Bizzyblog's Tom Blumer: Swings At MoveOn But Missed Ohio GOP Censorship Bid

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Bizzyblogger Tom Blumer says today that he couldn't help but notice MoveOn had sent trademark cease-and-desist notices to a satirist who tried to market t-shirts mocking MoveOn. Blumer saw the action as evidence of the Democratic left organization's "radical" nature.

"I am told from time to time that MoveOn is not really a radical organization. Wrong. MoveOn is run by people whose first, second, and third instincts, if given any opening, are to silence opponents. They are petty tyrants in training."

Strong language.

He didn't mention -- or maybe he doesn't know -- that the Republican Party went even farther to silence a critic in Ohio. The GOP took legal action against Michael Dalton, a Democrat who lives in a Cincinnati suburb. Dalton's offense was to set up a Web site in 2005 called "hamiltoncountyrepublicanparty.com." that mocked Republicans. He was sued by the Hamilton County Republican Party for trademark infringement. The GOP sought a temporary restraining order and injunction to shut Dalton down.

A key legal filing in the case is still available online. Ralph Nader's organization filed the brief contending the Republicans were out to suppress free speech. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ted Winker -- a Republican, by the way -- declined to grant the order sought by his own political party.

At most, the incident smacked of hardball politics. Radical? Or tyranny? Hardly.

Bizzyblog wanted to take a swat at MoveOn -- and many people would agree that the Dem-leaning organization needs a spanking over the Petraeus/Betray Us ad it sponsored last week. But a flap over t-shirts can't be elevated to burning the Reichstag, or an October revolution in Moscow, or Mugabe's assault on democracy in Africa, or Myanmar's junta. Or even an Ohio Republican party's trademark lawsuit against an Internet critic.

Bizzyblog is one of the very best of Ohio's bloggers, talented and a lifetime .300 hitter. This time, he went with his heart instead of his intellect. By the way, the Web site that stirred up the GOP is still around. Wonder if Bizzyblog's Mr. Blumer thinks those radical (just kidding) Republicans were really right to try to shut it down?

Cincy Dems To Blast Green Party: Gets Blame For W's Election

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Green Party has recruited Cincinnati NAACP president Chris Smitherman as a City Council candidate, and some Democrats already see it as a partnership that is going nowhere. They say the Greens --- who ran Ralph Nader for president in 2000 -- helped put President Bush and Dick Cheney in office by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in Florida.

They think they can pin some responsibility for the Bush years, a presidency that is held in low esteem, on the Greens. It could be a tactic that has some impact. The Bush-Cheney legacy is beginning to look toxic, particularly in urban areas, and the Dems can blame the Greens for the misery caused by an abuse of executive privilege.

UPDATE: This just arrived from a Dem source who notes it is the kind of evidence available to make the case Nader and the Green Party cost Gore the White House.

Local Green Party spokesman Josh Krekeler was indirectly quoted in today's Cincinnati Enquirer saying that Smitherman is the party's most viable local candidate ever. Smitherman served a two-year City Council term, but was defeated for reelection in November 2005. He was a member of the Charter Party then. The Charter Party is a Cincinnati-based political organization that has been active in city politics since the 1920s. It is not aligned with Republicans or Democrats, and declares itself to be an independent group.

The 2000 presidential election still rankles. Gore won the popular vote, but a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, with a conservative bloc of justices backing Bush, settled a dispute over Florida's electoral votes and handed the Republican the presidency. The conventional wisdom about Florida holds that Nader
's Green Party candidacy took votes from Gore, thus giving America Bush, the Iraq War, and a host of other policies that have harmed the middle and lower classes.

While the conventional wisdom is open to debate, there is no question the Greens and Nader remain close to this day. He's scheduled to address a Green Party conclave in Pennsylvania later this month, and will talk about ballot access -- the difficult legal barriers candidates outside the two main political parties have to surmount to secure spots on the ballot.

The national Green Party's political reform agenda speaks about the the "power of civic action" as an antidote to corporate control over the nation's law-making and regulatory agencies. The agenda is worth reading. Interestingly, the Greens want to abolish the Electoral College, and favor direct election of the president. That means they want to scrap the system that put Bush in power.

Viral Spoof Ad Department: First Hillary, Now Apple And PC

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- By now everybody -- even the Neanderthals -- knows about the "1984" viral anti-Hillary spoof ad. But there are other clever culture-jacking commercials that have nothing to do with politics. Gaze HERE, HERE and HERE at the young lady who puts the boys in their place. No way is she being left behind on the wrong side of the digital divide. Terrific guerilla marketing by Novell.

Such knockoffs probably owe a lot to Ralph Nader, who as the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2000 broadcast an early, pre-YouTUBE spoof ad and refused to buckle when MasterCard served a cease-and-desist notice. Nader said taking popular commercials and turning them into satirical props was an exercise in free speech. He lost the election -- and may have also cost Al Gore the presidency that year -- but he won his legal point.

And now, thanks to Ralph, politics and advertising will never be the same.