Politics Extra: Gov race getting nasty

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Gov race getting nasty

Jon Craig reports in today's Enquirer:

Ken Blackwell's campaign tried to link his Democratic opponent to child sex predators - and the state GOP spokesman even raised questions about Ted Strickland's sexuality.

Read the full story here

25 Comments:

at 9:11 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Now I don't feel so bad about Giovanni's comments about Kenny last Saturday.

at 9:22 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

I really hope that Ohioans can see through these disgusting attacks and view them for what they really are: desperate ploys from a man who will do anything to get elected- whether changing his positions to suit political winds, or trying to link his opponent to disgusting organizations like NAMBLA. Did you EVER think you would see something THIS dirty in Ohio? I'm ashamed Blackwell has such a history at Xavier... did he learn nothing from the Jesuits there?

at 9:23 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

How low will a desperate candidate go? Just wait until Ohio gets the shocking results of a flip in results and hears it spinned that this tactic worked. Blackwell worked hard at suppressing the vote and fulfilled his role at Co-Chair Bush Cheney '04 (ie delivering the vote BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY) and diverting the will of the Ohio voter in '04. Now he is fighting for his political life while being behind by 2 to 1. If anyone thinks he will play fairly this time, they are in for a rude awakening.

The Republican party has been taken over by a cancerous group of neocons who are willing to do whatever it takes (including stealing elections) to remain in power. What happened to the promises of restoring integrity (Abramoff, Delay, Ney, Taft, Noe, Cunningham, Ken Lay,Foley, Goss....) , fiscal conservancy (just have to look at the huge deficit and reckless pork) and security (they ignored warnings on 911, misled the public and congress about Iraq, they have failed to implement the 911 commission recommendations, and turned over port security to the UAE (Dubai World Ports).

If you are wndering why there has been little opposition in congress to this dictatorial power, just remember the NSA spying and anthrax attacks. This is a rogue administration. Habeus Corpus(the right of the accused to a trial and knowledge of the crime in which they are charged) has stood in civilized nations since the year 1215. Yesterday Mr Bush signed his name to end habeus corpus. Now Americans can be detained at the will of the president without the right to trial. Time to defend the constitution, the Geneva Convention and Habeus Corpus!

Wake up! Investigate what is really going on! Fear and terror are being used to support to tramble the constitution! Blackwell and his vote counting has been a tool to this extreme power grab.

at 9:25 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

I have faith in Ohioans that they are intelligent enough to see these attacks for what they truly are: desperate acts by a candidate with no possibility of getting elected. I am ashamed Blackwell has such a history at Xavier. Did he learn nothing from the Jesuits while he was there?

at 9:35 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Blackwell's desperate, gutter tactics don't end with just smearing Strickland's name. Now he's trying to keep the election from happening.

at 9:39 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

WHAT BLACKWELL IS DOING IS ATTEMPTING TO LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR A REASON TO BLAME A HUGE SHIFT IN THE POLLS AND THE OUTCOME OF ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION. HE WAS A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE '04 POWER GRAB IN OHIO WHICH GAVE BUSH THE ELECTION. STOLEN ELECTIONS HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES:

In common law countries, habeas corpus (/'heɪbiəs 'kɔɹpəs/), Latin for "you [should] have the body", is the name of a legal instrument or writ by means of which detainees can seek release from unlawful imprisonment. A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a detainee be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. The writ of habeas corpus in common law countries is an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.

THE CONSTITUTION STATES:

“The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

Watch this video of the effects of Mr Bush signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/10/olbermann-why-does-habeas-corpus-hate-america/

at 10:06 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Desperation politics, PERIOD !

Marc Mezibov, will teach the wRong wingnuts a little about the rule of law !

When the rights of one citizen are preyed upon, the rights of all citizens are in jeopardy.

The courts found just cause to expunge and there does not appear to be further violations.

So, perhaps adults can have healthy relationships after abuse ?

buckwheat is grabbing straw !

He now shall eat it !

PATHETIC !

Hail to the patriotic poet !!!

I told you they were wRong wingnut whackos !!!

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2006 !

at 10:17 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

The Neocons will do anything to stay in power:

Anyone who disagrees with Military Commissions Act of 2006 is instantly branded as weak and against national security. The Republican Party Chairman described the Democrats who voted against the bill as, "... voting against interrogating terrorists." No, I believe their votes were against abandoning all that this nation has held dear for 200+ years in an atmosphere of fear and hysteria. There is no desire to "pamper" terrorists. There is only the belief that every American is entitled to the rights afforded by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that no single person, to include the President and the Secretary of Defense, can declare a citizen of this nation beyond the rule of law.

