Bexley City Schools

A couple of years ago, Bexley City Schools were accused by some parents of racial bias in the enforcement of residency requirements. This year, they're going after a wealthy white family.

The district has spent thousands of dollars on legal fees and a private investigator in an attempt to make their (pretty solid, but not airtight) case. They are now facing a lawsuit from the family, and have filed a countersuit for the cost of one the children's education over the past two years. If they win that, I wonder if the father can demand a refund of any Bexley City and Bexley City School District income taxes paid? And if not, if the City of Columbus could.

In the meantime, the contract talks (or lack thereof) between the school board and the Bexley Education Association are increasingly happening in the public domain, with Board meetings attracting hundreds of stakeholders and consequent media attention.

It would seem that the issues of the contract, legal pursuits, budget changes due to Strickland's education reform package, and the role of each of these in determining the scope and timing of the next levy request could provide fodder for some great debates as three slots on the board are up for grabs in this election. Unfortunately, due to problems filing petitions, only two names will appear on the ballot for those two slots, and only one name - incumbent Diane T. Peterson's - will be accepted as a write-in.

We will have to look elsewhere for entertainment.

Blissful Ignoramus of the Day

Michael Keenan, Dublin City Councilman.

Mr. Keenan wrote a letter to the Dispatch, in which he states

"I know (Rep. Pat) Tiberi and he is deeply concerned about the welfare of his family, his country and all of his constituents."

He offers this up in contrast to something he doesn't know:

"I don't know what MoveOn.org is or who is a part of the organization, and probably I never will. These organizations prefer to stay out of the light of day and exist solely to tear down the good name of many who strive to simply have an honest debate about the issues important to each and every one of us."

Mr. Keenan does not know what MoveOn.org is, despite more than a million unique Google hits, including 1,660 hits on "Dispatch.com," and if we include the umbrella group, there are more than 1.5 million mentions on the web, 2800 of them in Keenan's hometown newspaper. The organization claims more than 5,000,000 members, 4.2 million active, approximately the number of people who live in Colorado and Kentucky, respectively (to be fair, Colorado and Kentucky have been around longer, so perhaps Keenan has heard of one or both.) Although the millions upon millions of members prefer to stay out of the light of day, I've managed to infiltrate the organization and smuggle out a slideshow and current agenda, both of which include rare photos of actual members.

Imagine Mr. Keenan's shock when he finds out there are actually two major political parties...

Bexley's Irvine to run as Libertarian in OH-12

Ex-mayoral candidate, congressional intern, film director, and comedian Travis Irvine has announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Libertarian. He will presumably be taking on incumbent Pat Tiberi and Democratic challenger Paula Brooks.

Make no mistake, if Travis is still an active candidate at this time next year, he'll get some votes. He can come across as a bit of a goofball, but he's whip-smart and got a good feel for populist appeal. In 2008, Steven Linnabary rode a horrible (I called it "amusingly befuddled" at the time) debate performance and the Libertarian endorsement to 2.97% of the vote in OH-12. I'd start the over/under on Irvine at 4.58%, the vote share he took in the 8-way Bexley Mayoral race.

If this race is as close as the DCCC seems to think it can be, %5 will be a pretty big deal.

Local Health Care Debate Question

When Paul Leithart uses a Dispatch LTE to attack an article on preventable deaths from medical errors, because it contains references to a 1999 report from the Institutes of Medicine that he doesn't agree with, despite the fact that the estimates in the article are based on 10 years of subsequent monitoring and research, concluding "Let's not use more lies to bring about socialized medicine," is it more important to note that he is is:

A) A retired doctor, or
B) On the National Council of the John Birch Society, approaching his 50 year anniversary with the organization?

Recess Equals Playtime

So, in the ongoing saga of Pat Tiberi's love/hate relationship with pork, he's holding his annual hog roast this Saturday, an event at which the newly formed Central Ohio Republican Women will be a Hog Sponsor. I found out about it from Sara Marie Brenner's blog. Sara's a hoot. I'd like to link to her picture, so you could see how she looks like a wannabe Alaskan governor. Then I'd link to her blog post where she compares her personal experience with baselesss persecution to that self-same Ms. Palin's. But I won't, because she includes in the basic description of her blog a prohibition against doing things like linking to any of her posts or quoting her, etc.. A prohibition which, for obvious reasons, I can only summarize. I could, instead link to her husband's campaign site, which she designed, as the profile (that I'm guessing she wrote) of him gratuitously includes her resume (including her involvement in a non-existent state senate campaign??), but I won't.

The CORW appears to have been her idea, so it's only fitting that she's the president. "Singer, Educator, Avon Rep" Cheli Turner is the VP. Renee Seeley, who unfortunately is probably not the PUMA Renee Seeley who stated that : "Obama is just another Bush. Stealing votes is the Bush Way. To win caucuses by bussing in college students and his church friends is cheating the Bush Way," is Secretary. Evangelical Reverend/NRA shooting instructor Sue Antolik is Treasurer. (Gina Baker is Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, with a less amusing Google trail, although the sec/treas combination title is one she has no doubt grown used to while holding it in her husband's company.)

Their marketers at Constant Contact would have you believe that the group looks like this, rather than other generic womens groups like this, or this (to be fair, 2 of their 140 Facebook fans are in fact African American females, compared to only 29 who are white males).

While I can only dream of seeing Tim Russo interviewing the CORW table at the Tiberi Hog Roast, a more realistic hope is audio from the Tiberi Tele-Town Hall on Tuesday:

"Constituents who want to be on the call should call Tiberi's district office by 5 p.m. Monday, at 614-523-2555, according to his office."

I'll be out of even cell-phone contact at the time, but if any other constituents would care to ensure that Pat gets a more representative view of his district's feelings regarding health-care reform, please do so and keep me informed.