The Toledo Blade has selective enforcement of mobocracy. For the Blade, the will of the voters counts for one issue but not for another.
Jun 14, 2008 Toledo Blade op-ed titled Maybe this is COSI's time :
THE third time should be a charm for COSI Toledo. COSI may ask voters again to help fund the museum with a 0.167-mill levy, the same amount as last year. That would be a good move. It wouldn't take much to bring it back. Just a few dollars a year from taxpayers and a city willing to subsidize it until its books are in the black. COSI should give Toledo voters another chance to reconsider the folly of previous levy failures. Maybe a third time will be lucky.
Jul 27, 2008 Toledo Blade op-ed titled No smoking exemptions :
For any legislator who might be tempted to ignore the will of the voters, we have three words of advice: Forget about it. Voters in the 2006 general election showed great discernment in defeating the tobacco industry's bogus "smoke less" issue by more than 1 million votes while handily approving the foundation for the broad "smoke free" statute we have today. None of these measures have gone anywhere, and for good reason. After initially - and unwisely - toying with the idea of exemptions, Gov. Ted Strickland considers the issue closed. And he's right. The voters have spoken.
Aug 13, 2008 letters to the Toledo Blade
Excerpts from second letter :
The Blade has shown its two-sided face yet again in a July 27 editorial called "No smoking exemptions" by saying 'the voters have spoken' and to "ignore the will of the voters, we have three words of advice: Forget about it."
The statement "ignoring the will of the voters" would be funny if not so contradictory, reflecting poorly on the newspaper and on the editors' two-faced position. Need I remind the editors that The Blade ignored "the will of the voters" when it said back in June that "COSI should give Toledo voters another chance to reconsider the folly of previous levy failures. Maybe a third time will be lucky."
Another chance? That's a slap in the face to those who voted against the levy, and infers we were without a clue.
The Toledo Blade editorial board's commissioner puppet, Ben Konop, said in a Jul 22, 2008 Blade story :
Commissioner Ben Konop said he supports allowing voters to decide the museum's fate, and is optimistic about its passage with high voter turnout. "Especially when people look at a cost-benefit analysis, and having seen it closed for several months now. ... I think the lack of the resource shows the real need for it."
The voters have already twice decided the fate of COSI, and the answer both times has been NO to funding COSI with a property tax. Like the Blade said about the other issue: The voters have spoken. So why isn't the COSI issue closed like the smoking ban issue supposedly is?