Amnesty International said that the Act "contravenes human rights principles."<13> An editorial in The New York Times described the Act as "a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts."<14>

American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said, "The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions." <15>

According to the ACLU, this bill "removes important checks on the president by: failing to protect due process, eliminating habeas corpus for many detainees, undermining enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, and giving a "get out of jail free card" to senior officials who authorized or ordered illegal torture and abuse." According to Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel, "nothing could be less American than a government that can indefinitely hold people in secret torture cells, take away their protections against horrific and cruel abuse, put them on trial based on evidence that they cannot see, sentence them to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and then slam shut the courthouse door for any habeas petition, but that’s exactly what Congress just approved." [4]

Jonathan Turley, professor of Constitutional law at George Washington University, joined Keith Olbermann last night to talk about the law that Senator Feingold said would be seen as "a stain on our nation's history."

Turley: "People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It's otherworldly. People clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime soon."

Does that not basically mean that at Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld's say-so anybody in this country, enemy or not, citizen or not, can end up being an unlawful enemy combatant?

TURLEY: It certainly does. And, in fact, later on, it says that if you even give material support to an organization that the President deems is connected to one of these groups, you, too, can be an enemy combatant. And the fact that he appoints this tribunal is meaningless. Standing behind him at the signing ceremony was his Attorney General who signed a memo that said that you could torture people, that you could do harm to them to the point of organ failure or death. So if you appoint someone like that to be attorney general, you can imagine who's gonna be putting on this board

And it's a huge sea change for our democracy. The framers created a system where we did not have to rely on the good graces or the good mood of the President. In fact, Madison said he created a system essentially to be run by devils where they could not do harm because we didn't rely on their good motivations. And now we must. People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It's otherworldly.

I think people are fooling themselves if they believe that the courts will once again stop this President from taking almost absolute power. It basically comes down to a single vote on the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy, and he indicated that if Congress gave the President these types of power that he might go along, and so we may have in this country some type of uber-president, some type of absolute ruler. And it will be up to him who gets put away as an enemy combatant, held without trial. It's something no one thought, certainly I did think, was possibly in the United States. I'm not sure how we got to this point. But, people clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime soon.

The United States has engaged in torture. And the whole world community has denounced the views of this administration, its early views that the President could order torture, could cause injury up to organ failure or death. The administration has already established that it has engaged in things like waterboarding, which is not just torture - we prosecuted people after World War II for waterboarding prisoners. We treated it as a war crime, and, my God, what a change of fate, where we are now embracing the very thing that we once prosecuted people for. Who are we now? I know who we were then, but when the President said that we don't torture, that was, frankly, when I had to turn off my TV set.

Well, this is going to go down in history as one our greatest self-inflicted wounds, and I think you can feel the judgment of history. It won't be kind of President Bush, but frankly, I don't think it will kind to the rest of us. I think history will ask: Where were you? What did you do when this thing was signed into law? There were people that protested the Japanese concentration camps, there were people who protested these other acts. But, we are strangely silent in this national yawn, as our rights evaporate.

MSNBC's Countdown

Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

at 10:37 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Opposition to G.O.P. Rises in Ohio, Poll Says

By JOHN M. BRODER and MEGAN C. THEE
Published: October 17, 2006
The bellwether state of Ohio appears to have become hostile terrain for Republicans this year, with voters there overwhelmingly saying Democrats are more likely to help create jobs and concluding by a wide margin that Republicans in the state are more prone to political corruption than are Democrats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

-snip

The poll found a striking slippage in the president’s standing among white evangelical Christians, a constituency that has provided a strong vote cushion for Republican candidates in recent elections. In November 2004, 76 percent of white evangelical Christians in Ohio voted for Mr. Bush. When asked in this poll whether they approve or disapprove of the job Mr. Bush is doing as president, 49 percent approved while 45 percent disapproved.

-snip

Only a third of Ohio voters approve of the job Mr. Bush is doing as president or the way he is handling the economy, and they seem poised to take it out on Republican candidates up and down the ballot. Republican officials at the national level said this week they had all but written off the Ohio Senate and governor’s races and were diverting resources to other states where they believed they had a better chance of winning.

