Read more from Channel 10 here.

From Paul Campbell of the Chillicothe Gazette:

As of 2003 and 2004, each Ohioan was taxed to the tune of $3,419, and that’s just state tax. That’s $65.75 a week. In Ohio, we have allowed our political leaders to indiscriminately hike our taxes as if those politicians in Columbus have a blank check with each of us living in this decaying state acting as the bank upon which government can draw unlimited amounts of funds to do with whatever it wants. No questions asked. No rationale given.How bad have we allowed our elected leaders to pick our pockets and purses? How about considering this. As recently as 1970, just 38 years ago, Ohio was the fourth lowest taxing state for individual and corporate taxes. In 1980, 28 years ago, our state was still seventh lowest. Hang on to your hats, folks, because in 2006, the year before last, we were robbing our citizens in Ohio as the third-highest taxation state behind only Maine and New York.

Another incoming round landed smack in the middle of my bunker this week when I noticed another $35 tax increase in my house payment. Where will this senseless tax and spend habit of government at all levels end? Can we, the American - and Ohio - public do anything about these exorbitant taxes, or are we, like the Pied Piper’s rats, doomed to march right over the edge of the precipice to our death and taxes?

Former Gov. Bob Taft was and current Gov. Ted Strickland is yelling about Ohio’s inability to keep existing business, industry and commerce or to attract new business ventures. Our leaders weep and gnash their teeth because many of our best and brightest get out of Dodge as soon as they realize the grass really is greener on the other side of the state lines. And what do our tax-and-spenders do? They keep raising taxes and making it almost impossible for our state to progress in any way, shape or form.

Doesn’t it make some sense for Ohio’s decisionmakers to begin to realize that when we keep crippling our chances for success with these self inflicted wounds, sooner or later these tax-mortars we keep lobbing into our bunker will become fatal to any future successes we might aspire to.

Excellent points which are perfectly understood by nearly every Ohioan who isn’t also in state government.

Their are 19 brave members of the Ohio House of Representatives proposing to repeal Ohio’s state income tax, which would be the best job-creating stimulus package ever proposed. But who needs that type of healthy climate when we have the brilliant Ohio Department of Development making investments of your tax dollars in new Ohio businesses, such as Skybus! Republicans are far too busy cracking down on payday lenders (even Bill Batchelder, who is a hero of mine) and posturing for their next election to make any serious efforts at improving Ohio’s unhealthy business climate.

I suppose this is good news for Marc Dann?

The MSM coverage of Bentley Lenhoff’s comments yesterday make Bentley sound more reasonable than he actually was in taped interviews. He accused the media of essentially being agents of gambling interests who are out to get Dann. Good Grief.

Who names their son after a luxury car anyway?

From the Pittsburg-Tribune Review:

The way Tom DeLay sees it, conservatives have a lot of catching up to do.

“The left has been able to build a very impressive coalition,” said the former House majority leader and Republican from Texas in an interview at the Holiday Inn in Green Tree on Wednesday night. “It’s much easier for Democrats to come together than for Republicans. Democrats are collectivists by nature.”

DeLay was in town for the first meeting of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Washington-based Coalition for a Conservative Majority.

DeLay founded the nonprofit organization in November. Former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell, who was a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development undersecretary, serves as the chairman.[...]

“We’re also preparing for (John) McCain,” DeLay said of the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “I’m a conservative first and a Republican second. McCain’s obviously the better choice. But we want a conservative voice in place in case he goes off the reservation, so to speak.”

DeLay cited McCain’s opposition to increased Alaska oil drilling and his belief in the threat of global warming as examples.

Pennsylvania is one of only two states that have two active chapters; the other chapter is in Scranton. Perkins said coalition leaders opened the first nine chapters in areas that have an existing liberal grassroots presence, including Columbus, Ohio; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Houston; Denver; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Las Vegas; and Phoenix.

With all honesty, I went to their organizational meeting in Columbus and am not quite sure what CCM does outside of charging people $52 to join. But I have hope that once more of these state chapters are formed, CCM becomes an effective conservative grassroots organization which exists in those beautiful gray areas of America’s ridiculous speech-stifling campaign finance laws.

It is critical that conservatives have such an outlet, especially now that liberal John McCain has secured the GOP nomination. (By the way, I think McCain’s campaign is trying to annoy me into submission. I get so much spam from Mr. Maverick’s campaign, especially Patrick Hynes- a nice guy I met at CPAC who was fired from National Review for not disclosing his ties to the McCain campaign-, that I’m about ready to promise to vote for McCain if they and the RNC promise to stop me so many damn emails.)

This is funny, even though it drags on alittle too long and I don’t like how quickly Stewart dismisses disgraced Ohio AG Dann. This story is more about an affair- It is about running an office in an unprofessional manner which created an environment where sexual assault was possible. I think the situation at the Ohio Attorney General’s office is far worse than former NY Governor Spitzer hiring a consenting prostitute:

Make sure to read this article from the Cleveland Free Times’s James Renner.

Here is a portion:

Dann has not yet explained why Utovich was transferred in January at the same time Stout was moved out of the building. A spokesman for Dann told the Free Times it was Simpson (friend and former editor of Alyssa Lenhoff, Dann’s wife) who thought Jessica should be transferred, because “it was time for her to move on.” Stout says it was Lenhoff herself who demanded the transfers. In her interview, Jennifer Urban - who calls herself Jessica’s “best friend” - suggests Stout’s version is more accurate.

“My understanding of why she got transferred was because the Right Angle Blog [a popular righty blog] came out with a story … that she and Marc Dann were having an affair, and she needed to be transferred because of that story. And because of the allegations and Alyssa and how she was reacting to the story, she needed to be moved from the floor.”

