BuckeyeBlog

Nice story in the Dispatch following up on Ohio State University’s generous payments to its executives. Gordon Gee isn’t merely telling funny stories and wearing bow ties. He’s nearly doubling the payroll of his top executives, increasing their number and their pay.

Don’t worry, though. Sen. Bill Harris, Ashland Republican and senate president, is hot on the case: “I’m more than willing to be patient to see if Dr. Gee can reach his goal of pushing Ohio State into the Top 10 — and hopefully make it the No. 1 university in the nation.”

Rah, rah. Pretty soon Ohio State will be World Class. Probably Harris is sanguine because he figures if Joyce Beatty is worth $320,000, why, a senate president must be worth, what, half a mil?

One of Gee’s Lieutenants, Larry Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources, says not to worry, they know what they’re doing.

“We pay far less than the private market, where leaders can make multimillions of dollars,” Lewellen says.

Indeed. Ohio taxpayers would be happy to let them go do so. We hear there are lots of openings at Lehman Brothers.

There are so many dirty little secrets to polling that it’s hard to know where to start, but one of the most basic is, is there any reason to think the people being polled have any idea of what they’re talking about?

What’s the validity of a poll about, say, the cause of the space shuttle exploding? If we take a worldwide poll and it concludes that the earth rests on the back of a giant turtle, does it mean anything, other than that people don’t know what they’re saying?

The BBC has been reporting all morning in an orgiastic ecstasy of righteousness, “US-led efforts to tackle the al-Qaeda group are not regarded as successful”

Or, “US-led efforts to tackle the al-Qaeda group are not regarded as successful, an opinion poll carried out for the BBC World Service suggests.”

Under the heading, of “Terror Stalemate,” BBC reports that twice as many people (22%) think the US is winning as think al-Qaeda is winning (10%). That’s a stalemate?

On the other hand, a plurality of people think it has made al-Qaeda stronger (30%), not weaker (22%). Interesting; this seems to run in a different direction than the idea that the U.S. is winning. But what does “stronger” mean? And if it is stronger, why? Did they ask whether al-Qaeda would have been stronger had the U.S. not responded to the World Trade Center attacks? If that’s true, it’s an awfully Zen view of the world. Did they ask when the war on terror began? Did it begin with Bush, or did it begin when the towers were attacked? If it began when the towers were attacked, isn’t the idea that al-Qaeda is stronger because of the war on terror a bit different than if it began when the United States responded? Wouldn’t al-Qaeda continue to be perceived as stronger even if the US hadn’t responded? Indeed, is there a fair possibility that it would be perceived as even stronger than it is perceived now?

As between the two major themes, US winning, al-Qaeda stronger, which do you suppose the BBC chose to emphasize with its main graphic? That the US is winning? Er, maybe not.

But really, the whole thing is garbage. What they should really do is tease out ignorance. If they had the stones, the integrity or even the curiosity, they’d ask a question such as, “Do you think world Jewry is behind the war on terror?” or some such and publish that result. If the result was that 50 percent or 60 percent of the world answered yes, or 30 percent answered yes with 50 percent answering don’t know and 10 percent answering no, would that make it true? Or would it just give the lie to the whole effort and kill the story?

Probably the poll does tell us something: That the BBC has been reporting the news overly negatively against the United States and overly positively towards al-Qaeda. Other than that, though, not much. It can be summed up as garbage in, garbage out.

Economist Arnold Kling, who used to work at Freddie Mac, discusses the problems with the financial sector bailout:

Roger Simon has a novel take: Bill Clinton actually cares about something than himself.

Certainly interesting. Isn’t Simon a novelist and screenwriter? He sure is creative.

“Most elementary schools in California will fail to meet proficiency requirements by 2014”

Indeed. Meanwhile, in the rest of the United States, all the children are above average.

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I find it highly ironic that the Cleveland Plain Dealer is attacking the television ad from Ohioans for Financial Freedom for inaccuracy. This ad, which discusses the referendum on the payday lending ban, discusses the invasion of privacy created by the new law but the Plain Dealer accuses it of being untruthful. As I have discussed here many times,  editorials from the Plain Dealer and other newspapers have played very fast and loose with the facts about payday lending. These editorials often parrot the talking points of anti-lending activists and usually contain a variety of outright falsehoods. I’m awaiting the day when the Plain Dealer holds itself to the same standards it is holding Ohioans for Financial Freedom.

The news that the FBI probe into the actions of Cuyahoga County officials Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo is now expanding with a search of two judges’ chambers is pretty significant and doesn’t really need much commentary. I’d only note that unless you were a faithful reader of the Cleveland Plain Dealer you’d have little idea this probe was even taking place. C’mon, Dispatch, don’t you think that this type of federal investigation is worth covering?

Here is the latest development:

Agents appeared at the courtrooms of Common Pleas judges Bridget McCafferty and Steven Terry between 7 and 8 p.m.

FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson confirmed the searches were linked to the county corruption probe made public in July after FBI and IRS agents raided the homes and offices of county officials Jimmy Dimora, Frank Russo and Kevin Kelley, but he would not say what agents were searching for.

Terry is a political ally of Russo’s. Terry’s former bailiff, Michael Calabrese, 43, is a house mate of Russo’s. The two bought a house together in Mayfield.

A federal grand jury has begun hearing testimony and serving subpoenas to contractors and county officials. Dimora, Russo and Kelley are suspected of trading county contracts for work on their homes.

The investigators are also looking into hiring practices at the county, and whether county employees engaged in political work on public time, according to search warrants and other court documents.

It looks like the battle over Issue 6 — whether or not to authorize a casino near Wilmington — is heating up. This ballot issue is quite similar to Issue 3 which Ohio voters rejected in 2006. At that time the Buckeye Institute published an op-ed entitled, “Issue 3: The Price Isn’t Right.” Its analysis, that the state was essentially giving big business a huge gift and that taxpayers were being shafted, is applicable to Issue 6. As that op-ed concluded:

If, and when, Ohio expands slots, it should pursue a course of responsible financial management. The state should auction slot licenses through a request-for-proposal process, which would stipulate appropriate conditions such as bidders having operational strength, adequate financing and crime-free histories. In this way, most of the economic gain of slots would go to Ohio taxpayers and not to a handful of gambling interests.

The Plain Dealer suggests Gov. Strickland is being a bit self-serving in rejecting petty gifts, and that it’s more important to keep our eyes on the big stuff: “Governor, governor, a framed diploma shouldn’t set off alarm bells. A framed Picasso should. Political treatises aren’t the enemy. It is the $10,000 cash hidden inside of them.”

They even twist the dig: “We also understand the knee-jerk politics that motivate his Boy Scout behavior. Strickland’s first act upon taking office was a beat down on gift-giving to state employees. Why? His predecessor, Bob Taft, was the first sitting governor of Ohio convicted of misdemeanor ethics charges — for failure to report three free rounds of golf.”

Yep, that’s how I remember it too. Stupidity all around. Somehow, though, I don’t remember it being reported that way at the time. Ethics isn’t about ethics. It’s really just part of the clown show.

I was standing in line at my bank today and saw they are advertising “Identity Alert” service.

Sounds like a good idea. Every time John McCain says government should socialize property and Barack Obama says he’s a gun-toter, I think they should receive a text message, “You’re losing your identity.”