Keep in mind, Ohio already has a sizable Arab and Middle Eastern community; I’ve been to parts of Toledo that have some damn fine Middle Eastern restaurants and these folks are well adjusted members of the population at large. So it’s not like it would be shocking for paler Ohioans to see some Iraqi neighbors moving in and fleeing the chaos we brought to their land:

Strickland Doesn´t Want Overflow Iraqi Refugees

“Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has a message for President Bush: any plan to relocate to the US thousands of refugees uprooted by the Iraq war shouldn’t include Ohio.

The administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.

Strickland — a Democrat who opposed the war as a US House member — says Ohioans can’t be expected to have open arms for Iraqis displaced by the war. More than 100 Ohioans have been killed since the war began. The governor says he has sympathy for the refugees’ plight, but he won’t ask Ohioans to accept a greater burden.”  Read more 

This just makes me mad. I’m glad we have the new category of “what is wrong with these people,” because this is just classic. Note to all Democratic candidates: make sure you ducks are in a row before running for office, for surely the Republicans are going to take advantage of every little potential conflict of interest, misconduct, and misrepresentation they can find on you. And you know, while you’re making sure your tax returns and voter registration cards have the same address, you might want to think about looking into your Republican challenger’s public records and see if they’ve given you any easy openings. Ricky is just one of a long list of Republicans who play loose with the rules, and most voters get pissed of when the find out that Republicans think and act like rules are only for us little people.  Read more