Here’s a look at the “new” electronic parking meters at columbusING. Jon notes that the device appears to be “rescued from a 70’s interpretation of the future.” It does look a little Star Trek- The Motion Pictureish. I had a post on them a while back.

Brendan at spacetropic has a post up about a Cinci Enquirer article about a transportation study put out by a 501(c)3 a year ago. Cincinnatians spend on average 20% of their income on transportation, which puts them at #6. Cleveland is #2 at 20.5%. I looked at the study (pdf) which lists the top 28 cities by that measure and Columbus isn’t on it. Houston is #1, which should come as no surprise to people familiar with that city.

To possibly make it easier to find your way around on public transportation, Google is starting to index transit maps and schedules to allow mass transit directions at the Google Labs Transit project. No Columbus info yet and it looks like it’ll be a while. Here’s a sample map for Portland:

View Larger Map

COTA does have a trip planner, but it’s not as cool or as fast as Google’s. It needs more ajaxiness.

Walker and Eric have a new blog focusing on Columbus transportation at X-ing Columbus.

Jerid Kurtz of Buckeye State Blog has banned regular contributor Paul Ackerman of Linwood Campaign Services. There’s a big argument going on in the comments to this post at BSB. Paul’s bio was removed from BSB’s About page.

Dave Hickman’s been posting comments about it on this post of mine. Quite gleefully, I might add. It’s hard to know from the outside what’s really going on there, but it doesn’t look pretty. Maybe they should read up on how poisonous the Ohio blogosphere is and… think of the children. Or something.

Political blogs are not subject to FEC regulations, unless they’re paid for by candidates. So, there is a First Amendment. I’m not impressed that the FEC is ruling on these matters at all. I mean they could just as easily rule the other way.

CNN is reporting that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will likely resign soon. More on that at Nixguy and from Ryan at Buckeye State Blog, who’s got a well-considered post:

I find it quite sad that this man, because of societal pressure feels unable to come out of the closet and admit to himself that he is gay. It is a sad state of affairs when people feel this boxed in because of what they do or who they are that they have to resort to the kinds of activity that Senator Craig engaged in.

I think that’s the only reasonable take on the situation. Think Brokeback Mountain. And it’s very different from the Jeridian glee on the matter.

In somewhat related news, the Columbus Police and park people are working on cutting down lewd behavior in the city’s parks:

The Columbus police vice squad said that secluded areas attract the wrong sort of crowd, like the woods that line the parking lot of Rhodes Park.

Officers are working closely with the city to get thick brush cleared in problem areas.

In addition, the city’s recreation and parks department has begun putting new facilities in the parks that promote positive activities and increase traffic.

I’m glad they’re promoting positive activities, whatever they are. 100 people have been arrested so far this year.

From It’s a Paul World:

It is only a matter of time before Idaho republican senator Larry Craig resigns. I see a tearful entering rehab speech in his future also. That’s usually how these things go.

SNL had a Peter O’Toole skit that addressed that kind of thing. Of course we don’t know yet if Craig is going to take that route.

Todd Hoffman writing on the ODP blog:

So the Ohio GOP are now scraping the bottom of the barrel and calling for all GOP Dog Catchers living in the 15th District. If you are a Dog Catcher that would like to run for Congress, please email dogcatcher4congress@ohiogop.org.

Does that strike anyone as rather inept? Of course the dog catcher cliche has been going on forever, but does the Ohio Democratic Party really want to say “scraping the bottom of the barrel and calling for all GOP Dog Catchers”? They’ve even got a cartoon of what I guess is supposed to be a typical dog catcher:

It strikes me as a bit anti-blue collar: “scraping the bottom of the barrel” for someone who wears a uniform and, you know, works for a living. Frankly, we’d all be better off if more of such people ran for office.

(And sure Jerid, Todd Hoffman’s position is not a political one.)

From an article in the Cleveland Free Times:

Online, ODP Web master Todd Hoffman defended the firing [of Megan Pappada] in his own letter to a local blogger. “As an employee of ODP, any statements, past or present, in the public domain reflect upon the Party so we let her go within hours of learning of the situation,” he wrote.

