Crabby Fat Guy

Just in case you’ve forgotten, during the 2006 campaign, Ted Strickland set education as his “number 1 priority”.  He said that if he did not fix Ohio’s School Funding that he would consider him a failure.  Is it fixed?

New franchise legislation was signed into law in June by Governor Strickland.  The law took effect Monday.  Also on Monday AT&T applied to be the state’s first state-wide 10 year cable franchise.  The franchise, if granted, will directly compete with Time Warner in Lancaster and across the state.  AT&T will invest $500 million in fiber optic upgrades over the next few years.  The franchise will be reviewed by the Ohio Department of Commerce within 30 days.  If the application is complete the franchise will be granted withing 15 days after that.

Today Judge Michael Holbrook struck down Governor Strickland’s emergency executive order banning “games of skill” that resemble slot machines saying that Governor Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann had overstepped their bounds.

Marc Dann’s office immediately appealed.

In today’s Lancaster Eagle Gazette there is an editorial entitled “Action against skill games a welcome move”. The writer opines that it was a positive step for the state of Ohio for the governor to issue this executive order. Is it really?

While the majority of Ohioans  have voted to limit gambling in the state I stand opposed to method.  Governor Strickland issued a executive order.  The laws of Ohio were not changed to back up this executive order.  Governor Strickland put on his crown and commanded it to be so and it was…or is it?

The editorial says “Operators had three days to shut down the machines for good.”  For good?  Sorry about your ignorance, but the executive order expires in 90 days.

This problem needs to be solved in the legislature, not the governor’s office.

Governor Strickland announced today that the names and social security number of over a half million taxpayers were on a storage device stolen from a state intern last month. That brings the total number of names to 786,000!

Click here for the full story.

Click here to see if YOUR ID was stolen.

The cable bill that promises lower cable TV costs was signed into law yesterday by Governor Ted Strickland.  Local officials fear that cable franchise fees will be jeopardized.

The new law allows municipalities to cancel current cable franchises and gives the director of the Ohio Department of Commerce the authority to issue STATEWIDE franchises for cable TV.

Other states that already have similar laws enjoy 15% savings and much more choice.

These are not exactly Lancaster news but I did not see these items in the LEG and thought it was important.

From the Dayton Daily News:

COLUMBUS — Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to sign legislation that would make it easier for phone companies and other competitors to break into Ohio’s cable television market, Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said Tuesday.

Also not covered:

Sunday, June 17, 2007 – Ohio Governor speaks at CAIR Banquet

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland spoke at the tenth annual banquet of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in Ohio. He said “On behalf of all Ohioans, [my wife and I] appreciate your vision to promote justice and mutual understanding. We gather under CAIR-Ohio’s theme this year, “American Muslims: Connecting and Sharing” to do just that, to connect and share and to get to know each other better”.

CAIR has been named by Federal Prosecutors as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial. Are you sure you want to associate with organizations like this Ted?

Quote from Ted regarding the Republican stand on abortion and embreonicstem cell research:

“All of these things paint a picture of Ohio nationally and internationally as a backwards state,”