I've always been a fan of the national PolitiFact website, so the fact that the Pee Dee has entered into a partnership with them to bring PolitiFact to the Buckeye State had me intrigued enough to take time out of my twice-delayed-by-work vacation schedule to take a look at it. 

Not surprisingly, John Boehner's first ruling on the new PolitiFact Ohio is False. His bullshit but oft-repeated claim is that the Health Care Reform package will create a loophole allowing for taxpayer funded abortions. 

Surprisingly, however, Ted Strickland's first ruling was also False. Why? Strickland claims that school funding has grown by 5.5 percent in the current biennium. PolitiFact acknowledges that that's true, but still rules the claim false because of where the funds for the increase came from: instead of coming from state taxpayers, they came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment act a.k.a. the stimulus package.

Now, this kind of seems like bullshit to me. Ted Strickland didn't make any claim that state taxpayers are responsible for the funding increase, he simply said that funding has increased. Call me crazy, but this seems like nit-picking at best and the Pee Dee's recent conservative tilt in evidence at worst. 

I guess we'll have to keep an eye on the new PolitiFact Ohio to see just how factual their rulings actually are.

Small business owner Chuck Hootman:

"As a small business owner, I believe that Ohioans deserve some answers. Congressman Kasich, while Ted Strickland has been fighting for Ohio, what businesses did your running mate counsel to leave the state?  And just how many jobs did your running mate's 'counsel' cost Ohio?"

I’d say about five more minutes until the standard Kasich response of completely ducking the issue and just calling Ted Strickland names.

Four minutes...

Behold the great advice that Auditor Mary Taylor has for businesses in the state of Ohio: lay off your workers, and move to Florida.

I really wish I was kidding, but here’s the video.

After Kasich, Taylor, Blackwell, and Taft I’m starting to wonder if the Republican Party even cares anymore.

Carpet blogger points out that State Senator Jimmy Stewart has hit a mile stone in his career, he’s driven his old car over 500,000 miles. Now I could take the easy route, questioning why Jimmy Stewart hates America enough to not stimulate the economy by buying a new car, but that’s too petty. Instead, I’d like to reflect on Jimmy Stewart’s driving career.

But first, carpet blogger, I think you need to check your math. 500,000 miles is not 63 times around the world. The equatorial circumference of the world is 40,075.16 km, or 24,901.549948 miles.

500,000 miles / 24,902 miles = 20.0787085

That would be less than a third of what you claimed. Come on carpet blogger, you should be an expert on things that spin.

Now, on to Jimmy Stewart. I congratulate his accomplishment, even though I’m not really sure what it means about his work.

But in any case, here are some of the highlights of Jimmy Stewart’s driving career.

• March 21, 1995: Stewart was pulled over for the first time (that I know of) in Athens for speeding.
• February 8, 2003: Stewart is pulled over for improper plates.
• June 3, 2003: Stewart is pulled over after being clocked driving 62 MPH in a 35 MPH residential area.
• July 21, 2003: Stewart fails to appear in court or pay his fine for the June 3rd incident. His license is suspended.
• August 31, 2003: While his license is suspended, Jimmy is again pulled over for speeding (65 MPH in a 55 MPH zone). He is cited for driving without a license.
• September 2, 2003: Jimmy finally pays his fines, his license is reinstated.
• March 30, 2005: Stewart is pulled over for making a prohibited turn, he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
• August 8, 2006: Stewart is pulled over in Columbus after going 99 MPH in a 65 MPH zone.

But Jimmy has done one amazing thing as my State Senator: He’s almost made me miss Joy Padgett.

Carpet blogger points out that State Senator Jimmy Stewart has hit a mile stone in his career, he’s driven his old car over 500,000 miles. Now I could take the easy route, questioning why Jimmy Stewart hates America enough to not stimulate the economy by buying a new car, but that’s too petty. Instead, I’d like to reflect on Jimmy Stewart’s driving career.

But first, carpet blogger, I think you need to check your math. 500,000 miles is not 63 times around the world. The equatorial circumference of the world is 40,075.16 km, or 24,901.549948 miles.

500,000 miles / 24,902 miles = 20.0787085

That would be less than a third of what you claimed. Come on carpet blogger, you should be an expert on things that spin.

But Jimmy has done one amazing thing as my State Senator: He’s almost made me miss Joy Padgett.

Senator Sherrod Brown has been given a coveted seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. The seat had been held by Senator Robert Byrd.

For the time being, this means that both of Ohio’s senators will be on the Appropriations Committee.

Well the John Kasich – Lehman Brothers story changes yet again.

First, John Kasich was the little guy who practically did nothing for a huge paycheck (always a good resume item, right?).

After it was revealed Kasich had personally pitched two state pension funds to invest in Lehman Brothers, Kasich finally admitted that he did do this. But, he swore, this was it. His campaign told the Columbus Dispatch flat out that Kasich had not approached another state agency to invest in Lehman Brothers.

Kasich campaign officials said in a statement that "these meetings did not result in business for Lehman Brothers, and John earned no commission from this or any other public sector business." Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman, the campaign said.

And now yet again, John Kasich is caught lying.

