Carnival Number 84

OK, yeah that one was obvious. For about thirty seconds I considered rendering the entire Carnival in Newspeak, but that would be doubleplus ungood. The purpose of Newspeak as conceptualized by Orwell, is not simply to eliminate words that express "dangerous" ideas, but to so cleanse the language of nuance and abstraction that it not longer can be used to express ideas of any kind. That makes it a troublesome vehicle for talking about politics.

Worse, the resultant staccato reads horribly.

1984 predicted a totalitarianism that secured power not only by force, but also by monopolizing the flow of information. To be among bloggers is to be among those who refuse to allow anyone to control them by controlling information. No source of ideas or data -- left or right, government or corporate, mainstream or fringe -- escapes scrutiny in the blogosphere. No docile Outer Party members are we.

So welcome everybody to the 84th Carnival of Ohio Thoughtcrime.

The Dean of Cincinnati reports that local citizens have asked the Attorney General and Secretary of State to look into possible election law violations by the local sheriff in his zealous advocacy for a local sales tax initiative. The Dean also flags a Media Matters report about the reddish hue of Ohio op-ed pages.

Tom at BizzyBlog has long inveighed against Food Stamp Challenge duckspeak. Now that the challenge has taken hold in Toledo, he has posted an open letter to the Blade detailing his criticisms of the challenge. Tom also looks at the single-payer health care bill that has been introduced in the Ohio General Assembly and opines that the $50 billion price tag calls into question the $110 billion cost estimate offered by Hillary Clinton for her health care proposal.
Finally, Tom writes against a statehouse candidate who is too much in the thrall of the payday lending industry.

Picking up where Biz left off, Maggie Thurber shares her Thoughts about the "food stamp challenge." First she outlines the many question about whether the challenge comes from the Ministry of Truth and and about the motivations of the people involved, then wonders out loud about the local media's credulous coverage. She then blogs a radio interview in which sponsors of the challenge attempted to defend it, and concludes with suggestions for a better food stamp challenge.

LisaRenee sends submissions from both of her blogs. On Glass City Jungle she ponders the racial overtones of lawn statuary and offers nutrition advice everyone can use, whether on the "food stamp challenge" or not. On Liberal Common Sense LisaRenee isn't counting on sharing a bag of chips with Bill Clinton, but she knows what she would ask for if she gets the chance.

Conservative Culture argues that Sherrod Brown voted against condemning MoveOn.org because they contributed $300G to his Senate campaign. CC wonders about the use of keeping a man alive who admitted to raping a murdering a teenager. And the "sex industry" (adversary of the Youth Anti-Sex League) so far is failing to mount a challenge to strip club regulations passed earlier this year.

According to Jill, the legislature may allow wireless 911 service to become an unprogram. She flags a C-Notes piece about charter school magnate David Brennan dropping $6 million on an Akron Catholic girl's school. And she reports that Equality Ohio is looking for Republican sponsors for an anti-discrimination bill.

Word of Mouth regular Daniel Jack Williamson has begun blogging on the new Yahoo 360 social networking site. He sends along a piece about how Ohio incurs debt by issuing bonds. But mark this -- we call it debt, not deficit spending.

The Virtuous Republic investigates the political leanings of the ABA committee responsible for the recent report on the death penalty in Ohio and finds a Democratic bias, anti-death penalty bias.

Ben Keeler looks at the closing of Geauga Lake amusement park and finds the media coverage, well, amusing.

For myself, I wrote that the Summit Co Republicans' own Big Brother is flooding a local race with faux-independent spoilers, the local higher education landscape will change . . . somehow, and Dennis Kucinich thinks debate is great, but not when the subject is his own Congressional seat.

Errata: Once again I missed an email, and something odd happened to another one. Those of you who haven't seen your submissions up yet, don't worry. You are not unpersons. So here are your bonus, late breaking posts.

Lorain group blog Word of Mouth shows the advantage of multiple voices, with one blogger criticizing Sherrod Brown for voting against the anti-MoveOn resolution and a guest blogger praising him. And Worder Lorraine Ritchey expounds on the glories and pitfalls of writing like she feels.

Jeff Coryell posts an interview with Mike Todd, a candidate for Ron Amstutz's term-limited seat in the 22nd Senate district. For those who can't tell the players in Ohio Fifth without a scorecard, he tries to accommodate. But the scorecard has to be updated when the lineup changes.

At Weapons of Mass Destruction, Matt H. argues that the controversy over Sen. Brown's vote against condemning MoveOn is part of a broader pay-to-play pattern among newly-empowered Dems. He picks apart Sen. Voinovich's plan for Iraq. And he updates a story about an immigration enforcement bill before the General Assembly.

Thanks to everyone who submitted, and remember: 2+2=4. Don't let anyone tell you different.