A Zogby poll shows a majority of Americans surveyed want Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr and whatever-he-represents Ralph Nader included in the presidential debates. Bad news, Americans: Republicans and Democrats control the debates, and as long as you keep mindlessly voting for these two options — because, gasp!, only they can win — they will control the format, which means excluding anything that shows how similar the Republican and Democratic parties are, particularly on the national level.

Yes, there are differences. Obama wants to leave Iraq. Now that the Democrats control Congress and there is no chance they can pass, McCain supports the Bush tax cuts he once opposed. Also, with Pelosi blocking a vote on drilling in Alaska and offshore, McCain is firmly for that, too.

But, Republican or Democratic, the solution to your every problem lies in Washington. Why else would they have a platform on every issue, particularly on those that should come with this answer: That’s not the job of the federal government.

Anyway, Barr and Nader supporters, dream on. The American people want to hear from your candidates, but the American people don’t control the political process. Republicans and Democrats do.

The Zogby findings:

UTICA, New York - More than half of likely voters nationwide - 55% - want Republican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr to participate in presidential debates this fall, while nearly half - 46% - said they think Ralph Nader should be allowed into the on-stage fray, the latest Zogby Interactive polling shows.

Among political independents, 69% said Barr should be at a lectern with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, and a majority of Republicans and Democrats agreed. Among Democrats, 52% said they think Barr should participate, while 50% of Republicans agreed.

Thirty-nine percent of Democrats and 41% of Republicans said they did not think Barr should be included in the debates.

Zogby release is here.

A federal judge in Cleveland ruled against the strip bars. No biggie. But, he finds that government may reasonably regulate your First Amendment rights, so long as you have them most of the day. Meanwhile, those in Ohio government are succeeding in their goal of catching Michigan in terms of worst economies. Leave it to Ohio lawmakers to kill jobs as they worry about trying to attract them.

From The Associated Press:

Judge won’t block Ohio strip club law

By M.R. KROPKO, Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a request to block an Ohio law approved last year that restricts dancers’ performances at strip clubs and the hours of operation at adult book or video stores.  

Business owners, who said the law was hurting business, sued after it took effect last fall, saying it was an unconstitutional violation of free speech.

U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. ruled against their motion for a preliminary order to block enforcement, finding that plaintiffs had not proved the law violates the rights of sexually oriented businesses in Ohio. He also ruled that the law doesn’t significantly harm them.

“The businesses may still operate for the remaining 18 hours a day,”‘ Oliver wrote. “Therefore, (the law) is merely a reasonable regulation on the time, place and manner in which plaintiffs may exercise their First Amendment rights.’”

The statewide crackdown on sexually oriented businesses, pushed by a conservative Christian group and adopted by the Republican-controlled state Legislature in May 2007, was allowed to become law by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland without his signature.

The law, which went into effect in October, prohibits touching between customers and nude or seminude dancers. It also halts nude dancing in strip clubs after midnight and prohibits adult bookstores and theaters from remaining open between midnight and 6 a.m.

The business owners’ lawsuit remains open. Oliver has scheduled a case status conference for Aug. 21. 

Those pesky people in the payday loan industry just won’t let it go. How do they expect success from Ohio’s bipartisan effort to rescue irresponsible people if they keep interfering with the dictates of state lawmakers?

Those payday lenders seem hung up on the idea that people should be free to borrow money based on their needs, abilities and circumstances. Don’t they see that Ohio Republicans and Democrats decided for us? Lawmakers have been busy of late penning columns about the freedoms of being American — they have July 4 on their calendars, too — but they’re sure to get around to keeping greedy bankers from taking advantage of us dumb Ohioans. (more…)

Your tax dollars are going to help open a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. The three Republicrats who sit in the Allen County commissioners office will explain that this is not corporate welfare, but what else do you call it when tax money goes to support a business?

Anyway, though reporter Lima News reporter Bart Mills didn’t point this out in his story, Dan Wilkinson – Big Daddy from his Ohio State days – also played for the Detroit Lions.  

OSU standout tied to Chuck E. Cheese in Lima

June 26, 2008 - 2:49PM

Bart Mills

LIMA - A $475,000 state grant will help clear the way for the area’s first Chuck E. Cheese. And the owner may be as well-received as the restaurant.

