Nosey Online

Looks like the hack I implemented to keep the trackback spammers away has killed the trackbacks. I think I'll just have to nuke this installation and start over. My brother is going to help me with a new design soon. So if you're trying to ping me, this is why it won't work. I'll let you know when it works again.

UPDATE: Heh. Well that wasn't hard. They're working again.

I don't have much to say on the matter. It's neat that a great American mystery is finally solved (although I'd rather know who was on the grassy knoll). However, I wish the source turned out to be Pappy Bush. Now that would make for great entertainment.

Everyone's been talking about this one, but I have to comment.

Washington - President Bush, faced with a string of setbacks on Capitol Hill, shrugged off questions about his political clout and promised Tuesday to keep pushing the Republican-led Congress for a Social Security overhaul. [...]

FOREIGN POLICY: Bush defended his approach to sticky problems:

He denied any increase of strength in the Iraqi insurgency, whose deadly attacks have been on the rise since a new government was announced April 28. He said the Iraqi government would be "plenty capable of dealing with them."

Really. Hmm. Then what the hell does this mean?

The death toll for American troops in Iraq rose in May to the highest level since January, with the U.S. military saying Tuesday that insurgents have doubled their number of daily attacks since April [...]

At least 77 U.S. troops were killed in May, according to a count of deaths announced by the military. That is the highest toll since 107 Americans were killed in January. It marked the second straight monthly increase since 36 U.S. troops died in March, among the lowest tolls of the war.

President Bush; proud member of the non-reality-based community.

Earlier today, I happened to be listening to Jerry Springer's radio show. Here in Cleveland, the show is on WTAM 1100. Which, hilariously enough, is the Cleveland home of blowhard extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh. Clear Channel, which owns 1100, decided to air Springer's show right before we moved back from California. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to think that Limbaugh conservatives had a collective coronary over this one.

But alas, I digress.

Springer was talking about the decline of respectability that the office of the President of the United States used to hold. In Springer’s opinion, this decline began with Nixon, was exacerbated by Clinton, and has now bottomed out with Bush. Since I was not born when Nixon was around, any commentary I can offer on the presidency only has a scope of the last ten to fifteen years. Springer is speaking in generalities, of course, because a president’s respectability can really only be measured by the size of his support base.

While Clinton was in charge, there was a rabid anti-president contingency in this country. However, throughout the worst scandals and continuing today, President Clinton has enjoyed large approval rating. Shining a spotlight on the current president does not yield the same results.

As of today, more then half of the country thinks Bush is doing a terrible job. What was once a strength in foreign policy has now become an albatross around his neck. While things in Iraq are getting worse, the president is blatantly ignoring the truth. Weak attempts at deflecting these certainties are now no longer effective. As the section of this country that consists of Kool-Aid drinkers gets smaller and smaller, the more pathetic these denials are getting. The empire that was once invincible is now showing chinks in the armor.

Republicans ahould be surprised by how ineffective Bush’s coattails will be in ‘06 and ‘08.

Somehow today I missed this. (Via Kos)

A member of my church gave to me a copy of the Ohio Restoration Project. This project is led by so-called Christians who have a plan for Ohio. The project will target 2,000 pastors throughout the state to become "patriot pastors." These patriot pastors will be briefed on a specific political agenda and asked to submit names of their parishioners in order to increase a database to 300,000 names. These pastors will be asked to place voter guides in their church pews.

Ken Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state and a governor hopeful, is named throughout the document. Blackwell will be featured on 30-second radio ads promoting this group's agenda and supporting the "Ohio for Jesus" rally set for the spring of 2006. At the end of the document are the words, "America has a mission to share a living savior with a dying world.

You get the gist, read the whole thing. As Kos points out, here is the actual plan mentioned in this letter to the editor. Here is an exerpt:

3 - Encourage ministers across the state of Ohio to become Patriot Pastors. Patriot Pastors will be challenged to:

Preach and inform their congregations on issues relevant to the Christian Community. These ministers of the Gospel who are needed to encourage their church families to be engaged in the culture as a light set on a hill that refuses to be hid.

Help build a network of addresses and e-mails that will equip concerned Christians to become informed “Minutemen” of our day. Patriot Pastors will work towards adding 200 names to our statewide mailing and 100 e-mails. We presently have 60,000 names on our AFA Ohio mailing and 55,000 on other lists that have been made available. This does not include the 55,215 e-mailing addresses that we currently have. We would like to build that to a total of 300,000 on the mailing list and 100,000 e-mail addresses. In a single day, we could educate and mobilize hundreds of thousands who are able to pray at a moment's notice. A website could be developed helping thousands of families to have access to information that equips these folks to make a stand.

Host nonpartisan voter registration drives in their churches. Patriot Pastors will work toward registering 300 new voters by April 2006. These can be solicited in nonpartisan registration drives in a variety of ways. There are 88 counties with more than 7,000 churches. If we could see 00,000 new registered voters involved in the process, this would be a serious step towards the “Stewardship of our Citizenship.”

