Death Be Not Proud

Here’s a heartwarming death-penalty story out of Ohio. It seems that the state with the most inept, ineffective governor, according to no less an authority than Time Magazine (available here) also has the most inept, ineffective method for killing its prisoners. According to numerous press stories ( see here ), Lucasville Prison officials took nearly 90 minutes to execute Joseph Clark, a death-row inmate for the last 22 years. Apparently, it took prison “doctors” several minutes to even find a vein in Clark’s arm. After consulting Grey’s Anatomy, apparently, prison doctors injected Clark with their supposedly lethal cocktail, only to have Clark look up several minutes later and mumble “this isn’t working.” As far as last words are concerned, these may not be particularly quote worthy but they sum up rather well the state of the Buckeye State under Taft and his Republican stooges.

But fret not, Ohioans. Come this November, you’ll have a real choice about your future. Kenneth Blackwell, a panderer of the worst sort to the religious right, squares off against a solid Democratic hopeful, Ted Strickland. While Strickland may be an unknown to the good folks north of Columbus, Blackwell is a known commodity throughout the state. A shameless self-promoter, Blackwell currently serves as Secretary of State and George W.’s wingman in Ohio. It was Blackwell, after all, who served as co-chair for W’s 2004 re-election effort despite the obvious conflict of interest with his duties as secretary of state. Blackwell’s gubernatorial platform consists of two planks: the tax and expenditure limitation amendment and protecting Ohioans from the plague of same-sex marriage, two hallmarks of the ultra ring-wingers in the Republican party. And this is considered progress when compared to the Taft administration, whose dubious accomplishments include having Ohio ranked the 31st smartest state and dropping further (see here ) and being ranked near the bottom in population lost, presumably as the availability of quality jobs shrinks (see here)

So if Ohio lives down to its neo-Republican roots come November, expect the population loss to hasten. And expect the state’s infrastructure to crumble even further. And expect the state’s commitment to education become even more tenuous. But on the bright side, we won’t have to worry about those damn gays trying to live in committed relationships, work at respectable jobs, and pay badly needed taxes. Oh, and if you needed some good news, at least things aren’t looking up much for Taft himself as he faces potential disbarment (see here) after being convicted of omitting numerous gifts and other swag from financial disclosure forms. He might as well be as unemployed as the rest of Ohio.