The Ohio Department of Development has approved a $475,000 grant to Allen Place that will be used to help purchase and redesign an Elida Road building into a Chuck E. Cheese. And among the owners of the planned pizza place is former Ohio State and Cincinnati Bengals football standout Dan Wilkinson.

A Chuck E. Cheese spokesman said Wilkinson and other investors are set to complete a deal with the chain for the Lima store. The store will probably open later this year, according to Chuck E. Cheese spokesman  John Jauquet.

Big surprise here: Republican justices of the Ohio Supreme Court find yet another instance where the state trumps the family. OK, so there’s nothing in the U.S. or Ohio constitutions saying your family has a right to get your body parts back upon your death — need there be? — but these six justices couldn’t find anything in common law that says as much? Religion be damned in Lima resident and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp’s view, as well as that of five of his court colleagues. The Associated dPress reports that these six justices have determined that the state, not your family, has a right to your body parts.

Ohio court: Relatives have no right to body parts

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court says family members don’t have a right to a relative’s brain, heart and other body parts removed by a coroner for forensic testing.

In a 6-1 decision released Thursday, the high court said there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution, the state Constitution or common law that says organs must be returned to a family.

The ruling is a defeat for the parents of a man who drowned when his car went into a pond. They had sued a coroner near Cincinnati, saying they had the right to bury their son with his brain intact instead of it being permanently removed at his autopsy.

The case had drawn international attention for its ramifications to coroners, crime investigators and followers of religions that espouse the importance of burying the whole body.s

Look! They’ve figured it out: Don’t use the money at all, and then people would have to cut back on the smokes. It’s a simple formula: No jobs lead to no money, which leads to no cigarette money.

Group seeks to join lawsuit

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Washington-based anti-smoking group is asking to join a lawsuit against the state so it can use $190 million an Ohio-based group wants to give it to continue its programs.

The American Legacy Foundation on Monday asked a Franklin County Common Pleas judge if it could intervene in the lawsuit brought by the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation on April 9. The
Ohio foundation wants the money to continue to go to anti-smoking programs, as originally intended.

The Legislature passed and Gov. Ted Strickland signed a bill that moved the money into a $1.57 billion economic recovery program. Judge David Fais, who has frozen the money, has scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit for Thursday. 

“The public’s saying ‘I’ve called and called, but nothing’s happening.’ It’s a cat-and-mouse game. You have to catch them.”

Allen County Heath Department environmental division director Bill Kelly on enforcing the state’s smoking ban, following the department issuing its first fine for a violation.

“You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”

George Orwell’s “1984,” about the likes of Allen County Heath Department environmental division director Bill Kelly

This comes from the Detroit Free Press. So much for leaving it to those who borrowed too heavily to learn anything. Instead, let’s have Big Brother come pull us out. (more…)

The numbers don’t lie. The American Cancer Society and I can agree on at least that much.

The former-advocacy-turned-dictatorial organization last week released the results of a poll showing that a supermajority of Ohioans are pleased with the state’s smoking ban. Nearly 80 percent of the 600 registered voters questioned support the statewide smoking ban. That’s an increase of more than 20 percentage points over the majority (58 percent) of voters who passed the ban a year ago.

Not everyone is happy, nor can they be, but the supermajority is pleased, so the law must be right, right?

Of course. Just like it would be right for four people to decide they want the fifth’s money, so they take it by force. Majority rules, after all. (more…)

 My, how we who smoke are howling. Smokers are pretty upset that nonsmokers took away their “rights.” It’s an amusing complaint, coming in a place where so many people chose not to exercise a right they do have.

Being the person who calls to verify authorship of and then edits the letters this newspaper publishes, I have the chance to talk to letter writers. It is pretty clear that too many of those in this debate really don’t understand rights, at least as the U.S. Constitution spells them out.

Nonsmokers and anyone who voted for our smoking ban are the quick aside. They believe they have a right to enjoy a quality of life they desire anywhere they choose to go. I’ve spent too much ink explaining desires, choices and majority rule versus mob rule to rehash those topics. The fact is, many people believe the majority should get whatever the majority wants. Too many voters and lawmakers — even too many judges who are supposed to look at the constitutionality of laws — believe that. (more…)