Include Voter Guides and inserts provided from Christian Coalition, American Family Association, and Center For Moral Clarity. Informed voters appreciate these tools in discovering where candidates stand on the issues. These Voter Guides are great tools to help engage their communities with conviction and confidence. These guides help clarify the positions of various candidates who, at times, would like to remain vague and noncommittal.

Mobilize voter participation through transportation for the elderly, childcare for young families, congregational prayer meetings for elections, praying for those candidates requesting prayer, being involved and engaged as “salt and light” within the culture.

Encourage their church families to participate in Pastor Policy Briefings and regional “God and Country Rallies” where the issues of the day are underscored and highlighted and the Judeo-Christian ethic is affirmed. Nationally known speakers Franklin Graham, Zell Miller, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, Bob McEwen, Pastor Lawrence White, Pastor Rod Parsley, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson and Tony Perkins will be asked to participate.

Again, read the whole thing. If there was ever activity that fell into "grey area", this is it. While a typical Democratic response to this might be "How the hell is this legal?", unfortunately it's not in plain English. From the IRS website:

Exemption Requirements

To be tax-exempt as an organization described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) of the Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the purposes set forth in IRC Section 501(c)(3) and none of the earnings of the organization may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates.

The organizations described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) are commonly referred to under the general heading of "charitable organizations." Organizations described in IRC Section 501(c)(3), other than testing for public safety organizations, are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in accordance with IRC Section 170.

The exempt purposes set forth in IRC Section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erection or maintenance of public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening of neighborhood tensions; elimination of prejudice and discrimination; defense of human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.

While the bolded text might make you remember the Bush Campaign literature that was passed out at churches during the last election, delving a little deeper into the IRS website proves to be even more grey.

Political and Lobbying Activities (Adapted from IRS Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations - February 2004)

Political activities and legislative activities are two different things and are subject to two different sets of rules. The rules depend on the type of tax-exempt organization, the type of activity (political or legislative) at issue, the scope or amount of the activity conducted, and the consequences of exceeding the given set of limitations.

Lobbying Activity

In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying). A 501(c)(3) organization may engage in some lobbying, but too much lobbying activity risks loss of tax-exempt status.

Legislation includes action by Congress, any state legislature, any local council, or similar governing body, with respect to acts, bills, resolutions, or similar items (such as legislative confirmation of appointive office), or by the public in referendum, ballot initiative, constitutional amendment, or similar procedure. It does not include actions by executive, judicial, or administrative bodies.

An organization will be regarded as attempting to influence legislation if it contacts, or urges the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation, or if the organization advocates the adoption or rejection of legislation.

Organizations may, however, involve themselves in issues of public policy without the activity being considered as lobbying. For example, organizations may conduct educational meetings, prepare and distribute educational materials, or otherwise consider public policy issues in an educational manner without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.

Measuring Lobbying Activity: Substantial Part Test

Whether an organization’s attempts to influence legislation constitute a substantial part of its overall activities is determined on the basis of all the pertinent facts and circumstances in each case. The IRS considers a variety of factors, including the time devoted (by both compensated and volunteer workers) and the expenditures devoted by the organization to the activity, when determining whether the lobbying activity is substantial.

Under the substantial part test, an organization that conducts excessive lobbying activity in any taxable year may lose its tax-exempt status, resulting in all of its income being subject to tax. In addition, a religious organization is subject to an excise tax equal to five percent of its lobbying expenditures for the year in which it ceases to qualify for exemption.

Further, a tax equal to five percent of the lobbying expenditures for the year may be imposed against organization managers, jointly and severally, who agree to the making of such expenditures knowing that the expenditures would likely result in the loss of tax-exempt status.

Measuring Lobbying Activity: Expenditure Test

Organizations other than churches and private foundations may elect the expenditure test under section 501(h) as an alternative method for measuring lobbying activity. Under the expenditure test, the extent of an organization’s lobbying activity will not jeopardize its tax-exempt status, provided its expenditures, related to such activity, do not normally exceed an amount specified in section 4911. This limit is generally based upon the size of the organization and may not exceed $1,000,000.

Organizations electing to use the expenditure test must file Form 5768, Election/Revocation of Election by an Eligible IRC Section 501(c)(3) Organization to Make Expenditures to Influence Legislation, at any time during the tax year for which it is to be effective. The election remains in effect for succeeding years unless it is revoked by the organization. Revocation of the election is effective beginning with the year following the year in which the revocation is filed.

Under the expenditure test, an organization that engages in excessive lobbying activity over a four-year period may lose its tax-exempt status, making all of its income for that period subject to tax. Should the organization exceed its lobbying expenditure dollar limit in a particular year, it must pay an excise tax equal to 25 percent of the excess.

Political Campaign Activity

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including the presentation of public forums and the publication of voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity.

In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not constitute prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner. On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that: (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.

