Ted Strickland for Governor

Ted Strickland to Run for Governor Hat tip to Chris Geidner over at Law Dork, who just posted this. It looks like U.S. Rep Ted Strickland may be running for governor in2006. If so, his bio at answers.com hasn't been updated to reflect it yet, still saying that he's considering a Senatorial bid in 2006. (Between the two, I'd suggest attacking the governorship; Taft'srecord is far more vulnerable than DeWine's, and Taft himself will be gone so there won't be anyone with a big political name in the gubernatorial election.) Chris also quotes the Plain Dealer as noting: Strickland's move happens "as Democrats grow increasingly concerned that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman . . . isn't strong enough to end the GOP's 16-year streak in the governor's office." "Increasingly concerned about Coleman?" Hmm, Iwonder why that could be! (MP3 file)Strickland's district is the Sixth District (1Mb PDF; look to bottomright corner, all Appalachian counties). All of the surroundingdistricts are red, so his departure could come back to bite theDemocrats if he fails, as it's entirely possible that he'll be replaced in the U.S. Congress by a Republican; that area is "conservative poor" country. That said, Strickland is not a candidate to take lightly due to the mere fact that he has won in that conservative country for several terms now; he was first elected in 1992, got ousted for one term in the Gingrich Revolution (1994-96) by Frank Cremeans, and has been there from 1996-present. A Democrat that can consistently win the votes of conservative rural voters has as good a shot as anyDemocrat, though the state GOP machinery in Ohio is far ahead of its Democratic counterpart and Strickland's success has obviously been aided by safe districting (a.k.a. "gerrymandering"). If this rumor turns out to the true, Coleman's star will have dipped a long way towards the horizon, though he still shouldn't be considered out of it yet. On a personal note, I know at least one person who has worked fairly regularly with Strickland and his people over the last 13 years. This person, who shall remain nameless, is a self-professed RINO(and proud of it) and would likely vote for Strickland in a heartbeat; he has extremely good things to say about theRepresentative, and it's someone I trust not to buy into either left-wing flakiness or right-wing messianism.

Stop the National Id

This Tuesday, the US Senate is scheduled to vote on the implementation of a national ID card system. The Real ID Act is nothing less than a Real National ID Act. The only thing left to the individual states is to decide which pretty picture they will choose to put on the card: everything else will be controlled by Washington DC bureaucrats. Read more, take action: http://www.unrealid.com/ My comment follows: In this world of digitization, our privacy has become harder and harder to maintain. As we move into a more computerized era, we must always keep ourselves safe from exploitation by corporations and even our own government. Often, the checks and balances exist simply by making it difficult to commit wrongdoing. The use of Social Security numbers as ID has largely contributed to the growing ease of identity theft. Now, we're voluntarily making it easier? Why? A national ID will make it easier for corporations, government, and individuals to hurt others. Whether this is through agressive, invasive marketing, or simply the fact that a national ID will make identity theft so much easier, it is detrimental to U.S. citizens. At least *read* this law that will reduce our freedoms, unlike the misnamed PATRIOT ACT. We don't want Michael Moore to have to make another movie where he reads a law to Congress, do we?