When Dann was asked about the transfers in his first interview with investigators, on April 22, he said he didn’t know if the two were related. As the interview went on, it became obvious that he was being very careful about any answer he gave that dealt directly with his lover. Asked directly if Utovich ever spent the night at his apartment, he said, “I don’t know, because I wasn’t - I was barely at the apartment.”

Lefty bloggers criticized and mocked me after I broke this story (see here, here, here and here for examples- The stories they made up about me delivering pizzas and being killed by Leo Jennings are quite funny.). They will never apologize, but I take comfort in the fact that I’m always right, have excellent sources, and would never make up such an awful story about ANYONE! I have far too much respect for women and wouldn’t have besmirched Jessica without cause- Besides, she isn’t the story. The real story was that Ohio’s chief law enforcement officer is a dirtball who hired unqualified cronies to run his office. And affairs open up public office holders to potentially serious problems, especially blackmail.

Does this officially make me Ohio’s Matt Drudge? Hardly, but I’m happy to have played a part in the demise of a hyperpartisan headline-seeking lawsuit-crazy scheduler-screwing unethical unqualified Attorney General.

After this interview, I suppose I owe Urban some “rough housing” with Captain Morgan on my tab? Give me a call, Jennifer.

Get ready for asparagus rights.

From WKYC Cleveland:

If Dann is impeached or bows to pressure to resign before Sept. 25, Gov. Ted Strickland would appoint an interim attorney general until Ohio voters could weigh in on Nov. 4.

The voters’ choice would finish out Dann’s term through January, 2011.

The two Democrats on the short list for the interim spot are:

Former state senator Ben Espy: He’s currently an executive assistant attorney general in Dann’s office and the attorney who headed up the investigation of Dann’s aide Anthony Gutierrez.

Kent Markus: Strickland’s chief counsel and a former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher when Fisher was Ohio attorney general.

The names of five Democrats and three Republicans are already being touted as names that could appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

On the Democratic side, it’s Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates; Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason; Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.; Ohio state Treasurer Richard Cordray; and Columbus city attorney Richard Pfeiffer.

On the Republican side, it’s former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who lost to Dann in the November 2006 election; former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, who opted not to run for re-election in November 2006 and lost a primary race for governor to Ken Blackwell; and state Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chester, who lost in the 2006 GOP primary for attorney general to Montgomery.

Are Republicans excited about any of these choices? Why was Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien left off this list? And isn’t Jim Petro too busy making millions of dollars with shady Stan Chesley, attending fundraisers for Hillary Clinton, and helping convicted murderers get out of prison via the so-called “Innocence Project” if they were convicted prior to modern DNA-matching technology?

Treasurer Rich Cordray is the most frequently mentioned replacement for Dann that I’ve heard. He would be a difficult candidate to beat, especially with financial backing from politically connected bankers.

Jennifer Urban is the Assistant Attorney General who threatened to sue me. I hinted that she was alittle to close to former Attorney General Spokesman Leo Jennings. Today, The Dispatch’s Darrel Rowland printed this fascinating exchange between Urban and Dann’s former director of genital services and accused sexual assaulter, Anthony Gutierrez:

Gutierrez: “want to get together”

Urban: “Where are you drunkard?”

Gutierrez: “Don’t matter where I am where are we going to end up?”

Urban: “Ton, you are going to end up in your bed and I am going to end up in mine. Mine may or may not be empty depending on who we meeting up with.”

Gutierrez: “Wrong answer.”

Urban: “You are not Leo.”

Gutierrez: “Better.”

Urban: “What makes you think that?”

Gutierrez: “You have to take a test drive to fine out. One drive you see for yourself. Money back offer.”

Urban: “You can’t do that to Leo. Not nice Ton.”

Classy stuff!

Is that Leo with his arm around Urban? I’m not sure:

I truly feel sorry for Jessica, a fellow ALHS graduate, who was put in an awkward situation of sexual advances by her superior, who also happens to be the Ohio Attorney General. But since Ohio Dem Chairman Chris Redfern was known to be something of a ladies man (before he recently married a lobbyist for the radical gay agenda), I really don’t know what to make of this comment from an angry Ohio Democrat political hack, Buckeye State Blog’s wiscgirl:

It’s sad that Dann has been involved in such a scandal, Unfortunately he must go. His actions are inexplainable and must be dealt with handily. From the beginning I felt that Chandra was the better pick. Ohio voters could not grasp or vote for a man of color with a funny sounding name. Dann was dirty from the beginning with the Caparo pick, a daughter of a criminal with zero experience. BUT JESSICA UTOVICH’S CAREER IS OVER to explain her kindly: she’s a sleazy, power hungry, you know what that does not deserve such a high position in such a respected office. I experienced her style and “charm” when we tried to oust her from her position with Ohio Young Democrats. She was a do nothing bureaucrat then and sometimes people don’t change. I also encoutered her as an intern for the ODP, and the only thing she knew how to do was flirt with Chairman Redfern and create drama in the office. Yesterday afternoon I bet on Big Brown, less then a minute after he had won the derby, I recieved a phone call from my father in Ohio to tell me the breaking news. Thank you Jessica for making my week, possibly my month. Oh and Jessica sweetie, maybe if you tried to cure some of your emotional drama and not post things on myspace you can get back to knocking on doors for a mayors race. Maybe…. no promises any one will hire you again

Could it be that the Chairman of the state party which prides itself on being devoid of all Christian hangups about sexuality was closer to AG Marc Dann’s main squeeze than we know?