Note in the last two grafs where it says "non-partisan." The Ohio Restoration Project specifically labels it's voter-influencing scheme as non-partisan. The very idea that this activity could be considered "non-partisan" should insult the very people whose Christian beliefs are being co-opted for political gain. Any coordinated effort by churches to push "faith issues" that tie directly to politicians like Ken Blackwell should be illegal. I, for one, am not going to put up with this. So from here one out, I'm going to monitor this situation in Ohio. If you feel that your church could possibly be in violation of IRS statutes, drop the tax collectors a line:

IRS Fraud Line - 1-800-829-0433

or, go to this website to mail a letter of complaint

or use this link to find your local IRS office and lodge a complaint in person.

And as if you needed a reason to act on this, the front page of the Ohio Restoration Project answers the question for you.

Why Now?

During the past 50 years, the mission of the Church has come under intense spiritual warfare. The time is now to act in faith and pursue truth and righteousness for our country.

Today's America allows abortion of unwanted pregnancies, increasingly accepts homosexuality, rejects the teaching of intelligent creation in our schools, and many other issues that are in opposition to biblical truth. We are on a path of destruction, and nothing is going to change if Christian citizens deny their responsibilities.

Every American citizen must understand the stewardship of our citizenship!

Biblical truth; an oxymoron if there ever was one.

I've got a test this afternoon, so I'll be back later.

George from Brewed Fresh Daily points out why Tom Noe is indicative of what is wrong with a GOP-controlled Ohio.

Toledo City Councilman Frank Szollosi thinks we need to take a look at our values:

Tonight in Columbus the GOP dominated Legislature is set to vote on a $51 billion budget that cuts millions that cities and counties rely on to support police, fire, and emergency responders. The City of Toledo stands to lose as much as $3.6 million. This comes as the Noe Coins scandal begins to sink in...at least $12 million unaccounted for, with revelations of Beanie Babies and comic books among the collectibles seized by investigators in Maumee.

So much has already been reported about the malfeasance of Capital Coin Fund, managed by Tom Noe. Why shouldn't Republicans at every level return contributions made by Noe? How can an elected official justify keeping money that could possibly belong to Ohio's injured workers?

Indeed.

Exactly. The Tom Noe Rare-Coin Scandal should not be just swept under the rug. Those who are responsible should be held accountable. Ohio is in a fiscal crisis. There is no end in sight, thanks to Bush's insatiable appetite for tax cuts. So, once again, losing $12 million when you're down and out is a kick in the balls. And it's the Ohio GOP doing the kicking.

MORE NOE:

Democracy Guy points out another Tom Noe story that I missed today.

Ok, this is a bit weird.

Republican officeholders have placed thousands of dollars contributed by GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe and his wife, Bernadette, in escrow during the criminal investigation. The politicians and their amounts in escrow: Gov. Bob Taft ($22,190), the Ohio Republican Party ($10,850), Auditor Betty Montgomery ($8,100), and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell ($3,000).

The figures that I previously came up with for Taft, Mongomery, Blackwell, etc., campaign money were much lower. So it looks even worse now. The money flow is probably greater than expected. DG's post begs the question "Do they think they'll get their money back?" My answer is no.

What goes up must come down, right?

Mortgage rates were supposed to be rising by now, helping to gradually cool the nation's red-hot housing market.

The Federal Reserve has been raising short-term interest rates steadily for nearly a year. The economy is growing at a healthy pace. Energy costs are up. If history were a guide, long-term rates would be rising, too.

But they are not. Even Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has called this a "conundrum."

Defying predictions, U.S. mortgage rates are lower than they were a year ago and are falling. That's a large part of why home sales and prices are at record highs and are fanning worries of a real estate investment bubble.

The rate on the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.65 percent in the week that ended May 26, the lowest rate since mid-February and below the 6.32 percent level of a year ago, according to mortgage financier Freddie Mac.

"The housing market is going to be robust if rates stay where the are," said Freddie Mac's chief economist, Frank Nothaft. "But it's hard for me to fathom why they would stay this low for long."

Now, I don't claim to be a wiz about the banking industry. But doesn't it go something like this? Fed sets the prime rate, which is the rate at which banks borrow money from the Fed. Then, in turn, the banks raise their mortgage rates in order to profit from loans to consumers. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how it goes?

So what could be the problem? Well, how about this. With all the hot-shot amateur real estate investors taking out risky interest-only loans (to the tune of 23% of all mortgages), maybe banks are afraid to raise the rates. If they raise them too high, all these investors with portfolios filled with dozens of properties financed with intererest-only loans might be left holding the bag when the investors go belly up.

I don't know, what do you think?

This rather lengthy piece in today's Plain Dealer further shines the spotlight on the corrupt Ohio GOP.

H. Douglas Talbott, a former top aide to two Ohio governors, told federal authorities that Republican coin dealer Tom Noe persuaded him to contribute $2,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign - then reimbursed him for the donation, The Plain Dealer has learned.

Talbott appeared Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Toledo that is investigating whether Noe illegally reimbursed as many as two dozen contributors to a Bush fund-raiser in October 2003. The grand jury is looking into whether Noe made the reimbursements to circumvent campaign finance laws, which limit individual contributions to $2,000.