Speaking of public domain, Mr. Hoffman, the Free Times discovered some online court documents your employers might have overlooked. In 2001, you got two OMVI’s (operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated), a hit/skip, and a resisting arrest charge that was pleaded down to disorderly conduct. Damn, that was one crazy summer, huh?

But the ODP apparently is less interested in dangerous actions than it is impure thoughts.

Hit/skip is a very serious offense. Not that OMVI’s aren’t. Anyway, Matt Naugle wrote a post in response: “Todd Hoffmann… Another Democrat Criminal Boozer“. There’s a crude photoshop. (Go see.)

And then Buckeye State Blog’s Jerid Kurtz posted:

In my opinion, Matt seems to take sexual pleasure out of inflicting pain on individuals personally - it’s a far cry from anything even minutely related to politics. And as long as Republican candidates are frequenting RAB and/or taking out ads at RAB, it’s going to reflect poorly on the Ohio GOP. And trust me, the chickens are coming home to roost on this one very soon. If I were the Republicans, I’d be distancing myself and denouncing Matt and RAB as soon as possible - he gives decent folks on the right a bad name.

Helpfully, Jerid gives us the definition of “sexual sadism”, and does the old psychiatric diagnosis from a distance schtick, long favored the left. It’s pretty funny.

A I have a couple of points on this. First, unlike a few other of Matt’s posts that I disagreed with, this one is totally fair game from a political standpoint. Hoffman’s a player, this stuff is on his record, that’s all there is to it. And the photoshop is fair, though again crude, as well. Whether or not it’s wise is another thing. OMVI’s are non-partisan, and there will be a Republican busted on one pretty soon, I’m sure. The hit/skip thing though is more serious.

Secondly, Jerid seems to be suggesting that Todd Hoffman isn’t political:

Last I checked, none of these folks entered into the political fray personally to warrant these types of attacks. It might be fair for folks to point out a hypocritical point with a staffer not synching up to a party’s platform which they work for, but in Todd’s example Matt’s post is entirely mean spirited spite topped off with an awful picture - there’s nothing political at all.

Hoffman is id’d as a mere “ODP staffer”, sort of like the person who answers the phone over there. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. Isn’t one of Hoffman’s jobs to put out the ODP message to the Ohiosphere and keep the Democratic blogs in line? Seems like a political role to me.

Whatever it is, Hoffman apparently has a close relationship to BSB. Jerid ought to have disclosed it in his post defending Hoffman and attacking Naugle.

Following on yesterday’s story about Open Left’s targeting conservative Democrats, Cadillac Tight has an interesting response to Matt Stoller’s response.

Matt says:

And of course, the wingnuts are freaking out, it’s always a nice bonus to hear them squeal and defend conservative Democrats.

Now I don’t use the term “squeal” in this manner as it strikes me as a bit homophobic, but if anyone’s squealing it’s Democrats. Republicans are squealing with delight, maybe. Here’s what Stoller has to say to the two Ohio Dem bloggers who complained:

(By the way, Left in Ohio and Buckeyestate Blog, there’s nothing stopping you from writing a positive profile of Charlie Wilson and Zach Space putting their Bush Dog votes in context.).

Note that he gets both blogs’ names wrong- on purpose? Anyway here’s Joe at Cadillac Tight (a great blog name by the way):

I’ve never been a liberal or a progressive, and much as Stoller might hate it, neither are many other Democrats. If resisting efforts like this one from OpenLeft equates to “squealing” and membership in wingnuttia, then let me tell you, there are hosts of squealing, wingnutty Democrats out there today — At least as many as there are members of the “progressive movement”. Being liberally inclined in social policy matters certainly doesn’t obligate me to support the current antiwar, hard left proposals of OpenLeft or the netroots. In fact, I’d argue that in terms of electoral reality, I’m doing the Democratic party a much better solid than Bowers and Stoller are.

That’s pretty much how I see it.

(Previous post: National lefties telling our lefties what to do.)