http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/ohios-100-republican-government-gets-a-d-for-spending-transparency/

Snips:

"But you needn’t take the Cranky word for it: as seen in the Dayton Business Journal, “The Buckeye State received a grade of D-plus from the Georgia PIRG Education Fund, which handed out grades in its “Following the Money 2013: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data” report.”

This news, on top of the new law banning the state Auditor from, well, auditing JobsOhio and its use of taxpayer funds (making it impossible to tell who is ripping us off) and a BGA survey ranking Ohio as the tenth most secretive state in the nation, you have to wonder why ANY Buckeye would trust these zeebs."

More at the link, including source material.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/heres-why-the-steubenville-grand-jury-recessed-last-month/

Just a short post to keep everyone updated:

"They are waiting for evidence to be analyzed. Turns out that checking throuh all those files on computers, cell phones, and phone company records is complicated work. Who knew? (Yes, that’s sarcasm.)

Of course, it could still turn out to be yet another American town pretending to investigate itself. We’ll know for sure when they actually release the results of their deliberations."

Nothing else at the link except some source material.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/federal-judge-to-ohio-yes-i-mean-it-mark-the-mans-husband-as-such-on-his-death-certificate/

A second legally-married couple wins the right to be noted as spouses on death certificates. This is friggin' huge.

Snip:

" A while back, two men got married and won the right to be noted as such should one of them pass away. Now a man named Ives has died and the judge just bitch-slapped Ohio AGAIN, telling them to follow the law and note his legally-married husband as his “spouse” on the death certificate.

Kudos to Judge Black; condolences to Mr. Michener; and brickbats to Ohio’s fundagelical loons who want to persecute loving couples, just because of the positions in which they both can take a pee."

More at the link.

http://touch.latimes.com/#tsection/-1/article/p2p-77265984/

"BY MATT PEARCE
September 4, 2013, 1:10 a.m.
Ariel Castro, the man who has been sentenced to life in prison for holding three Cleveland women captive for roughly a decade before their rescue this year, was found hanged in his cell and is believed to have committed suicide, Ohio officials said.

Castro, 53, was found in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient Tuesday evening, a prison spokeswoman told the Associated Press. He was pronounced dead at a hospital."

A coward to the end.

http://www.diananyad.com/

Ten miles to go from Cuba to Key West. This woman is a badass. Hope she makes it!

By now, most of us have seen pictures of the innocent children who were murdered by nerve gas, provided by the Syrian regime. Truly horrific. If anyone in our country did that to, say, a kitten or a penguin, the punishment would have been severe and already have been meted out. But Assad has killed thousands of human beings and is now gleefully thumbing his nose at the world. Why is he getting away with gassing little kids?

One word: Iraq. Because the Bushistas lied the world into invading that country, nobody believes Obama now. We hear it at the UN, see it in Parliaments and Congress, and read about it in the media. Citizens of the world hear “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and immediately say “bulls***”.

Bush The Dumber has much to answer for, from 9/11 to the Middle East and the global economic collapse. But this may be the most heartbreaking result of his ill-advised and illegitimate occupation of the White House: because he and his cabal lied about WMD in Iraq all those years ago, people are justifiably suspicious when a President talks about WMD being used today.

And that suspicion leads to inaction. Said inaction is then taken by a brutal, murdering dictator as tacit permission to kill at will. Which he is doing even as we speak.

Another hod of brimstone will surely be heaped upon the fire when the Shrub meets his maker. Punishment for the deaths of these poor children, who died convulsing in agony and struggling to breathe through the lungs that were destroyed by chemical weapons in Syria. But Bush’s eventual and eternal punishment will not bring the kids and their mothers back to life, nor will it make it any easier to stop such international war crimes from happening in the future.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/because-bush-lied-more-children-will-die/

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/josh-mandel-covers-up-two-wrecks-and-misuse-of-funds/

Snips:

"Ohio Treasurer Little Joshie Mandel has not gotten any less sleazy, that’s for sure. He lies even when he doesn’t need to, and now we find out that he has been covering up two traffic crashes, ever since 2011.

And the funny thing is, he wasn’t even driving. So why cover them up?

In one case, there would not appear to be anything to hide. But in the other,it turns out he was violating campaign finance law by using a vehicle owned by his campaign for other uses. That is something he would want to cover up:"

More at the link, including source material.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/push-to-name-hurricanes-after-climate-change-deniers/4917206

Awesome! Snips:

"The WMO usually attributes first names to the storms in alphabetical order from the beginning of the season, and alternates between male and female names each year.

But the campaigners have drawn up a list of American politicians they say deny climate change and obstruct climate policy.

They want the destructive storms to be named after them instead.

Names on the list include Texas governor Rick Perry and speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner."

More at the link.

Martin Luther King died so that others could live free. Today, idiots like Clarence Thomas like to pretend that Dr. King’s sacrifice was no biggie, so let’s get rid of all the laws that helped people of color to make progress towards equality in America. Even worse, lots of young black folk have no clue about the Civil Rights movement and what sacrifices they made: so they take their recently-won rights for granted. Small wonder those rights are being taken away by courts and Red State governments even as we commemorate the March on Washington.

And it’s not just African-Americans: dolts like Marissa Meyer diss feminism because hey, she was able to become a big-shot CEO, so the struggle for women’s rights must have been no biggie. Those feminists that millions of idiots make jokes about made it possible for women to vote, to have jobs, to have their own credit cards and many other rights. And because so many women take the sacrifices of feminists for granted, their newly-won rights are also are being taken away by courts and Red State governments.

Lots of “Republicans” like to pretend that we no longer need the rights of free speech, assembly, and privacy (among others) because hey, they can do anything they damned well please, so clearly, the Bill of Rights is no longer necessary. These idiots forget the Founding Fathers and their efforts to secure those rights for us. And because so many Americans take the sacrifices of Washington, Jefferson et.al. for granted, our newly-won rights are also are being taken away by courts and Red State governments.

We must take a moment to remember, on historic days like these, that it wasn’t just flowery speeches and signatures on documents that won those rights for us. No, it was blood and sweat, tears and torture, endurance and indomitable courage pitted against seemingly omnipotent and impregnable opponents that won those rights. And if we take our recently-won rights for granted, all of us will have to fight those fights all over again.

By remembering the sacrifices of those warriors who won our rights for us, we honor them; we also safeguard ourselves, and the country we love.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/taking-their-sacrifices-for-granted-its-why-we-still-have-to-fight-for-our-rights/

And a pretty cheap rent, at that. For a mere $50,000.00, Ohio coal companies were able to wreck a man’s career and gain the ability to pollute at will. Pocket change for such a result. Yep, Kasich is a good buy as politicians go.

The back story: a competent and even-handed civil servant was enforcing the environmental laws on the fossil fuel industries. Said industries did not like that, so they bribed the Guv: Kasich then fired the man.

More at the link: http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/ohios-governor-is-for-rent/