It’s now been revealed that John Kasich also approached the State Teacher Retirement System Pension Fund, which I’m fairly certain would qualify as a “government entity”.

What else is John Kasich lying about?

Here are Three Questions to ask John Kasich on his new ad this weekend -- Q's that all hard-working MSM politics reporters should ask of him.  Yes, ask him this weekend if you’re really hard-working.

 In his  new ad playing statewide, Kasich defends his Lehman Brothers career by reiterating his tired claim that he was  “not running Lehman Brothers” (although nobody has ever mistaken him for his professed idol Dick Fuld)  and that he merely headed a two-person office in Columbus.

Question One:  If he was not a big player in Lehman’s collapse and Wall Street meltdown of 2008, why won’t he disclose his income and bonuses since 2001 – when he gave this interview to the New York Observer from his Wall Street high-rise office?

Also today,  Kasich's campaign manager released a Campaign Memo spinning the claim that the recent Democratic ads about his Wall Street career haven’t hurt his poll standing, according to his internal polls. This claim leads to...

Question Two:  If that is so, then why did the campaign make the big ad buy through August 6, featuring a fast-talking, agitated candidate arguing hard and expensively that he was NOT a big player on Wall Street? He might disclose his internal poll since public ones conflict on this point.

The same NY Observer article quotes him as seeking “money” in his new career in 2001 to gain “political gravitas.”  This begs for... 

Question Three:  How much “gravitas” has he gained from Wall Street special interests?  A search of public records for financial industry contributions (banking, real estate, insurance, financial institutions)  to Kasich just since 2009 will lead a hard-digging reporter to a total close to $1.5 million.

Try some weekend digging... your MSM editors and readers will appreciate it. 

DNC spending money on Ohio:

Desperate times call for desperate measures, eh?

RGA Spending Money On Kasich:

The RGA throws down the hammer.

Also, internal polls by a disreputable company with a small sample size are credible now.

To pile on to this storyline which I picked up over at Plunderbund, I wonder if Vitter's new primary challenger has anything to do with the fact that he's now a birther?

 Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana says he supports conservative organizations challenging President Barack Obama's citizenship in court.

Vitter, who is running for re-election, made the comments at a town hall-style event in Metairie, La., on Sunday when a constituent asked what he would do about what the questioner said was Obama's "refusal to produce a valid birth certificate."

Such claims about Obama's birth certificate have been discredited.

Millions of Americans are losing their unemployment benefits each day because the GOPers and conservative leaning Democrats in the U.S. Senate don't want to add another $30 Billion to our deficit.

And yet Sen Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is perfectly willing to add $678 Billion to the deficit...by extending George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich.

That noise you heard, by the way, was Democrats everywhere jumping all over this nonsense. What is in the water in Arizona, anyway? 

White House aides immediately seized on the comments. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wrote on Twitter, "Kyl says wealthy need big Bush tax cuts while middle class families are on their own to fend for themselves as a result of Bush economy."

There's only one phrase that leaps to mind for this type of mind-numbing hypocrisy...it's full frontal hypocrisy.  E-mail me if you have an appropriate graphic.

Kevin Boyce has hired Bryan Clark as his new campaign manager, replacing Marquez Brown.

Bryan may be familiar to some of you, as he used to post to BSB back before he went to work for the Secretary of State’s office, and later, for the Treasurer’s office.

While switching campaign managers at this point isn’t exactly seen as a sign of strength, Brian has always struck me as quite competent at identifying and developing strategies to deal with current and future problems.

And while not exactly slacking, the Mandel campaign has been far from perfect. Repeated gaffes have displayed a lack of knowledge about the duties of the office he’s running for and substantial donations from controversial figures have tripped them up.

Yesterday, Governor Strickland officially received the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association. This effectively means Strickland has swept the pro-gun endorsements in the race, receiving the NRA’s a few weeks ago.

So what happens when pro-gun republicans, many already turned off by the selection of Mike DeWine as AG candidate, start receiving mailers from the NRA telling them to pick Strickland over Kasich? How does the ORP react to this threat to one of their biggest pillars of support?

I don’t really see Robert Portman sticking his neck out too far on this issue, and I have serious doubts that Yost can do much damage control from the Auditor race. The ORP can and probably will turn to local races in an attempt to regain a few points on the issue, but I think most of our local candidates will be able to hold their own.

Not that I’m expecting a retraction or anything like it from Naugle et. al., of course. From the AP:

An independent report into the leak of hundreds of e-mails from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved, saying they acted honestly and that their research was reliable.

But the panel of inquiry, led by former U.K. civil servant Muir Russell, did chide scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit for failing to share their data with critics.

"We find that their rigor and honesty as scientists are not in doubt," Russell said Wednesday. "But we do find that there has been a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness."

Russell's inquiry is the third major U.K. investigation into the theft and dissemination of more than 1,000 e-mails taken from a back-up server at the university.

Full article is available here.

GOP strategist Vin Weber about Michael Steele:

"Everyone is basically working around him. Republicans have sort of put together a mode of operation for this election cycle that does not put the RNC chairman in a central role."

So when you see the RGA use it’s money against Ted Strickland, just remember that RNC fundraising has been abysmal.