I wonder how many other individuals - including non-public servants - Noe used in the same way. Talbott takes the Noe scandal even higher up the GOP food chain.

His appearance before the grand jury marked the first time a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft and former Gov. George Voinovich has been linked to the federal investigation of possible laundering of Bush campaign money.

And here is the best part of the article...

For the first time, Taft suggested that some of Ohio's investment funds might have landed in candidates' campaign coffers.

"There's a question here as to whether some of those contributions may have come from a diversion of state funds," Taft said at a news briefing on Defense Department jobs Thursday in Cleveland.

There you go folks, it seems obvious now, eh? Hopefully one of the crafty journalists in the White House Press Corps might get around to asking President Bush if he has put any of Noe's contributions into escrow, just as many Ohio Republicans have done. I, for one, would like to know if some of my tax dollars made it into the Bush campaign treasure chest.

UPDATE: Looks like Bush is feeling the Noe heat after all.

COLUMBUS — President Bush will return $4,000 in campaign contributions donated by Toledo area coin dealer Tom Noe and his wife, officials said yesterday.

A spokesman said the Republican National Committee will also return $2,000 contributed by Mr. Noe, who is facing multiple investigations for allegedly misappropriating at least $10 million in state money and possible federal campaign finance violations. The money will be refunded to charity.

But President Bush will not — at least for now — return more than $100,000 raised by Mr. Noe for his re-election bid last year, said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the RNC. Democrats continue to call on the President to return all of the “tainted” money raised by Mr. Noe.

You'd better believe that there's way more than $4000 that made it's way from Tom Noe to Bush's campaign chest. How much of Ohio's tax dollars went to the GOP and Bush?

Via Charles, we see that the whiff of a scandal can't keep Delay down.

With Democrats gunning for him and an ex-congressman already working to take his seat, Majority Leader Tom DeLay is wasting no time getting into campaign mode, rallying campaign volunteers and kicking off a ballot petition drive – seven months before the deadline.

The campaign has invited volunteers for petition training tonight at his campaign headquarters in Sugar Land, aides said. The event is two nights after Mr. DeLay personally rallied the troops at a similar session in Clear Lake, at the other end of his district.

"Signing petitions is Politics 101, and our grass-roots operation is up and running, and it's a great way to highlight DeLay's support in the district," said spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty.

She said the campaign hadn't planned to collect signatures so early, but so many supporters offered to pitch in that it made sense to channel their energy.

Democrats called the early petition drive a sign of someone scrambling to survive.

"Tom DeLay is in trouble. His support at home is at a historic low," said Bill Burton, communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, predicting: "He's in for the toughest fight of his congressional career."

[...]

To secure a spot on the March 7 primary ballot, Mr. DeLay must submit 500 valid voter signatures or pay a $3,125 fee. The Texas secretary of state's office says signatures can be collected at any time, although the filing window runs from Dec. 3 to Jan. 2.

Charles asks a good question. Why the heck does Delay need the voter signatures when he can just pay the fee to get on the primary ballot? Something's definitely weird with this, and it makes Delay look even more weak.

Once again, drug company profits are more important then a senior's health.

Adele Howard bought prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy for three years without a single glitch until her medicine didn't show up three weeks ago.

Instead, the 78-year-old Berea grandmother got a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, whose inspectors had seized the package at a Chicago mail facility.

And they gave her 20 days to explain why the government should not send it back.

It "appears to be a new drug without an approved new drug application," wrote Dorothy Glasper, an FDA compliance technician.

The "new drug" is Fosamax, one of world's best-sellers introduced by Merck and approved by the FDA in 1999 to treat osteoporosis.

We can argue all night long about why brand name drugs are so expensive in this county. But one can hardly defend the actions of a government agency which can't even get their facts straight. A majority of people in this country, I would gather, are well aware that importing drugs from Canada is illegal. And I'm not talking about just marijuana and cocaine. Since Bush took office, the issue of drug importation has risen to the top of his domestic agenda. Publicly, goverment officials claim that they're just looking out for the best interests of citizens, saying that the drugs could be unsafe. And in the case of Adele Howard, it seems as if the FDA has saved the day. Er, maybe not.

Really, I mean, this kind of shit shouldn't happen here. It's not like we're talking about unsecured Soviet-era nuclear warhead facilities or anything.

NEW YORK - CitiFinancial, the consumer finance division of Citigroup Inc., said Monday it has begun notifying some 3.9 million U.S. customers that computer tapes containing information about their accounts — including Social Security numbers and payment histories — have been lost.

Citigroup, which is based in New York, said the tapes were lost by the courier UPS Inc. in transit to a credit bureau.

The bank said the tapes contained information about both active and closed accounts at CitiFinancial’s branch network. It said they did not contain information from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business.

Thank God there are protections in place for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who will inevitably have their identification stolen and have to declare bankruptcy in order to clean up the mess.

Oh, wait.

