1. An op-ed column from Dispatch favorite David Harsanyi. He's a conservative crank who used to write for the Denver Post but now, like Buster, exists only in the ether of the blogosphere. He devotes an entire column to his infatuation with the cable TV show 19 Kids and Counting, about the very fertile Duggar family of Arkansas. Harsanyi writes that he finds this program "fulfilling," "extraordinarily fun," "wholesome," and says that "it's impossible not to be charmed." I watched it once for ten minutes and found it to be . . . oh, what's the word? Oh, yes -- insane!
2. Then a Dispatch editorial which correctly advises against HB 269, a Tea-Bag-sponsored bill to require photo ID for voting, but it does so in only the most back-handed fashion. The editorial opens with, "Proving that Democrats have no monopoly on election-law demagoguery . . . ", and later on kvetches about "those who insist that Ohio law already suppresses voter participation even though it includes some of the most generous voting terms in the country." (Generous compared to what? Mississippi?)
What the Dispatch does not stress nearly enough is that "election-law demagoguery" is a strictly Republican monopoly. For the past 10-plus years, under the guise of non-existent "fraud", the Ohio GOP has an unbroken streak of trying everything they can think of to restrict and reduce voter participation. That's the textbook definition of voter suppression. Don't blame the Dems for pointing this out and squawking about it.
If Ohio is in fact still among the "most generous" states when it comes to voting rights, it's no thanks to the Republicans. It's courtesy of our courts, who've consistently struck down the GOP's unconstitutional attempts to restrict the vote.
The Dispatch editorial boils down to a frightened plea to their R buddies: "Please don't do this shit. We'll just get sued again!" Good advice.
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