Beacon Online

Haven't heard anything new about changes at the ABJ. I have noticed that whoever is in charge of deciding which ABJ online articles get the public comments feature has been very sparing of late. Only one or two news articles per day. Yet on the left side of the screen, there are always numerous sports stories with comments attached.

I took a moment to check ohio.com to see if I'm exaggerating. There's only one sports story with comments -- last night's Indian's game. Only four comments, all very spare and bleak. Rather like this season's Indians.

Over in local news, one story with comments focuses on the Ohio House Bill 3, which not only requires voters to carry ID into their pollling places, it also "forces write-in candidates to file earlier, further restricts who can circulate petitions and forbids the contesting of federal elections in state courts, Rosenfield said."

Many pages of comments for this article, most of which feature nastiness from the right wing folks. They spit venom at "lefties" and call them "commies" and "bleeding hearts." They seem so out of date, so antique in their attempts at political thinking. It is because their right wing rants remain the same, although their political circumstances are very changed. Like cornered rats, they puff and spit. They think themselves incredibly clever when they call out the "Dem-o-craps."

When you see a post begin like this: "I knew when I saw the article what liberal idiot Leftist was going to say" you know you are looking into the workings of a true automaton. The ones with any brains left have long since dropped their affection toward the current crop of right wing Republicans. They can smell it in the air -- the winds are blowing Leftward Ho. The only way back from so many years of Republican rule is to swing to the left, baby!

My favorite comment of the day is this: "why, if we are getting 25-30% voter turnout, do we need all this procedure and silliness to ensure that people don't vote illegally. no one cares enough to vote, let alone cheat at it."

Let's hope this vision isn't what takes place in November, because if the Dems don't turn out in force, we are up Shit Creek, so to speak.