Ezra points to Hillary obviously setting herself up as the solution to the Democratic problem.

Mrs. Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely described as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party is hamstrung because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame and the news media has lost its investigatory zeal for exposing misdeeds.

Left unchallenged, especially if Democrats fail to pick up seats in next year's Congressional elections, she said, Republican leaders could ram through extremist conservative judges, wreck Social Security and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that are needed to finance the United States budget deficit.

Once again, I'm not a true Hillary believer. Heck, if I'm sitting on the fence, a strong gust of wind could probably knock me down on the "against" side. But one thing's for sure, she'll be a lot of fun to watch in the debates. The best thing about the next go around is the fact that both Democrats and Republicans are going to experience a free-for-all in their respective primaries. And as I've said before, the GOP is headin' for a civil war.

So no matter what, it'll be fun to watch.

I was under the strict impression that the GOP has forgotten this part of the constitution.

FORT WORTH, June 5 - Making good on a Republican campaign call to celebrate with "Christian friends," Gov. Rick Perry traveled to an evangelical school here on Sunday to put his signature on measures to restrict abortion and prohibit same-sex marriage.

About 100 protesters lined the street outside the school, Calvary Christian Academy, denouncing the unusual signing as breaching the constitutional separation between church and state.

The event, termed historic by the church's pastor, Bob Nichols, was pointedly held in the academy's gymnasium, apart from the church sanctuary, to deflect complaints. A plan by the Perry campaign to film the event for political commercials was dropped earlier.

At some point, hopefully, I'm guessing that filming such things for campaign ads will become passee once again. Maybe stories that intertwine hypocritical Republicans with rediculous scandals could spur a separation of church and state revival.

If only something like that might happen.

Even while the Ohio House passed a bill throwing a wrench in the mix, and while the Ohio Senate debates a similar bill, Cleveland goes ahead with plans to put up red light cameras.

Now you know which Cleveland intersections to avoid if you don't want to risk a camera clicking a photo of your license plate and police sending you a ticket.

City Council voted Monday to approve 28 intersections scattered throughout the city where cameras will catch motorists who run red lights or speed.

The city will begin installing the cameras in about two weeks, but they aren't scheduled to start operating until August, Public Safety Director Mark Ricchiuto said.

Council approved the cameras last month with the stipulation that the body would have final say on where Mayor Jane Campbell's administration placed them.

Glaringly absent from the list of intersections are any downtown locations.

"We decided to focus on the neighborhoods because that is where residents live and children play," Ricchiuto said. "It is where the majority of our complaints about running red lights and speeding come from."

Wouldn't want to do anything to stop the throngs of people coming downtown. Oh wait.

Seriously though, this isn't about safety of the kids, as they would like you to believe. It's all about the money. Installing the cameras downtown wouldn't stop people from coming, but it just goes to show you what it's really all about. Just another way to subsidize the city on the backs of the working class.

Here are the potential locations for the red light cameras in Cleveland.

Red Light & Speed Cameras

Shaker Boulevard at Shaker Square

Chester Avenue at Euclid Avenue

West Boulevard at North Marginal Road

Shaker Boulevard and East 116th Street

West Boulevard at Interstate 90 ramp

Chester Avenue at East 71st Street

East 55th Street at Carnegie Avenue

East 131st Street at Harvard Avenue

Carnegie Avenue at East 30th Street

Cedar Avenue at Murray Hill Road

Grayton Road at Interstate 480 ramp

Euclid Avenue at Mayfield Road

Warren Road at Interstate 90 ramp

Prospect Avenue at East 40th Street

East 116th Street at Union Avenue

West 117th Street at Interstate 90 ramp

Pearl Road at Biddulph Road

Carnegie Avenue at East 100th Street

Carnegie Avenue at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

Memphis Avenue at Fulton Road

Lake Shore Boulevard at East 159th Street

St. Clair Avenue at London Road

Speed Cameras Only

Clifton Boulevard between West 110th and West 104th streets

Chester Avenue between East 55th and East 40th streets

Woodland Avenue between East 66th and East 71st streets

West Boulevard between Interstate 90 ramp and Madison Avenue

Broadway between Harvard and Miles avenues

Lee Road between Tarkington Avenue and Interstate 480 ramp

NOTE: Notice that a few of the cameras are in positions near inner-ring suburbs. So I guess this is a county-wide effort at subsidizing Cleveland, eh?

Is it just me, or does this sound like a really bad idea?

How happy would you be if the IRS announced tomorrow that you were no longer responsible for filing a tax return by April 15? Mildly happy? Exceedingly happy? My guess is "overwhelmingly happy." Tax time is an awful time of year when all of us struggle with memories, receipts, forms, numbers, and other extraneous piles of paper.

That's why I was intrigued by the minutes of the May 17 meeting of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, where the topic was return-free filing.