-snip

More than half of the poll’s respondents said they believed corruption was widespread in Ohio and said, by a 3-to-1 margin, that the Republican Party had more corrupt politicians than the Democrats. Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, pleaded no contest last year to ethics charges arising from dealings with a crooked investment manager. Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, pleaded guilty to corruption charges last week arising from his association with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of an influence-selling scandal in Washington.

-snip

The tide of dissatisfaction appears ready to wash out Mr. DeWine, who is trailing Mr. Brown by 34 percent to 48 percent, the poll found. The Democratic candidate for governor, Representative Ted Strickland, is leading the Republican nominee, J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, by 53 percent to 29 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/politics/17cnd-poll.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1161144000&en=0533f5264d9c5b5f&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

at 10:41 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early.
by KStreetProjector
Wed Oct 18, 2006

.................

Then, one insider, probably an extremist, but certainly very close to Mr. Ken Mehlman abruptly stopped the conversation. He told table that it was impossible they would lose either house. He also predicts an Ohio GOP sweep.

He informed the group that over the last year, in four critical states the GOP needs to hold huge purges of the voter rolls have just been finished.

The insider did not say which four states, but did say Ohio was among them.

His claim was a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligable voters. The purge generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with a focus on University's, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action component to avoid being purged from the rolls.

.................

much more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/18/85915/109

at 11:04 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

"EXCLUSIVE: FIRST BUSH-APPOINTED CHAIR OF U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION SAYS 'NO STANDARDS' FOR E-VOTING DEVICES, SYSTEM 'RIPE FOR STEALING ELECTIONS'!"

Former Chair Says He 'Was Deceived', EAC and Federal Efforts for Election Reform 'A Charade', 'Travesty'!
In Stark Contrast to Current EAC Chair, Rev. DeForest Soaries Blasts White House, Congress in Transcript of Unaired Interview from Major Broadcast Network!

The BRAD BLOG has received an EXCLUSIVE partial transcript from a recent, unaired interview by a major broadcast network with former U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) chair Rev. DeForest Soaries.

Soaries was appointed by George W. Bush as the first chair of the commission created by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in the wake of the 2000 Presidential Election Debacle. In the interview, available here for the first time, Soaries excoriates both Congress and the White House, referring to their dedication to reforming American election issues as "a charade" and "a travesty," and says the system now in place is "ripe for stealing elections and for fraud."

Having resigned from the commission in April of 2005, Soaries goes on to explain that he believes he was "deceived" by both the White House and Congress, and that neither were ever "really serious about election reform."

The explosive comments are the latest evidence highlighting serious deficiencies in the federal body, created by HAVA for oversight of elections systems, including new electronic voting devices, and standards for the use and security of those systems.

In the unaired interview, conducted last August, Soaries says there are "no standards" for voting systems and that Congress and the White House "made things worse through the passage of the Help America Vote Act."

Due to underfunding and lack of attention to the EAC and the Election Reform it was supposed to oversee, Soaries says we now have an "inability to trust the technology that we use" to count votes in our American democracy, even as "we’re spending a billion dollars a week in Iraq."

MORE >>>

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3491

at 11:21 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Mr. Blackwell should be ashamed indeed. Is he back in 6th grade again? "He must be GAY!!!!" Grow up Mr. Blackwell. This is a horrible and disgusting campaign trick. Not surprising that his good buddy of Swift Boat fame is involved.

at 11:25 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

If anyone is interested, here is a link with a story about the APA/NAMBLA story:
http://bama.ua.edu/~sprentic/607%20Garrison%20&%20Kobor-2002.htm

at 11:27 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

WITHOUT OVERSIGHT GOP CORRUPTION RUNS RAMPANT:

Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: October 18, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Former Representative Randy Cunningham pressured and intimidated staff members of the House Intelligence Committee to help steer more than $70 million in classified federal business to favored military contractors, according to a Congressional investigation made public on Tuesday.

The investigation found that Mr. Cunningham, a California Republican who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for bribery, repeatedly abused his position on the committee to authorize money for military projects, often over the objections of staff members who criticized some of the spending as wasteful.

The inquiry also found that despite numerous “red flags” about the propriety of a particular contract for work on a controversial Pentagon counterintelligence program, committee staff members for three years “continued to accept and support Mr. Cunningham’s growing requests for this project.”

