I can’t believe someone thought of this. It may be one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard of… Two things… One, I hope no one takes a picture of me wearing a blue wig while shaking a maraca and screaming “shake the curse…” Two, I hope it works!

The Other Paper has an article plus videos about “shaking the curse” here. You can find instructions on making your own painted maraca and where to buy your wig at shakethecurse.com.

There are two spots open on the Columbus City Council. Councilwoman Maryellen O’Shaughnessy was elected to be the Franklin County clerk of courts and Councilman Kevin L. Boyce was recently selected by Governor Strickland to be state treasurer. Several names have cropped up to replace them.

Gary L. Baker II, a Columbus school board member and former chairman of the Hilltop Area Commission, said yesterday that he will seek one of the council jobs.

Other potential applicants, whose names were floating around City Hall even before O’Shaughnessy won her new office, include Stonewall Columbus Executive Director Karla Rothan and University Area Commissioner Catherine Girves.

Eileen Paley, a past council applicant and former Franklin County judicial candidate, is also viewed as a possible replacement.

The Columbus Dispatch

All of the above appear to have strong qualifications for the job.

Steve Stivers the outgoing Republican State Senator, who lost a U.S. House seat to Mary Joy Kilroy in November, took his name out the running for a council position in the future.

“I’d like to run for something I can win,” Stivers said. “The city of Columbus is turning awfully blue.”

The Columbus Dispatch

Stivers is right. He wouldn’t stand a chance to win a council seat. However, he’s wrong that Columbus is turning awfully blue. It has been wonderfully blue for a while now.

I found this at AlterNet. Author ZP Heller asks the question did Cheney admit to a war crime when he was interviewed on ABC? Heller believes he did and asks:

… we must play Cheney’s interview on every political blog out there in an effort to command the attention of Congress and the DOJ.

Okay ZP. Here’s a clip from the interview played as part of a report on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. You decide.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AINP_zEYN4[/youtube]

In the mid-nineties Congress passed a new welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Those who wanted to participate had to meet strict requirements and face time limits on the assistance they could receive. While they probably would deny this, the underlying assumption by the right at the time was that many people seeking welfare were looking for an unlimited government handout and were … well … lazy.

I would challenge that view. Still, economic times in the mid ’90’s were good and the new rules plus the booming economy seemed to make TANF a moot point. Unfortunately, no one noticed that while welfare rolls declined, the poverty rate did not.

So, as the Washington Post points out in an excellent but sad article found here, in these economic times TANF is facing a new challenge. Many of the people who are seeking welfare today are not those who the right appeared to target twelve years ago, they are the middle class. TANF operated under the premise that jobs would be plentiful for the unemployed poor. Will it work when there are few job opportunities for the poor and the middle class?

This from The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee said top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bore major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in interrogations at Abu Ghraib in Iraq; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; and other military detention centers.

Imagine that. It wasn’t just a small group of low ranking soldiers like Private Lynndie England. It was a small group of high ranking Bush administration officials. Rumsfeld is a liar. As proof I submit a 2007 New Yorker article by Seymour M. Hersh regarding a report by General Antonio Taguba.

My favorite part of the Times article is a quote from a Rumsfeld spokesperson Kieth Urbahn.

Because of irresponsible charges by a few individuals in positions of responsibility in Congress, millions of people around the world have been led to believe that the United States condones torture, Mr. Urbahn said.

No Mr. Urbahn, because of a few individuals in positions of responsibility, millions of people now know that the United States does not condone torture, Donald Rumsfeld and top Bush administration official do. Lynndie England had to face the consequences. The question is, will Donald H. Rumsfeld?

Today Joe the Plumber told Glen Beck that he almost left the McCain campaign.

America’s most famous plumber said the Republican presidential candidate’s reasons for supporting the government’s $700 billion bank rescue plan left him appalled, and nearly caused him to leave McCain behind on the campaign trail…

…Wurzelbacher said some of McCain’s answers stunned him, but he didn’t say exactly what set him off, hinting that would be in his book, which is due this month.

The Columbus Dispatch

First, evidently somebody was dumb enough to give this guy a book deal! Second, I thought G. Gordon Liddy was America’s most famous plumber. Come on Joe. Your 15 minutes are up. The only people who care about what you have to say are right wing talk show hosts who have three hours to fill, but very little to say.

The City of Columbus, which is facing a hiring freeze on police and fire personnel in addition to cutting many services including health centers and neighborhood pride centers, is considering whether to charge for trash collection as a way to ease the budget crunch.

“It has to be considered,” said City Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian, who’s on an economic advisory panel that will decide by March whether to recommend a new monthly trash fee to Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the City Council.

The Columbus Dispatch

Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, and many Columbus suburbs charge a fee for collection according to The Dispatch.

“Many, many, many, many cities charge,” said Mark Kelsey, Columbus’ public-service director. “It would be fair to say we’re in the exception category.”

In addition, the fee may help keep many important programs from facing budget cuts. It costs the city $12.61 a month per resident to collect the trash.

If that rate were passed on to nearly 327,000 households that rely on the department’s refuse division, it would generate $49.5 million yearly. Coleman’s 2009 budget proposal would cut $54.4 million from the amount that he said would be needed to keep city programs and services running at current levels.

The Columbus Dispatch

I know it’s always difficult to support raising taxes, which is what a fee increase is. Once enacted, they are almost never rescinded. In addition, it will be important to learn how the tax would be imposed. A flat fee would be a harsher imposition on the poor than it would for the well off. Still, if most cities are benefiting from a fee, and if it saves much needed programs and provides for a safer city, I believe it is certainly worth considering.