Under a return-free system, individual taxpayers would no longer be responsible for filling out the dreaded 1040 form and sending it to the IRS. Instead, the IRS would generate an itemized liability form using an individual's W2, 1099, and other relevant data, then send it to the taxpayer. The taxpayer would then accept or contest the IRS assessment, with refunds or further payments made accordingly. Ideally, such a system would reduce the burden on taxpayers; the IRS estimates that complying with the tax code cost citizens $156 and 26 hours of their lives in 2002.

When a tax return gets screwed up, it's usually the individual, or the individual's agent, who is responsible for the problem. It's pretty hard to get it wrong when you're only responsible for yourself. But when it's one governmental agency responsible for millions of tax returns, I get a little nauseous. But is this a really disastrous idea?

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, does not. His presentation at the meeting argued that a return-free system would essentially audit every citizen, help the government increase revenues, and keep taxpayers unaware of their growing tax burden. Uninformed taxpayers might also be wary of challenging government-generated numbers and end up paying too much.

No, Grover, you just want to dismantle government altogether. Geeze, nothing like using an ultraconservative like Grover Norquist as a source without painting the whole picture.

MSNBC sucks. I know they're all the same, but I felt like picking on the home of Hardball tonight. At least it's not on the front page. Yet.

Any bets as to what the next "white woman" story might be after the Jackson case fades into memory?

Wow. That's pretty much all I could muster after reading the piece. Could this get any worse? If we had a decent Attorney General in Ohio, there would be grand juries up the wazoo.

Columbus - A politically connected investment firm lost $215 million in Bureau of Workers' Compensation money, triggering an agency shake-up, a wide-ranging criminal investigation and calls by Democrats for Gov. Bob Taft's recall.

Losses by the Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management dwarf the estimated $10 million to $13 million missing from BWC's rare-coin investments and raise new questions about the abilities of former bureau administrator Jim Conrad, who initially soft-pedaled information that surfaced about the losing investments.

Agency officials believe the losses are among the largest by a single money manager in BWC history, but emphasize that the $14 billion portfolio is solvent and the losses will not hurt businesses or injured workers.

But they could have ramifications for Taft, who has been forced to backtrack from his earlier defense of Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe's handling of $55.4 million in coin investments for the bureau.

"Let's start looking at how we recall Taft," said Senate Minority Leader C.J. Prentiss, a Cleveland Democrat. "The buck stops with him - and he's just lost $200 million."

First off, why stop with recalling Taft? This could be a watershed moment for Ohio Dems. Shit or get off the pot. If they can't use this situation to clean house, then we're doomed. I've been complaining about a lack of good Democrats in leadership positions since before this blog was born. We need a new, young, and hard-charging set of individuals to take over Columbus and organize a reshuffle of national representatives.

And secondly, $215 MILLION DOLLARS??!!?? If a mid-size company was trending down, and it lost this much money, the CEO would be on the way out. If Tim Hagan had better name recognition outside of northeastern Ohio, we wouldn't be in this mess. Taft wouldn't acknowledge serious economic problems when he was running for reelection, and it's not like he's an upfront guy all of a sudden. If there is a way to recall him, I hope we have a Darrell Issa to fund the effort. (Peter Lewis, calling Peter B. Lewis)

UPDATE: What Tim says.

Ohio law doesn't have a provision for recall of the governor, and since the Republicans control the legislature, that won't change. Democrats seem to want to have a whack at Taft, who they view as an easy target. But given that all the candidates in the GOP gubernatorial primary are implicated in this scandal, I'd be happy to just sit back, watch the scandal engulf them, watch them gore each other over it in their primary, and take my chances in 2006.

Most definitely.

UPDATE: And what Jesse says.

It's less about the fact that the money was invested (the rest of the fund is actually pretty competently run on the investment side), but rather the absolute panic mode OBWC seemed to go into when they lost a fairly small amount. And the fact that Taft is a walking neuter at this point.

Ha.

For the next 10-20 years, I don't want to be near the Inner Belt.

The Ohio Department of Transportation plans to build at least one new Interstate 90 bridge - and maybe two - to handle traffic going in and out of downtown Cleveland over the Cuyahoga River valley.

The state no longer believes it would be wise to simply add a lane in each direction to the 45-year-old Inner Belt Bridge as previously planned, ODOT Director Gordon Proctor said Tuesday. [...]

ODOT wants to make a decision on the bridge this fall but construction on a new bridge probably would not begin until 2011, project manager Craig Hebebrand said.

And this is only part of the $700 million project for the downtown highway system. Man, it's bad enough now, and we could have avoided this altogether if the original city planners weren't high on absinthe.

You, yes you, are being targeted to help pay for the Cleveland's financial woes.

Cleveland's decision on where to place red-light and speeding cameras had as much to do with politics as it did with traffic safety.

Take the exchange between city officials and Councilman Kevin Conwell.

Under the law passed in May, he and other council members had final say on where the cameras would go.

Conwell said he told city administrators that certain streets in his ward, such as St. Clair and Superior avenues, were off-limits because he didn't want poor residents in his Glenville neighborhood to be slapped with fines.

The city proposed cameras at Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road, in University Circle.