-snip

The investigation’s report lays out for the first time how Mr. Cunningham maneuvered within the classified world of the Intelligence Committee to win secret contracts for two friends, Brent R. Wilkes and Mitchell J. Wade, both contractors.

-snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/washington/18inquire.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=96b2680002002a81&ei=5094&partner=homepage

HAD ENOUGH?

at 11:45 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

from:
But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing to do with knowing one is governing.

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

-snip

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

-snip

Pastor Niemoller spoke for the thousands and thousands of men like me when he spoke (too modestly of himself) and said that, when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but, after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing: and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something - but then it was too late."

http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free_nn4.html

at 11:52 AM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Here's the thing - and I will still be voting for strickland - this guy hurt kids, plain and simple, it is relevant just as relevant as foley and just as relevant as hastert and boehner.my question would be - did he hire him anyway because he believes in forgiveness, saw a life changed through repentence, knew that teh guy couldn't get a decent job with that record and offered him the opportunity to go back on the straight and narrow? or, did strickland think this was no big deal? and why in the world did he takehim to italy for vacation?? i think he does owe an explanation if he knew. if he didn't know - then there is nothing to explain.i believe all criminals need a chance to change their lives, make amends and re-ener mainstream society. truth is, government is the best place to do this because so few others will give them the chance. some component of society needs to step up and the government is the best situated to do so.otherwise, criminals will remain onthe outskirts of society with no hope for redemption.

at 12:28 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Wake up Puffy. You are on the skids. Eight years and more of personal attacks by your GRAND OLD PARTY! Look under your own covers!

at 12:51 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

If it is such an legitimate campaign issue, why did Blackwell wait unitl the last two weeks of the campaign to bring it up? (It did all happen 12 years ago, it's certainly not anything new, it was even mentioned in the Primary).

Last debate, last chance, polls are way down, national party is pulling support...

How do you spell d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-e?

at 1:15 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

First of all, I am appalled that the Enquirer, who published little or nothing about the various Republican scandals - we had to learn about them from other Ohio newspapers and then, only then, might the Enquirer publish a small article on the inner pages- would publish this scurrilous dirt top of the fold on the front page. I don't know how you will ever be able to justify a Blackwell endorsement after telling the world of his low campaign attacks.

Second, I shall now wait for all those who have endorsed Blackwell to disavow their endorsements because of his behavior. Nothing less speaks volumes about them.
I am positively disgusted with Blackwell's demeaning behavior and attacks.
Have you no decency, sir?

at 2:22 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

It seems Blackwell has nothing good for the voters... just venom and slander. Please get your vote out there. Oh. very important! Ensure you have not been purged... contact your registrar and verify your vote will be counted come election day!

at 3:02 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

Wonder what Nikki was trying to really tell us?
Suspicion she was actually - holding back -
Ken - you are on dangerous - slippery slidy - slowly sinking into your own mire - ugly "stuff" -
Your opponent has been very much a gentleman -
It would have been better to have been more careful -
Especially after being so careless -?

at 6:58 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

I heard that Ken Blackwell just joined RAMBLA, the Republican American Man Boy Love Association.

It looks like Foley, Hastert, Reynolds have Founded RAMBLA with trheir coverup of Foley's illegal Man Boy Activities.

at 11:44 PM, October 18, 2006

Anonymous said...

All Ken did was act the fool!
Checks comin'in -
Ain't for Ken!
Yep - even Repubs get disgusted!
Lots of trips being planned -
Something just came up
No time to vote
Gotta' go
Sorry - regrets
To the Candidates/Party - we once loved so!

at 12:28 AM, October 19, 2006

Anonymous said...

No vested interest: Before jumping to conclusions about what the Enquirer has or hasn't reported, why don't you do your research. Flannery's charges about Strickland were reported in the March 2 Enquirer, in an article titled "Charges fly in campaign for governor" and here in April: http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/2006/04/getting-some-exposure.asp
Do you get the newspaper? There were plenty of front page stories on Taft, BWC and related scandals last summer. Here are just two examples found in a quick search: "Taft faces widening scandal," June 27, 2005, and "Gov. Taft faces criminal charges," Aug. 18, 2005.

at 12:32 AM, October 19, 2006

Anonymous said...

Rick:
This is a NEWSPAPER blog.
If you don't like it, switch the channel.

Previous Posts

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Gov race getting nasty

25 Comments: