Nader's off the ballot in Ohio, Bunning's off his rocker in Kentucky

Another shocking victory for integrity, integrity, integrity. No thanks to the corrupt Ohio Secretary of State, An Ohio judge has ruled that Ralph Nader will not be on the ballot there because the folks gathering signatures -- the defrocked JSM Inc. that gets its money from Republicans -- has committed "widespread" and "substantial" fraud.

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. I returned from a business trip last night to find that all the Kerry signs on my street had been stolen. Again.

BC04 is running ads in KENTUCKY -- my guess it's in an effort to help Jim Bunning, the gay-bashing ideologue who has clearly lost his mind and is losing votes by the day. Bunning ducked his opponent, Dan Mongiardo, and refused to debate for months. Then when Bunning got taken to task for his cowardice, he agreed to debate -- but at the last minute he didn't show up and demanded that he be able to debate via satellite from GOP headquarters. Bunning needed to use a teleprompter during the debate.

Bunning is clearly terrified. He refuses to talk to the media unless it's a pre-arranged deal. He has beefed up security (at taxpayer expense) at his pre-packaged campaign events in places like Paducah. He actually felt compelled to release a note from his doctor to defend himself -- but the letter had a somewhat less-than-ringing endorsement: Bunning "has had several minor health issues over the years, all of which are currently resolved or well controlled." Now he's accused the Mongiardo campaign staff of "roughing up" his wife at a state fair, though thousands of people were at the fair, including the media, and nobody can substantiate the claims.

Of course, BC04 could also be spending money in a red state to help Anne Northup, the right-winger who's about to lose her Congressional seat to Tony Miller. Regardless, the incompetence of these republican campaigns and the sad state of the republican candidates is costing furious george votes where it matters. Miller's actually running as a proud, pro-Kerry Democrat. And he's winning. In Kentucky. (It may be Louisville, the most moderate district here, but it's still Kentucky.)