"I didn't have any objections" to that location, Conwell said. "It would just get the people coming from the suburbs."

This is just part of the problem. The first half is people from the suburbs who couldn't care less about the city folk. The second half, as illustrated by Conwell, is that city folk think they can get along with out people from the burbs. Of course, traffic light tickets aren't going to keep people from working and (sometimes) socializing downtown, but what a shitty attitude.

People, the future of Cleveland, and by extension Cuyahogo county, is going to depend on regionalization. It's going to be a long and hard process, but it's one that has to be completed. But disrespect isn't going to win the day. Christ.

The Ticked Off Ohioan points us towards something good created by the state legislature.

COLUMBUS - A bill unanimously passed by the Ohio House yesterday would lead to a searchable Internet database of inmates up for parole, increasing chances that members of the public beyond victims would protest their release.

And yes, if it includes minor drug offenders, then it's a crappy idea.

Asked about Howard Dean's " the GOP is a white Christian party" comment, Ken Mehlman pontificated.

Asked about it on the “Fox & Friends” show (ed. note: of course), GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman joked that “a lot of folks who attended my bar mitzvah would be surprised” he heads a Christian party.

“We gotta get ourselves beyond this point where when we disagree about politics, we call the other guy names,” he said.

Wah-wah, boo-hoo. More of the "name calling" meme. Let's just pass right over Mehlman's insinuation that his party isn't prone to name calling. He isn't calling you a name, Kenny Boy. Dean is simply pointing out the obvious. While you might object to Dean's "outing" of the GOP from the puritan closet, what he is saying is essentially true.

By nature, Republicans have been a nativist party, fearing social and cultural differences. Democrats have been the party of civil rights and immigrants. So, making the all that Republicans are the party of "white Christians" isn't a stretch.

And by the way Kenny, using people from minorty sections of the population as a means to an end is the Republican modus operandi. Just ask David Brock.

This one is all over the place today, so I'll give credit to the origin. My only question is what were the Maryland authorities thinking?

Most people who have gotten in trouble with their credit have done something to deserve it. Opening up ten credit accounts when you can't afford even one is not a smart thing. However, banks and lenders have made it way, way too easy for people to get a credit card (MBNA). Allowing someone the priviledge of opening an account with a 22% interest is not very American. It is the fleecing of the population. Once again, this does have a lot to do with personal responsibility.

Corporations have more rights than citizens and it's getting worse everyday. With all the ID theft going on and personal data stolen from companies, why is it that the credit agencies are allowed to profit from this tremendously bad crisis?

Worries about data security are translating into revenue opportunities for the nation's three biggest credit reporting agencies.

Shares of Equifax are hovering near their 52-week high of $36.52. The company, with $1.3 billion in annual revenue, is notching double-digit profit gains.

A new focus on protecting personal information, prompted by several recent disclosures by banks and other companies of lost or stolen data — the most recent being Citigroup's loss of confidential information on 3.9 million customers — stands to benefit all three credit-reporting agencies in the form of new fees for credit monitoring and fraud detection.

Indeed Wednesday morning, Equifax will announce that it has arranged with eBay to sell credit monitoring and fraud protection services to the online auction site's 147 million users. Called Equifax Credit Zone, it will allow users to buy credit reports as well as monitor their accounts for suspicious activities.

Consumers' seemingly endless appetite for loans and credit products has propelled results of the big credit agencies in recent years. Equifax and its rivals, TransUnion and Experian, reap fees from lenders for providing credit reports and other data about potential borrowers and from consumers for providing a variety of credit-reporting, scoring and tracking services. They also use the personal data they collect for direct marketing.

Well, a junkie's seemingly endless appetite for smack doesn't translate into making it easier to get the drugs, does it? And for chrissakes, can we stop letting big time CEOs get free advertising on the OpEd pages of American newspapers?

And so the sales pitch goes on. [Equifax CEO Thomas] Chapman believes consumers must take a more active role in maintaining and monitoring their credit health.

"Checking one's credit report, even several times a year, is akin to using your smoke detector only on weekends. It simply is not enough," he wrote in a recent op-ed. "As millions of consumers are discovering, credit monitoring services are a concept whose time has come."

How about protecting citizens first, fleecing them later?

Yeah right.

Columbus - Gov. Bob Taft's office learned in October - not this week - that a politically connected investment firm had lost more than $200 million in Bureau of Workers' Compensation money.

But the news, delivered via e-mail from the bureau's administrator to top Taft aide Jim Samuel, got lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

Samuel never passed the information up the line, a Taft spokesman conceded Wednesday.

Wow. Does anyone actually believe that? It's amazing how fast political scandals are unfolding for Ohio Republicans. And I'm glad that it's Taft at the helm of the ship as it goes down. It was nice knowing you.

To this, I say, who cares?

Weeks after promising tabs in its upcoming IE 7 release, Microsoft made the long-awaited browsing feature available for IE 6 through its MSN toolbar.

With the version of MSN Search Toolbar made available Wednesday, IE 6 gains the ability to open numerous Web pages within a single window, each selectable by a small tab at the top of the window.

