Dispatch Poll included information on Learn/Earn and the smoking ballot issues. Did you also poll on minimum wage and the workers comp referendum? If so, when will that information be released?

Darrel: Since we conduct a mail poll, we only have so much space on our survey ballot. We did not include the proposal to increase the minimum wage (the ballot language is a page and-a-half) or the issue that would undo part of the legislature's changes in state workers' compensation laws.

We could try to condense or summarize the issues, but that gets us into dangerous territory. We did that with the five state issues last year and that blew up in our face (plus later polling showed a huge shift in public opinion at the last minute on the Reform Ohio Now issues).

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs

Tucker Carlson’s interview with CAIR’s Ohio Chapter President Asma Mobin-Uddin is worth watching.

One of the interesting items in her response is how she connects the promotion by Dennis Mitsubishi as mocking the Pope; bizarre. She drops all the appropriate words to deflect from the real issue, Islamic terrorism. What is even more interesting she mentions that CAIR has not even seen the promotion they are attacking.

Her response is typical double-speak and noticeably demonstrates CAIRs culpable alliance with the thug terrorist. She and CAIR are nothing more than the soft front of the greater threat.

From Bloomberg.com

Republicans plan to hold their 2008 presidential nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman told reporters on a conference call today.

The main convention will be held Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Republican officials said they also expect to hold many activities during the week across the river in nearby Minneapolis.

That is a shame.

From openers

Brunner and Hartmann also discussed the pettiness of their campaigns, solutions for improving the number and quality of poll workers and how they would manage elections boards around the state.

They did what?

Looks like the Betty Montgomery campaign is blogging away.

(HT: SOB)

Strickland Calls Ohio a "Backwards State"

Blames economy's woes on restrictions on abortion and embryonic stem cell research

“All of these things paint a picture of Ohio nationally and internationally as a backwards state," he charged.

Click links above for full story and audio from the PD editorial board endorsement interview (HT: KB.com, Openers).

Other headlines I'm still waiting for:

Strickland plans massive expansion of Medicaid

Believes adding hundreds of thousands to broken system and "living wage" revenue neutral