The feature--long offered by IE competitors like Opera, Safari and Firefox, and by browser shells built to run on top of IE--is one of many that Web surfers have said they missed in the aging IE 6.

I gave up on IE a long time ago. Tabbed browsing is the best thing since sliced bread. There still are some format kinks between sites optmized for IE and sites optimzed for Firefox. But other than that, Firefox does it for me. No matter what Microsoft does to update IE now, Firefox is going to draw away users exponentially.

This:

Columbus- The next state budget will be $1.3 billion richer than expected, and lawmakers should spend some of the newfound cash on Cleveland and other big cities, the governor's office said Thursday.

Leaders in both the Ohio House and Senate agreed to spend part of the money on local governments, including cities and libraries, which would have been cut under two-year budget proposals from the governor and each chamber.

With this:

Columbus- Gov. Bob Taft is weary of "getting surprised" with the drumbeat of revelations of financial missteps by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, but he warned Thursday there could be more to come.

Democrats, meanwhile, toured the state decrying a "cover-up" by state Republican leaders and calling for a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. They also want the BWC Oversight Commission to cede authority for approving investments to the state treasurer for a year.

This week, the bureau publicly acknowledged that politically connected MDL Capital Management, of Pittsburgh, lost $215 million in bureau investments last year. Taft says he learned of the missing funds only this week.

The latest news added fuel to an ever-growing financial scandal involving the bureau's $55.4 million investments in rare coins controlled by Toledo coin dealer and Republican money machine Tom Noe. That investment has lost up to $13 million and Noe has become the subject of civil and criminal investigations.

The first piece is real good news. However, with their given track record, no one has high hopes that the Republican-led legislature will be able to spend this money wisely. I've got an idea! What about a rainy day fund? Sounds a little more responsible, especially since the state economy has been terrible for years.

If I could only aspire to be as wise as this.

The Ohio Department of Health is "taking under advisement" portions of a report that sharply criticizes the burgeoning sexual abstinence-until-marriage movement, a leading public health administrator said this week.

The agency will look more closely at the curricula of state-funded abstinence-only projects and the credentials of their instructors, said Anne Harnish, Ohio's assistant health director. Harnish didn't agree with everything cited in the 29-page report, but said Ohio needed to be conscientious about "any criticism leveled against this program."

Harnish said the state still stands behind the approach, now offered in 84 of Ohio's 88 counties. "Our first line of defense in every public health program is prevention," said Harnish. "Whether it's controlling rabies in the Metroparks or AIDS or teen pregnancy, the first line of attack is to try and prevent the occurrence of these unwanted outcomes. We view abstinence as only one line of defense in the spectrum of programs offered in Ohio."

You heard it here folks, preventing rabies is on par with preventing AIDS. Glad to see we're using the "one solution fits all" approach. My only question is whether or not veterinarians will be treating AIDS patients as well as racoon-bitten Scruffy the poodle.

It's good to know that when things look bleak, it's the poor and needy that save the day.

The poorest Ohioans, and government programs that serve them, are entitled to $60 million in federal welfare and job-training money that Gov. Bob Taft's administration illegally took to balance the state's budget, an appeals court has ruled.

The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Cleveland on Thursday upheld Cuyahoga County's victory in a lawsuit that accused Ohio of "an elaborate and illegal funding scheme" that reallocated the money in 2001.

Well, 2001 was way before Taft painted rosy economic pictures for Ohioans during the '02 election. If they were illegally trying to cover up budget shortfalls back then, one has to wonder if his entire tenure as governor as been economically bad.

This is getting better by the day.

Columbus- When it needed money to pay the bills, the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation did what many Americans do: turned to American Express.

But the bureau didn't have a credit card, and this was no ordinary dress purchase at the mall.

The agency - embroiled in a scandal that grows by the day - revealed Friday that it borrowed $250 million from American Express Asset Management in May: $125 million each from two funds in which it invested the premiums that Ohio businesses pay to cover injured workers.

The riskier of the two funds had lost $8.5 million on its state investments as of May 31, according to bureau records. Another of the firm's less-risky funds posted a $3.7 million gain at the end of last month, partially offsetting that loss.

"We had bills to pay. We needed the money," said Jeremy Jackson, the bureau's spokesman.

The latest revelation came as Attorney General Jim Petro announced Friday that he had filed a 10-count lawsuit against another investment firm working for the bureau.

I wish we had an attorney general who wasn't connected to other politcal scandals to handle this.

This alone is enough to get me to buy the DVD.

LONDON - Four members of seminal British rock band Pink Floyd will play together for the first time in 24 years at London's Live 8 charity concert for Africa on July 2, publicists for the event said on Sunday.

Guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Richard Wright will be on stage with bassist Roger Waters for their first public performance since they played at London's Earls Court in 1981.

Way cool.

George is dead on with this post. This type of defense, the "all the opposition does is yell and curse; they don't offer any solutions" is as worthless as i